eBay: How do I find stuff to sell?

OK, so we have been talking about eBay lately, right? The question has already come up in the comments, and also through e-mails that I have received: “How do I find stuff to sell?” Actually, it isn’t that difficult to find items to sell, but you have to sort of get into the “eBay mode” before you will notice.

What is the “eBay mode?” Well, its a word that I just made up as I typed this! But, it is an accurate name for a “state of mind” that I find myself going into when I am really into eBay selling. Basically, when I am in the eBay mode, no matter where I go or what I am doing, I am constantly on the lookout (subconsciously even) for items that I can make a profit on by selling on eBay. When I am here in the Philippines, that usually means that I am watching for things that are priced much lower than what they would bring in the USA. It also means that the item is light in weight, to make shipping feasible. It also means that I can buy a lot of the item over time.   My final criteria would be an item that is not available in my target market.

OK, let’s look at each of my criteria that I listed:

• Item low in price: Let’s face it, here in the Philippines many things are available at very low prices, much lower than the same item in the USA. Often times, I can find an item for sale here (even at the regular price) that is very cheap compared to American price for the same item. A lot of times, I find that I can buy the item at full retail here, sell it at a nice profit, and my selling price is still lower than the retail price in the USA. If I find items available that meet this criteria, it’s a natural to sell on eBay.
• Item is light in weight, and easy to ship: OK, if you are selling from the Philippines and sending the item to the USA, shipping is a major concern (and I’ll talk about that in a future post). Let’s face it, you can get a great deal on furniture here, but it will cost an arm and a leg to ship it overseas! Something like that is not feasible. But, if you can find items that are light in weight, they are ideal. Another thing to be considered, is the item too fragile to make the trip? If you are buying some item that is in a glass bottle, for instance, the odds are that no matter how well you pack it, a fair percentage of the bottles are going to be broken during shipping. You need to avoid this, because it will eat into your profit margin significantly.
• Ability to purchase multiple quantities of the item over time: This is very important, in my opinion. There are lots of items that are unique and you can only get one, or maybe a few of them. These generally do not make good items to start selling on eBay in most cases. Why? Because in order to do really well on eBay, the thing you really need is to be able to sell the same item over and over again. If you get an item like that, you can keep listing the same auction one after another and never have to re-write the auction. It takes a lot of time to set up an auction - you need to take photos of the item you want to sell, you need to write up the auction listing text, you need to shop to find the item to sell, etc. All of these things are greatly reduced if you can do them once, and keep selling the item one after another for years on end. Because of this, I almost exclusively sell items that I can purchase time and again. The exception is that if you find unique items that you can make a big profit on (not in terms of percentage -in terms of actual dollars). For example, if you can make $100 on a single item, it is probably worth writing up a new auction, etc. That is my cutoff point, if I can’t make $100 on an item, I don’t go for it, unless it is an item I can do repeat business on over time.
• Item not available in my target market:  This particular point can be a big profit center!  My target market would generally be customers in the USA.  If I can find an item here in the Philippines that is not available (or availability is very limited) in the USA, and that I feel Americans would like to have, I have found a gold mine!  There are two different categories that I watch for:  1.  New items that have not yet made it to the States, and 2.  Items that used to be available in the States, but are not being sold there anymore.  I can assure you, a lot of “trend” items start in Asia, so I can often see things that I feel will catch on in the USA.  And, being just a small retailer, I can move more quickly than a big company.  It may be that the manufacturer plans to release the item in the USA, but it takes a big company time to maneuver.  A small retailer can start selling the item today, and take advantage of the market before the “big boys” are able to do it.  The other category was items that used to be available in the USA.  I found one product that was available in the USA around 30 years ago, but was no longer sold there.  It was still being manufactured and available on retail shelves here in the Philippines.  Because many people in the USA remembered the product and there was a sort of nostalgia for it there, I was able to sell it to US customers at around 30 times the price I could get it for here in the Philippines.  I have found a number of products that are still available here, but were long discontinued in the USA.  It is an important market to look for, and a highly profitable one.

When you put your mind into eBay mode, you will see items everywhere you go! If you are at the grocery store you will find items to sell. At the mall, wherever. Always be on the lookout!

When I was in the eBay business, I generally set aside one day, or maybe just one morning per week to go out and actively shop for items to re-sell on eBay. There are places that are like gold mines for this kind of stuff. Any kind of liquidation store is a prime target. These are places that obtain distressed (non salable) merchandise from retail stores. The retailer was not able to sell the item, so he gives it away for pennies on the dollar to a liquidator. The liquidator then sells it at a greatly reduced price to customers. These places are gold mines, as I said! Go there with a pile of money (if possible) and negotiate on every item you want to buy. My strategy when I go to a place like this is to negotiate great prices on bulk purchases. If I see something that I know will sell on eBay, I negotiate a deal for me to buy every piece that they have. I once bought something like 500 Santa Claus Coffee Mugs at a liquidator. The mugs were marked at $2.99 each. I got them for less than $1. It was July, and Santa Claus was not a hot item at the time, so I stored them in my garage until the end of October. I then listed them on eBay and sold them for around $10 each. Let’s see…. a $9 profit each on 500 mugs? That single item made me almost $5,000 in just a month. And, I had many other auctions going at the same time too. See how that works?

Remember how I said that you should make bulk purchases? I said that I bought like 500 coffee mugs? Well, my recommendation is that you don’t do that until you get a feel for eBay. If you are a beginner, buy just one or two and test it. See if there is demand before you go out and commit a bit chunk of money on a single item. In time, though, you will get to where you have a really good feel of what will sell and what won’t. When you have that down, that is when you can start making deals on bulk.

For those of you here in the Philippines, you may be wondering where you can shop for items to sell? The same thing applies. Liquidation centers! Surplus stores! These kind of places can be found here too. Recently, my wife and I found a place in Davao that is a Surplus shop, selling surplus items from the USA. We went there and it turned out to be a treasure chest of eBay sell able items! The key is that you must go out and start looking actively for these places. When you find places, put them on your “route” for follow up once per week, or whatever schedule you can set. You will find that it indeed pays off for you.

So, the items you are looking for are available! You see a lot of them everyday, but because your mind is not in the eBay mode, you don’t recognize them when you see them! Start shifting your thinking today, and soon you’ll be making money!

About the Author:  Bob Martin is an American who has been living in the Philippines since the turn of the 21st Century. Bob is an Internet Entrepreneur, and earns 100% of his income online. Bob earns through a number of different methods including e-commerce, Advertising, Informational Products and others.