Quite honestly unless you can satisfy this supply problem you will never make a success of an eBay business. In this article I want to look at 10 of the more common sources of products to sell through eBay or any of the other online auctions.

Your own items

In today’s materialistic society we all have more possessions than we need. Just have a look through your garage, attic and cupboards and I am sure you will find plenty of surplus items that other would love the opportunity to buy. Remember one person’s junk is another’s treasure. The problem with this is that it is not an inexhaustible supply and the source will eventually dry up. Never the less it is a great way to start and gain experience of online auctions.

Car Boot Sales.
If you are by nature a bargain hunter then a car boot sale can be your happy hunting ground. Although the bargains may not be as easy to find as they once were they are still there if you are prepared to search them out. One niche that I have found profitable is to by regional items outside their region. For instance a book about Liverpool might arouse very little interest at a car boot sale in Luton but would be of real interest to a local; history buff on Merseyside. I have also found it profitable to buy old postcards of New York for pennies and then sell them on eBay.com.

Offline Auctions
Most larger towns and cities have at least one auction house that hold regular sales. These can provide a really good source for products to sell on eBay. The biggest potential comes from mixed lots and collections rather than individual items. It can also be worth keeping your eyes open for

Bankruptcy and liquidation sales where you can often get single items in quantity. The one point you have to be careful of with this type of sale is that sometimes VAT is added to the final bid price and that adds 17.5% to the bid price and of course you may have to add a buyers premium on to this as well.

Charity Shops
It can be worth scouting around your local charity shop or church fete as these can often throw up a good bargain or two. This is more true of the local charities as the national ones such as Oxfam and The National Heart Foundation are becoming more and more skilled at filtering out the real bargains. AS the money they are raising is for really good causes I suppose we cannot really complain about this.

eBay
It is always worth having a look through the wholesale section of eBay for job lots. Also have a browse for items that are misspelt or have been put in the wrong category. The best time to find these bargains is just before the sale ends and I use the “auctions finishing within one hour” in the search feature to find these.

Consignment Selling
Once you have become experienced selling on eBay you can offer your services to sell items for other people. This is proving quite popular in some areas and providing you meet the requirements you can register with eBay as a Trading Assistant. You should charge between 25%-30% commission and before you start I would recommend that you read the article son consignment selling that you will find in the archived copies of UKAuctionline Newsletter and on the web site.

Dropship
With drop shipping you offer items for sale on eBay but you do not buy them from the supplier until your customer has paid you. Drop shipping is to complex a subject to go into in an article such as this but I have added an article to the web site Dropshipping and eBay - Is It All a Scam or is There a Real Business Opportunity Here? Which will give you more information.

Trade Fairs and Shows
I have to admit that this is my favoured option. This gives you the opportunity to make contact directly with the manufactures and acquire items that are unique to eBay. There are trade shows throughout the UK . To get a full list visit http://www.exhibitions.co.uk/. My own favourite is the Internation Spring Fair held at the NEC every February.

Wholesalers
Wholesalers tend to deal only with “the trade” but if you are selling on eBay you are “the trade”. It will be worth getting some business cards printed and run off some letterheads on your computer. You will probably need these to set up an account with some of the wholesalers. This may not be necessary with “Cash and Carry” warehouses who providing that you are paying cash are happy to supply anyone. You can get details of cash and carry wholesalers from 2 magazines, “The Worlds Fair” and “The Trader”. Both are normally available from leading newsagents. The Trader also has a very good source directory online at http://www.exhibitions.co.uk/. This is free and is far more accurate an dup to date than many of the so called wholesaler lists on offer on eBay and elsewhere.

Local Shops
It is a sad fact that many local shops are being forced out of business these days. It is not unusual to walk down the street and see signs such as “Closing Down- All stock must go” If the shop is part of a national chain they will obviously move any unsold stock to other branches but local shops do not have that option. They might well consider an offer for all the remaining stock especially if they have to clear out by a certain date.

Just keep your eyes open you never know when an opportunity might come your way.

These are just a few ideas. Non eof them are particularly new but hopefully they will get you thinking along the right lines.