There are no end of articles, books and courses that tell you how easy it is to make big money selling items on eBay and the other online auctions. What many of these do not tell you is how difficult it is to find suitable products to sell. Most people start by selling off surplus items that they already own, a great way to clear the loft or garage of all that junk. But eventually that source of supply dries up.. and then what?
There are thousands upon thousands of products that you could sell. You could find them at flea markets, wholesalers, dropshippers or even advertised on eBay. But the truth is that many of them will not give you a good enough profit in return for the time effort and money that you will have invest in the project.
The solution to the problem is research. You need to discover two facts. First what is actually selling on eBay and secondly where you can source such items at a reasonable price. The first is comparatively easy. All you need to do is to search through all the auction categories.
One of the great advantages of eBay is that its operation is very transparent and it is very easy to discover what is actually selling and for how much. All the information is there and you can easily see if a particular type of product is selling well and how strong the competition is. It is difficult to imagine any other market place where it is so easy to research the supply and demand for any specific product.
The second part of your research can be more difficult finding your product source.
Quite honestly it can be a jungle out there. Many wholesalers and dropshippers are little more than middlemen who are just out to take a chunk of your potential profits.
You will also see advertised lists of wholesalers and these can often prove a complete waste of time. If you want to find details of wholesalers go to www.yellowpages.com
(www.yell.com in the UK) and type in the word wholesalers and you will get details of as many wholesalers as you will ever need.
Many sellers are lazy and will not leave their computers when searching for suppliers and you can benefit from this. One of the best places to find new products to sell on eBay are trade fairs and shows. Most industries have trade fairs and you can find out dates and details for many of these events at http://www.eventseye.com or http://www.exhibitions.co.uk for the UK. A big tip if you do attend trade fairs is to get a supply of business cards produced. Many trade exhibiters will ask you for one and not only does in establish your credibility it is a sure way of being added to their mailing list.
Despite what you may hear many eBay sellers make pennies on the dollar purely because they are not prepared to do the work it takes to find the right products and suppliers. If you are then you too can start earning the big money that all those articles, books and courses talk about. It really is up to you.
