Our Top 10 Profitable Items to Sell on eBay [Last 90 days]

August 14, 2017

Our Top 10 Profitable Items to Sell on eBay [Last 90 days]

Are you wondering what to sell on eBay and what are the most profitable items to sell on eBay? Every seller has a niche or at least a category for which they are most comfortable. Ours is toys & games. Here we take a look at the top 10 items we have been selling on eBay these last 90 days. We hope that some of these may serve as BOLO (be on the look out) for other sellers or maybe a reminder of possibly what to sell on eBay.

1. Star Wars Master Replicas Lightsaber

We encountered 3 of these highly collectible Star Wars Master Replicas lightsabers at Goodwill for $40 each thanks to a tip from a friend (always be networking)! We tend to favor low risk which means we rarely pay up for items. But in this case after comparing comps on eBay we determined we could easily sell each one around the $200 range. We were right! They quickly sold and were highly profitable. Shipping was expensive, in fact one went to New York which cost us $38 to ship, but still netted over $100 profit. Our average was $100 for each one so paying $120 to get $300 profit was a score and we sold them all in less than 10 days! These will likely be a rare find. But do be on the look out (BOLO) for Star Wars Master Replicas Ligthsaber and other collectible Star Wars items and don’t be afraid of big items (such as the big AT-AT models and Millennium Falcon replicas). Yes, they do become a little more difficult to ship but it was worth it. The market for high quality Star Wars collectibles is immense, so dive on in, research comps, check for working functionality, and buy these if you ever see them. We recommend charging shipping for large items as we’ve come to learn that it doesn’t really affect the sales all too greatly. For unique items getting a higher page rank in the eBay algorithm doesn’t really matter because customers are specifically looking for it, so just be sure to use excellent keywords and a descriptive and accurate title. The Fast n’ Free boost in ranking doesn’t always improve sales. Big Star Wars collectibles are excellent profits provided you can source for the right price. May the force be with you in your search for Star Wars collectibles.

 

2. Electronic Chess Games

Just another chess game? Think again! Electronic Chess games are in high demand and sell for a lot of money. Chess is a universally played game and is nearly 1,500 years old. Talk about vintage! People love chess. They love collecting chess. They also love playing electronic chess games! Most recently, we acquired a Phantom Force electronic chess game with self-moving pieces. We paid $2.99 with a $.60 cent 20% discount only paid $2.39 at Goodwill. Quickly listed that evening and sold the very next day for $119.82. Electronic chess games can be huge profits, especially if you are lucky to find them sealed and new in package. Be sure to check for functionality, test the operations, and make sure it is complete. Sometimes they can be parted out but electronic chess game fans want everything working and complete. It doesn’t take much time to test. Usually, most use standard double AA batteries or other common batteries. We won’t come across them every day but it is likely you will see them a few throughout the year. We come across them about every other month and when we do we always buy them. Keep in mind we do this part-time, so you full-timers might see them more often! Also, these electronic chess games are extremely smart and even funny. We had one model that would insult you when you made a poor move. We had no remorse when we sold that one for $80, guess who’s laughing now Ivan the Conquerer!

 

 

 

3. Plush Toys & Stuffed Animals

One of our daughters has a rabbit lovey she’s had since she was born. Well…not the exact same one. It’s the exact same brand, design, pattern, color, and model number, just not the exact one that was lost. Or, the other one that she lost while on vacation. In fact, we’ve paid handsomely on eBay for this Pink Bunny Lovey 4 times! Each time we replaced the one that disappeared we paid a whopping $35. Are you kidding me? It cost Brand-new from the store for $10! Unique and rare plush toys are an excellent opportunity to capitalize on profits! Kids adore their plush loveys and when they go missing, parents will do anything to satiate their kids need to get their lovey back. We frequently sell plush toys & stuffed animals. In the last 90 days we have sold quite the variety. Our two most profitable were a 12” Studio Ghibli Cat Returns extremely rare doll on sale for $120.09 and paid $.99 and a giant sized 32” Pikachu Pokemon for $110 and paid $3.99 for it. We like to look for plush toys & stuffed animals that we can buy for a few dollars or less and flip for $20+. These items are typically easy to ship and lightweight so very profitable and a lot lower risk. When it comes to Disney we recommend always checking comps. You’ll see a ton of Disney plush but not all are profitable. It’s best to buy Disney plush toys that have the tags and are directly from the parks. We are finding that the Disney Store items are saturated, unless you come across a unique or rare one. For example, who here has ever seen Disney’s Treasure Planet? Actually a pretty cool animated movie but not one you hear about that often. We found a pirate plush character from that movie and purchased for $1.99 and flipped for $20. Whereas you may find Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Friends quite frequently but if it’s Disney Store than it means it was mass produced and will likely be completely saturated and not sell for much. Unless, it is seasonal, limited edition, or directly for the parks such as Disney World or Disneyland, then pass on Disney Plush items. When in doubt, just check the comps before buying.

 

4. Board Games & Card Games

We love a variety of gaming, especially tabletop gaming which includes many types of board games & card games. It is an excellent way to socialize with friends, bond with family, or even wind-down and de-stress. The industry has been steadily increasing by about 28% each year. People love the social aspect and it’s a nice break from screen time. In fact, 30% of Millenials say they are interested in visiting a board-game themed café or bar, according to a report from market researchers Mintel on the leisure habits of millennials, published in August 2016. The Board Games niche is nearly a $10 billion annual revenue industry. So, of course you are going to see some board games & card games at Goodwill and other thrift stores. There are plenty of BOLOs in this categary, definitely be on the lookout for vintage, early 1990s and earlier. However, to be successful selling on eBay you need to ensure that the board games & card games you source are complete, good condition, and have evidence of comps that have sold on eBay. We have had success sourcing board games and flipping for excellent profits, both older vintage games and even current new games. In fact, our biggest sale ever on eBay was for $420 for a Killer Bunnies 10th Year Anniversary Limited Edition board game. As of the writing of this article there was an unsold listing at $1,099 and a current listing at $499 with Best Offer. This particular board game was crowdsourced by the popular Kickstarter platform. Kickstarter has funded over $200 million in board games and it is the #1 funded category of all of its projects. In just 7 years, board game projects that were funded by Kickstarter began in 2009 at $10K and $100,000,000 by end of 2016. That’s a 1,000,000% growth! Board games & card games are increasingly popular. So, always check the games aisle at your thrift store. Here are a few recents that we have sold. Paid $25 on Kickstarter for Nova Cry and sold for $68. For a whole quarter we consistently sold Star Wars Destiny booster packs, published by Fantasy Flight for huge profits. We bought packs for $2.99 each and sold for an average of $11.56 per pack. We sold them in bundles of 3 and 6 packs which helped capitalize on low shipping costs as the packs only weigh 1oz each. Now that the manufacture has caught up their supply with demand the market has stabilized and you can no longer fetch high prices, but always be on the lookout for new, viral, highly popular games that have low stock and high demand. This is true for all categories of selling too! Another easy sell is Rich Dad Poor Dad Cashflow Board Game. We’ve sold 5 of these in the last year. They always sell. The best is new in package which can sell for $50-60 on eBay. At a typical source cost of $1.99-$4.99, this is an excellent flip and always sells quickly. Finally, one game we like to brag about and we can’t believe we are giving this information away…is Game of Thrones 2nd Edition from Fantasy Flight. We bought this game at a price point of $2.74. We thought we would keep it to play but realized it was missing just 1 piece. Well, you might as well give the game away in this case because it was missing a piece. However, then we noticed something. There were several completed and sold listings for Game of Thrones 2nd Edition replacement pieces. To our astonishment these were regularly selling by family factions and bundled groupings of pieces. So, for 45 days we sold Game of Thrones 2nd Edition replacement pieces for a total revenue of $125, almost netting us $100 profit for just one board game and selling of pieces. So, sometimes if your board game isn’t complete, be sure to check and see if replacement pieces sell well. Board games & card games are an excellent hardgoods category to fill up your eBay store and for relatively low cost, the profits are substantial.

5. Legos

Yep, Legos! They are fun to play with, fun to build, and fun to sell. However, Lego fanatics are peculiar so a fair warning to those that want to sell used Lego pieces, make sure they are clean and make sure you have removed the most evil of all toys, MEGA BLOCKS. Those fake Lego wannabes. Now mind you, Mega Blocks all on their own are also cool, but SO NOT COOL when they are mixed in with your Lego lots. Yep, it is painstaking to remove these hideous imposters, but it has to be done. The customer wants it. Now, your mileage may vary depending on the thrift stores for which you patronize, so also be sure to get a good price for used Legos and don’t risk paying up too much unless you know what you are doing and are familiar with the pieces, minifigures, vintage vs current, etc. A good buy price is less than $2 per lb. Depending on how you sort and bundle your listings of used Lego bricks, you can fetch $10-25 per lb on eBay plus shipping. The minifigures can fetch $2-3 per each minifig and for specific licenses such as Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and Disney can sometimes fetch higher rates of $4-6 per minifig. Keep in mind that many rare minifigures can easily sell in the $20 range on up. Star Wars has a few rare minifigs that sell over $100. A limited edition 10,000 run of a Gold C3PO sells close to $200. Cloud City Luke Skywalker minifigure from set 10123 sells around $150. Everyone loves Jango Fett, and if you find the one from set 7153, cha-ching, easy $60-80. The Holy Grail Lego minifig is Mr. Gold. If you are so lucky to find it you will likely need to have it authenticated as there are many fakes out there, but if it is legit you’ve got a nice $1,500+ sale on your hands. For Lego sets, your first edition Star Wars sets from the 90s and even 2000s can fetch thousands such as the Millennium Falcon set 10179. Here are a few other noteworthy sets: Lego Creator Taj Mahal 10189, retired Lego Cafe Corner 10182, Lego Grand Carousel 10196, Lego Star Wars Death Star 10143, and Lego Star Wars Star Destroyer 10030. New in Box, unopened, all receiving around $2K+.  From our eBay store, The UnBirthday Shoppe, this last quarter we did well with mixed lots. We did 3 separate minifigure ½ lb lots that each sold for around $60. We had a total of 21 sold listings for a total sales price of $603.83 an average of $200 each month. Average sales price per listing was $28.57. Most of this coming from a 30lb lot purchased for $30.00! And guess what, so much more left! Also, keep eye out for retail arbitrage opportunities. Toy stores, department stores, and even grocery stores that carry Lego sets regularly clear them at major discounted prices to make room for the newest sets. We successfully bought a dozen Lego  Kylo Ren buildable action figures for $3.99 each and resold on eBay for an average of $18.00. Lots of opportunity in the Lego world. Just remember, used Lego lots, be sure they are clean and remove all imposter non-Lego bricks (ahem..MEGA BLOCKS)!

6. Purses & Handbags

 

 

 

 

 

A woman’s most critical and fashionable accessory is her purse. Purses & handbags are an $11.5 billion industry. Women aged 18-45 on average own 13 handbags. Some of the prices are ridiculous, just examine completed and sold listings on eBay by highest paid price and you’ll a whole page of purses sold for over $10K! Hermes is by far the winner for overall sales according to the first page at the writing of this article. In fact, 45 out of 48 are Hermes! So, BE ON the LOOK OUT (BOLO)! We haven’t found our 1st Hermes yet, but we do sell a couple each month for decent profits. We sourced a nice leather Ardleigh Elliott Disney purse for $3.99 and sold for $39.50. We acquired a rare Sharif Dog purse at a Goodwill for $5.59 and sold for $50.80. We sold a cute Betsey Johnson cupcake handbag for $18.50 and only paid $1.60. Finally, we sold a Thirty-One tote for $22.77 and only paid $1.99 to source. Purses & Handbags are a great opportunity to add to your eBay store. Some things to consider before sourcing:

  1. Handiwork – How is the craftsmanship? Get a good look at the purse and judge the artistry, design, and logo display. Is the stitching even? Any loose threads? Lettering and logo are consistent with the Brand? When available check serial number accuracy.
  2. Take an inside look – Carefully examine logo and serial numbers when available. Do they appear accurate and authentic. Check the obvious such as spelling mistakes: Coach vs Coch or Louis Vuitton vs Luis Viton. Know your spellings! Counterfeiters rarely pay attention to the tiny details that the real manufacturers do so examine closely.
  3. What’s it got in it’s pocketses? – (excuse the Hobbit reference). The fakers like to get the pocket sizings wrong, oftentimes larger pockets than the real ones.
  4. Where was it made? – This is definitely a tell-tale sign it is fake. However, it isn’t always necessarily accurate. You have to be familiar with where brands are manufactured. Now in this global economy it is common for name brand purses & handbags to be manufactured in various countries and locations. Even many of the top brands are made in China, so don’t automatically discard, but if you see a Prada that you know should’ve been made in Italy and it says somewhere else, it’s probably a fake.

7. Littlest Pet Shop

What are these you ask? Why, they are little tiny toys of various pet animals ranging from bunnies to cats to dogs and other cute pets. Little girls, boys too, and fan collectors love these little pets! They aren’t too pricey but they maintain their value over time. So, brand new one can expect to get 7-10 Littlest Pet Shop toys for $15-20 around $1.50 to $2.00 per pet. We find these in the toy bins at Goodwill all the time for $.10 or $.20 cents each. We like to bundle these in big lots and parse out the more rare ones to sell individually. In large lots we typically get $1.50 per pet. So on half off day when you can find these for $.10 cents each, it’s a no brainer. Sometimes you might only find a few. Check for rarity and list those individually but then hold on to them until you have at least 20. We just sold a lot of 35 Littlest Pet Shop toys for $50.00. $3.50 into $50.00, yes please! This last quarter we had 6 individual Littlest Pet Shop toys that each sold for over $6.00, with the highest being sold at $15.77. Our highest one ever sold for $35 and of course, we bought it for $.10 cents. Even some of the accessories such as the carrying cases can be sold for decent profits. We paid $.99 cents for a Littlest Pet Shop carry case and sold it for $10! That’s more than some purses people buy on eBay! Be on the lookout (BOLO) for these cute little pets. They are tiny so they can be easy to miss. We often find them digging through the loose toy bins at Goodwill thrift stores. They are really quick flips too!

8. Dolls & Doll Accessories

We’ve heard it said that the only group of people more crazy than cat ladies and gun enthusiasts are doll collectors. We agree and love our doll collector clients! They even send us photos of dolls in their new homes. So precious and cute. We are happy to provide these dolls to good homes. So, for which dolls should you be on the lookout (BOLO)? We have success with a variety. Here are some to note: Monster High, Ever After, rare Barbie, vintage Barbie, model muse Barbie, Barbie’s friends, Madame Alexander, American Girl, and vintage GI Joe. Over the years we have seen these prices come up for dolls but if you know what to look for you can make nice profits. NUDE. Yep, I said nude. It is common practice to list in the title “nude” as a descriptor to indicate that a doll has no clothing. Collectors and buyers are okay with this and even search for this. Don’t be afraid to buy a naked doll, it could turn out to be some great money! We sell close to 10 dolls & doll accessory items each month. This includes dolls, nude dolls, clothing accessories, and doll furniture. We do this part-time so we aren’t out everyday but when we source we always at least get one doll or a few dolls each time we source inventory. Most of the Goodwill thrift stores we shop at bundle nude Barbies in packs of two to five, priced between $1.99 to $6.99. It’s not always consistent, but we generally like our doll cost to be $1.00 or less per each doll, unless it is a higher end brand such as American Girl or Madame Alexander in which we recommend research comps prior to sourcing. Our best ever doll finds were both American Girls bought for $1.99 and sold for $100 and the other was bought for $15.99 (that Goodwill manager knew what was up) and sold for $85. We like to source our Madame Alexander dolls between $1.99-5.99 and sell anywhere from $15-50. Be on the Lookout (BOLO) for Barbie’s friends such as: Midge, Raquelle, and of course, Ken. They don’t make as many so they are harder to come by and typically sell well. If you can get Barbie’s friends dolls for $1 then you can expect typically to sell for around $10 or more. Midge seems to fetch the most where we sell her for more around $20 depending on the year and model form. There’s a lot to be found in dolls & doll accessories. It does take a bit of research because they all look so similar, but take the time to look carefully at the body styles, joints, poses, eyes, etc. The more detailed they are, the better. Things like articulated eyes, eyelashes, earrings, etc will usually mean more money. Then there is an entire industry that we could talk about in an entirely different article called reborn dolls. Look it up on eBay completed listings, it’s crazy awesome! There are artists who take a stripped baby form doll and turn it into a newborn baby with new paint, facial expressions, hair, and clothing and sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars. This process and doll name is called reborn. Sometimes you find a potential doll that might be hideous or just plain ugly, but it is an artists blank canvas to work with and to into a beautiful reborn doll. Artists and collectors will pay for these nude dolls in the $50-100 range and then go on and sell for several hundred dollars and sometimes thousands. We pick up these nude dolls for around $5 usually. They are generally a bit heavier and look like a baby and sometimes even have correct gender specific anatomy. When you find those, buy them, a definite BOLO. Berenguer and OTARD are popular brands for reborn but there are several unusual unknown brands that sell really well. Just look for lifelike, baby form, silicone/vinyl material, and heavier in weight dolls. And honestly, we’ve found the uglier they are in terms of their facial expressions (such as angry, crying, or just plain weird) the more money you can fetch! Dolls & doll accessories is an easy add to your eBay store. All the thrift stores have them. Do a bit of studying and research, watch some youtube videos, and you’ll be grabbing many of these dolls & doll accessories while you are sourcing.

9. Clothing

This is one category where we don’t sell too much of but we definitely make some good profit when we do. Clothing makes up less than 10% of our store and at the time of writing this article our eBay store, The UnBirthday Shoppe, has 17 items that are clothing out of our total 223 items listed, which is about 7.5%. So, we aren’t experts in clothing but it does do well for us when we do. I suppose we are picky! One clothing brand that we have lately sold regularly is Lularoe. The fad fashion is real and people really love it. We’ve all even been to a friends Lularoe party and cringed when we heard how expensive they are. Of course we are good friends and buy just 1 item to help them out but on the inside we’re thinking, I know I can find these at Goodwill for less. And yep, we sure do, all the time. We source Lularoe clothes, dresses in the $4.99-9.99 range. There’s a lot of fun patterns and a diverse variety of color, shapes, and sizes. Lularoe is easily identifiable by the tag with their rainbow colored logo. In the last 3 months we have sold 14 Lularoe items and currently have 7 listed. Our average sales price (ASP) for Lularoe is $21.67. Quick flips for $10-15 profit and if we source them with 20% discount by paying $20 or more or on half-off Saturday, then add $3-5 to the profit margin. Clothes is really a limitless opportunity for selling on eBay. It takes work, research, and a high tolerance for returns, but clothing are definitely in the top 10 profitable items to sell on eBay. Find your clothing niche and if you already have a niche then branch out. We’ve been watching tons of YouTube videos and have been learning new brands such as True Religion, Eileen Fisher, Free People and more. We’ve noticed that our Goodwill thrift stores put a high premium on brand names and it often doesn’t seem worth the hassle. For instance if it has a Nike swoosh on it or Nike name, it’s automatically at least $9.99. We’re not going to pay $10 to flip for $15 or even half off $5 to flip for $15, it’s just not worth our time for a category that has a high return rate. However, there are occassions when the stores overlook the brand name and these items are better sourced at $1.99 to $3.99 prices. We live in Arizona, so maybe it’s just an Arizona thing! They do that with most name brand items in all clothing categories, shoes, hats, ties, dresses, jeans, etc. We prefer low cost, low risk, so your mileage may vary and don’t forget about garage sales, great sourcing opportunities for clothing. Other clothing brands we have sold and been successful with are Betsey Johnson, Victoria’s Secret (when the sourcing price is good), Michael Kors, Burberry, Express, and Anthropologie. We like to at least make $15 on clothing items so as long as the profit is there then we’ll buy it. Many eBayers do really well with clothing and it really is sky is the limit opportunity with this category. Just learn and as Nike says, just do it!

10. Consignment

Okay, so it’s not actually a specific item, but consigning is a profitable way to make money selling on eBay. We like to talk about our eBay business often and it naturally comes up in conversation because comments like I love that purse, or that dress is cute, nice tie, awesome shoes…where did you get it? GOODWILL! Yep, we don’t just re-sell but we buy everything for our family thrifted. Our kids are fashionable and have an ever changing inexpensive wardrobe. A popular household aphorism that originated during the Great Depression is, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”. How true and very wise words. However, we say, “Use it up, donate it, buy new at thrift store, and repeat!” So, getting compliments is an easy segway into our eBay business and then our friends and family wonder about things they have laying around the house. Lots of people don’t have PayPal and don’t do eBay. If they’ve tried selling on Facebook or craigslist they usually tried to sell something they thought was worth a lot of money only to be low balled a bunch of times and gave up. The problem is AUDIENCE. When doing consignment on eBay, the market reach and audience is expanded globally (if you do international shipping, which is so easy to do with eBay’s Global Shipping program). The problem with Facebook, Craigslist, OfferUp and other platforms is people are looking for an amazing deal. And sellers complain on eBay about lowballers! Try listing your whole eBay store on OfferUp and then lets talk about how awesome eBay is because you will hate those other platforms and not want to have to deal with the headache of lowballers, no shows, holding products, promises promises promises, but nope never show up, change their mind when they show up, offer less money on the spot then agreed upon, etc. With eBay you can automate all those problems. So, with consignment you take someone’s item, most likely a friend, family member, or acquaintance, and list it on eBay for them. They are often happy to pay you for it because you’ll actually get the item’s value paid for on eBay. Those shoes couldn’t be given away on Craigslist, but on eBay they sold for $50. After $10 of shipping, $2 PayPal Fees, and our 30% commision of $11.40, and they net $29 that they weren’t expecting. They are super happy and excited and think of even more things you could sell for them. Of course, you need to be discerning on what you accept to consign. Think about risk of return, damage, or worse yet, fraud! It’s your business on the line so be upfront about payment expectations. We don’t pay out consignment payments until after the 60 day return time period has lapsed. Also, we haven’t done high ticket/high priced items for having been burned once. We were out both shipping and fees because it turns out the item was not authentic. Unfortunately, our friend was completely unaware and they were good friends and we felt bad so we just ate the cost. Oh well, lesson learned. So, be sure to be picky and not afraid to say no, it’s too much risk, or have policies and guidelines in writing for your consignment customers about when things go wrong, the liability is on them and not you. Ultimately though, it truly is on you to make sure the item sells, ships, and the customer is happy. After all, you ran it through your business and if there is a problem with the item, guess who they are going to ask. Not your friend, not your family, not your acquaintance from school or church, or your neighbor. YOU! Only you have the final responsibility so you need to decide what you are willing to risk. Our limit for now is nothing over $150. It’s an easy way to make some additional funds. We charge pretty low at 30% commission on net profit NOT total sale. We recommend 40% off total sale, but we typically only do consignment for friends as a favor and aren’t really in it for the money. The mere 30% is just to pay us for our time and cover the expense of housing the inventory space. We’ve sold about two dozen items through consignment and all except for one instance have been successful. This is a natural and easy way to add inventory to your store. We recommend using an invoice template in Word and keep records of what you have on consignment and sell on consignment. You may find that this is a profitable way to expand your eBay business!

 

We hope you find this article helpful and useful. It is an accurate depiction of what we have been successfully selling on eBay for the last 90 days. There are other profitable items that we sell but these have been the most profitable at least for the last quarter. We plan on doing an analysis of our store each quarter and sharing it with the community. Please subscribe to our blog and share with others if you have found it useful. Also, comment below and share your own top 10 profitable items to sell on eBay. We love to keep learning and help others learn as well. Good luck selling on eBay!