In a recent survey, it was estimated 500,000 Americans make their living on eBay. For those of you who don’t know eBay – it is an online auction site where you can put goods or services up for auction and give members the opportunity to bid on them.
So what can you sell on eBay? The answer is just about anything, from a keyring to believe it or not an aircraft carrier (which was for sale last year). They accept just about anything apart from adult material.
With forty percent of the adult UK population now a member of eBay there is a huge market out there for selling goods. But before you do anything you need to find something to sell.
It’s important to source the CORRECT product to sell on eBay. Just really to make sure you aren’t left with a garage full of rubbish know-one wants. That’s the hard bit, trying to work out what is selling well.
There are loads of different ways of coming up with what will be ‘hot sellers’. One of the best is to listen to what folk are talking about all the time, then take a note of the latest ‘must-have gadget’. It’s then a matter of locating a wholesaler that can supply you at a good price. You’ll nearly always get a better price for buying in bulk – ask for a discount if you take large amounts of stock. In saying that I wouldn’t advise taking a large amount of stock to start with, there is plenty of time for that if you find your product is selling well.
Always check out suppliers before parting with any cash, there are a lot of scam websites out there. A good way to cut down on the chance of this happening is to join a wholesale database, which will quickly weed out any untrustworthy websites. Still, be on your guard though – visit or speak to the person you are buying from, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
The growth of eBay and other auction sites has spawned a whole host of tools and products to make your buying and selling experience better. You can now purchase software that will let you monitor what is happening on eBay. You can track what people are searching for; what keywords they are using; what is the average bid price. All this information is VERY useful and will only increase your chances of success.
It’s not as easy as you may think to become a successful eBay seller but if you stick to the basic outlined above you shouldn’t go too far wrong.