How to Decide What to Sell on eBay

There are many important decisions to make before you sell on eBay, and determining the right products to sell on eBay is crucial.  Some may think the smallest, most expensive item is the best thing to sell.  Maybe, but maybe not. 

It is been our experience that the small expensive items are the most competitive.  Let’s face it, most people don’t want to lift heavy boxes.  They typically would prefer a small shelf to pull product from not pallets of large boxes.

We sold a small expensive wind meter for a while on eBay.  In fact we locked ourselves into a one year contract to purchase a certain quantity at a certain price.

One of the good things about eBay is that you can see what your competition is selling the exact same item for.  Before we made the purchase commitment we compared the buying price with what it was currently selling for on eBay.  Wow, we could make a thirty percent markup on a 250 dollar item every day.  Not bad for something that weighs less than a pound. 

We went ahead and committed to the yearly purchase quota. We made our ads as good as the competition and began selling them at the same price.  It sold everyday for a week but then all of a sudden the sales stopped.  We checked eBay to find out what happened.

Sure enough the competition lowered their price.  You can guess what happened next: a price war.  Within a couple months we were making 5 dollars on the 250 dollar item.  The competition probably also had the same commitment.