Try and find some niches, these generally work best. DVDs, video games, electronic items are a waste of time but gift items, adult goods are good.

puckator is a good source for more niche items

register a domain name, purchase hosting and create an ecommerce store with an open source system such as magento or oscommerce or if required open a store on an auction site such as ebay.

Pick an item, look at the total price you will pay and add shipping now visit the auction sites and type in the product in the search and see what others are selling for. if you cannot beat the prices your wasting your time.

Think out of the box, bundle items or appear to give the potential customers fantastic offers.

Never forget about the other auction sites, ebay is king but there are others and some are less saturated meaning bigger profits, drwaback is these sites get less traffic.

Don’t tie yourself down to your local market, you may be a US citizen but dropshipping means you can find a UK dropshipper and target UK customers for example.