The business of selling stuff on eBay for profit
eBay is undoubtedly the world's most popular online marketplace. Every day hundreds of thousands of items are listed on eBay which attracts an incredible amount of visitors seeking items to buy and listing items to sell in the wide variety of categories available.
Some of the most popular items up for grabs include books, coins, stamps, jewellery, music cd’s, videos, dvd’s, memorabilia, collectibles, antiques, paintings, prints, photographic equipment, electronics, computers, sports goods, toys and games, tools, musical instruments, office equipment and much, much more.
eBay is not only a great place to pick up a bargain or two, it gives sellers the opportunity to turn their unwanted items into cash and also provides an ideal opportunity to start selling stuff on eBay for profit on a regular basis to provide an extra income.
If you intend to sell goods regularly online then you should seriously think about testing the waters by selling your goods through online auctions like eBay. Because it’s easy to identify what visitors are searching for, you can tailor your efforts to sell your goods to a ready-made market, rather than going to the expense of setting up a website and the long-winded hassle of trying to get visitors to come to your site.
Selling on eBay is not difficult. Finding out what sells and how to sell successfully is the tricky part. As they say, knowledge comes with experience and to be a success at making a regular income on eBay you will need a good measure of knowledge and experience to attain that goal.
The great thing about selling through eBay is the speed at which you can test the results of your sales efforts. Within days of listing your merchandise you can find out if there’s a demand and whether the price you set is the right one to attract buyers.
Here are some basic tips to help you get started if you’re a beginner....
1) Start by selling in small quantities and at low prices to test response. Remember that most potential buyers on eBay are looking for a bargain. They will only buy if the price is right!
2) If response is good and you make a successful sale then use your profits to invest in more of the same saleable products.
3) You can diversify into other categories using the same procedure. Remember... don’t commit yourself to selling in large quantities without testing that there is a strong demand first.
4) Always be aware of the costs involved in selling on eBay. All listing fees, reserve price fees and the percentage of expected selling price should be taken into consideration when working out a minimum price required to make a worthwhile profit.
5) You will have to sell a lot more items to make a reasonable income if you are working with small profit margins. There’s less work involved if you can find something that is popular and has a high profit margin. But there is also more risk involved if you have to purchase higher priced items.
The question is what and where can you find items to sell that will guarantee a profit?
Well there are no 100% guarantees selling anything through auctions because there’s always the chance that someone else may be selling similar items at a lower price. But it’s not too difficult to find out what’s already selling well and what the average prices are by doing some simple research.
For example, go to the eBay.co.uk or eBay.com homepage and choose a category dealing with something you would be interested in. (It’s better to deal in items that you have some knowledge of in order to sell convincingly) Let’s take a look at musical instruments for example. Now refine your search to acoustic guitars. From the list available it’s easy to see how popular certain instruments are by how many bids have been placed. Bearing in mind that more bids come in during the later stages of the auction. To get a more definite idea of what sells you can check the items that have already been sold and how much the winning bid was. Choose the search option which you can find in the side column for ‘completed items’ and click on ‘show items’.
Now, musical instruments might not be your thing, but you can see what I mean about research can’t you?
Once you have decided on what to sell, you then need to find a reliable supplier who can supply you on a regular basis.
Notice I said ‘reliable’ supplier. If you intend to make this venture a regular source of income, it’s essential that your source can supply you with top quality goods when you need them and without any delay
You might even consider finding a supplier who can ‘dropship’ the goods direct to your buyer. Which means there will be no need for you to get involved in posting and packaging the goods. Dropshipping in the USA is quite common. See SaleHoo Wholesale Directory
In the UK there are very few companies at present who do this. However, if you need a directory of wholesale sources in the UK then try the UK-Trader's UK Wholesale Guide which is used by thousands of traders in the UK.
Posted in: on Saturday, 19 April 2008 at at 10:56
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