Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Ebay Q & A: Stories-- The Funniest Thing I've Ever Sold on Ebay

A friend asked me to post on my blog what is the funniest thing that I remember selling.  I had to ponder for a bit to decide what that might be and came up with these:


Do you recognize them?  I did not either when I stopped at a yard sale on my way home one Saturday morning.  I had rummaged through quite a few things at a lady's home and even picked these up and put them back down again since I did not recognize them and had no idea what they were.

The owner of the home saw me set them down and told me (thankfully) what they were:  Frito Bandito pencil head erasers.  She even added the information that Frito-Lay  discontinued (another great Ebay buzz word) the advertising campaign AND their distribution in 1971 due to the "offensive" nature of them for Hispanic people.    These little erasers used to be in packages of Frito-Lay snacks when I was growing up (baby boomer item, another Ebay buzz word) Now, I am Hispanic and it didn't bother me a bit, so I bought all five of them-- for $1.00.  

I sold these five erasers individually on Ebay and as I recall, none of them sold for less than $25.00 and one sold for $50 (the blue one, I think).   Selling a group of similar items separately is generally more profitable.

TIP:  Keep your ears open when yard sale-ing and TALK to the people having the sales.  You learn all kinds of great tips.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  I definitely won on this one!  :)

My favorite Ebay "mentor" is Lynn Dralle.  She has written several books with the best things SHE has sold on Ebay which are very entertaining reading.  

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