Money Blue Book

I debated about whether I should share this story, but at the end I decided that my experience might help prevent someone from falling into the same scam as I did. At the time I was young, inexperienced and financially naive. Since then, I’ve learned and improved based on my past failures and eventually went on to run a small but profitable home business by making money online with ebay, at least for a modest period of time.

It All Started With Too Much Greed

Shortly after college I decided I wanted to start a part time side business selling merchandise on eBay. But first I needed to find a wholesale supplier. After some research I decided I wanted to focus on consumer electronics such as GPS navigation devices and Apple iPods, and concluded my best bet at finding a supplier would be through a free network site like Alibaba, that helps connect sellers with buyers of goods. Little did I know at the time, but sites like Alibaba are crawling with scammers and evil doers.

I ultimately decided to focus on selling Garmin and Tom Tom branded GPS units. After a few searches, I was amazed to find numerous sellers offering brand new Garmin GPS units for very little money. The Garmin GPS model I was interested in buying in bulk retailed for more than $1200 on eBay at the time. The sellers I found on Alibaba were offering each unit for only $700 each. The asking prices were exceedingly low, but sadly I was too overcome with dollar signs in my head to realize that the offers were likely too good to be true. I essentially had blinders on and was too busy calculating all the profit I was going to make by selling these units for such high markup. Eventually I narrowed down a potential seller.

Greed Prevented Me From Recognizing the Warning Flags

When you are overcome with greed, it is hard to think clearly, even when a clearly fraudulent transaction is staring at you in the face. I should have been more aware of all the telltale signs that the seller was likely a potential scammer and a fraud. First of all, the seller provided me contact information based in Indonesia, a country like Nigeria that is notorious for being a hotbed of scammer activity. He also provided very limited company background information that could be used to verify his personal or business identity, or determine his true geographical location. The phone number he provided me did indeed work, but I should have realized that nowadays with VOIP technology, phone number locations are very easily faked. It’s easy to reside in one country and still obtain a temporary, disposable local phone number from another. Even paid identity authentication and verification services are subject to abuse and illegal manipulation as well. It’s not all that difficult for online scammers on Alibaba or any other Internet exchange service to obtain a genuine TrustPass or Alibaba Gold Membership certification using falsified identification.

Another thing that should have raised red flags was the fact that the seller offered to pay for shipping, which is an extremely unusual practice for first time wholesale purchases, especially since international shipping can be quite expensive. The seller also insisted on rushing the sale, frequently threatening to end the lucrative deal if I continued to demand more verification information and not move forward with payment. But otherwise, the scammer was extremely convincing in the way he portrayed the deal as completely legitimate. Rather than thinking that the sale was a scam, I just thought I was getting an excellent deal.

Because I was so motivated by greedy emotions, I was more fearful of losing the lucrative buy than I was of being scammed. There were so many warning signs that I simply ignored, such as the seller refusing to accept Paypal or even credit card payment. Instead, he demanded payment through bank wire transfer. If I had conducted more due diligence, I would have known that unlike Paypal or credit card transactions where my money would have been protected, bank wire transactions are permanent and irreversible once properly executed.

I Fell For the Trap – Hook, Line, and Sinker

Ultimately I sent him over $2,025.00 through bank wire transfer for 3 sample Garmin GPS units. Once he had the money, he disappeared without a trace. I attempted to contact him through the phone number he provided me, but the line had been disconnected. He never responded back to my e-mails and I never received the merchandise. My money was gone and I never recovered it.

Afterwards, I felt very stupid and ashamed, but I learned many valuable lessons as a result. I’m glad I experienced this hard knock life lesson earlier in my life when the potential stakes were lower. I thought something like this could never possibly happen to me, but it did, and I allowed my greedy emotions to get in the way of rational caution. You and I, we may think we’re very smart and that we’re so clever, but we are only human, and still susceptible to basic human emotional irrationality. It’s difficult to control emotions like greed, fear, and pride. So my friends, it’s important to always stay vigilant – scammers are everywhere and one day you might be in their cross hairs too.

I’m a huge Washington Redskins football fan and my friend, who is from Philly, roots for the Philadelphia Eagles. It just so happens the Philadelphia Eagles are playing my Skins at Fedex Field in Landover, Maryland this coming Sunday and we are hankering to go. I’m going to be busting out my Redskins gear – and nothing crazy like body paint, and nothing lame like the “D” and the cutout “fence” some cheesy fans bring to games. It’ll just be nice, clean trash talking. I hope I can convince him to wear his Eagles gear.

But getting to the game won’t be easy. We aren’t season ticket holders and because the Washington Redskins are so popular, tickets will be difficult to obtain. The game is also a division game so tickets will be extra expensive due to popular demand for them.

We Will Score Some Tickets

Regardless, we are determined to bid and win a pair of tickets to the Redskins-Eagles game. I tend to avoid popular online stores that sell tickets since they generally charge a higher markup and an unfair premium for them. You won’t find any lucrative deals through sites like Ticketmaster – I’ve looked. Our best bet will be to rely on amateur scalpers that sell tickets through online sources like eBay and Craigslist. It’s a bit more work, but that’s where the deals are.

But, I’ve been trying for the last few days, and haven’t been successful yet. I keep getting outbid by other crazy fans who keep hiking up their bids at the very last moment. I’ve tried sniping in at the last second but their maximum proxy bids still outshine mine. I probably will have to increase my maximum bidding price to win an auction.

Since I’ve done this before, I’ve learned a few things. When you buy tickets online for sporting events like football, there are certain things you have to consider as you make your purchase:

1. Seat Location – I always like to pull up the stadium seating chart to decide what vantage point I would like. Some like to sit closer to the field near the 50 yard line, while others like to sit higher in the stands or in the endzone area. Sitting closer to the field you become more involved in the crowd action, but sitting higher up you perhaps get a better complete view of the entire field. I personally prefer being closer to the field. After all, how else is the opposing team supposed to hear my taunts?
2. Budget - After doing some searches through eBay, you should have a general idea of what is the reasonable market value for tickets. You should have also figured out that prices vary greatly depending on where the seats are. located The closer they are to the center of the field (the 50 yard line in the case of football) and the closer the seating row is in relation to the field, the more expensive they are. Since I want a seat closer to the field where prices are higher, I’ve had to increase my ticket budget several times to better compete with other auction bidders. I think this time I bid high enough to win.
3. Parking – Parking is very expensive at football games and most sporting events. If the auction includes parking, this is an attractive addition to consider. Parking at the Redskins Fedex Field cash lots can cost $35 or more.
4. Cost and Speed of Shipping, Or Pickup – If the game will be happening in a week, you will need the tickets to be sent to you using overnight shipping. This is obviously a more expensive option but you don’t want to miss out because you were unable to receive your winning tickets by game time. Some online auction sellers will give you the option of picking up the tickets in person, but will most likely require you to pay in cash. If you choose to pick up in person you won’t be able to make the eBay purchase through a shopping portal like Fatwallet to earn 1% cash back or get additional cash back using reward credit cards.

I’m a frequent eBay buyer and former seller. I’ve learned a few tricks to get the best deals when buying through eBay auctions. Getting the best deal does take a little extra research but the savings are worth it!

1) Run eBay Searches Using Different Keyword Combinations

The example I’m going to use to demonstrate my eBay buying tricks will be from my experience in buying Smartrip metro cards. These are the magnetic debit cards that people living in the Washington D.C. area use to take the subway. The card can hold upwards to $300 at a time and like gift cards, there is an eBay market for people looking to buy them at a discount.

When running searches for the metro cards, I use a wide variety of keywords such as Smartrip, SmartCheck, D.C. Metro cards, D.C. subway cards, and Smart Trip. People frequently advertise their products on eBay using different names. Try punching in spelling errors like “dimond” rather than “diamond”. You won’t believe how many sellers frequently misspell their ads, thereby limiting the number of available buyers bidding on their auction. Less bidding competition gives the smart eBay buyer a greater chance of getting a great deal. It’s really not all that difficult to profit from ebay typo bargains.

You can also create a favorite saved batch search for several keywords. At the eBay search prompt, select “Advanced Search”, enter you keywords and remember to click on the box that indicates “Save This Search to eBay”. If you want to create a search that will automatically look for several keywords, just enclose them in parentheses and separate them with commas without the space in between. After clicking search, you will have the option of saving it.

2) Contact the Seller Directly To Make An Offer

This one is a bit more controversial, but I’m providing it just for alternative information. You may or may not get into some trouble with this one.

Rather than starting out by bidding for a product, I contact the seller directly and send him a suggestive proposal, hinting that I may be interested in offering a certain amount of money which will also include the cost of shipping. I also indicate that I can pay as soon as possible via Paypal since prompt payment is attractive to sellers.

I’ve gotten the best deals by contacting the seller directly. I used to frequently negotiate deals of paying $160 for a $300 Smartrip metro card and saved a lot of money by doing this.

For this method to work, it’s very important that you make sure the seller is trustworthy so check to see that the seller has ample reviews (the more the better but at least 50).

I note again that this method has been suggested to be a likely technical violation of eBay’s policies. I have yet to see them enforce this matter however and I’ve been doing this for over 8 years.

3) Scout Out How Much Other Winning Buyers Bid To Win the Item

The great thing about eBay is that there is a lot of auction history information for buyers and sellers to research. Oftentimes sellers will run more than one auction for the same type of item and might even have sold several units already. All of this historical information is available.

I like to search through my target seller and check out the reviews left by people who have bid and won similar items to see what the fair final bidding price would be. Sometimes I like to contact other buyers just to see if the product was as advertised.

4) Bid on eBay Auctions At the Very Last Second

If you are a seasoned eBay buyer, you know that the greatest bidding activity occurs in the last few minutes of any auction. If you are looking at an eBay auction that still has hours before expiration, you should know that you are not looking at anything close to it’s final fair market value. The closer to expiration the truer the market value. By waiting till the last moment you will ensure that you don’t get into a bidding battle with another determined bidder. Just remember to bid a fair value or you might get outbid by someone else’s higher proxy offer.

I don’t do it as much as I used to but back in college and for a few years after I used to sell products on eBay as part of my experiment in running a part time online business. It was more of a hobby than anything else so I never quite grew it into something big. But I did learn a thing or two about online selling during that time.

When I was an active seller, I focused primarily on electronics and gadgets that I liked and that were must-haves at the time. One rudimentary search of eBay’s auctions reveals the obvious – consumer electronics was and is still in great demand and there is fierce competition for steep discounted prices for such products. EBay consumers have grown accustomed to paying discounted prices for their electronics and this has made it more difficult for sellers today to profit from their sales.

Selling Electronics Is Tough

New eBay sellers will come to discover that consumer electronics is the toughest category to compete in. This is due to the slim margins for consumer electronics. Even Powersellers in this category often times only break even. The key to profiting from sales of consumer electronics is the bundling of products with value added accessories.

Successful eBay sellers make their money with accessories, or create packages that include items that have higher profit margins such as earphones, or padded protectors. This allows sellers to avoid competing on price alone. Profiting from the addition of accessories works because as a general psychological matter, buyers tend to be less adverse to paying for accessories and additions then they are for the primary product.

Think about when you are buying a lunch sandwich at your downtown city deli. The sandwich itself might be a good deal and reasonably priced at say, $5.00 (some might beg to differ that this price is reasonable), but with the addition of a soda or a drink, the total price has jumped to $6.50, not including taxes. The price of the drink was likely a substantial markup, but in the mind of most consumers, the focus of the meal – the sandwich itself, was a good bargain. Successful consumer electronics sellers often package their products in ways to successfully take advantage of the price increases that can they can charge due to the addition of accessories that create value in the eyes of their customers.