I'm ready to start eBay selling!! What should I sell?

[archcommus]

Well, I think I'm ready to start part time eBay selling as a good method of making some dough, probably more than I would get from a normal, minimum wage part time job. I've talked to a lot of people on forums who do it very successfully and make a couple thousand a month from it, but none of them share their secrets or what products they buy and resell, I guess just because they worked for it and don't want to give it away.

So, I need to find the right product to buy and resell. I can either buy it online or at a real store around my home. It needs to be something that I can afford initially (like less than $100 USD), and something that would resell for a decent value (at least 150% of what I bought it for, twice what I paid would be excellent).

Anyone have any ideas on what I should start buying and reselling?

[Manguish]

If people had a great idea to make 150% on everything they can sell, you think they`d tell you?

I don`t think so..........

[spike98]

Think of something crazy! That guy on ebay is selling tinfoil hats for cats. You may think he is nutty but he has sold prolly 100 of them. Each go for $4-$5 USD. Its all a joke but some people think its funny and bid anyways!


That or you can sell your refurbished virginity!

[Stratus_Power]

i tried it before, and its too much work for me.
but basically the best way to make money is buy off ebay and sell locally or visa versa..otherwise if you just want to buy from ebay and sell on ebay, you have to factor in the cost of..

1)paying shipping, custom and duty when you buy this item, none of which you'll get back when you resell it.
2)all other little fees like if you are paying through money order and stuff
3) wait 1-2 weeks or longer for the item to arrive, hoping that the price of that item wont drop during that period.
4) pay the auctioning fee and commission fee and stuff when you re-sell it on ebay.

etc

[Ben]

E-bay used to be a great way to make money a few years ago, but has really gone downhill since.

[xkon]

Originally posted by Ben
E-bay used to be a great way to make money a few years ago, but has really gone downhill since.

its too complicated now anyways... ive given up!
he is in the US though, it may be easier for him

[spike98]

If you have a little but of startup money you can also but bulk from ebay and sell speratly on ebay. I say an auction once for something like 200 RCA DSS sat dishes and receivers.

In every catagory they have a bulk section where you can pick up huge lots of stuff. Then you can sell online or localy and make even more money. I think the dishes went for $10000 for the lot so thats $50 a peice and could easly be sold for $100 online or $200 localy.

Man now im kicking myself for not having $10000 to start!

[archcommus]

That's odd...where did my other post go? Was it deleted?

I wouldn't be planning on buying on eBay and reselling on eBay. I'd buy locally or at another online store, and then resell it on eBay or on forums.

How come eBay has gone downhill?

Hmm...I don't believe I have the money to buy in bulk like that, maybe on a smaller scale, though. Rather than thinking of a nutty idea or buying in bulk, I think it'd be better to just find a nice wholesaler, buy one or two products at a time, and then resell them at retail prices.

[88CRX]

Originally posted by Ben
E-bay used to be a great way to make money a few years ago, but has really gone downhill since.

i made a small fortune selling hockey cards..... haha... suckers

[gongSHOW]

Ya, a real good way to make some cash is buying cell phones in bulk off ebay and selling em on ebay! Although the start up prices are high you can make a lot of money on resell almost 40%! It takes patience. Just a thought if you wanna go down this road.

[Super_Geo]

$100 isn't a lot of startup investment. If you're looking to make a lot of money off of this (or enough for it to become more than just a hobby), you should maybe consider saving up longer.

One item that's really hard to come by and that there's decent demand for is xbox->usb adapters (the ones where you can plug xbox controllers into your computer). If you buy them by the 1000 you can get a pretty good price on them, and they go for ~10USD for one (I think when you buy 1000 they're 3-5USD).

[archcommus]

Well, the reason I didn't want to initially invest more than $100 is because I didn't really plan to buy in bulk. I intended to just buy one product, and resell it. Then repeat. Say I buy something that's $70, and then sell for it $100 (remember, USD). I'd pay myself the $70 back so I don't lose anything, and then use the $30 to buy something else cheaper and only resell it for $45-50. Then I'd just keep using my profit to buy something slightly more expensive and sell it for slightly more. See what I mean? I think that could work plenty well if I found the right products. Or, like Stratus_Power said, I could buy on eBay and sell for more locally. That might actually make more sense. But where to sell it at? At a stand outside of a store? Door to door? I'm not sure.

[SI-vic]

Sell it on forums, newspaper ads and such

im glad you're not my business partner.

[Super_Geo]

If you don't to buy in bulk, then you should just forget about it. If you're paying retail for an item, why would someone else pay 150% or double what you paid? They could just as easily order it from the company and pay the shipping fees (which they'd have to pay if they got it from you anyway). Why would they want a middleman to double the price?

These 'get rich quick with no effort and no initial investment' plans of yours are going to get you nowhere.

Either do the research and buy bulk or get an actual job.

[archcommus]

It's amusing how everyone assumes I want to get rich quick and not spend any time on it. I'm perfectly willing to spend plenty of time on it, and work, and I don't intend to make any more than what I'd make from a minimum wage job, maybe $80-100 a week, if that. Is that getting rich quick with no effort? Not at all. Buying individually would take plenty of effort, as I'd have to be buying constantly, and selling constantly. The reason I don't want to invest a lot initially is not because I'm cheap, it's simply because I can't. If I had a lot right now, I wouldn't be trying to make money in the first place.

Anyway, yes, you're right, people would not pay 150-200% retail and buy it off of me. That's why I need to buy off of eBay or other online venues, and then sell them locally. Why? Because I could buy cheap and sell for more. For example, take a 120GB hard drive for a computer. On newegg.com, $106. At my local Best Buy, $180. I could easily buy it for $106 online, and sell it for $150 or so to people in my area who otherwise would have purchased at a retail store. Then, I make profit, AND it's cheaper for them. The only problem is, if I can't sell the drive, I'm out a hundred bucks, and there aren't really any good methods to sell them locally. Door to door is...stupid, and just asking people that I see won't produce very good results.

[archcommus]

As a side note, I gave in and got some applications today. Mostly for stuff in storage rooms, or cashier jobs. I feel like such a sucker. $5.50USD/hour minus taxes. Oh well.

[Stratus_Power]

how old are u? why do u feel like u deserve a job that pays more than min wage if u are ~ 16-18 yrs old

[ZorroAMG]

16 yr olds crying about minimum wage jobs...LOL when you do get out of school, don't be all upset and cry that you aren't making a hundred grand with your HS diploma. (unless your e-bay business takes off of course)

[archcommus]

I don't think I deserve more. And if I was able to work more hours in a week I wouldn't have a problem with it. But consider: school until 3 PM, work until 7 or 8 PM, piano lessons Tuesdays, plus track and cross country? That equals about one day with the girlfriend, and pretty much no time for friends, let alone forums, gaming, etc. And what's my pay at the end of the week? 80 bucks! I'm sorry, but for a teenager with school and other things besides just their job, it just doesn't add up. A kid isn't supposed to be working, collectively, between school, a job, a musical instrument, and a sport, fifty or sixty hours a week and have no free time.

You CAN get a decent job that's good enough to live off of without a college degree. Neither of my parents went to college, and we probably make about $50,000/year. But, I certainly intend to go to college. A degree in architecture is my goal.

[Super_Geo]

Originally posted by archcommus
But consider: school until 3 PM, work until 7 or 8 PM, piano lessons Tuesdays, plus track and cross country? That equals about one day with the girlfriend, and pretty much no time for friends, let alone forums, gaming, etc. And what's my pay at the end of the week? 80 bucks! I'm sorry, but for a teenager with school and other things besides just their job, it just doesn't add up. A kid isn't supposed to be working, collectively, between school, a job, a musical instrument, and a sport, fifty or sixty hours a week and have no free time.

Man, I totally know what you mean. Back in high school I was in the exact same predicament. I didn't know what to do either. But then I scraped together $100 and started selling stuff on ebay, and all my problems went away.