I am interested in selling on eBay and I've been doing product research but I guess you can call me a beginner. I looked a lot of things up and just picked things up as I went.
Trying to source things to sell for a high profit margain can be quite difficult due to Australia Post's really high postage rates. I mean $8 for sending an ordinary package bites out a lot of the potential profit if the shipping postage wasn't so costly.
I sort of concluded that the best way to do it is to find an item to sell that's thinner than 20mm so it can classify as a letter and you'll have to pay $2 for stamps, 30ยข for a padded envelope, and you're set. But that limits what you can sell and there must be an easy way around it. Also, it won't allow you to use tracking postage which is a lot more professional and convenient.
What do you all do?
Some people use the method of dropshipping so they never have to pay for the postage but it gives you a lot less control of the product's shipping times and if anything could be defective which could lead to negative reviews beyond your control.
Anyway, I'm interested to see how you do it. Thanks!
I sell on ebay.
95% of my products are slim and fit in a standard envelope.
i choose products that are not breakable so they can go in a normal envelope. with $1 postage
i place the item in cardboard pocket (taped up) - recycled packaging. this stops the item folding/bending the envelop and getting caught in the auspost sorting machine.
i don't use tracking.
I very rarely have an item go missing. if it does go missing then my profit margin is so high that sending a second item still yields a profit.
I don't dropship.
my rule for selling stuff is : if I'm not making at least $5 profit on an item then it's not worth my time.
exception- sometimes i buy cheap stuff in bulk only to sell at a slight profit just to increase my positive feedback . e.g. I bought in bulk OTG cables (19cents each) and sold them for $2 posted. doing this with a new ebay account gets you an upgrade in selling limits.