With this business idea we’ll explore a great option for finding things to sell on eBay from the comfort of your own home.
Now the ideas for what to sell on eBay are as diverse as the many sellers who use the site.
But the progression for many people is from household goods to garage sales, rummage sales, yard sales, estate sales, thrift stores, liquidations and drop shipping.
These are all viable options and all have their pros and cons. Many people enjoy the treasure hunt of hitting various sales and stores. Others like tracking down wholesale and consignment deals.
But what if you could find everything you needed to sell right on eBay itself?
Many people do this, even me.
So what exactly is eBay arbitrage?
Well for some people it's about finding auctions that are badly listed or in the wrong category, buying low and then reselling.
I have a bit of a different approach to it however, which I will explain momentarily.
But for now, what is an example of a badly listed item?
I'll use an example of an item I recently sold on eBay.
I had a vintage Brownie Hawkeye camera that I decided to list and after researching all the auctions for similar cameras, I noticed that some only sold for a few dollars while others went for between $10 and $15 dollars or more.
Now as far as I could tell, all these cameras were the same. So what was causing the difference in price?
Well for one thing, the higher priced auctions had better information about the condition of the camera. The seller took the time to tell if the camera had scratches, if the buttons worked etc.
And a few had an even more interesting feature.
Old Brownie cameras have a code of 4 letters inside. This is called the CAMEROSITY code and each letter of CAMEROSITY has an associated number.
By correctly identifying the letters inside your camera with the code, you would be able to tell what month and year your camera was manufactured.
I added that info to my listing and successfully sold my camera for $9.99 even though mine had some old tape residue on the side (which I correctly described and pictured in my listing).
Now this is just a small example of what I'm talking about in knowing how to correctly describe your item.
Another example would be old advertising memorabilia.
I heard of another eBay seller who purchased a vintage advertising sign for $9.50 on eBay.
He then turned around and correctly listed and described the item, adding that this sign was a NEON LIGHTED SIGN, something the previous seller neglected to do, and sold it for $46.00 - a 484% profit!
Now that's a great example of eBay arbitrage.
But when I first thought about eBay arbitrage I wasn't too keen on the thought of making money on other people's mistakes.
And perhaps you feel the same way too.
But I found a way to still find items to sell on eBay without having to take advantage of other less savvy sellers.
This option is to look for "lots" on eBay in the category you choose to focus on.
This is especially relevant in the collectibles market. Things like postcards, photos, etc., are sold in lots all the time.
They are also sold in albums and scrapbooks that might have some treasures.
And I recently saw auctions for a lot of vintage cameras, vintage children's toys and more.
If you take the time to do some research, you can determine if there might be an item of greater value in the lot, or if the items sold separately might bring more money if you took the time to list them correctly.
A fast way to check into this to see it's potential is to go to eBay, pick a collectibles category that you are interested in, and put in the search word "lot", "collection", "box", "group", "album" or any other word you can think of that a seller might use to sell a bunch of items together.
Collectible items end up in lots for a number of reasons, one being a savvy seller getting rid of stuff that doesn't sell, or a seller just trying to get rid of stuff on eBay without doing research, or wanting to take the time to list the items properly.
In this case many times these sellers are just cleaning out or unloading, and they are relieved to sell their items, even while knowing that they could get more if they took the time to sell them individually.
Now when I was doing eBay arbitrage I used an even more interesting twist on the concept.
What I did was to buy vintage kimonos, take the kimonos apart and sell the pieces in the collectible silk fabrics category.
Kimonos are actually made from 6 panels of fabric, and the majority are hand sewn so they come apart fairly easily.
I really enjoyed handling and looking at these beautiful fabrics, using some of them myself (that's how I got started) and passing on the rest to other buyers who love vintage fabrics.
This was actually a fairly eco-friendly business idea too, as these were for the most part kimonos that had some damage and were unwearable, and this was a way to recycle the fabric into new use.
Plus many of my buyers only wanted one piece of fabric instead of needing to buy a whole kimono, and by purchasing from sellers like me they could have more variety of fabric, even though it cost more too.
Now I don't recommend trying the kimono fabric idea, that market is fairly saturated, but I wanted to share my experience to help you start thinking of the possibilities with this business idea.
This really is a creative way to approach looking for things to sell on eBay.
If you can find something that will be worth more taken apart and sold as pieces or components such as fabric yardage, electrical components, etc., you might have a new product to sell on eBay.
Another example of this is sellers who take apart vintage magazines and sell the ads, or who take apart vintage illustrated children's books and sell the illustrated book plates.
Many of these sellers find their books and magazines right on eBay, and you can learn more about selling vintage printed materials in Business Idea #83 –
Vintage Printed Materials On eBay.
And if you would like to learn about which collectibles are easy to sell and have huge profit margins on eBay, along with great potential for arbitrage opportunities, be sure to read Business Idea -
Profitable Collectibles on eBay.
You'll also want to be sure to read my popular article series
144 Products To Sell On eBay
to get even more ideas about items that sell well on eBay and have potential for eBay arbitrage.
Now the reason that eBay arbitrage is such an attractive business idea is that you can find products to sell on eBay without having to spend time hunting for stuff outside your home at venues such as rummage sales, garage sales, estate sales and more.
And you don't have to try and locate wholesalers, drop-shippers, etc.
You simply have to be willing to spend your time in front of the computer on eBay looking for items being sold in groups that you can sell individually, or a product that you can break into profitable pieces.
The rest of your time is spent researching, putting in bids and re-listing (correctly) the items you purchase.
And of course you will have to spend some time packing and shipping your items.
But another great thing about eBay arbitrage is that you can reuse a lot of the packaging materials that your items are shipped to you in - another money and timesaver!
One of the reasons eBay arbitrage is possible is because so many sellers do such a poor job of listing their auctions.
And as you saw from my camera and advertising sign examples at the beginning of this article, even little mistakes in your listing can make a big difference.
For only $9.97 the Auction Revolution will change all that for you. You’ll become one of the 5% of eBay sellers that actually know how to maximize every possibility for profit from their auctions.
Terry has some tips on eBay arbitrage in his book too, and he also has an excellent site;
I Want Collectibles.com,
that has a lot of great free articles about selling on eBay.
