Practical Ways to Make Money Online by Selling on eBay
Making Money Selling Products on eBay and the Internet
Todays guide is going to be a little different. I want to talk a little about different ways that people use the internet to make money.
This is going to be different than a lot of those other guides out there because I am not going to tell you to “buy my book” nor will I try to convince someone of a sure fire offer (MLM) that is really just a bogus way to make someone else money.
For this guide we are going to take a look at several different “proven” methods people use to make money online. These may not teach you “how to make millions” but they will definitely help provide more stability in the current economic climate of the US.
There are many common ways that people make money online. They do not require you to be a technical genius and they do not require you to give up all your free time to make them happen.
As I started writing this guide I realized I could offer a lot more value to the readers by breaking it into sections so I could go into detail on each area. Todays section of the guide will be making money by selling on eBay.
eBay
eBay is an online auction website that allows users to buy and sell items by creating auctions for users to browse. Users can search for items they would like to buy, which helps narrow down markets when looking for collectible or hard to find items.
There are several good ways to make money online with eBay. I am going to cover some of the most common methods that I have personally used and that I know work well.
Sell Junk
The most common method is finding junk in your basement or storage areas that someone else may be very interested in. Remember the old saying “One man’s trash is another mans treasure”. This is doubly true for eBay because of the large market of buyers it opens you up to.
Imagine if you could specify what you were looking for at a garage sale and then be directed to the exact house that has that item. Well eBay is kind of like that, in that it offers exposure to niche sales areas that might not have been available otherwise.
Selling junk is pretty straight forward so I am not going to cover the details. The basics are you find some old stuff you don’t want, sell it on eBay and make an extra buck here and there.
The next method is a much better way to make money and can be a lot more fun for the seller.
Sell Collectibles
Another common method for making money on eBay is selling collectibles. I used to do this a couple years ago and made a lot of extra money by selling collectible Toys. The recommendation to sellers when working with collectibles is pick something that you know, or have a passion for. This way you can get really knowledgeable on what you sell.
Toys were a really good area for me because I grew up in the 1980’s. This gave me a lot of insight into collectible toys from this era including G.I. Joe, He-man, Thundercats, M.U.S.C.L.E and more. Two common methods I used to gather my inventory were going to garage sales, and buying on eBay.
I used to get a lot of my inventory by going to garage sales all summer long and digging through peoples toy bins. It’s amazing how many mothers sell of their kids old toys when they go off to college. I would offer these moms about 20 dollars for a full bin of toys (once I knew it had valuable pieces I wanted) and they were just happy to see someone take their “garbage” off their hands. It’s funny that I could go home, clean up these toys, match them with sets I had already collected, and sell them for 5 times what I paid for them.
Another great way to get inventory if you are too tired to get up early and go to garage sales is to look for these same types of sales on eBay. That’s right! You can buy stuff and resell it on eBay and make a killing also. This has become harder to do in the past few years because people have started to catch on to this idea and are doing it themselves.
Basically you are looking for that same mom who sold off her sons toys at the garage sale but this time she is doing it on eBay. She is very easy to spot because she usually has an account with about 50-150 feedback, doesn’t list in detail what is included in the “toy lot” (because she doesn’t know what she has) and is running other auctions for plates, clothes, baby stuff and a lot of other junk you would see at a garage sale. Even better is she will sometimes even put a “buy it now” on the auction and you can scoop it up for next to nothing.
This worked out great for me a couple times. One time I came across a G.I. Joe lot and bought it for $50. I got the toys in the mail, unpacked them and took new / better pictures, and re-listed them that same day. I was able to resell the same lot of toys for $150 dollars having done nothing more than take new pictures and market the auction better.
The methods I am listing apply to any type of collectibles you would like to sell. Whether it’s toys, jewelry, or antiques these methods still apply. Other great resources to gather inventory include “Goodwill”, “St. Vincents” small antique or toy stores, estate sales, offering to clear junk out of someones basement if you can keep the stuff they don’t want, dumpster diving, etc.
Dumpster Diving
Dumpster diving? Eww gross. Hold on just one second, it’s better than you think.
Dumpster diving is checking trash on the curb and in dumpsters for anything valuable that can be resold. This may sound gross but if you know the right techniques to use it can be very clean and profitable.
The city I live in is a college town, and because of this each year there is a college move out day. This is known as “Dumpster Diving” day. Me and my friends will go downtown and check dumpsters outside dorms and frat houses and are amazed, because instead of trash you find all the stuff that some kids parents bought for them that they were too lazy to move when leaving for the summer.
This has included bikes, complete dish ware sets, radios, stereos, DVD players, light fixtures, furniture, and even an arsenal of Super Soaker’s. 90% of these items were in perfect condition and were VERY easy to resell. I would make a couple hundred dollars every year when Dumpster Diving day rolled around.
Another way to ensure your getting “clean” inventory is by checking dumpsters behind retail stores. Depending on where you go this can be frowned upon so just be polite if you are asked to leave. A retail dumpster can be considered private property so don’t preach to anyone about trash being public domain.
I have found that some of the best dumpsters are not behind Best Buys or Circuit City. (As most people would think) The reason being is anything that is supposed to get thrown out that is valuable, is taken by employees. (And these dumpsters are usually locked.) The best dumpsters are located behind “Office Supply Stores”. Let me tell you why.
Office supply stores carry a lot of merchandise that is similar to Best Buy or other electronics stores. Because of this they can end up throwing out some great stuff. Two prime examples are magazines and software. Both magazines and software have expiration dates and once they have passed the stores are instructed to throw them away to make room for the new stock. This stuff goes straight in the dumpster.
I had had very good luck reselling 1 month old magazine lots for $20-30 dollars. I have also had GREAT luck reselling retail boxed software and usually make a ton off this. Other things you may find are furniture that was “slightly” damaged in the store, office supplies, briefcases, luggage, and all sorts of stuff a business would love to buy on eBay to save a fortune on.
Be creative and think about the types of stores that might be good to check. Always be polite about dumpster diving and if you are asked to leave then do so. But as I said before “One mans trash is another mans treasure”. This proves that is true.
Clearance Racks
Another great method for getting inventory for eBay is climbing out of the dumpster and going into the store. Now it’s almost impossible to make any money by buying something in a retail store and re-listing it on eBay. (Although one method works well that I will mention next.) But you can always look for clearance racks. Depending on how well a store is run the clearance rack can contain a veritable load of crap, but in some cases it can be pure gold!
Once example of a poorly managed store is “Staples” office supply store. They are terrible with their inventory, and stuff gets damaged there all the time. Because of this, there is a lot of great stuff that ends up on clearance. I once found a pile of leather wallets, business cards holders, cell phone cases, and PDA protectors that were selling for .50 cents each there. I bought every single one and walked out with 2 bags full of genuine Samsonite leather goods, which cost me about $25 dollars total.
I re-listed these same items on eBay starting at $4.99 a piece. Almost every one sold for $9.99 or more including the $2-3 dollars I made off handling fees (in my shipping costs). In total I made about $150-200 dollars off all the items. This is a great example of clearance gold mines at retail stores.
Exclusive or Promotional Items
The other method I mentioned that actually works well can sometimes be frowned upon because it creates competition for goods that would otherwise not be a problem. Some people consider this bad etiquette, but it is exactly what manufacturers do when they market an item. The people have just learned these practices and now engage in them also.
The technique I am referring to is buying items that you know “are” or “will be” in demand, and then reselling them on eBay. Or sitting on the item until the demand is realized and then reselling it on eBay. A classic example of this was all the craziness that surround the “Tickle Me Elmo Doll” phenomenon. Fast forward to current day and I’ll outline a current example of this that still works.
(As I mentioned before I am writing this guide to provide valuable, real life information for people. Because of this I am giving up a great secret money maker I use from time to time when I need extra cash, especially around the holidays.)
A current version of this technique that still works is buying toy “exclusive” releases and then selling them on eBay. Toys R’ Us is well known for their exclusive toy lines on things ranging from Transformers, to G.I. Joes and Barbie. I used to go to Toys R’ Us about once a week and buy an exclusive toy/s. I would then go home and check on eBay to see if many people were selling them. If they were (which was often the case) I would sit on the toy for a couple weeks.
Once this time had passed, all the people selling on eBay had cleared out their stock and Toy’s R’ Us was pretty much sold out around the country. This is when I would finally list the toy. Now two factors applied to why my auction would do so well. Number one, no one on eBay was selling this item anymore so there was no competition. Number 2 was that while some Toys R’ Us stores might still have that item, places like California and New York had been sold out for a long time so parents in these areas would pay out the nose to get there kid the latest and greatest *whatever* to keep them from crying until the end of time.
Like a lot of the stuff I am listing this method can be applied to any type of “Exclusive” or “Promotional” items.
The last method I would like to talk about is selling Information Products on eBay.
Information Products
Now this can be the hardest, or easiest method to making money on eBay depending on your frame of mind and motivation. Information products are basically anything that provides a consumer with valuable needed information.
You could look at this blog as a type of information product as it offers valuable advice about numerous topics. I do the blog for free because I enjoy writing but I have sold information products on eBay in the past, and if done right it can make you a lot of money,
The reason it can make you good money is because information products do not cost you money, only time. If you have a free weekend consider sitting down and writing an article about something you know. Once this has been done, that one article can be reproduced as many times as needed for anyone who wants to buy it.
This is how software companies make their money. A lot of time and effort goes into R&D to create the software but once that has been done they just copy a CD several million times over and sell a 5 cent plastic disk for $50 to 400 dollars.
The great thing about information products is you don’t even need to provide a disk. Sometimes it can be a good idea to do so because customers like receiving a physical product, but in other cases customer’s are in a hurry to receive the information they need, so they are happy to have it emailed to them.
In the cases where you do ship items I usually charge anywhere from $2-4 dollars because the customer is forcing me to package something and go down to the post office. It requires extra time and energy on my part not to mention fuel costs lately, but if they are fine with the shipping cost I will do that for them. This way I also make an extra $2-3 bucks on shipping.
The key to selling an information product on eBay is defining a need for a certain type of information and meeting that need. If you are the first to come out with a great idea and can market it before anyone else you stand to make the bulk of the profit. Once other people see what you are doing they are going to copy you but by this time you should have already made enough money on your first info product to move onto the next new thing, and let the copy cats fight over the few remaining potential buyers.
One great example of a “hot” info product was whoever first started selling the “cheat code” CD’s on ebay. Someone just put together a list with thousands of cheat codes for video games and sold a ton of these CDs. It was so successful for the first couple people that did this, that it has become one of the most widely “copied” info products sold on eBay.
I have found that real guides about how to do things offer more value to people. Your range of potential buyers may be smaller but those who are interested in your product are usually willing to pay a little bit more to get it.
For information products there is no guaranteed way to do business. That is why I mentioned this can either be the hardest or easiest area to approach depending on how to look at things. It can be very frustrating if you have never done it before, but at the same time it can be very rewarding if you do it right and figure out the keys to making consistent money with it.
If I had any concrete methods I would list them here for you, but as with any type of information or technology the “hot” topics are constantly changing. The best thing you can do is keep your ear to the ground and try to spot the next big thing on the horizon.
Overview
Well I hope you enjoyed my first “How to Make Money Online” guide. As I mentioned above this guide is geared to be more practical so that anyone can benefit from it. I don’t think being tech savvy should be a requirement for helping people to make ends meet.
I will be posting some follow-up guides along these lines since this guide focused mostly on how to find things to sell on eBay. Keep in mind that these methods would apply to any type of online store or website that you need to create an inventory for. This is also true for information products that can be sold through hundreds of websites.
If you have read the blog, you will know I like to write my articles for everyone in terms we can all understand. The methods I have listed here are pretty easy but can make you a good secondary income if you pursue them as though it was a part time job.
With the current economy in the US we are all looking for how to make an extra buck, and I wish people would write more guides with practical methods for doing this instead of writing crap about “How to Make MILLIONS with Your Blog” because no one has actually done this.
Look at some of the A List blogs out there. While these guys do make a lot of money, they themselves will tell “it’s hard work” and “not anyone can do it”. If you have the dedication and follow through, that may be something you want to pursue. If you are like most people out there and just need to pay the bills I will try to share insights I have had over the past several years of working with computers and making money online to give you ideas of things you can actually do with very little technical knowledge.
Keep an eye out for my follow-up articles for how to make money online. I would be very interested in receiving feedback, comments, and questions in regard to this particular article to help me offer even more valuable advice in my next guide in this series.
Once again thank you very much for visiting Pseudorant. I really appreciate the support and have noticed an increase in traffic everyday. It makes me very happy to see that there is an interest in the articles we are doing. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to see on the site, and we will try our best to make it happen. Have a great weekend!
Sponsored Links
