The following post reviews a thread my wife was involved in from a forum called WAHM (Work at Home Mom). This is a great forum with thousands of posts about making money from home. My wife’s user ID on this forum is “Mrswahm” and you can read the entire thread by visiting this link.

In this conversation several members of this forum are discussing the pros and cons of sourcing merchandise to resell on eBay. The following message was left for my wife in a personal mailbox and we thought we would address the questions here on our blog.

“Hi! I posted a reply to your and eBayCoach’s lively discussion. I’d like to find out if you’d be willing to offer some advice to a person in my shoes. In a nutshell, I’m a pretty good business woman and want to grow/develop an online sales business. I’ve read several books on the topic, but just want to understand what a day in the life of a successful ebay seller looks like? Assuming that the seller makes a good salary and isn’t scouting daily for items. Also, how much money will I need to invest in inventory and how much will I need to invest in management systems/staff.

I really appreciate you and any response you might have. Now, if you have any questions about California Real Estate, or Foreclosures, I can answer your questions! HAHA!

Thank you……Meredith”

Before I respond to Meredith’s comments above I want to steer our readers attention to another individual who was involved in this thread and her name is Suzanne Wells. She is affectionately known in several circles as the eBay Coach. Suzanne offers in-depth advice for eBay resellers showing them how to find inventory via garage sales, thrift stores, product coupon redemption and other creative ideas. I strongly encourage our readers to check out her blog a become a faithful eBay Coach follower. Suzanne is also the author of a very successful book titled, Stay-At-Home Mom’s Guide to Successful eBay^® Selling and her blog can be found Here.

Lets move forward with my response to Meredith:

Hello Meredith, allow me to introduce myself…My name is Robert Cyr. You had sent a private message (above) to my wife on the WHAM forum. My wife was involved in a forum thread talking about dropshipping versus sourcing items to resell via thrift stores and garage sales. Both are viable ideas, but Lorie (my wife) was trying to press upon the readers there that spending hours hunting for merchandise to resell can become very tedious.

Let me back up a moment and fill our readers in on what I am talking about. There are great deal of eBay resellers who will find inventory by traveling from thrift store to thrift store looking for items to resell. In addition, sellers will also travel the garage and yard sale circuit looking for items that might fetch a strong dollar on eBay. Many of the items sought for resell are vintage or collectible.

My wife’s intent was to reveal that there is an easier way to source items for resell including dropshipping and purchasing bulk lots of liquidation merchandise.

A great deal of people responded in this thread because many who use the “Scouting” method to source merchandise to resell absolutely love doing what they are doing. They are passionate and get excited about the prospect of finding a rare piece of china or a highly sought after book. Items like this can bring a huge markup on eBay.

There is however a segment of people who cannot spend hour after hour hunting around thrift stores or garage sales, but want to be successful on eBay. Maybe some of these people live in rural areas where shopping for inventory is not an option.

The other negative thing about hunting for eBay merchandise is the fact that you can never be assured a steady supply of merchandise to resell. One week you might find a ton of stuff, while the next week might yield very little.

Now that I have everyone up to speed…I will answer some of your questions:

QUESTION: What does a day in the life of a successful ebay seller look like?

ANSWER: It is all glitz and glamor. I wake up at about 10 and watch TV for hours on end – yeah right! Selling on eBay is harder than most 8 to 5 jobs because you are never “off”. You wear many hats as you are in charge of product sourcing, marketing, shipping and customer satisfaction. You really have to be intent on being in business for yourself as the entrepreneur lifestyle is not for everyone.

QUESTION: How much money will I need to invest in inventory?

ANSWER: Start small. Being successful on eBay is about trend watching, testing the waters and careful research. If you find a source of merchandise from a wholesaler, manufacturer or dropshipper,  make sure you research historical completed auctions to see what a particular item has sold for. Is eBay flooded with this product line? Can you compete with the pricing your have found?   How much stock is available and can you get inventory ongoing? Make small purchases at first and if sales pickup you can buy in bulk at a lower cost per piece.I really think you can start with an investment of $100-$200.

eBay is all about marketing and staying on top of consumer spending trends-