October 9th 2003 Christmas - lets make some money! I know that it is several weeks away but if you want to make some money online for Christmas, now is the time to start thinking about it. In my opinion, the easiest way to earn some extra cash between now and December 25th is by selling on online auctions such as eBay.com. Every year there are Christmas 'fad' products - the products that everyone wants and that sell on eBay like there is no tomorrow. Let me give you some examples: A couple of years ago (in the UK at least), novelty jet flame lighters were all the rage. These were selling online for £5 - £10 yet the wholesale price was just £1.00. Hundreds and hundreds were sold in the four week period before Xmas - they were cheap and perfect 'stocking fillers'. Last year, the fad was for those tiny remote control cars - again, cheap to buy (the trade price was around £6/£$4), yet they were selling for up to £20/$30 and again, hundreds were sold on eBay and other online auctions. Every year it is the same, so here is my quick-step guide to cashing in on the Xmas rush! 1. Research - you need to try and figure out what is going to be a big seller this Christmas. It doesn't matter if you don't get the main product - anything that has been released recently, with mass appeal and of a 'stocking filler' nature has a good chance of selling. I find that 'gadget-type' products sell especially well. Ideal selling price should be around £10/£20 or $15/$30. You can do your research in two ways, either spend time calling or visiting wholesalers to see what they think may be the big sellers or wait until things start to happen online and watch the products that start to appear as eBay Home Page Featured Auctions. 2. Price Check - Once you have decided on a product or two, check on eBay and on the Internet generally to see what sort of price you need to be able to sell at in order to make a decent profit. If you get really lucky, you may find that no one else is selling your product on eBay as yet - this is great and means you can pretty much set whatever price you like (within reason of course). 3. Purchase - When you know the price you want to sell at, you can work out what you are willing to spend purchasing the product/s. Call around a number of wholesalers to get the best deal and don't be afraid to ask for discounts or price matching. 4. Listing - Although there are many online auctions to choose from, eBay is probably the better site to start off with as there are so many buyers. With these 'impulse purchase' type products, I recommend using a Home Page Featured Auction as this is the best way to get good exposure. It will cost more but if you get the product right, you will sell more too. 5. Shipping - If you have made the right choice on product, the orders will come rolling in and now it is just a case of collecting the payments and shipping the goods. These affordable items can sell in huge numbers so make sure you arrange a way of tracking orders/packing/shipping etc to ensure you don't get in a mess - it is easily done believe me! 6. Repeat - Once you have sold your first batch of stock, if you think the market can take it, repeat the above. You may have to drop your price as other sellers start to copy you but often with these products there is plenty of room to reduce the price whilst still making a healthy return. Take the lighters that I mentioned above - these were initially selling for £10 ($16) but eventually you could buy them for £2.50 ($4). Even at this low price, the seller was still more than doubling their money. Of course, if you need details of some top quality wholesalers to help you achieve the above, you will find plenty in my US and UK Trader sites: http://www.theuktrader.co.uk http://www.theustrader.com The above process may seem fairly simplified but it honestly doesn't need to be much more complicated. The hard bit is finding the right product but this isn't impossible and like most things, it just takes a bit of work. Happy Trading! Until next time... |
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