Hi Andrew,

Reading your bog with great interest – loads of valuable information here! I have already followed your used goods business guide and made my first 40 pounds in profit! I will stick with used goods for now, but in the future I want to start selling brand new goods, maybe phone cases or something similar – small & cheap, just to build some experience.

My question is this – how to know what type of products and what versions (colours, styles, sizes etc.) should I start with if I’m on a limited budget? For example, take mobile phone cases – there are hundreds of different mobile phones out there, then there are plastic, leather, clear, metallic and other cases. From what I understand, to import from China, I’ll have to buy a decent quantity (probably hundreds per item) so won’t be able to start with all styles/models.

Hope this makes sense, Andrew.

Looking forward to your reply.

Richard.

Hi Richard,

Thanks for your question. It’s a good one and highlights a typical problem many new eBay sellers face – the hard choice of picking the right products to start with when limited buying power doesn’t allow you to start with dozens or hundreds of products.

There are 2 ways to go with this:

1) After doing some research and seeing what sells best, go the RISK TAKER way and start selling products that are different from the current offers on eBay. This approach involves some risk as it could well turn out that people don’t want to buy these ‘different’ products, styles or colours.

2) Start with products that already sell well on eBay! With this concept, the risk is minimal as you know that these particular products already sell well on eBay and if you source the same products and create superb listings, you too should be able to make sales and take some % of the overall market. This concept is more newbie friendly, especially suitable for people who are just starting out and want to gain some experience. There’s nothing worse than having loads of dead stock you can’t move!

But this doesn’t mean that the first approach can’t work, not at all! If you have good business sense, some experience and you spot a new product or modification of a current product that you think will become a best seller, consider the risk and order a trial amount. Once again, some risk is involved so it’s not recommended for newbie traders. Read More…

You can still make tons of money selling accessories on eBay if you focus on less commonly targeted items instead just iPhones and iPads. There are plenty of mad people — including me — who will purchase every available accessory for their prized gadgets, and the market for some accessories is far from saturated.

I’m continuing my series on eBay business models today with a look at less-than-obvious niches in the accessories category. I want to encourage you to think outside the box and look for undiscovered product categories that others aren’t bothering to explore.

Beyond The Obvious

There are already plenty of people selling iPhone cases, chargers and USB cables on eBay, don’t you think?

For most entrepreneurs, the biggest problem is learning to think outside the box so they can look for undiscovered niches. Many people try to sell mainstream items and then wonder why they can’t make any money on eBay. Competition is too high and the established players have already gobbled up a big share of the market for those super-hot and ultra-popular items. It’s almost impossible for a newbie to make any profit in those categories.

Take, for example, jewellery. Did you know that the jewellery niche on eBay has just a 10 percent sell-through rate? That means only one of 10 listings is successful. If you have watched my Easy Auction Business video course, you know that I recommend working with items that have at least a 50 percent sell-through rate.

On eBay, the jewellery category as well as listings for iPhone cases, USB cables and all the other small bits and pieces related to iPhones are already oversaturated. Competition is extreme, plus loads of sellers sell below cost to get new customers, build their feedback scores and clear out old stock. Why on earth you would want to work in a niche like this?

I’m sure there are some profitable iPhone accessories out there that people are making a killing selling, but chances are good that you haven’t found one if you’re reading this post rather than fulfilling orders.

Accessories can still be very profitable, however, if you think outside the box and look for more profitable niches than iPhone or iPad users.

For example, I recently bought a keyboard case for my brand new Yamaha PSR 910:

Yamaha PSR 910 flight case – £170

The case is made in the UK and cost me £170. The keyboard itself was priced at £1600, but I also spent about the same amount on all kinds of accessories like a stand, a case, mics, speakers, a mic case, a case for the cables and several other things. Don’t you wish you had a customer like me? Don’t you wish you were serving a niche like that one? Read More…

Hello & Welcome!

In these blog post series I will cover different business models you can run on eBay. Some of these models can be incorporated into your existing eBay business, as well as operated as standalone businesses. In addition, most of these concepts will be perfect for building small, simple online shops.

Today, I’ll cover a very profitable, unexploited opportunity of selling all kinds of replacement parts for healthy profits! By replacement parts I mean items that can be used to fix a broken product or to replace a used part of the item. Covers, cables, plugs, shoe heels and thousands of other, highly demanded products are being sold on eBay every day.

What made me look more into this business model on eBay was a recent disaster in my backyard:

Yep, it’s pretty much dead trampoline jump mat! You can write your guess on what happened there in comments block below this post! Most interesting comment author will get a special, reader’s prize from me! Read More…