How do ebay Canada members make money?

[allelectronicgadgets]

I'm an ebay Canada member and I'm finding it difficult to find products that I can make a profit on. Most suppliers are located in the U.S and overseas and by the time I add the price and the shipping for the item to get to Canada, to make a decent profit is nearly impossible. It's also difficult for me to offer the product at a decent price on ebay.ca. So my question for you ebay Canada sellers is how do you make money on ebay?

[pierrelebel]

eBay is only a venue, a mean to advertise products one wants to sell by mail.

Prior to the internet becoming accessible to everyone, folks wishing to sell by mail did just that successfully, advertising through magazines, newspapers, trade journals, radio, television, etc...  Today with the Internet it is much easier to reach a large number of potential buyers without spending a fortune.  eBay is one of the many tools to do that but not always the best.

1) Sell what you know... know what you sell

2) Offer products meant to be sold by mail

3) Your costs have to be low in relation to market value

4) Shipping from Canada has always been generally more expensive than shipping from the USA and some overseas countries. It is important to recognize that fact and find an edge to offset the challenge

5) Study and understand your competition

Good Luck.

[femmefan1946]

You may be better off buying returns, end of lines, and bankrupt stock from a local liquidator.

You should also check out local manufacturers, jobbers, importers, bankruptcy trustees and industrial/commercial auction houses.

Look for addresses in the paper Yellow Pages and go visit.

The paper YP because of the long time between purchasing the ad and publishing. While a company can look impressive online after being in business for 20 minutes, a YP book add means they have actually been in business for six months or more.

I assume you already have a sales tax number. A 'real' wholesaler will want that number because he can get a rebate on the taxes he paid by selling to a reseller.

Be ready to pay for the goods you receive immediately. Most will take a credit card, however, which gives you 30 days to pay.

[mr.elmwood]

You will never make money buying to sell as the profit has already been made. Those of us who do well, "acquire".

My average cost is $5 per retail $100. Yeah, I buy for $5 and sell for $100. Femme and Pierre could probably teach me lessons in "acquisition".

There are other truisms. One favourite is that you make your profit when you acquire your widget, not when you sell it. I picked up about five glove box handles today, amongst other things, that I know I will clear an average of $25 Cdn after FVF. each takes about 30 seconds to get out and costs me nothing.

Those of us who make money do it on cost control, not on high pricing. Prices are often set by the market, costs are not. My best selling widgets basically cost me nothing.

Mail order likes Small Packets. I focus on under 250 grams. With the correct product line, mailing costs are meaningless to me. I can afford to sell and ship or I cannot. There is no in-between.

Most of us that do well, took a hobby and turned it into a business. The essence of Pierre's "Sell what you know and know what you sell".  When I started selling, I already had a supply network in place, through my hobby.

[73rhc]

The fact that you are asking this question, here. Tells me you didn't do you first priority. RESEARCH. This site has a lot of information, if you know where to look. See what is selling and what isn't. If you come to eBay haphazardly, you will not succeed. I haven't seen many small sellers become instantly rich here, With little effort. It takes a lot of work. And even with a lot of work, there is no guarantee of success. You have some homework to do!!!