If you’re a new seller, my initial advice would be to gain eBay selling experience by cleaning out your garage or attic.
Start by selling used items, small appliances, wedding gifts you never use, old books (non-fiction is best), used sporting goods, and clothing. Like that leather jacket that doesn’t fit you anymore!
The experience you gain will be invaluable, there is no cost other than eBay fees which are not too high.
The next step is to sell items you know something about. It may be related to your hobby or interests.
If you are knowledgeable about an art or collectible, then you have the ability to research to find the products at prices that you can resell.
On eBay, anything will sell. No matter how obscure your item may be, eBay buyers will find your auction.
Once you gain experience, try to focus on higher value items. If you only make £2 ($4) profit per sale, you need to close and ship 1000 items per month to make £2,000 ($4,100).
Too many sellers think that the way to make a fortune on eBay is to buy hundreds of top sellers and hold dozens of auctions. The problem here is that hundreds of other sellers are doing the same thing. (If you don’t believe me, look up diet pills or DVD’s) There are plenty of companies with enough money to import these items directly by the thousands and sell less than anything you buy through a distributor or wholesaler.
Another technique is to sell items in bulk. If you bought a big box of videotapes at a trunk or garage sale, separate them into categories and sell them in batches. You will often make more money than selling them individually. This can also work for clothing. There are vendors who buy children’s clothes at flea markets or flea markets, classify them by size and gender, and sell them in batches.
An eBay seller I know buys large batches of fast-selling items on eBay (lighters, pocket knives, etc.) and sells them in batches of 10 or 25 to other eBay users who want to buy for resale. I know an eBay user who recently imported 50,000 disposable cigarette lighters from Korea that he bought for about 6 pence (10 cents) each. He sold them on eBay in lots of 500 for 19 pence (38 cents) each. He made £65 ($140) on each lot minus his eBay fees.
It seems that everyone wants to sell computers, software, movies, DVDs, digital cameras, and all kinds of consumer electronics. The sad reality is that SONY, Panasonic, Canon and others do not sell their latest products to small home-based dealers. (In fact, they don’t sell anything except through their dealers) Even big box stores have trouble getting a lot of really cool electronics.
It is possible to enter this business if you have a lot of knowledge of the market and the product. You could work in a computer store and have the contacts to buy the merchandise. The problem is that you are competing with major retailers. One way to be successful in selling consumer electronics is with overstock and product returns. The trick is to really know what you’re buying and to be able to work with small margins and rotate your inventory frequently. Quite a bit of capital investment is needed to compete in this sector.
There is also a huge market on eBay for “old” hifis, cameras, old computers and computer hardware, etc. I heard of a guy who found an Akai reel-to-reel recorder at a car boot sale for £15 ($32). He also received 10 free reels of tape. He sold the deck on eBay for just under £100 ($220) and sold the 10 reels of tape separately at another auction for £15 ($32).
One of eBay’s product managers sells old Apple computers, parts, and software. She buys almost everything at yard sales, thrift stores, and auctions.
When they ask me what they should sell, they usually also ask me what the best-selling items on eBay are.
Here is a list of the currently best selling items on eBay. Please note that this is not a recommendation of what to sell, as each of these product areas requires the seller to have relevant knowledge and experience.
– Diet pills
– Nutritional sex enhancers
– Pheromone scents
– Crystal chess sets
– Inexpensive jewelry
– Expensive watches and jewelry.
– Heirloom Jewelry
– Used toys in good condition.
– New and used clothing for children and plus size clothing for women.
– Software (including last year’s or closed software programs and games)
– Strobe Pens
– Tools (power and hand tools)
– Perfumes (including perfume samples and open expensive perfumes that are at least half full)
– Perfume bottles (some with or without perfume)
– Religious books and bibles (bibles are always a perennial seller)
– Nonfiction books on hobbies, sports, nautical topics, history, military science, popular textbooks, and art and photography. Also books containing maps and art prints that can be torn apart and sold individually.
– Old maps and prints of ships, flowers, animals (horses and dogs are good)
– Parts used for special vehicles (Porsche, BMW, MG, etc.)
– Model cars and car collectibles.
– Signed sports collectibles
If you want to know what to sell on eBay, probably the best advice I can give you is to be unique and specialise.
Find a niche market, learn about it, become an expert in it, and work hard to build your reputation in that market. eBay buyers are savvy and like to deal with a knowledgeable and responsive professional seller.
If you can become that seller, you have a very good chance of making a lot of money on eBay.