Are there true stories like this? Undoubtedly, there are. But the first question we must concern ourselves with is t-i-m-e.

Just checking this morning in eBay's wholesale sections I found the following number of wholesale auctions:

Art: 1089

Books: 3684

Business & Industrial: 9144

Cameras & Photo: 309

Cell phones: 1758

Clothing, Shoes & Accessories: 10460

Collectibles: 3839

Computers: 9441

Consumer Electronics: 1911

Crafts: 3174

Dolls & Bears: 727

DVDs & Movies: 2571

eBay Motors Parts & Accessories: 1270

Education and Learning: 120

Gifts & Occasions: 1723

Health & Beauty: 3155

Home & Garden: 4776

Jewelry: 13881

Movies: 2572

Music: 1736

Musical Instruments: 275

Pottery & Glass: 3845

Sporting Goods: 1678

Sports Cards: 36793

Sports Memorabilia: 416009

Toys & Hobbies: 2815

Video Games: 1939

That's a total of 540,694 auctions for wholesale products and that doesn't begin to cover the reality of so-called 'wholesale bargains' on eBay because there are all kinds of listing mixed into regular categories, rather than separated as wholesale lots.

To make this easier, let's remove the "Sports Memorabilia: 416009" to make it a little more manageable. Let's see - that means we're left with "only" 124,685 wholesale lots for sale.

Problem #1: TIME. How long would it take you to go through all those auctions looking for something that you could profitably resell? Frankly, it boggles the mind!

Let's pick a popular category - DVD movies, one of the hottest on eBay - and do our homework to see if this can possibly be worthwhile.

Here is a popular auction offering 100 new release DVDs. There are an astonishing 59 bids, so we know this was highly popular with would-be eBay sellers.

There is a long listing of movies, many of them I've never heard of, so I chose one of my favorites, Air Force One (yep! I have a crush on Harrison Ford. :-)

According to the seller, the value of the DVDs range from $19.99 - $29.99 each.

Doing my homework on the prices Air Force One actually sold for, we find these results (auction number | sale price):

6379491536 | $4.90

6379364925 | $2.00

6381312346 | $2.00

6379125356 | $3.28

6380933540 | $4.50

6378949852 | $6.95

6378949852 | $7.95

6379535858 | $4.99

6378282389 | $2.76

6378301594 | $1.99

6378293163 | $2.25

6378266974 | $6.51

6379413786 | $2.24

6378031379 | $5.90

6378011445 | $2.00

6377930141 | $2.99

6379202610 | $4.99 (used)

6377718646 | $2.99

6379540333 | $6.00

6377421608 | $3.26

6377968856 | $4.76

6377048774 | $3.25

6377045435 | $4.00

That was about half the auctions listed, but the rest were all in the same price range. These 23 auctions totaled $92.46 in revenues.

Problem #2: I lost money!

I would have paid $131.10 ($5.70 each x 23) for the movies and received only $92.46 - which of course doesn't include my fees to eBay and PayPal, shipping costs from the original seller, packing materials, my time & energy, etc.

Problem #3: even if this does work occasionally, it's not the way to build a real business.

First, if you want to do more than eke out a small income, you need a steady supply of a product that you can sell again and again and again. Otherwise, you spend all your time hunting product. You will never have any auto-pilot income if you're scrounging products from day to day.

Second, your source is too uncertain. It's just like garage sales - you might find several wholesale bargains one week - and none the next. Pretty unreliable way to make a living.

Third, you are constantly creating new listings. A powerful listing that pulls in money week after week takes testing and effort over a period of time. You don't have that luxury if you have to come up with new ones constantly.

One last thought: there are some exceptions, of course, but if all these wholesale lots are such a great deal, why aren't their sellers auctioning them for themselves?