What to Sell?

You can sell (almost) anything on eBay. Just have a look at the broad range of categories and subcategories available!

The easiest place to start is to have a look around your home and see what things you have lying around or stashed away that you no longer need or want. Perhaps some CDs that you haven't listened to in years, or some clothing that you will never wear again. You can have a tidy-up at home and convert your old belongings into cash!

If you haven't sold anything on eBay before, then this is where you can perfect your technique - experiment with different starting prices and listing lengths and have a look at all the listing features and options that you can set.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will most likely want to post your eBay items, so smaller and lighter items will keep postage down and more people will be likely to bid on your items


Garage sales and auctions

Once you have sold all your old stuff then you will need to find a source of things to sell. One very effective way of doing this is to visit garage sales and auctions in order to source cheap items that you can sell for a large profit on eBay. I would suggest arriving to garage sales later in the day when people just want to get rid of everything and aren't that fussed about what they get for it. Without being too rude, offer them a low price to take the lot - you will be surprised how often this works!

Over time you will develop an incredible sense for how much certain items are likely to sell for on eBay and will be able to buy (or not buy) accordingly.


New Products

New products can be very difficult to source at a price that will allow you to sell for a decent profit. Generally you would need to buy in bulk in order to negotiate an acceptable purchase price. I keep an eye on various sales and specials, especially internationally, and buy a large number of items to reduce the per-item shipping cost. It is very important when investing in stock in this way to ensure that you do sufficient research on whether the item is likely to sell on eBay, and what price you are likely to get. This can be done by selecting the "Completed Listings" option in search results (on the left of that page, near the bottom).


Item ideas

Here is a list of ideas for items that you may be able to source or make to sell on eBay:

  • Books (fiction and non-fiction)

  • CDs

  • DVDs

  • Jewellery

  • Toys

  • Clothing

  • Computer Software

  • Models

  • Collectibles



I would suggest finding an area in which you have a personal interest, or specific knowledge and concentrating on one niche area and doing it well.

How to Start Selling on eBay

The very first step is to create an eBay account. Most of you will already have at least bought an item on eBay, or perhaps even sold an old CD. In that case you can skip ahead a little, as before I can talk about how to make money on eBay, I will talk through the process of creating an eBay account.


Creating an eBay Account

Open a new window and navigate to the eBay website. In Australia, this is http://www.ebay.com.au and in the USA this is http://www.ebay.com. If you happen to live elsewhere in the world then visit the USA website and scroll right down to the bottom. You will see a list of countries. Click on your country and you will be directed to the appropriate eBay website.

Next, near the top of the page, click on the link that says "register". Registration is free and shouldn't be too difficult to complete. When the next page loads you will need to enter your name and address details. Scroll down a little further and you will need to choose a user name and password. Your user name is how you will be identified on the website, so make sure you choose something appropriate. Buyers will want to search for your items, so it would be a good idea to perhaps make your user name relevant to the business you wish to start, or at least something simple and memorable. Scroll down a little further and have a quick read of the User Agreement and Privacy Policy. Once you are happy with these, tick all the boxes and click Continue. From here, complete the rest of the registration process and your account will be ready to use.


Setting Up Your Account

You can navigate to your eBay page by clicking on "My eBay" in the navigation bar at the top right of the screen. If you are not already logged in then quickly enter your user name and password. Initially your eBay page may appear very busy and overwhelming, but once you begin to use eBay daily you will find that it is all quite straightforward.

To set finish setting up your account, click on the "Account" tab, or the "My Account" link on the left. Then begin to work down the links on the lefthand side of the page to set everything up with your details. Start with "Personal Information" and "Addresses". Make sure all the details here are correct, as this controls where your payments will be sent, where your purchases will be sent, and how you will pay your eBay fees and for items that you have purchased.


PayPal

If you have not already got a PayPal account, then take the time to set one up now. Visit http://www.paypal.com and create a new account. Follow the instructions to verify your address, and to link to and verify at least one bank account and credit card.

These days eBay requires you to offer PayPal as a form of payment, so you must have access to a PayPal account. This is also the quickest and easiest way to get paid and pay for items - in fact it is the only payment method that I offer for the majority of my auctions. PayPal also makes it very easy to track which items you have received payment for, saving you huge amounts of time once you are selling regularly.


Feedback

eBay uses a system of peer ratings, shown as a feedback score. This score is composed of a number and a percentage. Each time you sell an item the buyer has the opportunity to leave you a rating of either positive, negative or neutral. Of course, if you treat your customers well you can expect to receive almost entirely positive ratings. The number in the feedback score represents the number of individual buyers that have left a positive rating for you. The percentage represents the relationship between the number of positive and negative ratings you have received. It is important to keep the percentage very high (my rating has never dipped below 100%, however anything above 98% is very good).

To initially build your rating, I would suggest browsing eBay and purchasing a number of items. Sellers also have the ability to leave a feedback rating for a buyer, but only a positive rating or no rating at all. Sellers cannot leave a negative rating for a buyer. Go ahead and make a few purchases. These don't need to be at all costly, but do make sure that you pay promptly so that you get your positive feedback score.

If you can build your feedback score and maintain a high percentage you can expect to sell more items and at a higher price.


I'm ready!

Once you have completed these steps, you are now ready to begin learning how to make money on eBay!

Why Choose eBay?

If you want to start a home business, or just want to make some cash online, then starting an eBay business is one of the best ways to get started. Why? Because you can get started for practically no initial outlay, and you can scale your business depending on how much spare time you have, how much cash you want to make, and how dedicated you are to your goals. I have created this website to tell you how to make money on eBay and reveal a number of tips, tricks and step-by-step guides to help you along the way.

If you are not yet convinced that selling on eBay is for you, or if you think it might be but you want to be sure, then read on!