Side Hustle Sunday: Selling Stuff on eBay
For as long as I can remember, eBay has been a good place for selling things that you find around that house that you no longer want to keep. I often use eBay to get rid of electronics when I upgrade, as well as things like old name brand clothes and other used items. I have no doubt that you have some things sitting around collecting dust in your home that you could make a few bucks from by selling those things on eBay.
But making money on eBay is not just about looking for things already in your home that you can sell. The real money is in finding things that people collect or pay a decent amount for and then seeking out those things at a low cost so that you can resell them for a profit.
If you know what you are looking for, then you can find a lot of cheap items to resell just by hitting up all the local yard sales, estate sales and Goodwill locations in your area. And the best part is that you do not have to spend a ton of money to get started!
Looking for things around your house to sell is a good start because it lets you get an idea of what is selling and what is not. However, doing the actual research on eBay for what is selling is a MUST. You do not want to waste your time putting up your collection of clown figurines if no one has bought any in the past three months.
When I research an item on eBay, I first like to look at current auction to see if there are any out there and if they have bids. Then, I like to look only at the sold item auctions to see the final selling price for the past few months. This not only lets you know if people are buying the item that you want to sell, but it also lets you see if demand is rising, falling or staying about the same.
To be a success with your auctions, you need good pictures (and lots of them), a good, descriptive title for the auction and a lengthy description. I also like to schedule my auctions to end on a Sunday evening or afternoon as I find that I get the most traffic/bids when I do that.
You also have to take into account the fees that will be charged by eBay and PayPal once the auction is successful. This will cut into your profit. You also have to make sure that you charge enough for shipping to cover the actual postage as well as packing materials. When first starting out, it can be easy to miscalculate and end up losing a little money on the postage.
Plenty of people make thousands of dollars selling on eBay each year, which makes it a great side hustle. If you want more info on it, one of the best resources that I’ve seen online is here.
