Make Money Selling on eBay, Deciding What to Sell

How You Can Create A Full-Time Income By Selling On eBay

DECIDE WHAT TO SELL

You can earn a full-time income just by selling stuff on eBay!

Deciding what you want to sell is not as easy as it may seem. There are two main types of items that you can sell. The first and most obvious are those items that are lying around your house that you want to get rid of, you know, all of those CD’s that you don’t listen to anymore, those old toys from your childhood, things like that. These items are great to sell to make some extra money, but they are a one time sale item, meaning once they are sold, they are gone and so is your chance at a recurring income.

The second category of items that you can sell is a set of products that you create or buy in order to sell them. These can be a great source of income. Things as simple as your mother’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies, or disk or book about Beanie Babies. These types of items are things you can sell over and over again. They may not bring in as much per item as let’s say a laptop, but you can sell them in great quantities. Let’s look at each of these item types in a little more detail.

ONE OF A KIND ITEMS - ITEMS THAT YOU OWN

First, we’ll take a look at the one of a kind items. These are the items that are taking up space in your closet, the things that you bought and don’t have a use for anymore, or the things you’ve gotten as presents that have never been taken out of the box. These items can put some fast cash in your pocket, as well as open up some much-needed space in your closets.

There is really no limit to the type of things that you currently own that you can auction off. Just by taking a look at an auction web site, you will see people selling everything from toys, computer equipment, photo equipment, beanie babies, books, clothing, and even automobiles and homes! I, personally, have even sold partially empty bottles of perfume as I no longer enjoyed the scent, however, someone else could still use and enjoy the fragrance. As you can see, your choices for what you can actually sell are unlimited!

ITEMS YOU CAN SELL IN QUANTITY

Now, let’s take a look at the other type of items. These are the items that you can sell in quantity. These can be things that you purchase in quantity, maybe at a wholesale price, in order to sell. There are also a lot of collectibles that are widely available in certain areas that aren’t available worldwide with a great resale market. These can be sports figures, dolls, trading cards, beanie babies, etc. Anything that you can buy and sell at a modest profit is fair game.

How-to manuals, reports, and Reference books are great items to sell in quantity. They are not always easy to put together, but the payoff comes when you are finished. Not only can you sit back and feel good that you have accomplished something, you can not sell that one item over and over again. Printing costs are low, and you can feel good making money by helping other people accomplish something that is important to them. Remember people on eBay expect low prices. Better to sell 100 reports for $5 than 20 for $10.

HOW TO DECIDE WHAT TO SELL

How do you decide what types of items that you want to sell? Well, there are a few different ways to do this. The first thing I would do is make a list of the items that you are considering selling. Look at the items, and write down information such as a description of the item, what you paid for it, the condition it is in, etc. Being very specific here will help you greatly if you deicide to list any of these items for auction. Sometimes the smallest details can mean much greater prices and much greater profits for you.

Now, take your list; sit down at your computer and search eBay for the types of items that you have come up with. This may not be effective for that one of a kind Babe Ruth autograph. However, for about 95% of the things you want to sell, however, it should give you a pretty good idea of the market value of the item, as well as consumer interest.

So get on your computer and go to the auction web site. Click on the area where it says “SEARCH” and when the search box pops up, type a relevant term. For example, if you want to know what ELVIS PRESLEY’S GREATEST HIT’S CD is worth, type “ELVIS PRESLEY” in the title. If you’re looking into selling your Kodak Easyshare Camera, simply type “Kodak Camera” into the search categories at eBay.

As you can see, with searching for the proper words, it is very simple to see if the types of items you want to sell are already being sold at auctions. When you find the listings, you can learn a few very important things. The first is, you can get a good idea on what the market price is. By seeing what other people have sold similar items for, you can decide whether or not you want to sell the item, as well as what you should expect to get for the item when it sells. When you search, you can look at auctions that have recently been completed, as well as current ones, to see what items similar to yours are bringing in for other people. After you find out all of this good information, you now have an idea of what you should bring in for selling your items.

The other thing you will learn by searching the web site for other similar products is the amount of people that want the type of item that you are selling. The auction web site lists the amount of bids along with all of its items. This will tell you how many people are bidding on those items. Obviously, if you have fifty different people bidding on an item, it’s a lot more apt to bring in money than an item that is being bid on by only one or two people. This is not an iron-clad rule though, since you only need one bidder to make money on an item and some people wait until the very last day of the auction to bid on the item. Therefore, remember to check completed listings to see what other similar items have sold for in the past.

The best way to get started in the market of buying and selling is to decide how much money you can afford to invest right off the bat. I would recommend starting with at least two hundred dollars or so to begin with.

Then you need to decide exactly what you want to buy and sell. Your choices here are virtually unlimited, as you have already seen. Here’s a good way to begin. If you have a hobby, or an expertise that gives you and edge in a particular field, use it to your advantage. If you know computers, you might want to buy and sell computer equipment. If you are a camera nut, then maybe photographic equipment. Remember, if you have an edge over 90% of the other people at the auction site, you will probably be able to spot a bargain that you can buy and then re-sell at a profit.

Another way to find good items to buy and sell is to check out the auction web site to see what other people are buying and selling. Just because someone else is selling the product like yours does not mean that you should not try marketing your own version of it. As a matter of a fact, just the opposite is true. After all, if someone is already successful selling something, you probably can be too. Imagine that everyone looked at the first car and said, “gee what a great idea…too bad it’s been done, no need for me to try.” We would all be driving Model A’s if that was the case.

Finally, you can be extremely successful selling items you produce on your own. Things like grandma’s recipes, a “how-to” manual on changing your oil, etc. These are the items that can offer you immense profits. I know you are asking “what kind of item can I produce?” It’s simple, look at what you are good at an use it. If you make the best pasties in town, sell your recipe. If you’re the guy everyone calls when they can’t figure out how to do something on their computer, write a how-to manual on that. Look at all of the “for dummies” books on the store shelves. They sell like crazy, because everyone needs help to tell them how to do something. So take what you are good at and MARKET IT! People will gladly pay for information that they really need.

So use your imagination. Examine your unique talents. Look at what products are in demand. It really is the simple ideas that can change your life forever.

Watch for the next installment in this series of eBay Seller’s Secrets, Tips & Strategies
Part 2, Creating the Perfect Ad - The Title Gets You Noticed

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