eBusiness

How to make a living on ebay

It is possible to make a living by trading on ebay. A recent survey showed a whopping 70,000 people in the UK alone now making part/fulltime living on Ebay. This figure is rising, especially in the traditional Ebay markets of UK, USA and EU countries.

Below, we will go through a series of steps that one could take to make a tidy weekly profit by buying and selling on the world's largest auctioneer. When we say a tidy profit, we mean a couple of hundred pounds or (several hundred dollars) at least. If you feel selling on your own is too risky, consider the possibilty of becoming an Ebay trading assistant.

Here is a list of ways to profit on ebay. Each point will be dealt with in detail and explained fully.

• Buying a product and reselling on ebay
  
• Description
  
• Buy cheap items from specialist vendors and resell on ebay
  
• Special offers
  
• Go to car boot sales and Sunday markets and buy cheap stuff and resell on ebay
  
• Be strategic with postage fees you charge

Buying and reselling on ebay

This is probably the best method of making money on ebay. Any given product on ebay, say for example, a particular brand of mobile phone, will constantly be selling. Not all phones go for the same amount, sometimes there is a big discrepancy. One phone could sell for £85 and another sell for £70 even when the two phones are similar in condition and package contents.

The trick here is to look for items that are being bid much less than you would expect, thus providing you an opportunity to buy it on the cheap. When you have purchased the phone, list it on ebay by providing a better description than the seller who you just bought the phone of. You can always charge a couple of extra dollars for postage because no one really pays too much attention to that.

Description

How you describe your product on ebay will be the difference between accruing the maximum possible amount for the item or falling short of your expectations. You should always describe the product that makes it sound as if it is in better condition than it perhaps is and should always accompany the product with photos.

Please be a bit imaginative here, always use photos that makes potential bidders take notice and be persuasive with your description of the item. However, please take care not to go overboard. If a product is in poor condition, do not describe it as being brand new. This will be too obvious to the purchaser, who will just want a refund because it does not meet or come close to the description. This will only cause hassle.

Special offers

There are always special offers that are being put on by online retailers. Look out for these because they are substantially below normal RRP. By buying products that are substantially below RRP will almost certainly allow you to make a tidy profit by listing it on ebay. But, once again, be sure you purchase items that sell well on ebay first before purchasing it. So do a little research to find items that sell well on Ebay.

Car boot sale/markets

You will always find goods that are valuable and being sold for a fraction of what you could get by selling it on ebay. Look to purchase anything for a pound or two. Even items that such as micro cars that sell for a pound could easily fetch three four times more on ebay.

Often you can get hold of antiques and other goods for a fraction of what they would normally fetch because people want to do away with them. Why do they go for so much on ebay? Well, its to do with the fact that they are highly collectable and people are always looking to outbid each other, not to mention the massive potential bidders involved of course, which all contribute to force the price upwards.

The only problem with low value items is that you have to sell a large quantity to make a substantial amount of money, this would require a lot of hard work on your part.

Postage fees

Its simple, always charge a couple to a few pounds/dollars more for postage fees. You can always extract this from bidders because they are more interested in the item. Of course, do not go overboard because you will frighten the bidders away. Be subtle!