It is true bits and pieces do make money on eBay. Once you have read this short article you will never ever through a game or jig saw away again just because there are a few bits and pieces missing.

Now I want you to be honest here, how many of us have gone to play a game opened the box up to find some of the bits and pieces were missing. Ok yes at times we can borrow some parts from another game – then we forget to replace them back and now we have two games with parts missing and in the end we just through them away or put them in the back of the cupboard just in case the parts turn up.

Right now I want you to stop right there and put your product sourcing hat and marketing hat on, every home is sitting on a small gold mine with all these games that have bits and pieces missing. The reason is their is a new niche on eBay Bits and pieces make money on eBay every day of the week. And apart from your own home you can find sources all over the place : friends, family, neighbours, charity shops – (each day these shops get loads of games with missing parts in, all they do is skip them, you offer to buy them for a small donation, they will laugh and take your money and think how sill you are, but little do they know)

All you do is put these parts into small bundles such as monopoly money, ludo counters, dice, scrabble letters etc. And then sell them to buyers who are looking for bits and pieces for their much loved game they can no longer play due to missing parts, but also people who craft are often looking for things like scrabble letters.

So if you have some games with missing parts, buddle the items up and give this small niche a go and see if people are right when they say Bits and pieces make money. And why just stop at game parts, look around you and think what else can be sold in this niche, the list is endless.

Andrew Milburn Is An eBay Consultant. If You Need Help With Your eBay Business Send An Email To info@MyAuctionEmpires.com
Or Phone 07582 889 050

Today I was out and about in Lichfield, spending some time in the field interacting with some friends on our City market, and spending some time chatting and spending time with some great people, before my morning eBay Consulting client appointment was due. Sadly he had to cancel the appointment which left me with some spare time, so I decided to do some product sourcing in some of the local charity shops.

Now I have not visited these shops on a Friday for a long time, so did not know what to expect, as recently on Saturday’s they have been low on items to source and buy. But as everyone knows who is in the product sourcing game knows never give up a time to go product sourcing.

Anyway hit two shops and not much, but the 3rd shop I think I hit a jackpot. There in a box was a load of postcards and several model trains, they all looked in great condition and there must have been 400 postcards and some other paper items. And in the middle of the box were around 6 model train pieces. I looked and there was no price on the box, to begin I thought it had just been bought in, but it was on the floor with the junk items, so I asked the girl who worked there, and she said oh that box of tat, give me X Amount I was about to throw it out as no one wants it. I mentioned the model trains and she said I Know she put them in there today as no one wanted them.

I handed over the £10.00 feeling a bit guilty and packed the items in several large bags as I was using the bus. Once home I did a quick search on the model trains and a very big smile came across my face. Will they be instant profits, well I do not think so, but over time I will get my money back many times over.

I guess the motto of this story is when out product sourcing, keep your eyes peeled and look in boxes and backs of shelves you never know what you may find and if you see boxes un-priced either say can I have this for xyz or ask how much for these, and like me you may be surprised.

Andrew Milburn is an eBay Consultant based in Lichfield Staffordshire, for further details please phone 07582 889 050

As an eBay consultant one of the things we tell clients, is to make sure that they spell titles and descriptions in the correct way, and explain why they need to do this. But as a buyer,  spelling mistakes equals profits on eBay.

Everyday on eBay, people will list items with badly spelt titles, poor descriptions………quite often these are a mistake due to a listing being done in a hurry, and the person doing the listing just did not have the time to proof ready the title or description and very often do not realise the mistake until the item does not sell, or it sells for very little.

Other times people will list an item and spell a brand name wrongly, or spell an artist name incorrectly, now you may think that this does not happen very often……….well think again. Everyday many thousands items are listed wrongly with a bad spelling or brand name spelled incorrectly.

So how can spelling mistakes equals profits on eBay ? There are many ways, the hard way is to just go on to eBay and do a search for items ending soonest then look for ones with no bids or badly spelt listings, but yes this takes time and is a lot of work, There is a range of free software out there that helps you source these products with just a few mouse clicks. One of the best ones I have found is http://www.fatfingers.co.uk/ it is free and fast and will always bring you a list of items for sales that you can buy at super low prices.

So if you are looking at new ways of buying items to re-sell have a look at the spelling mistakes equals profits on eBay idea and see if you can make a nice profit. But one word of advice you need to use two eBay accounts to do this. One to buy on and one to sell on. This way people will not be able to see that you bought the item at a low price, changed some spellings and then re-sold at large profit.

As an eBay and Amazon Consultant we get asked many questions but when you look at the questions as a whole they are very often the same thing, just asked in different styles. Over the past few months one of the top questions I get asked is “Does retail arbitrage really work” ? And I can answer yes it does work, but you do need to know what you are doing.

It does not matter where you live in the world you will have access to retail shops where they sell items and all through the the year these offline shops have sales, or they are discounting items or even better they are discontinuing a item due to poor sales in the store. And it is important to note here in that store. Although the item may not be a hot seller where you live, it may be a mega seller somewhere else in the world, and people are willing to pay over the top for it. This is where you can come in and make some good money – but as with anything you always need to be careful and never invest money for stock that you cannot afford.

Retail Arbitrage is a fun side of product sourcing it can be done whenever you are out in a retail shop. You need to get to know where the different store put their items they have discounted for sale or where the end of line products are put, and on a regular basis visit those stores and buy up any inventory that you know will sell. (You know this by using a scanner and programs such as FBA Power)

Another side to Retail Arbitrage is where you keep a look out in your local paper and local radio for stores that are closing down or running a deep discounted sale, you need to note these in your diary and note the time the store opens and get their early. You normally have a few days notice of these sales, so this lets you see what will be sold then check on sites such as eBay and Amazon and as long as there is some decent product  in the items get along, but some and get them listed on eBay and Amazon – and very soon you will see the money and profits starting to grow.

In today’s Retail Arbitrage article keep a lookout for those coupons that are offering money off items, if you can buy at a low enough price from a retail store and the price is higher on eBay and Amazon then again you are in the money. So does retail arbitrage YES it does and as an eBay and Amazon consultant it is something I recommend to my clients to try.