How I Created A Side Income With eBay Reselling
If you are working part-time then you may want to start a side hustle to get some extra income, here is how I did it.
Whether you are working part-time, your unemployed or you are employed full time you may want to start a side hustle that gets you some extra cash each month. Here is how I started my eBay reselling business and here is what I learned from it.
How I Started
I was on vacation in summer a few years ago and I had realised that I wanted to find a way that I could buy the things that I wanted. At this time I was still living with my parents so I didn’t have to pay for any of the vacations and I didn’t have any rent to pay.
Because I was a student, there were many things I wanted but I couldn't afford. The only income I had was my monthly allowance of $10 which I always put away in a bank account. The things I wanted to buy were just too expensive and if I wanted to get them then I would have to save up for more than 2 years.
This is when I realised that I needed to get a side hustle that I could do while I was still at school. This was difficult because I didn’t have much time, just a few hours after school each day and the weekends. Multiple ideas crossed my mind like blogging or affiliate marketing but those things all took more time than I had. After about 6 months I found a video on YouTube that was talking about how to start an eBay reselling business. After I watched this video, I knew what I needed to do.
I then started looking into what I would need to do to get started. I spent probably around a month gathering tips and tricks that would help me get off to a good start.
I have been running the business for over 2 years now and I have had ups and downs but most importantly I have learned a lot. There are many things that, like many other things, I didn’t know because it’s the stuff that no one really talks about.
What I Have Learned
There are so many different and valuable things that I have learned from running the business but here are the most important things that I have learned.
Sell You Own Things First
When I was doing my initial research there were a lot of people that spoke about selling your own things first buy I didn’t listen. I thought that I should just dive right in and ignore this advice. While I don’t regret not doing it, I do recommend it if you are getting started for a few reasons.
When you first start your eBay account, you have no seller feedback which means that people browsing eBay are less likely to buy from you. Your products will sell much slower and it’s best if you start with things you already own because it is more personal rather than looking like a spam profile.
Once you have built up some buyer feedback and made a few sales, you can use those profits to go out and buy things to sell. You will also then be able to sell things much quicker than without the feedback.
Change The Shops You Go To Regularly
This is probably one of my biggest tips. If you go to a shop to buy inventory, leave it a few weeks or even months before you go back. If you return to the same shop to soon, the inventory that they have will be the same. You will end up wasting your time because there will be nothing new for you to buy and then sell.
I would often go to the same 5 shops and this really hurt me. I only had a few hours a week and for the first 2 months, I went to the same shops every week. This meant that I wasted so much time because the products they had for sale were the exact same. I now have a list of around 50 shops that rotate around and if you are going to try reselling then I advise you do the same!
Conclusion
When you start a new side hustle there are many things that you don’t realise. Things that other people don’t tell you that you find out just by running the business. Never let these things stop you because everyone that tries this will have to overcome challenges like this!
