Now if you’ve ever struggled with finding products to sell on eBay, and let’s face it – we all have, then I’m sure you must now be thinking that the title of this post is some sort of joke, right? As you can’t actually find anywhere near that many products to sell on eBay, never mind in 30 minutes’ time. Or can you?

Well, the answer is YES – and today I’m going to show you exactly how it’s done.

The reason for this post is very simple – I still receive emails on a daily basis from people who are struggling to find products to sell on eBay. The vast majority of them have already read my post on market research and understand it fully, BUT they just can’t get past the first stage – product brainstorming.

Just in case you haven’t read that guide, the basic idea is incredibly simple:

Step 1 – Come up with as many products as possible, and save them in a spreadsheet

Step 2 – Get Terapeak data for each product so that you can evaluate it and fully assess its potential.

Now I always assumed that the second part would be where people have difficulty, but it turns out that’s not the case! Most people, well judging from my blog readers at least, are completely fine with using Terapeak to get data and look at the numbers etc. but they’re still struggling with the initial part – actually coming up with products to test!

Not to worry though, as I’m here to help.

In today’s guide I’ll show you how to find 100 products to sell on eBay in less than 30 minutes. I won’t be covering step 2 (Terapeak data) at all though, as I’ve already got a very in-depth post on that topic, which you can find here.

And just so that it’s obvious – you don’t have to stop at 100 products here. I always say that the more ideas (and at this point that’s all these are, ideas) you come up with in step 1, the easier step 2 is going to be for you.

Okay, without any further ado, let’s get started!

The “System”

Honestly I wouldn’t even call it a system, as it’s more of a very simple yet extremely effective strategy to get this task done as quickly and easily as possible.

What we’re going to do is use Alibaba’s product categories to create a list of products to run through Terapeak.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to Alibaba.com, hover over the Categories drop down menu and then click on All Categories.
2. Choose a main category to start with.
3. Select a sub-category.
4. This will instantly show all listings for products listed under that category.

I’m often surprised by how few people even know how many categories Alibaba has, as they just use the main ones listed on the left hand navigation bar on the homepage.

But these sub-categories are actually a real goldmine when it comes to finding new products. You can find products like this that you’d just never come across searching and browsing through related listings.

If you look closely you’ll see that there are actually 4 category levels. Let’s use a quick, real-life example to illustrate this:

Main category:

• Gifts, Sports & Toys

Sub-categories:

• Sports & Entertainment
• Gifts & Crafts
• Toys & Hobbies

Each one of these 3 sub-categories then have a large number of further sub-categories, for example for Toys & Hobbies we have:

• Action Figure
• Baby Toys
• Balloons
• Candy Toys
• Classic Toys
• Dolls
• Educational Toys
• Electronic Toys
• Glass Marbles
• Inflatable Toys
• Light-Up Toys
• Noise Maker
• Other Toys & Hobbies
• Outdoor Toys & Structures
• Plastic Toys
• Pretend Play & Preschool
• Solar Toys
• Toy Accessories
• Toy Animal
• Toy Guns
• Toy Parts
• Toy Robots
• Toy Vehicle
• Wind Up Toys
• Wooden Toys

And it doesn’t stop there! If you click on any of these sub-sub-categories it’ll take you to the listings and on the left hand side there are even more options – listed under Style or Type.

Although it’s fairly rare some of these 4th level categories will even have further options below them, making it a 5 LEVEL product category tree!

In total there are thousands upon thousands of product categories with literally hundreds of millions of products listed! And people wonder why I sometimes get exasperated by the amount of people who decide to sell iPhone cases or designer clothing on eBay. There is a whole word of products out there for you to choose from, many of which are a niche on their own.

In terms of which category you should choose to use for this task, well that’s really up to you! All I will say is DON’T OVERTHINK IT! Of course if you know for certain that you only have a very small space to store your products, then I wouldn’t bother wasting time on furniture, but anything more in-depth than that (such as MOQ, buying power, pricing, profit etc.) should be completely ignored for now.

Looking too much into each choice and trying to analyse your products now is exactly what leads to people being unable to get to step 2 of this process. Step 1 is all about finding ideas, nothing more than that, so please don’t get stuck and waste all of your time thinking about your selections.

All you need to do is select a product category and then continue down its tree, adding all the final product listings to your list.

But as always, I’d rather show you exactly how it’s done, rather than just tell you.

So, let’s start some product brainstorming!

Gifts, Sports and Toys > Sports & Entertainment > Golf

• Leather golf bag
• Silicone golf bet
• Printed wooden golf tees
• Personalised golf ball marker
• Golf club head cover
• Golf gloves
• Customised golf balls
• LED golf ball
• Practice golf net

Gifts, Sports and Toys > Sports & Entertainment > Musical Instrument

• Guitar pick
• Guitar bag
• Hand exerciser
• Kids Ukulele
• Tambourine
• Drum chair

Gifts, Sports and Toys > Sports & Entertainment > Water Sports

• Swimming goggles
• Snorkel
• Rowing paddle
• Swimming cap
• Foam kickboard
• Floating water mat
• Swimming shirt
• Inflatable pool floats (this is really 20 products by itself!)
• Inflatable swimming wrist ring
• Beach kimono
• Fin socks

Gifts, Sports and Toys > Sports & Entertainment > Camping and Hiking

• Roll fleece blanket
• Inflatable hangout lounger
• Folding chair
• Fruit infuser water bottle
• Waterproof pocket
• Bottle cozy
• Bottle opener
• Neoprene bottle holder
• Tree strap hammock
• Walking stick / trekking pole
• Outdoor survival knife
• Inflatable solar lantern

Gifts, Sports and Toys > Sports & Entertainment > Gambling

• Poker table top
• Giant playing cards
• Laser sticker poker chips
• Acrylic dice
• Customised playing card
• Bingo wire cage
• Poker chip set and carry case
• Wooden domino set
• Rubber poker mat

Gifts, Sports and Toys > Toys & Hobbies > Balloons

• Helium party balloon
• Heart shaped balloon
• Walking animal balloons
• Emoji balloons
• Foil letter / number balloons

Apparel, Textiles & Accessories > Apparel > Maternity Clothing

• Nursing tops
• Nursing scarf / nursing cover / baby carrier
• Maternity support belt

Apparel, Textiles & Accessories > Textile & Leather Products > Chair Cover

• Spa / salon chair covers
• Outdoor furniture PE cover
• Wedding / banquet luxury chair cover
• Spandex chair band

Apparel, Textiles & Accessories > Textile & Leather Products > Towels

• 3D embroidered gift towels
• Hiking / workout cooling towel
• 100% cotton towel
• Beach towel

Apparel, Textiles & Accessories > Fashion Accessories > Belts

• Men’s leather belt
• Military suspenders / pistol belt
• Silicone rubber belt
• “Crocodile” style leather belt
• Novelty kids suspenders
• Braided belt

Apparel, Textiles & Accessories > Fashion Accessories > Gloves & Mittens

• Touchscreen gloves
• Compression / arthritis pain relief gloves
• Leather driving gloves
• Bluetooth gloves
• Baby mittens
• Fingerless military gloves
• Waterproof / skiing gloves
• Hi-vis cycling gloves

Apparel, Textiles & Accessories > Timepieces, Jewellery, Eyewear > Sunglasses

• Wooden / bamboo sunglasses
• Custom printed promotional sunglasses
• Two colour sunglasses
• Aviator style sunglasses
• Sports / running / biking sunglasses

Electronics > Consumer Electronics > Portable Audio, Video & Accessories

• Portable FM radio
• Bluetooth speaker
• Sport’s MP3 player
• Clip-on mini MP3 player
• Multi adapter travel plug
• Glowing / LED micro USB cable
• Cassette tape player
• Boombox
• Waterproof Bluetooth speaker
• Portable DVD player
• Mini pocket radio

Home, Lights & Construction > Lights and Lighting > Indoor Lighting

• High power factory light
• Solar power table lamp
• Designer replica hanging LED ball
• Vintage iron pendant light
• Multicolour Turkish style lamp shade

Home, Lights & Construction > Lights and Lighting > Outdoor Lighting

• Solar power hummingbird / butterfly / dragonfly LED garden light
• Animal garden stake light

And done! In exactly 33 minutes and 27 seconds (yes, I actually timed it!).

As you can see, this WORKS! I now have a list of 100 products to proceed with to the next step of my product research task – Terapeak data. I have covered this step in great detail in this post here, so please check that out as well.

No more excuses and no more delays! I’ve honestly made this as simple as possible and dare I say it, actually fairly fun – so it’s time to get brainstorming!

Until next time.

All the best,
Andrew