So, you've got a hundred dollars and want to know how to get going on eBay, huh? The biggest return for your early dollar is buying up used clothing and reselling that until you have enough capital to start on the NWT Gymboree strategies. Don't worry. Getting your cash flow running won't take too terribly long and the experience you will learn on the cheap stuff will serve you amazingly well when you get to selling things that you paid a litte more for.

GARAGE SALE MAGIC

This is exactly the amount I started with and how I started. I spent that whole first summer scouting garage sales and grabbed everything that looked name brand-ish based on the label and not a lot else. This haphazard strategy resulted in massive amounts of clothing in my back closet that ended up getting sold off in a giant wholesale lot at the end of the summer.

It also got me a few really great things that netted me enough cash to move into buying in bulk, which has a smaller return on investment, but is more money per the amount of work you put into it because it takes so much less time.

Confused? Don't worry. After a summer of garage saling, you will start wondering how to do this more efficiently and should have enough capital to move on to wherever you want to go. Anyway, unless you are dying to have a whole closet full of weird clothes yourself, here are a few things to remember while you are out and about.

WHERE TO GO AND WHAT TO BUY

First of all, think about where you are going. Where are the nicest areas in your town? Go there. Often new housing areas have small kids, so if you are looking for kids clothes new additions in nice areas are a good bet. Try to stick with sizes larger than twelve months, although with garage sales if you get stuff cheap enough that offsets your risk a lot.

If you buy Gymboree clothes, make sure they are pretty recent (last two years or so) and find out the line name before you list (make sure the line name is in your auction title).

BUY WHAT YOU LIKE

The next rule is pretty simple. Don't buy what you don't like. If you think it's hideous, skip it. Chances are others will feel the same way and plus you will have a difficult time selling it well. "Please buy this hideous dress" is typically not a great sales pitch and it's sometimes hard to disguise your disgust. Also, look over everything very carefully for flaws or stains or excessive fading or whatever. Tacky clothes = bad feedback. Not such a great thing in the eBay universe.

SELLING IN SEASON

Pay attention to the season. When you first get started, this can be a little confusing. I remember thinking Well, it's summer. Why aren't my summer things selling well? This is because clothes sell before the season comes. Summer clothing sells from February to April or early May. Fall things sell from late July to August for Back to School and then September and October for winter. Holiday sells October and November. Then Spring clothes are ready to go by mid-January.

So what sells in December? Nothing (toys if you get the beginning of the month for Christmas). Go do holiday stuff with your family (or buy up the stuff that people who don't know what they're doing are selling and then resell it yourself when it comes into season). What sells in June and early July? Nothing! Get your inventory ready for Back to School and then go on vacation! If you have to sell during these time periods, that's okay. But just remember that you will end up with much lower final bid prices than at other times during the year.

WHAT NOT TO BUY

A few things that don't sell too well: Old Navy is inexpensive enough that the resell on it isn't great. Department store brands generally are pretty weak even if they are upscale ones like Baby N (Nordstroms). DO NOT BUY ANYTHING THAT YOU CAN GET AT WAL-MART!!!

I figure you probably already realize that, but it drives me bonkers when people try to list McBaby as name brand. It doesn't matter WHAT the label says. If you can get it at Wal-Mart, it's not name brand!!! Okay, I feel better now.

MORE HELP GETTING STARTED

Once you are ready to start buying NWT kids' clothing (that would be New With Tags), there are a couple of resources you should check out. Kendra Okolita, a PowerSeller of kids' clothes, runs HereComesTheStork and the site is where she shares all her secrets with you. SO worth it. I wish I had seen it when I was first starting.

AuctionMoms newsletter, run by Sherah Taylor, is also terrific and will introduce you to the wider eBay community, which will get you going on lots of other ideas. Check out her stuff here: www.auction-moms.com. She has also recently published a garage sale ebook if you haven't done too much garage saling before. Once you have gotten a good feel for eBay and how things sell and when and why (and built up your capital a bit), you will be ready to graduate up to more bulk selling.

Remember, this is supposed to be fun. Almost every eBayer I know has a slightly different way of selling, so just take your time, pay attention to the patterns you see, and figure out what works best for you. Good luck!