How do you make it on eBay?

[dream-products1]

There are some people that are able to quit their 9 to 5 jobs because of how much money that they make on eBay.......I am not one of those salesman X-D. However, the reason why I am struggling as an eBay seller is because I do not know the answer to these three questions! Please, if you are taking the time to read this, then please respond to these three questions as I am desperate for help!

1 Is it worth it uploading hundreds of items at a time? Because you have to either get a store with a large fee or pay insertion fees per listing after 50 items. I'm afraid with my current business model that I won't sell enough items and end up losing money. Is listing hundreds of items always profitable 100% of the time or would I lose money during some months?

2 How do you find items that sell well? Like sometimes items are trending and they sell many of that item quickly. How do I find those items? Could I ask you? What are some of your items that sell really well?

3 How do I make a profit off of a single item? There's the shipping fee, PayPal fee, and eBay fee if it sells. This means that I have to mark up the price of any item by 3! Which is why I've never been able to sell items for cheap. Unless I buy an item for super cheap at a thrift store or get the item as a gift I will have to mark up the price a little just to break even or even make a profit! How do you sell items like brand new video games and DVDs and still make a profit?

[tdumonde2014]

The biggest problem I have is finding items to sell that I can make a profit on. As they say "You make your money when you buy the item" and that is so true. I like to buy items that I can buy for $5.00 and then flip for $50.00. However, with the increased competition at yard sales, thrift stores, and estate sales this has become very hard to do. I may have to take a break for awhile until I can build up my stock. I wouldn't open a Store until you are sure that you can make a profit on what you're selling. I tend to shy away from items that sell for less than $20.00, typically not worth the trouble. I also tend to shy away from heavy items, I don't want to have to foot the bill should a buyer need to return an item on my dime. Good luck.

[mr_lincoln]

@dream-products1 

1. Buy low sell high:  this axiom applies to ANY business and must be applied to selling online.  If you obtain inventory at thrift stores, consignment shops, live auctions, online auctions, etc.  then the key is to RESEARCH before buying to know the most you can pay for an item and then resell for a profit.

2. Set the lowest price you will sell anything for online, this will avoid the race to the bottom syndrome PLUS, it takes just as much time to prep a $ 5 listing as it does a $ 50 listing.  As you are out and about and you see something question #1 is "could you sell it for your lowest price?"  Conversely, you don't want to have a bunch of low end items, you need some home runs and higher price items to sell so people don't think you are a bottom feeder. 

3. Profit off a single item:  Well, see item #1 above for a single item.  What I started to do last year was look at complete lots I acquire for inventory and chart profit off of that.  Example:  say I spend $ 300.00 at a local auction and get 40 listings out of it.  I add a note on each of those listings for the $ 300 auction.  Then as each item sells I load the price on the auction spreadsheet I created and it automatically keeps track of the over all profit on the entire lot NOT individual items.   Once that particular lot hits profit then anything else that sells is 100% profit AND I have flexibility on pricing and liquidation options (ie: selling things elsewhere).  I realized early on that regardless of how well you execute item 1 above there will be times that some things simply don't sell ... or will take so long to sell for the profit you want that it's just money being tied up.  That's one reason I switched to looking at entire lots of inventory rather then individual items.

[this*old*attic]

1. You’ll only make money if people want want you sell, no matter how many items you list.

2. Research trends and sources. No one is going to share their source with you. The best advice I can give is to learn about something you like yourself.

3. You make a profit by figuring out how to buy items for pennies on the dollar. This is where knowledge gained through research will help you.

[dhbookds]

The people who are making a living here, I think, have been here or have sold/are selling in other on line markets or Brick and Mortars.  The key is developing the sources to buy things that can be sold profitably.  In other words, they have experience selling which most new, small sellers don't.  So the basic answer is ...........you have to learn how to make it on ebay, just as you have to learn in any new job...... 

On ebay, research is vital........for new or old items...... Knowing WHICH Cd is going to sell at a decent price.  You also need to do the math.......  what do you make an a $5 Cd with free shipping?  Frankly, if you are interested in making decent money, it's not worth selling those thing at that price.........UNLESS you have, not 100's, but 1000's listed.... even if the CD is free.  

You don't make money cussing the fees or postage.......they are what they are, just as your salary is in a job....  You have to learn to work with what is........  So you need to understand that researching at thrift stores/garage sales entails coming home with a list of things and then looking them up to see what they sold for.........or using a smart phone as you are shopping.   Think about the people you know........do any buy for a business and get rock bottom prices......can you talk them into selling to you at the same/slightly above what they pay?  Again, you do the research before you ask/enter into a deal.  All this takes ALOT of time and effort.....you can't just walk onto ebay and earn a living. 

Besides research, you need to do the math on EVERY ITEM, to learn what you are making.  In the beginning, I figured profit/ loss overall weekly.........and that was when there were high insertion fees on everything.   Crying over losses is not productive, but it is productive to learn from them......  A McCoy wishing well planter may "look" like a good seller........it's old/a brand name and should be collectible.  But there are 242 listed and 42 solds......and the sold prices are mostly not good.  Note also that there were "chains" that were lost on some.....that's the kind of detailed information you need in some areas..........if you pay a 25c for it, you may eventually sell for $10-15.......but doubtful, it's worth buying for $5 or more.  But do the math.........figure out what you would make before you buy it.......and THEN make the decision on whether to buy.

It's been said here many times, you make the profit when you BUY the item, not when you sell it. 

I haven't directly answered your 3 questions........because my opinion is that you have to start small and learn.....you will KNOW when to get a store, list 100's of items, where/how to buy,  and how to make a profit, once you have experience........but you must get the experience yourself.......there are gurus with videos showing products, etc.......but even those recommendations you should research yourself.

I wish you luck.......just give yourself time to learn...

[jewelbiz]

I wish I could get real help here!  
Over 45 years of business in the early years before I specialized in jewelry, I bought lots + lots of books 📚 always scurrying around with my shopping 🛒 cart filled with books!

At this point approximately the 10,000 books lining the walls of all rooms of my apartment cost me nothing as through the many years,

I sold I think all $50. Books here on eBay already.  This month I did sell a $35. Book.

I just can’t get into doing all the work involved selling cheaper less costly books.

I have now the entire lot of books up for sale here asking $10,000.

Who is going to buy them without looking them over but being EBay rules, I cannot allow a potential buyer over here to check them out!

[luckythewinner]

---

---

Is it worth it uploading hundreds of items at a time?  Is listing hundreds of items always profitable 100% of the time or would I lose money during some months?

IMHO this question contains a fatal assumption .... that many items will somehow perform better than a single item. The volume of your listings is not what matters on eBay - it is the quality of your listings that matters. 

If you upload hundreds of great items that buyers really want at prices they are willing to pay, they will sell consistently.  But if you upload hundreds of junky items that no buyer wants at prices they are not willing to pay, they will probably not sell at all. 

How do you find items that sell well? Like sometimes items are trending and they sell many of that item quickly. How do I find those items? Could I ask you? What are some of your items that sell really well?

No smart seller here is going to help you acquire inventory that will take away their sales. 

How do I make a profit off of a single item? There's the shipping fee, PayPal fee, and eBay fee if it sells. This means that I have to mark up the price of any item by 3!

Selling price of used CD: +$5.95

Shipping charged to buyer: +$2.80

Total received from buyer: $8.75

---------------------------------------

Acquisition cost of CD: -$0.50

Shipping and packing cost: -$2.90

eBay fees: -$0.88

PayPal fees: -$0.56

---------------------------------------

Net after all expenses: $3.86

So for a 50 cent investment, I make $3.86 which is 65% of the selling price. This is not "get-rich-quick" inventory, but if you know the market for used CDs you can keep your transaction counts up and make a little money while doing so. But to sell a low-priced item, I have to mark it up by at least 10 and not just 3. And if they are one-off items, I have to work 10 times as hard as I would for a $25 item. 

How do you sell items like brand new video games and DVDs and still make a profit?

IMHO this is the wrong question to ask.

By asking "how can I sell DVDs and still make a profit" you are choosing your product before you even know whether it is a good product to sell or whether you can obtain it at a profitable cost. 

A better question is "What do I have available to me that I can sell for a profit?" If you approach it this way, the answer could be DVDs or toys or jewelry or hockey sticks or appliance parts. 

To sum it up ... 

Selling on eBay is about knowledge of the market for an item and recognizing opportunities, not about creating listings and shipping items. 

[mr_lincoln]

@jewelbiz   If the books have all been paid for from past sales I would systematically box them up and take them to a local auction house to get "something" for them ... not to mention the space you will gain and peace of mind knowing they are gone.

[jewelbiz]

Thank you Mr. Lincoln,  

Good idea thought! 

Idiot that I was at the pre-internet time, a new book store in New Jersey wanted to put in an antiquarian wing & I turned down her good offer for buying all of them then!

I was young & head strong!

I don’t have the Gutenberg Bible over here so I doubt any local auction gallery will even go to the trouble taking the Big lot of them!

[luckythewinner]

---

@jewelbiz wrote:

I don’t have the Gutenberg Bible over here so I doubt any local auction gallery will even go to the trouble taking the Big lot of them!

---

My local auction house takes almost anything. Monday is "household" night and Thursday is "antiques" night. The 200 or so box lots of household merchandise (books, DVDs, wrapping paper, pots and pans, decorations, etc.) always sell for a few dollars each, and sometimes up to $50. 

[mcbasser]

I sell vintage and it’s hard to make a full time job from it. Better to run it as a hobby until retirement then devote more time to it.

[lovefindingtreasures2]

You can get a resale license so you can buy new products at wholesale.

Your profit is made when you buy the item you are going to sell. Buy low, sell high. If your sale doesn't cover all your fee's, packaging, time, gas, returns, ink, etc., not worth selling.

It's easier to sell what you know and love/like/understand. Less of a learning curve.

Turning eBay into a full time job, haven't seen that for a long time. It won't help to list tons of items if your prices are not competitive or your items are not currently in demand. It's also easier and more profitable to sell 10 items at $100 than 100 items at $10 and your margins will no doubt be higher. If you start getting into loads of listings, consider the store options and see if that makes sense for you.

I doubt anyone here is going to tell you what sells, they don't want the competition. Sellers are pretty close mouthed about those kind of details.

If you have an area you want to sell in and know, go to the 'solds' pages of your category and see what is selling and for how much. That will give you an idea of what you should sell and also show you what those items actually sell for here versus what your other sellers are trying to get for them.

GOOD LUCK!

[luckythewinner]

---

@lovefindingtreasures2 wrote:
Turning eBay into a full time job, haven't seen that for a long time. 

---

How to be a full-time seller on eBay and have $1 million in your pocket at the end of the year: 

Spoiler

Start the year with $2 million. 

[mr_lincoln]

---

@jewelbiz wrote:

Thank you Mr. Lincoln,  

Good idea thought! 

Idiot that I was at the pre-internet time, a new book store in New Jersey wanted to put in an antiquarian wing & I turned down her good offer for buying all of them then!

I was young & head strong!

I don’t have the Gutenberg Bible over here so I doubt any local auction gallery will even go to the trouble taking the Big lot of them!

---

Okay, let me tell you what I see at auction houses when it comes to books AND why I would suggest taking only several boxes per week.  Local collectors and book dealers will go through a table top full of books (Tables are about 40"W x 96"L and books could be 2 deep max and the table have 2 levels).  They will give the runners one or several books they are interested in and those go to the block.  The more collectible ones bid up or there might be a little competition on the small book groups.  Then the runners will put random groups together and send them up or sell off the remainder of the books on a level. 

So what it would represent for your situation would be a steady amount of cash flow over a period of time ... I'm sure we're not talking retirement money but a little steady cash each week.

Now the other thing to consider is this, you mentioned you sell jewelry ... if all the space you have dedicated to store books was jewelry would it represent more money then books?  Or anything else you might want to sell?

[ifyouloveit]

@ luckythewinner

Truth that!