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We’re back onto that old chestnut again, the humble poundshop, and how other people are using them to make tons of money as we speak. And they’ll be making much more money buying from poundshops and reselling those products on eBay as the Christmas big spend season continues.

Poundshop products? Really?

You know I love poundshops, so do my readers, and at the risk of repeating myself, I’m going to give you a couple of very good reasons why you should like them too.

* Most poundshops really do offer incredible bargains, all priced – well you know how much these items cost – and all with the potential to fetch at least three or four pounds pure profit on eBay, and maybe a good deal more.

* Larger poundshop companies with branches across the UK tend to stock pretty similar items in all their branches, and these are the ones I recommend you avoid as an eBay, or Amazon seller. That’s because people looking for a bargain in, say, Bournemouth, are more likely to visit their own local national poundshop and pick up their goods on the day, than purchase from an eBay seller based in Newcastle-on-Tyne who charges postage and probably won’t post items the same day orders are received.

That means you need to avoid buying stock from major stores like Poundland with outlets all over the country, and look instead for shops only selling in one region, or trading from one unit and not marketing online.

Locate someone offering quality pound products from one location and not selling online and you’ll probably find items that could be incredibly popular on eBay and having little or no competition from other eBay sellers.

This happens because most smaller stores locate their goods directly from little-known wholesalers and import companies who don’t offer sufficient big spend discounts to larger regional and national companies like Poundland. So it’s possible to find local poundshops offering goods no one else is selling online, not now, not ever. And that means you can promote your goods far and wide on eBay, also Amazon, while facing very little competition and probably no pricing wars.

* Once you find your shop, and you discover the owner isn’t selling online, you ask how many units of specific items are regularly in stock. If the answer’s more than one hundred, or the shop never runs out of stock, buy ten or more products and list them on eBay, with the intention of testing profit margins before going back to restock.

You’ll probably have at least a few days to do your testing before poundshop stocks decline, if they ever do run out of stock.

If poundshop stocks are generally low, buy ten or more products similar - but not identical - to items you’ve seen selling on eBay, but this time you need to list and test your products right away before your poundshop runs out of stock. List your goods and study the number of people visiting your fixed price listings, check how many people are watching your products in their eBay accounts, notice which products sell faster and in higher quantities than others.

A product that attracts no viewers, and no watchers or sales two or three days after being listed is not going to be a best seller and can be left to hopefully recoup your investment. Items with double figure visitors, and more than half a dozen watchers, plus a couple of sales in two or three days are probably going to generate a profit on your first listings and you may be able to ask higher prices later for better performing products.

Find just ten or twenty unique poundshop items making three pounds pure profit per unit for you, as well as selling in double numbers each day between now and Christmas and you’ll do very nicely indeed.

So imagine you have just one product costing £1 selling ten times a day and making £3 pure profit per sale. That’s £30 pure profit for you from just one poundshop find. Find 100 items, and profit has risen to £3,000 - per day - and yes you will need help packing and delivering goods to your customers. Even better, there’s still at least two weeks to list and sell goods on eBay before the festive big spend season draws to a close.

So it’s these products available solely from local suppliers you need to rush out to investigate now, today, before someone else beats you to it.

What sort of items are we looking at, and are there examples of products currently fetching record sales levels and high prices for other eBay sellers?

You bet your life there are, and what we’re looking for are stocking filler items and small gifts for brantubs, party gifts for children and adults etc.

Here are some products and sellers I have researched for you - not to copy but to use as a guide for your own eBay listings:

- eBayer - *myplanet* - (with asterisks in the name) sells around 13,000 items monthly, varying in price from several hundred pounds each to just a few pounds for stocking fillers that fetch multiple sales daily. Such as a Rubiks Cube priced £2.99 and selling 90 plus units in one day (some people ordering several presumably for children’s parties), and Sexy Santa aprons costing £2.99 each and selling more than forty units yesterday.

- eBayer - we_r_christmas_store - 7,000 plus sales monthly and offering mainly Christmas ornaments and decorations, dozens in the £3 - £5 range and selling several times each day.

Find more role models for your Christmas business at http://pulse.ebay.co.uk. On the first page click on ‘Categories’ and choose ‘Home & Garden’ from the dropdown menu, then next page choose ‘Celebrations & Occasions’, next page choose ‘Christmas’, and that’s where you’ll find thousands of product ideas to look for in your local poundshops.

Do it today and start listing your goods tomorrow, use Buy It Now to attract fast sales, and look forward to one of the most profitable Christmas seasons you’re ever likely to have on eBay.

Good luck!

by Avril Harper eBay Trading Expert Avril Harper is the editor of eBay Confidential and helps new and expert eBay traders find ways to increase their eBay profits. You can sign up for her free weekly eletter here: Recent Articles by Avril Name Email

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