Ebay-Auction-Business

eBay Sellers SuperTools

2008-09-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

Here are some tools, that might help you to become a successful eBay (and not only eBay) seller!

For good success, selling stuff, you have to promote your eBay store.

Free web hosting :

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Templates

What to sell on eBay?

You can use information from here:

or here:

Here you can learn learn how to drop ship sell. A lot of useful information about wholesale items.

eBay listing templates:

You can search the net for ''free'' templates, but if you want to ''spice'' up your sellings, you can use professionally designed templates from here:

What NOT to sell on eBay?

2008-09-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

A lot of people talk and write about things to SELL on eBay.

Lets talk about things NOT to sell on eBay. :)

1. Items under $10

It sounds like a great idea - after all, everyone likes a bargain don't they? But items that sell for under $10 have one big problem: Shipping. It's quite likely that the shipping for the item will cost more than the item itself and this can be very off-putting to buyers. For example, if the item costs $4.50 and shipping costs $6, the total cost for the item is $10.50. If the buyer can purchase the item at their local store for $8, then this suddenly becomes a much better deal. For small items and accessories, the way to get around this problem is by grouping the items together, such as sets of 6 golf-balls or 5 tea towels.

2. Products everyone else are selling

Many sellers think that the best way to get started on eBay is to sell items that everyone else is selling. Surely those super hot items such as ipods, cell phones, psps and so on will be a quick route to riches? Well, no. The sellers who are already selling these items are not only more established on eBay - and thus familiar to and trusted by buyers - but they will be able to buy wholesale stock in larger bulks lots than you will, so their prices will always be better. Thus it will almost certainly be very difficult for you to make a profit in a market that is already well supplied.

3. Things you love...but no-one else does

Hobbies can be a great way of making money, but only if plenty of other people are interested in them too.

Another scenario is when you find a product that you think is absolutely wonderful and could be the next best thing...but no-one seems interested in buying it. Oh well you think, it's only short term, eventually they'll learn about my item and start flocking to buy it. Ah, no they won't. It's lonely work trying to educate people on the benefits of a product all on your own. As fabulous as the product might be, it's nigh-on impossible to start a trend on your own. To make money from a trend, you need magazines and newspapers, word of mouth and television to do some of the work for you.

4. Difficult items to ship - e.g. fragile china and plants

Now I'm not saying that these are bad items to sell altogether. Many sellers do very well from these items. But I don't suggest you sell such difficult items when you are first starting out. Both these items have an above-average shipping risk, particularly if not packed properly. As a new seller, any negative feedback you receive at this early stage could be especially damaging to your career.

5. Very large items

Thinking of starting with furniture or pianos? Unless you already have experience selling and shipping these items, then it might be wise to start with something smaller. Shipping such large items is a major operation. Not only that, these items will sell less often than mid-priced items as they won't attract the same number of impulse buyers.

About the Author: SaleHoo is one of the fastest growing product sourcing portals on the internet. It contains a database of drop ship, wholesale, closeout and manufacturing suppliers offering thousands of product suppliers to consumers! Located at http://www.salehoo.com, visitors are allowed to sign up for unlimited and lifetime access to the completely searchable database of products and suppliers. The database is regularly updated, ensuring that the latest retail products are always available for purchase and SaleHoo carries the BBB Reliability Seal!

Alternatives to eBay – Are They Worth It?

2008-09-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are searching for eBay alternitives. Some do that because of the high fees, some of the high competition in eBay.

The main problem eBay alternative sites have - traffic, which to these sites is simply too low or nonexistent to bring in good prices.

According to latest ''Alexa Top Sites'', eBay is the world’s 18th most popular site. Not bad, huh? :)
This only means, that every day millions of people go through eBay. For example Amazon is in 32nd place.

The key to find alternative to eBay, is that you have to find a online niche-auction site. There you can sell your items for better prices, just because these sites attract a very targeted audience.

Lot of sellers stick on eBay because of the feedback they have made, selling a lot of different items.

The two main alternatives to eBay are Amazon.com, and Craigslist.

Amazon.com is a great place if you are selling books, music, DVDs, video games, or other electronics. It is very easy to use compared to eBay. All you have to do is find the item you want to sell, write a couple sentence description about its condition, and set your price. One of the best things about Amazon is that it is very straight forward, and you have to spend almost no time answering emails from buyers. This is number 1 alternative to ebay for sure!
If you want to sell a small number of items on a personal level without having to deal with eBay fees, or PayPal holding your money, then the best is Craigslist (lists 37th in Alexa Top Sites) . It is very easy to use, you get paid in cash, and you don't have to ship anything. People like to use Craigslist for all of my larger items.

HERE --- you can find a LOT of different eBay alternatives.

Best thing about eBay is the ''free traffic'', the fees on eBay may be higher than some of those other auctions sites. However, the fees the eBay charges may be lower than some of the specialized sites. But if you can find a niche-auction site that makes you happy, go ahead :)

Think smart!

2008-09-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

In now day's selling on eBay (and not only here) is so popular, that it's very hard to become a successful seller. But I have recognized that the biggest mistake, that sellers do - the don't invest in their business.

Let's compare some :)

I want to buy XBox360 Elite. I go to ebay.com and what I see?
729 items found for: xbox 360 elite

I start browsing the items...

Items are mostly the same... but the descriptions! Mostly it's copy/paste. Like this:

But then I see something like this, with bonuses, free shipping and nice description:

I don't say, that this is the best, BUT:

Getting template like this is SO easy :) But it can increase of your selling amounts SO much!

So, e-bay sellers, think smart! :)

eBay Listing Templates

2008-09-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

These days an increasing number of people are selling stuff at online auctions - especially on eBay. But even though professional eBay listing templates are used by a great number of eBay sellers, still many don't grasp that eventually their online auction profit formula boils down to a number of marketing factors. eBay listing templates is one of them and can directly influence the shoppers' buying decision.

Now imagine yourself browsing eBay listings and looking for a particular product to buy. You open one listing, and quickly scroll down to have a quick glimpse at the pictures and description. The majority of eBay shoppers search for products exactly this way and don't spend too much time in one listing unless it catches their attention.

If the listing description spreads all across the Internet browser, it's very difficult for a visitor's eye to take in all the information. eBay listing templates come very handy with organizing the information and help the potential buyers to scan the description text. It's been scientifically proven that a width of 500 pixels is the optimal one and professionally designed eBay listing templates are very close to this size.

Another factor that impacts eBay buyers' decision apart from the price is the professionalism and good look of the listing. eBay listing templates can be created in many different colors, styles and techniques and eBay sellers can pick the ones matching the products best. This can create a good connection between the listing design and the buyer and increase the product's selling conversion rate.

To make it easier for eBay sellers to understand, we can use the similarity between eBay listing templates and miniwebsite designs. The ever increasing number of people selling information products on the Internet have created a huge demand for such designs. Many of them use eBay as additional stream of income and just copy the website's design into the eBay listing. Eventually the similarity between a sales page on the Internet and an eBay listing has become more and more obvious.

A logical question arises - where eBay sellers can get professionally designed eBay listing templates? Does eBay provide them or they have to order the design in other companies?

The best option these days is to go with a company that provides a good number of different templates. If the eBay seller plans selling only one product - the option of ordering one template can also be considered. However, since there are a few good companies offering high quality eBay listing templates for a reasonable membership price - it's the best option for all eBay sellers.

Wholesale Items To Sell On eBay

2008-09-13T09:13:00.000-07:00

Wholesaler products are a perfect component of every eBay seller’s business.

eBay sellers need wholesale products to expand their business, since their initial inventory usually only consists of personal items which they have had lying around the house.

As their eBay business develops they find that they need a steady source for wholesale products which they can offer on eBay.

So how does an eBay seller procure wholesale products for his business?

There are five steps that every eBay seller should take when looking for wholesale products.

1. Determine the direction of his eBay business.

Just because the eBay seller started out selling used clothing, doesn’t mean that she wants to build an eBay business selling used clothing.

2. Decide whether the eBay business will be based on volume or price.

eBay sellers need to decide if they will be looking to conduct allot of auctions for low priced merchandise, or if instead they will be selling fewer, but higher priced items.

3. Investigate the eBay marketplace.

The eBay seller needs to investigate and see if there is a viable market for the wholesale products he would like to sell. A good indication would be the number of similar items sold.

4. Search online for sources for wholesale products.

eBay sellers can use wholesale search engines such as www.wholesalecentral.com and www.wholesalequest.com

5. Test out the market.

eBay sellers should test out the eBay marketplace by placing a small order and trying to sell the items they have ordered. There is no better indicator than actual experience.

As wholesale DVDs, wholesale video games and wholesale electronics have the biggest potential for resale on eBay, you should consider these as the best wholesale items to sell on eBay.

Why? Simply because those products are ALWAYS in high demand, and if you know the right way to list them you are guaranteed to make nice profit!

Dont believe? Check here!

So – for good eBay listing design grab these free ebay templates.

Selling information products online.

2008-09-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

One of the 'hottest' selling products online these days is information products. You can purchase ebooks on just about anything you can think of and there is always a market as people are always looking for information. So if you have any information that you think others would want to know then you can create your own product to sell.

If you can't think of any information that you could produce your own product from there are many ways that you can buy products with resell rights meaning that you can buy the product and then sell them.

The profit that you get when selling ebooks is almost 100% as once you have the product there are no more fees other than eBay fees which are quite minimal. So the only expense that you will have are a small amount of fees and then the profits are all yours.

The other great advantage of selling information products is that you don't have to have your house full of physical stock taking up all the spare space in your home. Digital products are just small files stored on your computer or even uploaded to your website and so take up no room.

So how do you get hold of information products to sell?

You can buy ebooks that have resell rights and as long as you make sure that they ebooks have resell rights when you buy them then they are ok to resell and you can sell them again and again as many times as you like. Just by searching on eBay itself you will come across many ebooks that have resell rights to them.

You will also come across ebooks with Master Resell Rights and the difference between these and normal Resell Rights are that with normal resell rights you get to sell the product but you don't get to sell the rights to the product, so you have to sell it without giving your customers the rights to sell the product. This is good as you don't want to give away too many resell rights and give yourself too much competition. Master Resell Rights allow you to sell the ebook with the resell rights letting all your customers have the ability to resell the product also.

The biggest problem with buying ebooks with resell rights through Ebay is that there are many people buying and then reselling these products. It can often be better to buy resell rights products outside of eBay so that the competition isn't as strong with those particular products.

There are many people that are making full time incomes by selling information products on Ebay and you can become one of them.

A very smart way – if you’re serious enough about your eBay business – is to outsource the whole product creation and shipping thing to another company. The best in the field is Kunaki.com – you just basically create the eBay information product, design and list the product on eBay!

Whenever an order comes in from eBay you go to your Kunaki.com account and ship the CD or DVD to your customer!

If you want to go the easiest way and just test the waters first – you can get a bunch of free eBooks on the Net and sell them for profit on eBay. These eBooks come with Master resell rights and what it means putting simply – you can resell them. But be a bit cautious – if you sell something that is a pirated copy you possibly can get into trouble.

How Does PayPal Work - Understanding PayPal

2008-09-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

PayPal today is not a payment system: it's a suite of many different payment systems. Paypal is located in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1998 and was acquired by eBay in 2002.

Paypal is one of the most popular trade names in ecommerce. There are over 50 million users who utilize the services of Paypal.

Here the payment transfers are done via e-mail payments.

The parties between whom the payment is exchanged cannot see each others credit card or bank information. It is somewhat similar to an escrow payment because it holds the money for the two parties thereby acting as a middleman.

Paypal keeps the information of its customers in an encrypted form. No one can decrypt the confidential information.

This specialty makes Paypal one of the safest gateways of transactions. Paypal is ideal for money transactions between strangers. It doesn't matter which part of the globe you are sitting in.

Only two main requirements are essential to open a Paypal account, a valid e-mail address and a valid credit card or bank account.

Though Paypal is free for the buyers, the sellers have to give a fee of 1.9% to 2.9%.

The money is withdrawn from the buyer's credit card or the bank account and there is no cost involved in paying the money to the Paypal users. Paypal will charge only if you receive funds in your account.

Paypal also works when you want to make payments to an online store apart from making payments to friends or business associates.

There are three types of paypal accounts; Paypal Personal account, a Paypal Premier account and a Paypal business account.

The features of the personal account are limited. Even though you can send and receive money to and from other Paypal account, you cannot receive money from credit cards or debit card payments. To activate this facility, you have to upgrade your status to a Premier account.

The fee structure is slightly different and you can get the details on the Paypal website. The Business account is best suited for people who are having huge business set-ups or are running large online stores.

It is useful if your transactions involve complex deals. You can always upgrade your existing Paypal account to the Business account. The process is very simple but you have to check the site to have a look at the fee structure.

Indeed, Paypal has become one of the most significant tools in eCommerce today.

(c) http://www.jennyhow.com/how-does-paypal-work-understanding-paypal/

What To Sell On eBay?...

2008-09-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

Do you know how many people in US are earning their livelihood

with the help of eBay? According to a new survey conducted on
July 2008 by ACNielsen, a leading research firm, an astounding
896 thousand Americans respond that they rely on eBay for their
main or supplemental income. Apart from these professional
sellers, another 1.5 million people confirmed that they generate
additional income by selling goods on eBay. Last year alone,
around 150 million registered users have sold over US$ 34 billion
worth of goods on eBay. Isn’t it amazing?

Why entrepreneurs are flocking into eBay? Some of the reasons are
quite apparent.

• Starting a business on eBay is easy and quick

• You don’t require large investment

• Anybody can start an eBay business, no special skill is required

• You can sell virtually anything on eBay

• With your eBay business you can have flexible work time

• You have a ready-made market of over 150 million people and
counting

• eBay get 1.5 billion page views each month. You get access to
this massive traffic almost paying nothing.

So, there is no wonder that anybody with slightest penchant to
have their own business will jump into this great opportunity.
But, there are two major problems that many of the would-be eBay
sellers encounter. The first is what to sell and the next is
where to find it.

What to sell?

According to Forrester Research, a major research company, this
year, categories with products purchased by women will have the
most growth in online retailing. Some categories are already
getting more than ten percent of their overall sales through the
Internet, which include: computer hardware and software, tickets,
travel, books, consumer electronics, cosmetics and fragrances,
toys and video games, and flowers, cards and gifts. While
choosing items to sell on eBay, you should also explore the
features available on eBay and other places on the Internet that
show items people search and items people actually buy.

eBay has a complete section called “Seller Central” dedicated to
delivering utmost information to help you succeed in selling
products through eBay. Two links from this section should
interest you. One is What’s Hot
(http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html) and the other
one is Category Tips
(http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/sellbycategory.html).

When you go to the subsection ‘What’s Hot’, check out the
following three areas:

Hot Items by Category

This is a comprehensive report of categories, and products within
a category by the ratio of bid to listings growth rate in PDF
format. The report gets updated monthly and shows which products
have increased demand in comparison to last month. Super hot
products, for example, have over 35 percentage point difference
between bid growth rate and listing growth rate. According to the
latest report, by the way, Sunglasses for men, in particular
Prada sunglasses are super hot.

eBay Pulse

This is another area where you can see the top ten searched
categories, ten most widely watched auctions, list of stores with
most active listings, and other cool stuffs on daily basis.

eBay Summer Catalog

This is a new subsection. It’s a real catalog with pictures and
average price of products. In each category of products there is
a list of top ten summer trends. You, definitely, should check
this out if you are planning to start selling now.

In Demand

On the page “Category Tips” under each category you will see a
link under the name “In Demand”. This area will show you a list
of ten most sold items of this category as well as most searched
items for each subcategory.

You might also like to see what people buy on non-eBay part of
the Internet. The Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index (CDI)
(http://www.shopping.com/CDI/cdi.cmp) makes a weekly list of
most sought after items. This list could give you the needed
glimpse to the future market trend!

Where to find items to sell on eBay

Your own home

If you are just planning to start selling on eBay, your first
option is to go through your attic, closets and garage. Find
those long stashed items that you will probably never need. These
may include: books that you will perhaps never read, CDs that you
out grew, gifts that you received but did not like much, the list
can go on! Take them out, brush them off and post them on eBay
for sell.

Flea markets and garage sales

Every body knows that garage sales and flea markets can be real
treasure troves! Well, now you can look at them from a business
point of view. Your sales experience with own home items,
hopefully, will help you understand what will sell well and what
won’t. Don’t go for any costly items as yet.

Local liquidators and auctions

Classified sections of local Newspapers’ week-end editions are
good place to look for estate auctions. While buying items from
local auctions determine what are you going to buy and for what
price beforehand and stick to them no matter what! At an auction
there is always a risk of getting carried away!

Go visit some local business liquidators. These are excellent
places to find items for bargain price.

Drop shippers

When a manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor or importer, after
receiving an order from their retailers, individually pack and
deliver the product to the customer of the retailer with
retailers address as shipper, this selling technique is called
drop-shipping. This is an excellent way to find products to sell
on eBay. Drop ship source directory
(http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/?8188) is the place to go if
you are looking for drop-shippers.

eBay

eBay itself can be a great sourcing place for you. Check out
wholesale items and eBay business marketplace from your chosen
fields. In order to find wholesale listing, while searching a
product select “Items listed as lots”. You can buy goods in
wholesale and then sell them piece by piece and make decent
money. Of course, you have to develop good knowledge of the
products before doing this.

If your business has grown and you are considering importing
products to sell on eBay, read my article “Importing Products to
sell on eBay”.

The bottom line is there was never a better time to start a
business. If you feel this is really your cup of tea, just go for
it!

''Finding Products to Sell on eBay'' by Nowshade Kabir

The history of Ebay.

2008-09-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

Learn how eBay began as a small business in someone's living room and grew into one of the top earning Websites on the Internet.

The online auction Web site was founded in San Jose, California, on September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as Auction Web, part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus. In 1997, the company recieved approximately $5 million in funding from the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital.

The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers." The frequently-repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade PEZ Candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book, The Perfect Store, and confirmed by eBay.

Chris Agarpao was hired as eBay's first employee and Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the company in early 1996. In November 1996, eBay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction to use SmartMarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. The company officially changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name echobay.com (the domain has recently been put up for sale) but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com.

eBay went public on September 21, 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires. The company purchased PayPal on October 14, 2002.