Are there any almost no-brainer auctions that almost always go well? I'm getting my business plan together, starting to put stuff together, but thought it might be nice to run a few auctions while I'm doing that business paperwork type stuff.

I thought about jewelry, but it seems like it's a really highly competitive area. What do you all find works really well for you?

Well, here's what I did for a while with great success. Look in the newspaper ads each Sunday and look for all of the great "after rebate" deals in stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, etc, and buy the items if it's a really good price.

List them on eBay with a disclaimer that the UPC has been removed for rebate purposes, and there you go.

I did this with mp3 players and made about $500 a month extra back when I was doing it. This was before the iPod came out, which NEVER has rebates, so that market has changed a bit, but any well priced electronics item should work just fine.

Ooo, what a great idea, Andrew! Thanks for the tip, I'll have to try that out. Do you think that would work on uBid? I've been trying to think of something to try running there...actually, jewelry might work over there. I didn't see a lot of the kind of stuff I do on uBid...

Just one thing about electronics, they're such targets for scams people can be very suspicious of them. Try to word your auctions to show you're a trustworthy small business.

Er...newbie here, Plumley! How specifically do I sound trustworthy? What's the hallmarks of a scamming company? Eek.... :) I'm honest, cross my heart...