EBay business

[April]

Does anyone here run an Ebay business?

I want to do this as I know it can be profitable. The only problem is I dont know what to sell!

Where do people get large amounts of stock to sell on Ebay?

[aladin42]

I am very curious too. But maybe you need to decide what you want to sell first and then research where to get it from…

[Ronin]

Some people use "dropshippers"
Basically that is a company that delivers everything for you, you never see the stock yourself, you are just the middle man.

Keep in mind this can be risky if your dropshipper is unreliable.

[Jon]

If you are looking at getting into business on eBay then make sure you file it under the tax returns. People have known to get stung from eBay/PayPal reporting earnings to the government without them declaring it.

[Isaac]

My suggestion would be to invest a little bit of money into it. Buy a wholesale lot of something. Shop around for a good deal, at flea markets, on the internet, garage sales... Search for wholesale suppliers on the internet. Find something that costs $20 for one, where you can buy 10 of them for $100 somewhere else, then sell them for $15+. Then you can build up your investment to the point where you can buy large amounts of products and resell them. There's a lot of money to be made in that. You can also buy ebooks that have lists of all kinds of wholesale sources. I have one of them.

[Jon]

That's a great idea Isaac. If you keep reinvesting any profits made back into the business, it will build up faster and faster - increasing profits until you can depend on income from ebay alone.

There is software out there which pretty much automates the listing process for you.

[trappercase]

As I said in a earlier post, you can look for great sales at Walmart or any other store and try your luck at that. Or look for misspelled auctions on ebay where people who can spell would never see the auction. Buy it and then resell it with the proper spelling. I don't think that reselling stuff you buy at a retailer is misleading since you are providing a service to shop from home.

[Tim]

That"s a great idea Isaac. If you keep reinvesting any profits made back into the business, it will build up faster and faster - increasing profits until you can depend on income from ebay alone.

There is software out there which pretty much automates the listing process for you.

Which software is that?
I only know of the Ebay turbo lister, or are you talking about 3rd party software? gambling (http://playroost.com/)

[April]

Thanks people!
Great tips. Now I just need to find some products to sell and I can see this becoming a nice little supplemental income :D

[rdawg1234]

i would recommend the job as a side business as you may not make as much as you'd like but you do make money on it.

[lookingforjob]

i would recommend the job as a side business as you may not make as much as you'd like but you do make money on it.

Yes, I wouldn't count on ebay as my sole income...

[Ladyluck]

Some people can live off ebay profits :)
If you know where to get products cheaply from, ie you know someone in China, then you can easily make a living off ebay.