Where do you guys get your items to sell?

[greenpeach1]

I am new to selling.  So far I have sold a fair amount of items from myself, friends, family.  But I read about these "power sellers". Where do you get your items to sell?  I have researched wholesale websites, but I am scared of being scammed.  You may not want to disclose your secrets, but thought I would ask.  

Kind regards.

[lovbugshop]

MY new sorce for selling items is from my home things that are in good condition, also Family and Friends give me items to sell, that they dont want or need anymore.   

Spoiler

[lovbugshop]

 HOW DO I KNOW WHAT TO SELL STAMPS WHERE TO FIND INFO

[alwaysbrowsin]

You go to thrift stores ,yard sells,flea markets, . A friend gave me 2 pair of shoes one pair sold for $185.00 .With time you will know what sells and what does  not sell.Always have a droid phone or tablet with you to look up your item  on ebay in advanced search before purchase.

[femmefan1946]

I sell used books, which I get from thrift stores, garage sales and the Friends of the Library. Our city (Ottawa Canada) has two English language universities and one bilingual, plus a bilingual and a French community college.  So there are lots of readers.

I pay between 75 cents and $2 for titles and post them Fixed Price at $9.99. Some are better. I use Addall to make comps. I concentrate on science fiction, fantasy, gay interest, and Arctic history . Tip- if you are selling books, avoid best sellers. Esoteric is better.

I sell dress patterns. Same thrift shop origins, although I find church shops and Saint Vincent de Paul best for these. They must be uncut unused and factory folded. The envelopes can be beat up though. They cost from 25cents to $1 and again are sold for $9.99. Vogue, Burda and New Look move best.

I sell postcards. These come from estates purchased through our family business. Effectively free since we make money on other parts of the estate. Nothing post-WWII, watch for Real Photos.

I sell mint postage stamps at a steep discount for postage. Although we pay a lower percentage of face for these than we sell them for, there is a lot of labour in preparing them for sale. Most sales are domestic and to eBay sellers.

So the big things are :

Don't pay much.

Don't sell for less than $9.99 because: fees.

Know what you sell: Sell what you know.

And if you can include Free Shipping, do it. Remember Free Shipping is advertising for 'the cost of shipping is included in the price."

[lovbugshop]

HI I HAVE MANY CATHERINE COOKSON BOOKS HOW DO iI know what price to ask and what to charge for shipping  

[lovbugshop]

thank you for your help

[lovbugshop]

thanx for your help

[lovbugshop]

   thank you

[lovbugshop]

  thank you  

[lovbugshop]

  thank you    

[iankimmerly]

Catherine Cookson?

I think she's unsaleable myself. As are John Grisham, Stephen King, JK Rowling (in English).  If a writer is a 'bestseller' then her publisher not only has printed many copies of her books, but all her fans have read them. Those books are also easily available at garage sales, thrifts, etc.

Next time you are in a thrift shop, count the number of copies of Bridget Jones' Diary they have. Bet there are several.

Use Addall to judge. Generally, if the book was published in the USA,and Addall has more than three pages of copies for sale, don't bother with it.

If the book was published in the UK, the writer may be harder to find in the USA and will sell. I do okay with the Narnia and Discworld books, even though Lewis' titles are children's literature (another hard sell in my opinion) (his adult titles do well to, especially his theological works) and Pratchett outsold everyone in the UK until Rowling came along.

Look for weird. Novels in Pitman shorthand. Harry Potter in French. Dell mapback mysteries.

[iankimmerly]

Is there any particular reason you don't ship to Canada when you are in Canada?

[tradexdev]

Hi Teresa,

Sorry for my late reply and I think you are now catching up on doing business on eBay. Congratz.

What I mean is when you get to a point that you want to sell more items when good quality, you may think to get dirrectly from the factory. Many people think that you have to get a MOQ (mininum order quantity) if you want to order it from the factory in China but it is not true. Many factory that I due with now, they are willing to do small MOQ order as small as 50 pcs or even 10 pcs. As everyone knows that the problem of the china produced good is the quality. So that you need a trusted person to have the quality control done for you when he ship out the goods for you. Also shipping cost is one of the biggest problem that you need to face with the small MOQ orders. Currently there are many forwarder in china providing very low rate DHL service and which is a good solution for the problem.

There is a lot more to talk about if you want to import from factory directly. Please let me know if you want to know more and I can share more with you. (Since I know my reply is late and you may not reading this post......)

Thanks,
Kelvin

[greenpeach1]

Hey Kelvin:

Yes I would like to know more.  My husband and I have been struggling with what to sell on Ebay and therefore, we have a room full of unsold items.  He sells stuff that he is familar with and I do the same.  We hit yard sales on the weekend but we don't have a lot of luck. 

ANY HELP would be appreciated.  I lost my job of 35 years back in August of 2012 so needless to say we are struggling to make ends meet.  Ebay is helping some but I have so much to learn. 

Kindest regards, and thank you,

Teresa

[tradexdev]

Hi Teresa,

Very happy to hear from you since I know that my reply is so late. Very sorry about it.

I would like to introduce myself first. My name is Kelvin and I located in Hong Kong. I have a company selling different items on internet locally and worldwide. So the way that we can selling on eBay maybe different from you since we are located in different places. So you can take my opinion as your reference and we can share our experience together anytime.

First of all, you have to decide what you are going to sell. There are two different way to choose items. Firstly, you may choose what you know well. This will help you to save time on understand what it is when you are selling it (since you have to write a very good description on the item that you list). The secondly, you may choose what sells good on eBay. Although you may not know well what the item is, you can still get some sample and learn about it before you sell. Either way will work but depends on how you follow up.

Then, when you come to source your products, don't try to source from the lowest price but also focus on the quality. When you are listing your item, pricing is only one of the reason why people are buying from you. The description that you wrote, the feedback that you got, the picture that you posted, and more other reason will make people buy from you. From my opinion, don't focus on how to make more traffic to you listing, try to focus on how to close the deal of the existing traffic.

Also, source from local market is very convenience but there is one reason why you would like to try to soruce from China, it is because factories will be the first one to have new and creative products. Bring in new and creative items is one of the way to survive in e-commence and you should be start trying to get new items faster then others if you want your e-commence become you full time job.

Finally, in my opinion, eBay should be one of the channel that you sell your product to your customer but should not be the only one. This will help you to get a bigger order volumn and finally get a better price on importing and also better return ^_^

All of these are only my opinion and I am welcome anyone to share your opinion with me and I am welling to learn from you.

Thanks,

Kelvin