It is not that difficult to make money on ebay. If I have one consistent refrain that would be it. I am going to go into detail about selling on ebay but I really feel like it almost is not necessary. In order to make money on ebay you really only need two things. First you need access to products you can sell on ebay that fetch more than they cost you to obtain and second, you need access to research tools that allow you to ascertain what products are selling well and at what price points they will be profitable. That’s really all you need to know to make money on ebay however there are other people who will tell you otherwise.

I have seen so many scammers who are looking to sell you their make money on ebay guide as if there are some major secrets involved in starting an ebay business. I know that I mention this a lot on this site, but I just really believe that it is true: You do not need access to anybody else’s ebay secrets in order to sell something on ebay. What you do need is access to the top products that are selling for top dollar on ebay and you need to have regular access to these products. What I mean by this is you must be able to repeat your results in order to be profitable in your ebay business. For instance, if you have an ipod around the house and you want to sell it in an ebay auction you can place it for sale, complete the transaction and pocket the cash. However, once you have sold the ipod it is gone and you can not continue to sell it.

To be able to make consistent money on ebay you need to have regular access to top of the line products at prices that are lower than what you can sell them for. How is this accomplished. Again, and you may be tired of hearing this, it is not that difficult. In order to make money on ebay you will need to invest a little money into your ebay business but once you do you will be able to profit regularly.

So let’s look into what you will need to spend in order to make money on ebay. First, realize that in order to make a little money on ebay you don’t need to spend a thing. All you need to do is simply list for sale items that you no longer need or use. It doesn’t take a genius (or even any intelligence) to list an item for sale on ebay and then mail it to the winner of your auction. Like I said, when you run out of things to sell on ebay that you have around the house that is when you need another option and to get that option you need to spend money. For readers of Things to Sell on Ebay I have been recommending SaleHoo (read my review here) as the recommended provider of wholesale sources and research. SaleHoo is a great value. Here’s what you get if you join. You will get access to over 8 million wholesale products. This is how you make money on ebay. You get access to a large variety of wholesale products that you can sell for more than you paid for them and you make it repeatable. That’s why the power sellers take advantage of wholesale sources such as SaleHoo and really the only thing that separates the Hobbyists from the professional power sellers. I can’t stress enough that if you want to make money on ebay, you are going to need to have that regular access to wholesale products. There is simply no substitute.

The other thing that you will need to do in order to make money on ebay is to do research into what markets are hot and what products are fetching price-wise in auctions. I have found that this research is really the key to running a successful ebay business. If you are able to figure out what prices products are fetching you are better able to budget and allocate your resources in order to really start to make money on ebay. Now, in case you think that I am simplifying, let me tell you about how not to make money on ebay. First, remember that if you have intelligence and are willing to put in the time there is no reason why you can’t make money on ebay. However these tips might help you make more money on ebay. First, I would advise that you sell higher dollar items. There is nothing wrong with selling VHS tapes. You can make money on ebay selling VHS tapes, just realize that it takes time to package and ship an item. If you are making $1.50 per VHS tape that you sell you probably have realized that you’ll have to do a good bit of volume in order to make money on ebay which in and of it self is not a problem. So let’s say that you are able to sell 100 VHS tapes a day for a pretty good income of $150 a day. The problem comes when its time to ship all those items. If you do not have a substantial staff you will be spending hours a day packaging all those items for shipping. Even if you have a large staff it will take a lot of resources to handle 100 sales a day on ebay. Therefore, consider selling an item that might make you $150 a sale. It could be any number of things, but realize that you can save yourself a lot of administrative hassle, while still being able to make money on ebay by dealing with larger ticket items.

So, that would be my advice on how to make money on ebay. Find the products, do the research, sell the stuff, and repeat. Like I said, it really isn’t that difficult to make money on ebay if you are smart, willing to invest in your business, and willing to research the market.

And if you are just starting out in the e-commerce game I am happy to say that I think you’ve made a wise choice. eBay is attractive for all kinds of business minded people because an eBay business is no easy to get started. You don’t need technical skills, you don’t need a great deal of money, nor do you need to invest a great deal of time. In many ways eBay is a perfect platform with which to make money.

Therefore, if you are just starting out and are a business minded person then online auctions at ebay may be the opportunity for you to make significant money in addition to your regular job. And if you start to have success you can always take it to the next level and start to make more money than you are making at your current job — at which point I would suggest that you quit your job.

Now once you understand the basics of ebay, which will take you all of 20 minutes to figure out, then you need to create a business model where you profit repeatedly from the system. To do this you need to have products to sell on ebay because, let’s face it, you are going to run out of things around the house that you might want to sell.

That is the central focus of my blog, I show you where to find things to sell on ebay. We do that all day, 24/7. Right off the bat I can tell you that certain items sell better on ebay than others. For instance, items that are difficult to transport, such as beverages or kitty litter, typically do not sell well. However, items such as electronics, books, fragrances, collectibles, and jewelry typically make excellent sales products. The only question becomes where do you get these items to sell on ebay?

At first it is perfectly acceptable to look around the house for items for your auctions. You likely have many items that you no longer use, or perhaps have never used, and these can fetch you some instant dollars on ebay. You can also use these items to learn the selling process on eBay and figure out how the system works. However at a certain point you will have run through your inventory and you will need a new access point to continue to sell items on eBay.

At this point you have to make a decision. You have to decide if you want to continue to grow your eBay business or if you are satisfied with the success you have attained. Having had a glimpse of your profit potential, I believe that you will want to take things to the next level. That’s what separates the power sellers from the hobbyists on ebay.

At this point, after you have gotten your feet wet, I recommend that you look into getting access to a wholesaler. There are many wholesaler, bulk suppliers and drop shippers who specialize in working with eBay sellers. Unfortunately there are also a lot of scammers in this business who make certain promises that they can never keep or try to get you to send your money to a strange address in China. That’s the problem that sprung up when people started to look specifically for items to sell on ebay. Fly by night operators who had little credibility sprung up and got themselves a webpage and started billing themselves as wholesalers. Because getting access to wholesale sources is the lifeblood of any ebay sellers business the community realized that we had to have a clearing house to make certain that these so-called wholesalers were legitimate.

What happened is that seperate companies, like rating boards, sprung up to rate the quality and price and everything else of each wholesaler that was operating on the internet. And soon another few companies sprung up which created drop ship directories and wholesale sources lists and you paid that company for access to the list and they maintained it and made sure that the wholesalers were legitimate. I think subscribing to one of these lists is the surest way to find items to sell on ebay. I work with SaleHoo and I have an honest SaleHoo review on this site, and I think you should check it out if you want to get into the ebay selling business.

I recommend SaleHoo because they are the best at what they do. Yes the maintain a list of wholesalers and dropshippers but they do so much more than that. They have put together a website that is like a portal for ebay sellers where you can research markets and see what is selling and where the money is. This is such a huge key to succeeding in an e-commerce business. It’s just like anything else. You need to do your research.

Finally, remember that for success in your ebay business you really only need hard work and access to items to sell on ebay that you can count on.

If you are interested in making money selling things on Ebay (or anywhere else online) check out my top recommendation for selling things on Ebay and lots of other sites.