The *TRUTH* About Making Money on eBay
ByAlot of people think that eBay is just a place to get rid of unwanted junk.. much like a giant virtual car boot sale. But have you ever considered eBay as a place to start a REAL internet business that can generate a significant income??
If not then its time to seriously consider it..
I know from recent experience there tends to be some kind of myth about eBay, especially in online forums where people whine and scoff that you can’t make money on eBay anymore.. what complete nonsense that is.
TRUE eBay have changed the game slightly by changing there policies and rules, BUT there is still room to make lots of cash on the eBay platform.. and i am living proof of that.. but not just me, there are others that have made thousands from eBay.
When i started off online, i tried a bunch of stuff which i failed at BIG TIME.. things like affiliate marketing and trying to drive traffic to offers, which at that time i could not make work.
Mainly because there’s alot more involved than meets the eye, you have to learn how to drive targeted traffic and convert offers, all that stuff .. which if i worked at it back then, i could of most likely cracked it, and to be honest maybe i should of stuck at it until i had it working, but I’ll admit i steered away from that and ended up finding something else.
Obviously that find was indeed eBay… i mean.. i knew eBay existed… (obviously right).. you would of been living under a rock not to of known about eBay!
But i was STILL in the mindset that eBay was just a playground for JUNK. A place for people to unload there unwanted stuff and sell it off virtually. Until one day i sat down and had a good look around the marketplace, and it HIT ME that some sellers seemed to be selling quite alot of product! That gave me a hunch that maybe i could make some money from this!
So, there i was digging deeper into my new discovery, and finally i managed to home- in on a seller that was selling one product, over and over again, and he was selling a TON of it!!
I was intrigued to say the least, but i still had a slight uncertainty about the whole thing.. i mean.. how much was he really making? how much was he buying the product for.. how much was he making in PURE profit from this?
Well, obviously i decided to dig even deeper, i started looking for the exact same product which he was selling, i think at the time, he was selling like 20 units of product per day at just over $100 each, which added up to a pretty impressive number.. but i needed to figure out where he was sourcing the product from and work out how much i could buy the product for myself, then i could work out the return on investment.
Well soon enough i had discovered the exact same place where that seller was buying in product from.. and i was absolutely gobsmacked when i found out the wholesale price !! let me tell you it was alot cheaper than what he was selling them for!! and immediatly the little light bulb went off in my head.. and i knew i could do the same and make a ton of money!
Indeed a few months later, and keeping a close watch of a few other sellers in that market, i took the leap and went for it, i paid the overseas supplier and shipped in my first batch of imported product. And soon after that i was seeing incredible profits.
It just goes to show, that we can often look over simple things like eBay to use as a source of income, and just presume that ‘you cant’ make anything from it or precieve it as a place for unwanted gifts and junk. Obviously there can be money made on eBay if you do it right.
I recently took on some students to show them the whole system for doing this, only 15 of them.. and it comes as no suprise that after some of the stuff i showed them, they were seriously gobsmacked to the potential of what can be done with importing and selling on eBay.
Some of them have already started there ventures and will be making some serious cash in the very near future, and im excited to see the results they get.
The thing is, eBay can be a really great way to get started with an online business, because the learning curve can be a quicker turn around than say some of the other more traditional forms on online businesses and internet marketing where you have to learn many components, like driving traffic, seo, list building etc etc - i could go on all day here.
But eBay selling is a more straight foward kind of online business model linked to more traditional forms of business, you buy stuff cheap, and you sell it high.. and make a profit in return. And you do NOT have to try and drive traffic, because in esscence eBay provides the platform where buyers are already there looking to what?……… BUY of course!
Trust me.. It does make things so much easier to try and make money online.. but im not saying you dont have to put any effort in.. because you do. You have to research markets, source product and calculate ROI’s but its not all that hard!
Think about it for a minute… 
Until next time
Dan Briffa over and out.
P.S. I would be grateful if you could leave me a comment and let me know what you thought about this post! also, leave me any qeustions and i’ll promise to reply to every single one of them
My New eBay PowerSeller Profit Blueprint Training Guide for 2010 is now available CHECK IT OUT —-> CLICK HERE
53 Comments
July 13th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Great post! I used eBay to make some serious cash too selling QVC liquidation items. Mostly women’s clothing. It was a lot of work, but when you can buy the clothing for 20% of QVC’s wholesale price, there is some serious room for profits. I have since moved on as more and more people started selling the same things.
Looking forward to getting in on your next class!
John
July 13th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Hi Dan
An excellent post
The main problem I see is knowing what type of product to sell and then finding a supplier of good quality products at a reasonable enough price.
Richard
July 13th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Thanks for replys guys!
John – There is certainly room for alot of profits, some recent research conducted my me and my students revealed a seller that was making over $150,000 per month in just one market.. i was gobsmacked, and so were my students !
Rich – Yes, you need to learn how to effectively search for profitable markets but once you know how, you’ll be able to locate an abundance of markets and products to sell.
Dan
July 13th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Dan, I have no doubt there is money to be made. You just need to find the right product and then be on the lookout for the next right product! Using so-called wholesalers won’t work as they sell on eBay usually for the same price they sell it to you for. You need to get it right from the manufacturer. Looking to see more responses here…
John
July 13th, 2009 at 8:11 am
John
Your absolutely correct.. the trick is to build multiple product streams all making profit…
And going right to the source for product is the right way to do it. Also there are a few advanced strategies which i use, but i save that for my students and wouldnt be fair on them if i mentioned it here..
But the fact is, you CAN make money on ebay… if you do it right.
Thanks for your reponses John!
Dan
July 13th, 2009 at 9:56 am
My daughter is still selling on eBay and making some good money. Low risk on her part. She is doing consignment sales for kids clothing. She simply takes a part of the profit plus the fees. If something doesn’t sell, she still collects the fees and the item is returned to the owner or donated. Costs her nothing but time. It’s a good deal for her as she has three girls at home during the summer.
John
July 13th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Hi there,
Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!
Charlie
July 14th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Hi Dave I agree with you on your views about ebay I myself have been a member for three years and have done quite well, now I am considering buying stuff in to market but can’t make my mind up what to sell i am drawn to health medicines at the moment. many thanks for your e-mail Philip
July 16th, 2009 at 6:55 am
Hi Dan
Great post.
It not just a case of going into ebay and starting a business.
You need to go through the due dilligence process and plan what you are going to do.
For example in my ebay shop I sell flash drives and the chip costs fluctuate day to day, so you have to monitor that when you are purchasing your stock.
July 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Bro!
Great to finally hook up with you and check out yr blog, (fellow AJ student) great post my man.
I couldnt agree more! I setup my first business on eBay and ended up making a TON of cash with it.
We ran for about 3 years until I unfortunately literally lost it all and had to start again from scratch (another story
) but before hitting that big wall I did became a platinum powerseller, had over 6k + feedback and made alot of money.
eBay is an opportunity for those that treat it like that and TAKE action.
We imported container loads of stock and sold them on eBay EVERY month for years!
It started that business which eventually launched and growed off of eBay and so what you say about a great place to launch a business is spot on my man.
Id love to hook up with you sometime bro and ill be stopping by yr blog regularly.
Catch you soon,
Josh Bartlett
July 22nd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Hello Dan, Very intersting subject Ebay and I agree wholeheartedly with your information, anyone interested in Ebay or wanting to start something that can earn some cash from the odds and sods found in the Loft , Garage, and even the Garden shed. It is simple with a little thought and very exciting. The ONE PROBLEM as I see it is finding a product that can be purchased at a price, in bulk if it has to be that way just as long as you can make a decent profit, lets be honest
thats got to be the aim, and do you know what….no one ever lets you into this type of information and we all know why, lets face it would anyone sink their own ship ??. If someone out there knows I would be pleased to hear from them.. I accept the fact that in order to make large profits on any item you are probably better off importing and this must have problems apart from finding the source in the first place. Thanks Dan, regards Mike
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 am
great blog
Looking for something to settle down and work on
being on net looking at and joining different things
i think most people have done the same thing,have
spent heaps of time going round in circles,and all ive got
is 200 emails comeing in everyday trying to sell me bs.
Would love to know what you are doing.
robert
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:32 am
Hi Dan,
what a great looking blog! Very interested to learn more about your ebay success as well, so I’ve downloaded your book
Annie
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:40 am
wow thanks for all the really great comments guys and girls!
Mike- It’s not to hard to find a product once you know how.. even to source it .. and as you practice that skill it gets easier over time.
Rob – i know what you mean, there is a ton of crap going around these days!
Anne – Hope you enjoy the book! let me kno what you think
Josh – Hey.. hope you can pop by more often ..
Thanks again guys for the great comments! I seriously appreciate it !
Dan
July 27th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Great to found your blog and I have bookmarked. As a newbie seller who has broke even so far, your blog is another excellent to get tips to be a better seller.
I do agree about the hot products part. The trick is to find the reliable supplier. Fyi, I operate on a dropshipping model.
Have you any advice on dropshipping ?
July 28th, 2009 at 2:01 am
Hi there,
my advice on dropshipping just make sure that your supplier delivers on time!
Especially when selling on eBay, because the last thing you want is the products turning up late – or not at all.
That will result is negative feedback, which will hurt your business.
Hope that helps!
Dan
August 13th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
there are many variations to making money on ebay, that you can take one, and another…and put them together to form your own system that’s instantly marketable that YOU will be using to make money and can also sell to others who would rather pay someone to “give” them the information.
Go into both ebay and affiliate marketing, because you will quickly find and understand marketing when you get a good education and experience through ebay marketing. It gives you confidence, and makes you procrastinate less when going into affiliate marketing to make extra money on the side.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:04 am
Excellent post and story. The hardest part is locating and finding sellers to replicate products. Ebay does not provide statistics or list the top sellers. what method do you use for researching a successful product?
September 11th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
HI,
eBay as a place to start a REAL internet business that can generate a significant income?? Why only me not successful?
Have a nice day.
Cheers
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October 5th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Hi Dan,
Great download on eBay.
You are “spot-on” with your eBay comments and I couldn’t agree with Josef’s comments more – you need to be in both eBay and affiliate marketing to make it really work for you.
EBay is an excellent place from which to build a BUYER’S list, not some crappy list of people that don’t even buy!
Thanks again Dan,
Chip Morgan
http://www.security-tech.net
(free eBay info)
January 17th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Hi Dan,
I am an eBay seller, but I have one big problem.
The post is great but where can you find true wholesale items? I have searched the internet but just got wholesale sites that charge too much for the product, where you can’t make a decent profit. Could you write an article on that?
Thanks,
jane
January 17th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Hi Jane,
What type of products are you looking for?
Let me know, and i can point you in the right direction.
Dan
January 24th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
I own a consignment shop and have just begun selling items on ebay. I have been making a little here and there, but it takes alot of time and gets costly with all the fees, so I have backed off some and started working with another auction site, http://www.bigvaluedepot.com/MaryGoRoundConsignments. I guess it would be more profitable to sell my own products, but then there is another cost of purchasing the products. I would like to know what would be the most profitable way of selling, and like everyone else, where do you purchase these products at a reasonable price in order to resell them?
January 30th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Dan, I hope this thread is still active. I received your 0-50000 report as part of a promotion. As I got to reading it you stated it would take upwards of $2.000 for inventory to get started. That is a big problem for me now. Can you suggest anything much more affordable?
January 30th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Chris – you can start by doing dropshipping that way you would not need to invest in stock. You sell the item and get paid, then you get the item shipped with the payment to your customer, you then bank the profit margin.
January 30th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Mary – You can find items to sell on sites like http://www.alibaba.com and http://www.Made-In-China.com
Another good one is world wide brands.
Dan
May 5th, 2010 at 5:33 am
I just joined Ebay in Jan 2010, I spent Feb and March researching EBAY. I have just completed my first full month of April selling products on EBAY. For my product source I have been going to estate auctions,as well as Storage unit auctions. Feel free to view my Ebay
about me page http://www.Ebay.com/A1 FrugalityAdvice. Feel free to view all
my articles on my blog site @=> http://BCodyFrugalityAdvice. You can follow me on twitter @=> http://www.Twitter.com/FrugalityAdvice.
Great article Dan.
May 5th, 2010 at 6:26 am
Hi Brian!
MANY CONGRATS!!
Now thats what i like to see, people who take action and start seeing results! Please get in touch sometime!
Dan
May 5th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Dan:
Great Post. I have been selling guitars on Ebay for years. However, with the economy in the tank, it has gotten to be very hard to make any money with guitars, too much competition and high shipping prices. I am looking for other products to sell on Ebay. Can you tell me what you were selling? You stated that you imported the merchandise. Does that involve a lot of work and expense? How does one go about that? I look forward to your comments. Sam
May 5th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the great info about eBay. You’re absolutely correct. eBay is a medium that most of us ignore.
I used to sell a lot on eBay. In fact, I used to be a powerseller.
Then I decided to branch out into internet marketing. Big mistake.
I was bombarded with emails from different internet marketers & came down with a bad case of info overload. It crippled my business.
I need to get back to basics & sell on eBay again.
Any tips on how to get back into the game?
Best regards,
George Nieves
May 6th, 2010 at 6:39 am
Hi Dan,never sold anything on ebay before and I would have to go the dropshipping route..at least to begin with.
Is there somewhere were I can get a step by step guide covering all aspects of selling on ebay.
Thanks
Pete
May 6th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Hi Pete,
Good step in making the move towards starting the eBay business.
I reccomend getting my new ebay powerseller blueprint training guide.
You can find more info on it here… http://www.auctionprofitdominator.com/Thanks.html
Dan
May 31st, 2010 at 8:34 am
Hi Dan,
Just want to say a BIG Thank you!! I have been at this for months and lost a lot of money on BS!! Thank goodness you came along … I am certainly gonna give this a go!! Just a question though … is there any way that I could find a supplier that I don’t need to purchase anything just sell it for them and they do the rest?
Wendy
May 31st, 2010 at 9:25 am
@Wendy – You will have to negoitate that with suppliers. There is a way to do that by dropshipping…
However i would contact suppliers directly and see what they can do for you.
Regards
Dan
June 19th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
I tried sourcing from 2 suppiers and thought the prices were good..
that is until I wanted to sell on ebay one other person at least I could not compete with on price so why buy from me when someone else has it cheaper… I really want to sell items on ebay and I have before but just things I bought from others or were new or even old things in good condition..
I always did well except now that I want to do it as a business..
any suggestions
ED
June 22nd, 2010 at 7:22 am
Hello Ed
Can you tell me where the suppliers where from?
And in what type of products you were trying to sell.
regards
Dan
July 5th, 2010 at 7:39 am
Hi, I’m developing a domain to sell high tech product but in the meantime going just fine selling “junk” for practice. Depends what you define as junk. If you can buy a retro light fitting for $5 and sell it for $150. That’s 3000% profit. Where is the high tech product with the profit margin like that? Or the bank with the interest rate like that? E-bay gives you access to a much bigger range of customers than having a garage sale or putting something up in a shop. You are much more likely to locate the right buyer and sell, and you do not need to be minding a stall or a shop so you can multi-task with that time.
You might say that you cannot duplicate that kind of profit I just mentioned every time, however the average profit per sale is strong enough to keep me happy. Once recycling really kicks in I expect the market for reusing rather than landfilling to increase, but good items may get harder to find. Selling on E-bay is a great antidote to the tendency to hoard.
July 5th, 2010 at 8:27 am
Hi Frances
Sounds like you have the eBay game cracked my friend!
Well done! I love hearing storys like yours.
And you are correct, you can have some pretty high profit margins on eBay if you sell the right product or service.
Please keep in touch.
Dan
July 6th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Hi Dan, just want to know is there a difference between ebay selling which you are recommending and being in the EPN(Ebay Partners Network) ? Would appreciate if you could explain the difference.
July 7th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Yes there is a BIG difference.
The eBay partners network is for advertisers and affiliates.
Dan
July 9th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Hi Dan
Gr8 post and info i`ve been picking up from you, just for info for everyone else, I`ve been down the road of ALL SORTS, the only thing i`ve achieved is to line others pockets, even tried the dropshipping route with dropshipland.com, nearly £200 for a site loaded with over 9000 products, BUT, after extensive research and comparing 20 products at random on the pre loaded site, turns out i could have bought 18 of them cheaper in the high street than what my TRADE price was???? and guess what, because its a so called trade site, NO REFUNDS ALLOWED! and NO CONSUMER RIGHTS!!! Point is, be careful with dropshippers, you`re better off trying to source at least wholesale or preferably direct from manufacturer, thats the road i`m going down cuz theres absolutely NO CHANCE of selling from dropship if people can buy from the high street shop cheaper. I`ve just found a wholesale site that will sell me a product over 200% cheaper than the TRADE price on dropshipland, they must be buying from wholesaler I found and moving it on to me to double up yet again, Be careful peeps, it can be done but you have got to put some work in, hopefully, i`ve just saved some of you some heartache.
July 9th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Good post Geoff!
Thats the reason i always recommend getting stock yourself because you have much more control over it, aswell as the long term benefits like bigger profit margins etc.
Keep up the good work Geoff, please keep in touch and let me know how your getting on.
you ROCK!
Dan
July 15th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Dan
I am currently looking for a online Business.
I am thinking about E-Bay versus selling Digital products on ClickBank.
Which do you think would be my better choice?
I can get a complete course in selling on ClickBank.\
When you sell on E-Bay do you keep a list of your customers to sell
to again?
I would appreciate your comments.
Brian
July 15th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Hi Brian
Both are good ways to make a living online.
And depending on your start up costs and what you want to get out of the business will determine which business model would be a good choice for you.
The great thing about eBay is you do NOT have to go out and chase traffic to make sales. Largely due to it’s popularity and already established customer base.
Selling clickbank products as a product owner or as an affiliate would mean you would have to learn how to drive traffic to your sales pages.
The benefit of being the product owner is that you may be able to get affilaites to send you traffic… however if your products do not convert well then you’ll quickly see those affiliates go elsewhere to promote product.
Hope this helps?
LEt me know if you need to know anything else.
Regards
Dan
July 19th, 2010 at 6:57 am
Hi, I have been using Ebay for around 5 years,
yes you can make some money, and there are a lot of
Dropshipping agents out there, be careful and research each one carefully. Most will post to your customers postage free, but beware of posting overseas as many will charge a lot for this. To use a dropshipper effectively, you must sell at a low markup and rely on multiple sales. beware your ebay and papal costs are taken into consideration in your price markup or you will end up out of pocket.
Once you have built up a good customer base, you can email them ‘special offers’ and use the newsletter facility regularly. you can also offer free goodies with the purchase to keep promoting. I supply free airfreshners to all my car accessory customers and free samples of perfume to my designer perfume customers, with promotion vouchers against future sales. if you have another online or off line shop, when posting enclose your business card in the mail.
good luck.
Gillian
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:19 am
Hi Dan, (this might be a long post)
I WAS using Ebay quite a bit … once. I even set up a limited Company to make it even better, as we were selling a particular line that WAS doing very well on there but,I was getting the goods through the importer(s).
This, later, became an impossible venture when the supplier (importer) started to send us wet and mouldy goods so, we stopped the sales.
Now, we knew that these were sourced somewhere in China but, we could not, no matter how we tried, actually find the manufacturer …. we even spent quite a bit to join a Company that specialised in “Finding whatever you want, from China” .. they too drew a blank.
We have tried just about every way possible to find the manufacturer but, drawn a blank so ….. what’s to do there then?
We since closed down the Company and never really went back to E-Bay
…. we would be VERY interested in finding out some other goods that we CAN find the manufacturer for.
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:39 am
OOOopps!!!!
Your Link at the end of your article:-
” My New eBay PowerSeller Profit Blueprint Training Guide for 2010 is now available CHECK IT OUT —-> CLICK HERE ”
Doesn’t work my friend …. and produces the following :-
” ERROR 404 – PAGE NOT FOUND
Oops! Looks like the page you’re looking for was moved or never existed.
Make sure you typed the correct URL or followed a valid link. “
July 23rd, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Hi David,
If you can email me direct and ask what type of product you are looking for then i think i may be able to help.
Dan
July 27th, 2010 at 5:41 am
I sent you a message, via your contact us Form, yesterday
July 27th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Hello Dan,
Thank you that you are and just in the UK. You know i am beginner and your information and comments of peoples at your blog help me to understand how to begin and how to do this the best. I need your articles please and thanks again.
July 28th, 2010 at 5:08 am
Thanks Anglina
Glad you like the articles… More to come so watch out.
@David… sorry can you try re-sending i dont think i recieved it!
talk soon guys
Dan
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:39 pm
HI Dan,
Good job on the post,often wonder about Ebay and Amazon everything else is getting so crowded.Sounds like your doing well I might give it a try.
Thanks
Max
September 28th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
I liked what you had to say you have stimulated my thoughts I need to start selling,I had a nich market a few years ago my wife was selling dolls and bears we did well until the nich went away.I understand you can have dropshippers for your inventory would you know who they would be?Not the ones for a few dollars where send you a kit then you have to pay a monthly fee could you help me thanks ….Tim