Here’s how to find stuff to sell on Amazon and Ebay Step by Step. It’s so easy you can do this on a lunch break or when you are getting a cup of coffee.

Follow these 7 steps to making extra money working a few hours a week (at most). It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s profitable:

Step 1: Find Goodwill, Salvation Army, good thrift stores, even a TJMax, CVS, Wallgreens, Rite Aid, or Toys R Us (for starters) surrounding your home.
Step 2: Get the FBA Scan app for your iphone or Android. Also, I suggest you get the Amazon and eBay apps as well.

Step 3: Set aside at least $20 – $100 to spend (don’t worry about this yet. But the more money you can spend, the better).

Step 4: Get lunch. Eat fast, and then head over to one, several, or all of the stores listed above.

Step 5: If you go to Goodwill or Salvation Army, go to the book section, dvd section, toys, and household items, and look for items that look new or are in good condition. Scan the barcode on these items through FBA Scan or with the Amazon scanning app (FREE!), and see what you come up with (see the article on how to scan items if this is confusing to you).

If you go to the retail stores, look for clearance items, and items that are discounted deeply or are on special. You’ll see signs and stickers. Sometimes you have to walk to the back or ask an employee.

There is always going to be specials and clearance items at the retails stores. That’s the good news. The better news is that the most clearance items will be available shortly after Christmas, and after other Holiday promotions because they have to get rid of inventory. I have found great items that are below wholesale this way.

Step 6: No Barcode? No problem. Look this item up manually on Amazon using the Amazon.com app (you could actually just use this app on its own for looking up pricing, but it has its limitations).

You can manually type in the name of the item, or use the ‘Snap It’ feature, which works well for books and dvd’s. Or, search for the item on Google or Bing and see what comes up.

Search on Ebay as well and see if it sold and for how much (there are website apps that can tell you what to expect from different items. I don’t discuss this here, and I do not use them very much at this time, but I will in the future.

Do not discount Ebay. For example, I found an old booklet that I thought was worthless. At the last second I did a search on Bing and the first search result was for a closed Ebay listing where the same item in worse condition than mine sold for $122. This booklet only cost .50. I listed in two months later and got $117! Here’s proof:

Like I said, don’t dismiss items you think won’t sell or are worthless because there are many at every thrift store in America. I’ve found small items that sell well, and I thought for sure it was a waste of time. For example, I found some Dream Water that was only .99 cents. I listed them on Amazon and received $15 each. My net profit was $9.

SIDE BAR: Don’t worry about selling on Amazon yet, I am going to show you how to do it in a moment. There are two ways to do it (more on this in a moment).
You’ll find items like this as well.

Once you find an item with a good profit margin set the item into your basket and move on to the next item.

Some items are better sold on Ebay: Rare items, vintage items, and hard to find items.

Step 7: Bring your items home and get ready to ship them to Amazon. Or, if they are not an FBA candidate, list them on eBay.

Listing things on eBay is easy, but you should do a very good job of taking pictures (and I mean an excellent job), because a bad picture or two can dramatically reduce you sales.

Conversely, a good picture and boost bidding significantly. It really matters. There are some great tools that help you take professional quality pictures of small and large items from your digital camera or smart phone. For example: get a lighting tent and lights, and a smartphone or digital camera stand. These two things alone with improve your sales.

How important are pictures? Some sellers buy on eBay and relist the same product after taking good pictures and writing excellent descriptions. I’ve done it myself.