One of the questions I get asked most often is: what should I actually sell? It's exactly the right question to start with, and the honest answer is that almost anything can sell on eBay if it's priced right and listed well. But there are certain categories where demand is reliable, supply at charity shops and car boot sales is consistent, and the margin between what you pay and what you sell for makes the whole thing genuinely worthwhile. These are the things I look for.

Vinyl records are at the top of my list, and I'll be upfront: this is my favourite category, the one I get most excited about. Vinyl has had a real resurgence over the last decade and the market is solid across rock, pop, and anything with a hint of rarity about it. Beatles albums, classic rock, modern limited pressings — all worth picking up if the price is right. Charity shops are often the best source because the staff aren't always pricing vinyl by what it's actually worth, which works very much in your favour. I once bought a bundle of ten records for £4. One of them turned out to be a rare Elvis pressing that sold for £90. The rest of the bundle paid for themselves several times over. Condition matters — look at the sleeve and, if you can, the surface of the record. Dust is fine. Deep scratches are not.

It's also worth knowing that Christmas is vinyl's second season. Novelty records — the kind of thing your grandmother had in 1974 — can be surprisingly good earners from October onwards. I picked up a Postman Pat album from a charity shop for 50p. Someone told me confidently it would never sell. It went within the week for £7.50. Not a life-changing amount, but deeply satisfying.

Vintage toys are another category where the margins can be excellent, particularly anything from the eighties and nineties. Original Care Bears, My Little Ponies, Star Wars figures from the original trilogy — nostalgia drives collecting in a way that keeps prices strong, and there are people actively searching for this stuff right now. The word to hold onto is original. Later re-releases and reproductions don't carry the same value. If you can spot the real thing at a car boot or charity shop, even if you're not completely certain what it's worth, it's nearly always worth buying and researching when you get home.

Clothing is obviously a major eBay category, and one where volume helps you build real momentum. Women's clothing sells consistently across most styles and brands, but the area where I see demand most reliably outstrip supply is larger sizes — women's and men's alike. There are a lot of people who wear a size 18 or above who find secondhand options frustratingly limited, and that gap between what they need and what's available creates a real opportunity for sellers who pay attention. Branded pieces in larger sizes in good condition move well and hold their price.

For men's clothing specifically, anything over an XL tends to sit in a sweet spot where demand is real and competition from other sellers is genuinely low. Car boot sales are often the best source for larger-size men's pieces. They go unnoticed, which means they go cheaply, which means the margin is there when you list them properly.

Sporting equipment is something I'd encourage any new seller not to write off because of the logistics. Large, heavy, awkward items put a lot of people off listing them. But that reluctance is exactly what creates the opportunity. I bought a golf trolley for £15 and sold it for £80 as collection only. Taking postage out of the equation entirely removes a lot of the stress, and buyers who need something specific will travel for it. Sports equipment, fitness gear, golf clubs, cycling accessories — these are consistently good earners and charity shops often price them well below market because they lack the expertise to do otherwise.

Books, as a category, deserve a bit of nuance. Standard paperbacks are generally not worth your time unless they're genuinely rare or occupy a very specific niche with proven demand. Where books really perform are in sets and complete collections. A full Harry Potter audiobook set in good condition cost me £10 from a charity shop and sold for £110 in less than twenty-four hours. Sets are worth looking for — audiobooks especially — because buyers want the whole run and won't settle for a partial collection.

My teenager has recently started selling on eBay too, and the category that caught his eye immediately was video games. Older consoles, retro games, anything from the era of the original PlayStation or Nintendo 64 — the nostalgia market for this is significant and growing. Charity shops are beginning to wise up to the value of games, but car boots and house clearances are still good sources for underpriced stock.

Unusual items deserve a category of their own, because some of the best sales I've ever made have been on things I nearly put back because they seemed too odd or niche. I sold a set of giant novelty wine glasses — the oversized ones you'd put on a table as a joke — for £50. I paid £5. The insight is that unusual items often have one very specific buyer who has been searching for exactly that thing and cannot find it anywhere. You don't need thousands of potential buyers. You need one person who genuinely wants what you have.

Which leads naturally to homeware generally — particularly branded kitchen equipment. Le Creuset, Denby, retro kitchenware, anything with a recognisable name behind it tends to sell well and hold its value. Charity shops in more affluent areas are reliably good for this. People donate expensive things all the time, often barely used.

The thread running through all of these is this: you are not trying to sell everything. You are looking for things where your buying price is low, where demand is proven by actual sold listings rather than optimistic asking prices, and where the gap between the two is worth your time. Get that discipline right and the rest of it follows.