What Sells?

One of the questions I get from people interested in eBaying for profit outside of unloading the collection of stuff in their homes is: “What should I buy to resell on eBay?”

Well, this is REALLY easy to learn. Yep, EASY!

First, the rule of making profit in any business that sells products is important to remember: buy low, sell higher. So, shopping for things to resell is all about finding deals that are like steals. Recently I found a couple of new PS3 games on the cheap at Target (thanks big T for your clearances, you always price things to move!)...

Understanding whether or not you can actually sell these items on eBay is the much harder part, at least if you are starting out. Just because you’ve found a game for $9.99 that is still on Amazon for $29.99 doesn’t mean you can sell it (and ship it) at a profit on eBay.

Here’s how to learn whether you can!

STEP ONE - SIGN INTO EBAY AND SEARCH FOR THE ITEM OR ITEMS LIKE IT

Let’s say I’ve found a great price on a MacBook Pro with Retina display from 2012 and the 4th generation Intel Core i7. Here’s what a search on eBay reveals:

STEP TWO - SCROLL DOWN AND SELECT SOLD LISTINGS

This area is on the left side of the webpage.

Once you’ve clicked “Sold listings” the page will refine the results.

STEP THREE - LOOK AT THE PRICES AND COMPARE SPECIFIC LISTINGS WITH YOUR ITEM

In this case, we’re talking laptops and models may have different components like RAM and SSD hard drives. You want to make sure that your item (or potential purchase if you are browsing eBay via the web or app on your smartphone) is configured similarly to sold items to understand if the pricing is comparable.

STEP FOUR - LOOK AT THE COUNT OF SOLD RESULTS, THEN CLICK COMPLETED TO SEE THE RATIO

In this example, there are 51 sold items. When completed is selected, the total is 59. That means only 8 items matching our search query did not sell. This is a great item to buy if you have room for markup.

SUMMARY

Remember, eBay takes 10% of your selling price, so if you sell that MacBook for $1800, you don’t get nearly $200 of that deal. This is noticeable in a large price, but these fees can quickly add up if you’re selling items for $10-$20. In a future blog post we’ll look at how shipping works and how you can save on packing and shipping supplies while building a little profit into the handling of an item. Remember, on items that cost you $5 and you sell for $10, an extra dollar made from shipping could be a huge difference in your profit margin!