I n order to make money on eBay you must sell something (DUH!). But what should you sell? What products are the most profitable? Where do I get all the stuff I want to sell? You are probably clueless right now and you want some answers, don't worry I'll give you all the answers you need.
Finding products to sell can be the hardest step of starting your eBay business. But if you want to be a PowerSeller that is one step you can not skip! Even though it can be the hardest part of starting your eBay business, finding a supplier is relatively easy and can be done in a couple of days...if you know where to look.
Even though it is easy, many people end up simply quitting because they find the task of finding a good supplier challenging and time consuming. Finding a suppler can also be very frustrating; it can seem like looking for a needle in a haystack if you don't know where or how to look.
First of all, look at all the PowerSellers selling the same stuff you want to sell, how did they get their hands on all that great stuff? They looked for it until they found it! You must understand that if a product can be bought, it can be sold for a profit. So whatever it is you want to sell I assure you, you can find a supplier for it.
You will need to look harder, think outside the box and get creative if you want to sell certain items. You will sometimes need to think for yourself and figure out ways to get your hands on the stuff you want to sell. This might seem scary, but don't worry:
I will give you a lot of information that is sure to help you out. Getting creative and thinking outside the box: Like I said, if it can be bought, it can be sold for a profit. Whatever you are looking to sell you will find it if you look hard enough. What I want you to know is that not every product can be found in a conventional way.
By conventional I mean looking up a supplier in the yellow pages or the internet. Sometimes you just have to get creative. First you must get rid of all the mental blocks and limitations that are in your mind, you need a “can-do-attitude”. More often then not, the spoils come to those who think the sky is the limit.
Thinking outside the box is just that, the limitations and mental blocks are the box...you must completely ignore them! So what do I mean by thinking outside the box while looking for a supplier? I mean your supplier doesn't have to be an actual supplier.
Your supplier can be a store, website or even another eBay seller that has access to the products you want to sell. Another eBay seller!? Why would the competition want to help me?
Well not everyone is going to want to help. But the smart eBay sellers know that this is a chance to make money off of the competition as well as their own eBay business, a smart seller knows that with the extra products he he/she order to supply you, he/she will probably get a greater discount.
eBay is a great opportunity to make money from home, with little or no risk and a small amount of startup money. But guess what, not every real supplier is going to want to deal with you when your first order is only $100 worth of products. You must understand that if you can't go in through the front door, just go around and try the back.
As you read on there will be examples of getting the products you want to sell through the "back door" Does anyone actually use this "back door method"? Yes! Almost every single eCommerce website that sells expensive watches (TAG, ROLEX, OMEGA...) uses the "back door method".
After all, the manufacturers of the watches only supply directly from the factory and only to authorized dealers....oh and the watch companies forbid the selling of their watches over the internet! So what most of these websites and eBay PowerSellers do, is befriend a jewelry store that has access to the products they want to sell.
So if some of the biggest most successful PowerSellers and websites do it, why can't you? Most people are uncomfortable thinking outside the box and taking the road less traveled. Because when you do what everyone else does there is a clear path, there are guidelines and it is much easier and less uncomfortable to follow an already made path than make your own.
Please know that you don't have to follow "the rules" when looking for a supplier: anyone that sells what you want to sell is a potential supplier to you. Now, not everyone is going to agree to do business with you. But you must remember there are thousands of people out there that would agree to be your supplier.
The sooner you get rid of the ones that don't want anything to do with you the sooner you will get to the ones that want your business and are open to your ideas. OPM and OPP: I understand that even though you may want to start selling on eBay, you might not have any money to start with.
After all most suppliers have large minimum orders and don't look after the little guys interests. Well, fortunately for you there is a way for you to start with virtually no money to invest in your business or any products to sell. You may not have any money, but other people do. Isn't that right?
Banks have money, credit card companies have money, and loan sharks have money. But you already knew that, and maybe you have already tried to borrow money but for one reason or another (bad credit, you already owe everyone etc.) you were not able to get anyone lend you money.
But the fact remains, other people still have money. How can you get these peoples’ money? You can sell them something! Oh yeah, I forgot; you have nothing to sell either. But don't other people have stuff to sell?
So, in order to get your hands on some money, you need to sell someone something, but in order to sell something you need to have something to sell, you don't have anything to sell, and in order to get your hands on something to sell you need money which you don't have. Sounds like a “catch-22”!
THIS IS YOUR ANSWER:
OPM = Other People's Money
OPP = Other People's Products
What you can do is use other people's money to sell other people’s products. How?
By listing something you don't own up for auction, collecting the money (OPM) paying for what you just sold (OPP) with that money and keeping the difference for yourself. All you have to do is look in a newspaper, find something for sale, call up the owner and say you will buy it in one week....guaranteed!
- Then post the item up for auction, and wait until it sells.
- Collect the payment.
- Go to the owner of what you just sold.
- Haggle over the price a little bit.
- Pay the owner for the item.
- Keep the money that is left over (profit)
- And send your customer the product they paid for.
There you go! Did you use any of your own money? No. Did you sell anything that you owned? No! All you did way put OPM and OPP together and kept the profit for yourself!
How much money can you make? Depends on the product you sell, if you sell a pair of used shoes you might make 5 bucks, if you sell a Rolex watch you can make over $1,000! It all depends on what you sell. Here’s a way for you to sell something right now without buying anything:
You can sell an ebook. That’s right, you can sell a digital product that can simply be emailed to your customer. No packing and shipping involved! It’s very easy to sell ebooks on eBay. In fact there are systems you can implement to essentially automate the entire process, but for now I’ll just give you the basics.
You can list the ebook for sale on eBay using the book title or your own catchy headline as the auction listing title. In the listing, write a short summary of the book and your own personal review/endorsement. By providing your own personal endorsement, people will be more likely to buy it because they know you actually read it and liked it.
You could do a Buy It Now auction, or just start the bidding at a reasonable price like $4.99. When the auction ends and the buyer pays you, all you need to do is email the ebook to them as an attachment! Again, that’s the great thing about downloadable information products: no packaging or shipping is necessary. In fact if you like the idea, you might want to amass an entire collection of ebooks to sell on eBay. The key is to look for resale rights…
Getting around minimum order quantities:
I am sure you already know that many suppliers and manufacturers have a minimum order quantity. This can be a big problem to most people that are just starting out in eBay. Most people can't afford the minimum order quantity set by the suppliers, and this is the time most people usually give up their dream of becoming a successful eBay seller.
Well guess what, there is an easy way to get around the problem of big MOQ's, and it works! This method is not something that is very often talked about, but a lot of eBay PowerSellers used this exact method to start of their now enormously successful businesses.
In order to be able to use this method to its full potential you must understand that people are humans not machines. And humans can be easily persuaded into doing what you want them to do. Let's say you are extremely thirsty, so you walk into a convenient store and decide to buy a drink.
You put the drink you want on the counter, reach into your pocket and realize that you are 5 cents short. Can you convince the person at the cash register to make an exception? Yes of course, more often than not all you will have to do is ask.
Now, let's say you are extremely thirsty, so you walk up to a vending machine, reach into your pocket and realize you are 5 cents short. Can you convince the vending machine to make an exception? No way, you can plead with it all day and it won't even listen to you.
You couldn't convince it even if you had a gun! Something else you absolutely must know is exactly who you're dealing with. Are you dealing with the owner of the wholesale company? No, most likely not. You are probably dealing with a sales representative or a manager.
This is very important because sales representatives and managers usually don't have big fat salaries and are a lot easier to convince than a highly paid president or rich owner. So what exactly is this method for getting around MOQ's?
Well it's quite simple, you need to make helping you something that is in the best interest of the person you are dealing with. You won’t get very far if you are simply going to go into the sales manager's office and saying, "c'mon, let me buy less than required....c'mon, it would make me a lot of money".
If you say stuff like that; you won't get anywhere. You need to say things that are in the person's best interest, not yours. So what is it that you should offer the person that has the power to help you become successful? Offer them a part of your profits.
What has worked for me in the past and many PowerSellers I have talked to is offering the person you are dealing with a commission for every product you sell. This is a very attractive offer and most people will not be able to turn it down. That is of course if you present it properly.
Here is an example: Let's say that the product you want to sell is a highly profitable one, take luxury car wheels for example. What you need to do before you meet the supplier (sales manager) is work out how many wheels a month you are going to sell, how much profit you will make per every sale and how much money you will be making per month.
With the car wheels you want to sell you can expect to make a profit of $500 per sale and maybe even higher. So you worked out the profit you will make per sale ($500), now you need to figure out how many car wheels you will be able to sell per month, let's say around 30.
That gives you a monthly income of $15,000/ month (30 sales multiplied by $500 = $15,000). After you've figured out your projected profit per sale and income per month, you need to decide how much of that money you are willing to pay to the person (sales manager) that is going to make it all happen for you.
I usually give 20%, so do other sellers and so should you. What does 20% mean to the sales manage? It means $100 for every set of wheels you sell, if you meet your goal of 30 sales/month this will mean a $3,000 monthly commission for the sales manager.
Now tell me this, if you were offered a $3,000 passive monthly income, would you turn it down?! An eBay PowerSeller I talked to told me that the best way to present this proposal is in a friendly and comfortable environment, something like a café or bar.
The reason for this is because an unfamiliar office can be an intimidating environment. You need to be somewhere comfortable. This will make both you and the sales manager a lot more open and friendly. You should also type up the offer and print it out, stuff it in an envelope and leave it with the sales manager after your meeting is over.
This is a powerful trick, because when the sales manager opens the envelope and looks at everything you have just proposed to him, all broken down and calculated it will be hard for him not to see it your way. When you type up this offer make sure to clearly break down all of the numbers you mentioned, the typed up offer should not include a lot of text, just a break down of the money the sales manager would be making if everything goes as planned.
Example: Estimated profit per/ sale: $500 Estimated monthly sales goal: 30 sales Commission; %20 or $100 per sale, $3,000 per month You can also include an explanation of how you came up with those numbers. Now I know that this may sound a little fishy and unethical, but nothing could be further from the truth.
If you do something like this, it will be a win-win situation for everyone. You will be making money, the sales manager will be making money and the wholesale company would not only be making money but also gaining a long term business partner (you) that is a true asset to the company.
Multi million dollar deals are made every day using these kinds of methods, and almost every business and successful corporation that ever existed was once involved in under the table deals when it was still in its infancy. You will not breaking any laws or be hurting anyone by conducting this type of business.
Oh and as for that minimum order that you couldn't afford. If you stick to your plans and meet your goals you will be buying a lot more than the minimum order required, every single month. Like I said, its win-win for everyone, because you're making money, the manager is making money and the wholesale company is not only making money it's gaining a valuable asset (you).
Like I said before, this is something not a lot of eBay PowerSellers' talk about but a lot of them do. It is important to know that you don't have to keep paying the sales manager a 20% commission forever. You can stop as soon as you make enough money to be able to afford the MOQ. This is something that only has to be done in the beginning (if you have no start up money) and is done by countless amounts of new businesses every day.
My personal motto is, if I can't use the rules to my advantage, those rules don't apply to me. A lot of successful people seem to agree with me, because this method of getting what you want is exactly what "playing by your own rules" is all about. Keep in mind, we’re NOT talking about doing something ILLEGAL. The law does apply to you, and I’m not suggesting that you bend the law in any way. A friendly bribe where needed? Yes. An illegal bribe? No.
You have played by someone else's set of rules all of your life: your parent's rules, your school's rules, your boss's rules. It's time to follow your own rules and follow in the footsteps of millions of successful people that did it before you. Think outside the box, strive to achieve your goals and play by your own rules. In other words: think for yourself. Now let's get to the products…