Starting an Online Business For Dummies®, 6th Edition

Chapter 9. Sourcing Worldwide for Your Business

In This Chapter

• Scouring the Web to find items that buyers really want

• Doing your own sourcing: housecleaning, garage sales, and more

• Boosting sales volume by becoming a consignment seller on eBay

• Finding a wholesale supplier and knowing how to approach one

• Turning to the Far East to locate low-priced merchandise

• Traveling to trade shows to find new merchandise to sell

I occasionally get questions from budding entrepreneurs just like you who are wondering how to get started selling online. The question that comes up most often is simple: "What should I sell online?" A variation on this question that I hear almost as frequently goes like this: "What's the single best thing I can possibly sell online?" (Translation: "What can I sell on the Web that will make me the most money?")

Everyone who asks this question wants a simple answer, and so do you. But no single item sells better than anything else on the Web. Rather, people are hunting for thousands of things while they stare at their laptops and desktop computers. Your challenge is to find a connection between one of those things and you: You need to find something that's desirable that (1) you can find easily and inexpensively, (2) you're interested in, and (3) is easy to photograph, pack, and ship.

The list of desirable items changes all the time as new products catch the fancy of consumers. When it first came out, the Sony PlayStation 3 was a hot item, having come out in woefully limited ...