Selling Golf Balls On Ebay

This is the first of a series of articles on secret Ebay auction niches. These are the niches that most people keep to themselves because they know something special about them that allows them to make money. Why am I revealing the ones I know about? Well, it is because I am kind of Ebay burned out and I don't spend time anymore searching for these items.

The 1st secret niche is: PING TWO COLOR GOLF BALLS

Balls that are valuable: BLACK, SILVER, GOLD,WINE, OR CRANBERRY

A long time ago Ping started making not only colored balls but balls with two colors. The many different colors included yellow, orange, white, green, red, purple, teal, gold, silver, black, and other colors. You could buy a sleeve of 3 balls or a box of 12 and they came in every combination of colors imaginable (half the ball one color and half another color).

If I had known at the time they would become valuable, (in other words if I could see into the future), I would have backed the truck up and bought everything I could get my hands on. They became valuable because Ping stopped making them and golf ball collectors decided they wanted them for their collections.

Not every color is equal in terms of value. Yellow, orange, white, and blue are more common and thus not valuable and gold, silver, and black are the most valuable. Please study the picture below as almost every ball in that picture is worth at least $20.00 and some are worth over $200.00.

Any ball with gold, silver, or black is worth good money. Of course the condition of the ball is VERY important with the mint condition balls going for the most. I have often seen balls going for $200 - $400 when they are in mint condition with the very rare colors.

I have in the past made money from Ebay by searching everyday hoping to find these balls listed with a too low "Buy It Now". My two search terms are: ping ball -pong and ping balls -pong. The "-pong" is put in there to get rid of all the listings for ping pong balls which I am not interested in.

 My best day ever was when I saw a "Buy It Now" for 8 silver and white great condition balls for $160.00. I almost peed my pants trying to get those balls before someone else saw it! I did get them and in the following months proceeded to sell 7 of them for an average of $50.00 per ball and I kept the last one. Then, about two years after that happy purchase I sold the last ball and somehow two people bid it up to a little over $200.00! SWEET!

At garage sales I also always look for these balls. I always look for golf bags and run my hands through the pockets hoping to find a Ping. I have succeeded in finding a few with the best being a whole sleeve of pink/white brand new balls. I got the sleeve for a dollar and sold each ball for about $20.00 on Ebay.

There you have it, my first secret Ebay auction niche. If you want to read about more cool Ebay secret niches click on the banner below to be taken to my site.

How To Make Money Selling Used Golf Balls

This is a hobby I did one summer when I was younger that made over $1500.00. It is a great way to make money for a teen or someone with some extra time.

If you are a golfer you know that used golf balls sell for between 50 cents and a dollar in the bowl on the counter of every pro shop. They also sell for that amount (sometimes less) on Ebay.

Many summers ago, I bought a metal ball retriever contraption on Ebay. This is not the kind that is a long poll that people carry in their bag but the kind that is attached to a very long string or rope. You throw it out into the middle of the lake and pull it back towards you. As it goes along the bottom, the golf balls get wedged in and by the time it comes back to you there might be as many as a dozen balls lodged in it.

The only problem with this type of unit is that sometimes it would get stuck on the bottom as weeds or something else would get tangled with it. I did have a few scary moments when I thought I would have to cut the string and leave it behind but in the end I was somehow able to free it each time.

 In my case, and this is a little embarrassing (just a little as I'll do almost anything for money), I would drive to the nearby course at around 3:00 AM in the morning when it was pitch black so as not to be discovered. You really can't just walk on a course in the middle of the day and start throwing your retriever in the lake because you would get in the way of the golfers and the course management would probably kick you off. Another reason is that many of the courses pay companies to do this ball retrieving for them (yes there are really companies that do this) and then they pay the company a small amount for each ball.

I would usually take 2 empty buckets with me and in an hour or so (I knew a really good spot) would be driving home with 500 or so balls and then go back to bed. That part, though, was not necessarily the hardest part. My next step would be to wash each ball in warm water with a rag and try to make it as clean as possible. That was the most time consuming and boring part. Having done that, I had a big sorting job ahead of me.

If you look on Ebay you will find many auctions for used balls. Those auctions are usually for groups (lots) of balls and many times they are separated by ball conditions or company brand. In order to get the most money I would separate all my balls into three groups. Group 1 would be the best balls that were almost new, group 2 was balls that had some wear but were still playable, and group 3 was for balls that were shag balls (balls that people use for practice).

I would further sort group 1 into smaller groups by brand for selling on Ebay. The most expensive balls in the best condition would often bring about a dollar a ball and I would wait until I got 24 or 36 per group and put them up as a "lot". The remaining good balls would be put up as lots as well but they might have multiple brands within the lots.

Read about someone who does this for a living HERE.

The second group would also be separated into lots and sold with a description which was accurate for that lot of balls. Those lots would often be bigger sizes like 48 or 60 balls in a lot. I would usually get between 50 cents and 75 cents for those balls. These would be balls like cheap Titleist logo golf balls

The final group were the bad balls that really could only be used for practice (I would throw the cut ones out and not sell them). These lots would be advertised as shag balls and sold in lots of 100. I wouldn't get much for these (perhaps 10 cents after shipping) but it was nevertheless a profit on virtually every ball I brought up from the lake.

 On average I calculated that I was making 25 cents per ball and so when I came home with two full buckets that each held about 250 balls, I was making between $100.00 and $125.00 per trip! Not only was I making some good money but I also suddenly had more balls than I could ever lose on the course myself! It was fun and it shows there are many ways to make money using a little bit of brainstorming.

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