Selling on ebay

• First a quick update on surveys and research sites. I have found that becoming a member of a market research site is by far the best way to make money. It has taken some time to get requests from the ones I signed up for, but after a year, my phone is ringing about once a month for easy research studies that pay about $100.00 for one to two hours work. You have to love that!

• Now on to new things. I have been busy going through the process of selling on ebay. I know online stores are another route but there is less expense and a huge market of buyers that are very familiar with ebay. You don't have to spend money advertising (although if you open an ebay store you have that option). Of course, there is more to it than first meets the eye!

• First, you have to find out what people buy online. After much research I found out that top online buys are books, electronics and clothes. I decided that I would sell clothes.

• I decided to buy wholesale clothes that are brand new. Trying to find legitimate wholesalers with actual wholesale prices took a lot of time and searching. There are many that claim to be wholesalers that charge retail prices. A week of clicking, emailing and comparing finally got me some results.

• I do want to mention one site I was very disappointed in, Alibaba, not because of the site itself, it is a great concept and may work for some bigger buyers out there, but not for me.

• There are thousands of wholesale manufacturers from all over the world, but I ran into many that sell fake brand name jeans, hoodies and shirts. These places should be shut down. They undermine real brands and cause naive sellers to buy inferior and shoddy replicas. They all are bad for business. Always make sure when you buy a brand name the seller tells you it's authentic, otherwise you may be buying a cheap fake. Most of the better wholesalers there request a minimum purchase of 500 + pieces. Others, I had to email back and forth about five times each just to get an actual price on one of the items they sell. It was very time consuming and a waste because nothing ever seemed to get accomplished. ERRRR!!!!

• On a more positive note, I did find some certified brand name overstocks that were authentic to sell. You can find these locally and online.

• Anyway, after finally finding some good merchandise, I took a chance and bought some stock items. I still have to find out what sells the best. I decided to provide fashionable plus size women's clothing, some regular sized brand jeans (authentic) and a few mens jeans.

• So far I have sold more than I expected. This may indeed be a good way to make money from home. The ability to expand is also very possible. But there is a lot to learn as well. To make it, you have to know what you are selling and provide great communication, shipping and hope that your customers appreciate your efforts enough to give you good feedback.

• If you want to check out my items click on the title "My Ebay Items", you never know, maybe I've got something you would like too! I will keep you posted on how this venture and others are turning out. Thanks for all the post comments and keep them coming!