The first question most people have is, “what do I sell?” Most PowerSellers answer that question with, “sell what you like!” Yes, sell what you like. If you like comic books than sell comic books, if you like paintings sell that. Selling what you like is very important.
Most of the PowerSellers I interviewed said having fun and selling what you are interested in are the two most important things that you must NEVER forget when selling on eBay. So why is it so important that you sell what you like and not simply what's "hot" at the moment?
There are many reasons, here are the main ones: I f your favorite thing in the world is...oh, let's say vintage shoes. You are A LOT less likely to get ripped off by a shoe supplier than a person who just heard that vintage shoes are "hot" and wants in on the action.
You are more likely to actually start selling on eBay and actually stick to it if you are selling something you enjoy. Wouldn't it be nice to do what you love and make money at the same time? Well if you sell what you love you are one step closer to doing just that.
If you simply sell things that you think will sell, that means you are doing it just for the money. If you do something just for money than what's the point? Just keep your day job. Remember how I told you that most PowerSellers said the two things you should never forget are have fun and sell what you like.
Well if you don't sell something you like your fun won't last very long, at first it will be very fun watching the bids go up and making all that money. But sooner or later your fun will turn into work and you will dread selling on eBay just like you might have dreaded your job.
I 'm sure that the above reasons are fairly obvious to you, I am simply telling this to you so you don't make the mistake of trading in one crappy job for another. One PowerSeller I talked to sells expensive watches and jewelry. He was a watch collector before he started selling on eBay, one day he decided to buy a watch off eBay.
He bought the watch but his wife would not let him keep it, telling him "it's too expensive" and "you already have a lot of watches". So he decided to make his wife happy and get rid of the watch, but not by returning it but by selling it where he bought it in the first place, eBay.
When he put the watch up for auction all he was hoping for is to get his money back. He didn't just get his money back, he made a profit! And that is how he got started on eBay. When I asked him if it was the money that keeps him selling watches on eBay, his response was a loud and clear "NO!"
He than explained to me that because of eBay he now gets to see and wear hundreds of watches that he wouldn't even dream of having in his possession before. He told me that the biggest mistake he ever made was trying to sell things he didn't enjoy.
Now I know what you may be thinking; does this guy make a lot of money? Does he still have a "real job"? Or is this just a hobby for him? Let me answer the last question fist: yes, selling on eBay is his hobby....because he LOVES what he sells. Yes he does still have a "real job" and YES he does make a lot of money!
So who is this man? He is the highest dollar seller of watches on eBay (over $500,000.00 per month)! And he does it part time! The eBay ID of this man is beckertime and his website address is www.beckertime.com I recommend you check out his listings, you can probably learn a few things and buy some watches (more on that later).
Now I know what you might be saying (again!), hey! This guy sells watches...watches sell well! Yes watches are one of the more popular selling items on eBay, but I got something that will cheer you up, most of the other PowerSellers I talked to don't sell watches, they sell stuff like their own artwork, antiques, plates and cups, Christmas ornaments and other stuff that you would think have a hard time selling.
So if what you are interested in is not exactly what you would call "hot", don't worry—you can still make good money! So remember: SELL WHAT YOU ARE INTERESTED IN!
Now again, I must say you do not have to sell what you are interested but I and more importantly a lot of PowerSellers recommend it. Beckertime sells expensive watches, so even though he doesn't have as many transactions as other PowerSellers, he still sells over $500,000 worth of products on eBay per month.
Many of the items he lists for auction sell for over $6,000, so he has a lot less transactions than other sellers but each transaction is worth a lot more. That brings us to our next topic: few expensive items VS lots of cheap items What are you going to sell: lots of cheap items, few expensive ones or something in between? To help you decide I will go over the disadvantages and advantages of each. I will also tell you where and how to get the stuff you want to sell.