Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Ebay

EBay has opened up a whole new world in terms of monetary gain and the elimination of household clutter. Time was that if you found that your house was simply getting too crowded, the day when the attic door just refused to open over your head or the garage was just too stuffed to fit your vehicle, you had no choice but to make a trip to the dump or await the summer garage sale season in order to get rid of some of the clutter.

The advent of eBay changed all of that, however. Now you can eliminate the clutter around your house without the waste involved in a trip to the dump or the iffy prospects of selling at a garage sale. All you need is an Internet connection and your junk could turn into someone else’s treasure.

EBay works on the old adage that if the customer base is big enough, a seller will always be able to sell any item, no matter how obscure. This has certainly proved true so far in the short history of eBay, where three million auctions close every single day, in every area conceivable. You might find it hard to believe, but the auction environment is such that that pile of old National Geographic magazines that you have might fetch close to their original value or even higher on the site. There are so many opportunities that some people have made a business out of becoming eBay Power Selling professionals, with some stores netting $1,000 a day!

In order to make eBay work for you, you have to use the right approach both in your marketing and in avoiding common eBay pitfalls. One great way to ensure sales is to purchase or borrow a digital camera to take pictures of your goods- items that have accompanying pictures are much more likely to sell, and at a higher price, than are ones that are placed without a visual aid. Buyers can see what the product is like, including the condition it is in, and thus the chance they are taking is much lower.

In terms of pitfalls, most of the deals that go bad on eBay are avoidable if you have a good heads up. The first issue, of course, is one of non-payment. If you have sold an item on eBay to a buyer who just refuses to pay, a simple task can become an arduous exercise in collections, and might even end up costing you money. In order to avoid a non-payment scenario, it is crucial to set up a payment option before you ship the goods. If the buyer refuses to pay you, all you have to do is relist the item and start another auction.

Other eBay pitfalls mostly revolve around bad payments. Bad checks, credit card fraud, international fraud, and credit card charge backs are all part of the Internet selling process. All of these situations can now be avoided, however, by requesting payment through the eBay developed Pay Pal. Pay Pal is a great way to receive money from the sale of goods immediately, and also incorporates a dispute resolution system in the event that the buyer or seller is unhappy with the outcome of the sale.

How to Start an eBay Bidding War

A bidding war is where two or more people bid furiously against one another, each desperate to own a particular item.

Phenomenal results are possible, such as last month, where a postcard by artist A. R. Quinton, depicting a cliff view at Herne Bay, fetched £100 plus. By anyone’s standards, the card was worth about £3 for the view and maybe a few pounds more for the artist.

I checked and found that two serious bidders, one of Herne Bay topographical postcards, the other a Quinton enthusiast, had launched a bidding war that was eventually won by the Herne Bay collector, or was it the seller of this rather common-a-garden postcard?

Such events are not uncommon. My own best selling item this month, a pair of vintage cufflinks with ancient Greek Coins, for which I paid £3 at a flea market, went for £34, with the two final bidders being a collector of cufflinks and another of Greek coins. The Greek coin collector won.

You only need two bidders and it doesn’t matter if they’re interested in the same product or specific parts of your product or listing. The end result is always the same; more money for you.

You’re looking for just two people in the whole wide world, these tips will help you find them.

* List a minimum two items (or themes) in one lot. The trick is to make each item valuable in its own right and appealing to more than one person. The cufflinks and postcard are good examples. I’ve seen other wars raging over two completely unrelated postcards listed together; two books bearing no relation to one another; a pack of artist illustrated playing cards where one bidder wanted the cards and the other collected all things artist related.

* List in two eBay categories to achieve maximum market penetration. You can also list in two shop categories. For the Quinton/Herne Bay postcard I’d list under ‘Artist Drawn Postcards’ and ‘Topographical’.

* Research and use commonly used keywords for your product to attract the highest audience for your item. Go to eBay Pulse pages for common keywords or use software such as Adword Analyzer to study most commonly used key words and phrases for specific subjects. Although developed largely for search engine optimisation and Google advertising campaigns and similar, products like Adword Analyzer are equally suitable for all areas of the Internet, including eBay. Visit our site, www.1st-in-auctions.com/Keywords.html for more ideas on keyword research with tips from top eBayers and other Internet marketers.

* Offer free gifts and bonuses to attract interest from people selling similar items. For example, offer three cufflinks where most offer two (emphasise these things get damaged, lost, stolen); ship items postage free; add complementary items such as matching tie pin (free or otherwise) with cufflinks, free presentation boxes with every batch of wholesale necklaces, and so on.

* Offer a free gift that is valuable in its own right, worth more than the product listed, and not available from any other source. Remember to change the freebie regularly as frequent buyers will have it already. Study and comply with eBay rules regarding gifts, bonuses and discounts. The trick is to find people not necessarily wanting your listed product, but very keen on the freebie.

Succeeding As A Seller On E-bay

Being successful is almost everyone’s dreams this day and being successful in E-Bay could be a reality once you set your heart into it. Like in any other business, patience and perseverance in the world of E-Bay are factors needed to ensure that you are going to be successful here.

Aside from those virtues, a lot of strategic planning is needed to ensure one’s success in E-Bay. The first thing that you could do is to mark your territory. This means that you should be able to determine on what kind of specialization you would like. For example, your area of specialization is books therefore you should focus yourself first in establishing a name in the books category before eventually branching out your items. This would help you in establishing a name through categories thus forming a solid foundation for your business. In terms of products, remember that a wide margin market is important therefore products should not be too expensive. Products that are easy to dispose of as well as in demand are great investments for people that are planning to be successful in the world of E-Bay.

Customer service also plays an important part in being a successful seller on E-Bay. This is because customers always know if you are the type of seller that prioritizes the needs of their customers. If the first transaction with a seller made an impact to them then the tendency of customers is to buy and purchase again. Aside from that, customers that are truly satisfied with a transaction made from a specific seller would be able to recommend the products as well as the services to other potential customers without paying anything to the customer. This is a good way to expand your horizons as a seller which could have a great impact to customers. As a seller, you should always seek feedback regarding the transaction that they made with you as well as the state of the product. This is important because customers would feel that they are very important in your line of business. It is important to have more positive feedbacks in E-Bay because most customers would rely on a seller because of their good reputation on the web.

Last but not the least, always hold honest transactions so that people would learn to trust you and in return, you would be able to maximize the benefits of E-Bay.

Great Ideas for your Auction Site Business

Finding great items to sell can be difficult for some people. After all, your auction site business depends on great items that you can purchase very inexpensively and sell for a profit. If you are having difficulty finding items online for your auction business, here are some easy tips.

One of the best ways to find a great ideas is to check out the auction sites. Many people don’t realize that great ideas are on practically every page of Ebay. You can easily look at which products are selling, how much they sell for and the average price that they are sold at. Using Ebay is probably the easiest and quickest way to find great products that already have a thriving market.

You can also check out auction site forums. Here many people talk about great products that are hot. There are even auction analysis companies that analyze millions of pieces of data to come up with great items for their customers to sell.

There are many overseas manufacturers and distributors that would love to sell their items to you for a great price, which can be quickly converted into profit. Many of these overseas manufacturers are usually located on large marketplace websites which are easy to find. So if you are looking for great items to sell on auction sites, follow the above tips.

10 Great Ways To Source Low Cost Products For Ebay.

So you’re having trouble finding stock cheaply enough to sell it for a good profit? Well, you’ve come to the right place.

Garage sales. The chances are you’ve gone most of your life seeing ads for these and ignoring them. Start going to as many as you can. You won’t find good things at every one, but when you find one person with good stuff, make them an offer for the lot – they’ll be so happy about it that you can get a real bargain.

Markets. If your area has a market, then go there and look around for anything good. You could buy it there if it’s cheap enough, or try to make friends with the market traders and find out who their suppliers are.

Pawn shops. Pawn shops don’t usually know what to do with the junk they accumulate (unless it’s jewellery, of course). Generally, they put their stock out on the shelves haphazardly, hoping that someday someone with a little money will just happen to come in, search around and buy wildly obscure things. Get them to offer you a discount for bulk.

Real auctions. Go to a real auction, as the chances are that you can resell things for more than they will sell them. After all, they only have a few hundred people in that room – you have a few million to sell to!

Local newspapers. Place an ad in the local paper that reads “I pay cash for [your item type]”, with your phone number. If you can afford it, make it a big display ad, so it’ll be noticed.

Ad boards. Get one of those little ads in the grocery store.

Friends. Ask your friends if they have anything they’d like to sell you, and ask them to spread the word to their friends.

Become known. Give out business cards, mention to people what you do. The chances are that you’ll come across someone who’ll say “Oh, really? I’ve got a load of [item] I don’t want”.

Shops. This might be a little surprising, but some real shops even sell things more cheaply than they sell on eBay. Take a look around your local deep discounter, and pay special attention to any shop that takes trade-ins from customers. The chances are they take a loss on trade-ins as a promotion, and are dying to get rid of that stock.

And finally: eBay! When you’re looking at the completed items view, you’ll notice the massive range of prices that items can sell for on eBay. Try taking the highest-priced item and searching for it on its own, then sort by lowest price first: I can almost guarantee that you’ll see an auction for the same item where it sold for almost nothing. The trick is to find these flawed auctions before they close, win them using a bid sniping service, and then turn around and resell the item.

After all that trouble, though, when do sell the item you might find that a buyer leaves you a feedback rating you just don’t think is fair. The next email will show you what to do about it.

Using The Ebay Anything Points Program.

eBay Anything points are a loyalty scheme, just like you might get in a shop. The buyer earns points on their purchases, which they can then redeem for money off when they pay for items through PayPal.

Buyers can also earn eBay Anything points when they use the eBay credit card, or exchange their frequent flyer miles for eBay Anything points. People think it’s really great to take frequent flyer miles they’re never going to use and get stuff on eBay for them.

How to Offer Points to Your Buyers.

Go to http://anythingpoints.ebay.com/offer.html and click ‘Log In to Offer Manager’. Enter an item’s number to offer Anything points on that item.

How Does it Work?

You choose how many points per dollar you want to offer to your buyers when they pay you with PayPal. Each point costs you 1c, and is worth 1c to the buyer – eBay don’t take anything out along the way.

For example, if you sell an item worth $500, and you offer 2 points per dollar, then the seller will receive 1000 eBay Anything points – the equivalent of $10. You only pay for the points when the buyer actually receives them, and you can offer points on as many or as few listings as you like.

Each listing you add will get a big banner below the description, saying “X Anything Points per dollar of the final price for buyers who pay with PayPal”. Buyers can click it for more information on the scheme.

Why Would You Want To?

Really, most sellers who offer points are doing it to get around a condition of their contract with their supplier. Many sellers only get access to goods at wholesale prices provided they don’t list them for sale below the manufacturer’s MAP, or minimum advertised price. The points allow them to offer the items at the MAP and then give their buyer money back in the form of points. It’s a bit like a virtual rebate.

The eBay Anything points scheme is good for you and for eBay, as it encourages buyers to use PayPal instead of more cumbersome payment methods. eBay are keen to promote PayPal, and obviously thought this would be a good way of doing it – not to mention that it keeps buyers coming back, to spend their points. You will also get to be listed on the ‘Earn Points from eBay Sellers’ page, which is here: http://anythingpoints.ebay.com/earn.html.

Here’s another advantage for you: if you buy things from sellers who offer Anything points, you can then use those points to pay your own seller fees. Another seller gets to pay your fees for you! All you need to do is go to My eBay, then Account Management, click the Pay button, and then choose the option to use your Anything points to pay.

If you’re going to offer points, then you want your auction to end for as much as you can possibly get – let the buyer pay for their own points! All you’ll need is our next email, all about strategies for when to start and end your auction.