Another income stream that I can advocate is selling items on eBay. Like my previous posts, I discovered eBay by chance. Of course, eBay is very popular and I’ve heard of it then but who knew I would make money using their service. I was a Power Seller and did well in selling products while others were asking me why their products didn’t sell. This is Pro Gobbler, let’s get started.

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “Build it and they will come!”? It’s a great line but it doesn’t really work that well if your foundation isn’t sound. Most of the people that I encouraged to sell on eBay because of my experience didn’t succeed. They either lost interest or didn’t know that sometimes you have to put in hours to post your products in order to present them well to get buyer interest. Or, they priced their items too high that no one wanted to bid or buy their items.

I mentioned that I stopped selling on eBay when they hiked the prices so much that it would be cutting into my profits. Their business model was perfect for me in the beginning but as time went on, the charges were too much to keep your business going. I had to open up my own online store to save on fees. But I have good news for you! eBay realized this and have since lowered their fees at the beginning of this year. It’s time to get back on the bandwagon and create another income stream.

These are the topics I’m going to cover in the next few weeks.

• Find your niche
• Got the niche - then what?
• Follow eBay’s Terms of Service
• How to price your items.
• What makes your product visible.
• Why images or photos are needed.
• Where to buy shipping supplies and when to ship your products.
• Offer a Refund Policy
• Forms of payment, what works.
• Respond to inquiries promptly
• Networking

Build your eBay reputation.

Sign up with eBay. Sign up with Paypal. Both services are free and signing up is easy. As a newbie, you will not be allowed to sell items just yet. You have to build a history with eBay before they allow you to sell items on their site. I believe that you are required to have at least 10 feedback comments in order to be able to sell items. How would you do this?

You may be legitimately looking for a specific item and you may want to buy it off of eBay. That’s fine. But if you’re not and you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on items, look for little things that you would give out as a gift or books you want to read. I found that buying little things such as a postcard or a key chain earned me the good feedback I needed in order to start an eBay history.

A feedback is a comment given by the seller or buyer of a product. Sellers and buyers use the feedback system as a gauge to let them know how trustworthy you are and what kind of products you are selling. Before you make your little purchases to build your eBay history, make sure you check their feedback. A lot of negatives means no good. I usually purchase from sellers with a 98% or higher feedback rating to assure me that I am not getting duped. The feedback you receive will provide your reputation. If you can keep it at a 100%, even better.

Finding your niche

It is important that you know your niche before you start selling on eBay. A niche is something that you provide as a service or product in a specific space. You could be selling artwork, jewelries, electronics, or postcards. It doesn’t matter in the beginning because similar to blogging, once you start experimenting and listing items, you will learn what people are looking for. Either you go with what they want or continue to sell what you have. I could tell you that the former works best.

When I started, I looked around my home for things that I no longer need.

“Somebody’s trash, is somebody’s treasure. “

Through the years, I’ve collected DVDs and CDs of all kinds. The movie themes vary. The music was varied as well. I reviewed my CD and DVD collection and realized that there were some that I didn’t really want or that I haven’t played them in more than a year. I sorted it out and kept most of my favourites. I was ready to lose money on them because I thought, “Who would buy these CDs and DVDs at a premium when they could buy them from a store anyway?” I was wrong.

I started with CDs and DVDs because it’s easy to list them on eBay. All you need to do is enter the barcode and they will provide the description for you. I was thinking a few bucks from my collection would be good. I just wanted to turn them into cash instead of sitting here, collecting dust. Unknowingly, I listed them and some DVDs went as high as fifty dollars a piece, and one CD by Lani Hall finished at one hundred and fifty dollars. To my surprise, I found that some of the CDs and DVDs I had were no longer in print. That made those items highly-collectible. The DVDs I had that ended with the highest price belong to a specific genre and I took notice of that as well.

When purchasing items to sell, think of your potential buyers.

I had all this cash from selling my items. Since I knew that I found my niche, I started looking around for DVD and CD wholesalers. They are not easy to find but they are out there. You have to be careful as some of them are scam artists selling CDs and DVDs that aren’t authentic or of no interest to anyone. Why would you buy a DVD that would tell you how to screw a lightbulb in Chinese? Why would you buy a CD of Blowhorns Christmas Music in the summer? Basic business: Supply and Demand.

How much capital would you need?

I didn’t start high at all. Remember, I sold half my DVD and CD collection. I made money on some and lost money on others yet over all, I made a profit. I used part of the money I earned to purchase DVDs from a wholesaler remaining concentrated to the themes that were in high demand. The wholesaler only required a minimum of $100.00USD purchase so I did just that.

Once all is said and done - I doubled the amount of my investment. I took my profit and deposited it into my savings account, used the same $100.00USD to purchase some more DVDs. In the meantime, I started looking for other vendors that would be able to supply me with DVDs that were current and in high demand. Their DVDs cost more than the DVDs I am used to buying from my first vendor but the profitability is higher as well.

Not all your hunches will turn to profit.

Be prepared as well to take in the good with the bad. You will make mistakes and you will purchase the wrong products. Through this process, you will learn what and what not to buy.

What I learned from my mistakes by buying and storing the wrong product.  I found that the items that I couldn’t sell just sat on the bookshelf.  To avoid this, what I learned was to look for drop ship vendors. Drop ship vendors are similar to consignment trading. They store and ship the products to your customers only when the items are paid for. There is no need for you to keep an inventory. Once I learned this, I made deals with drop shippers and made money that way. The drawback? Sometimes you will list a product and when your customers purchase it from you, you’ll find out that the drop shipper ran out of the merchandise. This can cause you negative feedback which isn’t kosher.

Another hint of caution: Don’t just go with any drop shippers who cannot provide you a history or recommendation from reputable sites. Scam artists are everywhere.

We will be talking about “Got the niche - then what?” on our Part 2 of the Ebay and Paypal series.

Until then…

Gobble Gobble!

Pro Gobbler

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