The way many people make money on Ebay is to buy items from thrift stores, pawn shops, vinatge/retro stuff stores, garage and yard sales, anything that you think will yield a profit after refurbishing etc. So, do a price scan on Ebay before you make the tours of the places where you can get stuff cheap.
It helps if you have an interest in some topics - so you know what people like and how much they pay for the stuff.
Best practices for selling on Ebay:
- The best Ebay sellers dominate very specialized niches rather than an entire category. For example, vinyl memorabilia, instead of just 'vinyl'.
- Research the niche (what's sellling, at what price, read up books etc, ask people) before you buy.
- Put up all information about the products: Starting with good photos (no stock photos please, take pictures of every flaw too) and product description.
- Always start with a reasonable price: List your item lowest if the demand is high. People tend not to bid on items that are close to the typical ending price of other auctions. You want as many people bidding as possible.
- Put a 'Buy it Now' price on high demand items that is based on the other lowest Buy it Now prices.
- 'Reserve' is okay with very expensive item only. Even them put up a 'Buy it Now' auction. People often see reserve and skip on to the next one.
- Have a Plan B: Sellers have some believable stories, feigning ignorance to deal away any liability when they have a no return/AS IS policy. For example, 'I'm not really sure what it is used for. I found it lying in the garage.'
- Shipping insurance is another good backup. Although, mishaps are rare.
- When Ebay offers free listings, always read the fine print.
- Look for products that you can sell at 100% markup, so Ebay and Paypal commissions don't hurt your profits. With 100% markup, you can also charge a flat shipping fee, not thinking much if you are going to lose money on shipping or not.
- Returns will hurt.
2. Re-posting on Ebay and Craigslist: Basically, people browse free area of Craigslist, get some interesting/useful stuff and repost. Some even have scripts that track Craiglist for latest free area listing, and then they try to be the first person to get in touch with the advertiser about the listing.
Rest is pure arbitrage history. You get something for free/minimal price, you refurbish and you list Craigslist or Ebay. This is a variation on the 'browse garage sales' and post on Ebay kind of tactic. People find broken appliances for a pittance and sell them after refurbishing on Ebay or Craigslist.
Thank you for reading.
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