Everyone interested in selling on eBay needs to pay attention to the fees that are going to take a hard bit out of your bottom line.  In today's episode of Scouting Hot Finds Radio we are taking a hard look at what it costs to sell on eBay and look at some strategies that might help you take advantage of the quirks of selling on eBay including whether or not you should have an eBay store. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

The collectibles category lives on eBay.  Amazon? Forget about it!  Try doing it yourself with your own website?  Good luck!  So when eBay updates their fees and policies twice a year buyers and especially sellers need to pay attention.  In this episode of Scouting Hot Finds Radio I am going to break down the changes eBay is rolling out to the marketplace on May 1, 2015.  For the most part it's a story of carrots and sticks.  Some of the changers are meant to entice sellers to behave in a way that eBay sees as healthy for the site.  Other changes are meant to rap you over the knuckles if you go against the tide especially if relaunching the same auctions a dozen times was your game. 

Today's episode is just shy of thirty minutes long and in it I will cover the A-Z of the update.  I will really focus on how this impacts buyers/sellers in the collectibles category where Scouting memorabilia has a home.  At the conclusion I will also share how I think this affects me as an eBay Powerseller with an Anchor level store subscription.  BTW, check out my store at http://www.patchblanket.com to see what I've got up for sale.

As always you can listen to Scouting Hot Finds Radio (now on episode 73!) on iTunes or Stitcher Radio.  Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

I met Mary Lou Schwarzer at the recent Easley, South Carolina Trade-O-Ree sponsored by Chris Jensen.  What makes his encounter interesting is that she drove down from the Blue Ridge Mountains Council in Virginia (http://www.bsa-brmc.org) to unload a lot of her council's old inventory including camp patches, OA and special issue CSPs.  In talking with here I also learned that she has an official BSA council account on eBay and regularly sells items on that marketplace as well.  Mary Lou graciously agreed to let me interview her to find out her impressions of the TOR and tips on how it works for a non-profit to sell on eBay. 

The interview runs about fifteen minutes and I think it really should give Boy Scout councils and other non-profits some ideas for how to leverage the millions of potential customers on eBay.  What if you could sell on eBay with no listing or final value fees and get reduced shipping costs?  Listen in while she also explains how sellers can use the service to donate money directly from their auction sales to the non-profit of their choice.  What if councils could reach out to local sellers and have them 10% of their gross eBay sales as a contribution? 

This is episode #72 of the podcast built for the Scouting memorabilia collecting community and I have big plans to keep going in 2015.  I hope to have more guests, more topics and with the largest National Order of the Arrow Conference ever taking place at Michigan State you can believe this is going to be a good year for the hobby. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

I decided to record this episode of the podcast when I got a message from a Facebook friend.  Krishna Palani asked, "Can you please offer me some resources and tips for trading patches at NOAC? I'm relatively new to trading and I'm going to NOAC this year." I started to fire off a message back when I realized that this was probably a topic that a lot of Arrowmen were curious about.  I'm estimating that only 1/5 youth at the 2015 NOAC will be veterans of the last conference in 2012.  So very few of them have had any experience going to a NOAC and might be curious for some tips just like Krishna.

I spent some time writing an outline and just hit record.  I talked for almost 45 minutes straight through without taking a break or hitting the edit button.  This might be the first time in years that I've just recorded my stream of thought and never edited a single word in post-production.  However, I'm extremely happy with the result.  I think the content in this show will be very valuable for any Arrowmen (youth or adult) that has never attended a National OA Conference.  What you get here is my unfiltered opinion and I'm sure I'm going to make a few people mad with me for that reason.

Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

The last several episodes of Scouting Hot Finds Radio have focused on unique strategies that people in the hobby of collecting Boy Scout memorabilia have used to feed their habit. Today's episode of the podcast takes the question to one of the young guns in the hobby Nick Wolf of the Connecticut Yankee Council and Owaneco Lodge 313. Nicknamed the "Patch King" by his own lodge brothers because at such a young age he seemed to be loaded with tons of cloth, Nick has developed a unique social media strategy to turnover his inventory.

I have been buying/selling for a long time and I got lots of great ideas from listening to Nick share his strategy. In many ways it runs counter to what the typical trader in this hobby would think. Nick would rather sell 100 $1 patches than 1 $100 patch.

Many people on Facebook and especially in the Scout Patch Collectors Facebook Group will know Nick from his Cyber Monday Deal sheet. He just wrapped up his 3rd annual sale and was able to surpass what he sold from the first and second combined. However, his strategy doesn't center around a 1/year offer. He has a talent for sourcing patches as well. Somehow while vacationing in Hawaii with his family he returned to CT with thousands of patches from a Scout shop in CA.

If you listen to the show and have some feedback please post it below. You can find nick on Facebook and I've included a copy of his most recent Cyber Monday Deal sheet here. He also has a website and you can find him on eBay. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

Richard Mori has been collecting Scouting memorabilia and specializing in rare books for many years.  In this interview he reveals a strategy for success that he feels confident nobody can duplicate.  What is really interesting about the way that Richard makes money in the hobby of collecting Boy Scout and Girl Scout memorabilia is that he does it the old school way.  You won't hear the words Internet or eBay mentioned in this interiew.  However, that's not to say that there aren't some nuggets that any collector can take away and relate to.

This episode represents the third in a series I am doing on ways that people have taken their passion for a hobby and figured out how to make it pay for itself by earning a little money.  In Episode #67 we focused on how to sell on consignment and in #68 we talked about having an antique mall booth.  I hope that you will enjoy this episode of the show just as much. 

Richard Mori lives in New Hampshire but can be found traveling around the country to shows throughout the year.  He has established a wide network of contacts both in the Scout collecting community and among book dealers. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

When the Boy Scouts of America announced they would be building a permanent Jamboree site in the hills of West Virginia Todd Kelly started making some trips to the "Mountain State" to scope out locations for a Trade-O-Ree. One of the results of that venture was deciding to rent out a booth in two different antique malls in nearby Beckley, West Virginia.  Along with his partner at the time Todd got into the business of selling Scouting collectibles at an antique mall.  It's been almost four years since he dipped his toes into this strategy and Todd is now doubling down on this idea.

Tonight on Scouting Hot Finds Radio I have the second show in a series on interesting ways that people in the hobby of Boy Scout memorabilia collecting can turn over some of their inventory and make money.  Sure we all know about selling on eBay but in this series I am uncovering some of the lesser known strategies that people are using.  We've already covered selling on consignment in Episode #67 of the podcast. 

As Todd and I both have antique mall booths we cover a lot of ground in this interview.  You can hear everything from what the basic financial arrangement is with the owner of the store to tips on what questions to ask and what to avoid.  You'll hear how "clutter" is not a four letter word in this strategy and the advantages of having a 7-day a week brick and mortar location that you don't have to staff yourself.  We also cover a tricky situation that you want to avoid and the secret formula for knowing if your antique booth is worth all the trouble and effort. 

Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

Her eBay user ID was a perfect choice several years ago - my_real_job_is_tattoos.  Ironically as her eBay business grew she was able to leave behind that "real job" and make a full time living as a work from home eBay Powerseller.  Angie Diller is my guest on Scouting Hot Finds Radio and our topic is essentially sourcing.  For Angie she runs a business totally based upon consignment with regular pickers that bring her items to sell on eBay.  This interview is the first in a series of shows that I'm going to publish describing strategies that people in the hobby can make a little money to feed their habit.  I got my real start on eBay as a consignment seller about 10 years ago so this interview brings me back to my own eBay roots.  As you listen to the interview we dive into how Angie runs her business including talking about unique sticky points with selling on consignment.  How do you determine the consignment rate?  What happens with returns? How do you handle your consignors to make sure there are no bad surprises?  These are all questions that Angie and I dive into during this interview.  As for pickers she has some war stories to share in the hot Michigan estate sale market.  If you enjoy this episode be sure to tune in over the next few months as I do more show topics about making money selling memorabilia.  Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

Chris Jensen of Streamwood Inc. has been in the Boy Scout memorabilia hobby since the 1960s and as a full-time memorabilia dealer he has hosted more than forty trade-o-rees including ones for the National Order of the Arrow Conference (NOAC).  In August of 2015 the Order of the Arrow will be holding it's 100th Anniversary NOAC at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.  Streamwood will be running a NOAC trade-o-ree for the three days leading up to the event on August 1-3.  In this interview Chris Jensen goes over all the details for the Big Monster NOAC TOR.  We also talk about his impressions as to why there are so many new TORs popping up on the calendar. If you want to know more about the TOR visit his website at http://www.streamwood.net. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

My guest is Bob Sherman who is a well known figure in the hobby of collecting Boy Scout memorabilia.  Some have taken to calling him the "camp patch man" as he has been writing the camp patch column in the ISCA Journal for a whopping 22 years now.  The focus of our interview tonight is discussing the brand new edition of the Camp Book II that has just been published and is available as a PDF either through instant download or CD on eBay.  The book comes in at 1250 pages but you can still purchase it on eBay from my partner there RadarBSI.  One of the key things about the Camp Book II is that is also the best reference piece for the history of Scouting councils.  It is packed with information about early teens and twenties councils that most people don't even know existed.  Towards the end of this interview I reveal a pair of special bonus items that I am committing to give away with every sold copy of the Camp Book II V2 (2014).  You'll just have to listen in to hear what I've got up my sleeve. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.