Quick guide to making some beer money.
Hey Guys,
Seen a few posts recently to do with ebay so thought i'd post something I did to make a little beer money a couple of years back that still will work just as good today.
I'm sure most people here are familiar with the vast range of products being sold on ebay from china. You can go to sites like Alibaba.com - The world's largest online B2B marketplace. and see these exact products for sale on import. Problem is that the companies selling the products to you wholesale are the same companies selling directly on ebay and the price they quote once all fees etc have been paid doesn't leave much margin at all.
I stumbled onto the idea im about to tell you about when I got annoyed to see the company supplying me a mp4 player in bulk had actually let some sell on ebay at a cheaper rate than I had paid on 1000 of them! This made me investigate the way they sell them and I saw a way to make a few quid for not much work.
On hot selling products they usually start off with a low bid price and the large majority of these items sell at a higher rate but the odd one will sell for just the initial bid price (which even including postage is usually cheaper than the wholesale price).
Given the choice, most ebayers will be happy to pay a little bit more to receive an item from a seller that is within their own country as opposed to someone in china. All you have to do is pick up these cheap items, re-list them at a premium time of day with a higher minimum bid and you can make £20+ per item easily.
Before you go and start trying to do this manually, read on to find out how to make the whole process a lot more simple and automated.
First off pick an item that is selling well. You can browse the alibaba website putting the titles of the products into ebay and ticking the completed listing box to see how many actually sold. One I just checked is an electronic fishfinder. The majority sell for £30-£40 + postage but the odd one goes for £10 every now and then. No one in the UK is currently selling this item which is good so if i re-list i'll be the only domestic choice for this item.
Now I identified an item I simply go to my favourite sniping software which is auction sentry - Auction Sentry: eBay Auction Sniper Software, snipe eBay, last second bidding software
I search in auction sentry for the exact name of the fish finder and i add every single auction for the next 10 days into it and set the bid time at 6 seconds and the price at £10.
What this software will do is put a £10 bid in the last 6 seconds of every auction. Out of all the weeks auctions I may only win a couple but I will re-list those at a good time of day like to end thursday lunch time or tuesday night (times which I have found to work but im sure there s an ebook somewhere telling the best times).
All I need to do now is copy the original sellers advert and make sure my minimum bid is at a level I will make profit at. If i get the fish finder I will re-list it at £25-30. I could even list it much higher and as I am the only domestic source on ebay of this product people will still purchase it. I will even put a little british flag in the picture of the item to drive this point home.
The whole process of finding this item and setting it up in the software took about 30 minutes. If you have spare time on your hands you can find several hot products. At one point I was turning over £4,000 a week on ebay selling small items priced £20-£90.
Anyway, it wont make you a millionaire but I have seen some posts recently where people have apparently been trying to make money online for over a year and not even made $10, so this post will hopefully give someone their first ever online profit.
Peace Out
Guerrilla
PS it's always worth checking with the manufacturer what their wholesale price is if you find a good selling product, but remember to check for hidden costs. Many will encourage you to try and dodge import tax to close the deal but this can be a costly mistake. Buying items individually usually goes under the radar but when a big box gets shipped out customs pay closer attention.
Seen a few posts recently to do with ebay so thought i'd post something I did to make a little beer money a couple of years back that still will work just as good today.
I'm sure most people here are familiar with the vast range of products being sold on ebay from china. You can go to sites like Alibaba.com - The world's largest online B2B marketplace. and see these exact products for sale on import. Problem is that the companies selling the products to you wholesale are the same companies selling directly on ebay and the price they quote once all fees etc have been paid doesn't leave much margin at all.
I stumbled onto the idea im about to tell you about when I got annoyed to see the company supplying me a mp4 player in bulk had actually let some sell on ebay at a cheaper rate than I had paid on 1000 of them! This made me investigate the way they sell them and I saw a way to make a few quid for not much work.
On hot selling products they usually start off with a low bid price and the large majority of these items sell at a higher rate but the odd one will sell for just the initial bid price (which even including postage is usually cheaper than the wholesale price).
Given the choice, most ebayers will be happy to pay a little bit more to receive an item from a seller that is within their own country as opposed to someone in china. All you have to do is pick up these cheap items, re-list them at a premium time of day with a higher minimum bid and you can make £20+ per item easily.
Before you go and start trying to do this manually, read on to find out how to make the whole process a lot more simple and automated.
First off pick an item that is selling well. You can browse the alibaba website putting the titles of the products into ebay and ticking the completed listing box to see how many actually sold. One I just checked is an electronic fishfinder. The majority sell for £30-£40 + postage but the odd one goes for £10 every now and then. No one in the UK is currently selling this item which is good so if i re-list i'll be the only domestic choice for this item.
Now I identified an item I simply go to my favourite sniping software which is auction sentry - Auction Sentry: eBay Auction Sniper Software, snipe eBay, last second bidding software
I search in auction sentry for the exact name of the fish finder and i add every single auction for the next 10 days into it and set the bid time at 6 seconds and the price at £10.
What this software will do is put a £10 bid in the last 6 seconds of every auction. Out of all the weeks auctions I may only win a couple but I will re-list those at a good time of day like to end thursday lunch time or tuesday night (times which I have found to work but im sure there s an ebook somewhere telling the best times).
All I need to do now is copy the original sellers advert and make sure my minimum bid is at a level I will make profit at. If i get the fish finder I will re-list it at £25-30. I could even list it much higher and as I am the only domestic source on ebay of this product people will still purchase it. I will even put a little british flag in the picture of the item to drive this point home.
The whole process of finding this item and setting it up in the software took about 30 minutes. If you have spare time on your hands you can find several hot products. At one point I was turning over £4,000 a week on ebay selling small items priced £20-£90.
Anyway, it wont make you a millionaire but I have seen some posts recently where people have apparently been trying to make money online for over a year and not even made $10, so this post will hopefully give someone their first ever online profit.
Peace Out
Guerrilla
PS it's always worth checking with the manufacturer what their wholesale price is if you find a good selling product, but remember to check for hidden costs. Many will encourage you to try and dodge import tax to close the deal but this can be a costly mistake. Buying items individually usually goes under the radar but when a big box gets shipped out customs pay closer attention.