Buying and Selling High End Labels for Kids!

Do you love boutique labels for your little darlings as much as I do? That's probably why you're reading this! Hartstrings, Gymboree, Baby Lulu, Lipstik, Little Mass and Hanna Andersson (and a lot more), have several things in common. THE BIG ONE, they are so cute that you feel like all of the angels of heaven are smiling down on you whenever your child wears them! ALSO, they cost a lot of money (if your like me, A LOT is an understatement). No worries, you can have your boutique labels AND stay married AND not file bankruptcy, because on EBAY, clothes that COST a lot of money are also WORTH a lot of money! No Kidding! In this guide we will cover the basics of buying and selling high-end kid's labels on EBAY.

FIRST OF ALL: You should buy a few, before you sell them. Think feedback here. Also, you will get a feel of what it's like to be part of a successful EBAY auction from your customers perspective. Believe me, I have sat at my computer desk so nervous that I felt a little sick waiting for that perfect outfit to successfully close! I have felt so happy to win and I have felt so upset to lose that my husband would beg me to shut up from downstairs! LOL! Buying on EBAY is my favorite place to buy...I choose how much I want to pay AND it comes right to my door in a couple of days AND I truly am just a little competitive anyways!

To start buying...type in your search words and scroll down until the PERFECT outfit jumps out at you! (This is where you will learn the value of a GALLERY PHOTO...I told you that the "buyers" perspective would be of benefit!) Now you see it and the current bid is $6.90 with three days left. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BID $7.90! First, using the same search words, go to COMPLETED listings by scrolling down the left side of your screen and "check" the completed listings box. Chances are that you will find the same or similar item has sold in the last two weeks. How much did it sell for? The one you love will almost invariably sell for 15% above or below that price!

OK, now you can bid $7.90 if you want to but, remember what I told you! Seriously, put in your top bid and expect that it should close at somewhere NEAR the "completed" listings prices. You can also learn the art of "sniping" but determining a maximum bid is even more crucial there than ever or your wasting your time! If you love an outfit that hasn't sold on EBAY in the past two weeks, then you have to bid the maximum amount that you would be willing to pay under any circumstances and be willing to lose if someone else will pay more. See, American Capitalism still applies here too and it's all fair!

So, you put in a maximum bid of $42.88 and you win. ALWAYS PAY PROMPTLY, LEAVE FEEDBACK and ENJOY YOUR NEW ITEM. If you bought it "previously loved" and want to resell it when you child is done wearing it, you have a real possibility of collecting 100% of your initial investment but only if you keep it in it's current condition! NWT will take it's resale value down some, in general, but we all want brand new sometimes!

Now we can talk about selling...

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS! People that are prepared to spend a lot of money would like pictures that are equivalent to four to six thousand words! So take pictures of everything relevant that made you pay $42.88 for a "previously loved" outfit for a kindergartener! All of us "princess mommies" think alike and what you loved is probably what we will love too!

DONT FORGET WORDS, you need a thorough description of your item. NEVER, NEVER, EVER, lie outright, or by omission, to one of your EBAY princess mommies! We have to stick together because the rest of the world thinks we're NUTS!

The importance of knowing your lines can not be stressed enough. Ebay is a keyword community and if you do not know your line name, your auction may not be found by your most adoring fans. I have found this to be most critical with Gymboree, but others too. I will recommend two websites that will assist you with identifying previous Gymboree and Hanna Andersson lines. Please add the prefix www, and the suffix .com to the bold titles as I can't include links to other web pages in my eBay guide. The first is already very popular with die-hard Gymbo fans at gymbohaven. The second is a little less widely known, but helpful nonetheless with Hanna lines, at hannafannas. Check these out when you are not sure about the name of your line. I will update these as new ones come to mind or when my lovely eBay friends inform me along the way.

COPY SOMEONE SUCCESSFUL, I do not mean COPY literally but, in "completed" listings you see two outfits like yours that have closed in the past two weeks and both of them got an acceptable price to you. How many pictures did they take and of what? How wordy is their listing? What category did they list the item in? What was their starting bid, and how much was their shipping? Now you want to follow your fellow EBAY friend's lead! Also, take me seriously when I tell you not to LITERALLY COPY someone else... no one likes that and the Golden Rule is applicable here. Just use their example because, they already were as successful as you wish to be. That's flattery rather than fraud...which is a good thing indeed!

KEEP YOUR LISTING FEES LOW! There are times to be frugal and this is it. A Gallery photo is important! I am a TOP DOLLAR bidder in every way (just ask my sellers...and my husband!), and I frequently slide over listings without a Gallery photo unless my keywords were SO SPECIFIC that I know exactly what I am looking at (ie: Little Mass Van Gogh 6X). So pay .35 for a Gallery photo and you will have my attention! You can skip the "listing designer" and be fine, unless you are a perfectionist, which, I suspect that you are! Absolutely, do not make your cuts on pics, not a good idea. You can probably live without a SUBTITLE unless you can not fit your description in 55 spaces! Also, note that the words in your SUBTITLE, DO NOT come up in the EBAY search! Pay for it only if you need it! I personally encourage low starting bids on high traffic EBAY listings, it will save you money and time because: people will only pay what they will pay anyway and a HIDDEN RESERVE will not change that!

A NOTE ON PICS: Ladies, occasionally we must say candid things as gingerly as possible to our fellow princess mommies and this is one of those moments so brace yourself..."deliberately refrain from putting pics of your darling wearing something you are selling on EBAY"! Hold on now...of course, we think she's beautiful, she's yours. BUT, we would like to picture this outfit being ours and being on our child! Unless your child is a professional model (who specializes in this art), pics of her wearing it might make that a tad bit difficult, especially considering that this outfit is currently owned by her! The floor is perfectly OK, with a neutral background preferably, and investing in a mannequin is a very real possiblity if you plan on doing this a lot!

After your first auction comes to a successful close...COLLECT PAYMENT, SHIP YOUR ITEM WITHIN TWO BUSINESS DAYS FOR SURE, AND ALWAYS LEAVE FEEDBACK! We have to stick together (unless we are bidding against eachother, then all bets are off)!  So take all that you learned as a BUYER and give your best back to each one of your buyers as a SELLER! I haven't even met any of the fellow mommies that I have bought from or sold to, but my EBAY relationships are important to me and you should feel that way before you become an EBAY seller yourself.

If you found this guide helpful (or just plain entertaining), please click accordingly below and, as always, I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK IN SAVING MONEY ON YOUR FUN, EXCITING, COMPETITIVE, ENAGING AND SOMEHOW... MISUNDERSTOOD HOBBY! You do know that your darlings are SOOOO well dressed though, don't you?