Selling On eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and Other Auction Sites
Selling items on eBay (and other auction sites) is one of the hottest ways of making money online. It's a great way to make money from home. You can sell on eBay as a side gig or you can turn eBay sales into a very lucrative business.
One of the best things about eBay is that you can make a serious income from home without a website or mailing list. Another big benefit is that you don't even have to drive traffic to your listings as eBay generates traffic for you.
A big advantage of selling on eBay and other auction sites is that they provide you with a steady stream of traffic and give you easy access to a huge number of buyers all over the world.
Some people are selling on eBay part-time to supplement their income. And many people make a full-time income selling on eBay (including myself). Some are making $5,000-$25,000+ per month. I personally make a very good living on eBay in a niche market.
If you love thrift-store finds garage sales, and estate sales, selling on eBay can be a fun and profitable side hustle. It's perfect for moms, parents, retired people, students, and just about anyone.
Many people start out selling things they have around the house that they don't need anymore. You can make extra money doing that.
But to make really good money on eBay, you'll have to sell additional items. You can buy wholesale items to sell. You can buy items on eBay and resell them for a profit. You can buy items from garage sales, thrift store,s and estate sales. The possibilities are endless.
Selling products on eBay can generate a full-time income and give you a flexible schedule.
You’ll need to do some research to see what's selling well, decide what you want to sell, and find products to sell. You also have to create compelling listings with the right keywords, attractive descriptions, and great pictures. And you have to store inventory and ship (unless you sell drop shipped items).
I suggest starting out selling a few inexpensive items. And once you have some positive feedback from buyers, then you can gradually move up to more expensive items.
My story
I am an Ebay Powerseller and have been making a 6 figure income from eBay every year for the last 10 years.
I buy the products I'm selling on eBay. You have to invest some money when doing it this way and you have to store inventory. You'll also have to know what sells before buying larger amounts of inventory but you can make much bigger profits this way. I didn't have much money when I started. I started with one item and kept re-investing the profits in inventory for a while. My business was profitable even in the first year.
About one-third of my current inventory are new products I buy directly from a manufacturer at wholesale prices and the rest are items (mostly expensive vintage items) I buy on eBay and resell on eBay at a very good profit. I only buy quality items.
Some sellers don't know the value of the items they're selling and seriously underprice them.
The key is to find quality products that are in demand and buy them at a good price so that you can sell them with a good markup. I can often double and sometimes even triple the price. So, for example, I'll pay $1,000 for an item that I can resell for $2,000.
It might take some trial and error before you find the right kind of inventory and before you’ll make the kind of money you want to make. But if you stick with it until you’ve learned what sells, an eBay business can provide you with a great income, flexibility, and lifestyle.
My tips:
I found that expensive products are easier to sell than inexpensive ones. And it takes the same amount of work and time to sell cheap and expensive items. If an item hasn't sold for a while, I often sell it immediately when I raise the price! This works in the luxury market I'm targeting but probably won't work for lower-priced products. My typical items sell between $750 and $3,000. I also have some items in the $4,000-$6,000 range. I even sold an item for $12,500 and the buyer didn't even ask a question before buying it.
If you buy items on eBay to resell, try to make them better and make them look better. For example, if you sell expensive used leather cowboy boots, clean them, polish them, and even take them to a shoemaker to put on new heels if needed. I did that my first year on eBay and I made several hundreds of dollars profit per sale. (NOTE: Don't do this today. The boots were selling for around $800-$1,000 at that time but prices are much lower today).
You can find valuable items at low prices on eBay. Often, the seller doesn't know the value of the items they're selling. Or they don't even know what the item is for. They may have inherited some items. Or they don't think they can get high prices on eBay. Also, many people don't use the right keywords. For example, if someone is listing a Toyota part and you know it's a Rolls Royce part, you can buy it for a great price and sell it at a very good profit.
Several years before I started selling on eBay, I wrote a resume for someone who was selling pens and watches on eBay. He made around $20,000-$25,000/month in sales but his markup was very low and his profits were less than $4,000 a month. I can't even imagine the number of shipping labels he had to print and put on packages. You would have to be very organized to deal with that shipping volume.
He couldn't raise his prices because he had too many competitors. He was applying for jobs because the items he was selling were too competitive, his markup was too small, and his eBay income was too volatile. His wife is now running the eBay business and he got a job to get a more stable income.
If you're in a competitive market and have a low markup, then your profit margin can quickly change if your competitors are lowering their prices.
The lessons to learn from this:
- Don't sell the same things that everyone else sells. If someone finds a cheaper supplier or buys larger quantities to get cheaper prices, and cuts the prices, your sales and profits will suffer. Instead, you want to sell unique items at a good profit.
- Don't sell inexpensive items. It's a lot of work to print shipping labels and pack and ship the number of items you need to sell to make some profits if you selling cheap items. And you'll have more customer service issues too.
- Have a good markup. Some people in my niche are selling similar products and are only making 20% profits while I make 1oo% and higher profits on most items. They sell a few more items than I do but they have to work much harder and make less profits.
- Use the right keywords in your title and descriptions so that people will find you. For example, if someone is looking for a Mercedes radiator, they will search specifically for their car model. For example, they'll search for a Mercedes W113 280 SL radiator and not just for a Mercedes radiator.
- Take good pictures – especially if you're selling high-priced items. I typically put around 40 pictures in my listings, If you're selling inexpensive items, you can get away with two to four good pictures.
- Take advantage of eBay’s tutorials and free customer service.
Resources:
- eBay
- Etsy.
If you don’t have an eBay account yet, sign up for a free account and take a test drive! It's not difficult. And eBay's customer service is great to help you out with any questions you may have.
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