Introduction:
I don’t want to write 30 pages doing an introduction. That’s what the other books and
manuals do. Let’s just get to the good stuff, ok?
Just my promise to you: When you have finished reading this guide, you will be able to
make a steady income from your home using eBay – in a SAFE way. Nobody wants to
gamble money on expensive advertising that may or may not work. So, we’ll use
methods that are a “safe bet.”
Let’s keep things simple.
Making money online can be distilled down to this:
You need to find a quality offer that people will be willing to buy.
And, You need to be able to know the foundation behind what makes a profitable online
Auction business.Basically that’s what it all comes down to. Before I get into the meat of
things, I need to say this…
Don’t treat this as a hobby or else you’ll get hobby results. Yes, this is a business where
you CAN work just a few hours from home for yourself rather than working for 8 hours
for the man. But you still need to take things seriously.
Becoming Familiar With Auctions
Internet auctions started as a hobby for a few computer people in San Francisco area to
have a “virtual swap met” and get rid of some things they had, and find some things
they wanted.
In just ten years, this fun little idea has become a multi-billion-dollar enterprise and a
global phenomenon, and amazingly, presents one of the best low-risk opportunities in
history to start or grow a business!
The potential is unlimited and still growing. Online auctions generate very high revenues
from sellers and often, good deals for buyers and the transaction costs are usually
reasonable.
The best part about this is that the marketplace is open to everyone. You can read this
Guide today and be selling your old junk (or other peoples junk) on eBay for profit
tonight. But selling junk is only the beginning.
Recently, online auctions have been in the news for less optimistic reasons like scams
and fraud.
For the same reasons eBay enables speed, anonymity and a global marketplace to
honest buyers and sellers, it also provides opportunities for the behavior of less honest
members of the community, in particular, credit card scams in certain Third World
locations.
However, there are millions of auctions every day, and like the majority of any
community, the vast majority of these auctions are run fairly and more importantly, they
are making the sellers a tremendous amount of money. Where there is opportunity
there is risk.
By the end of this Affordable Guide, you will understand both, to maximize one and
avoid the other.
Let’s get started!
How Do Online Auctions Work?
An online auction is just like a traditional auction, fundamentally. Someone who is a
(seller) offers something either at a set price, a minimum price, or on open bidding.
Others (bidders) make offers on the item by stating what they will pay. Upon successful
completion there will generally be a “highest bidder”, who has no become a “buyer”.
There is one main difference between eBay and a traditional auction like you might
have seen at Sotheby’s or Christie’s.
eBay facilitates the auction but never takes possession of the goods, and makes no
specific warranties about the items quality, the seller or buyer’s honesty, nor does it play
any direct role in payments relating to buyer’s and seller’s, but rather, takes fees from
buyers whether items are sold, paid for, delivered, or not and essentially operates a
very complex bulletin board, not a true auction house in most cases.
It is the responsibility of the person who is hosting the auction to deliver the item to the
successful winner, while the winner needs to ensure he makes the payment and
receives the shipment on time and in expected condition.
Payment is through a variety of possible methods including checks, money orders,
electronic transfer systems, credit cards, wires, and more. Generally the seller in an
auction will state what kind of payment is acceptable, and the potential buyer can
decide whether to bid with that, and sometimes other restrictions in mind.
To make it more likely that the buyers and sellers will provide quality service to each
other and honest goods, a fundamental aspect of eBay and most of its copycat sites is
called “feedback”. Feedback is basically a rating system that allows buyers and sellers
to see what other buyers and sellers thought about doing business with a particular
person in the community.
What’s for sale? Pretty much everything except those categories eBay chooses to limit
or ban (such as firearms, certain adult materials, and so on). Auctions are of many
types and styles, ranging from items literally priced at a penny, to items worth millions of
dollars, which will usually involve escrow payments and other special terms. In later
sections of this Guide, we will look more closely at the kinds of auctions that are there
today.
What Are The Methods Of Payment?
You can generally pay for an auction the same way you would pay for anything at a
local business – cash, check, credit cards depending on the preferences of the business
(in this case, that would be the eBay seller).
For many years before the broad-based establishment of online payment systems,
money order were the most popular form of payment on eBay because they are easier
to get than a certified bank check – they are also usually cheaper – and they represent
“guaranteed” money, which a personal or business check does not.
There is a bias among sellers for fast and guaranteed payment. There is a bias among
buyers for payment that can be traced back or investigated in the event of a problem
with delivery.
The evolution of online payment systems like “PayPal” (which eBay now owns)
answered both parties’ needs and is rapidly becoming the most popular method for
auctions of typical values – say a few dollars up to a few thousand dollars. Beyond that
it will be COD (Cash on Delivery), cashier’s checks, bank checks or even escrow
services.
What Are Online Payment Services?
Online payment services started as a “virtual” cash transaction system using “fake”
digital money about 15 years ago. This quickly evolved into using real money, which
was generally tied to a credit card transaction not very different than what you do for
mail order.
Stores and catalog retailers generally have “merchant accounts” which credit card
processors. The online payment services enable anyone to “take” credit cards, for fees
like most small business merchant account rates, around 1 – 4%.
Online payment services have gotten more diverse as technology evolved – you can
now link multiple bank accounts as well as multiple credit cards to, for example, a
PayPal account.
Today, the online payment services function like banks, which some of them also
actually are.
When you sell something on eBay, and you receive payment via: PayPal, the buyer
may have paid cash or credit card, and the net amount, minus fees, is deposited into
your PayPal account.
From there you can pay for something yourself directly, withdraw the money on an ATM
or credit card, transfer the money into another account, or have the check sent each
month.
Most online payment services are very much like PayPal, with a fee structure aimed at
the recipient of the money, but there are exceptions. Bid Pay, which is owned by
Western Union, is a form of virtual money order and is also popular on eBay.
Unlike PayPal and most other services online which charge the receiver of the payment,
Bid Pay, like its parent (Western Union), charges the sender of the money.
What Are Online Escrow Services?
Escrow accounts protect auction participants from potential fraud.
The way they work is the same as in, for example, a real estate or legal transaction,
which is where people would have dealt with escrow before.
Money is held in “escrow” by a third party had been received from the payer but is not
released to the payee until something happens, usually, the receipt of the goods in
promised condition.
Upon confirmation of the merchandise receipt, the money is credited (which also means
forwarded) to the account of the seller. In such transactions the buyer, who benefits
more in theory, generally pays the fee.
It’s Time To Get RICH With Auctions!
The internet is exploding with growth right now. Within the next 3 years, experts predict
that Internet Sales will reach an amazing $103 TRILLION dollars! A larger portion than
you may think will be generated by online auctions run by success-minded marketers
just like you.
The internet is the hottest new way for the average person to get rich leveraging the
web in the shortest amount of time possible. It’s amazing what an auction – a form of
competition – does to people and their buying process.
An ordinary gadget that would sit on the shelf at a local thrift shop for years at $1.67
amazingly flies off the auction blocks on eBay for $15.00 or even higher all day long!
We won’t get into the psychology behind this, other than to say it’s something you can
make a lot of money from.
1. More than 3.7 Million people have made at least one purchase from eBay in
the last year.
2. Sales during a recent 3 Month Period alone has topped $541 Million dollars
on eBay.
3. There are over 4.1 Million registered users who have not bought anything yet!
4. There are Millions of new users signing up every day that can buy something
from YOU!
On eBay, one of the largest Internet Auction Sites, more than 250,000 new items are
listed every single week. And a whopping 900 NEW BIDS are made EVERY MINUTE!
There are a lot of “Get Rich Quick” scams out there, but with a little discipline, eBay is
the real thing, a complete legitimate business you can start and run from your own
home. With all this buying and selling that is taking place, it’s no wonder people are
making a fortune from home.
Regardless of what you’re selling, a worldwide potential for over SIX MILLION people
viewing y our product and any one time, there’s a good chance it will sell quickly for a lot
more than you could ever get in a local sale or even a regional newspaper.
You can start selling on eBay by finding things around your house that you don’t want –
a garage sale in cyberspace. Once you’re comfortable with a few of those transactions,
you can start looking to build a business, get inventory, and make BIG money (which
you’ll learn in this Guide).
eBay Feedback Explained
As previously mentioned, eBay has a unique feedback system, allowing buyers and
sellers to post comments and feedback on their recent auction experience. Each
transaction allows you to give a single rating to your trading partner – positive, negative,
or neutral. You may also make comments (no foul language, abuse, racial comments,
ect are allowed).
Each user has a feedback score that serves as an indicator of their quality as buyers
and sellers. It is effectively your online reputation, and you must treat it like gold. The
more positive feedback you get, the higher your score, which will also eventually is
visually identifiable with a star system so experienced eBayers can tell something about
you at a glance.
Negative feedback lowers your score. There are also a running percentage of positive
feedbacks. Some sellers will not allow buyers below a certain feedback level, as most
fraud is committed by new, or fake, buyers who will generally have litter or negative
feedback ratings.
eBay Buyer Protection Explained
Currently, eBay offers buyers protection. Online payment service users, such as
PayPal are assured a Buyer Protection shield covered up to $500 (subject to change) at
no additional cost.
For users who are not using PayPal as their mode of transaction there is the eBay
Standard Purchase Protection Program which will provide up to $200 coverage (less
$25 processing cost) for either items that are not received or items that are not as
described in the listing.
The resolution process can be slow on many transactions that fee makes it not worth
doing, so it is better to have a caveat emptor up front than hope to not get money back
on a bad deal later.
eBay Fraud Protection Explained
There are a number of ways eBay works to minimize fraud, some of which are
automatic.
The website feature of eBay allows user to keep a constant track of which sites they
visit. Whenever a user leaves eBay by clicking on a lick or when they are accepting a
transaction on PayPal, the system warns them of potential frauds.
In addition, eBay helps users prevent and combat fraud by conducting online tutorials
on fraud emails – such as those requesting for personal or financial data no legitimate
company would request – and educating members on how to report such issues to the
eBay authorities.
eBay Registration Steps
Registration on eBay is absolutely free – it is also free to bid and buy, they make their
money on advertising – and it only takes about five minutes to open an account. There
are three very simple requirements for registration. Let’s cover those now.
1. You must be at least 18 years old
2. You must provide a valid credit card number
3. You must provide a valid email address
Upon completing the registration process, you will be asked if you want a personal
page. Whether you should have one is a matter of personal preference, style, and
whether the kinds of auctions you are thinking about will benefit from it.
Most people on eBay opt not to have that page, but there is some evidence that sellers,
who have it, indeed sell more.
On browsing eBay categories, you will see that very few people take advantage of this
option. Privacy seems to be a crucial issue to many and this complimentary page is
viewed as a contradictory idea.
You can use this personal page as an excellent marketing tool as it is free. eBay even
urges its trading community to check feedback, check reputation of the seller and this is
where this page may prove to be an immense help to you.
When you auction your products or services, the buyers are most likely to visit your
page to see a little more about you. It’s a great opportunity to build trust.
The best kind of information to display on this personal page is information that
reinforces your expertise on what you plan on selling.
Perhaps you sell cars, own a garage and can personally verify the condition of
everything you sell. Or you teach classes on pottery and ceramics, which you also
auction.
Finally, you want to showcase the items you have successfully sold in the past using
eBay auctions. It is also a great idea to take feedback from buyers and post their
experiences and testimonials upon delivery of merchandise.
This is especially useful if you have “newbie” buyers who may not know how, or where
to look for the feedback ratings.
Understanding The Power Of eBay
If you have ever thought about starting a sales-oriented business, now is the time and
eBay is the place. Here’s why. You can sell to anyone connected to the internet and
your geographic location does not need to be fixed.
Like many other internet businesses, with auctions geography has become irrelevant.
You can really live anywhere you want as long as you can manage your auctions and
fulfillment from there.
For some successful eBayers, that “Dream” home that was too far to commute to work
is suddenly doable – since their commute is now downstairs each day and to the Post
Office once a week!
Your computer is the only “employee” you need. You can choose to start part-time, or
anytime you want to. You can also “quit” without having any penalty.
Start most businesses require a lot of time. Not eBay. You can work on eBay for one
hour one time, a few hours the next day, or even just a few days a week. It’s the best
part-time business you can have with your full time job or other business.
There is almost no “barrier to entry” and the risks of trying online auctions are zero.
That cannot be said for almost any other type of internet start-up.
You can do your research in advance and there is never a feeling of rejection.
Selling is a challenge. Aside from the complexities of doing it is the emotional aspect of
rejection. Any salesman will tell you hearing “no” (or worse) all day long can be very
depressing.
With online auctions, this is all removed. First, you can do historical and current
research and see what the current buying and selling trends are like for your products.
Second, except for occasional emails, you are never in direct contact with your
prospects until they are ready to buy – so there is no rejection that you will ever have to
face.
You can buy and sell your merchandise in the SAME place.
Buying Strategies : What To Buy?
If your end goal is buying and selling on eBay, then you need to learn a few basic
buying strategies that will allow you to buy and sell at a significant profit.
Obviously, in order to sell, you need to have things to sell – which in general you will
have bought not too long ago. It’s important to purchase early (head of your planned
sales) and wait for the right time to auction merchandise.
For example, don’t purchase an item and put it up on auction before it reaches you, for
obvious reasons. Another example, unless it was a one-time-deal, don’t put up items
on eBay you just bought.
Your potential buyers can see what you paid, and that will disadvantage your pricing
strategy.
You need to decide on what kinds of items to sell, before you can buy them.
Fundamentally, whatever you choose should meet these requirements:
1. Something with a consistent predictable demand (think Webkinz)
2. Something that you know a lot about – or what to know a lot about
3. Something that can routinely be sold at a profit
4. Something that is not available to most people locally for the same price
5. Something that you have room to store and will not lose value over time
Once you start thinking about the categories of items you want to sell, and there are
more or less unlimited categories on eBay – you’ll have a good idea of what you should
look at buying for your “at home inventory”.
Now, if you don’t want to have an inventory, or you simply don’t have the money to go
out and start buying things to sell… we have a solution!
There are very advanced strategies to selling on eBay that we strongly recommend.
We will be emailing you these tips over the coming days and weeks, since you
expressed interest in getting this Guide for free.
The education won’t stop with just this guide, don’t worry!
Buying Strategies : How Much To Buy?
Ok, so if you’re still interested in buying items to sell (which some people make millions
doing this), you need to think carefully before jumping into large volume purchases,
even if the price seems good. Also, do your research for the specific type of item by
searching past auctions.
For example, one of our authors started a successful clothing business on eBay. She
looked at auction sites for odd lot deals on brand name merchandise in bulk, and then
she would sell them one at a time for a nice profit, in some cases 300% or more per
item.
Once time she purchased an “amazing” deal on Abercrombie pants, acquiring 177 of
them at a low price of around $8 each. Considering her local high-end retailer sold
similar pants for $78, this seemed too good to be true.
And it was. First, the lot was mixed sizes that are not common. For example, the gross
included 17 men size 29 inch waist with a 30 in inseam.
These would be very hard to move. Second, additional research showed that discount
shops on the web sold these same pants for about $40 all the time. So right there, the
profit was shrinking fast.
Then you have to factor in the shopping for 177 pants, which was a couple hundred
dollars, and the whole thing was basically a break-even pain in the butt.
The point of that story is, first, you must know the market for your product and to the
extent possible what you’re actually getting, and second, test the market with a few
items to see how they do.
Don’t buy 177 items of anything unless you really know what you’re doing!
Bidding Strategies : Bid Increments
Bidding on eBay is easy to do, and hard to do well. There are basics to successful
bidding that you are going to learn right now. Every auction item will state the minimum
bid. Bidding does not cost you anything.
For bid increments, you can bid whatever you want, but as the price of any item rises,
the minimum bid increment rises also.
Here are the current eBay bid increments. Notice that these are the minimum
increments, and you do not need to bid in round numbers – in fact, you will be better off
if you don’t bid in round numbers, and you’ll learn why in just a moment.
Item Price ($) Bid Increment ($) Item Price ($) Bid Increment ($)
0.1 – 0.99 0.05 1.00 – 4.99 0.25
5.00 – 24.99 0.50 25.00 – 99.99 1.00
100 – 249.99 2.50 250.00 – 499.99 5.00
500 – 999.99 10.00 1000.00 – 2499.99 25.00
2500 – 4999.99 50.00 5000 and up 100.00
Bidding Strategies : Proxy Bidding
There is type of bidding in eBay that you can use called “Proxy Bidding” which means
“Automatic Bidding”. This type of bidding is for non-fixed price auctions.
You can approach auction bidding with two philosophies.
First, you can bid the maximum you are willing to bid right now then check the auction,
or your email, to see if you are outbid and may want to bid again.
Alternatively, you can bid the maximum you think you’ll ever be willing to bid on the
auction. Here’s the difference.
Say you are bidding on a clock with a retail value of $695. The auction starts at $50
and has no reserve price.
Currently, with three days to go, the bidding is up to $135. You are willing to pay $400
but you only want to bid $150 today and try to get it at a bargain price, so you do.
There are two possibilities. If someone had previously placed a higher “proxy” bid, their
bid will increase automatically to beat yours even though you bid more than the current
displayed price.
If nobody did this, the bid will go to your price, or, the lowest price needed to beat any
remaining proxy amount.
On the other hand, you can bid your maximum right now of $400. As the bids go up,
your bid will automatically go up to your maximum, at which point you will be the high
bidder and win, or you will not and lose.
Also, many auctions have a “reserve” price. A reserve price is a price below which the
seller will not agree to sell.
As a matter of practice and tradition reserve prices are not known to bidders, but some
sellers will reveal the price, or a range, if you ask.
Reserve prices are usually used on items that have a strong value but an unknown
likely price on eBay, or where the seller may have paid too much in buying the item and
wants to be sure to get his or her money back if and when it sells.
eBay also has what is called “Buy It Now” or BIN. A BIN is similar to how you shop in a
store – things cost at what they cost and you buy it now or you don’t.
Increasingly eBay is distinguishing between “true auctions” and store-type listings,
through BIN remains an option feature in regular auctions as well.
eBay Additional Auction Formats
There are several different auction formats that you must be familiar with when listing
items on eBay to start making money online. Let’s dive into the different types now.
First, there is the “Dutch Auction”. This is used when there are multiples of the same
items available. You can bid on as many multiples as you wish, all at the same price,
and all winners of the auction will pay the lowest of the winning bid prices.
This sounds mildly confusing, and it is, which is why new eBayers are actually not
allowed to participate in them.
On eBay, you must be a member for 60 days and have at least 50 feedback points in
order to participate in them.
The way it works is that if a seller has items in high quantity (say 25) he will take the top
25 bids and award it to all of them at the lowest bidder price to all.
Dutch auctions work for people who have merchandise in bulk and are not aware of the
price it will go at. Since selling them individually incurs high insertion fees, they are
auctioned with just one Dutch auction.
Second, there are Reverse Dutch Auctions. They are unusual but can be very
profitable for a skilled buyer. Basically, rather than a price incrementally going up, it
incrementally drops.
When you’ve been trading on eBay for a while, look into this format – there is a lot of
money to be made.
Third, there are restricted auctions. These are generally for adult items, in general.
You can check out the eBay regulations at any given time, as the auctions require age
verification and certain adult materials are no longer allowed on eBay at all.
Last, there are private auctions. These are used when a seller wishes to let (or force)
the bidders to remain anonymous. T
his format was developed in early eBay history when there was more unrestricted
communication between members. Someone would see twenty people bid on
something and contact them directly to offer the same item for less than the auction
price.
Today, such communication is not possible, and you can get suspended in any case,
yet the private auction remains popular for either controversial or adult items where
buyers might prefer privacy or certain very expensive items where the buyer may want
to be unknown to the public.
eBay Bidding Strategies
Really serious players on eBay use strategies that make sure they will win the majority
of the items they are bidding on. They will buy items that they can resell for a huge
profit. Mastering effective bidding strategies will help you maximize your profits in the
reseller marketplace.
Strategy 1 : Bidding in odd amounts.
Buyers on eBay tend to bid in even amounts. If you see an item you want to buy and
resell, a great strategy is to buy in odd amounts. For example, instead of bidding
$25.00 – bid $26.43. This will allow you get an edge over other buyers and steal
auctions right out from under them, just because you were a few cents over their bid.
Strategy 2 : Last Minute Sniping.
If you observe eBay you will notice that there are many last minute winners. If you wait
until the last moments of an auction, never bidding until then, will keep the final price
lower and increase your chances of winning. There are many software programs that
will allow you to do this without any manual work involved.
Strategy 3 : Use Two Windows.
If you’re watching an auction finish, open a second browser window. When a tornado
of bids come in at the end, keep hitting reload or refresh on your browser. You simply
use one browser to watch the bids go up, and you are logged in with your other browser
entering in your bid amounts to always be the highest bidder. This works best on a fast
connection.
Strategy 4 : Don’t bid high and early.
If you’re bidding on a hot item, others are watching it too. You have devised a master
strategy for such products or items. If there are several people who are determined to
get the item that you want, you will only be forcing the price higher if you bid high and
early. Therefore, bidding later will allows save you the most money.
Strategy 5 : Lose Emotions.
Auctions are similar to gambling for buyers and can get very emotional. As a buyer, you
must stay calm. Keep in mind that if you lose, there will probably be many more of the
same item at a later date.
There are several other advanced strategies that we will be emailing you, stay tuned!
It’s Time To Make Some Money
Now that you got this far in this Guide, you should understand the basics to eBay and all
of the areas that you need to be familiar with that you will be using to make money
online.
Unlike most markets where research is hard to come by or expensive, eBay makes it
incredibly easy to see how the market for you particular products is doing – you can
watch other auctions live, or more importantly, you can see everything that happened
on eBay for the last 90 days.
This is huge.
If you wanted to buy and sell Rolex watches on eBay, you can easily do a search for
completed auctions like yours and see all kinds of incredible information like how many
sold, how quickly and at what prices.
The most important aspect of making money on eBay is understanding your market.
Also keep in mind that if a relatively obscure item sells for a high price to one person,
everyone who has one of those to sell will list it, trying to get the high price.
High prices for obscure items are often because one collector decides in one moment
that they “need it” which you can ignore.
Also, as a seller, your main concern is problematic, fake, or non-paying bidders.
Ebay does an outstanding job in allowing you to control who can bid on your auctions
both through automatic rule-making (you can require bidders to have a PayPal account
for example) or simply through stating your own policies.
No bidders with less than a feedback rating of 10 for example is a great way to stay
away from people who are a waste of your time.
General Advice When Selling eBay Items
To save you a lot of time and money by filtering out the people on eBay who can mess
up your reputation and only give you a headache, here is a checklist you can apply
when listing a new item.
1. Check the range of pricing your item or items like it that have sold in the past
on eBay, and what you’re pricing (or reserve price) is in comparison to what is
selling.
2. Start with a low opening bid, like 99 cents or just $1. This will cause a flood of
bidders for your items, which will almost always shoot every item you list into
huge profits.
3. Consider avoiding eBay bidders with zero feedback. This will both waste your
time and cost you money if they end up backing out on their final bid.
4. Consider avoiding bidders from foreign countries with a lot of financial fraud,
such as Indonesia and some parts of Africa. International shipping can also
be a major hassle.
5. Consider requiring a PayPal account for bidders, even if you accept multiple
forms of payment. This means that they must have a credit card or bank
account.
6. Use a standard auction length, which is typically 7 days, unless you have a
reason to have a shorter or longer auction.
7. Set auctions to automatically begin at a specific time. Make that specific time
one that is when most people are at home behind their computer screen
(evenings during weekdays)
8. Take a look at a place called eBay Pulse. http://pulse.ebay.com – this will tell
you what items are hot in what categories, which you could piggyback off of
making huge profit from.
eBay Marketing Tactics
Marketing items on eBay is just like marketing anywhere else, both online and offline.
You need to get the attention of your audience, demonstrate the value of what you’re
selling, and create a sense of trust in you as the seller.
All of this requires you to have marketing skills to succeed.
Marketing begins with getting attention. The title and headline is the first thing that
catches attention on eBay. Take a look at auctions with items like yours and see what
they are saying.
Don’t be afraid to be similar to the more successful sellers at first. Just don’t copy their
ads directly.
The headline has a limit of 45 letters on eBay. Simply find a way to use “Sales” words
such as ‘Hard to Find’, ‘Rare’, ‘Only’, ‘Limited’, ‘Vintage’, etc. to attract the hidden
needs of a buyer. This will give you the maximum attention.
Next, there are some pointers that you must keep in mind when writing for auctions that
will give a strong message and grab instant attention. Here are the pointers:
1. Do not use Capital Letters for your ad, even though many auction sellers use
them. These come across as shouting and pushy, and unless you are
marketing to people who will react well to it, skip it – it’s only annoying.
2. Maximize your word content to make every word count. If you are running
multiple auctions for similar items, then try a few different titles and go with
the ones that get more views.
3. Make sure you run spell check on your content. Sloppy headlines mean
Sloppy sellers. This is your business, you need to be professional about it.
4. Avoid the use of well-known brands without a purpose. Using brands to
describe non-branded merchandise is illegal on eBay and can get your
auctions cancelled.
For example, if you’re selling a guitar that is like a Fender Stratocaster. You can’t say
“Fender Stratocaster Copy” – that will only be a point against you on eBay.
You also want to focus on content. Headlines are limited, but your actual auction ad is
unlimited. Simply be as descriptive as you can, but don’t overdo it.
Use specific words and language to describe your item.
It is crucial to display details that matter the most. Make sure you include everything
that accounts for high bid prices such as item description, specifications, manufacturer,
model, make, year of purchase, functionality, and other pieces of information that raise
its value or clarifies what you are selling.
Sound positive and actually mention negatives.
Knowledge is power and attitude is grace. To build trust in your customers, make sure
that the item you are auctioning has potential value to you if not to them. Buyers are
merciless in using negative feedback if they feel misled, so don’t give them reason to. If
an item has problems, say what they are – even if you are overstating problems – they
understand the condition, which will build trust and credibility.
Be friendly and professional.
This will help build trust. Welcome questions and answer them promptly. A twenty four
hour turn-around should be the minimum time on the Internet to respond. Responding
within a few hours is even better.
Use plenty of pictures.
Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. Use as many pictures as you can
whenever possible. You should use pictures of the actual items. If you need to use
these so-called ‘stock’ photos, say that is what they are. Do not steal pictures from
other people’s auctions.
Remember you can change your ‘live’ auctions. This goes for certain conditions
such as (no bids, reserve not met, more than 12 hours to go, etc). This is helpful if
during the auction it turns out a particular item may be more, or less, valuable than you
originally assumed.
Record Keeping
You must be organized if you want to succeed on eBay. Since everything is electronic,
your record keeping is fairly simple and there are a number of ways to do it, including
various custom software packages.
However you choose to do it, you simply must do it.
You can have your record book on a simple computer spreadsheet like Excel if you’re
using windows.
Do not bother to remember every record, just enter the details whenever they are made
available to you and let your computer do the rest.
Record keeping has several advantages, and zero flipsides. Here are few reasons why
you might want to maintain accurate records.
Better customer service.
Accurate records will assure prompt and no-hassle service. You tend to make fewer
mistakes about everything from bidding to actual details of shipping.
Tax purposes.
Laws are currently relaxed for internet businesses, which makes eBay all the more
attractive. However, you are still liable to your income tax on your net earnings from
sales, whether those sales are made online or offline. You certainly want to claim every
legitimate deduction.
Customer Database.
By maintaining records, you are creating your own customer list as well. You can notify
people when you will have certain items going on sale, and so on. Making certain that
they buy from you instead of someone else on eBay.
Shipping And Handling
Now that you’re selling items on eBay, they need to get to the winning bidder somehow.
It’s amazing to know that eBay claims that between 5 – 10% of all packages shipped in
the United States on a daily basis are eBay items.
Most auction items are shipped through one of three primary service carriers. Which
service is best for your needs will depend on many factors. For small packages, Priority
Mail is the safe, fast and cheap choice.
For larger packages, you will want to get rate quotes. Here are the top three primary
service carriers.
1. USPS (United States Postal Service) www.USPS.gov
2. UPS (United Parcel Service) www.UPS.com
3. FEDEX (Federal Express) www.FEDEX.com
You will also want to be careful with the physical handling when shipping materials.
This is not cheap, depending on the type of items you are selling on eBay.
However, you can charge the “handling” fee along with your auction price. This is great
for you because your customers will be paying for the shipping and handling, not you.
When Things Go Wrong
As with any business, things can go wrong. Let’s dive right into the list of items that can
go wrong when running your own eBay business so that you are not surprised when the
time comes.
Buyer doesn’t respond.
If your buy doesn’t respond after the auction is over, simply try to re-establish content.
Don’t rush out and give negative feedback about the buyer right away until you have
assessed the situation. Begin by sending a gentle reminder and look into eBay’s nonpaying
bidder programs.
Received a bad check.
Payment methods are crucial as discussed earlier. Taking checks is very tricky with
people trying to ‘cheat the system’ these days. Your best bet is to take money orders,
PayPal or other certified funding sources. If you get a bad check, the most you can do
is leave bad feedback.
Damage on arrival.
You should always insure any item that is likely to get damaged. Without insurance you
will either be stuck refunding the auction price and taking a loss, or not refunding it and
taking negative feedback, or both.
Buyer unsatisfied.
Sometimes buyers will complain that what they had received does not match the
auctioned description or looks different from the picture that was posted, or in fact, is not
even what you said it was. You must be specific in your “returns” policy in your auction
listing. If you do not accept returns, say so, and instruct the bidders to ask all questions
before they bid.
Buyer remorse.
For some reason, there are people who just like to bid, and who never plan on buying
anything. Their participation is short-lived as their reputation on eBay gets around but
they can be very annoying. Pay close attention to buyer feedback. You can also block
bidders who have received above a certain number of non-payment notices.
Feedback.
This is designed as a protection for honest buyers and sellers, a way to solve problems
and keep all the players honest. There are unscrupulous people who take advantage of
the system. Simply avoid people with very low or no feedback to stay clear of feedbackrelated
problems.
Final Thoughts
To make money on eBay, you must take ACTION!
The word “Action” should be the most important word you ever use or even think about
when it comes to making money and increasing your income on the internet.
You MUST implement what you learn.
You will be receiving several in-depth “Step By Step” systems via: Email that you can
use on eBay to create turn-key money making machine.
This guide was your “foundation” to make sure that you are aware of the power eBay
has to offer in regards to making money online and to provide you with a full
understanding of all the areas on eBay with what to expect, how to research, how to
write your ads, and even how to handle obstacles.
Now that you are fundamentally prepared, keep a close watch on your email, because
we will be now be sending you the step-by-step systems that you can apply to make as
much money as you want using eBay.
You will also learn how to literally print cash on demand with these guides.
Remember! Along with the purchase of this Guide, you also have exclusive access to
the Members Area.
This place is FULL of step-by-step video tutorials, audios, interviews, blueprints, reports,
and illustrations that will allow you to make the money you deserve on the internet.