With the imminent release of Apple’s iPhone 5, there is a bound to be a flood of people getting rid of their iPhone 4’s and 3GS’s. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that some retailers reduced the price of an unlocked 8GB 3GS from NZ$919 to $599 in what I suspect is a move to get rid of stock and make space for the iPhone 5.

That said, reCommerce giant Gazelle seems to have readied themselves for this flood and have released an iOS app (Gazelle – Gadget Trader) to make selling iPhones that much easier. To sell an iPhone from an iPhone, all that someone has to do is answer 3 questions about the smartphones physical condition. If you are happy with the how much they offer you for the device and the sale has been confirmed, a shipping label is emailed out to you. Once you have shipped off the device, it takes about 5-7 days to receive payment. That easy!

The only thing I would say sucks about this is that Gazelle’s services are only available in the United States. Maybe someone in the Australia/New Zealand region should take the initiative and start up a similar service?

Take a look at the video below to see the app in action and for other details I didn’t include in the post.

A very common sight when driving through the suburbs of Auckland are signs stapled to lamp post advertising garage sales that will be taking place over in the area. On the odd occasion I will drive past a garage sale in progress and a lot of the time, it doesn’t look like it would be worth my while to stop and see what they have on offer. People hold garage sales for various reasons, which could include de-cluttering and selling off items or selling because of a need for quick cash. Whatever the reasons may be for holding the sale, it is always nice to do it in such a way that you get the most revenue from your efforts.

Here are a few quick pointers that may come in handy if you are planning a garage sale in the near future:

1. Plan: just like anything else in life, it is good to plan for the sale. Set a date for when you are going to have the sale, what you are going to sell and make sure you have enough stuff to offer to actually warrant having the sale.
2. Price: set a price for EVERYTHING you plan to sell and don’t price it too low, keeping in mind that you want to make the sale worthwhile to you. Set reasonable prices and allow for negotiation and with that said, have a minimum price at which you are willing to let go of items for.
3. Advertise: it goes without saying that you need to let people know about the sale. It is probably best to start advertising a week or so before the sale. Put clear signs up around your neighbourhood and drive by them to make sure they are readable. If you have a few dollars to spare, a good place to advertise would be your local newspaper.
4. Presentation: lay out your items in the area where you are having the sale in such a way that your “big ticket” items are what your customers will see first. Also make sure that there is enough space for people to comfortably walk through and take a look at what you have on offer.
5. Payment: Make sure you have plenty of change on hand from different denomination coins to bills. You want to make the payment process nice and easy. It can be frustrating for a customer when they experience a problem of trying to pay for something because you don’t have change. If your customers don’t have cash, you could offer other payment solutions such as Pago (New Zealand), PayPal Mobile (Worldwide) or Square (U.S.) as options.

2 Extras Tips:

• Keep cash on your person: can you imagine it drawing to the end of a successful sale and someone comes along and walks away with your cash box?
• Consider a group sale: if you are friends with your neighbours, consider having a group sale and make it even more worthwhile for everyone.

Do you have any other tips to make a garage sale successful?

“Garage Sale” Photo by enfocar1200

eBay recently posted higher than expected third quarter profits which is a good thing for them but also a good thing for sellers. I saw it as a sign that more stuff is being sold on eBay and figures show that this was the case. Being a seller myself I experienced a slump in sales when the little global crisis hit and almost gave it up altogether. Over time eBay has been trying to lure sellers back by lowering or getting rid of listings fees now and then. Them taking that stance helped in getting me back onto the marketplace.

Because of the recession, some people have found it harder to get back into selling because of not having capital to get inventory and so on. One solution provider that caters specifically to eBay marketplace sellers is Kabbage. They provide funding to kick-start and help your business grow. They have a quick and simple application process where on approval, funds are deposited into your PayPal account (you can Sign Up Here if you don’t have an account).

The process of getting a loan through them is pretty simple with you only having to go through the following steps:

• provide them with your ebay seller ID to see if you qualify
• complete an application form
• accept the terms and conditions (if they are to your liking)

The money is deposited into your account soon after and you can get going with growing your business. As with any other financial institution you get an advance from, Kabbage charges fees with theirs being a flat rate per $100 (rates information can be found in the borrower agreement). Repayments are made by auto pay from either your PayPal or checking account or you could chose to pay directly on their website or via cheque.

For some of you out there, this may work out as your best option when looking for funding to get your business back on track. At the moment they are only available in the United States but they will expand to other countries in the future.

I have a bit of time on my hands at the moment and I’m making use of some of it by gathering all the stuff that we never use or need and listing them on Trade Me and . Besides de-cluttering and making a bit more space, I will end up with a few extras dollars in my pocket. This whole process got me thinking about people who sell items on and offline for a living and where they source their items.

Some have regular suppliers that they turn to, others may make items themselves, some use drop ship services such as Doba and others may buy items from auctions to resell via whatever methods they use. The source that I am going to talk about a bit more is government auctions.

On a recent trip to Zimbabwe I had the opportunity of attending a government auction. Up for grabs was a whole range of goods that included cars, clothing, electronics, alcohol, books, tire shipments and the list goes on and on. These types of auctions aren’t ones that are advertised too much and those who know about them like it that way. The fewer the people attending, the better their chances of walking away with BARGAINS!

What surprised me the most was the price at which the items were being auction off for. It was to say the least ridiculous! Without going into details, an example I can give is of a person that a bought part shipment of products for about US$1500 knowing that they could be sold for US$9000 at a minimum. For those attending the auction with the intention to resell, their potential profit ranges were a little below that but still very good. If that is not a good profit then I don’t know what is.

Government Auctions take place all over the world and more often than not, they just want to get rid of whatever it is they have. Because of that, you will walk away with a bargain. I can’t tell you where they take place in your part of the world. I don’t even know where and if they take place in New Zealand (but I am very keen to find out). If you are a bargain hunter or reseller and haven’t discovered the world of government auctions, attend one and see for yourself if its worth it of not. They are not that elusive if you really want to find one.

Some of you may be good with your hands or are bond to know people who are good at making all sorts of weird and wonderful arts and crafts. Some of you may want to sell your items but hit a snag when it comes to where to sell. Etsy is an online handmade goods marketplace that connects makers and buyers and way of turning a hobby into revenue earner.

Etsy lets you sell handmade items that you have made yourself, vintage items (by that they mean 20 years or older) and crafting supplies. The process of selling items works just like any other good online marketplace where you list your items, wait for people to buy them, get paid and then ship the items off to the buyers.

They charge a 20c listing fee per item but that allows you to list your item for four months which should give plenty of time to attract a number of potential buyers. Sellers have the option of being paid for their items via Paypal, cheque, money order or any other method not listed on the site that they would prefer. Once a sale has been completed, Etsy charges a fee of 3.5% of the sale price.

All in all, it looks like a good place where people can sell their handmade things to a global community. There is no harm in giving them a try and if that fails, you could always try the likes of (if you haven’t already done so) and other marketplaces I will write about in future posts.

Being a university student all over again, I felt the need to look around for something that could work for college/university students. That being said, I happened to come across a couple of services where students can sell their lecture notes and study guides.

Notehall.com and ShareNotes.com are two such services that operate in pretty much the same way. They provide a platform where students can get their hands on course material for a nominal fee. To be able to provide this service, they need to get their hands on relevant material that they get from students and pay them for it.

Notehall.com pays out $1 per study guide and $0.25 per lecture note downloaded. They also have a referral programme where you can earn money by referring friends to them. Students earning money with them are paid out via cheque or PayPal.

ShareNotes.com charges a 10% commission on every sale which means you get to keep 90%. To add to what they pay for notes, they give members rewards points for completing certain tasks such as downloading notes, posting notes and referring friends. Rewards points can be redeemed for items such as iPods and gift vouchers.

If you are a good student that takes good notes then you really don’t have anything to lose. If you have sellable material you don’t have to do much work apart from signing up and uploading your material.

Not every single college will be listed in their databases and one service may work better than the other for person to person. As time goes by they will add more and more schools but at the moment a number of people will be able to enjoy their services. The only thing that sucks for someone like me is that they are limited to the US. Maybe one day they will make their way to this part of the world?

Why haven’t I posted anything in three or so months? Well, I took a nice and longer than expected break which I spent at home in Zimbabwe with my family. The vacation also meant giving blogging a break so that I could really put in some good R & R. Even if I did want to do a bit of stuff online, that would have been a little frustrating due to connection speeds over there.

Anyway, when I was over there, I came across a guy who was heavily into computers. One thing that he was getting more and more interested in and wanted to get into was blogging. The one thing that he was not too happy about was the lack of ‘African’ themes. He went on about how if he was going to blog he wanted his site to have an African look and feel to it. I did a quick search online myself and saw that there really weren’t that many African themed themes out there (I could only find one).

Something else about this guy that got me wondering was that he had the know how on how to create themes. I quizzed him on why he didn’t just go ahead and create themes for platforms like WordPress and Blogger. He really didn’t have an answer as to why he had not thought about it and done so already. That right there is a good example of someone not using their knowledge and skills to their full potential.

Internet penetration rates are on the rise in Africa and my guess is it will lead to an increase in the number of bloggers on the continent. Chances are, there will be a number who want to be identified as being African or having a connection to Africa and would want a theme that shows just that. With that in mind I gave him the idea of coming up with some templates which he can distribute for free and eventually get to the point where he has premium themes for sale. Who knows, he could end up like the likes of WooThemes, only difference being he would be exclusively creating African themed themes.

That there was just something that came to mind during the short conversation I had with this guy and something that could turn into a potential money maker. By the sounds of it, this is something that should be a no-brainer since he already has the technical skills. Of course, it is something that won’t happen overnight and he will have to come up with a plan and put a bit of work into it but it is something that is not impossible. I don’t know what you guys think about it but I see it as a good idea especially seeing as he is using skills he already has.

What you should do right now is take a bit of time out and think about what skills you have and how you can use them to create a revenue stream.

In response to the post comparing TradeUps, Gazelle and BuyMyTronics, @tradeups sent through the following:

follow up… Next matrix do a comparison of how much the major tradein programs give you for your electronics. We will win.

I decided to do just that but in order to get started I needed a list of electronics that people were looking to get rid of so I asked around to see what electronics if any people would consider selling. The prices quoted are for items in a good working condition and including everything that came with it such as charger, USB cables etc. This is what I came up with:

Sony Cybershot DSC-P8	$0	$10	-
Nokia 9300	$31.45	$4	$26.64
Apple iPhone 8GB	$119.85	$128	$106.22
xbox 360 console 20GB	$41.65	$65	$52.92
Apple iPod classic 4th generation 40GB	$21.25	$16	$18.08
Toshiba Satellite A105-S4004	$127.50	$208	-
Palm Treo 680	$36.55	$28	$22.20
Sony Playstation One	$8.50	$0	$0
Blackberry 8700G	$18.70	$12	$1.11
Microsoft Zune 8GB	$26.34	$42	$31.64
Total	$431.79	$513	$258.81

(- = item not listed in catalog)

($0 = no value but they will recycle it for you)

So there you have it, as you can see from the matrix, it was a tie between TradeUps and Gazelle. Out of the 10 electronic devices listed TradeUps offered a higher price for 5 of the items and Gazelle offered a higher price for the rest. BuyMyTronics did not offer the best price for any of the items. When it came to the best overall price for all 10 gadgets, Gazelle came out on top and offered $81.21 more than what TradeUps offered.

In conclusion it looks like it would pay to do a bit of research to see where you will get the best price before you decide on who you are going to sell your electronics to. By the way, as I was putting together this matrix I came across another similar program you might want to take a look at – YouRenew.

One thing that I found as a bit of an expense when I was a student was textbooks. There were some that I could get away with not having to buy but there were others that I needed to have. The time would eventually come when I no longer needed some of the books which also brought about the question of what to do with them. Some I sold back to the university bookstore or other students for much less than I paid for them. Those that I couldn’t sell sat and gathered dust and it seemed like a waste of money paying so much for books that in the end had very little resale value.

This leads me on to a service I came across that rids you of the problem of what to do with textbooks after you no longer need them. I just discovered Chegg, a company that rents textbooks to college students and help save them money. According to their site, users save 65-85% on textbooks.

How it Works

Rent

Users can search for the book(s) they are looking to rent by entering the ISBN, title or author name. Once you have found and clicked on the book that you are looking for, you are presented with book details as well as the list price and rental price per semester (125 days)/per quarter (85 days)/per summer (60 days). This is were users also get to see just how much they will save from the rental.

Below is an example rental price for a book that I may need when I go back to do a second degree:

Buy

Chegg also gives users the opportunity to purchase books they have rented out or they can simply buy a book outright instead. In the screen where information on the book you want to rent out is displayed, there is a ‘Prefer to Buy?’ option where you can buy the book new or used at a price slightly cheaper than the list price. For this option, they have a cash back guarantee and list just how much you will get back should you choose to return the book you purchased. The money is given back as cash or Chegg Credit which can be used for future rentals and purchases with the credit option being the better one for more money in your pocket.

Sell

To add to all of that, people can also sell books to Chegg. To see how much you could get for your book(s) all you need to do is enter the ISBN to see how much you will get. If you are okay with the price you are quoted you simply ship your book(s) off to them for free and get paid once they have been inspected.

All in all, this is a service that I wish was available to me when I was at university. It would have saved me a good amount of money. One other thing that I almost forgot to mention is that Chegg is a green company that plants a tree for every book rented, bought or sold through them. Thats a lot of trees and something that is good for the environment.

Note: This service is only available to the forty-eight contiguous United States

These days, everyone is talking about going ‘Green’ and earlier today when clearing up a few things I came across a box with a few electronics we no longer use. This presented me with the problem of what to do with them but then I remembered about a post I wrote a little while back about selling old electronics. I felt it right to revisit the topic since one thing that all of us have and use in our everyday lives are electronics which are being upgraded ever so often. Most people will either sell, throw away or box (and forget about) their electronics. If you are thinking about getting rid of your old electronics and selling them would not be worth the trouble it pays to see what you can get for them from services that pay you for your old electronics. If it doesn’t have a cash value you can send it off to them and they can deal with having to recycle it for you.

If you have a few electronics you are looking to get rid of I thought I would make life easy for you and put together a table comparing three of the bigger services (Gazelle, TradeUps & BuyMyTronics) that will pay you for them:

There you have it, you can be ‘Green’ and make a little money at it as well. I hope this helps you make a more informed choice when it comes to what to do with your old electronics.

One thing that a number of people who are making money online tend to neglect or maybe ignore is the issue of paying taxes on their online earnings. One of the reasons for that is that they do not see the amounts they are making online warranted enough to pay tax. Truth of the matter is, there is a high chance you need to pay tax on your online earnings if you are earning a substantial amount of money.

When it comes to earning money via various publisher networks and affiliate programs (a lot of which are based in the US), people are asked to enter their tax information when they sign up. If the new sign ups are not based in the US they generally do not need to provide any information. I got into discussions on forums a while ago and from there on in, the general consensus is that a lot of people start earning, get paid out and forget about paying taxes.

A number of people are also turning to auction sites such as eBay and Amazon to sell goods for a few extra dollars and experience more success than they expected. With that being the case, it is not long before these people find themselves investing more time into selling more and more stuff online and making more and more money and more often than not they are going to receive payment via a service such as PayPal. Last year in the US, legislation was passed that requires the processors of third-party payments (such as PayPal) to report to the IRS individuals who receive at least $20,000 a year in credit or debit card charges from 200 or more transactions. When this legislation is put into place it will make it that much more difficult to evade the taxman.

As already mentioned, the tax laws are different from country to country. For example, if you are selling goods here in New Zealand on a site such a TradeMe, you should declare your online earnings if; you acquired the goods you are selling with the purpose of on-selling, the purpose of the activity is to make a profit or your business involves dealing in these goods. The tax department (IRD) is also said to work closely with TradeMe to make sure people meet their tax obligation.

What I am getting at is, if you are setting out to make a bit of money online it may be a good idea to check what tax laws apply to you. Leading on from that, it may also be a good idea to keep track of your earnings and this can easily be done with finance software such as Quicken, Microsoft Money and QuickBooks. You never know just how far you will get with making money online and if you get to the point where you really need to report your earnings you should be well on the way to being set to avoid the hassle of being chased around by the taxman.

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A few months ago I wrote a post about selling your old electronics online and of the services mentioned was Second Rotation. As of the 28^th of July, Second Rotation changed their name and services to Gazelle. The re-branded site features new upgrades which make using their service easier and more enjoyable.

As a start they have enhanced their search tool which includes an improved calculator that displays the value of items over time. I put in the details of my cell phone (Samsung z400) and the price it came to ($42) was pretty good considering that I got it for next to nothing.

They have more product categories to choose from which increases the likelihood of you finding the item you want to sell. If the item you are trying to sell is not in their catalogue they will research it for you and make a personal offer within 3 to 5 days.

Another great feature with their upgrade is the introduction of a referral system where you earn $10 when a referred friend sells at least $50 worth of items to Gazelle. Their referral system lets you send out email invitations or put links on social networks and blogs so even if you don’t have anything to sell you can still make some money.

As far as shipping items goes, it is free within the United States via their partnership with UPS and USPS. They accept and pay for electronics from outside the U.S. but in this instance they do not offer free shipping. Payments for items sold and referrals are paid out via cheque, PayPal or the money can be sent to a non-profit organization of your choice.

Gazelle is doing their bit in being kind to the environment by buying used electronics and recycling electronics that no longer have a market value. They are a green certified site which is of importance for the many people around the world who are trying to keep it clean and green. Instead of just throwing away your electronics or hiding them in a box for years and years until you eventually throw them away send them off to Gazelle and not only do your bit at trying to keep the world clean and green but get paid for it.

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