What a great idea!

Simply Us just put up a post on tag team auctions that is money. Great stuff!

This is a great strategy for finding items at offline auctions to resell on eBay: One person goes to the auction and remains in phone contact with the other, who is poised and ready to search completed auctions on eBay to get a feel for what the items would sell for. This accomplishes a few things:

• You'll make fewer mistakes. If your partner on the computer finds that the item of interest sells, you know what to bid on it to make a profit. If there's no activity, it may be better to pass it by or try to get it for really cheap.
• You'll be able to bid more confidently. If a particular small item goes for $100 on eBay regularly, then you won't have any problem bidding it up a bit when it's sold at the auction.
• You'll have a better chance of spotting gems that no one else does. Getting to the auction as early as possible makes this easier because they'll be time to check more items.

Some things to bear in mind (some are from the post and others I've added):

• Remember all of the fees that chip away at your profit. There may be a buyer's premium at the auction. There will be sales tax unless you have a tax-exempt number. There will be eBay listing fees. There will be eBay final value fees. There will be shipping fees that will lower the price that a buyer will be willing to pay.
• Keep track of what you buy and for how much. This number is needed for cost of inventory or basis calculations. The worst thing is that you don't have it and need to pay tax on the full sale price, not the difference of the sale price and what it cost you to get it.
• This doesn't guarantee that you will make money! A quick check on eBay might give you a warm fuzzy about what something will go for, but is the article that you're bidding on genuine? Is the item you're bidding on missing something important that severely reduces its value? Is the condition of the item bad in some important way? Nothing quick replaces detailed knowledge of what you're looking at.
• Remember that your time is worth something too. You're at the auction buying, and are therefore not making money some other way. What's your time worth? Are you paying yourself enough?

Happy bargain hunting!