The problem with asking the question "What can I sell on eBay" is that you're likely to get one of a small group of boilerplate answers. These answers get repackaged and dispensed as brand new answers, however they are still the same, reworked, difficult advice.

The most common answers you will find are:

• Look for items at garage sales, flea markets and estate sales.
• Speak to manufacturing corporations and ask them if you can sell their products on ebay for them.
• Buy from wholesalers.
• Buy cheap items from retail stores.
• Negotiate with stores to sell their overstocked items.

How to Settle on a Product

There are 7 necessary tips to keep in mind when searching for a product that will sell well. To find the best product it must meet a number of guidelines.

1. Keep it small. Larger items bring with them a host of issues, from storage to shipping and everything in between. Unless storage is not a problem for you, keeping more than a few large items around can cramp up your extra rooms, basement and garage. The problem is that you need to be able to keep a large supply of items that you're selling to make any real money. Making $100 on a sofa is great, but it hardly pays the bills. If you have any ideas about quitting your job or supplementing your income, you will need to be selling a lot more of these. Heck, 3 or 4 sofas in a room should fill it up. So where are you going to put 10 of them? Keep your items small, and you can use shelves, drawers and closets for storage.
2. Can it ship easily? I know we covered the size issue in the previous paragraph, but it comes up again here. Even if you find the perfect product, you must be able to ship it easily and cheaply. You may find a great deal on rocking chairs, but how are you going to get a box around them? Not to mention, the shipping costs on large, heavy and bulky items can be in the hundreds of dollars. Look for products that can ship for a minimum amount of money. Anything from toothpicks to books fit the bill nicely.
3. Find a niche! If you try to sell everything to everyone, you will end up selling nothing to anyone. The more specialized you become, the better your chances of being able to offer unique items. For example, there are thousands of people on eBay selling DVD's. Prices have been cut down to nothing, and profits along with them. The only way to make money as a DVD seller on eBay is to be one of the few sellers who have huge volumes. Starting out that way is very tough indeed. On the other hand, if you sell a specific type of DVD, like old horror movies or cartoon sets, you will likely have better profit margins. The large DVD warehouses just can't move enough of them to make it worth their while. Come up with a few niches, and you should do pretty well.
4. Beware of seasonal items. Christmas decorations may sell well from October until December, but no one will be buying them in April. If you will be selling seasonal items, make sure you know when their season ends, and don't get stuck with a lot of leftover products.
5. Fads can be great money-makers for short periods of time, but after
   Minding Your Own Brand - Do You Love Me?
   As The Contours’ song says, “Do you love me, now that I can dance?” Why wouldn’t you love them? They can Mash Potato…they can do the Twist.Companies both big and small sing their version of this song everyday. We have the best quality…We offer the finest service… We will give you the lowest prices…Do you like it like that?The answer is yes, we all like it like that. However, when the company asks if we love them and want make a long-term commitment to being a loyal customer; the answer is more like a line from a Grease song “Tell me more tell me more!”Everyone is doing the Quality, Service, and Price da
   y from wholesalers.
6. Buy cheap items from retail stores.
7. Negotiate with stores to sell their overstocked items.
The problem with all of these things is they just don't work, they are too complicated, or they are just overdone.

How to Settle on a Product

There are 7 necessary tips to keep in mind when searching for a product that will sell well. To find the best product it must meet a number of guidelines.

1. Keep it small. Larger items bring with them a host of issues, from storage to shipping and everything in between. Unless storage is not a problem for you, keeping more than a few large items around can cramp up your extra rooms, basement and garage. The problem is that you need to be able to keep a large supply of items that you're selling to make any real money. Making $100 on a sofa is great, but it hardly pays the bills. If you have any ideas about quitting your job or supplementing your income, you will need to be selling a lot more of these. Heck, 3 or 4 sofas in a room should fill it up. So where are you going to put 10 of them? Keep your items small, and you can use shelves, drawers and closets for storage.
2. Can it ship easily? I know we covered the size issue in the previous paragraph, but it comes up again here. Even if you find the perfect product, you must be able to ship it easily and cheaply. You may find a great deal on rocking chairs, but how are you going to get a box around them? Not to mention, the shipping costs on large, heavy and bulky items can be in the hundreds of dollars. Look for products that can ship for a minimum amount of money. Anything from toothpicks to books fit the bill nicely.
3. Find a niche! If you try to sell everything to everyone, you will end up selling nothing to anyone. The more specialized you become, the better your chances of being able to offer unique items. For example, there are thousands of people on eBay selling DVD's. Prices have been cut down to nothing, and profits along with them. The only way to make money as a DVD seller on eBay is to be one of the few sellers who have huge volumes. Starting out that way is very tough indeed. On the other hand, if you sell a specific type of DVD, like old horror movies or cartoon sets, you will likely have better profit margins. The large DVD warehouses just can't move enough of them to make it worth their while. Come up with a few niches, and you should do pretty well.
4. Beware of seasonal items. Christmas decorations may sell well from October until December, but no one will be buying them in April. If you will be selling seasonal items, make sure you know when their season ends, and don't get stuck with a lot of leftover products.
5. Fads can be great money-makers for short periods of time, but afte
   Its Official - Executive Coaching is More Effective than Training
   In the first longitudinal study of its kind, PhD student Fran Finn, is undertaking a three year research study of the effectiveness of coaching versus training, in a large public sector organisation in Queensland. In the study one group of leaders, had individual coaching for a year, whilst the control group continued with their normal training programs.The pre and post 360 degree feedback results indicate that after only one year of executive coaching the Leaders being coached outperformed the Leaders who simply received training on 4 out of 5 measures. The research, measurement and feedback was based on the model of
   nd garage. The problem is that you need to be able to keep a large supply of items that you're selling to make any real money. Making $100 on a sofa is great, but it hardly pays the bills. If you have any ideas about quitting your job or supplementing your income, you will need to be selling a lot more of these. Heck, 3 or 4 sofas in a room should fill it up. So where are you going to put 10 of them? Keep your items small, and you can use shelves, drawers and closets for storage.
6. Can it ship easily? I know we covered the size issue in the previous paragraph, but it comes up again here. Even if you find the perfect product, you must be able to ship it easily and cheaply. You may find a great deal on rocking chairs, but how are you going to get a box around them? Not to mention, the shipping costs on large, heavy and bulky items can be in the hundreds of dollars. Look for products that can ship for a minimum amount of money. Anything from toothpicks to books fit the bill nicely.
7. Find a niche! If you try to sell everything to everyone, you will end up selling nothing to anyone. The more specialized you become, the better your chances of being able to offer unique items. For example, there are thousands of people on eBay selling DVD's. Prices have been cut down to nothing, and profits along with them. The only way to make money as a DVD seller on eBay is to be one of the few sellers who have huge volumes. Starting out that way is very tough indeed. On the other hand, if you sell a specific type of DVD, like old horror movies or cartoon sets, you will likely have better profit margins. The large DVD warehouses just can't move enough of them to make it worth their while. Come up with a few niches, and you should do pretty well.
8. Beware of seasonal items. Christmas decorations may sell well from October until December, but no one will be buying them in April. If you will be selling seasonal items, make sure you know when their season ends, and don't get stuck with a lot of leftover products.
9. Fads can be great money-makers for short periods of time, but afte
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   eal on rocking chairs, but how are you going to get a box around them? Not to mention, the shipping costs on large, heavy and bulky items can be in the hundreds of dollars. Look for products that can ship for a minimum amount of money. Anything from toothpicks to books fit the bill nicely.
10. Find a niche! If you try to sell everything to everyone, you will end up selling nothing to anyone. The more specialized you become, the better your chances of being able to offer unique items. For example, there are thousands of people on eBay selling DVD's. Prices have been cut down to nothing, and profits along with them. The only way to make money as a DVD seller on eBay is to be one of the few sellers who have huge volumes. Starting out that way is very tough indeed. On the other hand, if you sell a specific type of DVD, like old horror movies or cartoon sets, you will likely have better profit margins. The large DVD warehouses just can't move enough of them to make it worth their while. Come up with a few niches, and you should do pretty well.
11. Beware of seasonal items. Christmas decorations may sell well from October until December, but no one will be buying them in April. If you will be selling seasonal items, make sure you know when their season ends, and don't get stuck with a lot of leftover products.
12. Fads can be great money-makers for short periods of time, but afte
    Drive Traffic To Your Site Through Online Forums
    Are you new to internet marketing and looking for exposure? Do you have a product or service and are excited about getting the word out. Have you wondered where to begin? Let’s say you also have a very limited budget. Or you simply need to practice before you begin spending on those Search Engines.One of the best ways to get some free traffic is to join an online forum or forums and begin making posts. There are thousands of forums on the internet on just about every subject you can think of. And a lot of eyes to see each post. This alone can be intimidating. But if you have a friendly, patient forum setting,
    who have huge volumes. Starting out that way is very tough indeed. On the other hand, if you sell a specific type of DVD, like old horror movies or cartoon sets, you will likely have better profit margins. The large DVD warehouses just can't move enough of them to make it worth their while. Come up with a few niches, and you should do pretty well.
13. Beware of seasonal items. Christmas decorations may sell well from October until December, but no one will be buying them in April. If you will be selling seasonal items, make sure you know when their season ends, and don't get stuck with a lot of leftover products.
14. Fads can be great money-makers for short periods of time, but after that, good luck getting rid of them. Think of Beanie Babies, Tickle Me Elmo and Cabbage Patch Kids. All of these fads enjoyed phenomenal sales due to their intense popularity. After the boom, however, sales (and prices) dropped immediately. Ride the waves of popular items, but beware of their life-cycle. Prepare for the end of the fad, even as you are beginning the selling.
15. Bring something unique to the marketplace. This seems difficult - and it can be. If you have access to something unique, such as a specialized book, health product or computer program that other sellers don't have license for, your products will be in demand. This tip is worth putting some time into. Think of ways to obtain such products, or modify existing ones (But be sure of your rights to do so!).
16. Sell what is in demand. Coins, stamps and other collectibles are always in demand. They are easy to buy and easy to sell and ship. If you spend time researching the ones that sell the best, for the most profit, you can do very well in this area. Try to come up with unique ways of presenting these items as well.
Hopefully these tips will get you started. Always keep in mind that uniqueness seems to be the key to eBay success. Even if you're selling existing and plentiful items, come up with a unique way of selling or packaging them, and you may just find the next winner.

Good luck, and happy selling!

©2005 Matt Blasses