I was reading the latest copy of Cover magazine and I stumbled upon a wholesale company called Trademarkcommerce.com. This wholesale company has an interesting marketing pitch as they show you what the products they distribute sell for on eBay and Amazon.com.

I was intrigued to say the least, so I thought I would complete my own research and see if I could come up with the same final selling prices (on eBay) for some of the products they are wholesaling. The products I will be researching today are found on the flyer they are advertising.

You can research an items’ profitability on eBay!

Lets get started……

First of all, if you do not know how to research an item on eBay make sure you take some notes on the following steps:

1. Obviously, you will need to go to http://ebay.com
2. In the search field enter the item you are interested in researching, press search
3. Once the following page loads look to the right of the ’search” button for the link “Advanced”
4. Once you have clicked the Advanced link you will be taken to a page where if you scroll down you will notice criteria stating ‘Search Including” – Check this box
5. Scroll down and click “Search”
6. Results that are displayed in GREEN closed with a winning bid
7. You can take those results and average the totals to get a good idea about whether the item in question will sell and how much you can expect to receive as a auction seller

The first product I researched on eBay was the Black iRobot. The advertised wholesale price from Trade Mark Commerce is $101.33. They advertise this product selling on eBay for $179.99.

When I searched eBay I found one iRobot had sold on eBay in the last two weeks and the final auction price was $149.99 with FREE Shipping. I would imagine that the seller paid at least $10 to ship this to the winning bidder, so profit looks to be $149.99 – $10 (Shipping) – $101.33 (Cost) = $38.66 before eBay listing and final value fees.

The second product I researched was the Advent GPS. The advertised wholesale price from Trade Mark Commerce is $99.99. They advertise this product selling on eBay for $229.99.

When I searched eBay I found one Advent GPS unit that had sold on eBay in the last two weeks and the final auction price was $140.24 with FREE Shipping. I would imagine that the seller paid at least $8 to ship this to the winning bidder, so profit looks to be $140.24 – $8 (Shipping) – $99.99 (Cost) = $32.25 before eBay listing and final value fees.

I should mention that while the above two items did sell on eBay, there were dozens of the same item that did not close with a winning bid. Using the ‘Completed” auction search feature on eBay is a great way to evaluate the profitability of an item you are thinking of reselling.

In my opinion, TradeMark Commerce might be a viable option for inventory. They certainly have a diverse product selection. You will need to sign up as a registered buyer before you will be able to view their entire online catalog. Once you are registered you can then check their pricing with the “Completed” item search feature found on eBay.

I would love to hear from anyone who has purchased from this company…any thoughts?