Buying and selling things is not new. As a matter of fact, people have been buying and selling things in one form or another ever since time began. It is part of life. We all need or want things that we can’t provide for ourselves, so we have to find someone who can supply us with the items, and we pay them to provide us with these items that we need or want.
Deciding what you want to sell is not as easy as it looks. There are two main types of items that you will be selling. The first and most obvious are those items that are lying around your house that you want to get rid of, you know, all of those CD’s that you don’t listen to anymore, that old toy you got when you were a kid, things like that. These items are great to sell to make some extra money, but they are a one time sale item, meaning once they are sold, they are gone and so is your chance at a recurring income!
The second category of items that you will be selling is a set of products that you create or buy in order to sell them. These can be a great source of income, things as simple as your mother’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies or an ebook about Stock Market Investing. These types of items are things you can sell over and over again. They may not bring in as much per item as other items, but you can sell them in a great quantity. Let’s look at each of these item types in a little more detail.
ONE OF A KIND ITEMS - ITEMS THAT YOU OWN
First, we'll take the one of a kind items. These are the items that are taking up space in your closet, the things that you bought and don’t have a use for anymore, or the things you’ve gotten as presents that have never been taken out of the box! These items can put some fast cash in your pocket, as well as open up some much-needed space in your closets!
There is really no limit to the type of things that you currently own that you can auction off. Just by taking a look at an auction web site like eBay of course, you will see people selling everything from toys, computer equipment, photo equipment, antiques, books, clothing, and even automobiles and homes! Your choices for what you can actually sell are unlimited!
ITEMS THAT YOU CAN SELL IN QUANTITY
Now, let’s take a look at the other type of items. These are the items that you can sell in quantity. These can be things that you purchase in quantity in order to sell. There are a lot of collectibles that are widely available in certain areas that aren’t available worldwide. These can be sports figures, dolls, trading cards, etc. Anything that you can buy and sell at a modest profit is fair game, remember people on eBay DEMAND low prices. Better to sell 100 books for $5 than 20 for $10. And of course you can buy products in bulk from wholesalers to re-sell on eBay. For example, computers, digital cameras, and these types of in demand items. But like I said, make sure you are getting a good deal when you buy, and your profits will be higher.
HOW TO DECIDE WHAT TO SELL
How do you decide what types of items that you want to sell? Well, there are a few different ways to do this. The first thing I would do is make up a list of the items that you are considering for sale. Look at the items carefully, and write down information such as a description of the item, what you paid for it, the condition it is in, etc. Being very specific here will help you greatly if you decide to list any of these items for auction. Sometimes the smallest details can mean much greater prices, and much greater profits for you!
Now, take your list; sit down at your computer and search eBay for the types of items that you have come up with. Now, this may not be effective for that one of a kind BABE RUTH autograph. For about 85% of the things you want to sell, however, it should give you a pretty good idea of the market value of the item, as well as consumer interest.
So, fire up your internet browser, get to www.ebay.com and enter your search terms and you're on your way.
In the search box type a relevant term. If you want to know what 'U2 GREATEST HITS' CD is worth type "U2 GREATEST HITS" If you’re looking into selling your VCR, simply type "VCR" into the search categories at eBay.
As you can see, with searching for the proper words, it is very simple to see if the types of items you want to sell are already being sold at auctions. When you find the listings, you can learn a few very important things. The first is, you can get a good idea on what the market price is. By seeing what other people have sold similar items for, you can decide whether or not you want to sell the item, as well as what you should expect to get for the item when it sells! When you search, you can look at auctions that have recently been completed, as well as current ones, to see what items similar to yours are bringing in for other people. After you find out all of this good information, you can now set out with an idea of what you should bring in for selling your items.
The other thing you will learn by searching the web site for other similar products is the amount of people that want the type of item that you are selling. The auction web site lists the amount of bids along with all of its items. This will tell you how many people are bidding on those items. Obviously, if you have fifty different people bidding on an item, it’s a lot more apt to bring in money than an item that is being bid on by only one or two people. This is not an iron-clad rule, though, since you only need one bidder/buyer to make money on your item!!
The best way to get started in the market of buying and selling is to decide how much money you can afford to invest right off the bat. I would recommend starting with at least two hundred dollars or so to begin your empire. It’s a small investment, and you should be able to double your money pretty quickly!
Then, you need to decide exactly what you want to buy and sell. Your choices here are virtually unlimited, as you have already seen. Here’s a good way to begin. If you have a hobby, or an expertise that gives you an edge in particular field, use it to your advantage! If you know computers, you might want to buy and sell computer equipment. If you’re a camera nut, then maybe photographic equipment would be your cup of tea! Remember, if you have an edge over 90% of the other people at the auction site, you will probably be able to spot the bargains that you can buy and then re-sell at a profit!
Another way to find out good items to buy and sell is to check out the auction web site to see what other people are buying and selling! Just because someone else is selling the product like yours does not mean that you should not try marketing your own version of it. As a matter of fact, just the opposite is true! After all, if someone is already successful selling something, you probably can be too! Imagine that everyone looked at HENRY FORD’S first car and said, "gee what a great idea… Too bad it’s been done, no need for me to try." We would all be driving Model A's if that was the case!
CREATE ITEMS THAT YOU CAN PRODUCE & SELL YOURSELF
Another type of item that can be extremely successful is something that you can produce on your own. Things like grandma’s recipes, a "how-to" manual on hooking up your VCR, etc. These are the items that can offer you immense profits! I know, you’re asking yourself "what kind of item can I produce?" It’s simple, look at what you are good at and use it. If you can make the best brownies in town, sell your recipe. If you’re the guy everyone calls when they can’t figure it out how to do something on their computer, write a how to manual on that! Look at all of the books that are available "for dummies" on the store shelves. They sell like crazy, because everybody needs help to tell them how to do something! So take what you are good at and MARKET IT! People will gladly pay $5.00 to $10.00 for the information that they really need. After all, it is a very small price to pay in order to understand something, or to better yourself. And, while $5.00 or $10.00 is a relatively small amount for a buyer, it can really add up quickly for the seller!
If you’ve ever watched the TV Food Network, and I know I watch it too much sometimes, you may have seen the show the Essence of Emeril. Chef Emeril Lagasse has a saying that I think is very relevant to what you want to do with selling you items on eBay. Emeril says, "We’re not building a rocket ship here!" And, we are not building a rocket ship, nor are we reinventing the wheel. What you want to do is take a simple idea and nurture it, build it into something that you can offer the buyer. What you want to do is look for items that go for people’s "hot buttons".
While it may be true that everybody is different, it is also just as true that everyone is the same in a few ways. Everyone wants to make more money! I don’t care if you are near broke or Mr. Microsoft, Bill Gates himself; everyone wants to make more money! Everyone wants to be smarter. These are universal things that you can use to make yourself money!
Reference materials, like what you are reading right now, are great items to sell! Trust me, they are not always easy to put together, and can challenging to get off of the ground! But, the payoff comes when you are finished! Not only can you sit back and feel you have accomplished something, you can now sell that one item over and over again and you can feel good making money by helping other people accomplish something that is important to them!
If you do decide to write a book, check your local print shops for a good deal on printing them up. When you are dealing with a lot of copies, and we certainly hope that they sell big, it is much easier to leave the copying, folding and stapling to the experts! Then, all you have to do is collect your checks and address the envelopes!
So, use your imagination. Examine your unique talents. Look at what products are in demand. It really is the simple ideas that can change your life forever!
SELL A QUALITY PRODUCT AT A FAIR PRICE
I want you to keep in mind, and never ever forget - People will buy virtually anything! That is, as long as you are providing a quality product at a fair price, you can be a huge success in buying and selling! Look for products that people use on a day to day basis. Look for a unique idea that you think is in demand; or take an existing idea and make it better. Use your imagination and think about what kind of a service you would like to see and if it is something that you can put together on your own, go for it! Also remember this, if people are happy with your product, they will become repeat customers!
Now that you know what you want to sell, it’s time to package it and market it for the auction process. Here is where it takes a little bit of planning and care to get your items noticed. Next you’ll learn the techniques that will get your items higher bids on average than similar items. The things I will show you are simple, but they are very effective. It’s amazing to see ads on eBay that are totally horrible. Ads that have misspellings are the kiss of death for me. If a seller cannot spell correctly in an ad, you can't completely trust their ability to address the package correctly! Maybe I should write a whole new book on the importance of the spell checker!
WHAT CATEGORY DO I SELL IN?
First visit eBay and see what categories are available then click on a category that you want to market your product in. Now you will see sub categories. Now click on that sub category and see how many auction Items are in that category.
Also, by using the search capability on each page, type in a keyword related to what you will be marketing. You will receive a listing of all the items being offered on eBay in various categories. Click on an item and it will come up and right below the Title and item # you will see a link which states the category the item is offered in as shown below. This is an quick and easy way to find out what a proper category for your product(s) would be.
STILL NEED HELP DECIDING WHAT TO SELL?
As I just mentioned, if you want to sell something on ebay you have to know what is selling and for how much it's selling for. With "Hot Item Finder" software you can search and collect all the Hot Items for current as well as past auctions with the click of a button!
Now, you can cut down research time, and find what real people are searching for with a program called Hot Item Finder.
With Hot Item Finder you can:
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Gives sellers a great idea for what items to sell on eBay !
Use the popular search term generator to create very attractive auction descriptions !!
SAVE a HUGE amount of TIME at eBay
Analyze a particular category to see with one contains the most items!
Find out how much your competitors are selling their products
Increase your sales by adding popular search terms in your auction descriptions and titles !
Find products in your market that are selling !
>> Click here for a special discount on the Hot Item Finder Software
In my next lesson, we will talk about... "Creating the Perfect Ad"
Yours in success,
Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network
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Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.
Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.
His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.
Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.
Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.