Free course · Lesson 3 of 8
Pick your first products without guessing
Beginners pick products they personally like. Experienced sellers pick products the market has already shown it wants. Your job is to find evidence of demand on eBay, then check the supply side on Amazon.
Start from eBay demand, not Amazon bestsellers
A product being popular on Amazon says nothing about whether eBay buyers want it from you. Search eBay and filter to Sold items. You want items that sold recently, several times, at a price above what Amazon charges.
Quick filters that save you pain
- Margin after fees. If the profit disappears once you subtract eBay's fees, skip it. Lesson 4 shows the math.
- Stable Amazon price. Items whose price swings week to week will burn you. Check a price history tool before listing.
- In stock and shipped by Amazon or a reliable seller. Third-party sellers with slow shipping break your handling time.
- No brand-protected items. Some brands actively report resellers. A takedown on a listing is a mark against your account.
- Avoid fragile, hazardous or restricted categories while you are learning.
- One item per order. Multi-quantity orders are harder to fulfill cleanly. See handling multi-item orders.
Aim for a small, diverse starter set
Twenty to fifty well-chosen listings teach you more than a thousand rushed ones. Spread across a few categories so one bad week in one niche doesn't flatten you. For deeper reading, see choosing products and finding niches that aren't saturated.
Synked helps here: the product finder starts from eBay demand and checks the Amazon side for you, so you are not hand-checking every candidate.
Next: Lesson 4: Pricing and profit math.