How to Sell Magazine Ads on EBay for Fun and Profit

So you want to clip ads out of magazines to make some extra cash online? There’s good money to be made in the practice as long as one knows a few basic principles to selling ads on eBay. I have been selling magazine ads for over a year on eBay and I’d like to share some of my knowledge with you. Here is some general information to get you started, as well as some tricks of the trade to starting your online ad selling business.

First you need to have a supply of magazines. Whether you just raided your stockpile of old magazines in the basement or you hit pay dirt at a rummage sale, it’s important to have a source of ads to sell. A little tip on the magazines themselves: condition is important. Although you may not be selling the magazines as a whole, the condition of the magazine will probably be the condition of the magazine ads inside. So it’s important to clip ads from magazines in good to very good condition.

Thumb through a magazine and find some ads you think look catchy. I usually like to look the ad up on eBay’s completed listings to see if the ad has ever sold in the past. I usually just search “2011 Volkswagon ad” or something similar depending on the ad in question. It’s always a good idea to search subsequent years as well (2010 Volkswagon ad) because ads are sometimes used year to year. If you find your ad you can see whether it has sold and if so, for how much. This will give you a general idea what to charge for your ad when you list it. If you find you ad listed and it didn’t sell you might not want to waste your time trying to list it. If it didn’t sell for someone else it probably won’t sell for you either. This might be a good time to point out that most ads you list on eBay will not sell. In fact, if you sell one out of every ten ads you list you’ll be doing about average compared to other eBay ad sellers. That’s not to say you won’t ever sell over that amount but it’s important to be realistic about your ambitions.

Once you find an ad that sells you’ve learned two very important lessons. Number one, you’ve learned that your ad is worth listing. Number two, you’ve learned what ads, in general, sell. For example if the 2010 Volkswagon ad sells, chances are other Volkswagon ads might sell too. They at least have a slightly better chance of selling. Just out of curiosity you might want to look up “Volkswagon ad” on eBay’s completed listing page to see if your theory holds true. So now you know what to look for when thumbing through other magazines. If you find some more Volvo ads, look those up too. If you have a lot of similar items (in this case Volkswagon ads, or other car ads similar to that of a Volkswagon) you might want to consider listing them all at the same time in case a buyer wants to make multiple purchases from you and you can offer them a combined shipping discount. Always remember that once someone is a buyer, if they want to purchase more items from you, you can both save money by combining their purchases and offering a shipping discount.

I hope these tips help you in your online ad selling adventures.