Overall Strategy
The overall strategy that I employ to earn money is to sell things for a high amount of credits and to buy items for a low amount of credits that would sell for a high amount on Ebay. There are things to think of when doing this. Few things to think of:
Now, I'll outline a variety of strategies possible that could work. They require a different amount of waiting or investment but would get you a different amount of cash.
Buying Cheaper Items:
You would get your item and be able to sell that on Ebay fast! This is the benefit. You would quickly get whatever your profit is within a week or two. The downside is that your profit is very low. I would estimate around $5-$10 of profit per auction. This is extremely limited due to the fact that you have to pay shipping per item on Ebay. So every time, you have to spend a few extra bucks to ship it, while if you bought fewer items, those shipping costs will turn into profit.
Buying Giftcards:
This is not personally my favorite strategy but I've been told that it does work. The strategy is to sell things like Microsoft Points or My Coke Reward points and buying giftcards like Amazon, Walmart, etc. The problem that I see is that I personally sell giftcards and is a very profitable item to sell, so I'm not going to make money buying back giftcards that I sell already. Depending on what you sell and what you want out of Listia, this is an okay strategy.
Hoarding Credits:
This is the most profitable strategy out of the list, but it takes time, a lot of time. The strategy is to save as many credits as possible and spending it on something that is worth a lot. As I explained previously, the amount of profit increases as you spend more, so this will make you along the lines of $50+, depending on how many credits you want to save. A prime example of this is to buy laptops on Listia. Legitimate laptop listings are rare but they can go for around 50,000-100,000+ but they sell for $200+. Depending on the laptop, that can mean over $100 in profit.
It is possible to mix and match strategies to suit your own needs and wants. If you need just $5 more to get an item from Amazon, but was going with the saving strategy, go for it. And if you want to save up for buying an expensive item you want but was going with the buying cheap items strategy, do it. These are just guidelines on how to approach the site in ways that will make you money.
- Very few people has more than 150,000 credits. If you can get to that amount, you can buy almost anything. This amount should be your end goal. Once you reach this, you can pick the most profitable item to invest in.
- The profit margins increase as you get more credits. The profits you would make from a 1000 credit item is less than a 10,000 credit item and items get more and more profitable as you save.
- You can price your items more greedily. There's no need to be conservative with your price. If you want your auction to go for 5000 credits, set that as your start bid as long as it's free. Due to Listia's proxy bidding system, this is much more viable. Remember though that you would get lots of complaints and request the higher the start bid is.
- Advertise your site on your auction. A small text ad on your description promoting your referral link or something is very profitable. I've earned over 2000 Microsoft Points just from people signing up as my referral. All I did was put just a small description with a link on the bottom of my auction description.
- Not all members with zero feedback means that the auction is a scam. These are gold mines for me since there are less competition because the people with the most credits won't trust the person. That way, if I know the person selling the item is legitimate, I'll get the item at an exceptionally low price. I'll then sell that item for even a bigger profit.
Now, I'll outline a variety of strategies possible that could work. They require a different amount of waiting or investment but would get you a different amount of cash.
Buying Cheaper Items:
You would get your item and be able to sell that on Ebay fast! This is the benefit. You would quickly get whatever your profit is within a week or two. The downside is that your profit is very low. I would estimate around $5-$10 of profit per auction. This is extremely limited due to the fact that you have to pay shipping per item on Ebay. So every time, you have to spend a few extra bucks to ship it, while if you bought fewer items, those shipping costs will turn into profit.
Buying Giftcards:
This is not personally my favorite strategy but I've been told that it does work. The strategy is to sell things like Microsoft Points or My Coke Reward points and buying giftcards like Amazon, Walmart, etc. The problem that I see is that I personally sell giftcards and is a very profitable item to sell, so I'm not going to make money buying back giftcards that I sell already. Depending on what you sell and what you want out of Listia, this is an okay strategy.
Hoarding Credits:
This is the most profitable strategy out of the list, but it takes time, a lot of time. The strategy is to save as many credits as possible and spending it on something that is worth a lot. As I explained previously, the amount of profit increases as you spend more, so this will make you along the lines of $50+, depending on how many credits you want to save. A prime example of this is to buy laptops on Listia. Legitimate laptop listings are rare but they can go for around 50,000-100,000+ but they sell for $200+. Depending on the laptop, that can mean over $100 in profit.
It is possible to mix and match strategies to suit your own needs and wants. If you need just $5 more to get an item from Amazon, but was going with the saving strategy, go for it. And if you want to save up for buying an expensive item you want but was going with the buying cheap items strategy, do it. These are just guidelines on how to approach the site in ways that will make you money.