Hi!
Happy Spring!
Lynn Recommends: Dinnerware Success eBook – Volumes 1, 2 & 3 are ready to download – Get yours!
Special Announcement: Special Sale on a Great Resource
Feature Article: Lights, Camera, Action Figures!
This ezine is published every two weeks.
April 8, 2010 Volume VI, Issue 6
Can you believe that it is April? I certainly can’t. It is Spring Break this week for my kids and they are bouncing off the walls. At least I get to drive them to Disneyland on Thursday to spend a few days with my Dad and brother. Thank goodness!
Easter was quite crazy here in Palm Desert. The 7.2 magnitude Baja Mexico earthquake shook us up. Chandeliers were swinging, the pool lost a lot of water over the edges and we all ran outside. Luckily, nothing broke!
The kids and I had a mellow day. We went out to lunch and then took some fun pictures. Here are some of those crazy pictures. This is what happens when you have to take photos of yourself.
The best news is that I finished the Dinnerware Success eBook. Yippppeeeee!!!!! I am so happy it is finished. Even though it is at a regular price, it is still an incredible investment in your eBay business. Please read the Lynn Recommends section to see what people have to say about Volume 3.
Can you believe how much that Mexican Paper Mache (Papier Mache) bust sold for? Check it out here if you missed seeing the final price. Amazing!
See the item page here.
The new eBay changes have been amazing! My sales have doubled in the first week that eBay put the store items in the core search. For this reason, In the Special Announcement section, Boot Camp in a Box is on Sale. If you have been thinking about taking your business to the next level, this offer is for you! Now is the time to jump on this as unique-one-of-a-kind things are flying off of the shelves and not because of the earthquake!
I went out to a few garage sales this past weekend by myself. I couldn’t get any kid to go with me. Bummer! Oh well, I found quite a few great sales and it was actually better that they didn’t go with me because they would not have been patient enough to wait while I did my shopping.
At one garage sale I bought 50 cookbooks for $50.00 and four Royal Doulton Figurines for $25.00 each. Here is one of those figurines up for sale.
See the listing here.
At another garage sale, I bought 150 Audio CDs for $50.00 and a box full of action figures for another $50.00. What are action figures? Exactly! For those of you who don’t know, I decided to write this week’s feature article about toys–and focus on “Lights, Camera, Action Figures!” Don’t miss it.
LIVE BOOT CAMP is filling up, we ONLY have 7 SEATS Left for 2010. If you are considering joining us, we recommend that you reserve your spot soon. This one will sell out. Here is a link to read more. We hope to see you there.
Happy eBaying,
Lynn Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions,’
Creator of the best-selling eBay Boot Camp in a Box.
Check out this email I just got from Laura (Lori):Here is the subject line…
Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi, I didn’t know where to send, this but “THANK YOU” for the dinnerware eBook. The knowledge is priceless and I know the three volumes are going to make me more money than I spent on them. I can’t wait to have the big score or just a bunch of little ones. After the first volume I found a flea market that had things marked 75% off, I found almost one of every maker’s items in the book. I can’t wait to start listing them this weekend.
A second “THANK YOU” for saying to leave things in our stores for at least a month before we start purging with these new eBay changes. I have sold some things out of my store in just this short little time and had questions on stuff that I had even forgot that was there.
Thanks,
Laura
When I asked Laura if I could use her email as a testimonial, here is what came back:
Lynn –
Hi, of course you can use anything you would like for a testimonial. I could never repay you for what I have learned from you. I know I wouldn’t be still selling on eBay had I not purchased Boot Camp in a Box so many years ago. I am just so thankful for your teaching and sharing your secrets.
Thanks,
Lori
Wow! Awesome.
The Dinnerware eBook did turn out incredibly well and many of you are already making money from putting it into action. Yippppeeee!
Remember this parrot cookie jar? Well, my $6.00 purchase turned into quite the score.
Check it out here.
This 3-volume eBook is an incredible investment in your future business. Check it out here and read more about it.
(Queen’s Court members, don’t forget to use your discount.)
Order your eBook now, click here.
Order in three payments here.
You can read more here.
My Boot Camp in a Box has changed a lot of lives and eBay businesses. It makes me feel great to hear these stories.
Remember what Lori said?
“I know I wouldn’t be still selling on eBay had I not purchased Boot Camp in a Box so many years ago. I am just so thankful for your teaching and sharing your secrets.”
With all the new eBay changes, now is the best time EVER to take your eBay business to the next level. To help you with this we are putting Boot Camp in a Box on sale! We are also offering a six-part payment plan to make it even more affordable! Use that tax refund to grow your business!
Click here to learn more about Boot Camp in a Box.
‘Lights, Camera, Action Figures!’
by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions
I was at a garage sale last Saturday where I saw a huge box of action figures still in the original packages. I asked, “How much?” The lady said, “$3.00 each, please count them.” I counted them–there were fourteen.
I quickly did the calculations and figured it was $52.00. She asked me for $50.00 and I said, “Sold!” I just now realized that I multiplied incorrectly. Darn it! If ONLY Indy (my 5th-grade math whiz) would have been there SHE would have multiplied correctly! By the way, I am NOT smarter than a 5th grader.
Great, so I am starting out $10.00 in the hole. Here is a photo of all of those action figures.
Before we get into action figures, let’s talk about toys and hobbies. Toys and Hobbies is a top-level eBay category with sales of $2.5 billion in 2006. This category encompasses both new and used/vintage. When I searched with new in the title, 1,147,693 items came up for the past two weeks and when I typed in vintage 105,375 items came up. There is a high percentage of vintage being sold in this category—almost 10%. Remember, that people are trying to buy their childhoods and this is what is happening in the Toys and Hobbies category.
I took a look at listings under the Toys and Hobbies category on 4/6/10. The number of listings by each sub-category is very interesting. Notice how Action Figures is the #2 category with 14.8%.
| TOYS & HOBBIES |
Current Listings as of 4/6/10 |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sub-Category |
|
# of Listings |
% |
|
| Trading Card Games |
644,270 |
15.10% |
||
| Action Figures |
633,195 |
14.84% |
||
| Diecast, Toy Vehicles |
589,245 |
13.81% |
||
| Radio Control |
468,285 |
10.98% |
||
| Games |
344,237 |
8.07% |
||
| Models, Kits |
269,079 |
6.31% |
||
| Model RR, Trains |
256,242 |
6.01% |
||
| TV, Movie, Character Toys |
255,206 |
5.98% |
||
| Stuffed Animals |
133,015 |
3.12% |
||
| Pretend Play, Preschool |
123,865 |
2.90% |
||
| Building Toys |
95,437 |
2.24% |
||
| Beanbag Plush, Beanie Babies |
86,737 |
2.03% |
||
| Puzzles |
69,456 |
1.63% |
||
| Educational |
48,078 |
1.13% |
||
| Vintage, Antique Toys |
46,800 |
1.10% |
||
| Fast Food, Cereal Premiums |
32,851 |
0.77% |
||
| Toy Soldiers |
31,393 |
0.74% |
||
| Electronic, Battery, Wind-up |
30,679 |
0.72% |
||
| Outdoor Toys, Structures |
28,089 |
0.66% |
||
| Slot Cars |
27,587 |
0.65% |
||
| Classic Toys |
19,355 |
0.45% |
||
| Robots, Monsters, Space Toys |
12,418 |
0.29% |
||
| Marbles |
11,218 |
0.26% |
||
| Wholesale Lots |
8,641 |
0.20% |
||
|
4,265,378 |
100.00% |
|||
Looking at my data table for toys, we see that Trading Card Games, Action Figures, Diecast and Radio Controlled toys are the largest sub-categories.
Trading card games are the largest sub-category with over 15% of the listings. These games include Yuh-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, and Magic the Gathering. By far the biggest of these games is Magic the Gathering with over 300,000 listings. WOW!
Magic the Gathering is a collectible card game that was invented by Mathematician Richard Garfield in 1993. There are currently over six million players in 70 countries. Amazing.
The second-largest sub-category, and what prompted me to write this article, is Action Figures. An action figure is a poseable plastic figurine of an action hero, superhero, or character from a movie or television program.
I bought a bag of action figures about a year ago for 50 cents each. None of them were in the box/package and I have sold almost all of them for at least $9.99 each. I try to remember to look for actions figures and I suggest you do the same.
Here is one of the more recent action figures that I have listed on eBay from my $50 (should have been $40) box!
See the listing here.
Die-cast toys are formed from molten metal in a die (mold). Die-cast toys run the gamut from antique to current. This is the third-largest sub-head category with almost 14%. Die-cast to watch for are NASCAR, Star Wars and vintage Dinky and Ertl.
Let’s skip down to the TV, movie, and character toy sub-category with 6%. This tells us that these are also in demand. Think back to your childhood and once again we see that vintage is selling. Disney, Popeye, Smurfs and the Flintstones are selling well.
For more recent items, we see Disney again, Thomas the Tank Engine, Harry Potter, My Little Pony, and The Simpsons selling well.
Judy/Trudy (Live Boot Camper extraordinaire and Queen’s Court member) had a score recently with some stuffed Smurfs.
Here is her email:
At a recent garage sale, I decided to show off and buy four baggies full of Smurfs for $30. I was sure that I spent too much but after doing a fair amount of research I was able to come up with their names. It didn’t look like I had anything special but I had a hunch about a few of them. Anyway, I sold four lots for over $175.00! Check out this one that sold for the most.
Judy
See Judy’s listing here.
Visit Judy/Trudy’s auctions here.
I met a woman at eBay Live several years ago who is making a living just doing the toy store route looking for hot new items. She is always at Toys R Us and other chains when the doors open. I asked her how she knew what to buy and she does her research. She reads magazines and watches the front pages of eBay to see what is hot. If you are interested in the new side of this category, get to know your local toy shops and see if they will sell you their overstocks and slow-turning inventory at a bargain price.
Vintage toys are everywhere, especially considering that vintage can be as recent as the 1980s and 1990s. I see toys, games and trading cards at every garage sale. This isn’t my area of expertise so I don’t check the items over that well. However, if you decide to specialize in this area, you can do very well. Buy as many books as you can and subscribe to trade publications. I subscribe to the Antique Trader for general information about antiques and collectibles and it is super.
There are four abbreviations used on eBay for toys still in the original packaging. Next to each abbreviation, I have listed the number of completed auctions for the last two weeks that used each abbreviation in the Toys & Hobbies category. Make up your own mind which one to use. Personally, I am confused! I used a few different ones in each of my action figure auctions. Overall, it looks like a box and new are the way to go–so NIB is probably what I should have used! Yikes.
MIB (Mint in box) 29,116
NIB (New in box) 51,098
MIP (Mint in package) 8,247
NIP (New in package) 11,522
Back to action figures! I did some completed auction research on eBay several years ago and found an Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars) Boba Fett action figure in the original package from Italy that sold for $11,000.
The seller used the term “Unpunched” in his title. He told me that unpunched means that this item never found its way onto a rack in a toy store. The hole was never punched out to hang it up and this makes it even more rare. I want to find some action figures like that!
Well, we will see how my 14 different auctions do in the next ezine. I will give you an update. Wish me luck, I have to make back that extra $10!
Here are another one of my action figures.
Check it out here.
Oh yeah, before I end this article, don’t forget about plush stuffed animals. They make up 3% of the toy category and sell really well. Check out this darling Baby Gap Teddy Bear that I just sold out of my eBay store for a lot of money! And it is going to Europe. You gotta love plush. To learn more, check out these teleseminars with Debbie Ybarra (plush expert). These informative teleseminars are available for purchase and immediate download here: Teleseminar 1 and Teleseminar 2.
Here is my Baby Gap Teddy Bear listing.
Happy eBaying!
Lynn
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eBay PowerSeller and third-generation antique dealer, Lynn Dralle, is the creator of Boot Camp in a Box, the home-study course where you can learn to implement the Dralle Method to maximize your eBay profits.
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Happy eBaying!!
Lynn
Lynn is an experienced eBay Power Seller, author, and teacher. If you want to know the eBay tips, tricks, and tools that Lynn uses for buying and selling at an online auction click here.