The short answer is; anything you can get for less than its actual worth.
One way of finding cheap goods to resell is by finding misspelt items listed by other eBayers. Suggesting this tends to get you shot down in flames by non-believers - but it does work.
For example:
Consider one of the most popular video games of the last couple of years - Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.
If, in the middle of 2005, you could've bought this game for £10, do you think you could've made money? Of course you could, people were more than willing to pay £20 or so on eBay for this game.
Figuring out that many people would spell a word like Andreas wrong, I did a little experiment.
Using an eBay arbitrage tool, such as the one found at http://www.BenCatt.com/arbitrage.php I simply entered "san andreas" into the box and clicked Generate.
I was then given a clickable link which immediately searched all of eBay for misspellings of "San Andreas".
Typically, each time I did this I would get around 20-30 results.
Next, I simply noted down the worst spelt examples and their eBay item numbers.
The most I was willing to pay for a PS2 version of the game was £11.50 in total i.e. the winning price plus the postage and packing.
So, I saved this search in the "My eBay" section of this site and every couple of days would note down new additions.
After finding the item numbers I then went to http://www.auctionsniper.com and set up automatic bidding on each item in the last 6 seconds for my maximum price.
If the postage for a PS2 version of the game was £2, my maximum bid price was set at £9.50.
The net result was that I was bidding on any misspelt San Andreas game automatically whether I was at my PC at the time or not.
Out of 45 attempts, I won 7 of the games - the cheapest at £8.50, the most expensive at £11.50.
Once I had the games "in hand", I simply listed them on eBay for a Buy It Now price of between £16.50 to £18.00 with £2 postage charge. Each game was sold within the 10 day listing time for a healthy profit.
Examples of titles of the auctions I bid on were as follows:
Grand theft auto - San Andres
PS2 GAME GTA SANANDREAS
GRAND THEFT AUTO - SAN ADREAS
PS2 Grand Theft Auto San Anderas
My own listing title was optimised to ensure I captured as many potential buyers as possible through the search facility:
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Playstation 2 Game PS2 GTA
No keyword spamming, no ridiculous "L@@K" or "W@W", just relevant words which an interested buyer would be searching for.
Total profit from the 7 listings after all fees and costs: £29.74 (+ 7 positive feedback points)
As you may or may not know, San Andreas is now available online for £14.99 or less, brand new and so it is not a viable profitmaker anymore. The game went platinum after Christmas and so halved in price.
However, there are plenty of other games which have slightly "complicated" spelling - the titles of which many people will make mistakes in spelling.
Look at the Amazon top 25 every couple of days and note down the titles of the items at the top of the chart. You can do this with any particular niche, just browse to the sections where your interest lies and you will see the "Amazon Hot 25" list.
For example - the Hot 25 PS2 Games (with spelling mistakes found on eBay in brackets):
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (TimeSlitters, timespitters,
Timsplitters, timespliters)
Shadow of the Colossus (COLOSSU)
The Chronicles of Narnia (Cronicles)
Star Wars Battlefront II (BATTELFRONT, BATTLEFORNT)
Gran Turismo 4 (Tursimo, TRISMO)
Others:
King Kong (King King, Kingkong)
Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories (LIBERY, LIBERT, LIBETY)
Perfect Dark Zero (prefect)
If you simply find the misspelt items, decide a maximum bid, set up your auction sniper and leave it to run, you will make money.
Of course, video games are just a simple example - your niche may be even more profitable!
Ben Catt is an active eBay buyer and seller and runs an eBay Tips and Tricks website found at http://www.BenCatt.com. He also runs a business opportunity information site - http://www.BizOppsUK.com
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