Bought one of those antique glass fire extinguisher grenades (that you throw at the fire to put it out) at a farm auction last year for $5.  I windexed the glass and made it shine, all labels were real nice under the dust.  Sold on ebay for $153.

Another time went to a bar that was closing down and the owner asked if we were interested in any beer signs. Made an offer of $20 for a Spuds McKenzie beer sign that lights up. (Not neon but one of those you pull the string and it lights up that is 24''X24'')  Put on ebay and got $250.

How are the pictures that you are using?  I take advantage of using the 4 images craigslist allows me to use per ad.  I really figured out how to use my camera a few months ago.  I never could zoom in on lets say a coin without it being blurry.  Tried all kinds of different tricks with the camera and finally can zoom in really good on small items to get real good pictures.

Second I like to stage my "items" as scammers like to call them.  A nice antique table I shine up really good with furniture polish, throw it in the corner of my living room and set an older looking lamp on it.  I try to make them visualize how it would look in that corner of there house where they are needing a table and lamp.

Third is LIE!!!  haha.  I sometimes tell them I just purchased the item such as a foosball table for $100 at a rummage sale last weekend but it doesn't fit down my basement where I wanted it.  First $75 takes it.

If all else fails try barter.  I sell things on ebay and know little electronics like ipods and whatnot sell for a decent price.  Trade that $75 foosball table for an easy $60 ipod and sell it on ebay where I know it will sell.  Throw on your craigslist ad will trade for the following: ipod, ps3 game(s),  nice watch, etc.

And if none of that works or if you do all that and it still doesn't sell you just might not be doing anything wrong and the economy in your area is just plain crap and noone is buying unless it's tax time from Uncle Sam where they have an extra $1000 to spend.   ~BURP~

Oh I am adding that the weekend is where I get alot of emails on my "items" when people are off of work and able to surf the world wide web.  Be sure to repost your items so they are on the top of the lists for Friday night.

Found a box with a bunch of railroad keys and locks in it I got around $1500 for.  About 35 keys with letters stamped into them like D & RG RR meaning Denver and Rio Grande railroad.  Guess people collect different railroad keys like others would collect stamps and coins.  Found out the hard way listing those on ebay as I was banned for a little more than a month for it.  Against there TOU.

I like ebay.  I think you get more money on ebay for your items than anywhere else including craigslist, flea markets, etc.  I have no problem paying the fees because of this.  I always get these kind of buyers though, about 1 in 30.  But this past month was crazy with these kinds of loser buyers. 

About a month ago I listed around 10 things.  1 was an expensive air purifier for around $350 that sold, got a message from a lady 4-5 hours later saying she no longer wanted it as she bid on another one and got it cheaper.  Tried the second chance offers and those people ended up buying other air purifiers since they were ending every 20 minutes.  Thinking you ***** what did you bid that high for?  Ended up having to relist the item and waiting another week for it to end while the air purifier is in a box in my living room taking up space with her address on it.

Then sold a few antique glass fire extinguisher grenades in a case.  Mint condition all stickers intact with original fluid inside.  Ended up getting $155 on them after a weeks auction.  She paid, but that night while having a few cold beers I was bored and went through her feedback and noticed she was giving bad feedback to sellers saying she never recieved the item.  Thought I better get tracking and confirmation on this package for this person tomorrow when I run to the post office.  I did and sent her package out.  About 2 weeks later she messages me on ebay "Where is my item???"   "What is the hold up???"  Messaged her the tracking number and said it was delivered last week already.  Take it up with the post office.  She messaged the following day how it arrived and said it's about time!

Next found a TI-83 plus graphing calculator in a storage unit, threw it on ebay got $58.00 for it.  Wait 2 days for the guy to pay and he messages me.  "Me no pay"  I wrote back I know you didn't pay and sent him another invoice.  Got a message back from him saying "you no understand, me know pay!"  I knew what he was trying to say that he couldn't pay or didn't have any money for it anymore but after these other 2 idiots were pissing me off on ebay in this same time frame I contacted ebay after a few more days and filed an unpaid item dispute.  First time ever having to do that on ebay in the past 10 years.  Nothing changed and one day I have bad feedback from him saying bad communication.  He was the asian guy who didn't know english not me.  lol

I don't know if ebay is getting alot of this lately or if it was just a fluke 3 out of 10 of my auctions were with morons but life goes on and I am selling my stuff on there little by little for a decent price and smoking a little more cigarettes than usual and putting a bigger dent in the case of beer in a shorter amount of time.

This thread reminds me of this great classic ebay story I am sure most of you have already seen but for those that haven't here it is again.

First of all, I am not claiming to have invented this trick. I imagine others have used it with varying degrees of success. I also want to point out that nothing here is embellished or exaggerated.

I had tickets to a sporting event and couldn't attend. I made a 1-day listing and clearly stated that the tickets must be picked up in person within 24 hours (the game was the evening after the auction ended, so there wasn't any time to ship the tickets). A woman won the auction for about $600. The auction had ended at 10:00am and by 5:00pm she still hadn't responded to my emails trying to organize the exchange. Finally, at 9:30pm, I got a one-liner email: "I overbid and my husband won't let me buy these. Sorry and enjoy the game! "

I first tried explaining that I wouldn't have the time to resell the tickets (I already got turned down by the losing bidders). She said, "... that's not my problem. It's eBay, not a car dealership. I can back out if I want." I still don't understand the car dealership reference.

I was pretty upset. I was basically going to be stuck with tickets to an event that I couldn't attend. That's when I got the idea to convince her to change her mind.

I created a new eBay account, "Payback" we'll call it, and sent her a message: "Hi there, I noticed you won an auction for 4 [sporting event] tickets. I meant to bid on these but couldn't get to a computer. I wanted to take my son and dad and would be willing to give you $1,000 for the tickets. I imagine that you've already made plans to attend, but I figured it was worth a shot."

At 11:30pm she responded to Payback: "I'll do it for $1,100, no less. I can meet you at the game if you agree. I need your phone number."

At 11:35pm, Payback wrote: "Deal. Here is my number..." (Thanks Google Voice for the throwaway number). She called a few minutes later and made Payback "promise" to go through with the deal. She emphasized that she'd be out a lot of money if Payback backed out. Payback swore he would never do such a thing.

At 11:45pm, the woman emailed me: "Fine. I'll buy them. But you have to drop them off at my house tonight. I'll have the cash ready." So at ****ing midnight I drove to her house across town and met her on the road in front of her apartment building. She was a nasty and rude individual. Things didn't get any better when I told her I wanted an extra $20 for the trouble of driving there at midnight (yeah, pushing my luck, I know). It became very awkward and she literally threw 31 $20 bills at me. I counted them before handing over the tickets. I said, "thanks for the great transaction" as she flipped me off while walking away.

At 10:00am she called Payback to make sure they were still on for the exchange. Payback said that he could no longer go to the game and wouldn't be able to do the exchange. She blew her ****ing top and I swear to god started speaking in tongues. Payback said, "Ma'am, this is eBay, not a car dealership" and hung up.

I got a rabid email 10 minutes later telling me that I was going to hell and that she's reported me to the local police, FBI, and... the fire department. WTF?

I never heard another word from her. I have no idea if she went to the game or not.

Was this wrong?

we have quite a bit of the silent auctions in my area.  do you prefer silect auctions over regular auctions?  I think they may both have there pros and cons.  Nicely done beating them by $20 as well. 

Hello Drew and starship.  Bidding is  pretty good until the $600 mark then dies off quickly after.  About 40 people were at an auction the other day with only 5 lockers for sale and after $500-$600 there were only 3 of us bidding.  Just won my first locker the other day for $1200 and was also my first auction I attended.

Just registered as a member of this fine community.  Love the show Storage Wars on tv.  Always did a little bit of Ebay and craigslisting on my spare time from finding things at thrift stores and rummage sales and thought I can get a little bigger by finding more stuff in storage units.  I'll see yous around.