
Starting an eBay business is easy, fun and can be done from the comfort of your own home. But what if you want to do more than sell a few items and actually make money on eBay?
Home Based Business Opportunity and Online Business Opportunity Reviews
make money selling on ebay
I was introduced to ebay via a friend who is called Jim. We were having an evening out in a bar when he started to talk about the items he had bought and sold on the auction website. Jim talked with passion and seemed surprised that I had never used ebay before.
I asked Jim if he would help me to sell some items from my own home which were no longer needed. He was quite eager and willing to show me the ropes as it were therefore we arranged to meet.
Now please do not get me wrong this is not something that I do for a living; in my actual work life I offer cheap calls for mobiles, as well selling external doors. I am also involved with offering a Asda Voucher Codes.
I will never forget this first auction that I held, I was selling my old mobile phone. The phone in question had been kept in a draw for about two months and was basically about to be thrown out. Jim told me that I could make some money by selling it, therefore I took his advice and put it up for sale on ebay.
I did not think that it would sell at all and I started the auction, which was over five days, at only ninety-nine pence. At the outset things were very quiet. This for me was some what annoying and I needed to have a lot of patience. On the last day of the auction, with only three hours to go, somebody put in a bid. I could not believe it, I could make ninety-nine pence! With five minutes to go the auction had still only had one bid, however it then went a bit crazy. During the next few minutes things went a little crazy as people tried to out bid each other to win the auction and in the end the phone was purchased by a man for around twenty six dollars. To say I was happy with this sale price was an understatement.
I was now hooked and started to look around my house for other items to sell. I have now sold many different items, including music records, football programs, clothes and antiques.
My favourite item to sell has to be antiques. This is because these type of auctions seem to get more people bidding on them than other auctions I use. You can also find some real bargains in this sector. I would say that around eighty percent of the items I sell are now some form of antique.
Selling products on eBay can be a very lucrative business, and starting an eBay business is fairly simple and affordable. So why do so many people fail? It is not WHAT they sell – it is HOW they sell it. New sellers do what everybody else is doing. They blend in with the crowd of other sellers and do not stand out. They invest in hot-selling products but never get noticed by buyers to sell anything or make any money. So how do you stand out? There are two main ways.
1. Sell the most popular eBay products at deeply discounted prices or offer higher value “package deals”. 2. Sell unique or hard-to-find products that cannot be found at your local store.
Popular Products:
So first, if you decide to sell the hot-selling products on eBay, you are going to have lots of competition. The way to stand out is to offer a lower price than everyone else or put together a multiple product package which offers more value than the other competing products for auction.
A. By offering a lower price, you will attract more buyers and can easily start a bidding war. The excitement and interest that a bidding war creates will generally give you a selling price that is higher than it would be if you had originally listed the product for sale at a high price. Once people have started bidding, they do not want to stop. Your goal is to get them started.
B. If you put together a package with multiple products, make sure that the products relate to each other or can be used together so that they add value to your offer. (Is your buyer likely to want both of these products?)
Keeping your shipping price low will increase the value even more, and you can get many more buyers this way. You stand out because you are delivering more value and added convenience to your buyers. They can make one purchase instead of several.
eBay Pulse is a resource on the eBay website that shows you which products are selling the most. It is updated daily, so it is a good place to find out the types of products that people are buying right now. Another helpful tool is the World Wide Brands newsletter. It is free at their website, and you can get lots of success tips about selling on eBay as well.
Unique Products:
On the other hand, if you choose to sell hard-to-find products, you can demand more money simply because you will have less sellers to compete against – maybe even none! This does not mean that you should list your unique products at an expensive price, because eBay buyers are looking for deals. This simply means that you do not have to discount your products, because buyers will be happy to have found your hard-to-find products at all, that they are willing to pay full price.
In either case, you want to include a variety of product photos and a detailed product description for each item. Customers are much more likely to buy something when they can see it. Also include keywords in both the listing title and description so that buyers can find your listing more often when they search for it on eBay. This means brand names, model numbers, color, size and even common misspellings as well.
Where to Find Products:
To find products to sell, you can get great discounts from wholesalers. You can find a large number of wholesalers online using a wholesale search engine. You may also decide to minimize your workload by working with a drop shipper. Drop shippers charge a fee in exchange for their service of packaging and shipping products for you. You benefit by not having to purchase inventory up front or having to do the work of packing and shipping.
There are also some membership sites which give you access to multiple drop shippers in one location. This is a good option for sellers who want to sell multiple product types or brands.
For more information on finding and selling products on eBay, visit How to Make Money on eBay.