Making money or earning a living on on ebay is no big secret, everywhere you look on the internet these days someone is advertising a book or article on how to make big bucks by selling on ebay. If your looking to just make a living and being indepedent from the 9 to 5 boss over your shoulder grind this is an excellent way to achieve your independence. I was very lucky to have met someone who patiently held my hand and pointed me in the right directions and was very liberal with her tips and secrets on success. The main rule of thumb was "KEEP IT SIMPLE". Over night success is a very rare thing to achieve but simple time and patience is easy to accomplish. I started by selling things that I found at yard sales like pottery or costume jewelry always keeping notes on the things I was seeing like holiday articles, christmas or holloween decorations and selling these articles at the appropriate times for a guaranteed sale at a profit(always posting at the price I paid or higher). Always check the "for free" box at the end of the driveway - you would be surprised at what you find.
One of the most important and priceless tips you will ever get is this RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH !!! Log into ebay and surf and explore. Look at whats selling on a regular basis and what its selling for on average - keep notes it helps!
Auctions are another great place to secure a lot of stuff at low prices. Anyone who attends a lot of auctions will agree with me - you can pick up a box full of stuff for $1 to $2 bucks and make huge profits - but know what your looking for! I picked up 13 older computers at one auction at 50 cents each opened up the computers took out the CPU's and memory cards and made sold them on ebay for $201.50, not bad for a $6.50 investment!
One of the first questions someone asks me is "how much do you average per day?", well it differs, I post at least a minumum of 10 items a day, products that I know will sell for at least $10 bucks per item, sometimes they sell for more but they have never gone for less because I've done my home work (remember that research tip!!)these items are always in demand no matter what! If you can pick up a $250 dollar item for $10 even if its used well thats a no brainer.
I was out yard saleing last summer and stumbled on a zip lock bag of costume jewelry for $1.25, as I was picking it over at home I was writing down the different makers names: Avon, Monet, ect. and researching what it was going for on ebay and 2 pieces had the name of Mariam Hakell, on them. These 2 pieces sold for a total of $34 and change, the rest of the jewelry went into large lot that I posted ( 47 pcs) and sold for $89, pretty good investment of $1.25!
People are always asking me if they can make copies of my lists or if I would publish my lists and I always say no for a reason, I've worked hard and put in a lot of hours compileing my lists. When I made up my mind to accomplish this goal of independence I put in a lot of time and research to get there, that and I dont need the competition for the same items that I'm on the hunt for.
All the ebay books in the world can teach you how to sell on ebay but why pay for information thats free on the internet? If you do want to spend the time to sell someones products on ebay and spend the long hours it takes to up keep your store - have at it, I'm perfectly happy keeping it simple and doing it well and best of all I'm having fun.
Happy trails. straightshooter.