The Question No One Will Answer!
Finding a source for your inventory on eBay is the toughtest part of selling, hands-down. Customer service, shipping, creating a listing, even HTML are all CAKE next to the difficult task of sourcing. Naturally, other eBay sellers are not willing to give up their hard-earned sources...don't even bother asking! You'll get nowhere quick. If you had worked hard on getting inventory, would you want to reveal your source to the competition?
Start at the Bottom, Work your Way Up
We'll start at the top here of where you should have your sights set. An eBay seller should strive to eventually have direct contact with the manufacturer. Getting a grasp on selling by starting out with old, unwanted household items is a good way to practice. This way, you'll learn which products you REALLY want to sell, and you'll have an impressive feedback score by the time you are ready to move up to the big league. Manufacturers
Ebay sellers should aim directly at the top, by targeting manufacturers. The closer you get to the manufacturer, the cheaper you will get your products, and the more profit you will make! This is impossible with a large company, like say Microsoft. To attain this goal, you'll have to travel up the chain by reaching wholesalers first. Eventually, a manufacturer's contact information will slip through to you. It could be as easy as peeling off the label and seeing the wholesaler's source, or they could leave a packing slip in the box. Or, you could contact them yourself. This is tough, and sometimes a long-shot, but it does happen! You may know a small local company already that wouldn't mind selling their products to you for a good price.The eBay Stigma
Unfortunately, eBay sellers have a bad wrap. You may have to be a little creative with explaining what you do if you talk to sourcers. If you have your own personal website, refer them to that. What's even better than relying on a manufacturer, you ask? Producing your own products to sell! But that's a topic for another lens some day...
Wholesalers
Buying wholesale is tricky. Wholesalers, naturally, are purchasing large amounts of product from the manufacturers, then reselling smaller amounts to businesses. There are plenty of wholesalers, but few who will advertise themselves much. The wholesalers who DO advertise, remember, everyone else will have access to them as well.Scams
There are many lists of wholesalers online, and on eBay. These wholesale list "providers" know there are thousands of sellers dying to get there hands on a good list of contacts for wholesalers and maufacturers. Don't fall for any tricks...you'll see several ebooks for sale claiming that they have wholesale lists. These are often scams or counterfeiters. If the list were so good, why would they want to sell it? And if it is that readily available for everyone to use, how good can it be? Read here about this.
Liquidators
Liquidators are an excellent source of inventory, however, you won't find a constant source of the same product in most cases. Liquidators typically receive damaged items, returned items, or items that bombed in the market they were being sold in. Some liquidators, however, do sell completely brand new items. Like anything else, this will require research online to find the best site. Take a look at the list below for some liquidators, or use a search engine to find hundreds of online liquidators. Wholesalers, Liquidators & Drop Shippers
- Speedy Liquidators
- A reputable Liquidation firm specalizing in buying and selling overstocked and discontinued first quality consumer goods.
- Liquidation.com
- The source for business surplus.
- M. Liquidators
- Merchandize Liquidators specializes in wholesale closeouts & liquidation, overstock, surplus from most department stores in the USA.
- 1 Liquidators.com
- #1 World Wide Liquidators of Closeouts & Clearance Wholesale Merchandise!
- Toy Manufacturer Directory
- Established in 1996, ToyDirectory.com(R) is a wholesale buyer's guide for the toy and hobby industry.
- Greatrep.com
- The premier directory for the wholesale furniture, home furnishing and giftware industries.
- Wholesale Gopher
- The Largest Directory of Wholesalers on the Web.
- www.surplus.net
- Surplus liquidation overstock closeout salvage imports exports.
- eBay's Wholesale Lots Category
- eBay has the largest selection of wholesale and liquidated inventories online.
- Wholesale Hub
- The best wholesale resource on the Internet. Your business source for the latest wholesale products from suppliers world-wide.
- eBay Wholesale List Scams
- Don't fall for the crud out there! Read this article.
- SaleHooWholesale / eBay(R) Directory
- Earn Up To $70.00 Per Sale through Affiliate Marketing!
- Access To 500 True Drop Shippers!
- Free Turnkey Ecommerce Website Stocked With 200,000 DropShip Products. Free Hosting And Free Domain Name!
- Wholesale Directory E-Book
- Over 10 Years in Publication! Designed to assist new or existing Retailers, Resellers, Entrepreneur find wholesale products.
- DropShip Focus
- 23 Audios, 5 Videos, Thousands Of Wholesale Products.
eBay Itself!
eBay is one of the best places to find products to resell. Whether a seller listed the item incorrectly or the item is ending at 4 am on a Friday, you can find a great deal. The strategy is to know HOW to buy. You may come across an inexperienced seller with a "0" feedback. Other buyers may not want to bid on this seller's risky items. Here's your chance to swoop in and get a deal!You'll need to search all possibilities for the products you are looking for...misspellings, items ending at an odd time, awful pictures, items listed in the wrong category...and you WILL find deals. This can require a lot of patience on your part, but can be the most rewarding as well.
Tens of thousands of eBay items end daily with no bidder. Why? No one can find these items because of common misspellings, typos incorrect categoies. Try finding misspellings of eBay items and find great deals using Auction Speller, Fat Fingers, or Missing Auctions.
The Art of the Deal
EBay buying can be just as tricky as selling...and if you know both, than can be a money-making combination!-
How to Save Money by Finding Great Deals on eBay
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The time has never been better to find a great deal on eBay. Whatever you're looking to purchase, eBay will most likely be the cheapest of all places to purchase an item. How is this possible? Serious eBay sellers number in the millions, and each hav...
eBay Links that will HELP with Sales!
- SaleHoo Wholesale / eBay Directory..#1 Affiliate Pro
- You don't have to store products to sell on eBay. You don't even have to sell your own items, or be the one selling to make money!
- Sky High Auctions For eBay
- Discover Secrets From 15 eBay(R) Powersellers On How To Use The Power Of eBay(R) To Siphon In More Qualified Leads, Sell Ebooks, Physical Products And More.
- Build A Niche Store (aka Bans!)
- The World Famous Bans / eBay(R) Combination.
- Become An eBay PowerSeller In 90 Days.
- This Program Has Helped 1000s Of People Gain eBay(R) PowerSeller Status And Achieve Their Online Goals.
- The Silent Sales Machine Hiding On EBay
- Approaching 100,000 Copies Sold. The Most Creative EBay(R) EBook(R) Ever Written.
Auction Websites
- Shopgoodwill.com
- Find good deals and help a great cause with shopgoodwill.
- ibidfree.com
- You may be able to find some good deals on this lesser known site...
- Ubid.com
- "The marketplace you can trust" in business for 10 years.
- Police Auctions
- Foreclosures, clearance, $1 auctions and car auctions abound at this site.
- Overstock Auctions
- Overstock is one of eBay's top competitors for online auctions. Less traffic to this site may mean a better deal for you!
- ioffer
- Not an auction site, but a "best offer" kind of deal, this marketplace is gaining popularity.
Create a Better eBay Auction Listing
Buyers want a spiffy looking eBay auction. They want a good deal, too, but the appearance of your listing is what really sells it. There are other factors, too, like photos, when to sell your product, features to use...-
How to Make Money on eBay by Writing the Perfect Auction Listing
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Are you not happy with the results you've been getting with your eBay auctions? Whether you're a big time eBay store seller or only an occasional seller, the same tips still apply to see a great final bid price on your eBay auctions. EBay is a huge...
Become an eBay Titanium Powerseller
Titanium eBay:: A Tactical Guide to Becoming a Millionaire PowerSeller
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 10/12/2008)
With the new changes coming to eBay, it's a great idea to aspire to become a Powerseller. The Powerseller Discount gives that extra incentive. Whether you are just starting out selling, or you've been selling for years, this is an excellent guide to help increase your eBay revenue. This book receives unanimously excellent reviews from customers.
Increase your Earnings Here on Squidoo!
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Increase your Squidoo Earnings with Affiliate Marketing
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Squidoo is a great place to earn a little extra cash, but are you realizing your full potential? You can further monetize your Squidoo lens, blog, or website by adding some affiliate marketing links! Hand-pick products and make recommendations, prov...
Buying out of Season
One of your best bets to find some high quality retail items is to buy out of season. You'll see huge markdowns at the end of every season, sometimes 90%, sometimes 40%. Hitting retail stores may be a good idea, but even better sources are outlets and discount stores. These places already have discounted prices anyway, and the discounts are often steeper at the end of season sales. Either sell these items quick for an easy, speedy, profitable turn-around, or hold on to them for 6 months until they come back in season. You'll get top dollar, and you'll have some items that are no longer available to the public, even at full price!Some often highly marked-down items are jeans, suntan lotion, scarves, winter jackets, holiday items, bathing suits, beach bags and outdoor toys.
Craigs List & Newspapers
You'll find plenty of people desperate to sell some stuff on Craigs List, The Want Ads, or in your local newspaper. Often times these people will be relatively close, and have some great items! One of the other pros to this method is that the price is always negotiable. You can always offer less than what they are asking.You can also try posting on Craiglist or in the newspaper yourself, with a request to buy items. You can negotiate the terms, and you're sure to get some items this way.
Thrift Stores
eBay Poll
Yard Sales & Garage Sales
Yard sales and garage sales offer the good and the bad. The worst stuff on the planet buries some of the best finds and great deals. To make the best of your yard sale voyages, check the local newspaper for yard sales and start early to avoid the crowds (and competition). Also, consider shopping in the more affluent neighborhoods (no offense, it's just common sense!), especially moving sales. The items can be better quality and sell for more. When it's time to get rid of things or move it, sometimes people are willing to get rid of their items cheap rather than lug it around. Church sales also usually have better quality items donated to them. It Adds Up!
More Lenses to Help with your eBay Selling!
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How to Use Google Base to Increase your Sales
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So you'd like to kick your sales up a notch but don't know how? After you've already optimized your listings by completing the checklist below, you're ready to move on to download the Google Store Connector. If you don't have an eBay Store, Yahoo St...
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The Best and Most Effective Way to Promote your Business...FREE Advertising!
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We've all grown up with advertising. TV, radio, billboards, pop ups, banners...it's everywhere, and you can't escape it. Now stop and think for a second...how many times have you clicked on an advertisement online, or heard a commercial on the radio...
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How to Quickly Analyze an eBay Seller's Feedback Score
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Finding a reputable seller, at first, can seem tedious. The quickest, easiest and most effective way to for buyers to find a trustworthy eBay seller is, quite simply, to read their feedback! It's tried and true. There is an easy-to-learn science to a...
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How to Quickly Set up an eBay Store that Looks Professional and Makes Money
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Setting up an eBay Store is very easy. There are some considertations you should keep in mind before opening a store, however. The current subscription fee as of when this lens was written is $15.95, so your product inventory has to be quite large to...
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eBay HTML
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HTML...it's an intimidating acronym. It stands for hyper text markup language, and you don't exactly need to know how to write HTML code to use it. There are simple things you can do to make your eBay listings cost less, look more professional, gener...
Drop a Line Here!
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Treasures-By-Brenda
Practice makes perfect, that expression describes exactly how one learns to find great deals for resale, including on eBay. I have developed a 'sense' that helps me decide whether to pick something up or not. I still make mistakes but I am accurate more often. I have learned lots of tricks including some of those you discuss in this great lens. Posted August 31, 2008 |
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Susan52
Really, really good information, advice, and resources! Posted July 02, 2008 |
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valmont
Excellent information, mate! Posted April 20, 2008 |
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valmont
Excellent information, mate! Posted April 20, 2008 |
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chinze
Great info. I love hearing what others have to say about ebay and the tips for doing great. I am still working my way up. Posted March 28, 2008 |
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Web Directories: Submit your Site!
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- Kiwi's Outback
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Misspelled Items on eBay Right Now...
Some of these items have been misspelled, either intentionally or not. Are there any deals to be had here?
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