To start out in product sourcing, you need cash. One of the dilemmas for a lot of sellers is that they don’t have a lot of cash to setup a store. The best way to get some cash together for product sourcing is to start by selling all your old junk from around the house. You’ll be surprised at what people on eBay will pay for things which you consider trash (you have all heard the story of the first ever item to be sold on eBay being a broken laser pointer, right?), which makes this a first-rate way to get started. So if you want to know how to quickly and easily make as much as a cool US$1000 to get your business growing, read on as I show you how.

Spring cleaning has never been so profitable!

Start by having a bit of a clear out and organizing your stuff around the house. You should look in places like:

  • the garage which is often a goldmine with old bikes, power tools, or an empty beer fridge which you no longer use
  • the wardrobe with last year’s clothing like dresses with tags still attached, shoes that are too tight or too high to walk in (but it seemed like a great idea at the time!)
  • the spare room (another gold mine) where you might find spare furniture, gifts that you never used, video games, a spare TV maybe, and a few old Halloween decorations.
  • And don’t forget your room, the kids room (clothes they grew out of are great for selling online), the bathroom, kitchen and living area; appliances that you never use and old wedding cutlery still in the original box and perfume that makes you feel sick are all items that can go from trash to cash.

For each room you ransack, make three piles: 1) stuff to throw out, 2) stuff to sell and, 3) stuff you want to keep.

Get set to sell

Take pile number 2 and have a good look at what you have to sell. You’ll know straight away what will sell for a lot and what might take a while to get rid of. For the more valuable items, spend some time looking through online listings and seeing how much the stuff sells for to get an idea of your potential earnings.

As soon as you can, get out your camera and take some great looking photos of everything you have to sell. Aim for using natural light in the middle of the day (this might have to be a weekend task), and go outside if you can. Otherwise, just use a lamp and a large sheet of white cardboard for photographing your smaller items. Keep in mind when taking photographs that a great photo is essential to evoking interest from buyers. It’s proven that sellers who use 4 or 5 good quality photos which really show off the item’s features are much more likely to sell than those who use 1 or 2 photos with poor lighting which don’t show the item and all its glory.

Once you have your photos all in order, it’s time to list! Set aside a bit of time to do this, especially if you have never done it before. eBay makes the whole process super easy, but it can be time-consuming for first timers.

When the money starts rolling in from your buyers, resist the urge to go out and spend it because we have bigger plans for that money to become the seed to grow your own online business.

Jump onto eBay and start looking at wholesale lots. Yep, you guessed it, you are about to make your first ever wholesale order! This is the perfect way to spend your earnings from around your home because not only does it earn you more cash and get you one step closer to doing some big wholesale buying, it’ll give you some experience in market research, in managing your listings, and dealing with customers.

Now is the time to get started. If you are feeling overwhelmed or can’t find the time to scow your entire house at once, start out with small, manageable chunks like clearing out the guest room wardrobe at listing a few items you find in there, then work your way up to doing this in larger lots. It won’t take long for you to see the money coming into your account and before long, you will be ready for a wholesale lot!