I started selling remote controls on eBay about Sept. 2008.
I didn’t know anything but I figured I try it out maybe
make some extra money. I’m an electronic technician and
know a little bit about fixing things. So electronics was my
focus and quickly I figured remote were cheap to buy and
I could sell them at a profit, I sold them between $5.00
to $35.00. Most sell around $10.00 that is a great
profit. People need remotes and they are cheap and easy
find and buy also easy to sell, try it.

What to sell? My first thoughts are small easy to ship
items to start out. You don’t needs much packing material
and boxes with little items.  Plus small items can be
shipped via the post office at a reasonable price.
This worked well selling Cds, DVDs, remote and many
little things. Another good think about selling smaller
items at first is people will buy more little items at
a smaller price than big items at a high price.
That makes is easier to get a good reputation on eBay.
The object on eBay is to get lots of good feedback.

Ebay Feedback
This is a bad system and it will eventually burn everyone
that uses eBay. It's setup to grossly favor the buyer
and sacrifice the seller. There are people that use eBay
to get items for free its very easy to get free things
from sellers. A buyer says he didn' get his item you
must either send another or immediately refund all their
money. This happens even if you have the tracking number
and the delivery confirmation. The buyer says it doesn'
work or something is wrong with the item and they want
their money back. Again you must refund all money even
if you believe the custome is lying you still must
refund the money. You sell something from eBay and
it is marked "Sold AS IS" no returns. Everything is
clearly stated. The customer gets the item and email
you that they want their money back.  If you say no they
will leave bad feedback and eBay won' help you in
anyway so you must give back the money. There some
people on eBay that will never leave good feedback
no matter what. Still eBay may know it but they will
never help the seller fix a wrong. EBay says try to work
it out with the buyer but the buy does this for sport
and will never change the feedback.
The bottom line is every seller is going to get hurt on
eBay at some point so if you are going to use
eBay prepare yourself.

Shipping
Shipping is expensive and you need to know your options.
PayPal makes it very easy to ship items sold on eBay and
I used it for years. I’ve found that items weighing below
2lbs usually ship cheaper using the post office. Items
over 3 lbs usually ship through UPS cheaper. The added
benefit of UPS is you can insure your items  and it
doesn’t cost anymore. The post office charges extra to insure
your packages. Another nice feature of using PayPal
is eBay sold menu is updated automatically and an email
of the tracking number is emailed to your customer.
If the price to ship an item is nearly the same for UPS or
the Post Office us UPS because it's insured automatically.

When I use PayPal shipping label process I usually
check both UPS and the post office to see which is cheaper.
It is fast and easy on PayPal to compare cost.

More on UPS
I have started using World Ship this is UPS direct shipping
label program. It cost $10.00 a week to use this service
but UPS will stop everyday at your place and pick up
out going boxes. Another added benefit is the "F8" key.
No one tells you this but if you use UPS and get the
wrong address they charge you $10.00. This has happened
to me many times because the customer doesn' always put
the right address in. Well using World Ship when you have
entered all the information you press F8 and UPS software
will verify the address! This step alone can save you $10.00.
Plus there is an added benefit if you set up World Ship
for calculating the price as a residential ship to
place and "F8" figures out it is actually a business
the price goes down considerably. When you use PayPal
UPS shipping label system the confirmation option is not
available and you can easily get charged $10.00 for a
bad address. This bad address is charged back to
you even though on PayPal it says the address is confirm.
The "Confirmed Address" means nothing.


Where to find stuff to sell?
That is easier than you would think. I go to yard and
garage sales, thrift shops and advertise for items.  
Items you can sell are virtually everywhere.  
Look around you and everything you see someone
has sold it to somebody so why don’t you join in
and get sell. There is room for everyone.
I like to sell used items because there is more margin
in sell used. You can usually negotiate a good purchase
price and that gets you the potential to get more
profit later. When I started selling remotes I was
looking for other items to sell that I could purchase
from a wholesaler and then I would have a constant
product line. It didn’t take long to figure out that
was wrong thinking. First I got all my proper licenses
from the state so I could legitimately buy wholesale.
Then started buying form manufacturers and wholesalers.  
Then I went to sell these items on eBay and found many
people were there and selling the same product cheaper
then the wholesalers!  I was better off buying straight
from eBay it was cheaper but there was no profit in it.
I stopped buying from manufacturers and wholesalers and
worked only on used product. That is when I started
making money.

Space and Storage
Space becomes an issue when you start selling stuff.
You soon realize that it is a numbers game. The more items
you have for sale the more possibility for sales.
Soon you’ll need more and more space to store it all.
Also as the number of items increase you’ll have to
figure out a way to track everything. You’ll need to
list the item in a spread sheet or database with what
you paid and where you put it until it’s sold.
Be careful with storage because it can get expensive
once you out grow your home or apartment.
Storage areas per square foot will eat into your
profit and you will have to go get items there all
the time. It is incontinent to use offsite storage.

Another consideration when thinking about storage is
shipping and packing material. You will be surprise
how much space that material takes.

Summary
Selling is actually very easy and fun.
The rush you get when you sell something
and make a profit will drive the average person
to more and more selling.

You will need;
- A place to store your items you are selling.
- A way to track it all with your computer.
- A place to clean, test, fix and take good pictures.
- A place to pack and ship.
Obviously you will need a computer area to
process your listings.

I mentioned pictures don’t go crazy buying an expensive
high mega pixel camera. You are better off using a cheap
2 mega pixel camera that takes a good picture.
Many websites limit the size of your picture up loads
and in this case less is best.

I'll have much more to tell in the future
about internet selling.

Rick Mercier