Are you running low on inventory? If that's the case, you may need to get some more things to sell in your eBay store. One popular way to find this inventory is to go to yard sales, but in the winter months, there aren't a lot of these sales, so you might not be able to pick up an excellent find that will make you a lot of money. If you're really good at selling things, you may want to try selling other people's things on commission.



There are many advantages and some disadvantages to selling other people's items on commission. The major advantage is that if something doesn't sell, you aren't obligated or financially burdened with the stuff. For example, you may buy a piece of antique china at a yard sale for $5, thinking that it will sell for about $10 or $15. If no one buys this item, you are stuck with the china. When you are selling on commission, when something doesn't sell, you can give it back to the owner, and you don't have to lose a lot of money selling an item really cheaply to get rid of it. When selling on commission, you usually get a percentage of each sale. So if you don't sell something, you don't get anything, and you're only out a bit of money (the money you paid to have it listed on eBay).

So what exactly are you going to sell? Well one thing that you will probably handle a lot of is estate items. Other big markets are baby goods and furniture, collectibles, household items, electronics, and more. Whatever people want to get rid of, you can probably sell it for them on commission.

One disadvantage of selling on commission is that you have to ask the seller what their minimum price is. For example, you may have someone who is really emotionally attached to a set of china that belonged to their grandma, but they need the money now. They may say that they won't sell it for a penny under $250, even when your research has shown that $200 is probably the best rate they can expect to get. To be a good business person, you are going to have to do a lot of research and tell people what they can truly expect to make.

Selling on commission is a good way to get a lot of new items in your eBay store, and to make money without having the risk of having a lot of inventory sitting in your home office.