The first step to successful selling through online auctions is to find something to sell. There are two categories of items. First are things lying around the house like a porcelain figurine, CDs, old clothes, furniture, artwork, pretty much anything you already own that is sitting around collecting dust. Second are bulk items that can be purchased relatively inexpensively and resold. In either case it requires a little bit of time, imagination and ingenuity to find things you can sell online.

By the time you are through with this section you will know where to look to find hidden treasures that can translate into wealth.

Everyone has a closet or space in his or her garage, basement or attic where they place old and unwanted belongings. These items may include toys, books, furniture or anything that is no longer wanted but may still have life left in it. No one wants to give this stuff away either because of the monetary or emotional value. You can have yard sales or advertise in the newspaper and hope that someone will be interested and want to buy your stuff. Or you can keep things lying around, taking up space and cluttering your house and your life.

It may not be practical to have a yard sale or advertise in the newspaper. Yard sales always seem to have more worthless junk than buyers willing to see the value and it takes time and energy to go through a newspaper searching for something that’s probably not there.

Besides, not everyone would even think of placing a porcelain figurine, sports memorabilia, or old toys in the newspaper. The impracticality of selling things then makes online auctions more appealing. It’s probably why eBay has become so popular.

Finding things around the house isn’t very hard. Open a closet, go into the garage, open unused drawers and boxes and see what is inside. Clean a little where you dare not tread. It might surprise you to see exactly what you have laying about and it might be even more surprising to find out what people are willing to buy online. Try selling that old toy that your kids really loved but have forgotten all about. There are collectors out there for just about everything. Regardless of what it is, there are items sitting around your house that can be sold for profit.

A couple of other places to find things to sell is in the newspaper and at yard sales. This may seem rather ridiculous since no one sells at yard sells or in the newspaper anymore especially now that you know about eBay. But it’s not. Remember, not everyone is on the Internet because they either can’t afford it or don’t want to learn how to use it or it scares them or who knows why. These are the kinds of people who might be selling something inexpensively that you could resell online for profit.

Every Saturday people put out the folding tables, unpack all sorts of boxes and sell their seemingly useless and unwanted stuff. You can find these places by driving around early on Saturday or Sunday mornings as well as checking in the local newspaper for yard sale advertisements. Simply drive around to one or two of these, keep a sharp eye out for anything that looks like it might be sellable, buy it, take it home and put it up for sale.

You can also get things to sell from other auctions. eBay is the largest and most popular place to sell things. That means not as many people check out other auction sites like Yahoo, Amazon, or Ubid. Look on these sites for items you can buy and sell for more on eBay.

You may even find some sellers on eBay who are selling multiple identical items in a single lot. These items generally sell individually for more money but collectively for less. Bidding on these items may cost a little more upfront but reselling the extra stock individually will net more money in the long run.

Sooner or later you will run out of things lying around the house to sell. Once that happens you might say, “Well, that was fun, what’s next?” This is a good question, especially if you are addicted to selling things online and having complete strangers send you money. You might be particularly addicted if you have made a great deal of money off of one or two items you’d initially thought were completely worthless.

Well, congratulations! You have moved on to the next level of selling on eBay, Finding Things That Sell Elsewhere. You have made it to the point where you are trying to decide if you want to be a merchant who sells lots of things or someone who is simply playing with eBay because it’s fun. If that is the case then finding things to sell may seem a little intimidating. It can be, but hopefully this section will help you locate items that will sell and sell and sell.

Before you become too excited about locating the next hot “pop culture” item like Britney Spears or the Spice Girls or Star Wars, keep in mind there are two different ways you can make money from selling. The first is to create something yourself like baskets or instruction manuals or lures. The second way is to find something that people want, buy it in bulk at a reasonable price and resell it online.

If you are a talented person who dabbles in different artistic endeavors, then create something and showcase it through eBay. A lot of people will buy almost anything for less than $20.00. Let the world see what it is you make and then sell it. It will surprise you to see what people are willing to buy. A few ideas might be picnic baskets, fishing lures and flies, instruction manuals like the Dummy and Idiot books that have become popular, a computer application if you can program, handmade jewelry, gift baskets or other handcrafted items. The list is really only limited by your imagination and willingness to find something to make and then create it.

On the other hand, if you do not consider yourself a crafty or talented person, maybe finding bulk consumer goods is the better option for you. Bulk consumer goods are things you can buy and resell for more money than you purchased them for. The key to this kind of selling isn’t in purchasing one or two items and then selling them, it’s in purchasing a large quantity of items and reselling them. Buying in bulk saves you money and allows you to resell to more people at a marked up cost over what you initially spent per item. This is a good thing since the objective is to make as much money as possible.

If you’re still not sure what will sell, take a look at some of the auctions currently running on eBay. This should give you some ideas of items that will sell. No matter how you locate things to sell, as long as you are buying for less than what you are selling for you are sure to make money.