Selling on eBay to make Extra Income

January 25th, 2006

Selling on Ebay to make Extra Income

Ebay has storefronts and auctions

Ebay announced recently that they are lowering the lowest listing fee from .25 cents to .20 cents. It comes at a time when people are looking to earn a couple extra dollars to pay higher double minimum credit card payments.

If you have a shortage of funds coming in from the new credit card crunch and you are short of time, you should consider selling part-time on Ebay. You can search around the house for things that you don’t need any longer and see how much you can get for the items.

Once you run out of things to sell at home, you can attend garage sales and go to thrift stores to find items that you might be able to sell. You can also start a consignment business for selling other peoples items. The consignment business offers a safer method to getting a profit from the sale each item without investing in the cost of the item.

If you have a craft skill that you can turn into a profit you might be able to make these items and sell them on eBay. If baking is your skill, you can sell homemade cookies and candies on ebay. If your skill is wood-working you might be able to make small projects. One person I met along the way makes glass beads. Setting up an Ebay Store may be advantageous for a craft person because it offers low cost advertising for your items. You would only have to list a couple of items on auction and people could browse your store for your complete collection.

You might find that you are better at selling things that are already made. If you are looking at repeatability you should source out wholesale distributors. One way to get a good inventory for wholesale goods is by attending the ASD show. This is one of the tradeshows that cover a wide variety of wholesale goods. The ASD show is on the east and west coast and they have multiple shows a year. Other more specific shows exist for hardware, furniture, clothing, but the ASD show is a great place to start.

If you go on to sell items for resale you should have a state reseller’s permit. You can apply for one by contacting you state board of equalization. Once you have a resale permit, you are able to buy wholesale goods, but you also have the job of collection state sales tax and depending on the schedule you are assigned, reporting on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis the amount of sales and taxes collected.

It is always a good idea to check out what is selling on eBay and for what price. It will help gauge if the item you are thinking about selling is worth the time to sell. Make sure to calculate in auction listing and closing fees along with Paypal fees if you are accepting this payment method.

Consider any hiding fees, such as boxes and packing material. These add to the cost of shipping and should be calculated in the shipping cost as handling charges.

The best part about eBay selling is that you can set your hours when you want to work. This makes it easier to add it as a second job for extra income.