Internet auctions are relatively new having been around since the mid 1990's. There are several Internet auctions including Yahoo Auctions and UBid. But of course the undisputed king of Internet auctions is Ebay. Ebay has over 40 million registered users making it one of the top 10 most visited websites in the world.
I discovered Ebay way back in 1998. At first, I was strictly a buyer. I was amazed at the thousands of items that could be found on Ebay. Just about anything you can imagine can be found on Ebay. And there were more incredible bargains to be found than at any other ecommerce website or brick and mortar store I had ever visited. After about six months or so of buying, I began selling items on Ebay. I had an extensive collection of unbuilt as well as built plastic model cars. I began placing the models on Ebay with starting bids of $5.00 and no reserve. To my surprise, people started jumping all over these model kits. Some of them sold for as high as $70.00. It was at this time that I realized the enormous money making potential of Ebay. The key to being a successful seller on Ebay is selling items that people want. There are a number of ebooks on Internet auctions that tell of the importance of a great headline and a killer ad for your auction. While this is true, it is also important to remember that the best ad in the world will never sell an item that no one wants. The items that do well on Ebay are unique or interesting items. Antiques, pottery, collectables and high-end apparel are just a few of the items that will bring high bids on Ebay. If you can easily find the item at Wal-Mart, chances are it will not do well on Ebay.
There are a number of wholesalers around the country that you can buy merchandise from to sell on Ebay. But before you buy, do your homework. It's very tempting to buy a bunch of electronic widgets that sell for $2.00 a piece. You might think you can buy 20 of the $2.00 widgets and then sell them for $12.00 a piece on Ebay and make a killing. Unfortunately, you discover that no one is bidding on your widgets despite the fact that you have started the bidding at a mere $6.00. In fact, there are very few people that are even viewing your auctions. The end result is you are now stuck with 20 widgets that no one wants. The first mistake here was not doing a search of widgets on Ebay to find out if they're hot or not. The second mistake was trying to sell an electronic item. Yes, I know there is a huge market for electronic gadgets. That's the problem; the market is too huge. It is already saturated. How many times a day are you bombarded with offers for the latest and greatest cell phone or digital camera? If you try to sell in this market on Ebay, you're encroaching on Best Buy's turf, which means you'll be smashed like a bug. On the other hand, how many offers do you receive for NASCAR collectibles or Gucci shoes? Or how about die cast models? These are the hot items on Ebay. These are in demand items and more importantly you can sell these items without competing against Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
If you're new to Ebay, the first thing you need to do is to build positive feedback. Feedback is vital to your success on Ebay. Potential buyers will read your feedback in order to determine if you're an honest seller. If you have high numbers of negative feedback, many buyers will look elsewhere. Take a look at some of the Ebay Power Sellers feedback. Many of them have feedback in the thousands with a rating of over 99% positive. It's no secret how these Power Sellers became successful on Ebay. They take care of their customers. This means they'll have plenty of repeat business.
When you first sign up with Ebay, you'll have zero feedback. Most buyers will shy away from an Ebay newbie with zero or very low feedback. Start building your feedback rating by selling personal items from around the house that you no longer want. This is a good way to get the feel of using Ebay and to build positive feedback. You should invest in a good digital camera. Good clear pictures are an important selling feature on Ebay. Remember to describe your items accurately and honestly. Do not try to trick or deceive buyers in any way. You can't afford receiving negative feedback this early in the game.
I came across a perfect example of a deceptive seller on Ebay a while back. The seller had sold a pair of slightly used shocks for a 2003 Chevy pickup. He used Ebay's Buy-It-Now feature to sell the shocks for just one cent. Wow! What an incredible deal! But wait a minute. The unwary buyer forgot to read the entire auction. The shipping charges were a whopping 60 bucks! The result was a pissed off buyer and negative feedback for the seller. This was an obvious attempt on the part of the seller to make money on the shipping costs. He was banking on the fact that the buyer would not read the entire auction and would simply assume the shipping charges would be reasonable. Do not use deception in your auctions or try to make money on shipping costs. If you treat your customers the way you expect to be treated you will never go wrong and you'll be well on your way to building a reputation as an honest top-notch seller.
If you happen to get a few non-paying bidders, resist the temptation to leave negative feedback for these individuals. Leaving negative feedback will only result in possible retaliation by the non-paying bidder and negative feedback for you. Once again, you do not want any negative feedback this early in the game. Buying items off of Ebay is another great way to build positive feedback. When you win an auction, pay for the item promptly. The result will be positive feedback for you. Most buyers will not care whether your feedback came as a result of buying or selling as long as it's positive.
After you've built a feedback rating of least 25, you'll be ready to start purchasing wholesale merchandise to sell on Ebay. Remember what I said about doing your homework before buying merchandise. If you have your eye on a particular item you think might sell on Ebay, first do a search of that item on Ebay to find out what people are bidding if anything on the item. If it looks hot, at least 7 or 8 bids, then it's probably a good bet. If it doesn't appear to be getting many bids, you should steer clear. You can also do an advanced search for auctions that have already ended. It's a great way to find out the final bid price for a particular item. A few extra minutes of research can save you from a giant headache down the road.
About the author:
Are You Tired of the scams and the get-rich-quick schemes?
Greg Hayes is founding editor of http://www.mammothprofits.com
Mammothprofits is the website devoted to helping others filter out the scams and become successful in a home based business.
eBay Gold
Starting an Ebay Business
THE REALITIES OF AN INTERNET BUSINESS
Millions of people are still coming online each year, and many of those people come to the Internet with dreams of making their financial dreams come true.
The truth is that building a website to sell products and services is not the easiest way to make a living online. A lot of specific knowledge or money will be required to be successful with a standard website.
You must acquire skills --- or pay someone who already possesses those skills --- in the following areas:
� Graphic design
� Copywriting
� HTML design
� Perl or PHP programming
� Database programming
� Marketing research
� Promotions
When this is understood, most people throw their hands up in frustration and walk away from their entrepreneurial desires.
Maybe cash is the problem; maybe the desire is just lacking.
If you have reached this point yourself let me offer one piece of advice...
DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR DREAMS JUST YET
More people than I can count are making a successful living online, and none of them own their own website or send a single commercial email to anyone.
How is this possible?
Two words, "Ebay auctions."
EBAY MAKES IT EASY
Ebay covers all of the difficult technical issues. And more importantly, Ebay already has floods of visitors eager to purchase your wares.
Ebay has provided everything you need to operate a successful business online with three exceptions:
1. Products to sell
2. Time to list the products in the Ebay database
3. Cash to acquire the products
CHOOSING THE KINDS OF PRODUCTS
Before choosing your products, you should ask yourself what you enjoy the most. You may enjoy cats, NASCAR or even antiques. You should select products consistent with what you enjoy for two reasons.
First, you bring to your presentation a real appreciation for the products your are offering.
Secondly, a job you hate is one you will quit. A job you enjoy doing will be one that you will want to keep forever. If you are starting your own business, the hope is that you will be doing it for a very long time.
I personally know people who have generated a nice living on Ebay selling cat-related items, NASCAR memorabilia and antiques.
FINDING THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS TO SELL
I recommend against diving in and spending thousands of dollars buying products that you may or may not be able to sell.
A drop-shipper is a middleman who is willing to permit you to buy an individual product, and then they will put your business name on the return address of the product package and handle the actual delivery for you.
By utilizing a drop-shipper, you can speed product delivery to the client without risking your own cash to keep a product in inventory.
If you are lost as to how to find a drop-shipper, consider subscribing to the drop-shippers directory:
http://thePhantomWriters.com/drop_shippers_directory.html
Through this site, you can get all of the information you need to find drop-shippers from which you can order over 500,000 products from over 1,000 brand names.
LEARNING TO LIST YOUR PRODUCTS AT EBAY
Learning to use Ebay is pretty easy and straightforward. Ebay has put forward a lot of effort to help people to become successful. For example, Ebay has an entire area of their site devoted to the online entrepreneur.
To get an overview of all of the services and tools that Ebay provides to sellers, you may visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html
Ebay also delivers courses and strategies to help you to be more successful:
http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html
THE IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW TO YOUR SUCCESS
Ebay provides tools for both buyers and sellers to rate one another. The speed of delivery is one of the most important factors that sellers are rated on. By providing quick delivery, your buyers will give you a good rating --- and more shoppers will bid on your products.
Ebay recently purchased PayPal.com to help facilitate purchases for their buyers and sellers, and they have integrated the two systems together.
Unfortunately, getting the money from your PayPal account to your personal account generally takes four days. Even with a merchant account, the time gap is nearly the same. This time gap expands the turn-around between the transaction and delivery of the product unless you take action to speed the process.
If you were doing high volume, you would want to minimize the handling of a transaction to reduce the chance for a foul-up and to increase your ratings within the Ebay system.
But how can this be accomplished?
MANAGING CASH FLOW
While you could rely upon credit cards to get the job done, it is not something I would recommend. Paying credit card interest rates to process your customer's purchase, is an unnecessary burden.
Instead, put a sum of money into a dedicated bank account with a debit card attached to it. When you verify a transaction has been credited to your PayPal account, then use your debit card to immediately process the order with your drop-shipper.
But, how can you do it this way on a tight budget?
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE
Let me ask you this. Do you have a 401(k) account?
Experts advise that you not touch your retirement savings for anything other than retirement income. That is good advice. Fortunately, it is possible under special circumstances to acquire loans against your 401(k) accounts.
Beginning in 2002, even the self-employed small business owner with no employees could open his or her own 401(k), called a solo-owner 401(k), and borrow from it just as employees with big companies can.
Weigh this option against the others available to you. It only makes sense to take out a loan rather than to take a hit in heavy taxes and penalties for drawing your retirement money early. Seriously, consider taking advantage of our historically low interest rates to meet your cash flow needs.
Learn To Make Money On eBay
So you want to sell stuff on eBay, but you have two minor
problems: you don't know how and you don't have stuff. Not a problem. Keep reading for some tips to get you pointed in the right direction to learn to make money on eBay.
Before you begin you’ll need some basic equipment: Computer, Internet access, digital camera, and some space to put your stuff. That’s really all you’ll need to get started. You’ll also need shipping and packing supplies but that is addressed later.
Next you’ll need to learn how to list auctions. Go to the eBay sellers overview:
http://pages.ebay.com/education/sellingtips/index.html. This will be your lifeline. There is a plethora of information there on everything you always wanted to know and more. Don’t be overwhelmed; just take it one step at a time. You’ll see there
is information on listings, on bidding, on photos, on feedback – it’s all there.
Next you’ll need to figure out what to sell. Before you zero in on a particular niche you need some experience and some feedback. Buyers are generally leery of buying from someone who is brand new and has a feedback rating of less than 10
evaluations. While you are getting your feet wet, look around your own house first. You’d be amazed at what people buy. You could list outgrown clothing, magazines, candle holders, CD,books, flannel sheets, recipes, the ugly old lamp that was Aunt
Mildred’s, all those goofy Christmas gifts sitting in your basement, that old baby gate with a stain on it. Get the idea?You never know what someone will want.
Although you need experience, you don’t want to list something that isn’t likely to sell. Do your research first before you invest the time in putting together a listing. An easy method to use is do a “search” on eBay, then look up COMPLETED ITEMS, then sort by HIGHEST price. Then you’ll see if your Tommy Bahama
shirt is really worth anything. Or you’ll see that your old baseball cards had 23 listings and not one of them sold.
Pricing is another challenge. Again, you’ll need to do your research. See what they’re going for. Don’t have overly high expectations. You know how you feel when you go to a garage sale and you see a pair of jeans for $15 or books for $4 each. Many people come to eBay to look for a bargain. Consider how much you
have into the item. If you have an item from around the house,you may consider that something is better than nothing, so you may be inclined to start the bidding quite low. If you bought it with the specific intention to resell, you will, at the very
minimum, want to break even, so take the price you paid for it and consider other costs, i.e. listing fees, final value fees(all explained in your lifeline – eBay seller overview above).People are much more apt to bid if the bidding starts LOW.
Sometimes though, you will have collectibles that are worth achunk of money. Don’t give away that vintage postcard that is worth $56! Do your homework.
The next big question is how do you get paid? You determine what you would accept. Online payments such as PayPal (paypal.com)are very convenient. You can also decide that you’ll accept money orders or personal checks. The more options you leave your
buyers, the more likelihood you’ll get more bids.
You also need to decide how you want to ship your items to the winners. Many sellers use USPS, others prefer UPS. If you use USPS and ship via Priority Mail, you can get your envelopes and boxes free from USPS. If you ship First Class or Parcel Post or UPS, you’ll have to shop around for deals on boxes or envelopes
and bubble wrap or packing peanuts.
Overwhelmed yet? Yes there is a lot to learn, but it’s not nuclear science. Just take it one step at a time. It’s a learning process. Some yahoo groups (or MSN or AOL, or whatever your preference) are great sources for support and camaraderie
with others who are doing the same.
So in summary, if you want to just “start pushing buttons” and learn to make money on eBay on your own, YOU CAN DO IT. If you do better chatting with others, those resources are available too. Use what is available.
Getting Great Deals on EBay
I love getting a deal. I try to smell them out from miles away. I love frequent garage sales, flea markets, closeouts, and more -- but found that I could much better by simply buying through online auctions - if I shop carefully.
Getting a deal out of EBay auctions is an art. Buying from auctions can be a costly proposition or a very economical option depending on your tactics. Buy wisely by learning from my (sometimes costly) experiences.
1. Is the Seller Trustworthy?
Both EBay and Yahoo auctions have seller ratings. Read these and their associated reviews. If the seller has a great rating from buying and a poor one from selling, you probably don't want to buy from them. Look at both praises and complaints as they may or may not apply to what you are bidding on.
2. Read the Description Throughly
It is very easy to read what you want to see in an Ebay auction rather than what is actually written there. Read both what is in the Ebay description and what is NOT in the description. Often your mind will want to fill in details with what is your dream interpretation. You need to re-read the description until you find out whether what you are searching for and what the seller is selling match.
* Used or New?
Is the item you are buying used or new? If it doesn't say new, you are most likely buying something that is used.
* Real or Fake
Is the item you are interested in "real" gold, sterling silver or pearls? For example, a description saying: "gold necklace for sale" does NOT say 14 kt gold or 18kt gold. That most likely means a gold COLORED necklace which may or may not have actual gold metal. This also applies to pearls as many call plastic fake pearls simply "pearls".
If the seller is selling beads, those beads could be plastic, glass, stone, scrap metal, crystal, chips, wood, clay, gemstone or some other material.
* Item Details
Does the EBay description really say how much you are getting, how long the item is, and quality of the item? Selling by the pound can be a great deal - or a horrible deal.
* Beware of Hidden Costs
Look at shipping and handling costs. I've seen many penny auctions that have $13 or more shipping. Some auctions even have handling fees.
* How Fast Will it Ship?
I've been seeing a fair amount of auctions that note that the product will ship in 2 months or that shipping time is 2 months. If you are buying for a particular holiday, be sure that you will get the item in time.
3. Is it a Bargain For You?
Many times an EBay auction will say that the items are "worth $XXX". In many cases, that price is inflated. Often you can find similar items much cheaper tah "$XXX" at normal stores. (However, the auction price may still be cheaper than you can by elsewhere - it really helps to know how much you usually pay for items!) If you are only interested in some of the items in an auction, adjust your bid to reflect how much you are willing to pay for just those items unless you plan to sell the rest as that is how much you would pay for it elsewhere.
4. Auction Fever
Compare prices on the net at the same time to avoid overpaying. Know that usually you can get the item later elsewhere. Wise buyers know to walk away when the price is higher than the item is worth to them.
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