For years people have been looking for those perfect products to sell on eBay, and in 2013 I wrote a guide on exactly how to find them. As expected, it quickly became one of the most popular posts on my blog.
Fast forward to 2017 and I think it’s finally time to update this guide to include all the latest tips and tricks to help you find the BEST products to sell on eBay.
I go into a lot of detail though, so I suggest you get yourself a cup of tea and really dig in to this lengthy post.
What to sell on eBay? This question has been asked MILLIONS of times but there still isn’t a simple answer. Well, I could tell you to sell iPhones and iPhone cases as they’re hugely popular on eBay BUT that would be bad advice, very bad advice.
Popular does not always equal BEST, or even profitable for that matter.
If you take a look at the iPhone case market on eBay for example, you can see that it’s over saturated with thousands of competing sellers, offering basically the same products for very low prices. Margins on these cheap cases are less than 50p per case, often just 10p or 20p.
Now, can you imagine running a profitable eBay business making just 10p profit per processed order? It’s really not worth the effort! To make £10 profit, you would have to process 100 orders. That’s just ridiculous.
Another aspect of such over-saturated markets is the presence of Chinese and Hong Kong based sellers who are in fact more than happy to make that 10p profit per order.
Now, I know that some of you may just want to ask me – “Andrew, what are your top 5 or 10 products on eBay that I can sell and make good profit?”
I’m afraid that’s not gonna happen, sorry.
No one will tell you – sell product X and product Y on eBay and make millions! Why would they? To reveal their best sellers? To give you everything on a plate after they’ve done all the research?
As much as I love my blog readers, it would be “business suicide” to start publishing the best products that I’ve found from my own research and testing. Not only would I suffer hugely by sharing this info, no one would really gain anything anyway. I mean just imagine the situation where tens of thousands of people are given a list of profitable products to sell on eBay – everyone would start competing and before you know it prices (and profit margin) will be driven to the ground.
It wouldn’t do any good for anyone.
So instead of just giving you false dreams, I will give you something better. Instead of the fish, I will give you a rod and teach you how to fish! Like this, YOU can learn to do proper market research and find these profitable products to sell on eBay for yourself.
Before we get started, you have to get rid of the mindset of asking/looking for miracle products that will make you rich on eBay. There’s no such thing.
What you should instead do is get into the RESEARCH mindset and simply execute my step-by-step formula for finding profitable products to sell on eBay for your start-up business.
While common sense is still your best friend through every step of this research process, with the help of some software available nowadays, you really don’t have to be that bright or creative to find solid products you can sell for profit on eBay.
So in today’s post I’ll share with you the exact strategy I’ve used countless times to find profitable products to sell on eBay (and not just eBay!). IF you follow this system, you’ll make money on eBay! Yes, it’s a bold claim BUT I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years now and have personally helped hundreds of people to find products to sell on eBay via my 60 Day Blueprint Program plus thousands more via my Easy Auction Business course.
Trust me when I say – THIS WORKS!
Before we get started – a quick side note. This system relies on identifying proven sellers. I do not use the “inventor’s approach” here. What’s the inventor’s approach? It’s when you try to come up with your own products from scratch.
Basically Dragon’s Den online.
I don’t do this.
It doesn’t mean it can’t work BUT if you want to get your own product to market, be ready to spend lots of money on advertising and even then – the risk of it being unsuccessful is still very high. If you do want to go down this route, this guide most likely won’t be suitable for you.
I’m not talking about OEM or slightly modified products – these are totally fine and you can still research such possibilities using the system covered in this post! And I will even guide you on how to get this done for FREE.
But I won’t cover inventing brand new products in this post as such – as for me it’s just not the optimal selling approach.
Ok then, let’s get started! This is how you find profitable products to sell on eBay….
Step 1 – Brainstorming
The first step of this process is to gather product ideas. Just brainstorm – any random product ideas you can come up with! Don’t think about how good or bad an idea it is, just compile a list of as many possible products to sell as you can.
It’s super important to SEPARATE product brainstorming from the steps that follow! I have worked with many people who get completely stuck on this phase because they start analysing each idea they come up with. And this puts a block on your brainstorming and slows everything down – the opposite of what we’re trying to achieve at this point. For some people it even gets to the point that because of their analysing and overthinking they’re unable to come up with any new product ideas at all!
So don’t do this!
Simply brainstorm product ideas and DON’T even spend a second further thinking about what you come up with – simply write it down and move on!
For creative people like me, this task is super easy & even fun! I could write hundreds of product ideas down on paper in less than an hour. It’s enough for me to take a look at a car across the street to write down 10+ product ideas in less than 2 minutes, such as:
- Alloy wheels
- Dog safety car leashes
- Sun protectors
- Chair covers
- Car washing supplies
- Emergency kits
- First aid kits
- Car covers
- Parking sensors
- Car phone/iPad stands and covers
- Car DVD players
- Various electronic car chargers
- Compressors
- And so on!
Or if I see a commercial for a NutriBullet blender, my head will instantly fill with products ideas, like:
- Replacement blades
- Replacement jars
- Recipe books
- Freezer cups
- Carry bag/case
- And so on!
Or when I pick up the latest kids craft magazine, I can pick out countless products from the how to guides and ads, including:
- Rhinestones
- Scrapbooking paper
- Felt
- Grosgrain ribbon
- Double sided tape
- Cutting boards
- Replaceable blades for cutting plotters
- Glitter paper
- Loose glitter
- Paper cutting dies
- And so on!
With my years of experience and naturally creative mind, it’s super easy!
And you can do the same – just start looking AROUND! Look in your house, on the street, in a bar or restaurant, at school, the gym, your workplace. Everywhere you go you see hundreds of different products that could potentially be good sellers on eBay.
But I understand that this is not an easy task for everyone. In fact, after working with more than 300 clients in my personal eBay coaching program, I realise that MOST people can’t even come up with just a few ideas for products they can sell
on eBay…
No problem! There are other, more systematic and mechanical ways to look for product ideas, such as:
- Magazines
Pick any lifestyle, tech, hobby or how-to magazine from your local newsstand and you’ll find plenty of product ideas inside. Pay close attention to the ads you see as many popular, hot products will be advertised there. If you have an Amazon Kindle or iPad with Kindle application, you can get many such magazines for free with trial subscriptions so it won’t cost you anything.
The best magazines are the ones that concentrate on specific niches, like hobbies or cooking or crafts and so on as they will have info on hundreds of little known, niche-based products. But even popular hi-fi or gadget magazines can be good for this task, especially if you’re into electronics and want to find out about the latest hot products.
- Amazon best-seller list
A super easy way to find thousands of potentially good sellers! On Amazon, you can narrow down categories and sub-categories and in each see the best-selling items, which are updated in real time.
These items will most likely also be popular on eBay but as I said – don’t over-think the products at this stage. Just get them written down.
- Alibaba product categories
Did you know that on Alibaba.com there are SEVERAL THOUSAND product categories and sub-categories, each carrying hundreds and thousands of different products… just by browsing these you’ll find plenty of product ideas.
This is one of my favourite ways to find products to sell on eBay as Alibaba categories are structured in such a way that you’ll easily find suppliers there too, something we’ll cover in detail later on in this post.
- Best-seller lists from Ali Express and other similar Chinese websites
While on Amazon many items in the bestseller lists will be branded products, on sites like Ali Express, all top selling items will be un-branded. This means that they’ll be suitable for importing from China by default.
And do not stick with Ali Express alone, here are some other, highly popular Chinese retail websites you can use for this task:
This is a QUICK & EASY way to get hundreds of product ideas, do not skip it!
- Top gift lists
Every year around Xmas, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day etc. various online sites publish top gift lists. These are good indicators of trendy, new & hot products that will most likely be in high demand on eBay.
These are all good, very easy to use and FREE ways to find products for your list.
If you have more time on your hands and are generally more adventurous, my absolute BEST way to find products to sell on eBay is attending TRADE SHOWS!
Yes, same old boring trade shows, right? There seems to be a common misconception that these shows are just for industry professionals, which is not the case at all! Almost all trade shows are open to the general public and most of them are even free to attend!
If you stick with large, reputable trade shows, you won’t be disappointed, trust me. In one place you can meet/see hundreds of suppliers/distributors/manufacturers offering thousands of products!
And as most people are lazy (by nature), if you take this extra step and go to these trade shows, chances are that you’ll be amongst the first people to see these products.
You can read more about trade shows in a separate guide I wrote here.
Lastly, and while this may sound a bit too extreme for some, attending some of China’s largest trade shows may even be an option, especially if you can combine it with a holiday!
Ok, these are all “manual” product brainstorming methods and work great as long as you have at least a small bit of creativity trapped inside your head. But what if you can’t come up with many products this way? Is there a more automated way of getting this task done?
Luckily for you, there is!
Product brainstorming on STEROIDS!
Let me introduce to you Terapeak.com – the world’s best, most advanced eBay research software. I will be using Terapeak throughout this post to show you some of the various features it has and how you can copy exactly what I do to find those profitable products to sell on eBay.
However I won’t cover the basics of how Terapeak works, as I’ve created various Terapeak tutorials for that here.
For the product brainstorming stage, we’ll use Terapeak’s HOT RESEARCH function.
You can easily access it from the main menu by clicking on Research > Hot Research:
There are 5 ways you can use Hot Research on Terapeak:
1) Hot Categories – this view shows the most popular categories and sub-categories based on their sell-through rate. Very handy if you’re not only looking for a few products to sell on eBay but rather to start a niche based business where you concentrate on one specific product category.
2) Hot Media. If you want to sell media items such as DVDs, Blu-rays, video games, audio CDs or books, this is a MUST HAVE function! It will show you the current best-selling media items on eBay with sell-through numbers (which are very important when dealing with media items).
This function can also be used if you start your eBay business following my Used Goods concept.
3) Popular Keyword Searches – this is similar to eBay Pulse (discontinued) where you can clearly and easily see what keyword phrases are most popular on eBay.
4) Best Selling products – this is my FAVOURITE Terapeak function!
What you can do here is amazing – you can sort products by:
- Sell-through rate
- Average price
- Items sold
So if you set sell-through from high to low and items sold from high to low, you can easily identify hundreds of products that have a super high sell-through rate and are selling in large quantities on eBay. While the minimum sell-through rate I recommend is 50%, using this function you can EASILY find tons of products with a sell-through rate of 70%, 80% and even 90%+! AMAZING!
5) Best Selling Titles – this is somewhat similar to the best-selling products function but even better! In this view you can see the EXACT listings which generate the most sales, the best sell-through rate, the highest average price or bids. You can sort the data by any of these filters to see the results how you want.
I hope you can see how great Terapeak is and how easy the product research process becomes when you have it. I’ll also be using Terapeak in later research stages so I highly recommend you get an account.
There’s a FREE 7 day trial available so there are NO EXCUSES to not sign-up! I’m sure you’ll love it so much that even after the trial ends you’ll want to keep it for a month or two at a minimum, while you do a full product research cycle.
Ok, after finishing this step, you should have at least 20-30 product ideas (ideally more) written down.
The more the better really!
The number of potential products you end up with on your list shows how dedicated and serious you are. Lazy people will quickly gather the minimum needed (20) and move onto the next step while people who are really hard working and want the absolute best results will come up with 100+ ideas. I really hope the majority of you are in the second group.
Remember – on this first stage you just gather product ideas! NO NEED to think about how good or bad they are! Just come up with as many as you can and write them down so you don’t forget any.
To keep organised, use a spreadsheet in Google Drive or Excel and write your product ideas down in one column. I have even created a sample template for you which you can download by clicking on the image below:
This spreadsheet also has additional fields for data which we’ll gather in the next step….
Step 2 – Market data
When you have compiled your potential product list, it’s time to get some numbers behind them!
I wish I could tell you something else but in reality, Terapeak is the only tool that can give you such data on demand. You could of course try to manually count sold items, listings etc. via eBay’s advanced search but it will take you days if not weeks.
Why do all that work and get inaccurate results when you can simply use Terapeak to get the same job done with the click of a button? Exactly! Work smart and not hard!
What is Terapeak and how does it work?
Terapeak.com is an online based software which means that you don’t have to download anything on your computer, deal with software compatibility, updates etc. All of that is taken care of for you and you can access your online account from anywhere in the world, including smartphones and tablets.
Terapeak is a subscription based service with a monthly fee. The good news is that you don’t have to commit to any long term contracts – you can use it for as long or as little as you need. PLUS there’s also a FREE 7 day trial available which allows you to check it all out before you make any payments.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to get a Terapeak account. Without it, you’ll simply be guessing about whether or not a product has real potential. Do you really want to GAMBLE on the basis of your business? I didn’t think so.
Ok, once you login to your Terapeak account, you basically want to use the main Product Research function (located in the Research tab from the top/main menu) and research EVERY product you have on your list. Type the product name and hit that Go button.
After a few seconds of data processing, a screen with various blocks will come up, like this:
The first thing you want to do is:
1) Narrow down the category to the most suitable one for this particular product to ensure you get as accurate results as possible.
2) Use the NEW only filter to show results from listings for new products only. Why do this? To filter out all listings related to used goods as those will alter your results.
Terapeak allows us to select what period of time data is collected from. From just 1 day to the past 90 days + custom data ranges which can go beyond that point – up to 1 year.
I personally have always used the 30 day term (one month) as for me it’s easier to calculate everything based on that. So all figures in this post are based on 30 day research data. That doesn’t mean you can’t use other settings, you can – just make sure to adjust your calculations accordingly.
From all the blocks of data that Terapeak shows us, at this stage we’re just interested in one – General Stats:
And more specifically these are the numbers we’re looking at:
1) Sell-through rate.
This number shows what percentage of total listings ended with at least 1 sale. If it’s a GTC listing, it needs just one sale in the last 30 days to count towards this indicator.
The sell-through rate is in my opinion one of the most important numbers for indicating a potentially good niche. As a general rule of thumb, anything above 50% is considered good at this point though ideally it would be 60%+.
If you see a product with a sell-through rate of 80%+, that’s a good sign you have found a product with great demand.
While there are always exceptions, I wouldn’t really consider a niche if the sell-through rate is 40% or less.
But remember, at this stage we’re only gathering data. Just get the sell-through rate for all items on your list and write it down in your spreadsheet.
2) Sellers per day.
This shows how many different sellers are competing for any given keyword/product. This number is very approximate and doesn’t really tell us much about how good a product is but still; add it to your spreadsheet so it can be used for further evaluation in the next step.
3) Total Sales.
This shows the total amount of sales generated over the last 30 days for a particular item. So in essence this shows us how big the market is.
4) Average price.
While in theory this should give you a good idea on what your selling price should be, in reality it’s wildly inaccurate. This number takes data from ALL listings – good and bad, correctly priced and over-priced, and just shows the average. In the next step I’ll show you how to get the REAL price for a product you plan to sell.
So all in all you’ll end up with 4 numbers for each product idea:
1) Sell-through rate (%)
2) Sellers per day (number)
3) Total Sales (£/$)
4) Average price (£/$)
But as you can see in my example spreadsheet template, I have added a fifth column called – Target Price. What is target price? This is the actual price you plan to sell your item for. Not the average, lowest, or highest but your target price.
How do you calculate this?
Terapeak won’t give you this. You get your target price by doing a manual search on eBay and checking out the first page of results. This is where you’ll find your target price.
What you do is look at good looking listings from TRSs that are on page one for the same product and write down the average price you see there.
The logic behind this is very simple – the first page is where you eventually want to end up and those are the actual going prices on eBay for this item. But don’t just look at the first listing in your search! Quite often there you’ll see some underpriced stuff being sold by major sellers. You want to check out the whole first page and take into account all listings to come up with a target price.
Use common sense. Think for a minute about how you could make your listings look better, maybe offer some added value or a bonus so you can charge one of the highest prices on the first page.
Don’t forget that the quality of products can vary greatly. The same item can be selling for different prices because of a difference in quality. Materials used, warranty, style etc. all are factors in the price. But even if you only get an approximate target price, that’s good enough for this research stage.
Lastly, there’s a 6th number in my spreadsheet – Sales per seller.
Sales per seller will be automatically calculated for you if you use my spreadsheet but just so you know how it works – this number is created by taking the total sales for the product for the last 30 days and DIVIDING it by the number of sellers.
So the formula looks like this:
Total Sales / Sellers per Day
For example – if the product you’re researching has total sales of £100k over the last 30 days and there are 50 sellers per day, sales per seller comes to £2k.
£100k (total sales) divided by 50 (sellers per day) = £2k (sales per seller)
I came up with this added data point as a great way to properly gauge the overall competition for any given product. In step 3 you’ll learn how to implement this number correctly but for now – just so you know – the more sales/money per seller you get, the better.
To sum it up – after Step 2 you’ll end up with a long list of product ideas with 6 numbers researched for each:
1) Sell through rate (%)
2) Sellers per day (number)
3) Total Sales (£/$)
4) Average price (£/$)
5) Target Price (£/$)
6) Sales per seller (£/$)
So far so good!
While Terapeak is a very easy to use tool, there are some nuances you have to be aware of to get as accurate results as possible. Here are the most important ones:
Search phrase/keyword
You have to understand that Terapeak isn’t run by eBay – they’re partners, yes, but this service is not owned/run by eBay. Terapeak bases most of the results on LISTING TITLES. This means that if you search for a product “dog name tag”, Terapeak will show results and data from ALL listings having “dog name tag” in listing title.
In 99% of cases this works very well AS LONG as you use the correct keyword (product name)!!!
One of the most typical mistakes newbies make is to search using overly long keyword phrases, like “metal id tag for big dogs”.
This is far too specific a search phrase and you won’t get accurate results. What you want to do is search for the product name – generic phrase, like “dog name tag” or maybe even “dog tag”.
This search phrase will cover ALL listings selling “dog tags” as any listing selling this product will have “dog tag” in the listing title, right?
So rule no.1 – don’t be too specific with your search phrases!
Another classic mistake people make is using singular and plural forms incorrectly.
For example – if you research men’s socks, you’ll want to search for “mens socks”, right? YES! As customers would also search for “mens socks” on eBay and NOT “mens sock”.
On the other hand, with the same dog tag example – most likely people will search for “dog tag” as they need just one piece. So in this case you would use the singular form.
You just have to remember that you want to use the same form that most of your potential customers would use. If they usually buy just one product, it will be singular form, if multiple – plural.
To be 100% sure you’re getting correct results, you can do a Terapeak search for both versions and see whether the results differ much. If they do, go with the phrase that has the highest Total Sales number as that version will be the one most sellers use.
Filters
There are many filters available in Terapeak BUT I recommend just sticking to the NEW item filter, to get rid of listings for used products. Don’t touch any other filter like seller country or listing type, as that will affect the results and mess up our next step.
Category
Apart from using the NEW items only filter, I also recommend narrowing down your research to the most suitable category BUT you have to be careful when doing this as some products are listed in many different categories (multi-purpose products) and if you narrow down too much, again, you’ll get inaccurate results.
For example:
iPhone 6 case – this is a very simple & straightforward example – you’ll narrow down your search results to:
Mobile Phones & Communication > Mobile Phone & PDA Accessories > Cases & Covers
Brown leather – this one is far trickier as the phrase “brown leather” will be used in many different product titles. So if you want to sell plain “brown leather” as a material, you’ll narrow down your search to the most suitable category (probably in Craft sub-categories or something similar)
Obviously each and every situation is different – it could be a multi-purpose product but you know exactly which version, for which market, you want to sell. Then just use that category and narrow down the results so you get data for YOUR potential market and competition.
Ok, once you have Terapeak data for all the products on your list, it’s time to separate the good from the bad using my own Filter system!
Step 3 – Filters
This step is more time consuming but it’s CRUCIAL to get this part done! The more accurate your research here, the easier the last step will be.
The very first technical filters you want to use are:
1) Sell-through rate.
Delete any products with less than a 50% sell-through rate UNLESS total sales are large with very few competing sellers (a rare occurrence).
For example you see that the sell-through rate is only 45% but total sales is £25k for the last month with only 6 competing sellers. This could indicate that there’s maybe one or two good sellers doing a great job milking the market and others are amateurs who can’t properly sell their items.
These situations will be rare BUT they can happen.
2) Total Sales.
This will obviously depend on your buying power and future plans. But in general, if the total sales for a product is less than £10k per month, it’s not even worth looking into it any further UNLESS there are very few sellers and a sell-through rate of close to 100%. In such cases you could still consider selling this product as there is very little competition.
For example – there could be a product with total sales of just £7k for the last month BUT with just 2 competing sellers and a 100% sell-through rate. This clearly indicates that while the overall market is small, the competition is very small as well. So if you have a small starting budget to invest in stock, this could be a good product for you.
But in most cases, you’ll simply delete any products on your list with total sales less than £10k per month as they will be very small niches with small demand and limited future growth potential.
3) Sales per seller.
If you use my spreadsheet, this number will be calculated for you automatically. If not simply divide Total Sales by number of sellers per day (you have both numbers from Terapeak).
Anything below £500 per seller is no good and ideally you should look for products with at least £1k in sales for each seller over the last 30 days.
If there are products with £2k+ per seller per month, these are very strong picks and potentially ones you’ll want to concentrate on in further research.
4) Sellers per day.
Most people reading this post won’t have tens of thousands to invest in stock and for that reason, you want to stay away from very competitive niches. This almost always means eliminating products that have 100+ competing sellers per day.
More sellers means more listings in search results for you to compete against so ideally look for products with the smallest amount of competition possible.
After doing these simple mathematical evaluations, you’ll lose a large portion of your product ideas and that’s totally fine. That’s the goal here – to find the absolute BEST products to sell on eBay! Products that are almost guaranteed to sell and make money for you.
The next step (a MAJOR one) is to evaluate your buying power and find how suitable each of the items you researched are for you personally. While there are no exact formulas to share with you here, in most cases you’ll want to multiply the product’s price by at least 100.
For example, the product you’ve researched is car covers and the TARGET PRICE for them is £20. You would multiply that by 100 to find out the approximate buying power that would be needed to purchase this item. So in this case £20 x 100 = £2000
Why x100 and why target price?
Again, this is an estimate but with most items, the minimum order quantity (MOQ) if you want to order from manufacturers directly in China will be 100. For cheaper items this number can be as high as 500 or even 1000 and with more expensive items – just 10. But we use 100 to get an approximate estimate.
And the reason we use the target price is to essentially have a worst-case scenario once shipping costs and taxes to bring the product from China to the UK (or any other country) are included.
But please use your common sense here and don’t filter out all ideas that exceed your buying power. It could be that you can find a good trading company with low MOQs and decent prices and still be able to sell this item.
The purpose of this step is only to filter out items that are completely unviable for your buying power. For example, you have tablet PCs on your list that sell for £100 but your buying power is just £500. In cases like these, you can forget about selling such products as your buying power only lets you buy a max of 5 such tablets. That’s not wholesale and you’ll never be able to compete in this market.
For very cheap items on the other hand your situation could be much better than you expect. For example, you research some temporary body tattoos that sell for £1.99
As it’s a cheap product, you would multiply that by 1000 to get an estimated required buying power of £2k..
But it could actually be less as cheap products selling for just a few quid on eBay are often sourced from China for 10-50p. So it could be that you can still buy 1000 pieces but for just a few hundred pounds.
Again, common sense is your best friend here – if you find a good product, but you can’t calculate your buying power properly, get in touch with a few suppliers to find the REAL price and minimum order quantity for this item in China (we’ll talk more about this later on).
The last set of filters are not number driven. These are all subjective filters you use to find whether these items are really suitable for you:
- Storage space. Evaluate your available storage space and whether it’s suitable for the goods you plan to sell. If you don’t have a spare room in your house, you’ll want to stick with small items only. If you’re ready to take some risk and rent out a self-storage space, you can of course consider bulkier items.
- Seasonality. There’s nothing wrong with seasonal items but still, they do carry more negatives compared to products that sell well all year round. With seasonal items you always have the risk of having a large amount of unsold stock left over when the season ends. Also, make sure for such items that you do more extensive research using Terapeak and go back 90 days+ to see exactly how big the market and competition is.
I usually recommend staying away from heavily season-based items (like Christmas trees for example).
If you suspect that a product you’ve researched is seasonal, simply use Terapeak and get our 6 numbers (total sales, sell through rate etc.) for the LAST 12 months, month by month.
So you get results for:
- January
- February
- March
- And so on!
Then you can easily see how much fluctuation there is in the monthly sales, depending on the time of the year.
- Brand domination. Stay away from items that are heavily dominated by well known brand names. You won’t be able to import them from China (unless you want to deal with FAKES!!!)
For example – baby movement monitors – it’s a product that (as the name suggests) monitors a baby’s movement and tries to detect when a baby stops breathing. Parents, when buying an item like this, won’t even look at cheap Chinese models as they want to be 100% sure the product will work perfectly and will therefore only trust well known brands.
Or high end electronics like TVs, smart watches – people are looking for well known BRANDS when purchasing a product like this. Sure, there will be a small % who will go for unbranded/Chinese versions but they will be the minority.
Filter out any such products from your list.
- Offline availability. The more difficult it is to buy an item locally, in a B&M shop, the higher online potential it will carry.
For example – when a person needs one pack of A4 sized printing paper for home use, he will just buy it from a local office stationary store or even a supermarket. On the other hand, if a person needs water decal paper, which can’t easily be bought locally, internet/eBay comes into play as the favourite place to order such items.
Sure, if an item sells like crazy on eBay, this won’t matter that much! But what I have found is that items that are easily available offline carry very small margins and, generally, are not worth dealing with.
So with that in mind, try to stay away from products that can easily be bought offline from major retailers and supermarkets.
- Google Trends. Check Google Trends to see whether the product is increasing or decreasing in popularity.
A good example would be: “Standing Desk” – as you can see, this product shows steady increase in popularity over last few years:
A bad example with decreasing popularity: “kindle light” – this was a huge product online a couple of years back, but now that Amazon sell a backlit Kindle you can see a clear drop in search volume.
You can of course still sell products which are decreasing in popularity but you just have to be aware of the fact that the same number of sales may not be there in a year or two. So not ideal for long term planning or if you intend to expand into product-related niches later on.
- Knowledge. Ideally you should have some basic understanding of what the product is, how it works etc. This will help you greatly when writing product descriptions and dealing with customer support requests.
It’s not like you have to be an expert to sell an ordinary item, not at all. You can always read up on a product and within a few hours have a basic understanding of the most important points.
What this step should do though is filter out items that are really complex and require a much deeper knowledge. For example, it wouldn’t be a wise idea to sell electronic components if you have no understanding of electronics whatsoever.
Just write down some quick comments in this field so later on you can possibly use it to choose between some different products that have passed all the other stages.
When you finish this rather time consuming task, you’ll end up with a small list of items with the best market potential that are most suitable for your buying power. When you do, you can move on to the last step which is….
Step 4 – Suppliers
Yes, the last step of this process is to actually get prices from suppliers, see if your buying power is really suitable and most importantly, find out your potential profit for that product.
Here’s a simplified step by step action plan:
1) Go to Alibaba.com and search for your product.
2) Find the best suppliers using these filters.
3) Contact them – get prices and terms and then negotiate the best possible deal.
4) Put together a virtual order and get a shipping quote from Woodland Global.
5) Put all costs in the Excel spreadsheet and calculate potential profits.
When you do your calculations, don’t forget about VAT and import duty. You can read more about this in my importing from China guide.
After doing this, you’ll end up with the product’s COST price. This is the total price you’ll pay to import the product and get it shipped to your address.
Then you have to find out how much postage will cost plus add eBay/PayPal fees and you’ll instantly see the profit potential for this product.
Remember, you have already established a target price and if you can’t match it with all costs and your target profit taken into account, then that product is not suitable for you (most likely because of your buying power or that there are too many competitors).
Ideally you want to look for items with a ROI of at least 20-30%. But again, this will vary greatly based on the product’s price as with higher priced goods, margins will be smaller.
Conclusion
Here you have it – a step by step guide on how to find profitable products to sell on eBay! No more excuses and no more lame questions on “what to sell on eBay?” No one will tell you that! So get yourself a Terapeak subscription and start WORKING on this now!
In my opinion Terapeak is really a godsend for any serious eBay seller – I use it all the time to research new products, spy on competition and write keyword rich listing titles. You really can’t live without it in 2016 as most of your competitors are using it! If you don’t, you simply put yourself at a huge disadvantage right from the beginning.
Remember, there’s a 7 day free trial available and no long term contracts in place – simply sign up and use it for as long as you need!
This is a simplified guide but I have tried to cover the most important things you have to keep in mind when looking for new products to sell on eBay.
There are of course MANY other vital factors you need to learn about in terms of product sourcing, rebranding, selling etc. etc.
For that reason I highly recommend you check out my creation – the UK’s no.1 eBay course – Easy Auction Business
It’s a complete, 15 hour+, step by step VIDEO COURSE that will teach you how to find the best products to sell on eBay AND Amazon, how to source them properly & safely, how to create your OWN brand and put it on your products, how to take amazing product pictures, how to get top rankings in eBay’s search results and much much more.
PLUS you get some amazing bonuses with the course, such as FREE membership to the exclusive EAB forum, access to more than 1,000 pro eBay templates, and a 1 hour chat session with ME! Yes, you get 60 minutes of one on one time with me to help you with any questions you may have.
I truly believe that Terapeak and Easy Auction Business are the two best investments you’ll EVER make in your business.
As always – if you have any questions, please post them below this article in the comments section and I’ll do my best to help! 🙂
Thanks,
Andrew
[…] have followed your instructions from this post and came up with a couple of final products. The guide was extremely helpful, so thank you for […]
Hi Andrew
I’ve been looking into research tools for product sourcing on eBay and I’ve come across one called Tamebay and would like to know if you’re familiar with it and if so is it any good for product sourcing purposes?
Hi Graham,
Sure, I’m aware of Tamebay.
But what you mean by “good for product sourcing purposes”?
It’s a blog basically.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Just to clarify about “target price” in step 2: you’re searching eBay for *active* listings, BIN, TRS correct? Say you find 20 of the 50 results are TRS, then you just grab a calculator and average the BIN prices, taking into account things such as one listing may contain 3 units (for example tire cleaner)? Thanks, great blog!
Hi Miguel,
There’s no automated way of finding that target price really – this is where common sense, manual research gets involved.
What you want to do is manually check first page listings on search and just look at “the whole Picture” to see at what price your specific product quality, features, branding, listing presentation can fit in. Usually it’s around mid-page results – not cheapest and not most expensive listings.
Andrew
Hello Andrew,
Could this also work for if I do drop shipping?
Hi Jason,
Dropshipping on eBay is almost impossible to do.
Thanks,
Andrew
Ok…you state that drop shipping is almost impossible to do on eBay. Well, please explain the results of seller: ” ezhome improvement”. This cat is a US seller who uses drop shipping arbitrage. He goes to sites like Lowes , Home Depot and Walmart etc, finds a product with free shipping, then jacks the price by 1.40%. His target audience includes 40% global buyers and those who don’t shop based on price. Looking at his ebay sold listings, shows 287 results. He makes on average $10-20$ per sale profit which is not a bad chunk of change. That’s just on one of his stores that he has on ebay. He has other stores on ebay as well. So there are many ways to make money on ebay….you just have to think outside the box.
Later, Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, this is why I always say that dropshipping can work in the US, but not so in UK. Of course, there are ways to make it work in UK too, especially with targeting EU customers like you explain but this is actually more like retail arbitrage and not classical dropshipping model.
The problem in UK we have is that there are almost no good dropshipping companies to start with, unlike in the US where you have thousands of dropshippers, wholesalers who are happy to do dropshipping etc.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hello Andrew,
Firstly I would like to thank you for this article!! I have come across other popular Ecommerce blog posts and webinars and this one is up there with the most thorough and informative.
So after following your guide I compiled a list of 400+ items as I am committed to being successful in this venture. It was painfully long and at times a tedious process. I have now managed to whittle down the list to 10 however I am now struggling to decide which item to choose to sell and potentially brand if all goes well.
Do you have any hints or tips which could help me make a final decision ?
Thanks in advance.
Simeon
Hi Simeon,
Great to hear that!
You should pick ones that are most suitable for your buying power, offers best potential profit and has smallest competition! 🙂
That’s all put in one sentence.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for the very detailed and informative article you have written. I have been thinking of starting my own eBay business and this article has helped greatly and is very much appreciated.
Many thanks,
Jay
Great to hear that Jay! 🙂
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I just searched a couple of products on product search and it says that the number of sellers is 0 yet there is a figure for total sales. I checked the filters and I have the filter on item NEW applied. Please could you shed some light on this?
Many thanks
Meera
Is it for 30 days?
Give me an example product so I can check it for you.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hello Andrew, I have brought your dvd nearly a week ago but I have still not got it though the post. I’m very excited about this so sorry to bother you. Plus I have been stung before so I’m a little apprehensive. Please can you let me no what to do?
Hi Martin,
Please get in touch with me via Helpdesk.
And I will look into it asap!
Thanks,
Andrew
Hello again, thank you for your reply and I’m sorry to be a pain. But I used that way on Sunday as well. I’m just like a kid in a toy shop at the mo.
I love 6he way you take time to show and talk to people. Just to see them do better than they currently are. A true gent!
Hi Martin,
I already replied to your ticket/email few days ago 🙂
Please check your junk mail/spam folder.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hey Andrew it’s not in any folder? Please can you send it again.
Done! 🙂
So I’ve been doing some research – and I really can’t find the item I’m wanting to sell on eBay.
I can find similar items, and the Terapeak research on these items are borderline acceptable. I’ve also noticed that a lot of the similar items are individual selling on gifts/unopened packages, rather than items they have imported, which perhaps skews the data.
All of this combined, I’m not really sure the best way forward – is it just a huge risk, or is the fact that I can’t find this item for sale actually quite promising? (Or both, haha).
Hi Amy,
Thanks for your email.
I’m sorry but what exactly you’re asking? 🙂
Let me know,
Andrew
[…] you have researched countless niches, searched through months of eBay data on Terapeak and filtered down your choices to a few potential […]
Hello Andrew, great article. I have been selling on ebay for awhile, but my biggest problem is finding unbranded products that sell well. If I use terapeak, could it give me an idea of what categories to find unbranded products, also i have an issue of sell speed. Can terapeak help with finding products that sell fast? thanks
Hi Julius,
Terapeak is just a tool to get market data but of course it can also be used to find profitable products to sell (by using hot products/categories feature, best selling listings, analysing competitors etc. etc.).
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Fantastic article and great site its awesome!!
Andrew would you go though these very same steps to find and research products to sell on Amazon also ? Would there be any differences to the steps if you where doing this to find products to sell on Amazon and their FBA program ?
And how is Terapeak`s Amazon research power have you had the need/chance to try it ?
Thanks so much
James
Hi James,
You can def. use Terapeak and eBay data to find potentially good products to sell on Amazon too BUT you will also want to do some more manual research on Amazon itself, once you have a product list on hand. To see just from first page search results how popular these products are, what kind of reviews they get etc.
Terapeak’s Amazon research function is quite limited, as Amazon does not share all data with it like eBay does. You basically just see overview of average price, how many listings there are for each products and some other basic information. Def. not as extensive as eBay side.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the reply, I`m interested in picking up your video course but wanted to ask you a quick question.
I am a single guy who loves to travel and its my goal to be able to travel and work on a laptop and this is why I originally I asked if the above would work on Amazons FBA, Can I ask is there a way to sell on Ebay too while traveling or not being at home in the UK ? Do you have a way to do this in your course ?
Thanks James
Hi James,
Yes, you can do this by using same FBA! or any other order fulfilment company for that matter.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Not sure I understand, Do you teach how to make money on Ebay without being at a fixed address ie traveling ? I was kind of asking you if its possible to use the above formula to work with Ebay but at the same time I`ll be in another country.
I`m guessing there must be companys out there called fulfilment companys that post your stuff to Ebay for you ? I`ve never heard of that and thats pretty awesome if I`ve got it correct I just thought it was Amazon that did that
Thanks for your time and fast replys
James
My course is not specifically made around situation like this BUT yes, I do cover these things in my course too, so you can still achieve your goal of travelling and having a business.
Yes, there are many other fulfilment companies out there besides Amazon.
Andrew
love your work,
only thing that is an issue. people that live in china can offer products on ebay for a low price, also because the shipping costs don’t cost that much compared to Europe
I live myself in the Netherlands, where ebay.nl is a dead-end (almost no-one uses it), and the shipping costs are very high.
Hi Dani,
Check out my guide on How to Compete with Chinese sellers on eBay!
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew, Thank you for the detail in this article.
I’m from South africa, and have been desperately researching options. Ebay and amazon are not successful in SA and we dont really have something that i think will work here in SA. Also our postal service is very delayed and unreliable and when i have ordered goods from china they took over 2 months!
I was wondering if you think it will work if i buy and sell in the uk or usa? so perhaps sell single line items, marked up and sent directly from US suppliers or sellers. ie, i list a product for sale on ebay for 10 dollars (one listed on another site ie amazon For 7 dollars). when i get a buyer on ebay- i buy from seller on amazon and get them to ship directly to my buyer? if i deal in dollars this is better for me as well as our Rand is very poor at the moment. Do you have ANY advise for me? Desperately trying to make some money online!
Thank you so much and really hoping to get a reply from you.
Robyn
Hi Robanne,
Thanks for your comment.
On eBay it won’t work, sorry. Sooner or later you’ll get problems with wrong items sent to your customers or customers complaining about something you have no control over. Not talking about fact that technically dropshipping is against eBay rules.
In your situation I would probably concentrate on SA, local market and start an online shop. I’m sure you can find a niche that has decent demand for products in SA and import them from China or maybe even branded products imported from USA.
Andrew
thank you so much for the reply Andrew!! really appreciate it! Was just an idea but im glad i mentioned it as i would hate to do anything against the rules.
Will continue brainstorming and then some intense researching.
Regards
You’re welcome Robanne! 🙂
Hi Andrew, as everyone else says, your information is great, and I am very appreciative of the thorough job that you do with all topics. Thanks again.
I have been selling liquidation goods on ebay for about 4 years. My question is about the ROI (20-30%) which you seem to indicate is typical for new products. There is only one way to calculate ROI, correct? It’s (net profit / investment) * 100. And investment would include all expenses related to the product, getting the product, warehousing, etc. I am accustomed to seeing much higher ROIs on liquidation goods, however, the seller has to process each item individually, so it’s completely different in terms of time investment.
In simple terms, for new products, if I invested $100,000, I could expect to see a $20,000-30,000 profit from this item. Have I considered this correctly or am I missing something?
Thank you very much
Maria Ramos
Hi Maria,
Thanks for your comment & kind words, I appreciate it! 🙂
Yes, your calculations are right. It’s an approx. figure of course but something you can def. use in your calculations. And yes, with used goods, liquidation stock, ROI is usually higher but then down side is that you constantly have to look for new items, create listings etc. etc. compared to new products where you do same work just once and then sell hundreds and thousands of same item.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi
Just wanted to say that the ‘Info’ you provide for Free on your Blog ‘dwarfs’ (in both Quality and Quantity) anything else I’ve ever come across about Trading on eBay, including most of the dozen or so (literally) Books I decided to purchase over the last few months, in order to decide if eBay is for me.
You provide ‘enormous’ help and value and – assuming the info in your Paid Course exceeds the material you give away for Free on your Blog – then grabbing the course amounts to a ‘No Brainer’.
I’ve challenged myself (by Mid-April 2015) to decide whether eBay is the Business Model for me. If I conclude it is, I won’t hesitate to buy your course, or to recommend your Blog. (Feel free to quote me in any Testimonials, but please withhold my Email Address).
Many Thanks for your kind words Martin, I really appreciate it! 🙂
Andrew
hi
thank you for so many information about ebay business.great webside and full of information’s
if im employed full time in uk and open self employment now 03/2015 what will happened?
do i have to show all income from ebay 2014/2015 ( till march i was running private ebay account selling occasionally own or cheap bought staff. no more than £100-£150 profit a month )
is anyone going to ask me about money i get payed before march 2015( taxman )?or just i have to keep all invoices from the date when i registered as business sole trade march 2015 ?im sorry if i confuse you with question and my english .
so good webside .i will recommend to everyone .
best wishes
rob
Hi Rob,
You just start recording all finances from the day you registered as sole trader and upgraded your eBay account to Business one. No one asks you to pay any taxes for used stuff, personal belongings you sold on eBay in previous years from your personal eBay account.
Thanks,
Andrew
[…] The Best Products to Sell on eBay – EXPOSED! […]
Hello Andrew,
I think I’ve found a good product, I just wanted a second opinion…
Terapeak results
Based on 30 days and ‘New’ filter
Total sales: £33,000
Sell through rate: 88.97%
Sellers per day: 29
Average price (using first page ebay results): £15 (including postage)
Do you think this is worth investing in for the long term? Also, am I right in saying I should have £1,500 buying power since the average selling price is £15? I could save this up within a couple months. These items are around 50grams each, so would be good with shipping too I think.
Thanks for all this valuable info.
Hi Callum,
Yes, that Terapeak data looks spot on – a perfect example of a good product to get into. If you can get it from China at good, price that is.
As for your buying power – yes, approx. you will need £1500 BUT best way to find this out is by simply contacting suppliers on Alibaba, get their prices and MOQs. It could be that you can get started with smaller amount than £1500.
Thanks,
Andrew
Thank you.
I actually found a 3 year gold supplier who quoted me just 100 items at a cheaper price than other suppliers who’s MOQ was 250 lol so it was definitely worth getting multiple quotes.
Thanks,
Callum
Good stuff! 🙂
I also forgot to ask about a couple hong kong sellers who are selling £5 below the UK sellers. Do they usually pose a problem?
Thanks
Check out my post on How to compete with Chinese sellers on eBay!
Hiya,
I am new to ebay and have gone through lots of your websites and just subscribe to an ebay shop.
My question is after subscribing i thought i would be able to list more items but after the basic subscription i can only list only 30 items a month instead of 100 which is written on the basic subscription.
Would be happy to know your thought. Thanks
Yes, it’s probably because your have selling limits in place (opening shop automatically doesn’t increase them).
But you should contact eBay and ask them to increase your limits.If you have positive feedbacks coming in, they should increase it for you.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi,
I gave ebay a call yesterday and the worst just happened to me, My account got suspended, with message that it is linked to a previous account i had in 2012, Its simply baseless,
I don’t have any negative feedback,
Do you suggest i give them a call and explain i have nothing to do with that account.
You should def. do that.
Call them as many times as needed – if your account was suspended in error, you should get it sorted out.
What is a good place to buy REAL memory products like SD cards, then? That is my only hurdle.
Depends on whatever you’re after un-branded OR branded memory products.
For un-branded, China and Alibaba.com is the place to go! You just have to be very careful with who you deal with to receive genuine sized memory products. And stay away from any branded products.
For branded memory products, you want to look for established UK/USA based wholesalers who deal with only genuine items.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew, great informative post btw.
I’m just having problems with best selling products filter. It just keeps leaving this message when i click on it.
No Hot Products found for these parameters.
Please check back later, perhaps there will be some then.
Hi Terry,
Yes, for some reason this happens on eBay.co.uk (eBay.com works fine).
Not sure why it is happening but I hope they fix the issue soon.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Great help with your guides however I also have registered for the terapeak trial and keep getting the same messages as above! If you change to ebay.com, surely this skews your research for findings the best products to sell in the UK?
Thanks,
Richie
Yes, of course Richie.
I’m currently in contact with Terapeak to investigate this problem.
Hopefully they can fix it soon.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi,
Thanks for the swift reply. Would you think it best to cancel the free trial and wait to pay for the subscription until these issues are resolved or will the trends remain broadly similar?
I have to admit that I was hugely excited about getting into terapeak however felt somewhat deflated with all the various issues. I don’t want this to put me off my plans to build an ebay empire (hopefully!!! You have to think big).
Thanks,
Richie
it’s just one function (within a function) that currently doesn’t work as it should be – everything else works. You can still do full product research, competitor research and other functions with no issues. Hot categories also work.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Sir,
really i like it… which way u explain it…. really Thanks for it..
I m thinking to start my online business.. and your Post is help me lots…
i will go thought it and come back to you.
Thanks
Ranvir Singh
You’re welcome Ranvir & Good Luck! 🙂
Andrew
[…] are really no more excuses for not using Terapeak for your eBay research activities as they have really made it affordable for everyone with the new pricing structure. And remember […]
[…] If you’re considering starting an eBay business, Terapeak is the ONE tool you need for market research. I won’t go into detail on how exactly to use it as I have already covered that in this eBay market research post. […]
Dear Andrew,
Could you please define where this Hot research tool is?
I can’t find it on the site (I have a free trial)..i can search for products in categories, but I can’t see this hot research tool…
Thank you in advance.
Peter
Hi Pete,
Hot research is located in Advanced Research functions tab.
Thanks,
Andrew
Dear Andrew,
Thank you for the prompt reply.
You mean the “trending now” opportunity ?
Because otherwise I have to search with keywords…
Isn’t is possible that hot research tool is available for premium users?
Thank you in advance.
I have full account so yes, it could be that hot research is available only for Professional accounts.
[…] BEST Products to sell on eBay! […]
Hi Andrew,
Just a couple of questions regarding product selection.
A friend of mine has just bought a box full of USB powerbanks as samples from China. They are unbranded.
When i saw that, i thought to myself, “this is definitely a bad sample…as i believe its already highly saturated with reputable brands.” In one of your earlier posts above, you mentioned about avoid getting bluerays as they are either fakes or scam. Does it apply to electronic and/or electric products from China as well ?
Thanks.
Hi Jason,
If it’s an un-branded item, it can’t be fake by default (as by fakes we understand copied of BRANDED goods).
Now, whatever you can sell them for profit on eBay, is a different question, one that I can’t answer for you right now. You have to look @ Terapeak data to see competition levels, your pricing, price you can potentially sell these off etc.
Andrew
[…] also goes without saying that doing proper Terapeak research BEFORE you buy any products is a must! You also want to avoid products with super high competition […]
Thanks a lot for this guide. It is incredibly detailed and I feel that almost every point is covered.
Thanks again
Aaron
You’re welcome Aaron! 🙂
Hi
Im just trying the terapeak site, while using best selling products function, this message keeps coming up,
No Hot Products found for these parameters.
Please check back later, perhaps there will be some then.
Please advise? Thanks
Hi Heidi,
Yes, this is going on for a week now…
Must be some kind of glitch @ their end. Will contact Terapeak soon if this continues.
Andrew
Hi Andrew
Thanks, please let us know.
PS, is there any options on terapeak to show the sales in the same month last year etc, thought it would be good for checking seasonal products?
Heidi
yes, you can do that by setting a custom date range in search (click on date range – then > Custom).
[…] We are June and Adam, we want to start selling on eBay but we were wondering what would be the best products to buy in bulk and sell on eBay? […]
I didn’t read most of this thread, but crucial to an item being seen (then sold) is the “sell thru rate” (STR) which is NOT a monthly ratio of sold items to listings. Instead, STR is the ratio of clicks to sales. Soooo, if you only listed 100 items on the 1st and they all sold by the 30th, this is NOT 100% STR as most think. Nope, not in voodoo ebay world! Instead, STR will SOLELY depend on clicks…such that if it took a TOTAL of 1000 clicks to sell all 100 items, you’re STR=10%. It’s as if ebay can’t afford server time/space and only cares about surefire sales. This why some sellers with HIGHER prices sell MORE than sellers with lower prices…ebay simply hides the lower priced listings if they haven’t sold “fast enough”. Let’s face it, these computer algos are voodoo, not the AI that their nerd herd brag they are…
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your comment.
I’m sorry but you’re not right on this one. This is not eBay directly we’re talking about but Terapeak and how it works. Sell through rate in Terapeak stands for – percentage of listings returned by your search that actually resulted in a sale. For example, if ten listings were found by your search, and seven of them led to the sale of at least one item, the sell-through rate would be shown as 70 percent.
Hope this helps!
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Many have said it and I will too. This is one great piece of work. Hope I had found it earlier. I started out on ebay.com in May 2014 but was suspended indefinitely barely a month later. No reason was given, had not even sold a thing. Had only listed three items out the 10 for starters. Tried asking them to allow me to list the full 10 products or Usd 500 worth but they ended up suspending me. I want to try your EAB elsewhere for now.
Which is the next best ebay wannabe out there?
Hi Kimani,
Next best platform in my opinion is Amazon, and your own eCommerce shop of course.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks. Unfortunately Amazon does not allow sellers from Africa. Will try online shop. I have gone through your advice on several issues and you are very spot on. By the way can you do one-to-one mentoring for just a month?
Please get in touch with me via my help desk.
Hi Andrew
At this stage I’m researching the possibility of starting an eBay business, so as you can imagine, I’m spending a lot of time reading blogs such as this, which is very informative I must add, so thank you. I have no experience in this and it is a bit concerning, so I just have a couple of questions to ask, before I plunge in and buy your EAB video’s, if I may?
1.I’m not quite sure how to ask this question without it sounding challenging, as that is not my intention, so forgive me if that is how it appears. But in this blog you explain the process module, from start to finish, in detail where ultimately we would then find suppliers/prices in China, so that we can sell products on eBay. You mention using Alibaba for products and suppliers etc. Then below this blog you are promoting your EAB video’s, where in your sales ‘pitch’ the tone seems to be about avoiding dealing with scammers in Asia, etc. In your EAB video’s are you moving away from dealing with suppliers in China or is it more about avoiding the dodgy ones and finding creditable ones to work with? Basically, what I’m asking is: Are the EAB video’s inline with and substantiate what you have been explaining here, or is it completely different? (again I apologise if I sound challenging).
2. I live in France and I know, others have asked similar questions ie US and Aus, but I’m assuming what you are teaching here, can be applied where I live?
Kind regards
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for your comment & questions.
1) EAB course is absolutely in line with what I teach here, on my blog. IN the course I cover various product sourcing concepts but my #1 favourite still is importing from China. YES, in the course I teach you how to avoid scammers, fakes etc. and find only legit suppliers in China, safe to deal with.
2) Absolutely! EAB works in France just like in any other country around the World.
Hope this helps Thomas & let me know if you have any further questions.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi
Andrew, first of all I want to thank you for sharing so valuable information that to free :).
I have been searching for “which I item sold most in austraia” and i found your website.
This is first time I am reading you article and must admit it one of the best.
Not only you have posted article but you have answered all the comments that is appreciable.
I am from India and I want to sell product in Australia via Ebay.
I have one friend in Australia who will do it for me.
I just want to know is there is any search possible in terapeak where i can find the items popular and sold most in Australia only.
Waiting for your reply.
Thank you.
Hi Hardy,
Thanks for your kind words!
YES! In Terapeak you can do same research on eBay Australia data.
You’ll want to choose com.au version when signing up for Terapeak (on the pricing page).
Thanks,
Andrew
I have just started reading your blog and must admit it is nothing less than an encyclopedia for ebay selling. There is more information in 2 blog posts I have read than most books. Hats off to you..
Thanks very much Amar!
Hi Andrew….
I would like to start E-bay business.. but really dnt know to what product to sell… pls tell me what should i go abt selling..
THANK YOU
Hi Rashmi,
Did you read the guide? The answer is in this post.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for all of the great info. My only question is about buying from sellers who you have to pay shipping for. That will cut into your profit if you pay for both their shipping and your own (free shipping), so do youo just go about buying the items at an even lower price?
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for your comment.
Sorry, not sure what you mean – could you please explain your question in more detail?
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew!
I would agree with everybody else. The information that you have shared here is extremely valuable. Thanks. I will definitely sign up to your EAB course. I assume that it’s relevant to Aussies and Kiwis and our local eBay market too?
I also wanted to ask you your opinion of setting up Group Deals on eBay. To me, that looks to be the way to go. However, I am not sure if new eBay Sellers like myself can create a Group Deal without first achieving a number eBay sales milestones first. I’ve emailed eBay a few times but I’m having difficulty getting some clear guide lines from them on how to set a Group Deal up. Any comments on this would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Tony
Hi Tony,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, my EAB course also works in Australia and most concepts can also be applied to other marketplaces similar to eBay.
As for eBay daily deals – yes, you need to have an established, TRS account on eBay and prove eBay that you can handle massive number of orders. All these deals are manually approved so you’ll talk to eBay directly about these.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew
Thanks for your reply. I guess daily deals and group deals are the same thing?
BTW I bought your EAB video program yesterday afternoon. I like it very much. I’ve already learnt a lot. Once I have enough questions put together I’ll definitely be contacting you to use my free 1 hour chat online.
Cheers
Tony
Hi Tony,
Thanks for your EAB purchase.
I just noticed that you have a separate Group Deals on eBay Australia. We don’t have such Group Deals on eBay UK so I don’t really know how they work or how to get into them.
We only have Daily Deals.
Same applies to main eBay.com site.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andy
A wee question about eSources (I posted this on TWF but It wasn’t approved because of “eSources” being mentioned)
I plan to take the 1 month premium membership just to have a good look through the directories, I remember the electoral roll being mentioned on a page about eSources, do you need to be on the electoral roll at your current address to do business as a buyer on their website, or is it just sellers who do?
Thanks
Michael
Hi Michael,
Sorry, but I also won’t comment eSources publicly as they take any such comments offensive and once already they threatened me with legal action because of my opinion.
So, no comments from me.
Thanks,
Andrew
Andrew,
It sounds like you live in the UK. I’m in the US. I would assume your advice applies to ebay.com in the US as it does in the UK. If so, I look forward to applying the knowledge you share with your readers in opening my ebay business in the near future.
Thanks
Hi Ron,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, absolutely – in general, same principles and advice apply to eBay.com and any other regional eBay site, maybe with some minor differences.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hello Andrew,
First of all thanks for the excellent article about choosing products.
My question is: Is it better to choose a variety of good products but from different areas or focus on products that are in the same field and thereby build your branding.
thank you
Hi Oren,
Thanks for stopping by.
If you don’t create a niche business, it really doesn’t matter what kind of products you sell. IF you want to start a niche business, with a niche brand, your own shop later on etc., then yes – of course, you’ll want to sell only related products.
These are two different business models.
Thanks,
Andrew
[…] They identify a good product; […]
Hi Andrew,
I just stumbled upon your site and you are providing some great information. Just wondered what you thought about using drop shippers vs. buying from China. I’m guessing there’s less of a profit with a drop shipper but is it still worth using a drop shipper if you’re just staring out and have limited cash?
Thanks,
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your comment.
Check out this recent post where I cover dropshipping concept in detail.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew, thanks for the guide!
Do you think China still the best supplier? How does Brasil compare to China?
Thank you
Stephen
Hi Stephen,
Yes, I think China is still best for 90% of un-branded products out there.
Don’t know anything about importing from Brazil so can’t comment on that…
Thanks,
Andrew
[…] what you do is take a product and do some basic Terapeak research to find out what kind of price you can re-sell it for. If you don’t have a Terapeak subscription, […]
Hi again Andrew just have a quick question for you !!
i have been searching in vain for a blu ray wholesaler
i came across chinabluray.com , but i know you said dvd’s blu rays etc from china are prob pirates
just wondered if you know of them at all??
Hi Dom,
That website sells 100% FAKE Blu Rays, stay away!
You can’t get genuine Blu Rays from China – either you’ll get scammed or receive fakes, guaranteed.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew. Great post.
Just 1 question, is it best to place items as buy now or for people to bid?
Hi Sophia,
This has been answered in previous comments in detail, please check them out.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I’ve gone through all of the comments here and I have not found where you spoke on “buy now” vs. auction. Do you mind copying and pasting it here for us to now see. Thanks!
Hi Ciana,
It depends on the competition for item you sell. If the competition is low, you can always just list as BINs.
If competition is high:
* If you have a TRS account, list them as BIN listings.
* If you don’t have a TRS account, list them as auctions and/or auctions with BIN option. This way your listings will get a boost in search before they end.
Hope this helps!
Thanks,
Andrew
A great post Andrew, you always over deliver.
Thanks very much Jay!