Stephanie Inge began selling on eBay in 1999, founded the original eBay sellers group, The Dallas eBaybes & eMales in 2002 and became first EVER college-level eBay instructor. She published Meetup Organizer Step-by-Step Success Guide in 2013 and is the organizer of the annual Sea Commerce Cruise, an at-sea eCommerce conference. Interesting Notes Stephanie is very passionate about teaching others. She loves the fulfillment she gets from doing it. Her greatest contribution to the eBay Community is organizing local events like Meetup Groups. And she does it for free! She said that organizing a Meetup Group does not take a lot of money. Neither does it take a ton of work. All it takes is dedication. Stephanie never misses a meeting! This year, her Meetup Group, The Dallas eBaybes & eMales, is celebrating its 15th anniversary. She is proud of what she has accomplished. The Dallas eBaybes & eMales meet in a restaurant every month. They have veteran eBay sellers as well as new eBay sellers in the group. From 6 PM to 7 PM, everybody would eat dinner and network. Then from 7 PM to 8:30 PM, a guest speaker or someone from their group who is an expert would give a talk on a certain eBay topic like packing or shipping, or customer service, or photography. They would either have a speaker or a class. Sometimes they would have a virtual speaker at their meetings. In fact, this January, their speaker Atty. Cliff Ennico will present via remote live broadcast. He will talk about the Legal and Tax Updates. Being a member of a Meetup Group gives you a network of 450 people whom you can reach out anytime and ask your questions. Most of the meetup conversation is on a private Facebook group. It is free to become a member of a Meetup Group. Just go to meetup.com and find a Meetup Group near you. On the eBay website, there is also a page where you can find Meetup Groups. In a conference, you learned the most by meeting people from other places. You trade stories, tips and tricks, and other stuff over a meal. With a Meetup, you get to meet local people who do the very same thing you do. But you don't have to pay for the travel expense. You also get to do it every month. Meetup Group covers every topic that would benefit an eBay seller. Today, there are 143 eBay Meetups in the US. And eBay is working closely with all the Meetup organizers. Stephanie continues to sell on eBay. Her niche is shoes for men and women. She started it a year ago, fired up by Tino who is a total Rockstar when it comes to shoes. She also sells handbags. One time, she took a picture of a purse from her death-pile galore. She did a research and asked a member of her Meetup Group to authenticate the purse. The member uses expensive software for authentication. He gave Stephanie a rough estimate of $150 as a price of the purse. Stephanie listed the purse on eBay and cross-posted it on Poshmark for $1200. She ended up selling it to a high powered attorney in downtown New York, City for $650. Stephanie also sells T-Shirts and Merch. She uses Print On Demand website for those items. She has also published her book to CreateSpace She is also learning how to create all kinds of journals and planners using CreateSpace. She will sell these through Amazon. She has other websites that sell too. So when she creates a design, she does not upload it only to Merch. She also uses it on several Print On Demand websites, and one of which is CafePress. CafePress has thousands of products which she can put the same designs on. Stephanie's legacy to the eBay community is that she gave an order to the Meetups. She came up with the step-by-step on how to set up and organize an eBay Meetup group. In the eBay Open on July 2018, eBay gave her the greatest honor as one of the speakers for three different events. eBay has introduced her as The First Lady of the Meetup. Stephanie has been teaching at the local colleges. She has also been teaching eBay in Amazon classes and social media classes for eBay. This 2019, she will expand her classes to include Poshmark. She has been using Poshmark for six months now and she loved it. She also plans to incorporate into her classes the Vision Board classes. Vision Board is about the power of positive thinking. It is picturing oneself doing something and it will happen. She will add it to her repertoire. To top it all, she plans to create an online class. She will have her classes recorded so that she can use it over and over again, making it an evergreen content. Advice, Tips, and Tricks Create one design and use it on tons of different Print On Demand websites and on thousands of different products. Just make sure that you have to be on point and always ahead of the trends. Aside from listening to this Podcast, Stephanie suggests for those who are new or struggling on eBay: 1. Join various Facebook Groups. There are specific groups to join to like Thrifting Board. If you are selling antiques and collectibles, Thrifting Board group can help you identify various products. There are also generic groups for those who are selling in general. 2. Take a class from a professional eBay seller or instructor so that you can eliminate a lot of the common pitfalls. 3. Follow up or stay in touch with people via Facebook Groups, Meetup Groups, Podcast, and YouTube. 4. Be very careful of people who want to teach and sell you a course. Ask someone you know and trust if he/she would spend that kind of money. There are so much FREE information and digital resources available. Be sure to check all your resources before you spend a ton of money with someone that is selling a course. Quotes "If you want to do it, you can do it!" "It's the thrill of the hunt!" "When you shake a person's hand, you change the dimension of the relationship." - Ron "There is never a dull moment on eBay. There is always exciting happening." - Ali Contact Information Facebook Group: The Dallas eBaybes & eMales Meetup Group: The Dallas eBaybes & eMales email: stephintexas@gmail.com Sponsors Norila Digital Marketing
Stephanie Inge began selling on eBay in 1999, founded the original eBay sellers group, The Dallas eBaybes & eMales in 2002 and became first EVER college-level eBay instructor.
She published Meetup Organizer Step-by-Step Success Guide in 2013 and is the organizer of the annual Sea Commerce Cruise, an at-sea eCommerce conference.
Interesting Notes1. Join various Facebook Groups. There are specific groups to join to like Thrifting Board. If you are selling antiques and collectibles, Thrifting Board group can help you identify various products. There are also generic groups for those who are selling in general.
2. Take a class from a professional eBay seller or instructor so that you can eliminate a lot of the common pitfalls.
3. Follow up or stay in touch with people via Facebook Groups, Meetup Groups, Podcast, and YouTube.
4. Be very careful of people who want to teach and sell you a course. Ask someone you know and trust if he/she would spend that kind of money. There are so much FREE information and digital resources available. Be sure to check all your resources before you spend a ton of money with someone that is selling a course.
QuotesContact Information