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How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
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by: planes
Forum Moderator
843 posts
How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 2 Dec 08 7:51 pm.
EBay is a very competitive market as I am sure many of you know.
I think the best way to look for products is to clear any preconceptions about what you want to sell.
I know many say to sell what you are familiar with or are interested in, but I think this is a bad way to go.
You have to be a hawk. You have to sell what is wanted not what you want to sell !
Another problem I see is people looking to break into selling something that is to competitive. Like as mentioned here at Salehoo, don't try to crack electronics or other high tech items unless you have a great connection to get them.
I am constantly seeing requests here on Salehoo for, does anyone know where I can get ipods cheap?
The sooner you realize this type of product is not available to you for selling on eBay the faster you can get on with finding a good product to sell on eBay!
Ipods is a dead end. So are many electronic and computer products.
Here is a good research site to find products or research sales of products.
terapeak.com
They are a little pricey but have a 14 day trial period where you can try and cancel for a refund within 14 days if you don't want to keep the subscription.
There is a vast amount of data available. You can even research 90 days of sales from sellers.
You can see the amount of listings a seller had to produce to get sales; their sell through %; whether they did auction or fixed price;what time of day they listed etc... . You can even see a list of their completed listings and visit their
listings on eBay.
You can easily find hot/hotter and hottest items selling on eBay in real time.
You can track trends for the last 2 years etc etc... .
Now, what you do is find about 10 items that are hot on eBay and search for suppliers. You can do that here on Salehoo and through your own research.
There are ways to check companies. I'm not going to get into that in this thread.
BTY, Expect to spend not only hours doing this but days. This should take about 20 to 30 hours or more of research.
Then once you find your product and supplier, expect 4 or 5 hours researching on terapeak to find how your product is sold successfully on eBay by other sellers and copy their successful habits.
Then expect to spend 5 to 10 hours prepping your eBay listings to look good.
( creating a nice listing template that looks professional.)
Then another 1 to 4 hours listing.
Hope this helps. -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2857 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 2 Dec 08 11:58 pm.
EBay is a very competitive market as I am sure many of you know.
I'm one of those that are of the opinion that looking at selling what you know best is a great place to start for new comers to online selling. It may not be the most popular item on ebay, but when you work in sales for carrier you learn that product knowledge is a very valuable tool, and can quite often be the difference between a sale, and zero!
I think the best way to look for products is to clear any preconceptions about what you want to sell.
I know many say to sell what you are familiar with or are interested in, but I think this is a bad way to go.
You have to be a hawk. You have to sell what is wanted not what you want to sell !
Another problem I see is people looking to break into selling something that is to competitive. Like as mentioned here at Salehoo, don't try to crack electronics or other high tech items unless you have a great connection to get them.
I am constantly seeing requests here on Salehoo for, does anyone know where I can get ipods cheap?
The sooner you realize this type of product is not available to you for selling on eBay the faster you can get on with finding a good product to sell on eBay!
Ipods is a dead end. So are many electronic and computer products.
Here is a good research site to find products or research sales of products.
terapeak.com
They are a little pricey but have a 14 day trial period where you can try and cancel for a refund within 14 days if you don't want to keep the subscription.
There is a vast amount of data available. You can even research 90 days of sales from sellers.
You can see the amount of listings a seller had to produce to get sales; their sell through %; whether they did auction or fixed price;what time of day they listed etc... . You can even see a list of their completed listings and visit their
listings on eBay.
You can easily find hot/hotter and hottest items selling on eBay in real time.
You can track trends for the last 2 years etc etc... .
Now, what you do is find about 10 items that are hot on eBay and search for suppliers. You can do that here on Salehoo and through your own research.
There are ways to check companies. I'm not going to get into that in this thread.
BTY, Expect to spend not only hours doing this but days. This should take about 20 to 30 hours or more of research.
Then once you find your product and supplier, expect 4 or 5 hours researching on terapeak to find how your product is sold successfully on eBay by other sellers and copy their successful habits.
Then expect to spend 5 to 10 hours prepping your eBay listings to look good.
( creating a nice listing template that looks professional.)
Then another 1 to 4 hours listing.
Hope this helps.
Do you have to sell a popular item to make money on ebay?
Well I guess that answer would be defined by what you call popular.
You will often hear people talk about a niche market, and that is never a big market, yet those markets can generate some of the best sales figures. A niche market is one that is hot because it is under serviced, demand is greater than supply, and if you are a lucky supplier trying to keep up with demand then you can do very well.
Any seller supplying such a market would consider they have a popular product, however I think most would define a popular product as a product that is in high demand to a mass market.
This is where new sellers become frustrated most of the time, because mass markets are completely saturated with more suppliers trying to get into the market than buyers for the products.
Sure the products are popular, but that means you are trying to get into a super competitive cut throat market, and the chances of you being able to compete are not very good to zero!
You don't need the most popular item to fill a niche market, you just need the right one to be successful. but of course niche markets are the hardest to crack because research is usually more hands on.
If you are astute some research may point you in the right direction, but most niche markets are developed through trailing different products, then honing the various results to develop your market.
Most will always chase the big popular items for the mass market because It's easy to chase that range. You don't need much of a thought process, you just go lets see what's popular, and BAMO, there they are.
Of course there are exceptions to every rule, especially in sales, but I think focusing on the biggest selling items can some times be a complete false economy that leads to nothing more than complete frustration.
While Niche markets are almost developed from scratch by the more industrious sellers around, I personally think they are where most of the opportunities lay.
I know if I were to sell new products, and a product assesment showed me that the products I knew best were not a good option, then I would try those not so readily available on ebay.
Just because it's not on ebay doesn't mean that it won't find a market. It just means that no one is currently supplying the market...and who knows just how popular that market could be?
Who knows how many new gizmos there are released onto the world market everyday, the choice would be absolutely extreme. I've said it before, but take a look around your local craft type markets because you never know what products someone might be making and not selling to an online market yet.
Try to widen your horizons a little and stop focusing on the bleeding obvious, because you are not just competing with those already on ebay, but you are also competing against the other million or so lookers wanting to get products on ebay as well!
Finding out the top ten sellers on a website is the easy part, sourcing them at a competitive price is a different ball game all together!Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: bayericlowe
SaleHoo Master Member
485 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 23 Jan 09 11:53 pm.
iPod accessories aren't a dead end however. Both on eBay and off. I've sold quite a selection of very good (rare) iPod accessories through my store and they aren't a dead end, you just need to have alot of traffic, in the tens of thousands in order to sell iPod brand items. And I rarely bother with the original iPod except in certain cases for discontinued merchandise. -
by: planes
Forum Moderator
843 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 29 Jan 09 5:05 am.
iPod accessories aren't a dead end however. Both on eBay and off. I've sold quite a selection of very good (rare) iPod accessories through my store and they aren't a dead end, you just need to have alot of traffic, in the tens of thousands in order to sell iPod brand items. And I rarely bother with the original iPod except in certain cases for discontinued merchandise.
You are right. I hope my post did not suggest this. -
by: beatsonboy
New SaleHoo Member
2 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 16 Feb 09 9:18 am.
If you want to see how the Big Boys do it, check out this free monthly newsletter link hidden -
by: bayericlowe
SaleHoo Master Member
485 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 20 Feb 09 4:20 am.
What are you referring to by 'big boys'? Are you talking about the elitists that spammed their way to having a 1 million member mailing list?
Because I can assure you, things are not close to that simple in real life. Unfortunately or not, they are not at ALL that simple.
Big Ticket Depot is where you can really get some good results finally. -
by: shopwindows88
New SaleHoo Member
1 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 30 Apr 09 6:10 am.
i think to find something that can be sold in ebay you must do some research using tools like terapeak,ebay pulse which can give you idea to sell good on ebay -
by: aznvcboi
SaleHoo Senior Member
55 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 2 May 09 7:30 am.
You can find tons of products here ***Link Removed*** -
by: EMTCA
New SaleHoo Member
1 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 3 Jun 09 10:30 am.
Whitch UK best wholsale will bring profit on the items to sale online?
Thanx -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2857 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 3 Jun 09 12:14 pm.
How much capital do you have to invest in stock?
If you don't have much capital then no wholesaler will be good enough to profit from.Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: brandnamesforless
New SaleHoo Member
6 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 10 Jun 09 12:30 am.
Can anyone guide me in the right direction??
Whats your advice when trying to buy from direct companies such as apple, blackberry, sony, etc. Im trying to start selling online with 10grand worth of wholesale products. how can I get the best deal and not waist my time with pothetic dropshippers and middle-men??
Thanks Id appreciate any input from some with experience. -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2857 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 10 Jun 09 1:14 am.
I've actually responded to this question in another thread, but I would suggest there is a lot more to learn than just where to buy your stock. Your questions do raise an alarm bell with as to your business experience.
10 grand is one thing, and yes, it will get you some decent stock deals, but you are looking at jumping into a pond with some pretty big fish, and you will want to make sure you know how best to protect you investment with some solid grounding in business.
If you just jump straight in with 10,000 it can vanish right in front of your eyes if you don't know what you're doing.Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: brandnamesforless
New SaleHoo Member
6 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 10 Jun 09 1:41 am.
Thanks and ya I know, My money can dissapear if I buy from the wrong person weather I over pay, get counterfeit products, or get scammed. Thats why Ive been doing my own research and asking questions like this. However, you still didnt answer my questions as to where the best deals are usually found. -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2857 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 10 Jun 09 1:54 am.
That is going to depend on what you consider the best deal to be?
You may be able to source some products are great prices, but be selling on a platform where your margin is cut to something like 1% to compete.....is that a great deal?
Some think it is, and that's the kind of guys you can find yourself going up against.
If you are going to set yourself up as a distributor, then they will tell you the amount you have to stock to get the VERY best price, you can then look at your market and work out if it's the best deal for you.Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: zhenda
SaleHoo Junior Member
27 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 27 Oct 09 4:21 am.
hello
thank you very much.
does anyone have terapeak.com feedback? i want to join before to see your common please?For any futher inquiry please contact me on 852 90643142
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by: haydee
SaleHoo Master Member
361 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 19 Nov 09 7:37 am.
Hi zhenda,
Have a look at these related posts discussing Terapeak.
Re: First time selling on eBay, but nothing is moving
Re: Losing my butt with ebay
It's a great tool that you can try out for 14 days for free.
link hidden
Cheers, -
by: mburngas
New SaleHoo Member
1 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 1 Dec 09 7:45 pm.
Any time you have plenty of money, but don't know what to do with it, you probably shouldn't be spending that money in a business venture.
Only when you know exactly what you are going to actually do to make money, should you start ANY business venture. Having investment capital comes second... -
by: BeadArtDesign
New SaleHoo Member
6 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 17 Dec 09 4:14 am.
hello
I think Terapeak is an amazing tool if you really know how to use it properly - it will help you find fabulous niche markets but then the hard work begins by having to locate suppliers.
thank you very much.
does anyone have terapeak.com feedback? i want to join before to see your common please?
My Terapeak membership is almost paid off in sales just from one product (over the last month). I sourced HOT products from another ebay seller and just resold them better - ebay arbitrage! -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2857 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 17 Dec 09 5:54 am.
Any time you have plenty of money, but don't know what to do with it, you probably shouldn't be spending that money in a business venture.
Just wanted to say that this is really solid advice, it takes far more than capital alone to be successful in this game, and if you go in throwing cash around trying to buy sales without a firm grasp of how you intend to do exactly that, chances are you will be throwing your cash away!
Only when you know exactly what you are going to actually do to make money, should you start ANY business venture. Having investment capital comes second...
It's a business, treat it like one and do all the regular planning that any start-up business should do first, and you'll go a long way to ensuring your survival.Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2857 posts
Re: How to find the right products to sell on eBay.
Posted 17 Dec 09 6:01 am.
Good to hear terapeak working so well for you, as it does quite a few, however the more you understand how to get the most out of it, the better results you can generate.hello
I think Terapeak is an amazing tool if you really know how to use it properly - it will help you find fabulous niche markets but then the hard work begins by having to locate suppliers.
thank you very much.
does anyone have terapeak.com feedback? i want to join before to see your common please?
My Terapeak membership is almost paid off in sales just from one product (over the last month). I sourced HOT products from another ebay seller and just resold them better - ebay arbitrage!
ebay arbitrage is becoming more and more popular, and why wouldn't it. If you're really switched on, understand your market and know how to market to it effectively, you can make easy money out of other sellers mistakes.
Are you getting the maximum from your sales, or is someone stealing them from you and flipping them for a higher profit?........something worth looking at for everyone!
Being successful isn't just about making sales, it's about making the most you can from those sales, so it's always worth sharpening up your marketing techniques to ensure you're giving yourself the best chance of maxmising your stats.Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager
