It’s all well and good talking about selling products on eBay UK for a bit of extra cash or to make a living, but where can you actually go to find things to sell? The good news is that almost anything can be sold online these days, as there are millions of people shopping online with a vast array of different interests. With that in mind consider some of the following top sources for products as you start your own eBay selling journey.
1. Your Home
I’m sure I’m not the only one who occasionally finds my house a bit on the cluttered side. Over the years we all accumulate things that we don’t really want anymore, some of which may have had only minimal usage. If you’re relatively new to online selling then starting out by finding a few bits and pieces to sell from your own home can be a great confidence booster, an excellent way to earn an initial few positive feedback comments and a way to earn a bit of extra money by clearing out the clutter.
It might be tempting to enjoy the money that you make from selling items around the home, but why not hang on to it and use it to invest in some products from these other sourcing strategies?
2. Charity Shops / Car Boot Sales
Filtering through the tat to be found at charity shops and car boot sales to find the gems that can be sold on for significantly more than you had to fork out for the initial purchase can take time, but can be highly profitable. Car boot sales especially are a great opportunity for you to practice your bargaining skills to find a great deal, skills that will be immensely useful later in getting the best price from professional businesspeople.
In a world of recession with everyone looking for a bargain and a way to make a bit of extra cash, car boot sales have become incredibly popular with most local areas boasting a few regular sales. Why not search Google for a car boot sale in your local area, set yourself a budget and head along to find a few items that you could sell on.
3. Wholesalers
Each time you make a purchase through a high street store you’re really dealing with a middle man. Unless it’s a small shop dealing in arts and crafts or homemade goods, chances are the products were made in a factory from which a wholesale distributor passed on their wares at a discount price. You don’t need to be a well-known high street chain to benefit from the cheap products that wholesalers can sell though; all you need to do is find one that’s dealing in your niche market and offer to buy whatever it is they’re selling in bulk.
This can be a problem if you don’t have a lot of storage space as the best prices will be allocated to the biggest orders. This is an avenue that’s definitely worth investigating if you’re looking to make eBay selling your main source of income. Don’t be afraid to haggle (they’ll expect it) and feel free to ask for some samples of the product before committing to a big purchase. You can then trial selling the samples online to see if you’ll be able to make a profit.
Not sure where to find a wholesaler? They are based all over the world and operate in multiple different industries, so why not start out looking for one in your local area. Just head to Google and search for Industry Wholesaler Area, replacing the words Industry and Area with your niche market and your location respectively.
With just a bit of digging around you’ll soon find a few potential stores to contact.
4. Dropshippers
If you’re looking for cheap prices but really don’t have the storage space to buy potentially big items in bulk from a wholesaler then you might consider the process of dropshipping. Instead of holding stock yourself, each time you receive an order on eBay you’ll send the address of the buyer to your dropshipper, who will then send the product directly to the buyer.
You don’t have to deal with any postage or packaging at all; you’re essentially a middle man between the customer and the supplier so all you have to do is pass on a portion of the proceeds to the dropshipper when a sale is made. This can be a great scenario as you don’t need to hold any stock and you don’t normally even need any cash upfront as you’ll just make payment when goods are sold.
There are drawbacks however, as you’ll essentially be putting your eBay reputation in the hands of your supplier. Before setting up any deals make sure you check any reviews that the supplier might have to make sure that they will post goods quickly in a well packaged manner to keep your own customers happy.
If dropshipping is something that you are seriously considering then I suggest heading to an online forum where there are many experienced sellers offering advice and reviews of potential suppliers. One that is particularly well used can be found here
5. eBay
One excellent and often overlooked source of stock to sell on eBay UK is actually eBay itself. There are a multitude of items being sold by inexperienced sellers for far less than what they’re worth. Misspelt titles, auctions ending in the middle of the night and even goods listed as Collection Only when they could easily be posted are just a few of the faux pas made by sellers. There are even tools out there that can help you to discover these auctions without having to manually search for them.
A website such as Goofbid allows you to search specifically for misspellings, auctions ending at crazy times and much, much more.
The above are just a few of the many different options for finding products to sell on eBay, there are many other options as well so don’t limit yourself to these if you can think of some other ways to get your hands on some excellently priced stock. Consider implementing more than one stock sourcing strategy, to keep you finding the very best products for the very best prices.