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?

Think back to your childhood. Do you remember your first business adventure of setting up your own lemonade stand? You would sell cups of lemonade for only cents, and life was good. Life was good up until that kid set up another lemonade stand right across the street from yours and stole your thunder, right? Unfortunately, that kid is back on the block. However, in this situation, the block is located on eBay. In order to prevent these types of kids from earning all the sales, you need to learn how to compete effectively.

Remember selling your lemonade for twenty five cents, only to realize that the other stand sold their lemonade for ten cents? Competitive prices can make all the difference in selling merchandise. Depending on what you are selling, you should search eBay for the same or similar products. Determine the average price for your product, among fellow eBay sellers. You will want to price your product in this bracket, or slightly below if you do not have much money invested in the item you are planning to sell.

Furthermore, the attractive signs advertising for the other lemonade stands really caught the attention of people. The same method works on eBay. Advertising for your eBay store or items is important. Make your existence known on eBay. This will result in an increase of traffic to your eBay store, which increases your chances of gaining sales. Advertise on the internet, such as social networking websites. You can also promote your eBay items or store in your community or through word of mouth. Advertise and promote your eBay store as much as possible through numerous methods.

Another way to direct prospective buyers to your eBay items is to list keywords for each item throughout the listing and the description. These keywords allow your item to be shown when a buyer searches that term on eBay. Make sure your keywords are relevant to your item and utilize the full amount allotted by eBay.

So when selling items on eBay, it is important to remember that an online business is still a business and requires good customer service. Good customer service is the reason all of those power sellers became power sellers. They’ve acquired their positive feedback for several reasons. Among these reasons may be things like prices, fast shipping, reliability, quick to answer questions and concerns, or the diversity of products they sell. Accumulating positive feedback is always a positive gain for your eBay business.

You would be quite surprised how many people are using eBay as a way to make a second income. They simply take a lot of items and they auction them off. If you’ve ever heard the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” eBay is the perfect example of this for the fact that some of the items that are sold are items that some people would think no one wanted. But the truth is that people want virtually anything.

But you can only sell so much, right?

That is true. You can only sell so many items out of your home. Eventually, you may run out of items to sell. But that doesn’t have to be the end of the road for you. You don’t have to say goodbye to your eBay selling career. Here are some ways to really make eBay a second income for you that goes way beyond selling your belongings:

Find some great deals on the Internet. These can be wholesale deals or other such deals and sell these items on eBay for a higher price. But you still have to make sure the item is cheaper than what they could buy in a retail store.

Hit up flea markets, yard sales, and estate sales. Nab up items that are very cheap so that you can list them on eBay for a price higher than what you paid for it. You can almost always count on making your money back on these items.

Go to Liquidation sales and find out which stores in your area are closing. You can get their items for just a few dollars and sell them for more than you paid. That way you can make a profit.

Make sure you set up a website where you can list your items. eBay sellers with websites are eBay sellers who can build quite the reputation.

You can continue doing this over and over. There is always something that someone else wants to get rid of that you can sell on eBay. And if you are really gutsy, you can look through alleys for stuff that people put out to be taken. Some individuals beg for people to take away items. In other words, they invite stealing, although it is technically not stealing.

So go ahead and give eBay a try. Many individuals are making their primary and second incomes by using eBay so you might as well too. Why let something so profitable slip through your fingers?