First I have to tell my short version of the story of how my husband and I became recent collectors of Christmas houses of the brands that I just mentioned.

We started out with getting a beautiful Lionel train to go around our Christmas tree 2 years ago for our now 4-year-old daughter.  After we got the train we decided to get a 2 or 3 houses that we found at Goodwill.The following year we got a few more houses that we found at Goodwill and we added fake snow with a few trees. 

So this year my husband had this fantastic idea that we build a wood platform out of plywood to go around the tree for the train to move on and to add the houses.  So after he had this idea we wanted to get more houses for our village.  So a few houses here and there mixed in with some trees, people, animals, rivers bridges, brick roads, mini lights, lakes a horse and carriage turned into at least 20 houses or maybe more!!

We also got foam and a hot wire cutter to build hills and mountains for the houses.  I can’t wait to post pictures of how the village turned out   What is really great about our collection is that we have well over 1,000.00 worth of items that we got for around 350.00.

Everything we bought was from people selling these items on Craigslist, some were bought from a consignment store and some items came from a very large garage sale where the people were getting rid of many of their Department 56 houses.

I did want to discuss how I think it would be a great idea to buy Lemax and Department 56 Christmas houses and accessories because they are very popular on Ebay right now.  Do not wait too long because people who are serious collectors start building their villages usually before December.

I will have to say that I do favor the Department 56 houses and figures.  The figures are much prettier and sell better on Ebay.  The Lemax houses do sell well however.   Department 56 has different series in their Christmas Village collection, one which is called their Dickens Collection and these tend to go for very high prices.  Here is an example of one house that sold on Ebay.

I would not pay more than 15.00 for a Lemax house and try to keep it around 20.00 for a Department 56.  You will have to go to completed listings to search the figures and other accessories for these brands.  The carnival pieces for Lemax sell good on Ebay too right now because some people have carnival pieces in their Christmas collection.

We actually bought this beautiful Lemax carousel and I had no idea how much it was worth, but I thought it would be so pretty in our display.  We paid 8.00 for it at a consignment store and here is what it sold for on Ebay yesterday!

Make sure to check back this week because I will post some pictures of all the cool Christmas village pieces we got.  My poor baby’s room looks like a Christmas Village disaster

So go out and get in the Christmas spirit and have fun looking for all of these fun Christmas pieces to sell on Ebay!!!

First of all I would like to apologize for not posting for quite some time.  I’m sure you all know how busy it can be with little ones   I am happy to be back and I am planning on helping my fellow Ebayers and anyone who wants to get started in this business.

So as my title states I would like to have a little discussion about the line of doll houses that American Girl put out several years ago. These were very special houses that were tiny and constructed of wood.  The houses are white and very adorable.

I have to be honest that I had never heard of them before until I cam across an ad on Craigslist.  A lady who lived right down the road from me was selling 3 of these houses for 15.00 a piece.

I knew that American Girl dolls and accessories are a very popular item on Ebay and I thought that 15.00 seemed very reasonable.  I then took a quick look on Ebay to see what these lovely houses were going for.

I surprised to see them several of them had sold for 85.00 or more.  Here is proof of this price. I also observed that the more items that comes with the house, the better they sell. 

I ended up buying a 70′s style AG doll house that this lady had.  It looked nice and had furniture and other items with the house.

Something that makes these houses very unique is that they have outlets in the back with special plugs and you can light up different lamps in the house.  What girl wouldn’t like that?

The reason I knew this house would sell is because it fit into two of the categories I use when selling my toys on Ebay.  These houses are not sold anymore and they were once very popular.  I found this out by doing some minimal research.

The bad news is that the house I bought only sold for 15.00.  I did charge 30.00 for shipping because it’s very heavy.  I do not think the high shipping price was why my house did not sell for a higher price.

The only reason I could come with for as to why my house did not sell for a higher price was that the plugs did not come with it.  I should have done better reasearch and asked the lady for the plugs before I tried to sell it. 

So if you do ever come across one of these houses, I would recommend for you to purchase it for a price of no more than 20.00.

I am going to make a mental note to not start the buy it now price too high if I am not positive that an item or items will sell at approximately that price.

I will let you all know what my items sell for at the end of this week.  Wish me luck

I found this great pair of Diesel Jeans for 2.00 at a local high end consignment store!  Too bad I’m not small enough to fit in them

A place that not everyone likes or thinks about going to find things to sell on Ebay are high end consignment stores.  It is a good thing to get on an email list if you have any stores like this in your area because you can be quickly informed if there is any kind of a sale going on.

There is an extremely popular consignment store chain in my area and they usually have a big end of summer clearance sale and another sale towards the end of winter.  The last sale I found my husband a brand new Tommy Bahama sweatshirt for only 8.00, not that’s a steal!

It is wise to do your research before heading out and going bonkers buying up stuff to sell when you are shopping at one of these stores.   I am pretty familiar with the brand of jeans that sell well on Ebay and I am confident they will sell for at least 30.00.  I’ll let you all know next week how these jeans sell when my auctions ends.

Last week when I was at one of my favorite thrift stores I cam across this really sweet Sesame Street Vintage Circus Playset.  It was priced at only 3.00.  I have never sold Sesame Street items in the past, but I have seen that certain items do well on Ebay, especially the Sesame Street Fisher Price Little People Sets, check the link if you don’t believe me  

I just got this posted on Ebay tonight so I will let you all know how it does next week when my auction ends.  Too bad I didn’t get any pictures of my sweet children playing with this set.  They really enjoyed it, too bad I had to sell it.  They get plenty of toys to play with, so I am sure they won’t miss it too much.

It might sound kind of stilly, but I have to admit that in the past I have made this mistake.  Our children are always more important than my auctions that are ending that night.

Ok so since I introduced Ben, I also had to introduce my other two precious children.   Madeline is 4 and Micah is 23 months.  These two love each other very much, can’t you tell?  They also have so much love for their new little brother.

How to stay focused and organized so you are not putting Ebay before your family:

1) Make sure to have a designated area for your stuff.  At the moment I am keeping all of my items in boxes in our laundary room.

2) Always keep shipping boxes, tape, envelopes and other shipping supplies on hand.  It’s never any fun when you have a ton of items to ship out and you are short on boxes.

3) Buy a postal scale.  Do not mess around with going to the post office.  It wastes gas and time.  If you have a scale you can weigh your items, and print out your shipping labels from home.  Then you can set up a time from your computer to have the post man pick up your packages.

4) Give yourself plenty of time to get your items shipped out.  You can choose the amount of days.

5) To save time and money, you really should use online Ebay selling platforms (I don’t know the technical name).  I use a program called Autivia.  I have used it for years.   It makes your listing look more professional, you can add several pictures and you can save information that may be them same for all of your auctions.  ( I will talk more about these in another post)

I hope these tips are helpful to all.  Once again I hope everyone takes this message to heat and will never put Ebay before your precious families.

Even though I did not sell many of the items, the 3 items I did sell all made a profit of at least 5.00. The items I sold here the vintage Lite Brite, Loving Family mom and dad and one Little People Set.

I do realize that I made ummm, well quite a few mistakes with the items I tried to sell.  The one item that did not sell that I thought for sure was a Thomas the Train set and I started it out at 12.99, which I thought was very reasonable, but I will relist and let you all know if it sells.

Now my issue is coming up with some extra cash to buy more inventory and this time I will make sure that I am only purchasing items that I know sure 100% will sell.  I was going to use the profit I made on these items, which doesn’t quite work since most of my items did not sell.

I’m going to attempt to go to a few garage sales next week and I will post on here what I find, if I can get some extra cash rouneded up to my purchase my smart yard sale buys.

On my first venture I found: vintage lite brite for 4.00 (sells for 30.00-40.00), I saw a Magic Bullet food processor for 5.00 and passed it up and then I checked later on Ebay and saw that they sell for as much as 30.00, so I went back the next day and it was gone  Lesson learned, now I will know to guy these in the future.

I also found 3 my little ponies for 1.00, mom and dad Loving Family dolls that were in a bag of other little toys for 1.99 so that would make the dolls .25 per piece and I already have a bid of 3.99 for them on Ebay right now.  I found a large bag of baby toys for 2.00. Baby toys sell extremely well on Ebay when you have them in a lot of 15 or more, so if you can get these at a garage sale for .25 a piece or less you could make a good profit.

Okay now there are two buys that I am very excited about and I will let you all know next week what they sold for.  I found a Little People set called Market Mercado, it looked brand new and had the 2 people with it and all of the food and the sound worked on it.  I bought this for 2.00, I saw some that sold for 20.00, not a huge profit, but every little bit helps.

The second buy that I am thrilled about is a little plush animal.  I know you might think I sound silly for being excited about a stuffed animal, but when I saw it and it still had the tags on it, I knew there was something special about it.  I had never seen one before and thought it could be rare, well come to find out it is rare and brand new with the tags!   My find is a little stuffed animal helicopter named Lionel.  He is from the series called Little Budgie The Helicopter and this series only ran 39 episodes.  These characters were based on the books written by Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York.  I have read that any merchandise from this series is very rare, we will see and I will post how much he sold for next week.

When I went back the second time, I found a large Thomas The Train Misty Island Set for 6.00, which surprised me.  I would say that was really my best buy, I did not find much else when I went back.

I posted a couple weeks ago about my listings I had up on Ebay and never wrote back on how they did.  Well unfortunately I did not do too well, but I still made a profit on my Bible Pictionary Game.  It sold for 8.00 and I paid 1.00 for it and I sold my circo wood train set for 5.00 and I paid 2.00 for it.  My rule when I go out and buy things to sell on Ebay is, if I do not think I can make at least 15.00 on it, I won’t buy it.  I think about my time spent driving, taking pictures, posting it and shipping it out.  Remember that rule and don’t waste your time on something you are not sure will sell.

Ok so I was hoping to have this post done by Saturday night after my big day of going to garage sales, but that does not always happen when you have 2 toddlers and a baby  

So I did not find as many treasures as I would have hoped to find.  I was specifically looking for children and baby toys and baby gear.  I think my two best finds were a Chicco space saver high chair, which I paid 5.00 for and a pair of Carlos Santana high heel shoes that I paid 1.00 for.  I saw the same shoes sell on Ebay for 25.00, so that would be a nice profit. 

I actually bought the high chair to sell on Craigslist and I have already sold it for 20.00 and I think I could have asked more because I had 3 people message me in 30 minutes.  So my tip for you all is to buy one of these high chairs if you find one that is price at 5.00 or under.  I will talk about buying and reselling baby gear in another post.

I think my most favorite find was the rubber band powered vintage flyers.  This plane was new in the box and even though it is not actually old, it looks old and I know people like things that look vintage.

I also bought two vintage puzzles, a Popeye and farm puzzle.  I am planning on listing them separate because a person who collects Popeye will not want a farm puzzle. 

I also found a few maternity shirts.  I always buy maternity and nursing clothes if they are 1.00 or under and I sell them in lots on Ebay.  This type of clothing sells very well on Ebay, especially in lots because Maternity and nursing wear is very expensive and you only wear it for a short time.

I found 2 vintage baby toys items that were made in the 90′s (I can’t believe that is vintage) and I hope they will sell at a decent profit.  I am taking a gamble on them.  I am considering selling more baby toys in the future, but I am planning on doin it in lots.  I will post more about selling baby toys in a future post.

Make sure to check back on Friday to see what my items sold for on Ebay.  Good luck to everyone on their Ebay selling adventures.

I have made this mistake in the past and it is easy to do.  If you are unsure of what category to place your item in, it is always a good idea to search for an item like yours on Ebay and you will be able to read at the top of the auction what category the item was placed in. 

Here is an example of an item that I had to look up because it was two items that were the same brand (Melissa and Doug), but they were two completely different toys, so I was confused about the category they should be placed in.  This is the category I choose: toys/hobbies, wholesale lots, other.  When you are choosing, there is always a main category which was toy/hobbies and then there are sub categories that are more specific that you have to choose from.

Hopefully this auction will go well.  Melissa and Doug toys generally sell good because of their brand and quality.  I will post later in the week to let you all know what they sold for.