Great FREE Service for eBay Sellers - Garage Sale Finder

Yay, it's garage sale time again! Only eBay nerds will understand the excitement of this time of year. Those critical few hours on Friday and Saturday are golden - make sure you are making the most of your time and hitting the biggest sales that have the stuff you want. 

Garage sale apps have come and go over the last few years, so we have to adapt and keep up with the changes. I am using Garage Sale Finder. I do my recon work at home before I go and download the stops to my GPD. It is a free site, and does the following:

1. Identifies sales within a specified radius of your home address. You decide what the radius is.

2. Color codes different types of sales. 

3. Click on the sales that interest you to read description, dates and times, and directions.

4. View photos if the seller has uploaded them. (Not all sales have photos.)

5. Pick your favorites and plan your route. You can download your stops to your GPS device, or print a list to take with you.

6. The site serves these major cities:

7. Be a super planner and get notifications in your inbox. Just set the criteria for your favorite kinds of sales and you will be notified when one hits the site.

Again, this is a free site.  Visit Garage Sale Finder here and give it a try!

Make sure to check out my 30 day YouTube Challenge. There are new playlists and a daily lesson on what to sell, keywords, and FAQs. You can set the play list to play uninterrupted and listen to a whole string of videos while you work.



Related Articles:

5 Great Things I Learned to Sell on eBay in 2015

Sell Winter Clothes on eBay in the Summer

6 Tips for Shopping Goodwill Outlets

eBay Sellers - Follow Kevin O'Leary's 10 Rules for Success

Hey eBay sellers!

I have been spending a lot of time with my 30-day YouTube challenge. I hope you are enjoying the content and find it useful.

I wanted to share this video of Kevin O'Leary's Top 10 Rules for Success. If you don't know Kevin, he is a billionaire investor and the "bad cop" personality on Shark Tank. He has many good points that apply to entrepreneurs and eBay sellers.

To summarize:
1. You have to sacrifice a lot. 
eBay application: It takes time and patience to build this business. 
2. Trust your gut.
eBay application: When you have that intuitive nudge that an item will sell,  is interesting or collectible, stop and research it. That's the universe talking to you.
3. Diversify.
eBay application: Get out of your comfort zone and try new things. Opportunities are everywhere. Get out of your own way and LEARN new things.
4. Have a back up plan.
eBay application: Learn to sell on other sites, Facebook buy and sell groups, etc. Spread the risk around.
5. Be a leader.
eBay application: Tell every one you know what you do. Shout it from the rooftops. You never know what kind of opportunity will fall in your lap because you know this skill. Example - my hair dresser just connected me with a client who has $15,000 worth of jewelry to sell on consignment. 
6. Admit your weaknesses.
eBay application: I am not good at graphic design, accounting, doing taxes, or programming. I pay people to do those things so I can make money writing, selling on eBay, consulting, and other tasks I enjoy and excel at. 
7. Buy stocks with dividends. 
No comment here - I'm not qualified to give investment advice.
8. Differentiate between family, friends, and money.
eBay application: Be careful who you do business with. Period. Don't sell on consignment for family. It never ends well.
9. Get outside of North America - go global.
eBay application: Ship internationally. Discover how easy global shipping is here!
10. Go with simple ideas. 
eBay application: Don't overcomplicate things. Take good photos, use good keywords, describe your item properly, be customer friendly, treat customers the way you want to be treated. Shop, list, ship, repeat. It's easy.
If you aren't watching Shark Tank, make it your new habit. Watch on ABC, CNBC or on YouTube. The Sharks are billionaire entrepreneurs who have great wisdom to share - listen to what they tell start-ups. 
And check out my YouTube challenge here!
Have a great week!
Related Posts:
eBay Success Depends on Good Record Keeping
Consignment Done Right - 140,000 Items
eBay is Marathon not a Sprint

Cool New eBay Tool - MyRealKarma

Hi fellow eBay sellers! I wanted to let you know about a cool new FREE tool you can add to your eBay listings that can help traffic and search placement. I normally don't use any third party tools (since I have been doing eBay since the Dark Ages and never really needed them), but I'm giving MyRealKarma a try. This plug-in was designed to help eBay listings rank higher in Google search, and we all can use that, right?

I had a chat with Alex Nitikin, the creator of MyRealKarma to find out more about his free product to see how we as eBay sellers can benefit from it. Here is the interview:

1.  Where did you get the idea for MyRealKarma?

I have several friends who sell on eBay and want to move to a different platform but they all say that they’d have to earn the customer reviews from scratch and lose sales in the process. After, unsuccessfully trying to find a good solution we decided to build our own.

2. How does MyRealKarma increase sales for eBay sellers?

There are two ways:

MyRealKarma drives targeted, high value, traffic to their eBay store, builds online presence and, if they have multiple stores, cross promotes them, all for free.

Online Sellers can participate in the MRK Marketplace that will help them streamline their inventory buying or selling and save a lot of time and money.

3. You mention better indexing in Google Searches. How does that work exactly?

Great question! When you sign up, MyRealKarma creates a Seller Profile. You then link your online stores, add Tags (keywords), social media profiles, your picture or logo, invite friendly sellers. Your Seller Profile is a full-blown Search Engine Indexable web page that shows up in all Search Results.

Here is my seller profile (gimme a break here, this is new!)

4. Why should eBay sellers worry about Google - doesn't eBay take care of that for us?

Google has 100 million times more daily traffic than eBay. The problem is, virtually no eBay, Amazon or Etsy Sellers ever show up in Google search. It’s like being a fish in a small pond and not taking advantage of an ocean, full of buyers, right next door.  

4. How is using MyRealKarma better or different than referring to eBay feedback?

When a buyer sees your Seller Profile, that contains all of your information, he or she is able to develop a personal connection having seen your picture and social media and is 86% more likely to purchase. It means that even with very few customer reviews you can be extremely trustworthy. MyRealKarma is your customer feedback on steroids.

5. How much does it cost to use MyRealKarma?

It is absolutely Free! I also have a Bonus for our users. All of our users will get an exclusive early access to a Wholesale Marketplace.

6. There is an MRK Badge to add to eBay listings. Is there a way to add the badge using bulk edit? Or must it be done on each individual listing? 

Adding an MRK Badge is one of the ways to show your Seller Profile to the buyers. We don’t allow bulk actions with MRK Badge because our users prefer doing it during the listing of an Item. However If, in the future, our users say they want bulk edit we’ll bring it. We listen to our users all the time and only build what they need.

Here is the badge on my listings.

7. How many sellers are currently using MyRealKarma?

We have more than 12,000 active users from not only eBay but also all the major eCommerce Platforms. We are also in the process of integration with several hot new upcoming Marketplaces.

8. Can you explain how suppliers are involved with MyRealKarma?

This is all about the Marketplace. To really make money you must cut cost of goods purchased. To do it, you need to buy large quantity and make sure there is no dead inventory sitting around. Everyone knows, some items sell better on eBay, others on different platforms. You can leverage the MRK Marketplace to not only sell excessive or unneeded inventory but also to buy the inventory from others, including large Suppliers. Since all the participants are verified online sellers the transactions are fast, safe and easy. Right now, we are negotiating with several large suppliers to bring more product offerings and even offer net terms.

9. Where can sellers find out more or chat with a representative about this service?

Please go to myrealkarma.comand click to sign up. There you can also watch our short video.

I have signed up for MyRealKarma and am adding it to a few listings a day. I like the badge that appears on the eBay listing- it is professional looking, clean, and attractive. And you can pick your color! Some of those eBay plug-ins can be really clunky looking but this one looks great.

When you give MyRealKarma a try, please connect with me here.  

Thanks Alex for taking the time to introduce us to your new product. I'm looking forward to using it!