What to sell on eBay - not an easy question to answer. You need to properly research and even then you can’t be sure that you will make it.

It makes me smile when I come across multiple eBay guides where you go to section ‘What To Sell On eBay’ and read something like: ‘open your closet… and find thousands of things you do not need…’ If you do not need them why do you think others will pay you to get them? Or your closet is like a museum – full of antique stuff?

At this time eBay is a saturated marketplace where you need to face many challenges including eBay fees, tough competition, off eBay marketing (online, offline) and, of course, product sourcing.

In this article we are going to discuss what to sell on eBay and to sell profitably. It is really possible to sell ANYTHING on eBay, even stuff that you found in your closet. But at the end of the day when you do your math you may be disappointed to discover a negative balance of your eBay business.

OK, you need to RESEARCH what to sell on eBay. I guess we discussed that already. But how to research?

You can do it manually browsing completed auctions and making notes or you can make use of some tools. Some are free, others are for a fee – nothing is free now, even on the Internet.

A few sources come from eBay:

• eBay Pulse (free)
• eBay Marketplace Research (fee)

If you are not yet sure or doubtful what to sell on eBay – try more tools:

• Find profitable products to sell on eBay (fee)
• Market Research Wizard (not focused on eBay, but online market in general; comes with 6 000 000+ products that wholesalers will dropship for you). Really cool product, but not as cheap as we would like it to be.

So, you have a choice of manual and automated eBay market research, free and fee based tools.

All this should definitely help you to make a more informed decision on the items to sell on eBay in addition to the stuff that you will discover in your closet…

The golden rule for a person who is going to become a prosperous online retailer is learning from other people experience. Mind that you should not only borrow some positive moments (techniques and tactics that seem to be useful for you), but also note all the failures of your competitions in order not to repeat the same mistakes as they have made. A clever person is those who learn not from his own mistakes, but notice the mistakes of other people and try to avoid them. So now I’ll share some words about 5 most common mistakes that eBay retailers make.

1. Writing a Bad Title

Mind that the title is the face of your business, so the more creative your title will be, more potential customers you will have. Analyze the keywords that other sellers use for similar products, and use every relevant keyword you can. Create something unusual, thus, you will attract people’s attention.

2. Setting the Wrong Starting Price

It is a very important point. If you start too high, you may lose buyers’ interest. If you start too low, you may lose your money. You’d better look at Completed Items listings and analyze what the product is going for.

3. Posting an Inaccurate or Incomplete Description

You shouldn’t forget to mention the details of the product: size, condition, markings, age, and history. This mistake can result in numerous questions, callings and emails. Your customers will feel less confident bidding without having full information. Be honest: mention any damages or defects of the product, thus, you will avoid all unnecessary returns and people will trust you more.

4. Putting Up Bad Photos or No Photos At All

Use photos. Buyers should know with whom they deal. But be sure that the photos are of a good quality. Bad photos or irrelevant (too private) ones will scare away your potential customers. Use photos related to business sphere, this will make your auctions look more professional.

5. Putting Up an Auction at the Wrong Time

Remember that everything is good in its time. Both time of year and time of day can affect the success of your auction. Chose the right season for your products and, moreover, good time to start and finish your auction.

We have recently covered a large scale auto parts dropshipping business case. And today we will have a look into another auto parts dropship site.

To tell the truth, I have never had success with online auto parts sales. You need to deal with enormous catalogues; there are many details with auto parts that you simply can’t manage. And auto parts are not the product that most people go online to buy. Added to that be prepared to a quite high percentage of returns (like with online shoes sales).

On the other hand, online auto parts space is much less competitive than, say, books. Even number of nation recognized auto parts sellers is quite limited. Who should we mention? Autopartswarehouse, Partstrain, and a few more…

If you are passionate about cars and everything automobile related then it is probably your cup of tea – you can (and probably should) choose some auto parts niche like the below dropship business. And if you browse catalogues of dropshipping wholesalers you will run into a number of auto parts dealers.

For those who are not so passionate about these products – explore our case study category for more product ideas

Automotive Performance and Racing Parts Online Store with VP-ASP Shopping Cart.

• URL: www.500ms.com
• Established: Sun Nov 28 2004
• Page views/month: 13,500
• Monthly Revenue: 1200
• Google Pagerank: 2
• BIN: $12,000

Description:

Automotive Performance and Racing Parts Online Store with VP-ASP Shopping Cart. The shopping cart is easily edited and adding or removing items is a breeze.

This site was created November 2004 and has been in constant operation since. The site has over 500 pages of unique content and thousands of products listed by major manufacturers such as: Autometer, Bell, Clevite, Edelbrock, Fram, Isky Cams, K&N, MSD, Optima Batteries, RJS, Simpson, and Warn. The site is the online side of a Motor State Distributing dealership. All part numbers listed are Motor State numbers. I highly recommend the purchaser of this site become a Motor State Dealer. Motor State can drop ship straight to your customers.

This auction includes the site with content and domain names only, a Motor State Dealership is NOT included.

500ms.com, 500ms.net, and stevesperformanceproducts.com domain names are included with this auction. We have promoted the 500ms logo and you will find that a search of “500ms” on all the major search engines will list 500ms.net and 500ms.com as the top two listings.

The site is currently hosted on a Alentus.com server with a Comodo ssl certificate. Buyer could use the same services for roughly $250 per year.

We also have approximately $25,000 of parts and accessories in stock that would be available to the site buyer at or below wholesale prices. The inventory is an excellent mix of in store items for walk in customers.

This is a great opportunity for someone that wants to get into the performance parts business or add a new line to an existing business.

Revenue Details:

The site has never accepted advertising and most of our sales are over the phone, so the $1200 per month revenue is a combination of automated orders and phones sales from website leads.