Advanced eBay techniques

Ebay is not easy. Stay clear of dropshippers. Very hard to make money with them because everyone uses them and the profit is slim.

That sounds almost impossible.

Whoever sells on eBay in the first place is looking at a small profit margin, if any. You then further reduce your profit margin by reselling it again with even more fees.

You see where I'm going with this one...

Try ordering wholesale good instead.

Ebay is easy if you just copycat people exactly like I use to do.

Example, a couple years back (3 actually) I found a women on ebay selling poppy pods and making a killing. So I typed in "buy poppy pods wholesale". Wound up stocking up on them cheap and buying a whole lot.

Then I went to her ebay page and started messaging all her customers, and on her facebook and messaging her customers, then on a forum she advertised and waited till her ad expired (end of the month) and negotiated to put my ad there.

I WANTED to put this woman out of business because she was ripping people off in a way that you just can't really imagine unless you knew. She was paying $25 per box she sold, and selling them for $125! So what actually put her out of business, was when I dropped the price of mine to $79 a box. I stole all her customers, all her business, and do not have a single moral reservation about doing so.

I had been stalking this woman for a good year or so because my mother used her for a long time. She was always complaining about the price, and apparently there is a huge demand for these stupid things too. It wound up being an excellent business decision at the time, profited $40,000 in less than 6 months. Then poppy pods got banned, and of course you can't sell them now, and it was then that I realized why so many people bought the damn things, they got high off them.

My mom just used them for floral decorations though. Never touched a drug her whole life. If those pods didn't get banned, I'd be a lot wealthier today, but not sure if I could have followed through knowing what I know today. People actually get addicted to them, and thats why the market was so lucrative apparently. There is still no laws against selling them (ebay banned them), just that the FEDS monitor them now and keep a close eye on people selling them. Way too risky these days but in the past you could make a fortune selling those things on ebay.

No more today. But figured I'd just voice this little story.

eBay is not easy at all, especially as the greedy *****s have just put up commissions, and reduced benefits of top performers greatly.

Best bet is to look at sites like www.tamebay.com, www.selllingguru.info, and www.powersellerforums.com for info and tips.

Good luck!

Personally, I just don't like to deal with physical merchandise and shipping and all that.

What I've seen someone do is find a good product on Overstock.com: Online Shopping - Bedding, Furniture, Electronics, Jewelry, Clothing & more and then sell it on ebay with a marked up price.

This way o.co handles the shipping and all return go back through them as well.

Thanks guys for the info, I guess you spared me some frustrations and disappointments...:-)

I'll look to start from somewhere else.

have a look at terapeak, it is a website specifically set up to show you how to research what is hot on ebay.

Ebay is still number 1, even though their fees are incredibly high. You should consider a site like "ioffer".

And oh, if you are going to sell on ebay... make sure you market to your customers via email once every 1-2 weeks.

Hi

What you are talking about is known as 'arbitrage'.

Buying and reselling on eBay
You can buy stuff on eBay for a lower price and then sell it again on eBay at a higher price.

To do this consistently you need to know your market. Look for items that have poor pictures and descriptions, are described incorrectly or are simply ending at a bad time and go for lower values.

Resell the item by using a better picture, better title and description etc. to make maximum value.

I have done this with Iron Maiden t-shirts.

Last year, I bought an old Iron Maiden 1985 Canada tour shirt for $37 and sold it for $86 a month later. If it wasn't worn to the point of having holes it would be a lot more.

There is a $100+ shirt on sale right now for about $10. Hard to find because it is on eBay UK, poorly titled, no detailed description and no large pictures. It can probably be had pretty cheap and resold fairly quickly for $100. The auction ends tomorrow, I may get in on it.

Things like collectibles that have a subjective value can be profitable if you know the market. But watch for counterfeits. Again, you need to know the market.

Buying somewhere else then selling on eBay for more
You can often find products on other discount sites like Overstock and then resell the items on eBay for a profit.

When looking at the search results on eBay check the "Completed Listings" box. Look to see if the items sells regularly and what it sells for. If you can find something selling well on eBay that you can buy somewhere else you can make money.

Last Christmas Overstock had a sale on Rachael Ray knife sets for $79 that were selling like hotcakes on eBay for $100-120.


Takes Work
To make this a viable business you need to work very hard finding items and relisting them. Every penny counts and all your costs including eBay fees, shipping, etc. need to be considered.

I do this for things I know well. I am always shopping Iron Maiden shirts so if I see a bargain, I'll jump in.

Around Christmas, I'll start surfing for sales at places like Overstock and see if the same item is selling well on eBay.

I don't do this as a regular business, only once in a while when I see an opportunity.

Mahlon

The simple theory of buy low and sell high still works but you have to source from other auction sites instead of eBay. If you source from eBay and reselling in eBay, then the chance is very slim.

I buy stuff on ebay that is wholesale. Then I break up the packages. I don't make a lot, but it's money for rainy days.

Buying from eBay and selling again on eBay may work if you are buying in wholesale lots and breaking and then reselling it. Which obviously is some hard work but will pay off as you scale.

It definitely takes time to find those profitable wholesale lots on ebay. Alot of businesses are selling "wholesale" goods at retail prices. But there are plenty of deals to be had if you research and know what you are looking for.

You have to source from China and resell on eBay. Old school methods don't work anymore.

Well I believe the key to this method is buying in bulk(wholesale lots) on ebay. For example, you may be able to buy 100 mens trimmers for $299. You can resell them individually for $6 each and nearly double your money....but you need to do your research first to understand the product you're looking at....

I would suggest conducting a search on ebay for "wholesale lot" look at the items that the search returns, find something interesting, then search for that product again on ebay to see if it's being sold individually...if there's a nice profit margin then you have a deal....

I still make a fantastic income from eBay.

Is called arbitrage. I buy second hand products where the seller doesn't know the value in what they've got, buy it for next to nothing and sell it for huge markup.

Sites like goofbay.com make it really easy to make money by searching for spelling mistakes etc.

I make approx £40,000 GBP a year doing this.

eBay is easy if you have the imagination....

There is a good WSO on here called "Ebay arbitrage" do a search for it if you are serious on improving your ebay skills

I'm selling lots of info products on ebay, look at my eBay store:

0.99 Bargain, Online Business items in AuctionSifu store on eBay!

You can check out some of my sales on my blog too...

Sales & Financial Proof | auctionsifublog

Besides selling on eBay, I also build a list of subscribers from eBay after they've bought something from me :-)