eBay is one of the largest online marketplaces, with over 182 million people spending over 10.2 billion USD on eBay-listed products each year. By reselling on eBay, you can claim your fair share of this lucrative marketplace.
At the time I’m writing this article, there are over 1.3 billion products for sale on eBay, meaning there are low-ticket, high-volume items, and high-tick, low-volume items for all types of consumers.
If you start an eBay reseller business and know how to resell on eBay and what to resell on eBay, you’ll be well on your way towards financial freedom.
But, what to resell on eBay?
How do you become a successful eBay reseller?
What are the best products when learning how to resell on eBay?
These are the most common questions I get from my freedom fighters who want to start making 300 USD per day reselling on eBay.
So, I’ve put together this comprehensive guide that teaches you the exact skills and strategies you need to start a successful, profitable eBay reseller business.
This guide, combined with my upcoming webinar “How I Made $10/Day, Then Systematically Grew to $100/Day, The $1000/Day & More!” will give you everything you need to be a successful eBay reseller. Grab this last-minute opportunity to sign up for my free webinar now, though — places are limited and running out like hotcakes!
Table of Contents
- What Is Reselling?
- Why iIs eBay a Great Platform for Reselling?
- Who Is Selling on eBay?
- Step-By-Step Guide for Reselling on eBay
- eBay Reselling Best Practices
- The Best Things to Resell on eBay for Profit (List)
- Wrapping Up
What Is Reselling?
Reselling is the process of buying products to resell them for a profit.
It’s one of the best ways to make money online because it requires so little up-front investment. You can resell pretty much anything, from books to clothes, mobile phones, collectible items like comics, baseball cards or stamps, to larger items like furniture, household and garden decorations — anything you can find cheap and mark up the price for, you can resell.
Why Is eBay a Great Platform for Reselling?
There are many websites you can choose to resell on, so why use eBay?
eBay is a well-known platform for resale. Because of the massive size of eBay’s audience, it’s a lot easier to get exposure on eBay. News articles about eBay are more common than any other website. When people see your listing on eBay, they may be more likely to remember your name and choose to buy from you.
Another reason eBay is such an excellent reselling platform is its audience. As of 2020, eBay has over 182 million active users worldwide. This is almost double the number of Amazon’s active users and nearly 28 times more than Alibaba’s active users. This massive base of consumers is your potential market.
eBay also has tools to help you manage your business. For example, eBay makes it easy to find and sort through products. One of their most obvious but most beneficial tool to resellers is their easy-to-see and interact with categories.
These categories and subcategories provide very valuable information into what products you should choose to sell on your eBay reselling business.
Who Is Selling on eBay?
There are three types of sellers on eBay:
New sellers: These sellers just started and haven’t established a name for themselves yet. They might have a few items listed but not many sales. This can be because the seller started reselling recently or because their items haven’t been listed long enough to attract buyers.
New sellers need patience and ambition. This is because buyers are likely to purchase more readily from more established sellers. Buyers tell the difference between new and established sellers by their seller profile.
A new seller profile looks like this:
There hasn’t been much feedback given to the profile, which means other buyers might look for more established sellers. Overcoming this stage of “new seller” is part of running an eBay reselling business.
Established sellers: These sellers have had their eBay accounts for a long time and have a lot of sales under their belt. They may have thousands of positive feedbacks and/or multiple top-rated seller ratings. This will give you an idea of their reputation as a seller, as well as the volume of sales they’ve made in the past.
An established reseller’s profile looks like this:
There are hundreds (if not thousands) of positive reviews, and the profile has a top-rated seller certification. Getting to this level as an eBay reseller is the ultimate goal, as you’ll have plenty of kudos to convince customers that they should buy from you.
Professional sellers: Professional sellers are the “big boys.” They may design and manufacture products themselves or sell exclusively pre-made items.
Step by Step Guide for Reselling on eBay
What to Resell
Bulk items are a good choice when deciding what to resell.
If you want to resell items on eBay, you should focus on things that are in high demand and that you can buy in bulk. That way, even if the price you get per item is low, your total sales volume will still be high.
There are some other things to watch out for when reselling on eBay, and you can use eBay to do just about all the research you’ll need to figure out the correct products for you to sell.
- Resell USED items: If possible, try to resell used products. This will save you money upfront and give you more flexibility with how much money you spend. You’ll also avoid any risk of getting ripped off by someone who sells a defective product as new.
- Focus on higher cost, higher-margin items: Process your orders on eBay, and sending your deliveries can cost the same. For example, processing an order for a $2 android phone case and processing an order for a $200 boat GPS will be the same. You’ve put the same amount of work in, but selling the higher ticket GPS gets you more of a margin, and helps run a more sustainable business.
eBay’s advanced search option allows you to filter products selling for X amount in each category.
Just go to advanced search, then set a price filter:
- Find products with higher demand but a smaller supply: If everyone knew the answer to this question, everyone would be millionaires. The principle of supply and demand is what makes selling and reselling potentially profitable.
You can do this by looking at the transaction history of items sold on products you found with your price filter. This will show how many people are buying the item in a given time period.
Now, you’ve got a product in your price range and one that is in demand!
What you now need to do is determine whether you’ll use a fixed-price or auction.
eBay Selling Formats: Auction or Fixed Price
Most items are sold as fixed price listings. That means the buyer will pay you the price you set for it, even if they don’t want it. This will allow you to keep more money for yourself and increase your profit per item.
However, some types of items sell better at auction, such as new, unopened items. Some customers like to get something new on eBay, and then return it. If this is the case with your product(s), make sure that your listing clearly states that it’s brand new, but returned.
An item you know is in high demand can do well at auction, so it’s essential to use the strategy we’ve described above to get an understanding of the eBay market value of your products.
Developing Product Descriptions for eBay
The most important part of your listing is the product description. This is where you tell potential customers what the item is, what it can do, and how they can use it. This is also where you usually get your price for an item.
Your product description should be clear, detailed and easy to understand. Many sellers don’t bother with descriptions at all because they think they won’t have much to say that would be interesting or important enough to read. But, a well-written description will actually help sales.
Your product description inspires desire within your buyer and helps them visualize how buying your product will improve their lives.
To write effective product descriptions, you need to:
- Include keywords in the listing. These are words that signify to eBay what your item is.
- List product benefits first and foremost at the beginning of your description. Use bullet points, leave out unnecessary details, and focus on the most important features of the item that will interest buyers.
- Include images throughout your description, highlighting benefits and features.
Managing Your Product Listings
Once you’ve listed a product, don’t just leave it there and never touch up the listing. Adjust the listing according to the type of buyers purchasing your products, and highlight different features accordingly.
Always try to improve your product listings with better photographs and maybe even some action shots of customers using your products.
Managing Your eBay Orders
Once people start buying your products, you’ll need to know how to manage them. Communicating with your customers is vital when managing your eBay orders.
Once you receive an order, contact the customer to let them know you’ve received their order. Then, set about shipping it as soon as possible, with protective packaging to ensure it doesn’t get damaged in transit.
Remember to focus on:
Response time: It’s important to respond to customer queries quickly. If they have a question, make it a priority to answer it. You can also leave customers a message saying that you will get back to them as soon as possible. That way, you don’t leave anyone hanging, and they don’t lose interest.
Shipping: If your customers are in other countries, be sure to let them know this in the listing, and give them an estimated price or range for international shipping.
How to Resell on eBay
The most successful eBay sellers all have several key points in common. I want to highlight these here so you know what to focus on in your eBay reselling business:
Product Photography
Make sure your product photographs are top quality.
This will help sell more items because it emphasizes their features and makes it easy for buyers to judge the condition of the item when they see it.
Great Listing
I can’t overstate the importance of a full, descriptive listing enough. Get your listing as thorough as you can — answer any question your buyer might have about the product in your listing.
Shipping Costs and Free Returns
Keeping shipping costs to a minimum, and offering free returns, is a secret to getting more sales. You can work the shipping cost into your product price — so long as your buyer perceives the fact that they are getting free shipping.
Also, make your shipping as fast as possible. Often, this depends on you and when you ship the order. So, try and ship the order the next day after receiving it — this will give you outstanding customer feedback and grow your all-important eBay seller profile.
Customer Service
Being responsive and empathetic with your customers is paramount to your success as an eBay reseller. In some cases, it is more important to lose your delivery and get positive customer feedback than focus too heavily on a single delivery.
At the end of the day, the customer is always right, as hard as it might be. Make sure you run your reselling business with the customer in mind first and foremost. Respond quickly to communication and be helpful with returns — all will make you a successful eBay reseller.
The Best Things to Resell on eBay for Profit (List)
I’ve knocked together a list of some of the best items for you to consider reselling on eBay. Make sure to do your own research (according to the beginning of this article) before committing to a product line, but these are some good ideas to get you started:
- Shoes
- Old-school electronics (walkmans, Discmans)
- Records and other collectibles (stamps, cards, insect bodies)
- Collectible toys and action figures
- Jewelry
- Books in prime condition
- Car upgrade parts
While this list is far from exhaustive, it gives you an idea of the type of product you should look for.
Ebay Reseller Business: Wrapping Up
Hopefully, this article has given you the insight you need to start your journey in starting an eBay reseller business.
Reselling on eBay can be very lucrative, and if you follow the advice I’ve outlined here, you’ll be well underway in no time.
If you’d like more information on how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, then I strongly encourage you to take this opportunity to sign up for my upcoming webinar “How to Systematically Scale From $10/Day Passive Income to More Than $1000/Day.”
With the unique silver linings method I discuss here, I explain how you can start your journey towards financial freedom today.
