Broke? Try Ebay...

[Luke12321]

Taking consignments would be a good way to go, especially if I could figure a way to advertise nationally. I have thought about trying craigslist but never really searched up software to blast out ads to all major cities.

The guy who is the biggest seller in this niche...he takes consignments and I know he has generated a few thousands extra per month doing it. It is something I am still kicking around....I think he gets most of his just by advertising the service on ebay.

He also has his own line of clothes though it don't bring much money. He probably had it bulk made in China though and has next to nothing it in other than mostly ebay fee's.... so his thinking is on par with what Jill mentioned.

To put it in perspective, he probably moves around 13,000 items a year. If I had to bet though, I would guess his profits are somewhere around $20 an item. But with this volume, he has to pay someone to list, ship, picture take and shop for him...so maybe it is closer to $15 an item after all said and done. Still, not a bad living.

One thing I have noticed that he has figured out some how, is how to get new items obviously for CHEAP. Example, he will sell new with tag Ermenegildo Zegna ties for $60 all day long...they retail for $170. I did some minimal research in how to get in on buying bulk lots of items such as these but no luck thus far....

 

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[Jill]

I've always told people who asked what's the quickest way to make money online is to sell stuff on ebay.

Women have an advantage for pre-owned clothing cause they are very patient in thrift stores.

It doesn't really require much patience. Remember that you're not looking for YOUR size. You're looking for brand names, primarily, in any size.

 

[Anon3587x]

Had some funny little things happen today at the thrift stores.

First store I go in:

At the check out this old guy goes "Hey this is a nice shirt! it will look good on you!"
Me and my brother just laugh lol

Second store the clerk says "Have you tried this one yet? We do not take returns. If it doesn't fit you will be out of luck!"

My brother and I chuckle again.

 

[buckmajor]

Thanks heaps, this is an amazing post, only cause I know what's it like to be broke (um...wait a minute I am broke lol). Hhmm...ebay, might look into it and see how it all works.

CHEERS

 

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[FDJustin]

There's lots of little things I noticed from walking around in a goodwill and looking at pants that need judgement calls... Like, how acceptable is fraying around ankles? And how warn can the leather patch on some brands be?

I looked at some levi's that were in quite nice shape for example, and this is something that I didn't expect to see: Each pair had a bunch of wear marks all down the front that looked to be there by design. You know how jeans can turn white around the knees etc? Ok, so if they were there by design or not, what confused me was that the wear marks looked dirty. Like they were permanently coated in sand dust.

Learning about which brands will sell (used) is as easy as using ebay pulse and stumbling around. The answers to surprises like above can probably be found by google... But exposure will help you find questions.

So if you want to do something like this and don't know where to start, (and I'm not sure if any of this has been mentioned, it's been a while since I read this thread) it's a good idea to wander around the thrift store and just make notes of things. You see a feature? Make a note of it, find out if it's in demand at all. Some of the levi's I saw only had buttons, not a zipper.
If I had been looking at mens suits (Which I had) I would notice that the materials on sale were virgin wool and polyester.

And going through retail stores to check out the same brand stuff you hope to sell should also give you insight and more questions.

 

[buckmajor]

Ok, I'm back with some info. Is this called 'Ebay Partner Network'? So I have to drive traffic from my website to ebay, but how do I sell the item from there? I have a feeling it's a different ebay tool. Where do I get the items from, and how do I compare the prices?

I am willing to learn and go the distance on ebay so I can buy my first ever car....I have a scooter so that's not counted. After reading this, I want to quit my part time job driving cabs, yep my friends laugh when I drive and trying to run a small business but I'm gonna turn this around. I was training and trying to become a MMA fighter to be the best in world (seriously), well I haven't joined a MMA gym yet (low in funds), until I got a numbness in my finger and 2 chip bones in my elbow, so I won't know until I see the doctor on Monday and see what they say (best of luck, anyway).

Can anyone please point me in the right direction, so I can sell items too ebay?

Thanks in advance
CHEERS

 

[buckmajor]

How come the thread title is called 'Try ebay' but no one wants to share their secrets . Ok, you left me no choice, I'm going to find out where the wholesalers are and then I can sell hundreds of items on ebay YES!!

Please keep it coming, I like this thread.

 

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[Jill]

Secrets?

I don't see anyone here refusing to share secrets, buckmajor. Do you have particular questions?

 

[mrshowtime3]

So mens high end clothes work. Womens clothes, not so much. What about baby clothes? Certainly dont sell for as high of a price, but the margin would probably be good since every yard sale there is sells baby clothes for cents each.

 

[buckmajor]

I don't see anyone here refusing to share secrets, buckmajor. Do you have particular questions?

Hi Jill,

Do I have to buy these items first and then resell them for a higher price? Is there like a wholesalers where ebay sellers buy their items from them first before they sell them on ebay? I guess for me I'm not sure where to start?? Maybe I should read from the beginning again, and see if I missed anything.

Sweet

 

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[Luke12321]

What do you want to sell? They are literally thousands of items you can sell for profit. What have you researched so far? What niche interest you? What are you looking to achieve from selling on ebay? Do you want it to be a drop ship model? Do you want wear out your shoes and find products one by one and sell for profit? Buy direct from manufacture? Tons of choices, just got to figure out what you want to do and where you want selling on ebay to get you.

Luke

 

[buckmajor]

What do you want to sell? They are literally thousands of items you can sell for profit. What have you researched so far? What niche interest you? What are you looking to achieve from selling on ebay? Do you want it to be a drop ship model? Do you want wear out your shoes and find products one by one and sell for profit? Buy direct from manufacture? Tons of choices, just got to figure out what you want to do and where you want selling on ebay to get you.

Luke

Hhmm...good question Luke, I haven't thought of a plan or a goal to achieve on ebay?? Holy oaks!! That is the answer I was looking for 'Drop shipping'. I didn't know what it was until I researched it. I see the picture now, so I find a niche that interest me and then find a product to sell for a profit. For a moment, I wasn't sure what you meant by finding products to sell for a profit lol.

Does that mean, we all become salesman for the wholesalers? Is 'Drop Shipping' the only wholesalers to go through, and the cheapest to buy products from?

P.S Ideally, it is better to find a wholesalers with a cheaper price for any product, to make a bigger profit, correct? Is there a wholesaler list or do I have to research them? True! So there is a subscription payment to use 'Drop Ship' . Is that how ebay sellers started?

Thanks in advance

 

[displaced_chris]

This is a great post! Thanks so much for sharing! I've been grabbing stuff to sell on ebay but hav enever had the time to sit down and process them all. Hearing stories about it happening really inspires me to get working!

A great tip on finding one's niche as well. I have bene grabbing stuff at random but will try to do more research on that. We plan to use the earnings to pay off our debt. Thanks again

 

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[Gary M]

Awesome thread, so glad I found it. I'm starting from scratch, first time on eBay, but looking forward to sharing. I hope I get advanced enough to ask Jill for advice (you are a rock star)!

 

[TK1]

Hey Luke,

Great thread. A couple things I took from it that I wanted to mention.

1) Yes it is hard work, but it's not any harder work than if you were working a job for someone. It's probably easier when you think about overall stress.

2) You have learned a great skill. You can be dropped off in any small town and your immediate thought is not to get a job, it is to find the nearest thrift store. You have skills to begin making money anywhere. Worth way more than any job experience. What could or would your banker friends do?

3) Have you thought about slowly transitioning off of ebay and open an online store? You have repeat customers and loyalty. You may not need the ebay platform and you certainly don't want to rely on it 100%. You should start branding your auctions on ebay. Maybe you can start with a few items at set prices and see how it goes.

4) I've also found that if you worry about the money too much that business starts to suffer. Like you said, give that refund and resell the product you might make more the 2nd time. Don't count your profits because you will stress over amounts of $10. As long as my account grows I'm doing ok.

Pure truth in this post!

#2 is so true, it's all that matters after all > learning

 

[Jill]

Awesome thread, so glad I found it. I'm starting from scratch, first time on eBay, but looking forward to sharing. I hope I get advanced enough to ask Jill for advice (you are a rock star)!

You're very kind. I'm really not a rock star, though. We just kept doing the very UN-glamorous, mundane, frustrating and sometimes disgusting, repetitive tasks that most people aren't willing to do. Come to B&P and I will answer as many questions as you can think to ask.

 

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[Walawala]

I'm glad I found this forum!
Maybe somebody can help me.
I am an immigrant, studying computer engineering. Since 2008, I have been selling women's used name-brand jeans. I hada 40/60 sha with a huge supplier, but the margins were too low for me to make any real money, thus I gave up. i sold about 600 pairs of jeans, though.

Recently, when I went back to Pakistan to visit, I located the manufacturers of big name brands - Nike, Ralph Lauren, USPA, Hollister, Aeropostale, A&F, Ecko.. Etc. I have, since then, been getting my partner there to supply small quantities, and it is selling exceptionally well, with huge profit margins. These are all factory extras.

What I am concerned with, though, is that I feel a huge burden of risk. i feel like it is a huge liability. Selling brand-name merchandise, without being a licensed distributor.. Is tht illegal? Can the brand owners sue me, for selling something with amanufacturer's label of $75, for just $35? Please do note that these are all originals.. Not knock offs. i am scared to expand this business. I cannot affford a lawyer. Any advice will be appreciated!

 

[Vigilante]

This would be a fast way to get kicked off of eBay. Not only do brandholders regularly enforce their trademarks (and their authorized distribution) but you would be subject to eBay thinking you are selling fraudulent knockoffs, and you would have no way to substantiate you weren't.

Nike, Ralph Lauren, USPA, Hollister, Aeropostale and trigger brands on eBay. As long as your goods emanated from an authorized distributor, it is NOT illegal. However, that doesn't mean eBay is going to allow you to do it on their marketplace.

Your other risk would be U.S. customs if you were talking about selling the merchandise for shipment within the United States. They will take the merchandise at the direction of the brandholders if the merchandise was not intended for United States resale... and you are simply out of luck in that circumstance.

High risk.

 

[xtn5021]

What are you're opinions on dropshipping? I was thinking of paying that $60.00 a month to get an account with doba. But I'm concerned with the profit magin. To even compete nowadays, you have to be at a very low price.

 

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[AgonI]

What are you're opinions on dropshipping? I was thinking of paying that $60.00 a month to get an account with doba. But I'm concerned with the profit magin. To even compete nowadays, you have to be at a very low price.

Forget about Doba. You don't want to compete with hundreds of other people who get the same prices like you do and put them on ebay. I'd much rather try Aliexpress.com - Online Shopping for Electronics, Fashion, Home & Garden, Toys & Sports, Automobiles from China. which is a site by Alibaba but you can order in lower quantities. Of course watch out for fakes so you don't get in trouble with eBay before you list them ... Heck you can even dropship from Aliexpress, just make sure you state the product will ship from outside of the U.S.

 

[NHS]

Hey everyone. I haven't posted here in forever. But I saw this post and felt I should share what I am up to.

Although it may violate some of the rules and Ebay is a very slippery slope the money comes in fast and is a great way to fund your future ideas. I can tell you some real horror stories and Ebay doesn't give a shit about you at all. At this point they make about $5k a month from my ebay stores so maybe they give a shit now.


I started out selling high end antiques I got at auction and it was alot of fun. I also was able to build a really nice collection for myself. But I always knew that this was not a quick way to cash. This was 2010

A year later a friend introduced me to picking and garage sales. While it sounds pretty gross the money was much better. If you take this seriously it's easy to turn $1000 a week from very little cash just going to garage sales. This was 2011

I have since been able to take the money I earned to start new projects. I have an ebay store where I make custom audio cables and sell to the DIY crowd. I have another where I sell blu ray movies and dvds. Finally I have one where I sell wholesale to convenience stores. This is 2012 to now.

I am currently doing around 25k in sales a month. It's gotten to the point where it's started to grow much more rapidly in the last 3 months. 50k in sales is where I would like to be a year from now. Don't pay myself much. Instead I just reinvest over and over til the day comes I can pay myself 20k a month and take it from there.

When you first get started it's alot of hard work like anything else. Now it's mostly on autopilot. Mondays are still a very tough day. 14 hours on a Monday is normal. Tuesday thru Thursday are 4 hour days. Friday is an 8-10 hour day. But I have really been putting off hiring someone for a very long time. Soon I am going to have to.

 

[jec1521]

I tried dealing with eBay back in the day. My biggest problem was shipping. I could never find the right sized box/packaging, and when I did, it always cost more to ship than expected. How do you all combat this?

 

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[NHS]

I tried dealing with eBay back in the day. My biggest problem was shipping. I could never find the right sized box/packaging, and when I did, it always cost more to ship than expected. How do you all combat this?

Wow been about a year since I posted here. Just saw this in my spam folder.

Me and my wife only sell small items. Few reasons for this. One we still live just across the water from NYC. Space is limited. You can run a $500k online retail business out of your dining room. Two, the shipping is cheap. Anything under 13oz is cheap to ship. Finally we have always planned to move out of NJ and wanted to be able to setup shop anywhere in the USA. We are working with a realtor right now to find a nice farm house on a large piece of property outside of Austin TX.

 

[Jill]

I tried dealing with eBay back in the day. My biggest problem was shipping. I could never find the right sized box/packaging, and when I did, it always cost more to ship than expected. How do you all combat this?

I just use the free Priority Mail boxes that USPS provides. I charge a flat shipping fee, domestically, which is the average of what my actual cost will be to ship it. Sometimes I come out ahead. Sometimes, I'm a little short. But it comes out in the end. It's not too hard to weigh your item in advance and check USPS.com to see what the highest possible shipping charges will be (to a faraway state). It's not rocket science.

 

[smartman]

obviously this is advice of little insight, but I've been selling on ebay for years and i'm at the point where everyone I know just saves their boxes for me. Ask around, buy a box cutter and a tape gun. you'll save yourself on shipping costs from here out.

I love the idea of using only priority boxes, but I've noticed that free shipping is really the only edge I can get in the ebay rankings, which means I need to cut as many corners as possible in shipping costs and use parcel post as much as possible when shipping.

 

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[BobbyPenzero]

Hi, I just thought I'd chip in here as this is a little side hobby of mine and my girlfriends. We check out charity shops (thrift stores here in the UK) and usually pick up £100-200 worth of items in one day.

A really great tool that anyone can use is the Amazon App - it actually has a barcode scanner on so you can check almost anything with a barcode on and see how much it's listed for on Amazon. You may say "Oh, but some of Amazon's prices are way too high" and this may be true, but the fact is that it's a great estimator for any type of media. It's available on Android, Windows Phone and iPhone, so there's my recommendation!

 

[Jill]

... i'm at the point where everyone I know just saves their boxes for me. Ask around, buy a box cutter and a tape gun. you'll save yourself on shipping costs from here out.

I love the idea of using only priority boxes, but I've noticed that free shipping is really the only edge I can get in the ebay rankings, which means I need to cut as many corners as possible in shipping costs and use parcel post as much as possible when shipping.

Well, you could always get the free boxes and turn them inside out. Takes no more energy than collecting and cutting other boxes to size.

But the larger issue, to my mind, is that you need to find a higher margin product to sell. It sounds to me as if you are competing against the same, readily available commodity sellers in a market that is in a race to the bottom (price.)

 

[smartman]

I mostly flip cell phones, and although the product margins vary to a healthy amount ~30% there are simply so many listings that it is hard to get noticed in the ebay algorithm, even with 100% feedback.

I would love some suggestions on other products

 

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[Deleted25642]

Well, you could always get the free boxes and turn them inside out. Takes no more energy than collecting and cutting other boxes to size.

But the larger issue, to my mind, is that you need to find a higher margin product to sell. It sounds to me as if you are competing against the same, readily available commodity sellers in a market that is in a race to the bottom (price.)

Quickie question if I may:

Would you suggest starting off with a personal account on Ebay or jumping right into the business account? Long term, with the desire to scale things up, I know a business account will be required but I was just wondering if there were features in a personal account to take advantage of while you can?

Thank you Jill

 

[Bigguns50]

Hey guys...I JUST discovered this thread. Great sharing, advice and value. Thank you.

I've sold a few things here and there on Ebay ... not much success, but after reading through this thread, I have some ideas to try. I'm in MI in the Detroit Metro area. Most items sell for really, really low prices. There are pockets of upper class areas here, but no stores 'across the street'. Even so, one particular store I've seen some very nice, brand name items with tags attached.

I haven't been focused on one niche and that's what I'm going to do.

Thanks again for all the great insight.