Make money with Ebay and Craigslist

Craigslist and Ebay are both very powerful sales websites and when used together, one can make a good amount of money online in a short amount of time. We will get started using Craigslist.

When I first started "trying" to make money online, my first choice was Ebay. The reason that I chose Ebay was that I have had some friends who have done really well with it. This served as inspiration for me. I tried dropshipping, wholesaling, and much more but none of that worked for me. What worked for me was using Craigslist and Ebay together.

I have always been good at computers and repairing them, so when I get on Craigslist, I look for cheap or broken laptops. I pick laptops rather than desktops because of the fact that they are very easy to ship via USPS. For example, a few days ago, I found a Toshiba 3.2ghz P4 laptop for $350 on craigslist. I called the seller up and asked him if he wanted to meet me the same day to sell it, he agreed and I bought it. I brought it home and immediately listed it on Ebay. I even used the pictures of it that he had on craigslist. After a 3 day listing, it ended up selling at auction for $504. So I made a profit of around $150 in under a week with only about an hour or less of work.

Another thing that I do is buy broken laptops off of Ebay or Craigslist and repair them and resell them. I can make anywhere from $50 to $400 in pure profit when I sell them on Ebay. If I buy a broken one off of ebay, then I can use the same box that I got it in to ship it to my buyer in.

How to sell things on Ebay for a profit

Many people use Ebay as their sole source of income. It is highly unlikely that you will be able to do this for a long time, unless you commit to it fully. On Ebay there are plenty of different items sold every day, from baby shoes and cars to domain names. It is to your advantage that there are a lot of different categories of items being sold, because it allows you to sell virtually anything.

The first thing that you should do if you are starting out is to sell things around your house that you don't use or need anymore. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Go through boxes in your garage or your attic and sell all of the things that you no longer need. You will be surprised about how much some of the stuff will sell fore. Maybe you have a rare, one of a kind Kermit the Frog doll that is worth $500, you never know.

Yard and Garage sales are another great place to buy items to sell on Ebay. You can find just about anything at yard sales. Try to pick up jewelry, trinkets, vintage toys, etc. I heard of a man who bought a 1942 news paper for $0.25 at a yard sale and sold it for a few thousand dollars on Ebay. So there really is no limit to the amount that you can make.

Thrift stores are wonderful for finding random things to sell on Ebay. I bought a decorated Chinese style porcelain egg for $1 at a thrift store and sold it on Ebay for nearly $50.

I would advise to stay away from wholesaling and dropshipping until you are extremely comfortable with Ebay. You can make OR lose A LOT of money in wholesaling and dropshipping.

The Pros and Cons of an Ebay business

When deciding whether you should commit your time and hard earned money into a business venture, it is normal to learn everything you can about the business before you dive in. Ebay is no different. Running an Ebay business can be a sound, worth while financial investment, or it can be a nightmare.

Before you decide to open up that ebay store, consider the following pros and cons.

Pros -

• Fast Payments
• Ease of access to payments received
• Minimal physical labor
• Unlimited income potiential

Cons -

• Can be very costly, i.e. finding products to sell, gas costs to get to the post office,
  
• May not be successful at all
• Requires attention at all times due to questions from buyers
• Shipping all of the products can be a hassle

In my opinion, the worst thing about an Ebay business is the competition. Competition on Ebay is fierce and will remain so for yeas to come. Chances are that if you have a product to sell on Ebay, then it already is on Ebay for a lower price than you can offer it at. The people who sell laptops and video game systems for 25% off have most likely been in the business for a long time. In order to attain the same abilities and status of most power sellers, you must commit yourself to running your Ebay business. You must look at it like a business and not just a way to make a few extra dollars.

Whenever you list an item on Ebay, it costs you money. If your item does not sell then you have just wasted money that you can't get back. I think that this is one of the worst things about Ebay. Even if your product doesn't sell, you are still required to pay the listing fee. Final value fees are a whole other post. Take advantage of Ebay specials offering all listings for $0.99 or half off. Any thing is better than full price, Ebay or not.

I have made a fair amount of money on Ebay and am positive that millions of others have too, but regardless of what the masses do, you must decide for yourself whether an Ebay business is right for you. I enjoy blogging and running websites more than I like running an Ebay business, so that is what I do.