What to Sell on Ebay and Where to Get It: The Definitive Guide to Product Sourcing for Ebay and Beyond

by Lisa Suttora and Chris Malta

Book Overview

If you want to build a profitable--and consistent--eBay business, you need to start with strategic product sourcing. What to Sell on eBay and Where to Get It reveals the same techniques used by the most successful e-commerce entrepreneurs and by major retail chains to determine what products will sell well and which suppliers will deliver those products for the best price.

Learn to generate product ideas, research your markets, diversify...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0072262788
• ISBN13: 9780072262780
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.6" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Fresno--"Buyer Beware" doesn't appear to understand eBay at all--a short rebuttal

I'm not sure what happened to Fresno, but s/he doesn't seem to understand eBay at all. I've been selling & buying on eBay since 1999; I started selling my old clothing & accessories and sort of "accidentally" grew my business without realizing it (still selling clothing & Native American jewelry), until one day I discovered I'd become a Powerseller, and was able to quit my "regular job" ... now I have my own business which is dependent upon how much I put into it! I'd always dreamt of owning my own boutique, but could never afford it. eBay has helped me realize my dream, as well as the many other successful sellers who otherwise wouldn't have had the chance to do what they love. Okay, that said, I am concerned that "Fresno's" review will discourage potential eBayers from dipping their toes into the eBay waters. Let's see if I can help out here a little ... 1. eBay does indeed care whether sellers make money--it's true that eBay makes money up front on the listing fees, but they stand to make much more on "Final Value Fees" which are a percentage of the final sale price. The more the item sells for, the more money the seller makes, and the more money eBay makes. In addition, sellers have the option of listing items in a store format, which runs about $15 per month and just .03 per listing. If eBay didn't care about sellers, if they didn't offer the support that they do offer (you can find it EVERYWHERE, starting with the Community pages), if sellers weren't making money--from the person who sells a few items from her closet each month to the millionaire Titanium Powersellers--then it stands to reason that there would be very few of us sticking around! I attended eBay Live! last year and my husband & I, at the time in the lowest rung of the Powerseller program, were treated like VIPs! It was amazing--we're grossing $1500-2,000 per month, and eBay is feeding us gourmet food, freebies like you wouldn't believe, treating our entire families to free bbq cookouts and amusement park trips ... I felt as special and important as the multi-millionaire Titanium seller! 2. Frankly, I am amazed by Fresno's open hostility toward eBay ... s/he seems consumed with anger over a lack of supplier addresses ... I started going to department store sales & outlets, searching for bargains, then reselling them for a profit on eBay. I did it all on my own, no need to find "secret suppliers" or search out such places. I provide a service--I sell new clothing at huge discounts to people who don't have the time to scour through the sales & warehouses. I sometimes buy lots from people & estate sales ... I've never needed to avail myself of any of these providers. I do understand that eBay is a business, out to make money by providing an enormous online mall which is open to ANYONE who wants to try her/his luck at running a business. I don't LOVE the fees, but my overhead is MUCH less than if I were to have a brick & mortar store, paying rent, utilities, etc.

Proven ebay buy/sell strategies

The first step to building a solid eBay business is to get the right product at the right price to make a profit - and this is the point where so many competing eBay seller's guides fail, focussing on how to sell rather than what to sell and how best to locate and buy it. Chris Malta & Lisa Suttora's WHAT TO SELL ON EBAY AND WHERE TO GET IT: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PRODUCT SOURCING FOR EBAY AND BEYOND tells how to find products and use proven strategies to sell them. Chapters explain how to identify trends and hotspots, develop niche markets and ideas for selling to them, research products to determine resale markups and profits, and more. With chapters emphasizing niche marketing strategies and evaluation procedures, WHAT TO SELL ON EBAY AND WHERE TO GET IT comes packed with flexible plans and ideas. Very highly recommended.

Buy This Book

I loved this book. I found it to be so inspirational. The other ebay books that I have read have seemed like propaganda for ebay powersellers. This book is more like a practical small business startup guide. It really helps you look at things in a way that will allow you to decide what you want your business to be and gives you the tools that you need to achieve your dreams. I am in the process of starting my ebay business and I credit this book for giving me the confidence and tools that I need in order to succeed.

A great crash course in product sourcing --- for new or experienced sellers

The most frequent question from new sellers is, "What do I sell, and where do I find it?" It's obvious that the author is an authoritative source for this information, he's the Product Sourcing Editor for eBay Radio. In this new book, he explains that many new sellers jump in without an understanding of inventory selection and the wholesale buying process. Many of these sellers dump their money into schemes involving middlemen masquerading as wholesalers, drop-shippers who don't really have the advertised product, or for some get-rich-quick book promising a "magic bullet" to making big money selling online. The author also dispels the myth that sellers should sell "what they know" and what they're passionate about. Instead, the author explains that if you really want to build a business, you must find out *what buyers want* and how you can get it for them at the best price. And this book explains exactly how to do it. This book exposes many fraudulent eBay get-rich-quick schemes, concluding: "A real eBay business takes time, commitment to learning, and a good deal of hard work to build." Truer words have never been said, and they apply to entrepreneurship everywhere, not just eBay. So people hoping to crack some secret code and make a ton of cash without hard work will be sorely disappointed with this book (or any other realistic book). This book is intended for online sellers who want to build a business that can be scaled larger over time by selling new merchandise in quantity. It's not intended for those who want to sell only collectibles or one-off used products. The premise is that new, standardized goods obtained in quantity can be sold faster and in higher volume, compared to unique collectibles, where a tremendous amount of effort is expended in finding each item, not to mention the labor involved in listing them for sale, researching and describing each one accurately, taking photos, etc. So while your profit margin may be lower with new merchandise, you can more than make up for it with volume -- if you know what you're doing. This book explains why it's best to focus on selling in a niche and how to discover a niche you can concentrate on. It explains how to find products people want, and how to get them at the lowest price. This book contains numerous tips on finding legitimate wholesaler suppliers, and a comprehensive discussion of how the wholesale industry works and how to build long-term product sourcing relationships. In the chapter about finding wholesalers, the author explains why *real* wholesalers don't advertise in search engines, and why the *fake* wholesalers do. This is must-have information for someone who is looking to expand their business, but doesn't have a thorough background in the wholesaling industry. For eBay sellers in particular, this book warns against three dreaded parasites that consistently rip off new sellers: Product sourcing middlemen, product-sourcing multi-level marketers, and "junk" product s