by Mike Gibson

Created on: May 05, 2009

I have spent the last few years selling many different products on eBay. Some have been pretty successful some have not. I have learned a lot though, especially from the items that didn't work out to well. The bottom line to making money on eBay is that you have to buy low and sell high.
This seems obvious enough, but I mean buy really low and sell substantially higher. When you get right down to it, eBay is a lot of work you have to research your product, write a listing, take photos, upload the photos, calculate shipping.. the list goes on and on. If you're only making a few dollars on each item that you sell, you will find that you have created a below minimum wage job for yourself! You do not want to follow Walmart's business model on eBay, which is to sell a million products at very low profit margins but make a profit based on the quantity of products that you sell.

There are basically two things to keep in mind when looking for products to sell on eBay:

1)
You want to find products that you can obtain very cheaply. This is important not only for your profit but also in case you can't sell the item or can't sell it for what you anticipated.

2)
You want to sell the same or similar kinds of products (or at least several similar products). This way you can use a template, similar shipping costs, the same shipping materials and spend less time listing items.

So what products fit these requirements? Most likely used products. If you can figure out what used products to acquire chances are you can find them very cheap. What are some examples?

Books. Books are everywhere. Not only that, but books are everywhere and they are CHEAP. I sell used books as the bulk of my online business and I rarely pay more than $2 for a book. I routinely sell these cheap books for over $20 and many times MUCH higher.

DVDs, CDs, records. I used to include VHS in this list but I haven't been able to give them away lately! The best way to sell used media is to group it together and sell it as a lot.
Either sell it as an entire collection or some type of musical style, movie type, or era. TV show DVDs are usually pretty good sellers to.

Information products.
Information products are hands down the best and usually cheapest products to sell on eBay. The best kind is a product that you develop yourself, such as an eBook, art, or software. To sell these on eBay , you will have to burn the product onto a CD and ship the CD but it doesn't get much cheaper than buying blank CDs!

Where is the best way to find these cheap products? Thrift stores! You want to find the dirtiest, most rundown looking thrift stores in your town and hit them at various times and various days. Some days I won't find anything and others I'll walk out of them with several hundred dollars worth of products! You need to find your niche or niches and in a few months you will be spotting great products that you can buy CHEAP and sell HIGH!

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