Let’s talk about what I would do if I had to start over from day 1 with my eBay business in 2026.
If you haven’t started yet on eBay or if you are a new eBay reseller, this could be helpful for you. You absolutely can get a profitable reselling business off the ground in 2026. I’ve been selling on eBay for 30 years and back then, you needed to know and do a lot more to sell on eBay. For example, we had to know HTML code to get our items listed. It’s a lot simpler now because all you need is a smartphone and inventory to sell. That makes this business more accessible for everyone.
Starting Your eBay Business
If this was day one, I would look around my house for items I wasn’t using anymore. Get those listed on eBay. I would also look for trash that people were throwing away that wasn’t actually trash, and try to sell that stuff. Because then you have no money invested in the business and you can start bankrolling some money to use to help buy future inventory.
The biggest thing to overcome is the fear of a perfect plan or analysis paralysis. You don’t need to know everything about the platform to get started. You just need to start. You will learn and make mistakes, and it’s best to do those on low value items. The more time you spend on the platform and going through the selling experience, the better you will learn it.
Types of Items To Look For
Look in your kitchen for items you no longer use. Are there gadgets that you used once and then never used again? Look at your brand name clothing. Maybe you have some higher end jeans that you don’t wear anymore. Look in your garage or attic. Old sports equipment is another great category. If you have not used an item in the last 6-12 months, you typically won’t use it again, and you can turn it into cash.
You can totally find free stuff outside the house too. We have made thousands of dollars from free stuff that we’ve been given or that we’ve found. We got an exercise bike out of the trash and sold it for $300. We’ve sold wheelchairs, speakers, and more.
Once I had a bankroll from these free items, I would look for an item for around $100 that I could flip for $7,000-$10,000 like we talked about on our previous podcast episode. Then you can start really making money.
Establish Your eBay Relationship
Before selling high profit items, you need to have a relationship with eBay, so if you’re starting out, get that account live and start selling. They want to see you’re a legit seller before you’re able to sell all of the high profit items. When you first start you’re capped at $500 and 10 items, but you can increase that quickly as you ship items out and on time. The goal is to build your feedback quickly and that can also include buyer feedback. I’d buy 20 cheap items on eBay, or things I already need because then I can build my feedback faster.
That’s how you build your foundations on eBay and then you hit the ground running. You just go and find those high profit flips and you start making money.
Smaller flips can also help too. I would list both small and high profit because the smaller items help you be more consistent in your daily listing. Just get that momentum and keep growing. Once you start spending money on items, one tip is to look for items in niches you know. So if you know golf, maybe you look for good golf clubs at the thrift. Use your hobbies to your advantage in your reselling business. We do a lot of commercial items, exercise equipment, and appliances because we’re familiar with those items.
If you haven’t opened your eBay account yet, get started today. You will make mistakes. I made mistakes and I still do, but there’s always a way to figure things out and when you’re starting out the mistakes are easier to bounce back from.
Show Notes
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FURTHER RESOURCES
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