How to sell on eBay

bestsynd · Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:57 am Post subject: How to sell on eBay

Ebay has become one of the most popular internet destinations. This could be a testament to America’s love for shopping. Shopping has become one of our favorite pastimes.

Vendors have set up their own permanent stores, making eBay much more than a big online swap meet. Companies like Home Depot, Sharper Image and IBM have jumped into the fray.

The marketplace has abundance of unscrupulous sellers, and there are even more unscrupulous buyers. Some sellers require a minimum feedback rating before they will allow a member to buy from them. This helps minimize the risk of fraud.

How to sell on Ebay

Evil Ash · Forum Guru Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 429

I've been selling on Ebay for years and although I have had my fair share of problems I know exactly how to sell a product that I think is worth being put on Ebay.

1) Its all in your delivery. If there is something wrong with your product make sure you note it but don't over explain it just make a small note so that your covered.

2) Make sure to keep your customers happy because before I buy anything off of Ebay I look at a persons selling history (or feedback).

3) If the item your selling is already in abundance on Ebay make your shipping costs as low as you can stand. Free will get you the business of people not necessarily looking to buy but just because they see a good deal.

4) Make sure you list all the major positives of your transaction in your heading so people will be pulled to your item and not someone elses.

5) Make sure to offer some kind of incentive like combined shipping and or different payment methods (Billpay, Paypal, Money Order, Cash) but never except personal checks. That slows everyone down and sometimes can prove to be a waste of time.

6) Before you buy anything that you think is going to make you some money on Ebay research if it is already on Ebay and how much it goes for and in what condition. No use in spending money on something that won't make you money.

7) Lastly don't rely on ebay to promote your item. I suggest taking your own pictures and posting them on your own website and then just leaving a link like this: (shameful yes I know)

http://groups.msn.com/TheChesterPage/shoebox.msnw
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There are no mistakes made on the way to the inevitable - Me

bestsynd · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:50 am Post subject:

Wow, Ash, that is pretty good. I have a couple coments.

Evil Ash · Forum Guru Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 429

I wont use the Ebay picture service. I've been using my own website to promote my items. As long as your not offering to sell your item outside of ebay theres really not much they can do. Posting pics off site is for mere cosmetics.
_________________
There are no mistakes made on the way to the inevitable - Me

Evil Ash · Forum Guru Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 429

I used the Ebay picture service today and they really fixed it up. You can upload a picture of any size now. I still put a link to my own site though. After my many years of using Ebay I leraned all over again to make sure you post your auctions on a date and time that is most convenient to your buyers. For me I need to remember to post my auctions three hours later inokrder to give people on the west coast time to get home from work and bid on the final date of my auction. Oops. I wont make that mistake again.
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There are no mistakes made on the way to the inevitable - Me

bestsynd · Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:09 am Post subject:

Ash, here is another article about selling on eBay.

Ebay Selling Tools and Sales Automation

In this article we will describe some of the tools used by eBay sellers to maximize their time and profits. Of course, eBay sellers can individually list every item by hand. This may be the best approach when you are selling just one unique item. But what if you have many items to list over and over again?

There are some great selling tools available online. Ebay offers their Sellers Assistant. Many sellers use this product, even some high volume sellers. The drawback is the seller still needs to manually launch queued items. It is better to have a system that does this automatically. The advantage to eBay’s Sellers Assistant is that it is a downloadable program. The program will reside on your computer.

The biggest advantage to Sellers Assistant is the cost. It is free to use. If you want more functionality they offer the Pro version for the very reasonable price of $25 a month. The Pro version offers post sale functionality. You will need to send out payment reminders and actually produce an invoice. Since the program resides on your computer you will still need to manually launch actions. This can be done in bulk though. ...

Ebay selling management and tools

Jaded · Forum Guru Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 696

Hubby and I have a vehicle that we are interested in selling on Ebay. It is fairly rare, but I have seen versions of it sold on Ebay before. Is there any way of finding out how much they sold for?

theLIBERTARIAN · El Loco Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 10192

Jaded · Forum Guru Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 696

OOoh, I see it. Thanks! How far does that go back? I only saw 4 vehicles like mine offered, two of which did not sell. While my car has all the features of the ones that did sell (and more) that is still a big risk. How much does it cost? Is it worth it to try?

Just to compare, I tried my second car (which we also might sell) and 39 different listings came up. All of them were in the range that we figured was fair.

One more thing... I have never sold anything before. Will that hurt me?

theLIBERTARIAN · El Loco Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 10192

I don't think not selling something will hurt you. I am not sure what eBay charges for selling a car. Usually there is a listing fee whether the item sells or not. Then there is a final valuation fee after the item sells.

Sometimes things don't sell because the ad looked bad. Take a good picture and make your ad look better than the others. This will actually ad value to your sale.

I will see if I can find the listing fees. they are on ebay somewhere.

bestsynd

One important aspect to be considered in any business is the losses. eBay is no different. There could be shipping loses, losses due to fraud and losses due to mistakes. If you do enough business you are bound to make all of these mistakes.

In an article I wrote on identity theft I mentioned that the person that took my identity bought $300 of merchandise from Walmart.com. Wal-Mart took the hit for that. If you sell expensive items (over $100) you can become a target for fraud. Few crooks want to waste their time on small-time capers. They also know that if the item is too expensive the purchase will be closely scrutinized.

You need to protect yourself when accepting credit card or Paypal payments. First require that sales over $100 be shipped to a verified or confirmed address. Usually if you ship to a verified / confirmed address you are protected from fraud. You may want to get a signature for the delivery. The signature will cost you a buck or two extra.

Article

bestsynd · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 12:35 am Post subject:

How to Ship Packages with FedEx, UPS Ground and the Postal Service

There are some tricks you need to know for selling on eBay, but there are also some practical things you need to know, one of them being how to ship packages. What shipping company should you use? Should you use UPS, FedEx, DHL or the old Postal Service?

Typically, if an item weighs less than 2 pounds then it is better to ship it UPSP Priority Mail. The postal service will give you the boxes saving you between 50 cents and a buck on each package. Take advantage of that.

Several years ago we shipped everything that weighed under 5 pounds Priority Mail. Then the Postal Service raised their rates. They also created zones for anything over two pounds similar to FedEx and UPS. So if you are in California and want to ship a package to New York it costs more than if you were shipping it to Las Vegas. We calculated that it most cases it was cheaper to ship UPS or FedEx Ground for anything over two pounds.

Link

bestsynd · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:01 pm Post subject:

How to Decide What to Sell on eBay

What to sell on eBay

There are many important decisions to make before you sell on eBay, and determining the right products to sell on eBay is crucial. Some may think the smallest, most expensive item is the best thing to sell. Maybe, but maybe not.
It is been our experience that the small expensive items are the most competitive. Let’s face it, most people don’t want to lift heavy boxes. They typically would prefer a small shelf to pull product from not pallets of large boxes.
We sold a small expensive wind meter for a while on eBay. In fact we locked ourselves into a one year contract to purchase a certain quantity at a certain price.

How to Decide What to Sell on eBay

bestsynd · Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 2:59 pm Post subject:

New Survey shows 17% Americans sells their Used stuff Online

A survey conducted by The Pew Internet and American Life Project discovered that 17% of Americans have sold something online. That is about one in six American adults that have sold online. At any given time there are 25 million people or 2% are selling something online.

Ebay and online classified ads have become a way of life for many people. It has brought the yard sale to a new level when people can bring their used items for the world to buy. Everything from used children's clothes, to used books and DVD movies. If you can’t use it why not sell it online?

Ebay is one of the more known auction sites, but there is also Yahoo Auctions, Overstock Auctions and Ubid. There is also traditional classified papers online as well, such as The Recycler, The Penny Saver. There are a lot of ways to sell your used stuff online....

Checkout the beta version of base.google.com. Google has started to dabble in the online classified ad business; they will let you post your item for free at this time.

New Survey shows 17% Americans sells their Used stuff Online

Nictoe · The Wise One Joined: 22 Sep 2005 Posts: 7590

There's only one simple rule to selling on eBay: BUY LOW SELL HIGH