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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Make a Profit by Looking for Unique Items to Resell on eBay

It's a fact: inexpensive items sell on eBay. They also drive traffic to your eBay listings and eBay Store.

Sure, you may make a larger profit margin on expensive electronics, or hard to find antiques. But don't discount the appeal of magnets and buttons.

eBay shoppers want things they don't see in their local stores, so offering unique designs created by on-line artists is a sure route to success.

Think of the possibilities: Items for party favors, wedding favors, Save the Date magnets for the Bride to Be, buttons for upcoming elections, baby showers and bridal showers, bachelor and bachelorette parties, fun items for holidays - less expensive and just as fun that t-shirts. Plus - one size fits all!

There are many Print on Demand sites on the internet. Artists create items and publish them for sale. Now, in most cases, there really isn't any room for you to buy it and increase the price for resale. However, when you buy inbulk, you can save a substantial amount of money. And with the help of Print on Demand sites, you don't have to buy hundreds or thousands of items to get a discount.

For example: You can buy 100 of these Black Lab magnets for $0.92 each. I sell them for $1.44 individually in this particular shop, but magnets easily sell for as much as $3.99 on eBay. If you sell them for $3.50 on eBay (not an unreasonable price), that's $2.58 of profit, more than a 300% mark up.

But that's just one example. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of designs out there for you to choose from.

The really great part of buying magnets and buttons on Zazzle is, you can get a bulk discount no matter how many different designs you choose, or which gallery you choose them from. Think of that - unlike Cafe Press where you have to buy 100 of the exact same magnet in order to get the bulk discount, you can mix and match any magnets within the whole entire Zazzle site to make up your 100. In fact, you don't even have to buy an entire 100 in order to get bulk discounts. If you buy 10 - 49 magnets or buttons, you get 17% off. If you by 50 - 99 magnets or buttons, you get 29% off. If you buy 100+ magnets or buttons, you get 36% off.

Then you can resell them on eBay. And don't limit yourself to offering them as individual items. Remember, you've got a bulk lot of them. Offer them as single, in a group of 5 and a group of 10. Market them for party favors, wedding favors or any and all situations that the specific design will fit.


Remember, buttons can be fun way to celebrate something - even if it's just your individuality. And magnets are not just for keeping things stuck to the fridge.

Get customers interested and excited by marketing buttons and magnets to specific occasions and groups.

Such as:

Birthday Party Favors
Bachelor and Bachelorette Parties
Wedding Parties/Attendants
New Baby/New Parents
Art Enthusiasts
Animal Lovers
Holidays - market as an inexpensive alternative to celebrating a holiday or occasion with a t-shirt or cap.

And don't underestimate your ability to sell for resale yourself. Owners of brick and mortar shops may love to have some fun and unique items in their shops too.

Be creative - be successful.

You can find lots of fabulous magnets HERE

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Breast Cancer Walks

It's that time of year when a lot of people participate in walks to raise money for Breast Cancer treatments and research.


I'd like to invite people to reply to this post and include any links they may have to contribute donations to their particular group, or memorial fund.


You can find pins, stickers, shirts and caps that you can easily customize to include your group name, or the name of the person you are walking for at KRW Breast Cancer Awareness Items


Sunday, April 13, 2008

Gov Bill will Hurt Artists and Protect Theives

Hi everyone -
I am aksing people to please take a moment to sign the petition for Orphaned Works Bill. If this bill should pass, it would make it virtually impossible for an artist to prove that someone knowingly stole their artwork, even if they have gone to the effort and cost of registereing their art with the US Copyight Office.

If this bill passes, all a theif will have to do is claim "good faith", which is the claim that they made an effort to find the original artist and obtain permission. I already know several artists who have had to fight for years in court to prove that their signature and/or contact info was removed from a piece of their work and used by others for profit. In fact, here is a link to an artists site where her piece was stolen and used for ads for Camel cigarettes! If this law passes, cases like this will never see a courtroom because a lawyer would not bother to take a case where the defendant has all the cards.
http://www.michiko.com/illustratorspartnership/bluegirl/ (click download letter to read the description of what happened with this case)

For me, what this means is, that anyone can copy my artwork and use it any way they please and I will be powerless to do anything about it because all they have to do is claim they got it from some place that said it could be used or that there was no signature or other artist info and they couldn't find out who the creator was. This will apply to all works, art, written word and even your family photos!


To read more about this bill got to: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&article_no=3605&page=3

TO SIGN THE PETITION GO TO: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-to-orphan-works-act.html

To contact your State Reps and Senators, go to: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtmlPlease feel free to pass this on.
Thanks
Kerry