The Wholesale Forums

[`Yousef]

Hi All! I'm not trying to ask "what products do you sell, do they make good profit?" or one of the similar. I'm just looking for some hints to point me in the right direction. eBay UK is used to sell a vast variety of items, but which ones are the ones that sell the best?

At this current moment some of the top catergories on eBay UK are:

• Mobiles & Homephones: 291,369 products listed.
• Collectables: 579,227 products listed.
• Clothes, Shoes & Accessories: 1,999,321 products listed.
• Video Games: 273,938 products listed.

As you can see Clothes, Shoes & Accessories is the biggest market on eBay with near to 2 Million products listed on eBay UK... But that also means that the market is very competitive, and if your starting out this isn't a good place to go, plus theres alot of knock-off's sourced by wholesalers in this area (branded items).

I was thinking about going into the Mobiles market as it seems to be in the top markets but less competitive then the Collectables and Clothes, Shoes & Accessories catergories. Also theres alot of room for potential profit when sourcing £300+ phones such as smartphones.

Post your theorys and ideas! Thanks in advance!

[geosamm]

To be honest I think you are getting a slanted view... you are looking for products to sell but you are looking at categories to sell in as a guide... consider the number of different phone makers, each with a specified number of models.... there are probably more types/brands/sizes/styles/ of underwear available than phones so is it a surprise that there are more listings in clothing than phones. The only way to select the correct item [if its not original] is to do your homework.... find the selling prices.... find availability..... find buying price.... not necessarily in that order..... Consider all the factors... its no use selling huge heavy items if the only storage space you have is a 10x10 spare bedroom in a 7th floor flat with no lift...

[Anthony]

I think you will find it tough in the Mobiles market. That market was dead a long time ago. The majority of phones sold on eBay today are ex-contract or unwanted upgrades, therefore sold by consumers with no real reason to respect profit margins. Its next to impossible to compete with XX auctions of a top phone starting at 99p & no reserve.

You could attempt to find a niche in that market but generally you would be better looking elsewhere, more than likely away from the top 5 most popular categories on eBay.

[blavann]

I would advise strongly against brand name clothing if you are thinking of that market, and brand name cosmetics, ebay (uk anyway) are really cracking down, it seems that they started panicking when they lost that last court case.

They are restricting listings on these items left, right and centre. Even if you have and offer them proof of authenticity they don't want to know.

I have heard of everyone being restricted, from the little seller, to the Gold Powersellers.

When deciding on something to sell you are better looking at sold items rather than listed.

It doesn't matter that 2 million items were posted in Clothing if only 1% of them sold, on the other hand there could be a category that has only 100 items, but a 100% sell rate.

Don't use ebay to find something to sell, think of something, then use ebay to see if you can sell it.

[WestcliffTopBoy]

Think outside the box, my recent little pocket money maker is selling the cricket balls my dog finds in the park

[`Yousef]

Outside the box? As in don't go for the obvious niche, go for something that you wouldn't really think to buy and see if you can sell? What do you reckon about small items that cost between £1-5 per unit?

[geosamm]

again its not what they cost.... its the difference between what they cost and what you can sell them for

[blavann]

What out for the small items on ebay, the fees will come and bite you in the b*m

to list something between £1 and £4.99 is going to cost you 15p, when you sell it ebay are going to take 7.5%. and if you get the payment through paypal (which is probably going to happen 99.9% of the time) they are going to take 3.4% + 20p.

All in all these fees all eat into your profits.

If you sell an item you buy for £2 for £4 with £1 postage, assuming you aren't making any profit on the postage (which you really aren't allowed to do) You have £2 to play wiht. Ebay are going to take 52p (15p to list and 37p FVF) and paypal are going to take 40p. so out of the £2 you thought you made, you just made £1.02. Thats for buying the item, taking photos of it, listing it, packaging it and taking it to the post office.

If you are considering selling a lot of small and cheap items I would look into Paypal micropayments, they will change their fee to 5% +5p, which in this case would bring the paypal fees down to 30p. Only 10p of a saving, but pennies make pounds as they say. The break even amount for a micro account is £9.50. But this does not take into account the drop in % paypal gives merchants as they earn more.

Lots to think about when you are finding a product to sell...

[money_man]

Forget about eBay, i think eBay now is only good for making alot of money near Christmas time.

[blavann]

Originally Posted by money_man

Forget about eBay, i think eBay now is only good for making alot of money near Christmas time.

Tell that to my bank manager :