Avoid selling the things you love, but, perhaps no one else does. Your hobbies and personal interest can be a great way of making money, but only if plenty of other people are interested in them too. Another scenario is when you find wholesale products that you think is absolutely wonderful and could be the next best thing…but no-one seems interested in buying it.
Oh well you think, it’s only short term, eventually they’ll learn about my item and start flocking to buy it. Ah, no they won’t. It’s lonely work trying to educate people on the benefits of a product all on your own. As fabulous as the wholesale products might be, it’s nigh-on impossible to start a trend on your own. To make money from a trend, you need magazines and newspapers, word of mouth and television to do some of the work for you.
There is a danger in very large items also. Unless you already have experience selling and shipping large items like furniture or pianos, then it might be wise to start with something smaller. Shipping such large items is a major operation. Not only that, these items will sell less often than mid-priced items as they won’t attract the same number of impulse buyers.
Be careful about selling items too cheap, under $10. It sounds like a great idea – after all, everyone likes a bargain don’t they? But items that sell for under $10 have one big problem: Shipping. It’s quite likely that the shipping for the item will cost more than the item itself and this can be very off-putting to buyers.
For example, if the item costs $4.50 and shipping costs $6, the total cost for the item is $10.50. If the buyer can purchase the item at their local store for $8, then this suddenly becomes a much better deal. For small items and accessories, the way to get around this problem is by grouping the items together, such as sets of 6 golf-balls or 5 tea towels.
Some items are very difficult to ship such as fragile china, plants. Of course these are not bad items to sell altogether. Many sellers do very well from these items. But I don’t suggest you sell such difficult items when you are first starting out. Both these items have an above-average shipping risk, particularly if not packed properly. As a new seller, any negative feedback you receive at this early stage could be especially damaging to your career.
here are items that are very hot with many people selling them, that doesn’t mean that you should. Many sellers think that the best way to get started on eBay is to sell items that everyone else is selling. Surely those super hot items such as ipods, cell phones, psps and so on will be a quick route to riches?
Well, no. The sellers who are already selling these items are not only more established on eBay – and thus familiar to and trusted by buyers – but they will be able to buy wholesale products in larger bulks lots than you will, so their prices will always be better. Thus it will almost certainly be very difficult for you to make a profit in a market that is already well supplied.
Eldridge Williams
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