taking moneyMany people turn to eBay to make money, but it can be frustrating when you list several items, only to have none of them sell a week later. You already know the basics of selling on eBay, but how do you make the most money possible?

This four-part series will take you past the basics of eBay selling into the more not so known secrets to making a living off of eBay sales. Here is the line up for the series:

  • Picking What to Sell (This Article)
  • Where to Get Inventory
  • How to Drive More Business to Your Listings
  • How to Inexpensively and Effectively Handle Shipping

Let’s start with the first part of the series – picking what to sell. Most people might start off on eBay just selling old junk they have lying around. That is a great start, but if you want to take your eBay earnings to the next level, you should consider picking a niche or two of things to sell.
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regifting
You’re left with fond memories and probably a few gifts you don’t really want now that that the holidays have past. What do you do with them? Tossing the items out is a waste but they might not be items you can donate. Instead, re-gifting them probably crossed your mind.Is that taboo though? Not at all, if you do it right.

Contrary to popular belief, re-gifting isn’t a ‘faux pas’. In fact, 83% of respondents in a recent survey said they wouldn’t mind receiving a re-gifted gift, so don’t feel guilty about it if you are planning on re-gifting. Still, there is proper etiquette to follow. Here are 5 rules you need to stick by whenever you’re re-gifting:
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clothes hangers
Buying used clothing for your children is a great way to dramatically reduce your clothing costs, but not everyone has the desire or time to shop thrift stores or garage sales. The good news is that you can still benefit from the affordability of used clothing with online shopping. Here are three websites I love that sells used clothing, and my tips to get them even cheaper.

eBay Lots

Shopping on eBay is not a secret, but sometimes it can be hard to navigate the thousands of listings posted each day. If you have a specific item you want, create a “watch list” for it. This will notify you of new postings, so that you don’t miss a rare good deal. For example, I love Sketchers Twinkle Toes shoes for my daughter, and because I have put the item and her shoe size on my watch list, I have been able to snag a great buy-it-now deal, that I probably would have missed just through searching for it.

Another way to save time and money while shopping for used kids clothes on eBay is to search lots. Buying brand name clothing in big lots will cost you more upfront, but it reduces the cost per clothing to $1-3 per piece. I also like to look for sellers with multiple things I like so that I can get a shipping discount.
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sit and relax
Make money without doing much sounds too good to be true. In most cases, it is. However, making passive income without much effort is possible if you know how to approach the problem. If you’re in need of some extra cash but don’t have the time to pick up part-time gigs, testing out passive income streams can make a huge difference.

Before we take a look at various ways to make money while you sleep, keep in mind that most passive income streams are never really passive. You might not spend a lot of time working on it, but the ones I’m about to tell you still does take a little bit of effort to set up. If done successfully though, you can hopefully set it, forget it, and watch the money roll in. Let’s take a look at six ways you can start earning passive income today:
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engagement ring
According to many wedding planning services, December is the most popular month to get engaged, and Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve the most popular days. If you’re late to the game and still shopping for the ring, there’s still time to find the perfect diamond to represent the enduring quality of your love without spending ‘three months’ pay’. Here’s how.

Pay attention to the 4 C’s

When it comes to an engagement ring, skimping on quality can reflect poorly on how much you value the relationship. At the same time, the 4 C’s of diamonds — carat, cut, clarity, and color — affect both appearance and price very differently, so there are ways to save without compromising quality. If you’ve never been ring shopping before, all these measurements can be a bit confusing, so here’s what’s most important, and where you can save.
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emv credit card
An error message popped up when I swiped my shiny new debit card through the card reader. The small screen stated I was required to use the chip reader because a chip card had been detected. The card I had recently received in the mail did indeed have a small computer chip embedded in the card, and looking closer at the card reader I saw a previously undetected slot on it’s underside to slide the card into.

With very little fanfare or attention, a significant change occurred recently that affects your debit and credit card transactions, and it has everything to do with the small chip on your card and that extra slot on the card reader.

Why Is There A Chip In My Debit/Credit Card?

EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, has been widely used in other places in the world for years. The United States has just been slow to adopt it. The computer chip contains information about your account and the card issuer, and a unique transaction number is generated every time you use the EMV card in a chip reader that is never used again. This is fundamentally different than the traditional magnetic strip technology, as everything on the card is fixed and cannot be altered. For this reason the EMV cards are harder to counterfeit and therefore less susceptible to fraud.
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