What kind of stuff can I sell on ebay?

[ScrimpAndSave]

I would like to start selling on ebay to make extra $. Any ideas on what I could sell? I guess I have things around the house...but what do people usually look for on ebay?

Thanks!

[disneysteve]

You can sell anything and everything on ebay. I've sold a huge variety of items over the years, everything from antiques to kitchen items to used kid's clothing to tools to games to stamps and postcards to old medical devices.... I can't tell you specifically what to sell but I will make a few suggestions.

Due to shipping costs and fees, low priced items are tough to sell. By low priced, I mean things any less than about $10. I find it is tough to get someone to pay $5 for an item and then an additional $5 for shipping. The item just isn't worth that much unless it is something particularly rare (in which case it would probably be worth more than $5). If you have a number of similar or related low priced items, you could sell them together as one lot to make it worthwhile.

The most important thing is to have a clear, close up photo and a well-written description. Be sure to give plenty of detail about the item and any flaws it may have. And triple check your spelling, especially in your title. If your item doesn't come up in a search because you spelled something wrong, your auction may go unnoticed.

Before you list anything for sale, do a search for that item. See how many are being sold. Check completed auctions to see what they've been going for, and how many actually sell. Use that as your judge of whether or not to list it and how much to charge.

I've been selling on ebay since 1997. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

[ScrimpAndSave]

Thanks Disneysteve...I knew I would get a response from you.

[jeffrey]

This is my advice from making my living from selling on eBay for several years. Find a collectible area that you have interest in and study the hell out of it and what the prices those items sell for. If you're small, collectibles is the way to go.

While this will mean spending several months learning about the collectible rather than starting in on eBay right away, that time will be well worth it. By becoming an expert in that area, you should be able to spend less time on eBay and make a lot more per transaction.

For the time you put in, you should shoot for making at least $20 profit on every listing that you make. You'll never do that simply selling things around your house, but it can be done if you find a collectible niche.

[disneysteve]

jeffrey, I didn't know you were an ebayer.

I think you make a good point about selling something that you know a lot about. I started off selling Disney collectibles on ebay in 1997, having been a Disney collector since the mid-70s and a dealer since 1986. Going online was just the natural progression of my collectibles business. In fact, I had been selling online since 1994 (when I got online) and moved to ebay once that came into existence.

However, I don't fully agree with the rest of your comments. I don't think it is necessary to make "at least $20 profit" on every listing. I sure as heck haven't. And I've sold lots and lots of household items over the years, sometimes my own, sometimes to help out family members who were cleaning out or moving. I've made lots of money that way, even on items that only earned me several dollars per item profit. If you are willing to put in the time, you can make plenty of money with volume.

It is true, of course, that it is just as much work to list a $50 item as it is to list a $10 item, so it is better to sell more costly items in that sense. I think it just depends on what you have available and what you know about.

I know many SAHMs who sell their kids' outgrown clothing and toys and do just fine. Profits may not be big but it greatly subsidizes their household budget. In fact, if you buy used clothing on ebay and then resell it when your kid outgrows it, you could end up dressing your kid in top quality stuff for little to no cost.

So I agree that it is good to have a niche, but I don't think it is totally necessary. And even if you do have a niche, there is nothing wrong with selling things outside of that area. As I said, I've sold everything imaginable over the past 11 years.

[gamecock43]

Swarovski...lenox...waterford..electronics...broke n electronics...cameras...video games...clothes...anything new in box or package...pottery...hallmark stuff...ornaments...anything pyramid scheme (avon nikken mary kay southern living)...collectible figurines...barbies in box...books...baby clothes...baby toys...go through your dads garage, attic and basement. I can make 1000-1500 a week when I list 50 or so items....the trick is that if you sell stuff that is junked in the attic...it's pure profit after paying ebay fees...it was sitting in storage to be eventually cleared out...so you dont need to "clear" any certain amount on the item. You get $10 for a $50 item- you made $10.00. Not the case when you buy a $5 item- sell it for $10- then you only make $5.00.

[jeffrey]

disneysteve,

I guess it all depends on what your goal with eBay is. I always approached it as a business since it was my only income. If you are just doing it to make a few extra bucks, then you can sell virtually anything. But if you are looking to make it a regular side income, then my advice would be to focus on a niche collectible area. That doesn't mean you can't sell other things, it just means that you have a base of income that you can rely pretty much upon.

I think a lot of it depends on how you value your time because that is the name of of the game with eBay. You have so many hours per day and since it takes time to list and send stuff, you ahve to make those hours work. I figured that it took me an hour to sell an item from taking photos, writing a description, emailing back people with questions, emailing the end of the auction information, wrapping the item and sending it out. With that in mind, I decided that the items I listed should sell for at least $20.00 pure profit (and hopefully more)

Of course, there were exceptions. If there was something in demand that was easy to wrap and I could simply relist again and again, I was more than willing to take a smaller profit knowing that selling that item took less time than 1 hour to complete everything.

The what your time is worth question is one that I still struggle with - especially when it has to do with throwing stuff out. I have several thousand dollars worth of items sitting in boxes in my storage room that I know have value, but would net me less than $10 an hour if I were to sell them. I should probably throw them out or give them away, but it's never easy to do that with stuff that you know has value. The thing is that I will probably never get around to selling it myself and most of it is stuff that I can't give to someone else to sell unless they have a knowledge in Japanese collectibles...

[gamecock43]

Jeffrey- reading about your low end items...do you have a child maybe high school age that would want to take responsibility for selling the items on ebay? Could be a pretty valuable learning experience for them and they would love to clear $5-$10 per item.

[jeffrey]

Jeffrey- reading about your low end items...do you have a child maybe high school age that would want to take responsibility for selling the items on ebay? Could be a pretty valuable learning experience for them and they would love to clear $5-$10 per item.

An excellent idea that I may do when I retire -- although by then they may be worth much more than what they are now...

The main stumbling block is the learning curve of the items...most are fairly obscure collectibles which you need some background knowledge to list properly to hit the small target audience that would be interested in them -- and learning that information takes quite a bit of time. Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of books or other reference information on the items, so it would fall on me to teach -- and the time involved with that which I would be more than happy to do if I had the extra time