Corey Kossack is the 23 year old founder of profitbuildersoftware.com has sold over $1 million in eBay products in less than two years and now has written a book to help others do the same.
Corey’s book, “eBay Millionaire or Bust: Hidden Strategies That Maximize Profits and Create Wealth,” looks at the $4 billion a year eBay marketplace that has 1.3 million sellers and gives practical advice to succeed online.
It all started when Corey was in university and was looking for a memory disk for his girlfriend’s digital camera. “I had always thought of eBay as the online yard sale, a place where people got rid of their junk. Then, I spotted someone selling hundreds of memory cards and I suddenly realized eBay was a perfect place to conduct a business.”
Corey decided to get in on the game by selling DVDs online through eBay. He took $1,000 from his bank account in January 2005 to get started and sold over 500,000 DVDs by the end of the year. His title list began at 1,000 then moved to 10,000 and now he has incorporated video games and iPod accessories into his product mix. “Some of our most popular TV shows were ‘M.A.S.H.’, ‘Sex and the City, and “Schoolhouse Rock”.”
His advice for would-be eBay entrepreneurs? “Focus on profits, not the number of sales. I don’t want to become the biggest seller on eBay. But I want to continue increasing our profit margin. That’s the secret.”
Evan Carmichael
I was intrigued by your profile. I too have become more serious about my eBay site HomeGrown Creations and am toying with more ways of making my site more attractive to buyers. I’ve done okay but I want to generate larger revenue. Most of my products are antiques or hand made. I’ve received a good response from both genres but each week a different item will have a good run. I put out a antique buffet that took six months to move. I put out a sterling silver purse and it sold in an hour. I studied my ad closely and still can’t figure out what made the other go so quickly while its counterpart lingered. I know there’s a general way to do things better. I’ll assume EBay is your primary business. Do you have another site? What marketing techniques work best? I’ve been a street vendor for twenty years and a good sales person but how do I translate my experience into dollars. If I could generate a large sales ratio, I’d close my shop. I’d love to hear any suggestions you may offer.
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for writing. eBay is currently my primary business, I had another site but it did not prove to be cost effective in my category, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t pay off for you to have an off-eBay website. There are many different reasons why different products will sell at different times. You are comparing 2 completely different products, so there are infinite reasons why one would take longer than the other to sell.
In the last year I have been asked for advice by eBay sellers so often that I decided to write a book! It’s called eBay Millionaire or Bust, and it recently hit the Amazon Business Bestseller list last weekend. I also created eBay software called ProfitBuilderSoftware.com to help sellers reduce the cost of eBay fees and earn more income for their eBay business. Both are available at http://www.ProfitBuilderSoftware.com.
Best of luck!
Corey Kossack
Author of eBay Millionaire or Bust