I'm a "generalist" seller on eBay.  I really don't have a specialty that I deal in- I'll sell almost anything that I can make a decent profit on.

I'm more of a specialist in technology. That's the part of selling on eBay that I really enjoy. I use it to give me an edge as an eBay seller, especially when sourcing product at garage sales, thrift stores, etc. I'm willing to share a couple of my secrets.  But, the true secret to sourcing items and selling them on eBay is hard work and diligence.

My core tool is the Palm Treo 650 cell phone.  With it, I can quickly and discreetly check the value of an item that catches my eye.  I simply type in the name of the item I'm considering and  get the results of all the similar "completed" items which have recently sold (or not sold) on eBay.  It takes about 20 seconds to complete the search when in decent cell phone coverage areas.  Then, I make the decision to buy or not buy. You won't have time to look everything up, so you have to have some kind of gut instinct about the item.  The more you use this tool the more educated you get about what does and doesn't have value.  It has saved me a lot of money by telling me NOT to buy something that my gut said was valuable.  I've been using this method for about 3 years and  have developed a pretty good "eye".  I see a lot of "repeat" stuff that I now know not to bother with.  The phone cost $200.  I pay an extra $45 per month on top of my regular cell plan for internet access.   It has been well woth it for  me.   Other cell phones will work, but I found this to be  my best choice.

One other technology "edge"  that I use is the Delorme Street Atlas GPS computer navigation program.
I input all of the garage sale addresses into the program and it automatically routes my trip. I put my laptop computer on the passenger seat and get voice directions from the computer as it routes me from sale to sale. The map on the screen pinpoints every garage sale.  I find that I rarely have to look at the screen while driving. It's not perfect, but it definitely speeds up my trip.  It takes me about an hour to enter 50 garage sales (including notes about start/end times, etc). During the peak garage sale season, there's no way I can get to all of the garage sales in my area in one day.  This tool definitely gets me to more sales in a day than I could do without it. Plus, it makes it a little more fun.  The program (including GPS) was $90.00. A decent laptop costs $600+.

There are a lot of people out there sourcing items for resale. Using technology gives you the edge you need to be more profitable. 

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