Obviously, you do not want to be one of the above 50% who quit, you want to be part of the 50% who stick it out and learn how to find good products to sell. Here in the Sourcing Product section you will learn how to do just that. Find great products at low prices and resell them for a large profit.

In my humble opinion, finding quality products to sell is probably the most difficult part of running a successful auction business. If you are a product locating genius then your business will be even simpler. If you are like most however locating sources for product can seem complicated and even a little scary. For those of you that feel that way, take heart, while locating products is not easy, it is rather simple once you learn how, and its also not hard to do, but it will take time, effort and some hard work.

So cheer up and read through the rest of this section and you will learn all you need to know about finding products sell in your online auctions.

Getting Started

The first, and easiest, way to begin your Internet auction career is to sell goods that you already own. This is how most people begin and I certainly recommend this way for the novice. This also a good way to learn how eBay selling works and if you think it could be right for you. In addition you may find a hot niche market right off the bat that you can specialize in.

You know that garage sale you have every year? Cancel it! Why would you want to sit out in the hot sun all weekend and be happy if a hundred people come and toss some quarters and dimes at you, when you could list those very same garage sale items on eBay and reach millions of targeted customers who will more than likely pay you much more for your treasures? What sounds better to you?

After you have exhausted your supply of items from around your house, then it is time to consider where to find your next batch of products.

Click here to read a great Q&A article from Home Business Magazine on Getting started with your home biz.

Selling Strategy

There are really only two strategies for sellers who want to make big money with online auctions.

1. Sell many lower priced items for a moderate profit on each item.
2. Sell a few high-ticket items for a large profit on each item.

Both of these strategies have their strengths and weaknesses. For example if your goal is to make a $1000.00 profit this month, then with strategy one if you made a $10.00 profit on each item, you would have to sell 100 items to make a thousand dollars. But with strategy two you may only have to sell one item to make several thousand dollars profit.

Strategy one is a lot more work than strategy two, as you are listing many auctions and you have to keep track of them all. However sellers who use strategy one have a much larger group of potential customers. I mean how many people do you know who can afford to buy a Ferrari? But almost everybody can afford to buy a $20 or $30 dollar widget.

A major drawback of selling high-ticket items is the investment you must make in order to try and sell that item. If you buy a $15.00 gizmo and it doesn't sell, no big deal, but if you buy a $15000.00 piece of equipment and it doesn't sell, well then you have a problem, you have just tied up fifteen thousand dollars that may take you along time to get back. There are ways to get around this and we will discuss a few later on in this section.

If you are new to selling on eBay auctions, then strategy one is where you need to start. If you are unknown on eBay then buyers are not going to be comfortable buying expensive items from you. Would you buy a Ferrari from a seller with zero feedback? I wouldn't. Start off with less expensive items and build your online credibility and then start moving up into the higher priced items.

The bottom line, you can make enormous amounts of money with either of the above strategies. You can pick one strategy and stick with it or you can switch back and forth between the two or you could do what I do and create your own combination of strategy one and strategy two and sell a little of both types of items.

Locating Quality Products

After you have decided on your selling strategy, you next step is locating sources for quality items that you can resell at a profit. Sound complicated? Well its not, and thanks to technology and the World Wide Web, locating items for resale is getting easier every day. Just go to Google and type in "Wholesale" and you will get about a zillion matches.

But how do you find what you're looking for in that mess? Well this is where the time consuming part of locating products comes in. You must browse through sites that have what your looking for and compare prices and quality. The problem with this approach is it takes a really long time and can often be very frustrating.

I don't know about you, but I don't like being frustrated or wasting hours searching for a product and coming up empty-handed. Luckily the is a partial solution to this problem, there are people out there who have compiled huge lists of wholesale and dropship sources that will aid you in finding items to sell.

Sounds great right? I thought so too, that is until I purchased several of the lists and found that many of the companies on the list were not in business any more, even more still had the wrong phone number listed. One of the list I bought had over 2,000 wholesale companies listed, but did not have a single bit of contact information for any of the 2,000+ companies, How was I supposed to get in touch with the companies? My point is be very careful about purchasing these wholesale lists, 90% of the time you will not get what you pay for.

Yet not all of the lists are bad, I stumbled on one a while back that is 100% worth its weight in gold. I admit when I found it I was a bit leery after losing money on the previous lists, but I gave it a try anyway and was completely surprised. It was packed with thousands of wholesale and dropship companies with complete and up-to-date contact information, over 90% of them even had websites where you could view and purchase their products. Learn more about this awesome dropship and wholesale resource.

One of my favorite places to find a great deal on products for resale is Liquidation.com. Here you will find a auction style website where wholesale sellers liquidate large quantities of merchandise and buyers can often pick these items up for an incredibly low price. I have found some of my most profitable batches of items on this website. Go check it out for yourself!

Other Good Ideas for locating Items to Sell:

• Garage sales
• Estate sales
• Tag sales
• Thrift shops
• Consignment Shops
• Pawn shops
• Flea Markets
• Antique Mall
• Antique shows
• Collectors shows
• Traditional auctions
• Outlet malls
• Trade shows
• Overstock stores
• Government auctions
• Newspaper classified ads

Anyone of the above sources could provide you with a steady supply of unique or semi unique items to sell through your online auctions.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping when done right can be a highly profitable addition to your auction business, or you could specialize and sell only dropshipped items through your auctions.

What is Dropshipping and How Does it Work?

The hardest part about dropshipping is finding reliable dropship companies to partner up with. You don't want to sell an item on eBay and then have your dropshipper take two weeks to ship the item. Or worse, you sell an item on eBay and then you go to pay the dropshipper for the item and they tell you that item is backordered. Those two nightmares are why it is critical that you only deal with reliable and reputable dropship companies. Click here to read an Entrepreneur Magazine article written by Cory Rudl on how to find a quality drop-shipper.

If you are looking for multiple dropship companies, the Dropship Source Directory has over 3900 reliable dropship companies listed with more being added on a weekly basis. These guys are great, they personally communicate with each one of the companies on their list to insure that the companies are legitimate and reliable.

Another great resource for locating quality dropship companies is the Dropship Wholesale Website. This awesome website has everything you need to get started selling dropshipped and wholesale products products. I highly recommend that you check out this very handy resource. It will save you countless hours of Internet searching.

If you would like more information on how to dropship successfully, you should check out the 12 Killer Dropshipping Secrets for eBay Sellers ebook, written by an eBay Power Seller.