Selling On eBay The Complete Guide

For every new or intermediate seller on eBay that wants to take their business to the next level the main problem is sourcing materials or finding things to sell.  This leads to one of the most asked questions for all eBay sellers.  What can I sell?  This Squidoo lens will attempt to answer that question although keep in mind it might not be the answer you are looking for.

You see the problem is people want one of two things when they are looking for what to sell.  Either they are in it for the money, which fits most of us, and simply want to be told what is the most profitable products to sell on eBay.  These people don't want to think for themselves and simply want to be told and go for it.  The second group of people, which is a smaller group have some thing in mind already that is a hot sell "cool" item.  For example it sound fun, exciting and glorious to sell iPods, Computers, and other cool gadgets.  However often these categories are very hard to sell in profitably as they are very crowded, prices are undercut and it takes a lot of money up front along with a wholesale lic. to sell these items.  So the stakes are very high and the profit potential is very low not making for a good combination. 

This lens will take a little different approach to selling.  Therefore this lens will advocate selling in a niche or a sub category and selling something that is unique.  This way new and intermediate sellers can further develop their business model, build capital and gain experience and feedback on eBay while building their business.  After becoming a powerseller and having a lot more feedback, experience and capital one can more easily break into the more glamorous selling categories like computers.  By this time you will have the feedback, money and other pieces of the puzzle in place to break into ultra competitive categories and still come out profitably.

So this lens is in fact for the beginning and intermediate seller looking to take their eBay sales and business to the next level. 

Just to give some terms and definitions a new seller in our book is someone who has never sold or only sold one or two things.  A beginning seller has sold a couple of items that they found around the house and cleaning out the garage etc and an intermediate seller has sold a couple hundred items and sold a few things from outside sources maybe a garage sale or something they bought from a retails store. 

So to start off with here are some informational resources and sources of software etc to help you get started on taking your eBay business to the next level.  These are simply products that I have either used myself or heard great things about from others in the field and therefore recommend them here.  I have tried to provide a wide variety of products and some different business models to hopefully spark ideas and fresh thinking.  I will write a little bit about each product here and then provide more detail latter on.  I have also broken these into some lose categories:

eBay Wholesalers and Drop Shippers 

Sale Hoo is a great source of wholesale and dropshipping companies.  They offer a wide variety of products all of which can be bought with very little capital and in small amounts from the original companies.   Please keep in mind that this is not the end all of product sourcing and might not be as profitable as the sales letter looks.  There are products that offer great potential and some people are able to build whole eBay business based off of drop shipping and light bulk wholesalers.  However the profit margins are thin and it can be very competitive to get into.  So try selling things that are not the hot items.  Instead of selling iPods try selling iPod accessories instead for example try and find some niche of products that you know about maybe camping equipment.  Sale Hoo also functions greatly for beginning and intermediate sellers to get started selling different types of products so they can learn what they like to sell and what sells well.  Once you find some products that sell well and you can make some profit from you might go out and do some research on your own to find an independent wholesale source and buy in bulk since you know the item is already a success and this you can get a deeper discount and make more of a profit from it.  More on this later.  At any rate try Sale Hoo as a great beginning source.

Auction Software and Research Utilities 

Auction Inspector This is a great little piece of software that you can easily use to help uncover hidden niches on eBay.  It searches either eBay categories of by keywords for you to uncover profitable niches and items that are selling well.  You can often use this software to find growing niches that are still hidden and not over crowded.  For example items from The Pottery Barn were selling really well and this is an easy product to find.  Try Auction Inspector for eBay research tools.

Auction Yen is another research piece of software however it works very differently from Auction Inspector.  Auction Yen searches through one ofthe newer areas of eBay called eBay "Want It Now".  About a year ago eBay started a new area called the "Want It Now" and buyers who are looking for a specific item can post a wanted ad here for the item they wish to buy.  Auction Yen makes use of the Want It Now area and researches these small ads to find popular items and trends of things people are looking for.  Then you just have to go and buy the item and put it up for sale.  With this you know that you will have customers from the beginning.  Try Auction Yen for a great research tool.

Niche Store Builder is another very different way to make money from eBay.  Niche Store Builder set up a eBay affiliate websites for you in a matter of minutes.  You will not be making money as a seller on eBay but rather as an eBay affiliate.    eBay's Affiliate program is one of the more popular programs out there and is very profitable for many affiliates.  This is a wonderful way to have a second stream of income on eBay you can keep selling at the same time as being an affiliate.  

With Niche Store Builder you can set up niche websites with eBay auction items displayed on the website quickly and easily.  it takes really only minutes with this software and is super easy.  I used to do this by hand myself and it was much slower and harder witht his software it is super easy.  Also to let you in on a big secret that I have used to make me money.  I have built eBay affiliate stores and then added a few links and articles to them and waited two or three months and then sold them as established websites on eBay in the websites for sale category.  This is VERY PROFITABLE source of  products that I can create.  The best thing is the supply is only limited to your time and effort.  An established niche websites that has page rank and is listed in Google can often bring $200 or more per site.  Just think of selling 10 to 20 sites a month.  You could easily earn 2,000 to 4,000 but just doing this alone.  Try Niche Store Builder

Some Unique Product Business Ideas

Thought about selling ebooks and downloadable products on eBay?  They look great however there is a science to it.  The first time I tried I gave up after not making any profit for a month.  However after reading John Thornhill's "Powerseller In 90 Days" ebook and joining his ebook membership site I was able to turn this into a very profitable line of hot selling products.  He has mastered selling downloadble products like ebooks and makes a tremendous income from them and he is generous enough to give you all of his products, his support and a complete memebers forum.  If you are contemplating selling ebooks then this is the package you want.  He is incredible and very helpful. Not only that John is lving proof that it works as he is a powerseller and makes a great income each and every month.  Try PlanetSMS membership site for selling ebooks and downloadable products.

 Mags To Riches is another interesting and unique way to find products to sell on eBay.  This lady has created a very profitable eBay business by finding old magazines and books and then tearing them apart and selling parts of them for $4.00 to $20.00 each.  While I have not tried this one myself yet it looks like a very unqiue idea with very little competition and something with very low start up costs.  If I were a brand new seller looking for products I would try this one for sure.  Check out Mags to Riches

Grand Stage Selling is a wonderful ebook that give the ins and outs of how Rob Frechette built his eBay business to a 2.2 million a year business.  He now sells over 50,000 items a month on eBay and believe me this guy knows how to create a profitable business.  His ebook is very insightful and has a lot of great information. 

Alex Jeffery has taken an interesting technique that is 100% legal and complies with eBay terms and serves to create a tremondous amount of traffic and money.  He has earned over 110,000 with this one technique that he uses.  Please be aware though this is not just selling on eBay it is more an internet marketing business.  Nonetheless his ideas are very profitable and unique give it a try.  

Last but definetly not the least is something that I felt compelled to post as it is such a unique idea.  This ebook or guide is called Side Show Auctions.  Of coruse this is from the side shows or freak shows that used to happen at the roving circus where you can see the two headed man or some midget etc.  There is a quickly growing trend of selling unique and weird stuff on eBay.  However if you doubt that this is pofitable just take the one example provided on the sales page.  This one guy sold a plastic cup from "Dunkin' Donuts" for  2,000 dollars and he got an incredible 35 bids for the cup.  This book or guide looks at selling the strange and unusual thigns on eBay and helps come up with some ways to generate your own unique side show auctions.  Great ideas and very unique selling and unique business try out Side Show Auctions.

You can also check on my Sell On eBay blog here.