How to Start Selling Used Items Online:
Selling used items online can be very profitable, once you understand what types of items to look for at second-hand locations. The profit margins can be very high, and the price to buy inventory is often 25 cents to $1 per item! Compare that to traditional sales models where merchants buy goods and then sell them in stores for pennies on the dollar. Selling used items from garage sales and thrift stores is much more profitable, and besides that… it’s fun!
Picking at a yard sale
There are many things that beginning sellers can do to increase the amount of treasure they find and also increase the profit margins that those items realize when selling used items online. I have been a garage sale picker and thrift store treasure hunter for over 14-years now. I have sold thousands of used items on Amazon, eBay and Etsy at very good profit margins. Here are some of the things that I have done to sell used items on eBay and Amazon for high prices:
- DO YOUR RESEARCH! There are some excellent free resources online that can help you learn what types of items to look for and how to sell them for the best prices. My free website Garage Sale Academy has over 50 pages of content for fellow used item prospectors.
- GET INVENTORY ITEMS FOR FREE! This is my specialty. Funny enough… I have written an Amazon Kindle bestseller on the subject. There are many ways to get items for free. There is tons of treasure to be found in free boxes at garage sales and yard sales. The trick is to know what to look for. I have found dozens of $25-50 media items, gold jewelry, video games, and much more for free. Almost Free Money contains a list of 540 items that can be found for free and sold online. You can also make excellent money selling scrap metal, which also can be found everywhere for free!
- GET THE LOWEST PRICE POSSIBLE! Learn the arts of garage sale negotiation, yard sale bartering and bundling. These subjects are covered in-depth at Garage Sale Academy, but bottom line, the sticker price is never the ‘lowest price’. You can lower the price by bundling similar items and offering one low price, or just by offering a lower price on an item. Remember, most garage sale hosts are having a garage sale primarily to declutter their home, not make top dollar!
Selling Used Items Online on eBay, Etsy and Amazon
This subject is covered in the Almost Free Money series. Passive Income for Life is the #1 Kindle bestseller in the e-Commerce category on Amazon and give step by step instruction for building a large home business by selling used items on Amazon. You can make an excellent passive income by starting a home business selling items that you can find for free, or under $1 at estate sales, flea markets, garage sales and thrift shops.
Bakelite Items are Highly Collectible on eBay. Original Bakelite Bracelets like these can sell for $250 each!!
Here are some quick tips for increasing profits on eBay, Amazon and Etsy:
- A picture is worth 1000 words. You don’t have to write novels in item descriptions. Instead, make sure that your photos show what collectors are looking for. Take multiple photos for eBay listings. You can have up to 12 images for free. Take advantage of that! You can also provide photos for your specific item on Amazon and 95% of sellers are too lazy to upload a pic. Be that motivated seller that does provide a pic, especially for collectible items like books and records.
- Make sure that your item titles are juicy! Make people want to click on your item from the search pages.
- Research. What are people buying?
- Think like a collector, not a seller! This is probably the most important thing for a beginning seller to learn. Buy items that collectors want – you will come across many, many awesome looking collectibles at second-hand locations, but collectors often will not buy or bid on items that have even minor defects or missing parts. Experienced sellers also learn how to make listings and auctions that look attractive to collectors. Offer good photos that show what collectors want to see. Use collector lingo in your descriptions. Make titles that cater to collectors.
- Make sure that you keep your seller rating and customer feedback rating high. The customer is always right. Your rating can be the one thing that sells your item. Protect your rating at all costs.
Selling used items online for profit is an excellent source of supplemental income, and can even be built into a primary online home business income with some experience and time. You just have to get out there and start picking!
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