Perhaps you have an interest in a variety of products and you are having trouble deciding which may have the greatest potential. Maybe you have conducted a degree of market research and you're still not sure. The use of online auction sites can help you gain a clearer understanding of the response to the products you are most interested in.

By purchasing a few of the products you are interested in selling and then ‘reselling' them online you have a low risk means of learning a bit more about the potential of each product.

Now, I'll be the first to say this is not fool proof and shouldn't be used as the sole standard for determining which products or services you ultimately sell, but it can provide some real world data on the sales potential of the products you are most passionate about.

You might be surprised at what connects with those who frequent online action sites. There is a story of a man whose son fell in love with Pepé Le Pew cartoons. The father wanted to find a DVD of the cartoons so his son could watch them whenever he wanted. Having no success in local movie stores the man went online. He found a DVD that contained several episodes featuring the skunk and ultimately paid more than $30 for a used DVD from the Philippines.

In the case of an online auction there may be no guarantee that visitors will get a bargain price, but they do have the option of continuing to pursue the product if they are really interested in it.

There are a multitude of instances each day where a product is purchased on an online auction site for significantly more than its perceived value. The reasons may be sentimental or based in pride, but the truth is online auctions are a unique way to test the waters on you products. In most cases you can set a minimum threshold so you will not be losing money on your trial run.

Many netrepreneurs may be bold enough to move forward with an online business, but for those who want to find a low cost way to analyze the potential for a product an online auction may provide some useful insight.