Starting on eBay

Hey everyone,

I'm interested in opening up shop on eBay, yet I'm not quite sure how to do so legally and turn a profit. I've been reading some of the guides everyone posts, but with little IM experience I'm not sure where to start.

I'm looking for something simple, at least to start and gain feedback. I don't have much money to invest since I am currently disabled.

I was wondering if it's profitable to sell things like iPhone cases, Microsoft Points, etc on eBay and if it's legal and profitable. For iPhone cases, would I be better off selling those on Amazon? Is it easy to find legit dropshippers for things like this? Should I be thinking of other products instead?

I'm just simply trying to find out how to get started selling, gaining feedback, and doing things legally.

Thanks!

Every man and his dog are selling I phone cases and similar .
These are a high risk item for ebay as most are fakes so chances are as a new seller your items will get removed .
My advice to the hundreds of new accounts sellers i set up is stick to low value un branded items at first to stay under the radar.
Source some better items from your local $1 stores you will be amazed how well that stuff sells on ebay if you take quality pictures and price normally is around the $3 to $5 mark when sold so a healthy margin .
But the above only works with quality pics and description .
Or another good one is thrift stores / garage sales .
Most of these sellers never do the right amount of research on used items so learn your market and what its worth then trawl the thrift shops and garage sales .

Take into consideration the fees you will have to pay to eBay and paypal if you decide to sell stuff on ebay. By the time you make a sale, expect them to take atleast 9-15% off ebay and 2.9% + $.30 for paypal. Anyway, Best of luck to ya

If you do decide to sell, market them well, and please make the listings as pertinent as possible, all too often misspellings or poorly worded sales pitches will lose you sales to others, be on top of your game.

Hi Mikee
I just wanted to echo what EbayAccounts4U has said. That really the best place to start. You could also go around your own home. Everyone has stuff that they don't use that people will pay good money for. The beauty about this is, your clearing your home of unused, unwanted stuff and you get to make a couple of bucks to use as a small start up investment and all its cost you is ebay and paypal fees. Good Pictures and a good full item description is the best information I can give you. If you don't put the work in it will cost you money.

EbayAccounts4U said:

Every man and his dog are selling I phone cases and similar .
These are a high risk item for ebay as most are fakes so chances are as a new seller your items will get removed .
My advice to the hundreds of new accounts sellers i set up is stick to low value un branded items at first to stay under the radar.
Source some better items from your local $1 stores you will be amazed how well that stuff sells on ebay if you take quality pictures and price normally is around the $3 to $5 mark when sold so a healthy margin .
But the above only works with quality pics and description .
Or another good one is thrift stores / garage sales .
Most of these sellers never do the right amount of research on used items so learn your market and what its worth then trawl the thrift shops and garage sales .

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Thanks for the info. Do you have any example listings?

I want to know how to market the listings and get more traction to them.

I am in a very tough niche.

BTW,at OP.Both iphone cases and MSP are high competition.Try some other niche if you can.

Hello,

If you have a bit of money to spend, just dive into a niche! Many sellers go through the mistake of over analyzing, so to speak, and they always analyze, but they never sell! The only way to see if a product is right for you is to buy a small batch as a test sample and to sell them on eBay.

Since you are a new seller, I would recommend starting of small with non-branded/ low risk items. You don't want to get the ban hammer within the first week of selling now would you?

I would advise against selling iPhone cases and MSP as there are high feedback sellers who basically have more money and a better reputation. These sellers can buy thousands of cards at low prices, etc. As for the iPhone cases, unless you are an established seller, you won't get far since many Chinese sellers have over 5k feedback, so they would instantly drive your listings to the bottom of the list.

Choose a niche that is relatively low in competition, but also choose one that you know something about. For example, if you are choosing a niche in selling used video games, you can just go to a gamestop, load up on a few games, and see how well they sell. Since you know a little about the genre already, it puts you at a slight advantage ahead of some sellers.

As always, when you're starting on eBay you need to have time, money, and patience. Starting an eBay business is nearly impossible to do overnight, it might take weeks, or even months, but once you get started it can be the majority of your income. As long as you list smart, eBay should be able to generate healthy profits depending on the niche you are in.

Here are a few starter sites in which you can get wholesale products:

ioffer[.]com
aliexpress[.]com

Goodluck! And feel freee to PM me with any questions you may have and I'll be glad to help!

If you have any unique skills, you may want to consider listing them on ebay. It's an area that people often over look, but ebay does have a listing category for "specialty services."

I do laptop repairs on ebay, and I also do digitization of old consumer audio formats. I make a little bit of money off of it, and it's been a good way to build up my feedback.

Dropship items from dealextreme or buy inexpensive items for resale on aliexpress...

I suggest selling twitter/instagram shoutouts (to gain quick feedback). Then after you get the feedback you want you can sell the items you want.

I'm sure most people have more to contribute to this thread than I do, but if there's one thing that I can say for sure - and can't stress enough - it's take good pictures. That's a huge draw to your product.

Just take it slow. The first couple of months you will only be able to sell abut 10-20 items. I would recommend you to set up and LLC so you have a EIN and are ready for when paypal asks you for your Tax ID number.

eBay can be quite profitable, as I've used it in the past. However, it can become quite costly and quite frustrating if you allow it to! Do your research first!!!

pokerman2012 said:

Just take it slow. The first couple of months you will only be able to sell abut 10-20 items. I would recommend you to set up and LLC so you have a EIN and are ready for when paypal asks you for your Tax ID number.

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Paypal will only ask if you make over $20,000. I was asked for my tax id and i just deleted that paypal and made a new one with a new email.

Thanks!

FORGET IT. Seriously...you have no edge there now and will compete with scum sellers/buyers and egay them-selves.

Go and do human trafficking or something ...it's even more ethical then running an egay/p.p biz.

I did ebay in 2006-2009 and was reasonably profitable..nothing great.

I went back in 2012....and it was dead.. Hardly any traffic to my listings, many many more sellers. That game is over now I.M.H.O.

weepingwillow said:

I did ebay in 2006-2009 and was reasonably profitable..nothing great.

I went back in 2012....and it was dead.. Hardly any traffic to my listings, many many more sellers. That game is over now I.M.H.O.

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Ebay is probably my most profitable area. I would take a look at it again if I were you. I know a bunch of people who do really well there.

I will tell you one thing ebay is not dead. Sales of 1,700 a day is not dead takes some hard work and dedication. 2013 Dont be weak and give up .