Examples of general goods
- Kitchen appliances
- Bulk batteries and other consumables
- Supply-unlimited hobby goods
- Hardware and tools
How Demand Works—In Brief
- There are still product cycles here—make no mistake—but they tend to be much longer, and the drop in demand at their end is not so rapid, usually tapering off over months or years, rather than overnight.
- Demand is constrained almost entirely by supply—the more there are on eBay of any one type of item, the less each listing of that type will generate in revenue.
- Used, recycled, and refurbished goods are important components of this marketplace. With a longer product cycles and stable pricing, many consumers will seek to buy on price alone.
Understanding the Market and Pitfalls to Avoid
Of all the types of goods you can buy and sell on eBay, general goods and consumables behave the most like traditional business goods. It's here where room can be found to become a success the old fashioned way: through hard work, frugality, good customer service, and generally sound business practices.Note, however, that this also removes many of the motivations that people most often list for wanting to sell on eBay, including the ability to achieve massive profits by timing the market or leveraging exclusive relationships, the possibility of rags-to-riches business models in which a single buy-and-turnaround nets millions, etc. These instant wealth stories are true, but there are many failures for every success.
If you're just an honest, common-sense businessperson looking for a way to migrate your operation to the 21st century through eBay, then general and consumable goods is the ticket for you. Source frugally and with an eye toward quality, stay away from limited-life items, work hard and provide good customer service, and be patient. You'll grow and prosper—slowly.
Don't Try to Do It Fast!
The word "slowly" bears repeating here because eBay has a tendency to create problems for sellers who want to grow too quickly. Remember that every market—even eBay—is of limited size.Too often a seller who has found a niche is lured by the physically unconstrained and global nature of eBay's selling space to overlist or oversell in a market. The truth is that eBay does not scale linearly forever. Buy too much stock and post too many listings at once and you'll find that you've driven your price down all alone thanks to oversupply.
A seller doing fine at 50 listings a month might find that with 200 listings a month supply has exceeded demand and his auctions are now competing against themselves. Not only do items end up selling for less than they were selling for before, but a percentage of the items are now also going unsold entirely, creating a revenue sink out of listing fees and overhead.
Diversify
Sellers in this market also need to be aware of the unending possibility for new competition to arise. Remember that on eBay all sellers share the same floorspace—there is no way to corner a local market on anything. When you do well selling something, someone else will inevitably see your success and will try to duplicate it. By diversifying your sales, you hedge against the possibility that you'll lose half your revenue in a flash the moment another seller decides to move onto your turf.There is always money to be made in general merchandise and consumables on eBay, but you must remain flexible and light-footed in order to make it work. To rely on any one relationship or type of product indefinitely is to fail sooner or later.
