Tips For Buying And Selling On eBay

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Think of eBay as one big online flea market or garage sale (boot sale for our UK surfers). How well do you usually do on these things in person will usually tell you how well you will do on eBay. If you have the knack of pulling off big numbers of people coming to your event and buying things left and right, chances are you will do well on eBay. If you have had these sales and hardly get any traffic or make any sales, chances are that is what you will do on eBay. The key is to learn what works for successful buying and selling to better your odds with eBay.

Remember, eBay is a business venture. They make money whether your item sells or not. They just provide a popular forum on which you can list your items. You pay for a spot just for a basic listing. You pay even more for features to call more attention to your ad. As a buyer, it costs you nothing to register an account just to buy from others, but eBay has minimal responsibility if you get ripped off when you do not use common sense in your purchase.

Buying On eBay

If you want to get in on a great deal, it helps to know what you are looking for when going through eBay for the auctions. You can get in over your head if you go to any auction site with the mindset that there are nothing but great deals around. As far as online auctions go, there are probably a few hundred thousand items available for bidding on a given day, some do have great finds, others the price will be marked up so much you would be better shopping retail. eBay is one of the more reputable online auction sites around, but it is not perfect. With the right amount of common sense, you, too can have a great experience buying or selling on eBay.

You should have a general idea of what you want to buy and not let your head be turned by all the various products available. Will you be buying an item because you are a collector? Are you buying an item with a practical use? Are you looking for items to re-sell? eBay has many different categories and practically anything you want to buy is listed on their site.

Collectors make a good share of those buying and selling at the auctions on eBay. If you are buying items for your personal collection do some homework first. Verify the actual value of a product up for bid. While one could find precious items going for a steal, some items have no real value that have made it to auction - imagine the disappointment when a collector spends big bucks on an item that is worthless! eBay has the largest selection of collector's items. When buying a collector item on eBay, be sure to check the dealer's rating and background before you place the bid. Many are knowledgeable collectors with good reputations while others are only in it for a quick buck and know nothing of the value of the products they sell.

If the item is worth adding to your collection, think about the maximum you would pay for such an item and be strict about it, if you don't and let competitive bidding get to you, you could go broke! eBay is very strict when it comes to those who bid more than they can afford. They will let you off with a few warnings if you back out of a bid, but eBay will terminate your account if it is abused.

Check out the background of the person selling the item before you place a bid! eBay has safety measures in place to prevent as much fraud as possible, but there are still people who know how to abuse the system. eBay has buyer feedback which records the history of past transactions. Look over the comments made by others who bought from that person in the past and see if this person seems trustworthy. With new people, you are taking your chances, but most are trustworthy.

When shopping for books on eBay, you may want to be especially careful. If no picture is shown of the book or if the picture looks too professional as if it were taken from a retail site, chances are the book in question could be very worn or damaged. Another common thing to watch out with books on eBay are those who resell books with print on demand rights that try to mark up the price of books which are "rare" only because major bookstore do not carry them [and can mark the price up to $100 over the real cost], but are quiet easily very less expensive when you go to the retail bookstore web sites that sell the book at a reasonable price and sometimes with savings up to 40%.

If you are looking for items for practical use on eBay, you still need to follow the same general guidelines above, but also check to see if the item has a warranty available. Some items may seem okay when you get it, but during usage may come apart. Get that extra protection to know that if you buy it and something goes wrong that you can either replace it or get your money back. eBay offers various forms of buyer protection. When you are purchasing big ticket items, eBay offers a service where you basically have a trusted mediator handle the transaction to be sure the buyer will get their merchandise and the seller is paid. If in doubt, e-mail the person selling the product on eBay and ask if they are offering any guarantee on the product before you place a bid.

Selling On eBay

eBay is a great vehicle to make money in your spare time, if you do it correctly, but unless you are willing to commit to it like a regular business, you probably won't make much money. Yes, there are cases out there of people who make a huge fortune on an item and those who make tonnes of money each month, but there are contributing factors which do not normally apply to the average eBayer.

Don't think you can merely walk into as many second hand shops or garage sales with used items and think you will make thousands a month re-selling them. The process is a bit more complicated than that. You will not be able to go through your collection of VHS and vinyl records and be able to recoup much more value than it is actually worth (unless it is rare and in mint condition in the original container, it is virtually worthless.)

Most items for sale that actually sell are along the same line of garage sales. If you have things around your home collecting dust and you want to get rid of them, by all means sell them on eBay to develop your reputation. Stick it with a reasonable, low price that will cover the costs on your end to package and ship it. If you are lucky, maybe something will get into a bidding war, but don't get your hopes up that it will. Whatever you do, do not pay extra for the eBay ad packages for your common household wares you are getting out of the way. If what you are selling is indeed rare and popular, it will be in the search feature of eBay and those interested will find it.

If you start off selling your unwanted things and promptly ship them out and develop some communication with the buyers of your products, you are on your way to developing a good reputation. Ask your buyers if they want to be included in your mailing list in case you have other items for sale.

One of the biggest tools to being one of those big time eBay sellers is in creating a mailing list of people interested in a certain niche product. Let's say you have a web site devoted to doll collections. You could create a form for people to subscribe to your newsletter on the topic of doll collections. Over time, you may build a huge list of people interested in collecting dolls. If you break into the eBay market, you may decide to look for dolls to sell that are rare or collectible hiding in garage sales and in used stores which are of great value, but the person selling it may not know better. You could buy such items and place them for sale on eBay, but let those on your list know about it first. Chances are your best bet in selling it would be to those on your list. Unless someone randomly is entering a search for that particular doll, your odds of being seen are slim which is why eBay offers packages to call more attention to your ad which can cost up to $200USD.

When looking for re-sell items from eBay, you may have to keep your fingers on a lot of pots. Check out the very low priced items that have very little traffic which is close to be expired. If you have a large mailing list and plenty of potential customers interested in that particular item, then you could be successful if you successfully buy that item and then re-sell it to your list of customers. If this is your case, wait until the final 5 minutes of the sale and place a nominal bid. Stick around and keep reloading the page to see if there are any others trying to outbid you at the last minute. At the last few seconds, enter in a final bid equal to the maximum you are willing to pay and hit it right at 2 seconds before the closing. If there are no other buyers, you will get it at your price before the desperate bid at the end. If there are other buyers, you may luck out and have outbid someone else at the last moment. If you win the bid, re-list the item in your account and make a sales page then create a sales e-mail to send out to your customer base and send them to your sales item and close it up within 48 hours.

One way to make a killing on eBay can be a gamble, but if it works will pay off big time. Look through a lot of game and electronic magazines to find out what really hot products will be coming out. Some games and especially video game systems new on the market will be taken up so quickly on the first day of sales that retail stores will not be able to cover the demand for the product. Your trick to make the killing on eBay is to try and predict which items will create a run on the market. Place early orders with the manufacturers when possible so you will get the merchandise on the first day of release. When the product is available for sale, check online to see if Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles, Circuit City, and other retailers have run out of the item. If they have, you can put the items you bought early for bid for sometimes 300% of the retail price. Just be sure you will have access to the item when it is out for sale or you can find yourself in trouble.

CAUTION!! Do not be tempted to buy all the bells and whistles to call attention to your ad. If it is a product truly in demand, it will be found. If it is extremely unusual, it will be found. If you give it plenty of publicity off the eBay site, it will be found. Otherwise, you are taking a BIG gamble because if your item is not as popular or as wanted as you may think and goes unsold, you could end up owing them hundreds of dollars for a product you still own. And please, if you have an item that is under $100 in value, don't even bother with the extra ad fees because you are more than likely to never sell it to recoup the cost spent in being seen.

People buy on eBay for bargains, not to spend as much money as possible. The few rare exceptions when bidding wars apply are in the following categories:

Rare collectors items - And only in mint or near mint condition, particularly with any packaging or properly wrapped in collector's wrap/bagging. This can include stamps (only rare and in mint or entire theme collections in mint), vinyl records (and only really rare editions such as original Beatles, original Sex Pistols, original Elvis... in mint and with the cover), baseball cards (mint and rare), ceramic collectibles (mint, rare, and with papers of proof) dolls (mint and rare), coins (mint and rare), magazines and comic books (mint and rare sealed in Non-Glare UV Plexiglas frames or Mylar type "D" sleeves),... you get the idea, not just the stuff lying around your home, but actually valuable items.

Business Categories - The only kinds of business opportunities that will make a killing in bidding wars are if you are selling an established business with a track record over the course of a few years or an extremely new business which has made a great profit in a short period of time. If you are selling web sites, or particularly templates for web sites, you are not likely to make a killing in the bidding wars unless it is a proven track record of making a profit or the web site has been around for a long time, has a huge traffic flow, and is a money maker. If you are selling a domain name, the same applies, it would have had to been associated with an already successful company or a really short .com name.

Cars - Rare, collectors and expensive cars will make it in the bidding wars. Other cars will usually do no better than placing an ad in your local paper.

Highly Publicised Items - If you are already a master at viral marketing, have a huge online mailing list of customers, a very unusual item worthy of media attention, then you will get a lot of curiosity viewers who may get caught up in the bidding war.

Another factor which may swing in the favour of closing a sale is the reputation of the buyer. If you are mostly a buyer and not so much of a seller, you may not have a great trustworthy reputation to make other feel comfortable about buying from you. If you have sold fewer than 100 items or have an approval rating of less than 95%, your chances of raking in the big eBay bucks are slim.

If you follow these guidelines and read the FAQs of eBay, you should be able to make money on almost anything. The key is to keep your expectations realistic.

Step One: Go to eBay. Read ALL the rules, FAQ and help section to be sure what is needed from you.

Step Two: Fill out the registration form at the auction site. If they have a follow up to apply for merchant's accounts, sign up for it ONLY if you do not have a way to accept credit card payments. You may also want to consider getting a PayPal account for eBay.

Step Three: Find a good wholesale dealer! Use the search engine on the side of this page (Where it says "Find It Now") and enter the words "(item) wholesale dealer" replacing the word "item" with the type of merchandise you wish to sell (electronics, jewelry, clothing, accessories,...) or click here for Dropship Businesses. Research the site and their terms of business. Talk to someone if possible and see if they have a minimum requirement to buy, if you need to sign an application to do business with them, if they dropship items for you, what kinds of payments they accept, and any concerns you may have. One of the most important things you should look for is how long they have the items available. It won't do you any good to plan a long term auction if the price offered you is good for one day only or if the item will no longer be available. You should look for one with a dropship option that lets you pay them as soon as you get your paid order this way you take out your commission and forward the rest to the wholesale company so they can mail it to your customer.

Step Four: If there is a photo of the item on the wholesale site you wish to sell, save that photo to your disk (PC users can right click the mouse and click on the Save Picture option.) You might be able to upload that picture to the auction site. If the auction site does not have an upload option, you may want to consider getting a web site which will give potential buyers an idea of what you are selling. You may want a web site anyway to feature items you have up for bid on a regular basis, the advantage being is if you promote that page well, it will show up in search engines and give you more traffic.

Step Five: Create your ads! Think of a good headline, sub-headline, and descriptive content. Include motivational words to get the buyers excited about your product. Check out tips in creating ads here. A good resource online to place classified ads is Adland Classified Ads

Step Six: Get traffic to your ad. Use a mailing list and let everyone know of the auction about to take place. Sign up with traffic exchange programmes. If your item is really rare or unusual, go to a PR web site and open an account to create a press release to let the media know about it. Send out flyers to your family and friends or associates or church members. Without traffic seeing your things for sale, you won't even get the first bid.

Step Seven: Keep tabs on the bidding. In the beginning, check every few hours. If after a few hours you have no bids or traffic to your offer page, you may want to change your ad or the price to start the bids. If the bidding is totally making you feel uncomfortable, set a buy item at price so anyone interested in it will buy it at that price you set.

Step Eight: When the auction time is over, check to see if you have buyers. If no one bought the item, you may want to re-evaluate the situation. Is the item not worth as much as you listed? Try selling it again at a lower price. Were there a lot of others selling the same thing? You may want to consider trying it again, but making sure your item stands out above the crowd. Or if no one in that category is selling that item very well, find a different product to sell.

If you did get a buyer, contact them immediately to verify details such as name, address (both billing and shipping), phone number, and method of payment. If you have the item with you, it is your responsibility to wrap it carefully and package it properly for shipping. If you are dealing with a dropshipper, you must make arrangements with them to send the item to your customer. To be on the safe side, send it by certified receipt mail this way the person who ordered the merchandise MUST sign a piece of paper to verify they have the package and you are given a copy.

Keep a list of your customers and be sure to get feedback from them. You may want to send them a card in the mail with offers you will auction soon or sell them anything else you offer.

As with any other business with which you hear the hype, there are people making tons of money in auctions, a few of them...many are breaking even and a few making a decent profit while many more are losing money. Keep that in mind before you put all your eggs in one basket and plan this as your ticket to retirement. You can make it work, but you MUST put the effort forth and keep trying until people know and trust you well enough to seek you out.

4 Unusual Formats For Auctions On Ebay

Most people who use eBay are used to the 2 standard types of sales which involve the regular auction and the Buy It Now feature without realising there are 4 other formats to sell your goods.

eBay Motor Auctions

If you have a car to sell, whether you are a private owner to one car you need to sell or a big lot dealer looking for other avenues of customers, or even a collector who buys and sells rare antiques, this is your venue.

Live Auctions

If you have an extremely rare, unusual or expensive item and have planned on a lot of publicity in advance, this can be a good avenue for you. Going back to the tradition of the feel of a live auction, although you are online, all bidders know the time and place for this short time event. You set the time, date and duration and let everyone know about the item being sold, the starting bid, and the time of the event.

Expensive and unique coins, Asian art, native American artifacts, incredible jewelry, costly furniture, memorabilia from major sports stars and even historical documents such as from US Presidents, Prime Ministers, war treaties, major land deed contracts and so forth.

These types of auctions cannot be dropped once started. You need to be sure this is what you want to do because it is next to impossible to stop it once you have it underway.

Restricted Access Auctions

Let's say you are selling things of a more adult nature, but still within the guidelines of eBay. It is the sort of items inappropriate for certain audiences or may be deemed offensive by others. This special area is an arena where one knows in advance what types of things will be shown and will not get bent out of shape by seeing it on their screen.

To bid on these items, the buyer must:

• Be 18 years old
• Supply credit card information to eBay.
• Agree they are entering this area

The real advantage is if you are selling such items, you will have a more qualified audience to view your products. The disadvantage comes if you are used to using the Featured listing because any item in this section will not qualify for that listing.

Private Auctions

Let's say you are a very cautious person and want to deal with certain people only such as friends and family or you are selling an item that may be deem extremely offensive by groups of nut cases (like if you had a fur coat to sell, but did not want to be harasses by PETA). A private auction will keep the bidders names secret and only the seller will have access to these names. Plus, to join in on this auction, you must be invited into it by the seller.

Why would you consider this option? There are really good reasons for some:

• Your item is likely to draw so much controversy that you would be constantly harassed by those offended you would sell such things.
• Your bidders are likely to be harassed by the same group as above.
• You or your bidders may have something of an extremely valuable nature on the line and do not wish outsiders to know of your economical status.
• You have been burned too many times by strangers and want to know your customers can pay.
• You are selling something personal such as a family heirloom and want to make sure it goes to someone who will truly value it.

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