I stumbled upon the word some months back, and, it is a good term to describe how I often make money selling online.

Wikipedia definition of Arbitrage: In economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets: a combination of matching deals are struck that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices.

So, when I buy a book on Amazon, and then sell it on Ebay, or vice versa, I am practicing Arbitrage. Likewise, if I buy a book at a yard sale and then sell it online that is also Arbitrage (I think).

Or, if I buy a book from a French website and then sell it on a U.S. website, that is also Arbitrage, right?

I think so… Maybe the word Arbitrage wasn’t exactly meant for this kind of thing. Interesting word, though, and lots of possibilities of ways to make money once you start thinking about Arbitrage!

Sometimes a book is continuously priced lower on one marketplace than the other, and to repeatedly buy from that marketplace while at the same time selling in another marketplace would be Arbitrage, right?

For example, search Ebay.com.au for Golf World Magazine.

It says “0 items found.”

There there are 5 sponsored links in a big box.

And then, below all of that (on my screen I have to even scroll down!) it has items from Ebay.com.au store and then items from Ebay international sellers.

The results are similarly placed for searches on Ebay UK.

So, Ebay would rather we click on advertisements than happily find exactly what we are looking for?

The ads are only related to our search by subject. The international results are exactly waht we are looking for!

Many novice computer users may never even realize that they need to scroll down to see more results. Certainly, when it says “0 search results” that’s a pretty definite result, right? Off to another site I might go…

(I hope they change this! But since Ebay is now charging for an International Site Visibility Upgrade, I doubt that this will change. Strangely enough, all it means is that more people will leave the international sites and begin to do all of their shopping on Ebay.com, which at least seems to have more products on it.)

Apparently he had a bunch of packs of them and he wanted to turn them into cash. Who can blame him?

However, he ended several of his auctions on the same day. Each auction started at a fairly low price. Looking at an Ebay completed items search, I could tell that the final price these brita filters really varied quite a bit.  Most of the time they got a bid, or two, but it’s not like there is a swarm of Ebay bidders all looking to buy water filters. Water filters are often on sale at drugstores, Walmart, etc - almost every other week you can find them for sale in the weekly sales circular. So, there is no shortage of filters, and plenty of people offering them for sale, both online and offline.

So, here’s what we’ve got - moderate demand - and - plenty of supply.

The seller made a big mistake of listing them all on the same day.  I put a snipe on them, and sure enough, I got a pack of them for rock bottom price.

Ebay Lesson for You:  If you have more of one of something that is a fairly common item, do not try to sell them all on the same day, or even the same week. List one item at a time and spread it out, to get maximum price.
When this Lesson doesn’t apply: If you have several related items that might appeal to the same bidder(s), then listing all of them at the same time is a smart idea. In fact, an interested person might find one of your listings, then they might look at your other listings which they may not have otherwise seen.

What if I really want to sell all of them at the same time?   Then try buy-it-now listings, preferably spread apart over a number of hours or days. List the buy-it-now at a good price - something you would be happy with and something that a buyer would consider a good deal.

“Hi to all you book lovers! To the sellers who don’t ship in a box: It really ruins the books when you ship in a bubbled mailed or just plain envelope. Books need to be shipped in a box with the proper padding so the book cannot move around during transition. We collectors don’t want bumped corners or a tear in the dj unless we knew that’s what we were buying to start with! If you only knew how many people don’t buy from you a second time because you don’t read our notes. Rather than leave negative feed back we just don’t buy from you again!!”

I ship internationally on Ebay and Amazon, and have made thousands of dollars by selling my items to overseas buyers. Especially recently, with the drop of the value of the U.S. dollar, international sales have increased.

And I love shipping internationally, I really do. However, the most economical way to send a light package is by First Class International Mail, which the post office does not offer tracking or insurance on. So on light and fairly low-cost items, I send things by First Class Mail and hope for the best.

I do guarantee delivery of my items on Ebay. Why would someone buy from me if I wouldn’t guarantee delivery? Anyway, I think it’s my guarantee of delivery that helps people to feel confident in buying from me, and is a nice fresh change from all those Ebay sellers who say, “if the post office doesn’t deliver it to you, you’re out of luck” and “it’s not my responsibility.”

Think about other websites. Does Amazon.com guarantee delivery? You bet they do.

So basically I self-insure on lower cost items and I buy insurance on more expensive items. Fortunately, most Ebay buyers are honest and patient and happy customers.

I had my first lost package today. It was shipped to Italy. The buyer emails me about 1 month after shipment date, and says that they haven’t received it yet. I tell them to please wait another 2 weeks. I also gave them the Customs # so that they can check with their customs office to see if there is any information on it.

In another 2 weeks, they email again. They still haven’t received it. They ask, do I have another one to send them? And I say, no, I don’t have another one… And then I go to Paypal and do a complete refund. I email them to let them know that they have been refunded. I still hope that they will, someday, receive it, or it will come back returned to me. But, in this case, I’m only out about $10.

I also, then go to Ebay, and block them as a buyer, because I don’t want to have to ship another package to them that get’s lost in the mail. If they are honest about it having been lost, then they live in an unreliable delivery area. If they are lying about it having been lost, then they are scammers. Either case, I don’t want a repeat experience, so I add them to my blocked bidders list. (Link to Ebay’s Block Bidder/Buyer List)

I don’t think this Ebay buyer was a scammer, because they have lots of feedback, and nothing indicates to me that they were lying. And, truthfully, it could be a one time fluke thing, and their delivery system might not be any worse than the United State’s Post Office. Even here in the United States, I’ve had mail that arrived damaged and a lost package, so even our system is not 100%.

I did leave them positive feedback. I said, “Sorry to hear that it didn’t arrive. I hope you don’t have more lost packages!”

Garage Sales By Map - gsalr.com

It extracts garage sale advertisements from Craigslist and other online websites and puts them on a map for you. Then, you can add the sales to a trip planner to plan your trip Very convenient! Plus, you can add other garage sales to the site. If you are going to have your own sale, this is definitely a good site to add it to!

If you are thinking, “I’m just not going to find anything today” or some variation of that, you will certainly have more difficulty finding things. From my experience, that’s because I won’t be as optimistic, I won’t be as thorough in my search, I will second guess my initial instinct, I won’t bother to look on bottom shelves or behind things or in miscategorized areas… I will give up too soon.

A negative mindset is a problem. Even a neutral, so-so, mindset isn’t good.

To create a positive and optimistic mental attitude, I do a lot of visualization. I try to remember all of the times I have found things that were really good finds. Then I think of myself finding things I always hope to find.

It really helps me - maybe it will help you too.

Do you remember the last time you found something worth $100? How about something worth $500? Can you think of something that might be worth $1000? Imagine yourself finding all of these things. Do you believe that you could possibly find something worth that much?

I do believe that I will find something worth that much. Because I am smart! And I am persistent. I don’t give up easily. And because I’m constantly on the hunt for really amazing treasures. And, because I have found some really amazing things before. Of course it will happen again, and again, and again! These statements are called affirmations.
When you found that $100 item, was it right in front of you? Or did you not see it the first time? Was it in a place you didn’t usually look? Did you almost not buy it?

Having good luck is the ability to recognize opportunities. (And take some chances.)

Good luck!

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Here are some of the most useful posts:
(from an Ebay seller’s point of view - You know, things I might have normally skipped over at the thrift store)

Ping Two Color / Two-Tone Golf Balls - If you’ve ever bought run of the mill golf balls, you probably know that they aren’t very expensive. However, Ping produced many golf balls that are two-different colors, and the collectors are going crazy. Take a look at this ebay search for Ping Golf Balls and check out the high prices. Note, they are not ALL high prices, but some certainly are!

Example Recent High Price:

Silver and Black PING Gold ball, an Eye 2, White letters, and the Wedgy Winchester Logo, Number 4 = sold for $235!

That’s for just one ball! And that’s not the only one going for so much! Some of the single color balls for a lot too! A solid lavender color golf ball, Ping Eye 2, also sold for over $200!

Vintage Nike Windbreaker Jackets from the 1980s
This Nike orange pinwheel windbreaker recently sold for $228. Who would have known that they can fetch high prices? Try searching for Vintage Nike Windbreaker and then look at the highest prices. Looks like other brands like Adidas can also be quite collectible / valuable; of course, good condition is key. Other keywords: Windrunner, jacket.

CashFlow 101 Rich Dad Poor Dad BOARD GAME

Who would have thought that a BOARD GAME could sell for so much money? Amazon’s new price is $219 so no surprise they are going on Ebay for over $100. Even the kids cash flow game sells for about $50 brand new.

Well, that’s all, for now.. Much thanks to Ebay Gold Mine

First of all, Squidoo doesn’t tell you exactly how they calculate the lens rank and they keep their algorithm secret, but here is what they do say about what effects the lens ranking:

LensRank does a full sweep of all lenses in the Squidoo system and ranks them according to things like frequency of update, traffic, inbound and outbound links and more. We recalculate the rankings every day or so. So, if you just built a lens and are disheartened to see that it’s at the bottom of the LensRank pile, don’t worry. Give it a day or two and we bet you’ll see the LensRank improve (ie: get smaller…remember, LensRank #1 is tops). LensRank is built to reward human-made, updated, curated lenses.

Here’s what I did that made my lens rank increase so much.

1. First, I created a content-filled lens.

I created a lens with lots of good keywords in it. I looked on Ebay and found out what kind of Starbucks mugs were popular, and included those on my page.

I also added some unique content, including a general timeline listing when each mug series was produced. I created the list by combining two different lists available online into one list.

I spent some time surfing the web and I tried to pick out the highest-quality links about Starbucks and their mugs. I didn’t just take the top google search results, but rather I hand picked the most interesting ones.

I also added a poll and a few other interesting modules.

2. I added my lens to a few related groups and left comments on fellow Squidoo members’ lenses. In return, I got a few visits and a few ratings. Ratings do help, but they should come naturally.

3. I found some NEWS on Starbucks mugs! The news I found was that a Starbucks mug sold for $1200. I found that news by searching through completed Ebay listings.

I wrote a post on my blog about the news, and then I linked the blog post with the lens, and vice versa.

NOTE: I think I was the first one to “break” the news on the $1200 mug. YOU can break a news story, too! The trick is to recognize a news story when you see one. Usually it won’t be presented to you as a news story, but rather you will stumble across something that makes you say WOW! or TAKE A LOOK AT THIS! Perhaps you’ll want to tell a friend, send an email with a link to someone, etc… If it excites you, it very well might excite lots of other people! And you’ll never know if it’s a good story unless you give it a shot!

There is no need for you to have a blog. You can write about the news story directly on your lens. There isn’t anything wrong with that. In fact, it might have been better if I had done that.

4. I spread the news! I added my blog post to some social bookmarking sites, including Reddit, where it got picked up on another site. I also emailed the blog owner of Starbucks Gossip and they posted my story on their site. Blogs love good news. Remember to share your news! There is a good possibility you will get linked. The post on Starbucks Gossip brought in the most traffic to my blog post, and then about a fifth of the visitors clicked through to my lens.

5. More networking. I also left comments on another blog that had a post about Starbucks mugs. I left a link to my lens, and they updated their post with a link to my lens in the main section of the post

6. I continued to update and improve my lens nearly every day.

That’s pretty much all I did! In the process of it all, I started getting quite a bit of traffic from google and A LOT of click-outs. For the life of the lens, I’ve had 238 visits and 224 click-outs. I believe that my ranking increased so much primarily because of the huge number of click-outs. I think it tells Squidoo that my blog has lots of links that interest my visitors.

Other tips

- Provide high-quality links near the top of your lens, so that there will be more click-outs (if a good lens ranking is your goal).

- Don’t worry about ratings! I still only have 6 ratings.

- Heck, don’t even worry about lens ranking, unless you want to I think one of the biggest advantages of a good lens ranking is that visitors to your lens will be impressed that you have a good ranking and they might think, “wow, this MUST be a good lens!”

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Are you an Ebay seller? Check out my lens about How to Increase Your Ebay Sales.

What is the “right” item? Something people want. Take a look at completed items and make sure that your item is selling nearly all or all of the time.

This method is based on the idea that people want your item, RIGHT NOW, and RIGHT AWAY!

Here are the 8 Easy Steps to Sell something on Ebay FAST:

1. List your item as a Fixed Price Item. Not an auction.

2. Set the buy-it-now price at least a few dollars BELOW the average sold price.

3. Promise to ship the item fast. List a low or reasonable shipping charge.

4. Use a gallery image.

5. If there is a lot of competition, also use a subtitle to point out its best features, excellent condition, fast shipping, etc. I think subtitle is underused and is often worth the 50 cents that it costs.

6. Choose a shorter item duration. I usually will choose 3 or 5 days. How short of a duration depends on how many items are up and how high the demand is. The reason to choose a shorter duration is because you want your item to be at the top of the page for “ending soonest.” If your item is really hot and you are offering a really sweet deal, you could even try a 1 day listing.

7. Make sure you instill confidence in the buyer. Emphasize any guarantees you offer. Do not include negative terms in your Ebay listing.

8. If you want the money fast too, list PayPal only and select the option “Require immediate payment when buyer uses Buy It Now.”

Variations:
Sometimes you can follow all of the above guidelines and price your item a few dollars HIGHER than the average sold price. I’ve done that too, and have had great success, but it really depends on the item, how hot it is, and how long you are willing to wait.

My Success stories

- During back-to-school season (late August), I sold a Texas Instruments calculator within about an hour by following the above suggestions. TI calculators are often required for school, and the demand and prices for them soars during back-to-school season. Although there were a lot of calculators listed on Ebay, almost all of them were on Auction. Since I knew that students often want things fast, I chose to list mine as a buy-it-now and stated that it would ship same or next day by Priority Mail.

- I sold a book about radio antenna design. Antenna design is a hot topic for Ham radio operators, and there are plenty of amateur radio people on Ebay. Although my book almost always got bids on auction, whether the price of it went up or not was really a hit or miss. Sometimes the book sold for $5 and sometimes it sold for $15 or more. Not wanting to take the chance of letting it go for only $5, and having already had it in my Ebay store for $15 for several months, I decided I just wanted to sell it! So, I listed it on the main Ebay site as a fixed-priced item with a buy-it-now for $10 and it sold the same day.

- I had a hardcover version of a popular poker book. On Amazon, the current paperback edition of the poker book ranks at about 1,000 (a really good ranking), so that means that it is a really popular book. However the hardcover book I had ranked at about 4 million on Amazon with a selling price of $15. However on Ebay it sold several times for $25-$30. I listed it as a buy-it-now for $25 and it sold within a few hours.

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You may also be interested in:

How to Turn Ebay Watchers into Buyers

Ebay Statistics: Auction Listing Counts and Sell-Thru Rates

How to Increase Your Ebay Sales