Wholesale Lots and Buying For Resale On eBay
by Jerry
eBay Staff Member

eBay's new Wholesale Lots portal page and category structure offers the aspiring PowerSeller and established eBay business owner a distinct means to acquire inventory in bulk at wholesale prices. By removing many of the traditional barriers to entry in the wholesale marketplace, the structure represents a new set of opportunities for the persistent eBay seller.

The intended audience of the Wholesale Lots structure includes sellers who occupy the top and middle portions of the supply-chain, and trade goods with each other. In the top portion there are original manufacturers, distributors, and other large eBay sellers. In the middle portion, there are thousands of eBay entrepreneurs - like you - who seek new sources of inventory to resell on eBay or other offline businesses. You would be surprised at the number of eBay sellers who've created businesses by selling products in bulk to other smaller sellers. In fact, the creation of the Wholesale Lots structure was a reaction to this phenomenon.

Portal Page

The Wholesale Lots portal page brings together links to all of the Wholesale Lots categories, promotes major wholesale events as they occur and presents other helpful resources for wholesale buyers and sellers. Successful sellers will profit by understanding their niches, and learning how to take advantage of the information presented in the Wholesale Lots portal page.

Category Structure

Sellers can search and browse through 25 major categories within the Wholesale Lots area. As eBay continues to promote the portal, and natural market forces determine the quantity and character of the listings, the category structure will conform to better fit the needs of the marketplace. eBay has recognized this as a growing initiative that benefits both buyers and sellers in our community, and is putting additional management and marketing resources behind it in 2003. In fact, enhancements to several of the larger Wholesale Lots categories are already in the works. When using this area, do your research well, be persistent and have a clear sense of what you want to acquire. The beauty in the Wholesale Lots structure is that it is presented in a familiar setting - no special knowledge or credentials are needed. Since wholesale lots appear in typical category listings and search result pages, this means that the reseller can take advantage of a whole host of eBay services to complete their research, and make prudent business decisions. Everything you need is at your fingertips.

Browsing Tip

If you browse through a typical Wholesale Lots category, you'll come across many hundreds or thousands of listings. The quickest way to locate the biggest lots is to click the "Price" link, and sort all the listings from highest price to lowest. It is reasonable to assume that the higher-priced listings will include larger lot sizes; and that's where you'll find the greatest values.

Searching Tips

The Basic Search box - in the left-hand navigation bar of each Wholesale Lots category - is the primary research tool for finding inventory. There are a number of search techniques you can use to narrow the list of items to a manageable size. Since a significant portion of quality listings contains the word "lot" in the title, be sure to search for "lot*". The average number of listings using this convention was 26.3% at the time of this writing. The percentage varied widely from category to category -- 9.3% (Restaurant & Foodservice) to 58.9% (Movies).

Part of finding what you want is knowing precisely what you don't want. You can narrow your searches further by excluding keywords in your basic searches. Since the bane of all sellers who want to buy actual products is the "wholesale list", try using the "-list*" operator in all searches. The percentage of total listings that include the word "list" is relatively small (<1%). At the time of this writing, the highest percentages (5-6.7%) occurred in the Clothing & Accessories and Consumer Electronics categories. You can always exclude keywords in your searches by placing a minus sign (-) before the each word.

Favorites Lists

Once you've honed your searching skills and developed a search string that includes all the right keywords (and excludes all the wrong ones), be absolutely sure to add it to your "My Favorite Searches" list. You can do this by completing a search, sorting the results, and clicking on the "save this search" link at the top of the page. By developing a collection of Favorite Searches, and tapping into them regularly through your My eBay page, you will be able to locate quality merchandise efficiently.

Seek out the quality suppliers, and track their listings religiously. Check About Me pages whenever possible. Whenever you positively identify one of these sellers through your research, be sure to place them on your Favorites List. In the long run, it will pay to develop a network of suppliers to buy from. Also, feel free to ask a seller if they have a mailing list that you can join. Many manufacturers and distributors will offer lots at differing periods; and many will be glad to inform you ahead of time.

Additional Information
eBay Workshop: "Wholesale Lots"
Business & Industrial Newsletter Issue #1
Business, Office & Industrial Category - *HOT* Items information

More Jerry's Tips
eBay Stores Linking Strategies
Second Chance Offer