Awesome video Pete! You're spot on that listing items is the worst part of this business. Also, one thing I'd add to why many sellers are failing, is that they think if they buy something for $1 and sell it for $10 with free shipping, they've made $9! They don't factor in that bare minimum cost of shipping is $2.45, and eBay + PayPal will subtract almost another $2 from a $10 sale.
Assuming you are selling things like Video games / DVDs / CDs / Books etc. It is very easy to do way more than 10 listings in an hour. It also takes about 1 min to ship them since all you do is throw them in a bubble mailer and slap the shipping label on it and the Post Office will pick them up from your porch for free. I'm not saying you should focus on items that will only make you $5 but I still pick them up because 5 minutes of work for $5 is still $60 an hour.
This is a breath of fresh air. The amount of times I come across videos singing the virtues of buy cheap, sell on for x2 or x3 (still nothing) and competing against thousands of others. Your advice makes tonnes of sense. Thanks for sharing
Everything you said is TRUE, thank you Pete. Sad to say I've lost money in the year I've been reselling, figuring out which things have been a waste of time. I've become much more discerning. Big learning curve for sure.
I like your strategy but the one strategy that works for me is, stick to spending $1 for $10 items, $3 for $20, and $10 for $30 items. and anything after that is at least half price of going rate. I do have an advantage though with smaller profit items, I live 1 block away from my post office so I don't spend too much time or gas to ship my items. Also, I get a lot of my items from a local Goodwill Outlet store, the store that sells by the pound. So sometimes I spend $10- $15 and fill up a cart with combined items worth of $200 - $500 depending on what items id find.
also, I guess i should have mentioned. I try stick to small items that are 8oz or less that cost $2.60 to ship for $20 or less items. If its a 1 lb item that sells for $10 -$15, id usually pass on it. Shipping kills the profit for certain items.
Im exactly the same way i fill up a cart with $25 and they are worth $300 -$400 👍🏼 🤑 at the goodwill outlet. You spend less time and money then driving around to yard sales! And my post office is also 2 blocks away from my house. The employees postal workers know me by name because of so often that im there haha!
Many times one items profit pays for everything else rest of the in the whole cart 🛒 end up being free pure profit. And they are quality items many new items. Very low investment if any most of the time 🤑!!!
LOL! Those three items are what I have the most of in my inventory right now. Remote controls are the biggest 'learning experience' for me. Too many of them, they take too long to clean, take too long to sell, and rarely bring more that $10 (before fees). No more remotes for me...
Beanie babies and baseball cards are a lesson lol. I ended up donating all of those things. $30 waste. Im getting back into it. I used to peruse the garage sales and buy here and there. So clothes is a no-go. What type of electronics are good and which are a bust?
Pete is on another level, he has employees and someone that takes photos and list the items and this gives Pete the time to look. With that said you have to progress into this next level of selling and am already going the way of Pete.
I can do copy past and list a lot pretty fast but the constant mess ups I do its not worth it. I mainly wanted to do small cheap stuff so I can get a higher amount of items on my stores so later on I can work with items with more profit and slowly go that direction watching these videos are really helping
Thanks Pete. I'd like to offer some advice in return that I think will make your employees more efficient. A lot of the information we have to place in eBay listings is the same, for example "handling time", "return information", "PayPal preferences", "listing duration" etc. By utilizing the "Draft" tool on eBay you can create multiple draft listings at once and pre-fill out all the aforementioned generic information. I also have a basic template description that I copy and paste into the description - I always add a sentence or two with additional specific info on the item. By doing this you can just focus on photos, price, title, and category - which cuts down on your listing time SUBSTANTIALLY. If you have multiple items in a similar category like say SnapBack hats, then you can also pre fill out the category section as well. I'm not sure if you knew about this or not, but by using this method you should be able to put out more than 4 quality listings per hour for sure.
Great advice, Pete. We've had our eBay store for over 2 years now, and at this point, we sell mainly higher end clothing and shoes, but have begun to dip our toe into electronics and other higher ticket items. A huge learning curve there, but we are determined to stick with it and continue tweaking our business model. Thanks for your continuous great content. Especially love your garage saleing videos.
I LEARNED THIS THE HARD WAY ALSO. STARTED OUT BY BUYING TONS OF LOW DOLLAR ITEMS TO SELL. DIDN'T ANTICIPATE HOW MUCH TIME WAS INVOLVED IN LISTING, SHIPPING ETC. BY BUYING HIGHER PRICED QUALITY ITEMS , I SPEND LESS TIME MAKING MORE MONEY. THANKS FOR THIS VIDEO , PETE. ONE OF YOUR BEST!!
all well and good but if I made it minimum 30 dollar profits on every item....I may spend all week sourcing and find 1 or 2 items. where you live makes a big difference.
Pete, this may be your best video yet! I've actually been wrestling with this very topic in my eBay business and I've begun retooling how and what items I actually buy to increase my per item selling price. Thanks for the insight!
This video absolutely nailed it. Pete, are you spying on me? Everything you advised not to do, I found myself saying, " oh crap, I do that". Thank you for pointing out potential pit falls and how to correct them. Time to step up my game!
Thank you so much for posting this. I needed the extra push to upgrade my approach to sourcing and profit. My mentor and friend has been telling me the same thing for a year now, and over time I have realized she is right. The time it takes to source, research, list and answer any questions plus do shipping means that selling one item for 5 or 6 dollars is not really that profitable. It's better than wasting time playing cell phone games, but not a good strategy to make money online long term.
We are researching selling on Ebay.. I watched about 10 of your videos but this was the most informative. Thank you so much for sharing your insight as you are where we want to be in 5 years.
Great advice. Pretty much common sense but seeing it on paper helped to see it more clearly on wasted time listing high quantity but low quality earning items. Been doing this for 17 years and have gotten stuck in my out dated routine. Thanks for these type of vids, I for one needed that motivation.
Thanks for the video. This is an area I need to improve on. I do have a huge pile of junk I never get around to listing! BTW I think the audio is fine and I like seeing you chillin out on your patio to do these videos.
It all depends on where you are in the country and how you source. Everyone doesn’t have access to unique, higher quality items that sell with high profit margins. I wouldn’t discourage people from lower priced items, but I would highly suggest lots, bundles and kits!! Bundling together lower priced items in lots helps move merchandise faster for a decent profit. Especially the “junk” you often get when you buy items at auctions, estate sales and storage unit sales. Most don’t like listing, but you can definitely turn out a good listing in 5 minutes if you’re not doing research for each item before listed.
This is very true for most sellers. However I can list 30-100 items an hour. The items I pick require no field research, little cleaning and are easy to pack and ship. My listings are probably not as nice as Pete's but they are 80-90% as good, which at this rate of production is fine. End to end, from sourcing to shipped less than 6 min of my time per item total, ans half the time is shipping related so it isn't a cost until after I am paid for the item. It does cost money for some services and tools, I do have a helper, and the system took 3 years work + 40 years experience to develop. If you can manage that rate of listing then source whatever you want, otherwise listen to Pete.
I have not been watching any youtube for a very long time because there is so much rehashed gibberish by people who are not even resellers but I am glad to see you make this video because it is the truth and needs to be said. This video is tough love for I would say about 90% of people watching it. I used to sell lower priced items on Ebay and lower priced items on Amazon... Nothing against beginners or intermediate sellers at all by any means, just know that you are not going to make a living, let alone decent side cash selling trash on Ebay or Amazon. My average on Amazon is much lower since I do books which are very fast and very easy to process. My average on Ebay is about $55 IIRC which I think is pretty good. There are people who make over 100k a year selling just from the weigh and pay and they can easily list an item every 5 minutes, but I think relying on a goodwill weigh and pay for a living is suicidal and our weigh and pay is a total trash heap.
Carol T. I can see that, at least for some people. No doubt about it... but there are a fair amount of people who do extremely well. Some of these people easily make 300-400 profit per day. Hard to believe but it is true. It depends a lot on how good your weigh and pay is. Ours is a dump. A lot of people think they are doing great at reselling and making lots of money but they aren't.
+Carl T. Why would you say that? maybe there happy doing what there doing Or maybe you should giving them some helpful tips. Thats what these videos are about. Right?
Great message! After I started reselling full time, I realized this very quickly. I had been collecting inventory for a while in preparation for going full time. In the past 8 months 80% of my sales have come from high ticket items or consignments with profits of $100 - $700 that I've acquired since becoming full time. I've even resorted to donating some of the original inventory rather than invest the time into processing them that I could use for a high return item. Thanks for another great video!
So true Pete,right from the beginning I always treated it like a business.When all is said and done it probably takes the best part of an hour from sourcing to shipping.If you don't set yourself a fair hourly rate its a hobby not a business.Even a $30 profit I consider barely covering costs.I also watch shipping costs ,that can kill a potential sale real quick.Great video a usual.
I always listen to these guys but sometimes I don't agree. There is a big difference in what you do and can achieve depending on where you are in reseller journey. The most important thing to consider is "there are 1000 ways to get from New York to L.A"
One of your best videos yet. And I've watched almost all of them. Good comment and suggestions. And thanks for the honesty on the length of time it takes to list an item. I thought I was super slow at 20-25 minutes per item. The quality of your videos has improved over the years. Your mich is too good because I do hear a lot of the back ground noises your mentioned. Again, thanks for all you do.
I can do 10 listings in an hour. I've been listing on eBay for 16 years. I have it down. Not a problem. I've sold $2 million+ on eBay. Not a junior woodchuck here.
My quality is fine. My results speak for themselves. You don't need 12 pictures (3 or 4 max) and you don't need lots of text in the description. The funny thing is, a longer description makes your listing worse because.... get ready for it... PEOPLE HATE READING. They want things to be brief. So, with 3 or 4 pics and a brief description, it takes me 5 minutes to do a listing. I've been doing this a lot longer than Pete and I know what works.
+Entrepreneur Fundamentals I agree,I can easily list 10+ items in an hour, 3/4 pictures, very brief but detailed description and competitive prices. 12 pictures....What even has 12 sides lol.
+Entrepreneur Fundamentals Pete has been on Ebay since it started so I don't know how you could have been doing it longer than him. I think his point is that with the more expensive items you need to put a bit more time into the listing process as your buyers will expect it. I agree 3 per hour is low for the mass quantity, less expensive items
Thanks for your challenge to increase my ROI. I've only been selling for 2 months and so I'm exploring what I want to sell, learning how to ship, and building positive feedback. The smalls I sell right now are a good stepping stone but I'll be ramping up this business in due time. I'm subscribed and ready to continue this journey! Thanks for sharing your insight.
Great Tips Pete, it's all about working smarter, not harder, as the saying goes. I'm guilty of wasting my time with low ticket items as well, and have many many piles to prove it. Listing multiple low price items is very time consuming when you count the picture taking, research, and listing; there goes all the profit right there. Thanks again for the reality check!
I definitely understand where you're coming from...BUT for the bloody beginner like myself (part time obviously), I think it's ok to use the smaller profit items as "practice" so to speak. In the very beginning, we don't have a clue what we're doing, we're practicing how to take photo's, how to list, how to ship etc. I think the possibility of a return is more unlikely if it's a cheaper item. Most people will say , nah it's not worth paying return shipping to get $10 back. PLUS, we need positive feedback. Once we have a good grip on things, I'd say DEFINITELY go for the higher margin's as that just makes perfect business sense of course. It will take some time for anyone new to this reselling business to learn which items are worth the big bucks and so I personally think there's nothing wrong with starting small and going from there :) Thanks so much for this video, I think it's very helpful! Have an awesome day :)
Yes your absolutely right, after just a few months I've reevaluated my sourcing technique; many of my private collection items will definitely be utilized as gifts. Your time & energy & postal fees make low end sourcing totally ineffective. Someone else pointed out that EBay also contracts with vendors from China which is not possible to compete with.
EXCELLENT POINTS, Pete :-) And this is indeed the 'strategy' of most eBayers, in particular. (Competing with Big Box stores, and China, reselling a pencil sharpener, etc. for say $9.95. that now retails for $14.95, they 'invested' a dollar or three, into.) The 10: 1 time and effort ratio is the MAIN POINT here, I think? (i.e. "WHAT IS your TIME worth???) If one cannot SCALE a business UP... then you'll never make a LIVING vs. a 'hobby' out of it!?
Quick example I bought 3000 pieces of phone accessories for $500 some years ago and planned to list, sell and post all of them. Things I didn't count on was that the seller had pulled out the best items for his son, about 10% were broken from storage or were missing parts, and also the biggest thing was the phones were all now outdated and my listings and profit were always changing from 1 for $10 with free post to 10 for $10 with $1 post (loss) to putting them all up as a bulk lot and eventually putting them all into the bin. I started buying playstations and Xbox from local pawnbroker around Xmas when they were flooded for $50 a unit and putting a game with them that I had collected at garage sales and selling them for $300 at peak times and around $150 in slack times which gave me more capital to buy better items with more profit.
Honestly, items that I can clear 10-15 dollars on are worth my time. I can list 4-5 items per hour on one-offs. Video games - way more than that. I am not currently as good at sourcing as you and I'll admit that my time is worth less than yours. I try to get better every day, but in the here and now - if I am at a garage sale already anyway, I can't pass up 10-15 dollars profit. I'll pay up for stuff too if I see it - I always have at least $300 in my pocket. I thought the point you made at the end about people with piles of stuff is valid - if you do buy the cheaper stuff you gotta have the discipline to list it or dump it. Thanks for the video, enjoyed it.
I agree. I prefer to get the $15 flips new with tags at the outlets where I can buy 10 of them tho. You should look into retail arbitrage if you enjoy the small flips. They add up!
Oh my god. Thank you for this! I don't have to think about it. I agree with you 1000%. And I try, every time I go out, to put a minimum list price on what I will pick up.I am getting better, but only very slowly. And its 2 steps forward one step back. I don't know where to go to learn about stuff other than clothes. I am sure I pass up stuff all the time because I don;t even know what it is, or I don't se thst there is value there. I am getting better at what clothes I pick up, but we all know clothes will rarely be high dollar. GREAT VIDEO, Pete
Pete..you should have been with me today. My first garage sale in years...I had a blast. Two detached garages behind this guys house. Full of everything...big saltwater fishing rods amd reels..tools up the ass..air compressor..welding machines. .dive tanks/regulators..my best pick up was a old vintage craftsman 3/4" "V" series socket set with extension bars and breaker bar with metal carrying case.. Paid $40.00 ..completed sales on ebay $250.00-$330...
Love the video! I have been working on raising my average item price! I will say though that there is a benefit to having something in your store for all price points. You open yourself up to a wider range of buyers. You can also take several small items and combine them for one bundled price!
Sound advice, Pete. I am long out of the selling game myself, but once upon a time (1998 - 2001) I sold books and paper items on eBay. Back then, before excessive fees, forced Paypal, etc., it was worth it. Soon, though, I began to realize that selling a book I bought for a quarter for ten dollars was just not worth my time. It used to be a goldmine, though.
I've only been selling for about six months. I like most started with crap and would double or triple my money but the time spent listing s coffee cup or something else that is selling for 5-10 bucks is just not worth the time like you are saying. I started paying up for better"crap" and still make at least 200% profit. At least. Most the time I am buying things for around 50 and getting at least 150-200 for the items. I too try to stay in the greater than $60 profit. I find that I'm not spending my time listing as much and spending less time reselling and making better margins. Honestly I usually make around 300% on most my items. For a part time side gig it is very lucrative for me and I kick myself for not getting in the game a lot earlier in life and I know I will always do it. Why turn away easy 100 dollar bills? Great stuff Pete and great points
if you are a new eBay seller and you want to get your FEEDBACK UP then its good to sell any item no matter what the profit is. you're learning how to 1) list 2) sell 3) ship and deal with (returns/negative buyers/lowball offers) - - - everyone wants to make money and eventually you'll figure out what sells and which items are really worth a lot of money. You don't just learn how to be a resellerover night. I just started a month ago and the items that I sell the most are ties and tshirts - when i'm selling 8-10 items a day (I have a full time job) I'll take that extra money knowing that im learning and building my brand. Love the videos but it is worth it to take ebay reselling step by step. Try not to make mistakes but go into it knowing you will make every mistake in the book. Thank god for youtube though.
Hey Pete, always love your videos. I started selling a few months ago and learned very quickly that you are right about bigger ticket items(My cousin also steered me in that direction). Your video about big bulky items was also very helpful and took away some of the mystery or worry about dealing with it. Currently I am still selling off the lower ticket items, in big lots, and once the Garage has the room, those big ticket bulky items will have temporary storage while I focus on 1 quality $ listing instead of 20 quick low profit listings. Keep up the good work and good luck on your new property. Thanks! :)
Pete, as hard as it was to hear this, it all makes perfect sense. I have had a lot of small dollar items only to net a few bucks on them after fees and shipping. I had some more expensive things as well so I felt like I had a good mix of items and was sourcing product strategically by grabbing a mixed bag of crap at the Goodwill or wherever. I figured even though some items had a small profit they would still bring in positive cash flow. But you are right because my time is worth something as well I was not properly calculating the prepping, listing and storage time involved. I am going to focus more on larger ticket items that have a much higher margin. Still learning every day. Finding my niches and discovering new profitable items. Thank you again for all of the information that you share!
Exactly. I hate seeing these people exaggerate (lie) about how many listings they can do in an hour. There is a guy on TH-cam who says he can do a listing in 5 minutes (12 in an hour), if he has all 12 to do at once. Even when I'm SUPER organized and have EVERY THING in the right spot, it STILL takes me about an hour to do 4 listings. I can do 12 listings in a few hours. Take ALL the pictures at once (obviously), and have a template to make the listings faster.
I agree with you 100%. Time IS MONEY and I don't know either how someone does 10-20+ listings an hour. i tried to speed it up but when I speed up I ended up cutting corners (not taking quality pictures, not doing quality listing) etc. One thing tho it's very hard to find that ONE item to make x8-10x the investment. Sure i do find such item but it happens maybe once a month. Most of my items are $20 profit and I invest around $5 per item. I believe I need to improve on my quantity to be able to generate better income
Excellent content Pete. You have to have a minimum set and stay disciplined.5 years ago I had a minimum of $20 item with a single dollar spent. About 2 years ago I adjusted that ratio to increase the volume of my store. I would now pay up to $2 on a $20 item and dabble in $15 items for a single buck. HUGE MISTAKE! Inventory of course grew but my median sale price tanked! I WAS WORKING MY ASS OFF FOR LESS MONEY. So i abandoned that. Now I only focus on items $30 and up and my median sales price is around $45. I am comfortable with that.
Another great video Pete! The thing I've found is that some days you just don't find higher tier/less common items. Sometimes you're able to by a box lot of items including some higher tier items perhaps. I mean sure, you could sell the higher tier items and just toss or donate the smalls but if you basically got the little stuff for free just so you could make the big profit on the better items, why not take a few moments and list it. Or you're day of picking is winding down with not much to show for it as does happen sometimes and you see some cheap remote controls or other smalls that ebay is not flooded with (if they are, I always pass; learned my lesson there) just as an example and you pick those up to at least go home with a few items. I've done that many times and made great profit and without too much effort. However, I also regularly sell items in the many hundreds of dollars as well which I've been leaning more towards as of late. My only issue with relying primarily on the higher dollar items is they seem to sit around a little longer (and I'm talking quality listings, priced competitively), meaning you get paid less often. Only sure way to circumvent that it seems is either listing as an auction for low starting bid or use best offer. But if you've been doing it a while and aren't living paycheck to paycheck you can afford to wait it out and the pay off will be much better than the faster selling small items could ever get you.
I couldn't have said it any better myself!! Especially with listing, 3 maybe 4 per hour is correct. You can't rush through, listing have to have a the info you can give the buyer. Bad listing will come back and bit you in the azz, if the buyer opens a case because of a scratch or ding you did not mention. Then it get costly for you as a seller. It's not worth my time to rush!! Thanks Pete
Good stuff Pete - a lot of items that started higher get chipped down to the under $20 price marker to sell so indeed not worth it to pickup single items to sell for around $10-20 (in my opinion). I agree that if I find lower priced deals I always bundle or lot them together for higher sale/more profit per listing. As I rework my inventory it is definitely about quality not quantity - if you can find quantity of quality that's win win...
what to source.... it may be a moot question. Over the last few years I've noticed 3 complementary negative trends: 1) vintage items becoming more scarce 2) more competition to buy the items 3)more yard salers saying "it goes for $X on ebay" - 3 years ago I would go to sales and the car was packed full by the end of the day if not mid-day. Recently I can go to a town wide sale and spend less than $10 because the items are shit tchotchkes
Hi Pete, I appreciate your honesty and wisdom. I'm 10 months deep in the reselling game so I have a much much to learn. l made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, in fact, continue to make them to this point. By the third month, I was clear that I would only invest in higher cost items if I wanted to stay in the game. The first three months I found myself getting discourage because I would spend a lot of time listing one item with very, little return so it started to get old real fast. Now I take more risk in buying higher cost items to get three times what the item is worth it doesn't always happen with some items but for most of them it does thankfully! I find that I'm less frustrated with the process Thank you again Pete! Marcos
There is so much great advice in this video I can't even stand it. I'm a glutton for punishment, myself. I'll go on $5-10 profit sales usually only if it's a multi-quantity listing, and even sometimes I still think I'm crazy. 8-10 items listed in an hour is only possible if I spent another hour shooting all the photos, and I can easily "sell similar" on other folks' existing listings.
The great think about my story is I only go to one goodwill YES ONLY ONE lol....NO garage sales,estate sales nothing just 1 goodwill. From 9am - 12pm i plant myself at the goodwill and the carts just roll out. LOVE IT!!
Good video, makes sense. I feel the same way. Especially the guys that sell t-shirts, you can buy a T-shirt for under a $1 but by the time you take pictures of one T-shirt and make a $7 profit is not worth the time invested.
I have been doing it wrong for five years, so I'm really good at it. Buy a record album for a dollar and sell it for $5 - $12 on Ebay. 1:44pm is the exact time to go to the post office on Monday. Now I collect curbside throwaways, just picked up LG 42LH30 LCD HDTV works ok. Selling it for $50 local pickup.
Good stuff and is spend more time sourcing "good finds" over listing "more stuff" any day of the week. Works for me. Also, get out of your comfort zone and try different stuff. Only tip I could contribute to listing is my method is sitting down on desktop and "listing" good quality and uploading standard "photo coming soon" and just do as many listings as you can in full and then follow up later and revise the listing uploading pics from smart phone (I use iPhone 6 Plus and get good enough quality). I think that saves me a lot of time and once it's listed I am encouraged to upload pic.
Very good video, needed to be said! I have learned this the hard way myself. And the market is really getting flooded with the things I used to sell at a higher ticket price. It really has changed. Thanks for being straight forward! Love your channel, its one of the few that I watch anymore, I cant hardly handle all these newbies thinking they have all the answers. Lol
Brilliant video! When I started this, I had little money , so sold only cheaper items. Now I have more cashflow, I have been trying to raise my item value, but lately have been slipping back. I have been seeing too much 'cheap item' temptation!! I'll start today with a new determination :) Thanks Pete!
That is the thing for more resellers. The start you always wanna go low. You will need small money to invest in big money later. It all depends how your own strategy is. Peter gives as good tips.
I just started this business a week ago and the profit I will make for most of my item not less than $100, I have one item that will bring me a $210. What you said in the video is totally true!! It just does not worth it to buy cheap stuff and resell them, if you are doing that you are loosing time and money !! Thank you very much for you awesome tips you are the best!
Pete Thanks for doing this video. I have only been doing this a year and I tend to agree with you 30.00 should be your starting goal of profit point. Once you know what you are doing and as you develop your skilled eye you will become more picky about what you pick up to sell.
Awesome! I've been thinking a lot lately on how to go forward with my ebay selling. I like reselling, but have been finding it to be too much work for so little reward and I came to the conclusion that I have to change the way/ things I source for to better quality stuff just like you mentioned on this video. You are so right and always give good tips and content on your videos. ..tfs!
Maybe I must it, but you also need to add shipping cost into it. I keep lower priced items like that, and just have a barn sale once in a while. Definitely not worth the time with listing it, plus, packing, and shipping. Great tips, Pete. Thanks.
Yes, prime example of something that happened to me just today. I found two of those old Polaroid 600 vintage cameras for $7 ea (one red stripe, one rainbow). They go for around ($35 and $25) respectively. I used to list these separately, and after fees 13.25% and $10 shipping, I made around $13 and $5 respectively. NOT WORTH IT (even though I LOVE vintage Polaroids). So I have a 3rd one already, this time I'm selling all 3 as a bundle. For $90-100 (shipping will be cheaper too) and I should make $45 profit on all 3 with far less time spent. Thanks CLH!
Exactly!!! By the time you take photos, write good descriptions, etc it takes time. Then with the time it takes to print the label package the item, etc etc etc it's ridiculous to even consider making $5-10 profit. Good video. Although I am happy to buy some items like that on Ebay. I am just not crazy enough to sell these items much. I have but won't now. It didn't take me long to learn with all the paypal fees on top of the ebay fees, you need to make $25-30 min profit for your time.
I still have that same mindset, buy for a dollar and sell for 10 and you are right, you cant make enough money. But I cant seem to find the things you find or I just have not reached that mindset. But please continue these videos, I really need to hear this a few times.
You are absolutely correct Pete; I think the average price of my clothing items is $20.00...if I could up it to $30.00 it would make a tremendous difference...when you take into account the fee's too with ebay and paypal. Thanks for the upload !!!!!!! Corie
Great video. I have been doing eBay for about a little over 3 years and I started with the little items where I was shipping 10 to 15 items a day. I soon realized what you are trying to get across in this video. When I source now it is for higher ticket items or if I can get multiples of a item cheap and make good money off them. Keep the videos coming
I KINDLY!! diagree. those $5-$10 items add up. If your out sourcing and cant seem to find those homerun items. these are the items that will keep you afloat. At the end of the week or month those extra $100 or $200 come in handy. I can kinda see your point if you do this part-time but if your doing this full-time it adds up. Even if you find a big ticket item that doesnt mean your gonna sell if right away or at all. My opinion
Point taken. The #1 thing that everone here can agree is if your sales are down or your having a bad week, month, year etc... is KEEP POSTING, Right? They dont say keep posting big ticket items. I truly believe that those $5-$20 items will keep you alive in this game. If your not making money, It doesnt matter what your posting or however long it takes you to post. Even if you do have those big selling items Chad from GoldenFingerPicker is gonna sell his first for a cheaper price!! LOL Just thought I'd throw that in there.
Thank you! Nothing against Craigslisthunter but, he owns a shop. He has people coming in and selling him items that he turns around and flips them for a higher price. Kutos!! to him. But, for us average Joes-Shmos we dont have that luxury. We really need to get out there and hustle for our items. At the end of the day its your bottom line that matters. Doesnt matter what your selling or time it takes. without money you cant do the other things. I agree with 99% of the things he says but this one I have to disagree.
Pete also has the enormous overhead of that shop as well. Not to mention his shop will never have the kind of exposure he gets from items posted on ebay and at a higher cost. Pete's lease payment every month probably costs more than what most reselllers make every month. Its not all roses with a shop and I think Pete would agree.
I about laughed my butt of at your candor in the comments directed to the "I post 10 items an hour people". I agree 3-4 items per hour, if they are good and unique, is about it. Sometimes I do 20 minutes of research or more for my items and many times I have the only one on eBay. Which is another point you make, don't sell the same "pencil sharpener" as everyone else, it's a waste of time. Great content, I too need to work on slapping my own hand on the low buck stuff and stick with the cream at the top. You know if you just buy the best, you have more time to pick because you aren't spending time listing junk. Of course who has time to look up everything as you buy it, we all roll the dice and sometimes come up big and sometimes we end up with the "pencil sharpener". Thanks, especially for making me feel like I am on the right path, and am not spending too much time on my posts. Best Regards!!
I can do about 12 to 18 listing an hr when it comes to shoes BUT that is because I've been listing shoes for almost a decade now and have a system down. With that said, I agree 100% with Pete, for rare/unique items with good listing you're probably closer to 5 to 7 an hr.
I am SOOO glad you said this! It is such a great day when I have listed 25 items and I hear others saying things like they have listed 100 in a day. While I have no proof of them not, it is unlikely that they are of quality. But koodos if they can really pull it off! I cannot but I'm happy with my own totals! :)
also keep in mind not everyone has the budget you might have when they first start reselling. if I invest 80$ in my business I want to try and have at least 60 items / packaging supplies /postage $ - you really have to flip the profit as many times as you can until you get to where you are making over 100$ a day
Good video Pete. In my experience it is possible to list 10-15 items per hour though if you are listing similar items and using the ebay mobile app. The items IMO that can be listed quickly are video games, music CDs, movie DvD's\Blue Rays, and books. These items usually only require 1 or 2 photos and no or a very short description. I do agree that you can not list 10 unique rare items per hour such as Sansui receivers though and anyone who did that would be a fool.
Excellent video as always, Pete. Your channel is one of the main reasons I got started. I have many low end items, but I'm part time and haven't had the capital to invest in the bigger ticket items yet. However, I am looking to the day in the near future when I can follow your advice presented here. Thanks for what you do. Cheers!
I have bought low ticket items and haven't sold anything in a month. LOL I will try the higher end. I will have to figure out the items that will sell. Thanks for the heads up!
You have the BEST Videos and SPOT ON! I agree NO WAY to do 10 listings an hour unless you are relisting on something you have already done and its all set up already!
Good vid Pete, I sell mostly clothes. I go to the thrift store and look through all, I mean ALL the men's clothes. Im looking for the home runs but I usually dont pass up items I can pick up for 2-3 and sell for $22 if its a sure seller. I did have a good buy a few weeks ago, two pairs of vintage pairs 901s on original bases. $80 a pair. Sold one pair for $250 and the base off the other pair for $115 and keeping a pair for myself.
I hear what your saying and it totally makes sense but some people that maybe are starting out or maybe in a very tight budget might have to start with those small items and learn those ropes with the little bit they have in their pocket at the time. I agree quality items are much better return but it is not always feasible in every situation. Just my humble opinion. Great Content Pete Thanks for the info and its Great info for those who are building as well :)
I’ve worked shitty jobs and had horrible bosses, I’d rather be reselling than doing any other office job or even food industry or transportation jobs out there. Selling $15-$30 bucks items to me is definitely worth it. I do it on my own, I don’t have to work under incompetent management and I run my business from home. Hell yeah, it’s worth my time! Absolutely!
Im going to sell books. 1: easy to buy, find, scan and go 2: easy to list, few pictures needed 3: shipping is probably better than most and packaging is easy. 4: not life threatning, cannot blow up, and break, 5: I can get a book for free and profit 100% I do agree with you though sir that I am selling quantity instead of quality. But since I am new i want to hear your opinion on selling books.
Low ticket items are best suited for amazon since you don't have to create a whole new listing and take pictures. That's a lot of time saved especially if your not making that much.
Good points ! The cheaper the listing the more Dam Questions you have to re-ply back to a cheap buyer and that also takes time ! What color is it ? What kind of string in the YoYo ! Dose it work at night ? Time is money !
the problem with this theory is that it's hard to find something for $30 that can be sold for $100. it's just not realistic. the reason why ppl buy something cheaper and sell for 5X plus original price is more common than something that you buy for $20+ for 5X the original price.
Wow, what a helpfull hint, but here is an even better one: If you look in the right place, you will find a suitcase with one million dollars. If you follow my hint, you will get rich immediately xP
dlckddyd76-Agreed! As a general rule, they lower the economic standing of an area, the more expensive second hand merchandise is....because everyone is trying to make a buck. There’s less choice too. City’s with their higher income neighborhoods are really the only place you can score the type of merchandise he’s speaking of on a regular basis.
Amen brother. I've been waiting for someone to do a video like this. I've only been selling on eBay 2 months and it only took me a week to figure out that I'd rather sell one item for a $30 profit then 30 items at a $1 profit. It takes the same amount of time to Source list pack ship an item with a $30 profit is one with a $3 profit so why wouldn't you look for $30 items.
Love your great advice. I have started to rethink margins and time too. Funny you showed the Boston sharpener. I bought the last one for $1 and sold for $22. I think that is a pretty good margin. It only takes 3 pictures and generally I get a sale in 3-5 days on these. With that said my customers know I sell vintage office supplies so maybe I get more sales that way. With that said I just bought a super clean Onyko AV receiver for $20 and listed for $125. Excellent advice for all levels of sellers. I paid $6 for a lot of 24 Jack Daniels coffee mugs. I listed for $15 each. I know they are long tail but the time to list was quick and love having a big lot to sell.
Good points Peter. I'm trying to be as efficient with my time and sourcing money as I can be. I pay close attention to my avg selling price on Amazon but never looked at it the same way on ebay. I will from now on.
Quality over quantity is key. Patience is also very important.
well said
The key to what? Sam Walton is a billionaire and his business is based on the opposite concept.
Awesome video man. Great message too. You make or break yourself through PRODUCT SELECTION... I teach this all the time on my channel.
Awesome video Pete! You're spot on that listing items is the worst part of this business. Also, one thing I'd add to why many sellers are failing, is that they think if they buy something for $1 and sell it for $10 with free shipping, they've made $9! They don't factor in that bare minimum cost of shipping is $2.45, and eBay + PayPal will subtract almost another $2 from a $10 sale.
Assuming you are selling things like Video games / DVDs / CDs / Books etc. It is very easy to do way more than 10 listings in an hour. It also takes about 1 min to ship them since all you do is throw them in a bubble mailer and slap the shipping label on it and the Post Office will pick them up from your porch for free. I'm not saying you should focus on items that will only make you $5 but I still pick them up because 5 minutes of work for $5 is still $60 an hour.
100%
This is a breath of fresh air. The amount of times I come across videos singing the virtues of buy cheap, sell on for x2 or x3 (still nothing) and competing against thousands of others.
Your advice makes tonnes of sense. Thanks for sharing
Everything you said is TRUE, thank you Pete. Sad to say I've lost money in the year I've been reselling, figuring out which things have been a waste of time. I've become much more discerning. Big learning curve for sure.
I do strictly clothing and can do right around 23-24 listings, measurements, pictures, descriptions, washing, comps, in 7-8 hours.
I like your strategy but the one strategy that works for me is, stick to spending $1 for $10 items, $3 for $20, and $10 for $30 items. and anything after that is at least half price of going rate. I do have an advantage though with smaller profit items, I live 1 block away from my post office so I don't spend too much time or gas to ship my items. Also, I get a lot of my items from a local Goodwill Outlet store, the store that sells by the pound. So sometimes I spend $10- $15 and fill up a cart with combined items worth of $200 - $500 depending on what items id find.
also, I guess i should have mentioned. I try stick to small items that are 8oz or less that cost $2.60 to ship for $20 or less items. If its a 1 lb item that sells for $10 -$15, id usually pass on it. Shipping kills the profit for certain items.
tienes canal en TH-cam .yo tambien vendo articulos en ebay
Im exactly the same way i fill up a cart with $25 and they are worth $300 -$400 👍🏼 🤑 at the goodwill outlet. You spend less time and money then driving around to yard sales! And my post office is also 2 blocks away from my house. The employees postal workers know me by name because of so often that im there haha!
Many times one items profit pays for everything else rest of the in the whole cart 🛒 end up being free pure profit. And they are quality items many new items.
Very low investment if any most of the time 🤑!!!
Bingo! I learned this the hard way. No more coffee cups, hats or remote controls for me.
LOL! Those three items are what I have the most of in my inventory right now. Remote controls are the biggest 'learning experience' for me. Too many of them, they take too long to clean, take too long to sell, and rarely bring more that $10 (before fees). No more remotes for me...
Beanie babies and baseball cards are a lesson lol. I ended up donating all of those things. $30 waste. Im getting back into it. I used to peruse the garage sales and buy here and there. So clothes is a no-go. What type of electronics are good and which are a bust?
You'd be surprised how much certain remote controls go for, though. Anything with an LCD screen or Bose brand will command a ton of money.
oh yea postcards and comic books , learning too!
Pete is on another level, he has employees and someone that takes photos and list the items and this gives Pete the time to look. With that said you have to progress into this next level of selling and am already going the way of Pete.
I can do copy past and list a lot pretty fast but the constant mess ups I do its not worth it. I mainly wanted to do small cheap stuff so I can get a higher amount of items on my stores so later on I can work with items with more profit and slowly go that direction watching these videos are really helping
Thanks Pete. I'd like to offer some advice in return that I think will make your employees more efficient. A lot of the information we have to place in eBay listings is the same, for example "handling time", "return information", "PayPal preferences", "listing duration" etc. By utilizing the "Draft" tool on eBay you can create multiple draft listings at once and pre-fill out all the aforementioned generic information. I also have a basic template description that I copy and paste into the description - I always add a sentence or two with additional specific info on the item. By doing this you can just focus on photos, price, title, and category - which cuts down on your listing time SUBSTANTIALLY. If you have multiple items in a similar category like say SnapBack hats, then you can also pre fill out the category section as well. I'm not sure if you knew about this or not, but by using this method you should be able to put out more than 4 quality listings per hour for sure.
Great advice, Pete. We've had our eBay store for over 2 years now, and at this point, we sell mainly higher end clothing and shoes, but have begun to dip our toe into electronics and other higher ticket items. A huge learning curve there, but we are determined to stick with it and continue tweaking our business model. Thanks for your continuous great content. Especially love your garage saleing videos.
I LEARNED THIS THE HARD WAY ALSO. STARTED OUT BY BUYING TONS OF LOW DOLLAR ITEMS TO SELL. DIDN'T ANTICIPATE HOW MUCH TIME WAS INVOLVED IN LISTING, SHIPPING ETC. BY BUYING HIGHER PRICED QUALITY ITEMS , I SPEND LESS TIME MAKING MORE MONEY. THANKS FOR THIS VIDEO , PETE. ONE OF YOUR BEST!!
all well and good but if I made it minimum 30 dollar profits on every item....I may spend all week sourcing and find 1 or 2 items. where you live makes a big difference.
Thanks Pete! Needed to hear this today after spending two days listing $10 items that we "couldn't pass up".
People need to hear this. Buying an item for $1 when you can sell it for $5 is NOT a good deal, no matter what other youtubers are saying.
lol true
sold $5.00
paid $1.00
eBay fees $0.50
shipping $2.60
PayPal fees $0.15
ship materials $0.17
profit ((((( -$0.58 ))))
you forgot the .30 paypal per transaction fee.
+Trader Grim That is true . Hopefully, those sellers are top rated as well. lol
+Sam White I always charge for shipping. It works for me.
You forgot the 10% on shipping that both PP and ebay charge, so add another $0.52
Pete, this may be your best video yet! I've actually been wrestling with this very topic in my eBay business and I've begun retooling how and what items I actually buy to increase my per item selling price. Thanks for the insight!
This video absolutely nailed it. Pete, are you spying on me? Everything you advised not to do, I found myself saying, " oh crap, I do that". Thank you for pointing out potential pit falls and how to correct them. Time to step up my game!
Thank you so much for posting this. I needed the extra push to upgrade my approach to sourcing and profit. My mentor and friend has been telling me the same thing for a year now, and over time I have realized she is right. The time it takes to source, research, list and answer any questions plus do shipping means that selling one item for 5 or 6 dollars is not really that profitable. It's better than wasting time playing cell phone games, but not a good strategy to make money online long term.
We are researching selling on Ebay.. I watched about 10 of your videos but this was the most informative. Thank you so much for sharing your insight as you are where we want to be in 5 years.
Great advice. Pretty much common sense but seeing it on paper helped to see it more clearly on wasted time listing high quantity but low quality earning items. Been doing this for 17 years and have gotten stuck in my out dated routine. Thanks for these type of vids, I for one needed that motivation.
Thanks for the video. This is an area I need to improve on. I do have a huge pile of junk I never get around to listing! BTW I think the audio is fine and I like seeing you chillin out on your patio to do these videos.
It all depends on where you are in the country and how you source. Everyone doesn’t have access to unique, higher quality items that sell with high profit margins. I wouldn’t discourage people from lower priced items, but I would highly suggest lots, bundles and kits!! Bundling together lower priced items in lots helps move merchandise faster for a decent profit. Especially the “junk” you often get when you buy items at auctions, estate sales and storage unit sales. Most don’t like listing, but you can definitely turn out a good listing in 5 minutes if you’re not doing research for each item before listed.
This is very true for most sellers. However I can list 30-100 items an hour. The items I pick require no field research, little cleaning and are easy to pack and ship. My listings are probably not as nice as Pete's but they are 80-90% as good, which at this rate of production is fine. End to end, from sourcing to shipped less than 6 min of my time per item total, ans half the time is shipping related so it isn't a cost until after I am paid for the item. It does cost money for some services and tools, I do have a helper, and the system took 3 years work + 40 years experience to develop. If you can manage that rate of listing then source whatever you want, otherwise listen to Pete.
I have not been watching any youtube for a very long time because there is so much rehashed gibberish by people who are not even resellers but I am glad to see you make this video because it is the truth and needs to be said. This video is tough love for I would say about 90% of people watching it. I used to sell lower priced items on Ebay and lower priced items on Amazon... Nothing against beginners or intermediate sellers at all by any means, just know that you are not going to make a living, let alone decent side cash selling trash on Ebay or Amazon. My average on Amazon is much lower since I do books which are very fast and very easy to process. My average on Ebay is about $55 IIRC which I think is pretty good. There are people who make over 100k a year selling just from the weigh and pay and they can easily list an item every 5 minutes, but I think relying on a goodwill weigh and pay for a living is suicidal and our weigh and pay is a total trash heap.
Carol T. I can see that, at least for some people. No doubt about it... but there are a fair amount of people who do extremely well. Some of these people easily make 300-400 profit per day. Hard to believe but it is true. It depends a lot on how good your weigh and pay is. Ours is a dump. A lot of people think they are doing great at reselling and making lots of money but they aren't.
+Carl T. Why would you say that? maybe there happy doing what there doing Or maybe you should giving them some helpful tips. Thats what these videos are about. Right?
what the hell is Weight and Pay?
OP has junk in his store and pays too much for his stuff
I still sell certain remotes because they are so easy to list, and I just sold a JVC disc-changer remote this morning for $25.
Great message! After I started reselling full time, I realized this very quickly. I had been collecting inventory for a while in preparation for going full time. In the past 8 months 80% of my sales have come from high ticket items or consignments with profits of $100 - $700 that I've acquired since becoming full time. I've even resorted to donating some of the original inventory rather than invest the time into processing them that I could use for a high return item.
Thanks for another great video!
So true Pete,right from the beginning I always treated it like a business.When all is said and done it probably takes the best part of an hour from sourcing to shipping.If you don't set yourself a fair hourly rate its a hobby not a business.Even a $30 profit I consider barely covering costs.I also watch shipping costs ,that can kill a potential sale real quick.Great video a usual.
I always listen to these guys but sometimes I don't agree. There is a big difference in what you do and can achieve depending on where you are in reseller journey. The most important thing to consider is "there are 1000 ways to get from New York to L.A"
Robert Ritterbeck agree
One of your best videos yet. And I've watched almost all of them. Good comment and suggestions. And thanks for the honesty on the length of time it takes to list an item. I thought I was super slow at 20-25 minutes per item.
The quality of your videos has improved over the years. Your mich is too good because I do hear a lot of the back ground noises your mentioned. Again, thanks for all you do.
I can do 10 listings in an hour. I've been listing on eBay for 16 years. I have it down. Not a problem. I've sold $2 million+ on eBay. Not a junior woodchuck here.
He is questioning the quality of your listings then.
My quality is fine. My results speak for themselves. You don't need 12 pictures (3 or 4 max) and you don't need lots of text in the description. The funny thing is, a longer description makes your listing worse because.... get ready for it... PEOPLE HATE READING. They want things to be brief. So, with 3 or 4 pics and a brief description, it takes me 5 minutes to do a listing. I've been doing this a lot longer than Pete and I know what works.
+Entrepreneur Fundamentals I agree,I can easily list 10+ items in an hour, 3/4 pictures, very brief but detailed description and competitive prices. 12 pictures....What even has 12 sides lol.
+Entrepreneur Fundamentals Pete has been on Ebay since it started so I don't know how you could have been doing it longer than him. I think his point is that with the more expensive items you need to put a bit more time into the listing process as your buyers will expect it. I agree 3 per hour is low for the mass quantity, less expensive items
Let's see your eBay store.
Thanks for your challenge to increase my ROI. I've only been selling for 2 months and so I'm exploring what I want to sell, learning how to ship, and building positive feedback. The smalls I sell right now are a good stepping stone but I'll be ramping up this business in due time. I'm subscribed and ready to continue this journey! Thanks for sharing your insight.
Great Tips Pete, it's all about working smarter, not harder, as the saying goes. I'm guilty of wasting my time with low ticket items as well, and have many many piles to prove it. Listing multiple low price items is very time consuming when you count the picture taking, research, and listing; there goes all the profit right there. Thanks again for the reality check!
I definitely understand where you're coming from...BUT for the bloody beginner like myself (part time obviously), I think it's ok to use the smaller profit items as "practice" so to speak. In the very beginning, we don't have a clue what we're doing, we're practicing how to take photo's, how to list, how to ship etc. I think the possibility of a return is more unlikely if it's a cheaper item. Most people will say , nah it's not worth paying return shipping to get $10 back. PLUS, we need positive feedback. Once we have a good grip on things, I'd say DEFINITELY go for the higher margin's as that just makes perfect business sense of course. It will take some time for anyone new to this reselling business to learn which items are worth the big bucks and so I personally think there's nothing wrong with starting small and going from there :) Thanks so much for this video, I think it's very helpful! Have an awesome day :)
Yes your absolutely right, after just a few months I've reevaluated my sourcing technique; many of my private collection items will definitely be utilized as gifts. Your time & energy & postal fees make low end sourcing totally ineffective. Someone else pointed out that EBay also contracts with vendors from China which is not possible to compete with.
EXCELLENT POINTS, Pete :-) And this is indeed the 'strategy' of most eBayers, in particular. (Competing with Big Box stores, and China, reselling a pencil sharpener, etc. for say $9.95. that now retails for $14.95, they 'invested' a dollar or three, into.) The 10: 1 time and effort ratio is the MAIN POINT here, I think? (i.e. "WHAT IS your TIME worth???) If one cannot SCALE a business UP... then you'll never make a LIVING vs. a 'hobby' out of it!?
Quick example I bought 3000 pieces of phone accessories for $500 some years ago and planned to list, sell and post all of them. Things I didn't count on was that the seller had pulled out the best items for his son, about 10% were broken from storage or were missing parts, and also the biggest thing was the phones were all now outdated and my listings and profit were always changing from 1 for $10 with free post to 10 for $10 with $1 post (loss) to putting them all up as a bulk lot and eventually putting them all into the bin. I started buying playstations and Xbox from local pawnbroker around Xmas when they were flooded for $50 a unit and putting a game with them that I had collected at garage sales and selling them for $300 at peak times and around $150 in slack times which gave me more capital to buy better items with more profit.
Honestly, items that I can clear 10-15 dollars on are worth my time. I can list 4-5 items per hour on one-offs. Video games - way more than that. I am not currently as good at sourcing as you and I'll admit that my time is worth less than yours. I try to get better every day, but in the here and now - if I am at a garage sale already anyway, I can't pass up 10-15 dollars profit. I'll pay up for stuff too if I see it - I always have at least $300 in my pocket. I thought the point you made at the end about people with piles of stuff is valid - if you do buy the cheaper stuff you gotta have the discipline to list it or dump it. Thanks for the video, enjoyed it.
I agree. I prefer to get the $15 flips new with tags at the outlets where I can buy 10 of them tho. You should look into retail arbitrage if you enjoy the small flips. They add up!
8.
Oh my god. Thank you for this! I don't have to think about it. I agree with you 1000%. And I try, every time I go out, to put a minimum list price on what I will pick up.I am getting better, but only very slowly. And its 2 steps forward one step back. I don't know where to go to learn about stuff other than clothes. I am sure I pass up stuff all the time because I don;t even know what it is, or I don't se thst there is value there. I am getting better at what clothes I pick up, but we all know clothes will rarely be high dollar. GREAT VIDEO, Pete
Pete..you should have been with me today. My first garage sale in years...I had a blast. Two detached garages behind this guys house. Full of everything...big saltwater fishing rods amd reels..tools up the ass..air compressor..welding machines. .dive tanks/regulators..my best pick up was a old vintage craftsman 3/4" "V" series socket set with extension bars and breaker bar with metal carrying case.. Paid $40.00 ..completed sales on ebay $250.00-$330...
Use the sell similar feature friend, it will save you tons of time on most items, the one offs will always take longer to list!
Love the video! I have been working on raising my average item price! I will say though that there is a benefit to having something in your store for all price points. You open yourself up to a wider range of buyers. You can also take several small items and combine them for one bundled price!
great video, Pete. its nice to hear someone that doesnt sugar coat or water down the truth. keep them coming!
Sound advice, Pete. I am long out of the selling game myself, but once upon a time (1998 - 2001) I sold books and paper items on eBay. Back then, before excessive fees, forced Paypal, etc., it was worth it. Soon, though, I began to realize that selling a book I bought for a quarter for ten dollars was just not worth my time. It used to be a goldmine, though.
I've only been selling for about six months. I like most started with crap and would double or triple my money but the time spent listing s coffee cup or something else that is selling for 5-10 bucks is just not worth the time like you are saying. I started paying up for better"crap" and still make at least 200% profit. At least. Most the time I am buying things for around 50 and getting at least 150-200 for the items. I too try to stay in the greater than $60 profit. I find that I'm not spending my time listing as much and spending less time reselling and making better margins. Honestly I usually make around 300% on most my items. For a part time side gig it is very lucrative for me and I kick myself for not getting in the game a lot earlier in life and I know I will always do it. Why turn away easy 100 dollar bills? Great stuff Pete and great points
what kind of stuff you selling?
Great video Pete. It's all about time spent not the dollars made. So hard to get people out of their comfort zone. Thanks for the great video
if you are a new eBay seller and you want to get your FEEDBACK UP then its good to sell any item no matter what the profit is.
you're learning how to 1) list 2) sell 3) ship and deal with (returns/negative buyers/lowball offers) - - -
everyone wants to make money and eventually you'll figure out what sells and which items are really worth a lot of money. You don't just learn how to be a resellerover night. I just started a month ago and the items that I sell the most are ties and tshirts - when i'm selling 8-10 items a day (I have a full time job) I'll take that extra money knowing that im learning and building my brand. Love the videos but it is worth it to take ebay reselling step by step. Try not to make mistakes but go into it knowing you will make every mistake in the book. Thank god for youtube though.
Hey Pete, always love your videos. I started selling a few months ago and learned very quickly that you are right about bigger ticket items(My cousin also steered me in that direction). Your video about big bulky items was also very helpful and took away some of the mystery or worry about dealing with it. Currently I am still selling off the lower ticket items, in big lots, and once the Garage has the room, those big ticket bulky items will have temporary storage while I focus on 1 quality $ listing instead of 20 quick low profit listings. Keep up the good work and good luck on your new property. Thanks! :)
Pete, as hard as it was to hear this, it all makes perfect sense. I have had a lot of small dollar items only to net a few bucks on them after fees and shipping. I had some more expensive things as well so I felt like I had a good mix of items and was sourcing product strategically by grabbing a mixed bag of crap at the Goodwill or wherever. I figured even though some items had a small profit they would still bring in positive cash flow. But you are right because my time is worth something as well I was not properly calculating the prepping, listing and storage time involved. I am going to focus more on larger ticket items that have a much higher margin. Still learning every day. Finding my niches and discovering new profitable items. Thank you again for all of the information that you share!
Exactly. I hate seeing these people exaggerate (lie) about how many listings they can do in an hour. There is a guy on TH-cam who says he can do a listing in 5 minutes (12 in an hour), if he has all 12 to do at once. Even when I'm SUPER organized and have EVERY THING in the right spot, it STILL takes me about an hour to do 4 listings. I can do 12 listings in a few hours. Take ALL the pictures at once (obviously), and have a template to make the listings faster.
I agree with you 100%. Time IS MONEY and I don't know either how someone does 10-20+ listings an hour. i tried to speed it up but when I speed up I ended up cutting corners (not taking quality pictures, not doing quality listing) etc. One thing tho it's very hard to find that ONE item to make x8-10x the investment. Sure i do find such item but it happens maybe once a month. Most of my items are $20 profit and I invest around $5 per item. I believe I need to improve on my quantity to be able to generate better income
Excellent content Pete. You have to have a minimum set and stay disciplined.5 years ago I had a minimum of $20 item with a single dollar spent. About 2 years ago I adjusted that ratio to increase the volume of my store. I would now pay up to $2 on a $20 item and dabble in $15 items for a single buck. HUGE MISTAKE! Inventory of course grew but my median sale price tanked! I WAS WORKING MY ASS OFF FOR LESS MONEY. So i abandoned that. Now I only focus on items $30 and up and my median sales price is around $45. I am comfortable with that.
Another great video Pete! The thing I've found is that some days you just don't find higher tier/less common items. Sometimes you're able to by a box lot of items including some higher tier items perhaps. I mean sure, you could sell the higher tier items and just toss or donate the smalls but if you basically got the little stuff for free just so you could make the big profit on the better items, why not take a few moments and list it. Or you're day of picking is winding down with not much to show for it as does happen sometimes and you see some cheap remote controls or other smalls that ebay is not flooded with (if they are, I always pass; learned my lesson there) just as an example and you pick those up to at least go home with a few items. I've done that many times and made great profit and without too much effort. However, I also regularly sell items in the many hundreds of dollars as well which I've been leaning more towards as of late. My only issue with relying primarily on the higher dollar items is they seem to sit around a little longer (and I'm talking quality listings, priced competitively), meaning you get paid less often. Only sure way to circumvent that it seems is either listing as an auction for low starting bid or use best offer. But if you've been doing it a while and aren't living paycheck to paycheck you can afford to wait it out and the pay off will be much better than the faster selling small items could ever get you.
I couldn't have said it any better myself!! Especially with listing, 3 maybe 4 per hour is correct. You can't rush through, listing have to have a the info you can give the buyer. Bad listing will come back and bit you in the azz, if the buyer opens a case because of a scratch or ding you did not mention. Then it get costly for you as a seller. It's not worth my time to rush!! Thanks Pete
I like you videos because for one you get right into it and don't mess around - this is such an eye opener and will help me a lot thanks!
Good stuff Pete - a lot of items that started higher get chipped down to the under $20 price marker to sell so indeed not worth it to pickup single items to sell for around $10-20 (in my opinion). I agree that if I find lower priced deals I always bundle or lot them together for higher sale/more profit per listing. As I rework my inventory it is definitely about quality not quantity - if you can find quantity of quality that's win win...
what to source.... it may be a moot question. Over the last few years I've noticed 3 complementary negative trends: 1) vintage items becoming more scarce 2) more competition to buy the items 3)more yard salers saying "it goes for $X on ebay" - 3 years ago I would go to sales and the car was packed full by the end of the day if not mid-day. Recently I can go to a town wide sale and spend less than $10 because the items are shit tchotchkes
Hi Pete,
I appreciate your honesty and wisdom. I'm 10 months deep in the reselling game so I have a much much to learn. l made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, in fact, continue to make them to this point. By the third month, I was clear that I would only invest in higher cost items if I wanted to stay in the game. The first three months I found myself getting discourage because I would spend a lot of time listing one item with very, little return so it started to get old real fast. Now I take more risk in buying higher cost items to get three times what the item is worth it doesn't always happen with some items but for most of them it does thankfully! I find that I'm less frustrated with the process
Thank you again Pete!
Marcos
There is so much great advice in this video I can't even stand it. I'm a glutton for punishment, myself. I'll go on $5-10 profit sales usually only if it's a multi-quantity listing, and even sometimes I still think I'm crazy. 8-10 items listed in an hour is only possible if I spent another hour shooting all the photos, and I can easily "sell similar" on other folks' existing listings.
The great think about my story is I only go to one goodwill YES ONLY ONE lol....NO garage sales,estate sales nothing just 1 goodwill. From 9am - 12pm i plant myself at the goodwill and the carts just roll out. LOVE IT!!
Good video, makes sense. I feel the same way. Especially the guys that sell t-shirts, you can buy a T-shirt for under a $1 but by the time you take pictures of one T-shirt and make a $7 profit is not worth the time invested.
I have been doing it wrong for five years, so I'm really good at it. Buy a record album for a dollar and sell it for $5 - $12 on Ebay. 1:44pm is the exact time to go to the post office on Monday. Now I collect curbside throwaways, just picked up LG 42LH30 LCD HDTV works ok. Selling it for $50 local pickup.
You are awesome man, I have been so inspired in the past 2 years by you, I urge everyone to take his advice.
Good stuff and is spend more time sourcing "good finds" over listing "more stuff" any day of the week. Works for me. Also, get out of your comfort zone and try different stuff. Only tip I could contribute to listing is my method is sitting down on desktop and "listing" good quality and uploading standard "photo coming soon" and just do as many listings as you can in full and then follow up later and revise the listing uploading pics from smart phone (I use iPhone 6 Plus and get good enough quality). I think that saves me a lot of time and once it's listed I am encouraged to upload pic.
Very good video, needed to be said! I have learned this the hard way myself. And the market is really getting flooded with the things I used to sell at a higher ticket price. It really has changed. Thanks for being straight forward! Love your channel, its one of the few that I watch anymore, I cant hardly handle all these newbies thinking they have all the answers. Lol
Brilliant video! When I started this, I had little money , so sold only cheaper items. Now I have more cashflow, I have been trying to raise my item value, but lately have been slipping back. I have been seeing too much 'cheap item' temptation!! I'll start today with a new determination :) Thanks Pete!
That is the thing for more resellers. The start you always wanna go low. You will need small money to invest in big money later.
It all depends how your own strategy is. Peter gives as good tips.
I just started this business a week ago and the profit I will make for most of my item not less than $100, I have one item that will bring me a $210. What you said in the video is totally true!! It just does not worth it to buy cheap stuff and resell them, if you are doing that you are loosing time and money !!
Thank you very much for you awesome tips you are the best!
U are so right, I can't do 10 in an hour unless they are really simple things, which often isn't the case.
Pete Thanks for doing this video. I have only been doing this a year and I tend to agree with you 30.00 should be your starting goal of profit point. Once you know what you are doing and as you develop your skilled eye you will become more picky about what you pick up to sell.
Awesome! I've been thinking a lot lately on how to go forward with my ebay selling. I like reselling, but have been finding it to be too much work for so little reward and I came to the conclusion that I have to change the way/ things I source for to better quality stuff just like you mentioned on this video. You are so right and always give good tips and content on your videos. ..tfs!
Maybe I must it, but you also need to add shipping cost into it. I keep lower priced items like that, and just have a barn sale once in a while. Definitely not worth the time with listing it, plus, packing, and shipping.
Great tips, Pete. Thanks.
Yes, prime example of something that happened to me just today. I found two of those old Polaroid 600 vintage cameras for $7 ea (one red stripe, one rainbow). They go for around ($35 and $25) respectively. I used to list these separately, and after fees 13.25% and $10 shipping, I made around $13 and $5 respectively. NOT WORTH IT (even though I LOVE vintage Polaroids). So I have a 3rd one already, this time I'm selling all 3 as a bundle. For $90-100 (shipping will be cheaper too) and I should make $45 profit on all 3 with far less time spent. Thanks CLH!
Exactly!!! By the time you take photos, write good descriptions, etc it takes time. Then with the time it takes to print the label package the item, etc etc etc it's ridiculous to even consider making $5-10 profit. Good video. Although I am happy to buy some items like that on Ebay. I am just not crazy enough to sell these items much. I have but won't now. It didn't take me long to learn with all the paypal fees on top of the ebay fees, you need to make $25-30 min profit for your time.
I still have that same mindset, buy for a dollar and sell for 10 and you are right, you cant make enough money. But I cant seem to find the things you find or I just have not reached that mindset. But please continue these videos, I really need to hear this a few times.
You are absolutely correct Pete; I think the average price of my clothing items is $20.00...if I could up it to $30.00 it would make a tremendous difference...when you take into account the fee's too with ebay and paypal. Thanks for the upload !!!!!!! Corie
do you get your clothes at goodwill/thrift shops?
Great video. I have been doing eBay for about a little over 3 years and I started with the little items where I was shipping 10 to 15 items a day. I soon realized what you are trying to get across in this video. When I source now it is for higher ticket items or if I can get multiples of a item cheap and make good money off them. Keep the videos coming
I KINDLY!! diagree. those $5-$10 items add up. If your out sourcing and cant seem to find those homerun items. these are the items that will keep you afloat. At the end of the week or month those extra $100 or $200 come in handy. I can kinda see your point if you do this part-time but if your doing this full-time it adds up. Even if you find a big ticket item that doesnt mean your gonna sell if right away or at all. My opinion
They do add up - it's funny cuz one day I decided I didn't want to list smalls anymore then the next day the only thing that sold were smalls !!
They add up but at a huge cost in time. Profit earned for time spent is the most important equation in your business.
Point taken. The #1 thing that everone here can agree is if your sales are down or your having a bad week, month, year etc... is KEEP POSTING, Right? They dont say keep posting big ticket items. I truly believe that those $5-$20 items will keep you alive in this game. If your not making money, It doesnt matter what your posting or however long it takes you to post. Even if you do have those big selling items Chad from GoldenFingerPicker is gonna sell his first for a cheaper price!! LOL Just thought I'd throw that in there.
Thank you! Nothing against Craigslisthunter but, he owns a shop. He has people coming in and selling him items that he turns around and flips them for a higher price. Kutos!! to him. But, for us average Joes-Shmos we dont have that luxury. We really need to get out there and hustle for our items. At the end of the day its your bottom line that matters. Doesnt matter what your selling or time it takes. without money you cant do the other things. I agree with 99% of the things he says but this one I have to disagree.
Pete also has the enormous overhead of that shop as well. Not to mention his shop will never have the kind of exposure he gets from items posted on ebay and at a higher cost. Pete's lease payment every month probably costs more than what most reselllers make every month. Its not all roses with a shop and I think Pete would agree.
Well done! Learning this lately and 100% accurate. Less competition in the $30-$50 buying market.
I about laughed my butt of at your candor in the comments directed to the "I post 10 items an hour people". I agree 3-4 items per hour, if they are good and unique, is about it. Sometimes I do 20 minutes of research or more for my items and many times I have the only one on eBay. Which is another point you make, don't sell the same "pencil sharpener" as everyone else, it's a waste of time. Great content, I too need to work on slapping my own hand on the low buck stuff and stick with the cream at the top. You know if you just buy the best, you have more time to pick because you aren't spending time listing junk. Of course who has time to look up everything as you buy it, we all roll the dice and sometimes come up big and sometimes we end up with the "pencil sharpener". Thanks, especially for making me feel like I am on the right path, and am not spending too much time on my posts. Best Regards!!
I can do about 12 to 18 listing an hr when it comes to shoes BUT that is because I've been listing shoes for almost a decade now and have a system down. With that said, I agree 100% with Pete, for rare/unique items with good listing you're probably closer to 5 to 7 an hr.
I am SOOO glad you said this! It is such a great day when I have listed 25 items and I hear others saying things like they have listed 100 in a day. While I have no proof of them not, it is unlikely that they are of quality. But koodos if they can really pull it off! I cannot but I'm happy with my own totals! :)
I agree with what you said, but as for the pencil sharpener, you can buy them one at a time and then make one listing once you have enough of them.
also keep in mind not everyone has the budget you might have when they first start reselling. if I invest 80$ in my business I want to try and have at least 60 items / packaging supplies /postage $ - you really have to flip the profit as many times as you can until you get to where you are making over 100$ a day
Good video Pete. In my experience it is possible to list 10-15 items per hour though if you are listing similar items and using the ebay mobile app. The items IMO that can be listed quickly are video games, music CDs, movie DvD's\Blue Rays, and books. These items usually only require 1 or 2 photos and no or a very short description. I do agree that you can not list 10 unique rare items per hour such as Sansui receivers though and anyone who did that would be a fool.
My business is very slow!! But watching your video made a lot of sense - I am going to change my way of my buying!!!! Thank You!!!!!!!!
Excellent video as always, Pete. Your channel is one of the main reasons I got started. I have many low end items, but I'm part time and haven't had the capital to invest in the bigger ticket items yet. However, I am looking to the day in the near future when I can follow your advice presented here. Thanks for what you do. Cheers!
I have bought low ticket items and haven't sold anything in a month. LOL I will try the higher end. I will have to figure out the items that will sell. Thanks for the heads up!
Thanks for the education. I have been trying to get my Ebay business bigger in profits and sales. I am sure watching your videos will help me allot.
You have the BEST Videos and SPOT ON! I agree NO WAY to do 10 listings an hour unless you are relisting on something you have already done and its all set up already!
Good vid Pete, I sell mostly clothes. I go to the thrift store and look through all, I mean ALL the men's clothes. Im looking for the home runs but I usually dont pass up items I can pick up for 2-3 and sell for $22 if its a sure seller. I did have a good buy a few weeks ago, two pairs of vintage pairs 901s on original bases. $80 a pair. Sold one pair for $250 and the base off the other pair for $115 and keeping a pair for myself.
I hear what your saying and it totally makes sense but some people that maybe are starting out or maybe in a very tight budget might have to start with those small items and learn those ropes with the little bit they have in their pocket at the time. I agree quality items are much better return but it is not always feasible in every situation. Just my humble opinion. Great Content Pete Thanks for the info and its Great info for those who are building as well :)
I’ve worked shitty jobs and had horrible bosses, I’d rather be reselling than doing any other office job or even food industry or transportation jobs out there. Selling $15-$30 bucks items to me is definitely worth it. I do it on my own, I don’t have to work under incompetent management and I run my business from home. Hell yeah, it’s worth my time! Absolutely!
Im going to sell books.
1: easy to buy, find, scan and go
2: easy to list, few pictures needed
3: shipping is probably better than most and packaging is easy.
4: not life threatning, cannot blow up, and break,
5: I can get a book for free and profit 100%
I do agree with you though sir that I am selling quantity instead of quality. But since I am new i want to hear your opinion on selling books.
Low ticket items are best suited for amazon since you don't have to create a whole new listing and take pictures. That's a lot of time saved especially if your not making that much.
Good points ! The cheaper the listing the more Dam Questions you have to re-ply back to a cheap buyer and that also takes time ! What color is it ? What kind of string in the YoYo ! Dose it work at night ? Time is money !
the problem with this theory is that it's hard to find something for $30 that can be sold for $100. it's just not realistic. the reason why ppl buy something cheaper and sell for 5X plus original price is more common than something that you buy for $20+ for 5X the original price.
only chinese can do that.
You can find items for 3-4 dollars that sell for 25-45 all day if you look in the right places
Wow, what a helpfull hint, but here is an even better one: If you look in the right place, you will find a suitcase with one million dollars.
If you follow my hint, you will get rich immediately xP
dlckddyd76-Agreed! As a general rule, they lower the economic standing of an area, the more expensive second hand merchandise is....because everyone is trying to make a buck. There’s less choice too. City’s with their higher income neighborhoods are really the only place you can score the type of merchandise he’s speaking of on a regular basis.
Amen brother. I've been waiting for someone to do a video like this. I've only been selling on eBay 2 months and it only took me a week to figure out that I'd rather sell one item for a $30 profit then 30 items at a $1 profit. It takes the same amount of time to Source list pack ship an item with a $30 profit is one with a $3 profit so why wouldn't you look for $30 items.
Love your great advice. I have started to rethink margins and time too. Funny you showed the Boston sharpener. I bought the last one for $1 and sold for $22. I think that is a pretty good margin. It only takes 3 pictures and generally I get a sale in 3-5 days on these. With that said my customers know I sell vintage office supplies so maybe I get more sales that way. With that said I just bought a super clean Onyko AV receiver for $20 and listed for $125. Excellent advice for all levels of sellers. I paid $6 for a lot of 24 Jack Daniels coffee mugs. I listed for $15 each. I know they are long tail but the time to list was quick and love having a big lot to sell.
Good points Peter. I'm trying to be as efficient with my time and sourcing money as I can be. I pay close attention to my avg selling price on Amazon but never looked at it the same way on ebay. I will from now on.
Also don't forget about the shipping on those 10 items VS the 1 bigger ticket item