Some people make money buying wholesale goods and selling these goods on eBay. While some of these people are actually making a good profit, some of them are just building debt or making extremely small profit margins. If you use some creative ways to acquire items to sell, then you have a much better chance of being more profitable than your competition. When you are thinking of items to sell on eBay, the most important question you must answer is whether or not you can purchase the items at a low enough price to re-sell them at a profit. There are creative ways of doing this that go beyond what meets the eye. You could buy a "wholesale lot" of 5 laptops and hope to resell them at a profit, but the problem you might run into is whether or not you can still make a profit after eBay and PayPal fees are deducted. For instance, you might discover that you can resell a laptop you purchased at $85 for $100, and therefore make a $15 profit. Well...maybe not. If you are selling on eBay, you have to figure that roughly 13% of the sales you generate will go eBay or PayPal. So, in this example, your $15 profit quickly becomes a $2 profit after you take fees out. And what about returns? At this rate, you would have to sell 50 laptops to make a $100 profit, then see that reduced to a $15 profit (or about 30 cents per laptop) when just ONE laptop gets returned after a buyer files a chargeback. So, as you can see, there is not very much money to be made here. But let's look at it a different way. Say you know how to repair laptops, and are able to buy a lot of 5 broken laptops for $150. If you know how to repair the laptops at no cost (or minimal cost), that would make your profit at $55 per laptop after eBay and PayPal fees, or maybe $35 per laptop if you have to spend $20 to fix each one. Because you thought creatively and used a skill you have to fix something that is broken, you would be much more profitable than you would be just buying at wholesale cost and reselling. This is just one example using eBay. In the real world, you might be able to find a different avenue to sell, eliminating eBay fees. If you decide to sell on eBay, no matter what you do, make sure to do a very specific Completed Listings search ahead of time to see if there is a demand for what you are planning to sell. Otherwise, you might end up with a bunch of useless wholesale goods no one wants, or that you will have to take a loss on to get rid of. Also realize the more creative you are at acquiring and selling goods (that doesn't involve stealing LOL), then you have a much higher chance at making a profit. Buying and reselling broken laptops is just one idea. Buying a complete bike and selling the individual parts is another...assuming you know what you are doing and the eBay market value of each part, of course. If you are an expert at a given subject, think about creative ways to buy and sell. One final thing here is that even though I know that this is a community where we like to share, DON'T BE AN IDIOT AND PUBLICALLY SHARE YOUR NICHE OR IDEA! I'm trying to be humorous here, but I'm also very serious. So, help others out by sharing your thoughts and ideas, but don't share too much!
Great post getagrip very informative. There is money to be made on ebay if people know what they are doing. I personally like DROPSHIPPING any time I sell something on ebay. This saves a lot of time and hassle,but the key is to find a good and reputable dropshipper. Someone who will mail your products out in a timely manner. That way you make a profit and your end-user is happy.
Drop selling can be effective, but its important to do two things prior to purchasing goods that will be dropped shipped: 1. Do a Completed Listings Search on eBay to make sure there is demand for the item. Numbers in red indicate items that did not sell and how much they did not sell for (I know, sounds funny, but do a search and you will see what I mean). Numbers in green indicate the item sold and how much the item sold for. This can also tell you how many competitors are selling the same item. Often, with dropshipping, you will notice 30 people selling the same item, many of which did not sell the item! 2. As eluded to above, figure out your profit margin based on the results of your Completed Listings search. If there is demand for the item and the items are selling, figure roughly 13 to 15% for eBay and PayPal fees. If you can find a local company who is NOT selling on eBay, you could offer to try and sell the items for them on eBay assuming the market is not over saturated for this product. You are also going to need to know their minimum selling price they are willing to accept - and keep in mind they will also be paying you a commission out of any profits you make, so you have to take that into consideration for their bottom dollar. You may also have to use a reserve to avoid losing money if they item sells for below cost, and don't forget to included shipping costs! As you can see, there is a lot to selling on eBay, and if you don't think of every last detail down to the penny ahead of time, you are probably going to get burned, so be careful!
I think that Drop shipping will help you to fix this issue Dropshipping provides just about anyone with the potential to start selling products on eBay and the internet, with virtually no investment or risk. You find a good dropshipping supplier, sell items they stock, place an order with them, and then sit back and count the profit!
