Ebay...... How Do People Do It?

[SteveS]

I don't understand how one can successfully sell on ebay. Well, I get the basic premise of it, as I have tried it before. However, the issue I struggled with is being able to find the right sources for the product. I was able to find the sources for products sometimes, but a lot of the time I was unable to find a source cheap enough to make the whole thing profitable at my end. Frankly, I just don't see how this aspect works. I was able to sell the products, I just wasn't able to find the right source for them to make it profitable. Sorry I am very new to being self employed. I know this is probably a dumb question but I simply am very new to this whole thing.

[turboguy]

Are you wanting to make a living selling on eBay or just pick up some extra cash?

I have sold stuff on eBay a little but never was very serious about it. I used to sell gas powered water pumps on there and did well. I have occasionally sold the products we manufacture on there but haven't done that lately.

My son sells on there just to pick up some extra money. He goes to garage and yard sales and looks for things that he can resell at a nice profit. He picked up one necklace for a few bucks that he sold for $ 5,000 and a painting for less than a hundred that he sold for thousands. He also has a vintage jewelry web site that generates some sales for him.

I had a friend who was unemployed for a while and survived hitting close out at stores, buying bargains and reselling them on eBay.

If you are wanting to be more serious and have the cash to get into it in a big way you could source some low priced products from China. One option is to sign up on Alibaba and you can get access to lots of low priced Chinese stuff.

Just as an example of some of the bargains you can find in China I am doing my largest trade show of the year in less than two weeks. There are always manufacturers from China looking to sell in the USA. It is a lawn and garden/landscaper show but the booth next to me last year was the manufacturer of this sweeper.

24" Walk Behind Sweeper Self Propelled Power Brush Broom Industrial Gas Engine | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/24-Walk-Behind-Sweeper-Self-Propelled-Power-Brush-Broom-Industrial-Gas-Engine-/291754664773?hash=item43edeee345:g:SZMAAOSww9VXhlS t)

If I wanted to buy those and sell them on eBay my cost would be $ 310.00 plus shipping.

I actually came out pretty good from having the booth next to them. They didn't want to ship anything back to China and when the show was over they had two pieces left, an electric powered wheelbarrow very similar to the one I am linking to below and a commercial grade brush and grass mower that would sell for $ 1500.00 or so here. He told me that if I bought the wheelbarrow for $ 120.00 he would give me the mower. I bought the wheelbarrow and he gave me the mower. About 30 minutes after he left someone was looking at the wheelbarrow and I sold it to him for $ 175.00 and brought the mower home and we use it at our factory.

The sweeper I posted was the exact one they manufacture, the wheelbarrow I they had was very similar but not identical to this one.

Paw Electric Power Wheelbarrow | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAW-Electric-Power-Wheelbarrow-/231341673598?hash=item35dd09cc7e:g:KzwAAOSwEK9UIX5 4)

Things like mowers and sweepers may not interest you but there are a million different things you can buy from China and resell on eBay.

[Harold Mansfield]

There's millions of products on the world and equally many places to get them from, or some come straight from the manufacture. My point is you seem to be speaking of a specific product. If you can't find a source, then I guess you sell something else.

What I don't understand about the kind of eBay selling you're talking about is just finding something to sell, rather than having a specific idea or product and selling it. Or targeting a niche market with niche products. Surely if you can buy knick-knacks and cheap electronics from a manufacturer, turn around mark it up and post it on eBay, anyone could. So how is that viable unless you can buy in bulk cheaper than everyone and undercut the competition?
Otherwise it just seems futile. Maybe I'm wrong.

[mgmidget]

The hardest part is sourcing the product to sell. If you become even mildly successful, you'll find a load of people start selling the product (either from within the US or remotely from China). What this means if you need to constantly be ahead of the curve expanding your product line. In short, don't just sit back and get fat, dumb and happy!

[PZagotti@ZnBcpa.com]

Hi Steve,

People are making good money on staple items in competitive categories.
The reason they are able to survive is because retail is more then just sourcing at the cheapest price.

People can get the same item from multiple vendors on eBay or Amazon at roughly the same price.
Why / how do they choose the specific vendor over all the others?

You see price is an element to be considered but the marketing aspect is also very important.
So pictures, ratings, online store quality and selection, quality of your product copy / description.

All these things work together create a strategic advantage for those who understand how to do it correctly.

There are some really good podcast out there to help educate people trying to sell online.
It might be worth your time to find and listen to a few podcast to get a better understanding of what your competitors are doing and what you need to do to compete.

Thanks

[Harold Mansfield]

Hi Steve,

People are making good money on staple items in competitive categories.
The reason they are able to survive is because retail is more then just sourcing at the cheapest price.

People can get the same item from multiple vendors on eBay or Amazon at roughly the same price.
Why / how do they choose the specific vendor over all the others?

You see price is an element to be considered but the marketing aspect is also very important.
So pictures, ratings, online store quality and selection, quality of your product copy / description.



I have to agree with this wholeheartedly. Too many people think all they need to do is plop something up. They have no understanding of sales, marketing, or even the consumer or their target market. And most refuse to learn. They beat their heads against the wall trying to prove that everyone is like them and none of "that stuff" is necessary. So they fail.

[brunoart]

Have you tried to sell digital products on eBay, like ebooks, courses and videos etc?

This can be a good alternative to try, because this way you can list the number of items in a short time and Therefore find out which of these products give better results in less time.

Extra tip: Search ebooks which are selling better and seek other ebooks that you can resell related to them.

You can search for example "free PLR ebooks or resale rights ebooks or mmr ebooks" on google.

[nickl]

Marketing is not necessarily required with eBay. It without a doubt helps, but if you have a decent title and pictures to attract people to the sale, that's 80% of the work done. Even just formatting very basic description can be okay if the product is not a branded one. There's plenty of free eBay HTML listing sites where you can create great looking templates for the description. Try free trial of: CrazyLister which I have found to be one of the best, bet plenty are out there you don't have to pay subscription fee for.

I'd recommend looking on one of the Chinese sites to source product, but, do it the other way round, don't find a product to sell then try push it.... Take a good amount of time to look on eBay to see what's popular and selling fast, then try source this from the likes of DH gate, Aliexpress, Alibaba etc. It will take a lot of research but good sellers can be found and sometimes with the new products good money can be made. Watch out to check competetion regularly though as generally eBay is mostly about price and people WILL undercut you. When you lose momentum and sales fall then you can struggle to compete again as you fall down the 'Best Match' search lists due to sell volume. DO NOT go for any branded knock-offs from these Chinese sites as you'll just end up possibly getting listing pulled and left with a tonne of stock, people complaining as quality is not in line with retail product, or a liability case from the official manufacturer.

The best products are probably around the £10 sales region that you can fit in a large letter (<2.5cm thickness) as you can store them very easily, pre-pack loads of sales to keep posting easy, and shipping will only cost £0.83 if you are franking labels but a bit more with 1st class stamps.

If you want any specific tips, let me know.
Nick

[crc518]

Used/second hand items, electronics especially can have great margins. I owned a pawnshop and sold on ebay for years and made an absolute killing, however I believe you are talking about buying product in bulk wholesale and reselling on ebay which is extremely tough in my opinion. Anything that's worth selling, the chinese are already selling at a fraction of the price or huge companies are allowing people to advertise for them and them drop ship the goods without ever having possession. These people are making peanuts, but happy because they literally have to do nothing, but make a dutch auction, add a photo, collect funds, fill orders and enter ones address and let the actual company do the rest.

[vendoya]

Try to sell handmade haitian metal art. Get them at ~22 usd for 24" pieces with small wholesale and check how they sold everywhere especially at amazon at 70-80 usd per piece. I know guy who earns with this at least 30-50k per month and most of money he get with amazon.

[Fulcrum]

Try to sell handmade haitian metal art. Get them at ~22 usd for 24" pieces with small wholesale and check how they sold everywhere especially at amazon at 70-80 usd per piece. I know guy who earns with this at least 30-50k per month and most of money he get with amazon.

Won't work for everybody. Like most art, these sales will drop off quick once the market is saturated (maybe faster if the "save the environment" people realize how these are made).

[vendoya]

Won't work for everybody. Like most art, these sales will drop off quick once the market is saturated (maybe faster if the "save the environment" people realize how these are made).
They are done in extremely poverty, this is fact. They are done all by hands and its hard work. Its low profit according to US standards. But its very good job according to Haitian reality. For many people probably its the only opportunity they see to mantain their own life and also the life of their families. Many of them do agriculture and its not much easier, while there they paid even less. They accept as real bless when they get any order for artworks.

More than 95% of the arts that I have seen simply doesnt sell. It means sometimes people can buy it, yes, but its hard to make a serious business with it. If you start a local shop with such kind of arts that doesnt sell, soon at some moment you will find probably it would be better to close the shop and to put photos of remaining products somewhere in internet and just to forget about those pieces until probably one day someone dedicated to the specific subject will buys something. People tends to love things they can use, such as jewelry, no matter if its handmade jewelry or not, they buy it if generally they like it. But still there is a kind of pure arts that sells, this may apply both for countries, regions and/or almost whole world. For example, I notices Russian nesting dolls (matryoshka) are appreciated in most of countries of the world, including Asian countries, Middle East, just probably I'm not that sure about black Africa. Within all Europe and both Americas as the most, people know them very well, they love them and they buy them well, I do not tell that customers for sure will buy any matryoshka doll for any price you put, but as per general its the product that sells well. Yes, you can do a real and serious business if you use matryoshka dolls as one of your main products. This is really not something new at all, and I bet absolutely nothing will change with them after 2 or 5 or 20 years.

I see something similar with some other art products and I see the same with Haitian metal art pieces. I live in South America. Here people doesnt care too much about Haiti, including they are not surprised too much with poverty, its more far away, so they simply dont care. Still they simply like metal pieces, especially certain models of the trees of life, and that is why they buy them. Other moment, "save the environment" people they usually more speak than do, its hard to find them as any good base for the business. The people should generally like the product, then they also should find the price affordable, no matter if its art. If you sell online, they also need to fill security. Thus, if you run some kind of crafts-related shop, simply try to put few Haitian metal trees of life outside of the shop on the wall and you will find people again and again stopping and telling one to other phases like "so beautiful", you will hear this many many many times per day, and they will ask you about pieces many times. While probably most of them still will not be thinking to buy it, when you see such attitude, in the same moment you understand yes this product sells, and then very soon you confirm yes it sells. Now try to do the same, for example, with Haitian paintings. With all respect to the people who paint them, I understand yes they might sell them locally to the tourists, but if you start to import this product, you will not hear single compliment during days and neither you will see sales. The same will happens for example with haitian wooden pieces, as they are simply not a kind of product that really sells. Again, I do not speak that for sure you will sell any metal piece for any price you put, but believe me yes you can do real business with haitian metal art if you use it as your main product, or one of you products. There are not only crafts shops and fairies, but also many plant nurseries and home/garden decorating companies who are also selling them. Again, a kind of "no sales" will happens with 95% of arts, if not more. But still within all arts there is a kind of arts that sells.

The difference between, for example, matryoshka dolls and haitian metal art, the actual margin of profit is very different. There are huge amount of providers and sellers for Russian dolls, and there is real and honest competition, thus the margin of profit is low. Mind, this happens with almost any kind of art products that sells, as well as any other products, art is really not something too special. But for Haitian products there are only few bad providers who declare themselves as "fair trade", while they are increasing the price really too much, they actually pay to artists some very minimal amount, but then they increase price per few or several times even for wholesale and like 7-10 times for retail. I guess exactly here its the main root of problem, and not within the hard work the poor people do.

I understand very well the origin of above problem, but its a little different subject. The fact if you take the piece that cost 22 usd (24" tree of life) already with shipping to your home and then simply put it above the dishonest retailer on amazon, I speak about the product with almost 300 reviews, you will start to receive many sales almost instantly with dublicating your investments. Because if they are using to put the price 70-80 dollars, and right now you put lets say 50 dollars, after paying all fees you dublicate your investments. You might be aware, for well-selling products there on amazon people usually struggle for really very small margin in profit, which is much less than +100%. Yes, this can change with the time, simply margin of the profit can go down until certain reasonable level, but right now its simply like this. Why I speak and I dont do this by myself, because I do not live in USA.

[Fulcrum]

Don't get me wrong about the artists - they are talented. The items themselves are part of a fad that will over time saturate the market and will "burn out".

When I mention the environmental side, it's more pointing at those in North America who would ship their waste oil to Hati (when done in bulk it's probably cheaper than disposal up here), have the drums burned clean (smog and carbon anyone?), use what appears to be substandard wages and working conditions (compared to what we have to pay and supply here), and turn around and sell folk art under the guise of helping the artists and Hati as a whole. These same people will often make the most noise when it comes to pollution reduction and government spending on "green" initiatives.

[andyhallmen]

Many people are doing business through the ebay by selling own product or other branded product. It is one of the best platform through which people will earn good amount. I and our family is also selling hand made candle, designer candle and many different types of candle. We all are earning good amount and our business are expanding day by day.