One of the best places to find DVDs and Blu-Ray discs locally is at a pawn shop. Pawn shop’s are able to get the DVDs for very little cost and will work with you especially if you are wanting to buy a large quantity.

Look at the Pawn Shop’s selection and make sure they have a large enough selection of good titles before asking for a quantity discount. Approach the manager and ask what kind of deal they can make if you buy 50 DVDs. After their initial shock (believe me, they do not get this question often), they will most of the time give you a price per DVD which can sometimes be an amazing deal.

Visit the same pawn shops at least every month. They do not get many customers looking to buy in quantity, so you will be remembered. When I used to source DVDs from pawn shops, it got to the point where the managers would give me a call when they were about to put out a large amount of DVDs. Many pawn shop’s actually give their employees a commission on sales, so they are definitely willing to help you get the best deal possible!

Other places you can find DVDs and Blu-Ray discs locally are Garage Sales, Flea Markets, Used CD/Book Stores, Video Rental Stores, Library Sales, Retail Stores, Thrift Shops etc.

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You will find out what the large retailers have on sale, deep discounts from online retailers and how to use Columbia House and other music clubs to get DVDs at unbelievable prices.

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I assume everyone knows how an auction works, so I will skip the mechanics of auctions and get right to the important information… How to source products at an estate auction to resell on eBay.

• Locate The Estate Sale You Want To Attend - There are usually large auction ads in your local paper for upcoming estate sales. Be sure to check up to a week in advance as many of the auctions are advertised in the previous weekend’s paper. Also, many items will be listed in the newspaper ad so you can start your pricing research right away.
• Pick The Right Auction - This is a little subjective and there is no one right way to select the auction you want to attend. I try to find one with a lot of collectibles and not too heavy in furniture and other large items. It is always great to find an auction with specific items you are interested in selling on eBay. I used to really enjoy selling collectible paper (e.g. postcards). If I saw one that had a lot of old paper items I would choose that one. If some of the auction items are advertised in the newspaper I will do a little research to see if those items are selling well on eBay. Mostly I just go with my gut to which one I think will be the best.
• Ask If There Is A Preview Time - Most estate auctions will offer a preview time either before the auction begins or even the day before. If there is a preview the day before, I sometimes will spend up to 2 hours writing down all the notes I can on the items for sale so I can take that information home and do research on eBay. Even if the only preview available is a couple hours before it starts, make sure you use that time to do as much research as possible. If you know what an item will sell for on eBay, you are well ahead of the competition when it comes time to bid on an item.
• Have Someone Available To Call - I always have someone I can call if I see an interesting item getting ready to be put into the auction ring. Make sure that person knows how to look the item up on eBay to see what value the item will bring at online auction. Better yet, have an internet capable cell phone with you so you can look up the value of items on the fly. When I use that internet capable phone, I can really dig for some great deals. It is one of the best investments I have made for buying at estate auctions.
• Don’t Get Caught Up In A Bidding War - Know what you will pay for an item and stick to that price. Don’t get emotional… This one is easier said than done. With my competitive spirit I have a hard time getting beat out on an item I really want. However, the more research you do prior to bidding the easier it will be to stop bidding when the bidding exceeds what you want to pay.
• Buy Items In Box Lots - Some of my best finds have been in box lots. Pick out one or two items in a lot and access the value. Only bid up to the value of those two items and you will basically be getting the rest of the box lot for free. Those “free” items is where you can find some real treasures. I have found countless $100+ items at the bottom of a box lot.
• Stay Until The End Of The Auction - Many people will have left by the end of the auction so your competition will have decreased substantially. Also, if the auction is set to end at a fixed time the auctioneers may be in a hurry to get the stuff sold and get out of there. The lots will get bigger and they are likely to miss something valuable that they should have given more details about.
• Bring a Notebook And Take Notes - This is a very important step for me personally. I always took notes on what items brought at the live auction and would come home and research the value of those items on eBay. This was a key to gaining valueable knowledge that I used again and again when I would see a similar item up for bid. The more knowledgable about what sells on eBay the better you will be at spotting great deals in the future. Another thing I like to take notes on are unique items that I suspect another eBay seller is buying to resell on eBay. I will wait a few days and see if that item appears on eBay (do an advanced search on eBay for that item and narrow the results to locations within 50 miles). With it being a somewhat unique item I can be sure that I have the right item and person. Many of the same people go to the local estate sales time and time again. By researching that persons buying habits at estate auctions and selling habits on eBay you will get great information that will help you later when you are bidding against that person at the live estate auctions.
• Keep A Log Of Your Purchases - Always know what kind of profit you are making from the estate auctions by logging your purchases and what each purchase sold for on eBay. This will let you tweak your buying processes at estate auctions to get the best deals possible. It will also be a valuable research tool if similar items appear at a future estate sale.
• Get To Know The Auctioneers - If you like the way a certain auction company runs their auctions, try to attend as many of their auctions as possible. All the auctioneers of the auction company I would frequently use knew me by name. They knew what type of items I liked and would alert me if something was coming up I was interested in. Also, I could tell that during the bidding process I would get a slight advantage over other bidders by these auctioneers. It seemed like they would try to help me get a great deal on items. It is hard to quantify this, but it just seemed sometimes they would end bidding a little early if I was the high bidder or point to me if I bid at the exact same time as another bidder. It just seemed to help in many small ways.
• Don’t Reveal Your Intentions - This one is very hard to do when someone asks you what you plan to do with the stuff you buy. I usually tell them, but many times it has hurt me in future auctions. I used to buy every vintage video game lot (e.g. Atari, Nintendo) that would come up for auction. Well, someone found out how much I was making off these purchases and I had new competition. The price I had to pay for a box lot of vintage video games went from $5 to $40 just because I told this one person that I sold on eBay.

I think sourcing products at estate auctions are a very important step for new eBayers to learn the skills to become successful online seller. Also, out of all the ways I have ever sourced products, this is probably my favorite. Auctions are a very exciting place and the profits that can be made are even more exciting.

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Here are my best tips for finding great treasures at garage sales:

1. Plan out what garage sales you want to go to the day before - Look in your local newspaper’s classified section. Many of the garage sales are listed there. However, don’t stop your planning with the newspaper. Craigslist is becoming an ever increasingly popular place to post garage sale ads. Recently I have seen many sales ONLY advertised on Craigslist and the descriptions are more detailed since Craigslist doesn’t charge per word like the newspaper.

2. Start Early & Move Quickly- Most sales start at about 8:00 am. Most of the best deals of the day will be found before 10:00 am so make sure you get a very early start. Also make sure you move from sale to sale as quickly as possible. The whole key here is to get to as many sales as you can. If your wife/husband is not into eBay… DO NOT BRING THEM ALONG WITH YOU! I can get to approximately 4X as many sales without my wife in tow. Add my kids and it moves up to about 10X as many.

3. Bring Enough Cash - Take at least $200 with you… More if you can afford it. I once found a great collection of CDs and I didn’t have enough cash on me to purchase it. I had to run to the ATM to get more cash and by the time I got back it was gone.

4. Have Someone You Can Call To Look Up Larger Ticket Items - When I go to garage sales I have at least 2 different people I know I can call to look up the value of something for me on eBay. I once came across a large sound mixer that was used at an auditorium. They were asking $100 for it. I had a good idea that it was worth more than that, but wanted to make sure before plopping down a Benjamin. I called home and had my wife look it up… It was going for $400 on eBay. I don’t call for every little item, but for the larger priced items it is a good idea… I now have a cell phone with internet. Wow is it great at garage sales!!! If you are going to use garage sales as a main product source for eBay, I highly recommend getting an internet capable phone or a laptop with wireless internet access!

5. Take A Notebook With You - I seem to always forget how much I paid for an item. I also pass up some items at sales that I would like to research when I get home. A notebook is a great way to record both. By writing down the price you paid for different items you will have a clear picture of how much profit you made. By writing down items you were interested in but didn’t buy you can research later and you will know next time you run across that item.

6. Get A Deal On A Group Of Items - This is probably my best tip of all. Try to get a whole group of items for one price (usually the same type of item such as books, dvds, barbies, etc). I got to a sale early one morning and saw about 120 DVDs in a bookcase for $4.00 each. I asked what they would take for all of the DVDs. Once they got over the shock of the question, they asked if I thought $100 was too much. I acted like I had to think about it for a minute and said, “no I think I could do it for $100″. I sold the lot of DVDs for over $400. Another example is a Mary Kay makeup lot… This lady was getting out of the makeup business and had the rest of her inventory in her garage sale. I estimated the value she had on all the items if bought individually was $800. I asked how much she would take for all of it. She was very happy to get rid of it for $100. Sold… I made $400 profit on that transaction.

Garage sales are a fun way to product source for eBay. You get to go out and meet a lot of people while you do some treasure hunting. Not a bad way to spend a Friday or Saturday (or both if you are really serious).

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When I first started selling and was at this step, I asked my uncle if he had anything he wanted to get rid of. He had a case of brand new ink cartridges because he worked at an office supply store and they had been expired for a couple months. He was more than happy to get rid of them for FREE. Those ink cartridges sold for nearly $1000. I offered some of it to him, but still refused. He said he was about to throw them away and was happy to give them to me.

Generally, you should take about 25% of the proceeds plus eBay fees. If they want to just give it to you, it’s always nice to say that you will at least split the profit with them. Most of the time you will find they are just happy to get rid of something that has been sitting around for quite some time. And, you will get much needed practice honing your eBay skills.

Make sure you tell everyone you know that you sell on eBay. Not only will you find quite a bit to sell, you will also get quite a bit of referrals by word of mouth. Soon, you will be known as the eBay Guy/Gal and if you so choose you could have enough stuff coming in to stay busy being an eBay Trading Assistant. I will get into being a Trading Assistant in a later post.

So, ask ask ask and you will son get get get… Get some money for your booming eBay business and get some practice selling on eBay.

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Not only is this the quickest and easiest way to start selling on eBay, but it is a VERY important step in starting your eBay business! It sounds easy to start selling on eBay and it is, however it does take a little time to get used to all the steps involved in selling. This is the perfect opportunity to get your eBay business off the ground with no investment in inventory and without having the pressure of trying to get your investment back from an inventory purchase.

There are thousands of different items you could sell, but here are a few ideas to get your brains going:

• Gift Closet - I am sure you have a closet full of gifts that you received and never opened. I am sure there are hundreds of people out there looking for that exact item.
• Books/CDs/DVDs/Video Games - How often do you actually use these products? These are great sellers on eBay and a great way to get started.
• Jewelry & Watches - Broken or not, these items sell really well.
• Clothes - I know you have tons of clothes in your closet that you haven’t worn for a very long time… Well, now is the time to get rid of those old rags (especially the ones that still have the tags).
• Old Sporting Goods - No time to play golf? Too out of shape to hit the tennis courts? Now is the time to get rid of those sporting goods that you no longer use.

So, if you are new to EBay, get to searching for stuff around your house… You will find more to sell than you think and you will gain valuable experience and get some money in your PayPal account to start buying some inventory.

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