One of the biggest questions for all online sellers and marketers is: what sells well on eBay? In part, MarkSight was created to answer this. However, it's not an easy answer and we will go into several approaches here. We'll cover how we're collecting the data, and how we create statistics for you to see.
What sells well on eBay?
The best way to answer this is to analyze bidding activity on sold listings on eBay. Items with the most amount of bidding are going to be the easiest to sell.
- Check our eBay hot items to get an overview of top performing keywords per category.
- Our eBay top-selling products list has over 10,000 items and is updated daily.
- We have free research tools right on our homepage.
eBay wants to sell every listing that you create, but unfortunately, this is not true from the buyers' perspective. Therefore, the following statistics about buyers is critical, especially bidding activity. The more a listing is bid upon, the more people are fighting to get it.
Unfortunately, most people work without any research tools when they try to start an online business. This is a big mistake. It's like shopping for clothes only by feeling around and never looking at the articles or the prices. Researching what products sell and at which prices, gives you so much more useful information.
If you're new to this website, consider signing up and getting access to some of the best research tools available on the internet for eBay research. The answers we provide here are valid not only for eBay but for the entire online space in general. That's because eBay is such a large marketplace, that if an item is doing well here, then it will sell well on other markets such as Amazon.
eBay trending items
We have a wonderful resource on our website, where we create daily statistics for top auction keywords, which are getting the most amount of bidding activity from buyers. Only actually sold products are considered for this list. It's linked below and you're free to use it at any time. This provides a general overview of all best selling items, broken down into common keywords used in their listing titles.
eBay top auction keywords with the most bids from buyers
This is a great start to find out what buyers are looking for in each category. For example, we now know that the "silver dollar" is the most sought after coin. Or, if we look at cameras then digital SLR black ones are the ones buyers bid on. Air Jordans and Louis Vuitton are dominating the Clothing section. This kind of information is especially useful for sellers because not even eBay's trends page gives away these keywords and positions.
Another way to use this list is, in case you're already planning to sell an item, you should look to add some of those keywords to your product title. This will guarantee you a bit of a traffic boost and if used properly, should result in a higher final sales price. Never add a keyword that doesn't describe your item, otherwise, it's misleading for the buyer and they will turn away from you.
Free keyword research tools on our homepage
A cool research tool that we give away for free is right on our homepage. You can just type in any product you like to see sales activity for the last 7 days. You'll get sales broken down by price groups, and also helpful keywords.
Before I post an eBay listing, I always do a quick search here. This is to see if I missed a useful word in my title, or if I accidentally mispriced my product. Not only does this tell me about the current demand, but saves me from possible mistakes and helps to get more buyer traffic.
Click to go to our homepage, and check out the free research tool we give away
In case you're trying to find out how much you can get for your items, and if your item was sold on eBay in the last 7 days then you can use this tool for a quick price overview. But if you're looking for additional tools or time frames (MarkSight has a maximum of 2 months), then please register or consider signing up for one of our monthly plans. Once signed up, you'll get much more information.
List with over 10,000 Top-Selling products
Yet another way we answer the question of which items sell the best on eBay. This list is pure gold in so many ways! Each eBay category is packed with products, and niches are all over the place. Sure, maybe you have to use a bit of imagination here, but it's worth the effort. For instance, I spent several days going through the list and came up with a nice list of great selling niche products you can check out.
Check out our top-selling items list for eBay
The list comes in Excel format, so you'll need Microsoft Excel installed to browse it. Once you have it, you can filter and sort by prices and sell-through rates, and so on. Notice how so many online merchants above found little niches where they practically have no competition!
On occasion, we'll pull some of these ideas, and display them on our homepage in the "ideas of the month" section. A memorable example that comes to mind was the "Trump tie" back in the presidential race. While everyone knew about the hat, few knew about the tie and those sellers made a lot of money.
What I like to do is just browse the list after filtering to see only items that sell for more than $50. This way I guarantee that at least some money is possible to make here. I mean, if I try and sell a $10 product, probably the margin would be just $1 or $2. But something over $50 is good. Then I browse the list and filter out anything where I can't get into with an unbranded product (ie. iPhone or Samsung). And the last criteria I have is to only work with light items so that I could offer free shipping. So, for instance, I'd stay away from power generators or furniture.
What about other markets or affiliate marketing products?
eBay is such a huge and global marketplace. If an item is selling well here and has a proven record of this, that's not an accident! To date, I haven't found a single product was, for example, selling well on Amazon, and was a total disaster on eBay. Normally, buyers shop around, and especially so during economic instability.
These lists and resources are also very useful for affiliate marketers. These days, it's easy to get into marketing any old product out there. If we disregard commission rates for a minute, the only other thing that matters to marketers is: if the product is in demand by buyers. If not, it's not worth the time to pursue it further. And that's a major mistake done by so many people starting in marketing - to try and sell something no one wants, and this is an uphill battle. So, make your life easier and just work with products that already sell.
And if you're wondering about other websites still, like Etsy or Facebook markets, again eBay is the granddaddy of them all. Think about it, eBay is just so easy to get into, and millions of people have already worked with them in the last decade alone. Even high-rolling business people will often "test out" a product on eBay before launching the same product on Amazon or independently.
Conclusion
I hope this gives enough resources to tell which products truly sell on eBay, and at what prices. In the end, it always depends on the seller to decide what business to get into. Our goal here is that your choice is backed up by some existing sales, so it's not going to be a blind decision for you. You can use any or all of these research tools to make your business grow.
Feel free to share this with others, and use it while it lasts. You'll be glad you did, and not only will you know what sells, but you'll also get new ideas for what to sell online. Again, these product lists and research tools are valid not only for eBay but other markets as well. Even for affiliates, because usually, we're all trying to sell similar items. Please watch the video above to get some new ideas about how to find great products to sell on eBay or Amazon.
