Make money selling on eBay
Most people think of eBay as a marketplace to sell that stuff they don’t use any more and therefore don’t see it as a way to make money long term. Once the un-needed stuff is gone so are the options to keep making money on the platform.
That doesn’t necessarily need to be the case, there are ways to find a continuous supply of product for you to sell. So let’s take a look at some ways in which you can make selling on eBay an ongoing business.
What can I sell on eBay?
The main obstacle you’ll face when trying to make money long term on eBay is finding a source of products to sell, so let’s take a look at a few options that will allow you to overcome this obstacle and find a never-ending source of products to sell.
These are just a few ideas which you can use right away, but hopefully they will also open your mind to a more creative approach to this issue you will soon come up with more ways to find products.
Sell digital products
This is probably the easiest way to have a product that you can sell many times, sell a digital product.
A digital product can be anything from a computer game or software to a WordPress theme or plugin or even some photoshop brushes or lightroom presets. And you might be thinking, sure, but I don’t know how to create any of those… well you don’t need to! You can simply buy them first and then resell them. Just make sure the license you get when you buy them allows you to resell them and you are good to go!
The key here is to create a very good listing for your product, with a good design and carefully crafted copy. Study the competition and think how you can make your listing better, more appealing. Even if it takes you hours getting this listing perfect it will totally be worth it since you’ll be selling this product repeatedly. You just need to put the work in at the beginning and then sell, and sell, and sell! Plus you won’t even have to visit the post office, just send the product via e-mail, dropbox or we-transfer when you sell it.
Sell products that are only available locally
Each culture, each city, each town has its own traditional products which are either only produced there or come out there first. People from other parts of the world will find it difficult to get their hands on those products, but for you it’s little more than a trip to the shop down the street.
If you can come up with a product that fits this description you’ve already found a product that you can sell on eBay over and over again. You just need to create a kick-ass listing and allow people who want those products that are only found in your region to purchase them through you.
Let me give you a real-life example. People living in Japan usually have access to technology before the rest of the world. Video games, cameras, you name it. Big technology companies such as SONY of Fuji will release products to their local market first before selling them in the US and Europe. In this scenario people living in Japan have the opportunity to list those products on eBay and sell them to the rest of the world charging a premium for its uniqueness.
Resell products that you buy on eBay
You might think this is impossible. How are you going to sell on eBay something you bought on eBay and make money in the process? Well there are a couple of ways you can do this. In a nutshell:
- Find listings that will get low bids and bid on them.
- Take some time to create high quality listings that will attract bidders.
Let’s first tackle the buying part of the equation. Here are a few tips to find listings that are likely to end undervalued and therefore have the potential to be resold.
- Listed in the wrong category or sub-category. If you find a digital camera listed under the analog camera section, chances are people who are actually looking for a digital camera won’t find it and therefore that listing will get fewer bids.
- Listings that finish at weird times. People like to bid last minute, but if a listing finishes at 3AM there are going to be few people waiting to bid.
- Listings with poor quality photos and/or descriptions. People don’t trust low quality listings, but the truth is you are quite protected when making purchases on eBay, especially if you pay by PayPal.
- Products that are shipped from overseas. Some people don’t want to buy products that come from overseas, sometimes because they don’t trust the seller, others because they just don’t want to wait two weeks for the product to arrive. You can buy those products, wait for them and then sell them at a premium to those who didn’t have the patience.
Now once you get the product, these are a few tips to consider in order to resell them:
- Take your own photos. Get some good lighting and a compact camera and take your own photos, stay away from catalog images.
- Write your own description. It’s cool to provide the manufacturer’s description but always add something of your own.
- Highlight you are shipping the product nationally and quick – always offer expedite shipping at a cost in case someone needs it.
- Think about the time your bid will be closing before posting. Depending on the product different days and times might be best, but generally speaking Monday to Wednesday between 8-10PM tend to attract the most number of last-minute bidders.
How much money you can make selling on eBay?
How much money you can make selling on eBay will depend on a number of variables, including the average price point of your sale items, how many items you have at sale at the same time, how often do you post new ones, etc.
That being said 20% to 30% of the good’s costs should be a reasonable goal. This means if you buy products for $500 every month and resell them you should be looking at $100 to $150 profit. Of course if you invest more, and that is more time and more money, you should be looking at higher earnings.
Good luck!