Maintaining Your Sales Inventory

If you need to be launching several hundred auctions a week, where do you find all those items to list? It's a simple fact that you can't become a PowerSeller by listing onesies and twosies. Instead, you need to find an item you can buy in bulk, and then list multiples of that item week after week.

Although beginning eBayers can find items to sell by haunting flea markets and estate auctions, PowerSellers most likely won't find what they need in those venues. A better strategy is to approach local retailers or wholesalers and offer to buy 10 or 20 (or more) of a particular item. Buy whatever quantity earns you the best price breakas long as you think you can move them.

You can also buy bulk lots of merchandise from online wholesalers and liquidators. We discussed some of these sites in Chapter 14, "Before You Sell: Do Your Homework!" Check out Liquidation.com (www.liquidation.com) and Wholesale411 (www.wholesale411.com) to see what's available, or use Ándale Suppliers (www.andale.com) to hook up with suppliers of specific types of merchandise.

If you're a serious collector, you might have your eBay business right there. When your comics collection numbers in the tens of thousands, or you have thousands of rare coins filed away in your basement, you're ready for power sellingand power buying. Just remember to buy low and sell high, and you'll be in business.

Finally, consider the selling price of the items you want to selland the profit you generate on each item. You have to sell a lot more of a $5 item than you do of a $50 item to make the same amount of profit. (Assuming both generate a similar profit percentage.) And, of course, the more items you sell, the more work you have to do. The most successful PowerSellers do it by selling higher-priced, higher-profit items, for which the revenuesand the profitsadd up a lot quicker.