Sourcing

[california6155]

Hello there,

I am interested in learning how everyone on Ebay is sourcing their products? 

[ladybirdsoars]

Hi there!

I just asked the same question yesterday -- I want to expand my storefront and sell like see the eBayers I ost often by from selling -- with pages and pages of inventory.  I've read that you can use WooCommerce, which I believe inks to Oberlo or AliExpress; I have a free trial membership to 3D sellers, which is supposed to do something.  Not sure what yet.

I hope you and I get some good replies -- I am stuck here!

Rachel R.

[gwzcomps]

Find stuff that sells then buy it at a price where I can make a profit after costs of selling.

[mr_lincoln]

@california6155   Sources for inventory to sell on eBay

1. Closets, attic, garage, workshop

2. Yard sales, garage sales

3. Flea markets

4. Auction houses, auctions with personal property

5. Thrift stores, consignment shops

6. Online auctions

7. Going out of business sales

[ladybirdsoars]

can you explain a little more what you mean about other online auctions?  Is that a feasible business plan, to purchase ties from one auction site and sell them on another.  I wouldn't know how to develop a real inventory.

I am using your advise and have been since I began selling in 2000: I purchase far too many clothes and beauty products and end up selling a lot of them on eBay.

Thanks for the reply!

[femmefan1946]

When we retired and closed our B&M store, after wholesaling part of the stock, and consigning some to a new dealer in our hobby (who also took most of our shop furnishings for free which we regarded as a profitable transaction), we still had about a million dollars in catalogue value left.

After five years, we have about $950,000 in value left.

Offers?

[luckythewinner]

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@ladybirdsoars wrote:

Is that a feasible business plan, to purchase ties from one auction site and sell them on another.  I wouldn't know how to develop a real inventory.

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It is a feasible business plan if you have the knowledge and experience to recognize undervalued items and understand what prices they will command on eBay. 

Building an inventory is very simple - just go out and buy a bunch of stuff. But building an inventory that will generate a profit is quite hard. It requires a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of experience in a specific category or niche. 

If you expect to just google around the internet and find a supplier, just remember that there are a million other people trying to do exactly the same thing. If it is easy for you to find your inventory, then it will be easy for lots of others to find it as well.

If making money on eBay was easy, everyone would be rich. 

[ladybirdsoars]

you ARE right — if it was easy, everyone would sell. The thing with me is that I am willing to put in the work -/ I have a hosting site and am building a blog with a product page. I don’t know whether this effects eBay yet or not.

I suppose my central question is: where do the people who work hard and put every effort get inventory other then through via second-hand?

I have one more question they even an eBay rep couldn’t answer; I can see traffic and sales conversions for each item I sell, and I am SO behind other sellers in terms of traffic to website and easy sales conversion. I wish that eBay explained how to improve that kind of thing in detail. Or am I missing something?

[mam98031]

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@california6155 wrote:

Hello there,

I am interested in learning how everyone on Ebay is sourcing their products? 

---

From time to time sellers ask this question of other sellers.  It has always made me scratch my head as to why a seller would tell you where they actually source their products if they use a vendor of some kind.  To do that would mean if you chose to use that vendor, the seller that shared that with you just created another competitor for themselves.  Not a really bright move.

But in general you will get some to share what they do without sharing specific details of a vendor and you may find that helpful.

What I typically tell other is to research and find a line of products that peeks your interest.  Something you like and would enjoy selling.  Once you figure that out, turn to the internet and start researching where you can source those products at wholesale prices.  Then you need to figure out if those wholesale prices will enable you to price the products here on Ebay at a reasonable profit after considering all your costs.

It take time and you may start selling one thing and figure out it isn't what you want to continue to do so just move on to another idea and do your research.  You are very likely going to eventually land on what you find a good range of products.

Good Luck.

[mam98031]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

When we retired and closed our B&M store, after wholesaling part of the stock, and consigning some to a new dealer in our hobby (who also took most of our shop furnishings for free which we regarded as a profitable transaction), we still had about a million dollars in catalogue value left.

After five years, we have about $950,000 in value left.

Offers?

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What kind of B&M did you have?

[chapeau-noir]

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@ladybirdsoars wrote:

you ARE right — if it was easy, everyone would sell. The thing with me is that I am willing to put in the work -/ I have a hosting site and am building a blog with a product page. I don’t know whether this effects eBay yet or not.

I suppose my central question is: where do the people who work hard and put every effort get inventory other then through via second-hand?

I have one more question they even an eBay rep couldn’t answer; I can see traffic and sales conversions for each item I sell, and I am SO behind other sellers in terms of traffic to website and easy sales conversion. I wish that eBay explained how to improve that kind of thing in detail. Or am I missing something?

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OK - I'm not sure where you are in this process, but you might be putting the cart before the horse insofar as specifically selling here on eBay.  The time to start blogs and all the rest is when you start nailing down what and how you're going to sell and get more experience.  You mentioned that you have a lot of items you over-bought, and if that's the case, that's where to start and go from there.  If you're already selling elsewhere and just wanting to add eBay to the mix, that would be different, I'm just speaking of how and what to sell here.

[luckythewinner]

@ladybirdsoars wrote:

The thing with me is that I am willing to put in the work -/ I have a hosting site and am building a blog with a product page. I don’t know whether this effects eBay yet or not.

{snip}

I suppose my central question is: where do the people who work hard and put every effort get inventory other then through via second-hand?

If you ask a hundred successful eBay sellers, you will get a hundred different answers. But I suspect what you would learn from those answers is that that they identified an opportunity, they didn't just find a product. I am a music memorabilia collector, and here is one example:

I found a really cool item related to one of my favorite artists about 10 years ago. I remembered seeing similar items related to other music artists at a store about 25 years before that, and I had the usual thoughts about "if I had only known then what I know now".

But instead of stopping there, I decided to investigate further. It took a couple weeks just to track down the name of the store - I didn't even remember what it was. In the process of researching the store, I discovered the name of a wholesale distributor they had used at the time that was probably the source of those items. 

I researched the distributor, and eventually discovered enough information about the distributor's bankruptcy sale to provide a clue about who might have bought the inventory all those years ago.

Fast forward a few more weeks and I was in touch with the owner - and lo and behold it had been sitting in one of his warehouses since the day he bought it. We struck a deal and after a month of driving, loading, cleaning and sorting I became the proud owner of 15,000 of those items - at a cost of pennies each. I earned my money back in a week, and a decade later I am still selling a couple dozen each month.

To sum up ... identify something that people want that no one else can supply, and then figure out how to supply it.

[southern*sweet*tea]

A lot of my stuff comes from Ebay lol

I sell what I know, and I know how to source what I know. I buy from those who don't know what I know.

[earlyant-77]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@ladybirdsoars wrote:

Is that a feasible business plan, to purchase ties from one auction site and sell them on another.  I wouldn't know how to develop a real inventory.

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It is a feasible business plan if you have the knowledge and experience to recognize undervalued items and understand what prices they will command on eBay. 

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It also works the other way around. You can buy here or other online auctions(don't forget the buyers premium on those, though), and sell them if you have spots in an antique mall or shop.

Whatever you buy, you need to figure out which outlet it should go to - ebay, shop, or other fixed price antique/vintage sites that charge less(if you don't want to do auctions). I only list via auction on ebay.

Unless you want to sell the same thing everyone else sells, anyway.