If you can easily find a wholesale supplier of a product you want to sell on eBay, so can everyone else! As more and more people are selling on eBay, it’s getting more and more competitive and harder to find a cheaper supply than your competitors. Ideally you want to find someone that all your competitors aren’t using.

If someone else is already selling what you want to sell on eBay and you want to know who their supplier is – this may work: right click on the photo of the product that they’ve used in their listing. Then click on Properties. It will show you the web address where that photo is hosted on the internet. If the seller is using a photo hosted by the supplier, you will now know the supplier’s web address and so can get in touch with them!

Did you know that you can buy wholesale on eBay? eBay has a Wholesale & Job Lots category. So do an eBay search by entering the product name in the Find box and select Wholesale & Job Lots from the drop-down menu in the in box, then click Search. See if the eBay category that you are interested in has a wholesale lots sub-category where you can get your inventory from.

Your supplier doesn’t have to be a conventional wholesaler or drop ship supplier. It can be anyone who currently sells your product, either to retailers or direct to the public. Ideally they need to be selling in a different market to yours.

By different market I mean they may be a conventional shop selling to the local community that doesn’t sell online. Or they may have a website but aren’t selling on eBay. You can approach them and offer to sell their product for them on eBay. You sell them, they ship them. It’s like having your very own drop shipper that none of your competitors know about!

Not all products are available wholesale. Some products, especially exclusive branded products (which are likely to sell very well on eBay) are supplied direct to the retailer by the manufacturer, by-passing the wholesaler. Any “wholesaler” of these products is likely to be selling fakes.

The retailer of these products may be required to order a certain amount from the manufacturer to retain their seller’s licence. They may struggle to sell that many and may welcome the fact that you will offer to sell their items for them on eBay.

Big department stores aren’t likely to be interested but small local independent retailers may well be. After all, the owner is just a person who wants to make money like you. To get what you want, give people what they want. When approaching the retailer, emphasise what’s in it for them, i.e. a way of selling stock they might otherwise struggle to sell. By increasing their sales (through you) they may be able to negotiate lower prices from the manufacturer, increasing their profit.

You will need to do your research and decide what sort of volume you think you could sell on eBay and what sort of profit is likely. Approach the retailer and present your proposal in a professional and business-like manner. They won’t want to go into partnership with an amateur.

Consider supplying businesses, i.e. sell what other eBay sellers need. Businesses buy large quantities repeatedly. This leads to a way around the minimum quantity problem – you can become a middleman. For example, the minimum quantity that wholesalers supply a certain product for may be 1,000 @ $1 each. Investing $1,000 may be too much for many small eBay sellers. You could buy 1,000 units and sell them on in batches of 10, 20, 30, 50, or whatever is an appropriate amount, for more than $1 each. Why will anyone buy from you? Because they are willing to pay more per item if they can buy fewer items. Furthermore, once they’ve sold them, they’ll keep coming back for more.

Look for unusual items for sale in shops. Look at the packaging to find out who the manufacturer is and contact them to see if they will let you sell their items on eBay. Consider having a contract drawn up giving you exclusive online auction marketing rights. Otherwise, when they realise how easy it is, they may start selling on eBay themselves!

You may come across a speciality local item on your travels that is common in that region/country but may have a massive market elsewhere. Or something that’s local to you may have appeal globally.

“Nearly new” items can often be bought cheaper than new wholesale items but often sell for virtually the same price as new wholesale items. Examples of nearly new items are: surplus, over-stock, liquidation, close-out, refurbished.

“Refurbished” can mean new products that are flawed in some way: the packaging may be damaged, their may be a scratch or dent on the item, the item has been returned as an unwanted gift, ex-demonstration, or over-stock (which are actually new but are often sold as refurbished). Refurbished products are often indistinguishable from new but can be much cheaper to get hold of. They might sell for virtually the same price as new but for much higher profit because you got them much cheaper.

To source refurbished goods, do an internet search using search terms such as refurbished / refurb / close-out / overstock / liquidation / salvage / auction / surplus PLUS the name of the product you are searching for. Or go to the website of a manufacturer of the product you’re interested in and search for “refurbished”.

Do an internet search for over-runs which are excess stock that must be got rid of to make room for a new range. The supplier just wants to get rid of this stock at any price which means you can secure a cheap supply, often at below wholesale prices.

You will face less competition if you sell items on eBay that you have imported yourself. But importing involves time delays, money exchange issues, money can get tied up for a while and language barriers. Importing is for the advanced eBayer and not recommended until you are experienced and have a successful business.

Whoever your supplier is, you must protect yourself. Always order a sample before placing an order to check the quality – not only of the merchandise but also of the supplier’s reliability, legitimacy and customer service. If they won’t provide you with a sample – be cautious. Don’t get scammed and beware of fakes. Only pay by methods that can be traced.

Martyn Boaden

This post is based on an extract taken from The Lazy Way To Wealth On eBay