As the buyer for a liquidation company for over 25 years I have made every mistake you can.  I hear from a lot of people wondering where to get merchandise for Ebay sales and while I cant share that information I may be able to help you avoid some major mistakes that I have made.

Customer Returns

If you Google this term you will get several companies offering to sell you pallets or truckloads of "Prime return merchandise including shelf pulls and discontinued merchandise.  You will see photos of retail electronics, tools etc all in nice boxes, neatly stacked on a pallet.  A salesman from this company will explain how the bulk of the product is not defective, maybe even new never opened.  What you will receive is a pile of junk!  Much of it should have been thrown away, the rest out of box or missing parts.  All of these companies have a no return policy.

Direct Import from China

There are many companies based in China wanting you to purchase their fine electronics.  There are a few who are honest but for the most part they are on the web to take your money!  They have very impressive web sites offering current electronics.  They will give you a great price.  Their first step will be to get you to wire transfer funds or pay by Western Union.  Both of these services leave you no recourse against the seller.  Once they have your money its gone.  Viable sellers will normally take credit cards or even Paypal but even then they can scam you, all they need is proof of delivery, so they ship you a box of beads instead of those Ipods you ordered.

The lesson here is if it was easy everyone would be buying and selling merchandise on Ebay.  If you are searching for new items to sell, be careful.  There are reputable sources for merchandise but they are difficult to find and establish a relationship with.