Making Money on eBay

Choosing Your Drop Shipper

2008-04-14T11:16:00.001+07:00

So how do you go about finding a reputable drop shipper for your business? Well, here’s where doing your homework pays off. Whenever possible, you’ll want to set up drop shipping arrangements directly with the manufacturers of the products you want to sell. The fewer middlemen you have to go through, the bigger your profits will be.

If, after contacting the manufacturer, they agree to drop ship to you, great! You can be fairly confident they’ll offer you a competitive price. If they don’t agree to drop ship for you, you’ll have to look for snother alternative.

This ussualy means tracking down a distributor. A distributor is simply a company that maintains a large inventory of another company’s products and distributes those products to smaller companies. The best way to locate a distributor is to simply ask the manufacturer of the product to recommend one.

Another great way to find a distributor for the type of product you wish to sell is by looking through related trade magazines. You’ll frequently find manufacturers advertised in the backs of these publications. To find appropriate trade magazines, check out Yahoo’s listing of trade magazines. You may also be able to find distributors and manufacturers using Thomas Register. They provide listings for thousands of companies broken down byproduct, brand name and company name.

Most companies you contact will be more than happy tospeak with you-after all, you’re going to be selling their products for them. When you call, simply ask to speak with someone about becoming a vendor for their products. Once the switchboard puts you through to the right person, they’ll ba able to answer any questions you have, including:

What is the wholesale price they can offer you on their products? You’ll need to make sure the wholesale price they offer is low enough that you’ll be able to generate a good profit based on what you will be able to sell their products for.
Do they charge a handling fee for drop shipping? If so, how much? Most companies that drop ship will simply add the cost of UPS or FedEx shipping onto your wholesale price, but some will also charge you s handling fee (generally between $1 and $5). This is to offset their cost of picking,packing, and processing the order for you.
How do they ship their products? Almost every company that drop ships products will use a major nationwide delivery service like UPS or FedEx. As them to include tracking numbers with the order confirmations they send. This will save you many potential problems when customers ask, “Where is my order?”
How do they bill you? Most drop shippers will bill your credit card the wholesale price of the product plus shipping and handling as soon as they receive an order from you. With others, you may be able to set up a monthly billing cycle where you submit payment for all orders at the end of each month.
How do they deal with product returns? Be sure to find out what their policy is regarding returns. Most reputable companies will offer some kind of guarantee or warranty on their products and will deal returns for you. This way, if a customer contacts you with a return, you cqn simply tell them the manufacturer will be happy to speak with them directly. If your manufacturer doesn’t accept returns, look out! You’ll be the one stuck replacing defective merchandise for your customers

Competition In Drop-Shipping

2008-04-14T11:14:00.001+07:00

Have you notices there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of sites selling huge mish-mash selections of inexpensive gift items, things like plastic gnomes and porcelain figurines? That’s because there are a few very large drop shipping companies that import these items and then recruit Web sites to sell them on their behalf. These companies have massive product inventories and make it very easy for people to get started selling their product for them.

Unfortunately, this is not the way for you to go if you’re getting started with drop shipping. There are already a lot of giant gift sites out there-and fairly heated competition, making it difficult for amateurs to be successful at it.

Instead, spend some time researching specific kinds of products that you might want to sell. The products you choose should be in demand but not widely available online. As always, I highly recommend targeting a niche market rather han trying to find a product that everyone wants to buy.

A Drop-Shipping Narrative

2008-04-14T11:11:00.001+07:00

Let me tell you a story. For too many years I squinted at a 14-inch monitor. Early this year I decided to get a 19-inch monitor that won PC Magazine Editor’s Choice regocnition. I went to an online store to secure my purchase. I found the monitor, and it indicated the ability to ship soon, so I ordered it. Immediately I got an e-mail that said the monitor was backordered L Why didn’t they tell me that before I oredered? I was ticked off, but decided to give them a while-after all, it could come any time. So I waited, visions of a shiny new 19-inch monitor dancing in my head. After a week with no word, I finally got tired of waiting and called customer service. I was connected to a polite customer service person who listened to my question:

“When will the monitor be available?”

“We don’t know Sir. The Manufacturer hasn’t told us.”

I was frustrated. I had looked around and knew it was in stock at another company.

“Cancel the order, then.” I told the lady, impatiently.

“You have to give 72 hours notice before cancelling,” she said.

“That’s just unacceptable,” I retorted. “If you don’t have the monitor ready to ship now, then cancel it.”

“The manufacturer may be ready to ship it.”

Aha! I thought. This is a drop-shipping operation!

“Then call the manufacturer and ask please,” I told her.

“I can’t do that, Sir.

“Then cancel the order. Now! ” I was disgusted.

She cancelled the order. The next day the monitor arrived by Next Day courier. It had been shipped, but the retailer’s level of communication with the manufacturer was such that they didn’t know exactly what was going on.

In the meantime, I had ordered the monitor from another dealer, and subsequently returned the monitor from the original company. I am sure that the return shipping costs ate up whatever profit there was in the sale. And why did that retailer’s site show the item in the stock when it actually wasn’t available? Probably bacause the inventory levels weren’t updated in real time, or often enough to be accurate. This situation is actually quite common, so be prepared for issues like this.

The lesson: Drop-shipping may well handicap your ability toprovide excellent customer service. And withoutexcellent customer service you’ll lose your bestcustomers to your competitors. If price doesn’t distinguish you from other onlne businesses then customer service most certainly must. Though I’ve had one occasion to return a book to Amazon,, I had a good experienece because they handled it so very well when I caled about the problem.

Finding Dropshippers

2008-04-14T11:09:00.001+07:00

First and foremost, you must find a good supply of dropshippers. This is an imperative, as there are many seemingly innocent and reliable drop shipping companies, but you really have to shop around to make sure that they are as honest and reliable as they seem.

Two good places to start are www.dealdirect.com.au and www.overstockoutlet.com.au- both of which are incredibly limited, and their dropshipping arrangements are overpriced and not very useful. The brutal truth is the best dropshippers with the best prices come from countries like China and Thailand. These dropshippers aren’t impossible to reach on line, but you generally need some sort of directory to get an idea of which ones are reliable and which ones are not. These directories are normally online and require some sort of subscription fee. I use the Dropshippers Database occasionally, and they are really reliable and their feesare very reasonable. You can read them at www.thedropshipperdatabase.com. The real problem with these directories is that they can be out of date, which is why I only subscribe to this place on a monthly basis-that way I’m only 10 dollars out of pocket rather than a yearly subscription’s worth-the simple fact that they even offer a monthly subscription is good alone.

If you don’t want to pay for a dropshipper directory, you can also use www.wholesalecentral.com but the problem with these guys is their directory is fairly unregulated and unrated, so you have no idea how good or bad the people you are dealing with are. So it’s basically a case of pot luck.

Customer Service is another issue with dropshipping. To illustrate this issue, let me share with you a small story from a friend of mine.

Dropshipping

2008-04-14T11:08:00.002+07:00

One of the easiest ways to make money via eBay through what I call ‘The Wholesale Route’ , is playing the dropship game. To dropship (or droshipping) is the act of selling wholesale items without them ending up in your house, cluttering up your space.You see, when you dropship, you advertise the product that you are sellling on eBay, with your version of the retailprice-and then someone bids or buys the item. You then send your order to the dropshippers, who will take their wholesale price cut, and then ship the item off to the seller. Of course, they will take their shipping cut, also-so you really want to make sure that the shipping is on top of the product. But in the end, you sel an item, the item never goes anywhere near your house, and you don’t end up paying a cent. And of course, another big advantage of this system is that you don’t have any unsold stock, off-site or otherwise.

In addition tothese advantages, following price and effectiveness-you also have the added bonus that the moment you realize you have a product available to you, you can list it on line. This means that you don’t have to sit around waiting for the product to be shipped to you so you can sell it. Be careful with this though, make sure that the dropshipper you choose definitely has the products you want to put up-but nine out of ten times your product should be available and you shouldn’t have to worry about putting it up on line.

There are of course, small problems with the drop shipping business model. First of all, you will probably find that this method of sale will only get you small amount of money. So, you will have to start putting your items in bulk on eBay-again, this costs you per item., so you have to be careful to pick your items to sell, making sure that your item will sell otherwise you have lost the money you put it up to eBay for in the first place. This is why I recommend selling high cost electrical goods, like mobile phones, computers, TV’s, etc-as you can ussually get these at good wholesale prices (ie.maybe a good 1/8 less than the average price), and using say an Plasma Screen TV as an example, you could get one on wholesale price for about $2500, which we’ll say is saving about $700 dollars off retail price. So, the retail price is $3200-we have to make it worth the customer’s while and worth our while.

So we take our item, and we find out how heavy it is, and how much it will cost to ship. One of the follies of drop shipping is that your product is invariably going to be in another country, so say your TV is being drop shipped from Hong Kong-and will cost $150 to ship. Using this example, we need to again still make it worth their time and money to buy your fabulous item instead of the one that they can get down at Harvey Norman for slightly less hassle. So the retail price is $3200, the shipping is $150, and the wholesale price of $2500. If we say set the price to $2900, we would be set to make a $300 profit off of the sale, but there’s a good chance that the customer won’t buy it bacause the savings the make, plus shipping, aren’t that great. So the folly here is that you have to balance your profit margin with your chance of sale. In my experience, if you dropped that price by a hundred dollars, abd say you sold 5 of these TV’s on eBay-you would sell all of them. Whereas you might sell 2 of them with the higher price, but you end up having to pay for the unsold TV’s eBay fees, and in the end you will make amuch better deal for yourself sacrificing abit of profit for a lot of it.

As you can see, with a bit of work, this is a wonderful and easy way to make profit on eBay, probably the easiest of the lot. But is it safe, and is it worth it? Like many get rich quick schemes, there are a number of traps that you can fall prey to if you are not careful.

Wholesaling

2008-04-14T11:05:00.001+07:00

As your business grows, you may choose to start buying from wholesale sources and selling on eBay at retail. This can be very profitable, but only if you choose the wholesale wisely.

The Internet is full of opportunities to buy lists of wholesalers, often for just a few dollars. Save your money. You can get the same quality of information (or maybe even slightly better) for free by using any of popular search engines andplugging in keywords such as “wholesales,” “manufacturer”, or “drop ship.” But even that is not the best route to take.

Instead, be more specific in your approach. Think about the type of products you want to sell, and then look for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors you can work with. Find companies whose products meet your quality expectations, that have prices and terms you can work with, and that deliver the service level you want to provide your customers. Get sample products so you can see the quality yourself. Some companies send free samples, while others charge a nominal fee-either way, don’t try to sell something you’ve never seen. Be sure it is truly worth what you expect to sell it for.

Be sure you’re dealing with a true manufacturer, wholesaler or distributor, and not another middleman who is markingup his prices and increasingyour costs. Ask for and check references. You want to talk with others who are buying from these sources. In addition, check with the Better Business Bureau, any industry associations, the consumer protection agancy of the state in which the supplier is located, and any other source that may be able to verify their claims.

Legitimate manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors will also want information about you, including proof that you’re a legitimate business and that you have any necessary licenses and tax identification numbers. A supplier who doen;t ask for this information is probably a middleman whose credentials won’t stand up to passing scrunty, never mind a thorough investigation.

You will find, that when you do find online wholesalers, that they will tend to have very specialized sets of stock. This is generally good, and going in your favour-try to find wholesalers who specialize in your niche. For instance, on AV Wholesale (www.avwholesale.com.au) they have ONE brand of Digital Set Top Box (and PVR) available, and while it isn’t a specifically name brand, it is a well respected PVR. There’s a lot of support for it on the internet, plus lots of positive reviews. Now, I won’t go into their wholesaling prices-but if you scan for the “Legend Digital standart definition Digital Set Top Box with twin Tuner & 160GB Personal Video Recorder” on eBay, you will find a few scattered instances of it, but it is on the whole pretty rare. So there is one niche to be filled right there-cheap, non-name brand Personal Video Recorder. It’s that easy-you pick a vague niche, and then compare those wholesalers’ products with their availability on eBay. You will often easily find a niche that is rare, even completely unfilled which you can then exploit wit great deal.

Finding Wholesalers is something that is entirely up to you-if I gave you a list of wholesalers it would be somewhat redundant. Look throughyour local yellow pages and find wholesalers there. Also try searching via googles with ‘use pages from (your home country)’ tagged.If you’re feeling really lost, start with www.dealsdirect.com.au and work your way along from other. What you really want, however, is to find wholesale directory. These are actualy harder to find than the dropship directories available. Ironically enough, the easiest to find is on eBay.

Wholesaling, while being a highly profitable way of making an existence if used correctly, can also spell disaster if you haven’t chosen your avenue of product carefully. This is mainly due to the fact that you spend a large chunk of money buying many of the same item to get the wholesale price, and then you find yourself out of pocket when the item doesnot sell correctly. This can mean that if you are not careful, you could have lots of products and no money. And on topof this, even if you do find you can sell the items, where are you going to store them all? If you feel like you are willing to take the challenge and make the extra money that selling the wholesale items through eBay can give, go forth, and make your fortune! And if not, (or if you fall into the category I was just talking about-that is, you lack stirage space) you should consider drop-shipping.

General Issues To Consider

2008-04-14T11:04:00.000+07:00

Wheter you have a specific product line in mind or are still trying to come up with some ideas for what you can sell on ebay, consider these issues:

Cost: How much willthe item cost you? There’s more to cost that simply the price on the item-do you have the cash required to make the purchase or are you going to borrow money (and therefore pay interest) to acquire the inventory? Will there be any additional expenses, such as shipping to you or repairs if the item is not in salesable condition?
Storage: Do yoy have room to adequately and safely store the item while you are waitn for it to sell?

Shipping: What are the labor and cost issues associated with shipping the item to your customer once it sells? It is very fragile, an unusual shape or extremely heavy? These rae issues that can make shipping a challenge.

Product life cycle: How long can you expect the demand for the item to continue? You may have something that is wildly successful today, but next year you won’t be able to pay people to take it away from you. Beanie Babies and other fad collectibles are a great example of this. Some high-tech items are also at risk of having a short life-cycle due to trchnology advances. If you pay attention toproduct life cycles, you can maximize your profits while the item is hot and avoid getting stuck with excess inventory when the demand declines.

Season: When you put an item up for sale on eBay, consider the time of the year. Heavy coats and sweaters don’t seel well in the spring and summer. Lawn and garden equipment is not going to move as well in the winter as it will in the summer. If you have room to store the items, you can make a nice profit buying off-season items and holding them until they sell.

Season: When you put an item up for sale on eBay, consider the time of the year. Heavy coats and sweaters don’t seel well in the spring and summer. Lawn and garden equipment is not going to move as well in the winter as it will in the summer. If you have room to store the items, you can make a nice profit buying off-season items and holding them until they sell.

Finding Your Niche On Ebay

2008-04-14T11:02:00.003+07:00

A lot of eBay sellers start out sellinh odds and ends they have around the house- and for good reason. For items that are in good condition, you’ll probably get more money for them on ebay than at a garage sale. You probably have plenty of stuff that you’ll never miss and you really don’t need to store or dust anymore. And it’s a relatively risk-free way to test the waters of eBay selling.

If you can’t bear to part with anything you already have, start with products you know and hace experience with. Choose things that have demonstrable market demand (that is, you know people are buying them). Don’t make the mistake of selling only things you like, or the trendiest, coolest things you can find. If your goal is to make a profit- and it should be!- then you need to be selling things people will buy.

If you are considering selling an item, do a search on eBay and see if that product or similar ones are being offered for sale. If the market is saturated, you may want to reconsider trying to sell that product. At the same time, if absolutely no one else is offering the product for sale, you need to figure out if that’s because no one else has thought of it, or if it’s because no one will buy them.

Depending on the category, seeing a lot of similar items up for sale may work in your favor or againts you. For example, you may see a lot of the same item pop up in response to a search because people are buying. Or observes antiques seller Sue Rudolph, “It might also mean the market is flooded and no body wants it.” You have to do more than just count the listings, she says. Look at the individual auctions and see if people are bidding on the items-that will give you an indication of the strength of the market. Then check the completed auctions for the item you serached for. That will tell you what the item is selling for (if, in fact, it’s selling at all)

Writing A Description

2008-04-14T11:00:00.001+07:00

Equally important, but less apparent, is the task of writing a good description. Here I’m going to have to sell the pair of shoes nicely, but not overdo it ( I don’t want to make it seem like they’re in mint condition in the box or anything)-and importantly not to spend too much time thinking about it. For instance, it’s not very productive to go into detail about a pair of socks. If the item is especially important, you can go to a lot more effort in adding details, perhaps extra photos, etcetera-but I have personally decided for this item it is just not necessary. Of course, it is also important to weigh what sort of details you should give-for instance, technology usually requires a much more lenghty description (if you don’t’t follow what I mean, in the example of a pair of headphones you would not only have to provide a visual description of the item, but the technical specifications like the frequency range they provide, power handling capacity and so on).

What should you include in your description? Well, the important elements are as follows:

Repeat the name of the item.
Details about the item. (This is your most important prerogative, make it the focus of your description).
Any physical pros and consof the item. This includes general marks and scratches as well as accessories and extras.
Finally, cover any other information that you feel needs to be mentioned. For example, if you feel that the photos don’t properly show a feature of the item, describe it.

Now that we’ve covered through the basic, so let’s go through putting up an item, step by step.

First, you give your auction a title. Simple enough. Next, you have the option of adding a ‘subtitle’ below your auction title. This can provide extra information-and while it’s useful, you probably won’t use it that much. In this instance, I haven’t. Here, I’m putting up a friend’s auction for a cocktail dress. It will customize the fields depending on what sort of itemyou are putting up-so in this instance you list the clothing style, size, colour, material-etcetera. Then, further down the page, you’ll add your description.

HTML code is your friend. If you don’t know anything about HTML code, you may want to learn. The description field allows you to type just regular text, but you can add HTML markup code to spruce up the description. I recommend it highly, as it makes your auction stand out and look more professional. If you can read HTML, you’ll notice that I have basically made the text look bolder, a reasonably simple task, even for beginners.

Here you name your price. On this item, I’ve started the bidding rather low. For a measly ten cents you can add a “buy it now” price. You also specify the length of the auction and the quantity of items (usually one). Scroll down further.

Now is the time to add your prize winning pictures. The first photo can be hosted on eBay for free, and each additional photo is 25 cents. When you’re putting up a large amount of items, it’s cheaper to host them on your personal webspace instead. You can add this by clicking’your web hosting’ and filling out the appropriate info. Scroll on, to the next area.

Customization is what this section is all about. Yes, you will get a lot of exposure by adding your item to the ‘featured item’ list, but is it really worth $29 to do this? Some of the cheaper but still fancy options that may be worth it are the ones that add ‘borders’ and such toyour item for three dollars. It might be worth it, it might not. Use your judgement, but still keep thinkin with your bank account in mind. After all, what if the item doesn’t sell? Finally, here you can add a ‘page counter’ to your page to tell you how many people have seen your item. It’s nice for your peace of mind, and it’s free-so why not? (after all, you can even customize it!)

Now we’re up to everybody’s favorite part-the part where you get paid. More specifically, the method of payment you choose. Choose your payment option and scroll on. I chose Bank Deposit, as there’s no fees attached to that perticular option.

Finally, we hit upon the shipping directions. This is all very self explanatory. You tick if you will delivery it only nationally or internationally, and then what countries you will send to IF internationally. Next up, you tell them how much your postage will cost (you should work this out with your local post office-you can get a rough estimate from their website as well (beware, it may not be perfectly accurate!), and what sort of shipping method this will use. You can add as many different ones as you like, like adding express shipping costs, and so on. After that, you have the option to add a returns policy-this is very rarely used on eBay unless the item you are selling in expensive. Finally, back to the payment instructions-you tell the bidder any extra information (or clear instructions on how to) on paying you. In this instance, I’ve added extra information pertaining to express shipping.

This is the end result. As you can see, it only takes a few moments to set up your auction item. Once you have done several, you will start to get into the routine of doing things on eBay, so the process won’t be as time-consuming or difficult.

Eventually, when you’ve set up many auctions, the process may become a little tedious. This is understandable, ad you’ll essentially be repeating the same actions over and over again-wouldn’t it be wonderful if youcould avoid most of that process altogether? Thankfully, this marvelous dream has come true with the help of Turbo Lister (see the Turbo Lister chapter, later). Unfortunately there’s no tool that will take good photos or write up descriptions in English, but many other functions can be straemlined and drieven by the computer.

Best Foot Forward

2008-04-14T10:59:00.001+07:00

In creating an eBay auction, it’s very important to take time and care in your presentationon the goods on offer. After all, anything that looks shabby or messy is certainly going to seem less valuable to a critical public that are considering parting with their hard-earned dollars. In this chapter, we’ll go over anything you need to know to make the best possible impression and really tap into your customer’s desire for the product.

This is a shoe. It wasn’t always looking this pretty, it took some work to improve its appearance. This shoe is one of a pair, but this is the more damaged of the two ( the other being prestine) so I have chosen to use this photo-as it is the most honest first view the bidder is going to get. It is actually quite an old shoe, picked up at an opportunity shop for a grand total of $6 for the pair-I suspect that this pair is worth quite more than this, as it is from a well known company (Windsor Smith) and is over 30 years old, so if nothing more it is a well kept piece of history. My first task for selling this item was to make a nice cover photo for the page. What you see above is the end result. To take this photo, I arranged my shoe nicely on a piece of cow-skin rug (to make a good background) and angled my camera nicely. I’ll go into that later, but first I’ll ty and illustrate a point by showing you a few of my failures.

Failure number one is intentional, to illustrate a point. You get a lot of photos like this on eBay, and they’re often worse than this one. Not only does this photo show very little of the subject in question, but it has two other important problems with it. First of all, there are other bits and pieces in the background. This is messsy. Try and set your photo so that the background is one consistant background (like the rug in the photo) and nothing else unless it is related to the object being broadcast. Second, and I feel slightly more importantly, this shows off the worst qualities (those that exit, anyway, this is a fairly good quality item) of the item in question. It shows the slight wear and tear on the front of the shoe, and what looks to be a cut in the side of the shoe. Try and find an angle that shows off whatever problems the item has, but doesn’t make them look any worse than they are-but most importantly, makes the good qualities far outweigh the problems!

With failure number 2, I just took a very quick snap. A lot of people on eBay like to take this approach to selling their items, and very few will get a good price for their item, if they get money for their item at all. I could go on and on forever about the bad qualities of this photo, but I’ll keep it short and sweet-you should be seeing a pattern here-the background is not constant (part of the door and floor are showing), and there are assorted bits and pieces all around the item distracting it from being the subject of the photo. But another important point about this photo that the first failure didn’t have-it isn’t close to the item, which means you don’t get a good look at it. And because you can’t see the item very well, it doesn’t deliver the best impression.

The last failed photo experiment is getting similar to the end product photo, but there are again some important omissions. First of all, it is horizontally laid out, which doesn’t add a whole lot to the picture. If you turn the item a bit so that it takes up more of the photo from corner it corner (nicely taking the entire frame over, not just most of it), it adds depth and flavor to the photo. You’ll notice the way the light in the end photo climb the length of the shoe nicely, making the shoe look sparky-this is also due to the turn of the shoe. Amazing how much difference a little turn makes, isn’t it? Now, the other problem with this photo ( which I have more or less avoided because it is so blatantly obvious) is that the photo is blurry. Very blurry. A lot of eBay sellers don’t bother to a photo that is not blurry, and with modern photo cameras I’m not surprised-auto-focusing can be quite troublesome. Work on it, it’s certainly worth the bother.

Once you have your photo near perfect, pop it into Photoshop (or ‘The Gimp’ graphics editor) and play around with the levels. Particularly if you are using a flash, the image might look a little washed out. In Photoshop, you can do this quite easily by applying Auto Levels (found under Image>Adjustment) which ninety percent of the time will do a fairly good job making the photo look nicely balanced. If you are feeling experimental, you can try batch-applying an action to a large amount of photos, but we’ll get to that later. Other things you can do to your end product photo are fairly tedious if you want to be a perfectionist. It’s not worth that level of effort, unless you are doing one photo for a line of the same product. So a quick fiddle with the levels is just the right amount of post processing necessary. Once you’re done fiddling, adjust the image size so that it doesn’t end up too large (try to keep the image around a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 for a high detail eBay photo) and then save it in a JPEG file.If you like, you canpaly around with the JPEG “quality” settings (which refer to image compression) so that you might get a slight bit of artifacting but a much smaller file. The smaller the end file is, the faster it loads and the less worries you have about hosting it.

Digital Camera

2008-04-14T10:40:00.004+07:00

Obviously, you will need to take pictures of your eBay goods so that online bidders can have a look at them before they buy. The easiest and most convenient way to do this is with a digital camera. If you already have one, you may be able to skip this chapter. Otherwise, read on: it contains invaluable advice for those setting out to purchase a digital camera.

Buying a camera is a lot simpler than buying a computer, but that doesn’t mean it’s terribly simple either. There are a lot of considerations you have to take into account. These considerations can more or less be simplified into three important categories: price, quality and versatility.

Camera Price

Do you want to spend a lot of money on a camera that you are going to use primarily to take photos of items for sale? There is a certain point where cameras go from being expensive because of the features they contain, to a higher plane of expensive because of the ability to manually adjust advanced settings. On average, a camera with a manual focus in the traditional sense of the word ( a camera with a manual focus wheel) will set you back ( at bare minimum) a cool $1000. Depending on where you shop, this point is usually somewhere around $600-700. Since you will be taking photos that are not going necessarily need to be of a particularly mega-high resolution, you probably won’t want to pay that much for one. Or do you? You may want to be able to supply a very high quality images to people who ask for more details in the items they are buying, in case you probably do want a more expensive and better quality camera. One thing to take into consideration here-this is a business expense. So if you want a very nice camera that you can take on holiday (or perhaps even use for artistic purposes) this would be a perfect time to claim it on tax.

Camera Quality

This is an area where two people will rarely agree on a given model. In fact, it is an odd area, because people’s opinions vary so radically. For instance, you could buy a Canon brand camera which is more expensive for a lower megapixel count, or you could buy a Konica for a cheaper price and higher megapixel count. You may wonder what the difference is here-and it’s all fairly relative. Some say that Canon put better lenses on their cameras, and that they are a more reputable brand. Others may argue this fiercely; and seeing this, you might tend to get the idea that it’s allabout territory defense-like sticking with your favorite football team, no matter how badly they’re doing this season. What I’m really trying to say here is that you should, as far as possible, form your own opinion. Because in the end, you may find that you’re unhappy with the camera you’ve purchased purely because you stuckwith the tastes of another person. You may feel that the extra money for the Canon is worth it, and that you feel safer using the more reputable brand-or you may think that Canon are trying to steal the money straight out your wallet and go for Konica. In the end, feel confident-differences between models in the same price range tend to be minor and it is your own decision after all.

Camera Versatility

How versatile do you need your camera to be? You may wonder exactly what I meant by this, so I’ll elaborate. Cameras these days have a lot of features that are built in almost by default. Here’s a little secret-a lot of these new ‘features’ are more for experiment’s sake to see if they can make it any better, maybe plunging toward a day where they will actually be useful. And then of course there are the features that are just plain useless, like the so called ‘effects’ that all digital cameras, photo or video, come stock standard with (like Quantel, Split Screen, Solarize). These are fairly useless to the average eBay seller, and someone who wanted to use them artistically would do them properly in Photoshop. Anyway, away from my ranting, there are actually some useful features that you should keep an eye out for.-these include advanced memory card support ( as in, the camera supports more than one type of memory card-this sort of versatility gives you plenty of choice and hence room to find the cheaper option), larger LCD screens,and even SLR lenses if you are a perfectionist like myself.

Technical Lexicon

Now we’ve got the basics covered, so let’s get into details. I’ll cover a couple of the more important aspects of the technical terms, with a short glossary at the end of this chapter to help you understand what the technical specifications you are reading actually mean.

Megapixels: How Many Do You Really Need?

Probably the most significant feature when choosing a digital camera is the number of megapixels, which determines the potential quality of your photos. Choose too few for your needs, and your images will suffer. Choose too many, and you might be spending more cash than necessary. Around the five megapixels mark is fine for most people. Below is a guide to help you choose, including what size prints you can expect to get and basic prices. (The price, however, can fluctuate wildly based on extra features, and the cost per megapixel is constantly getting lower and lower) :

2 Megapixels or less

This level of detail is typically found in smaller, inexpensive cameras or cameras in combination with other devices ( such as cell phones or PDAs). Avoid it. It’s useless for almost anything except for grainy happy snaps-and hence fairly useless for eBay.

3 Megapixels

This is actually a good compromise between picture quality and low price for most casual photographers. You probably won’t find any actual ‘cameras’ with a lower megapixel count than this, today.

4 Megapixels

Thia is where the quality starts to shine. The photos these cameras will take are actually a decent size, so your prospective buyers will actually be able to make out detail in the snaps fairly well.

5 Megapixels

Above five megapixels, you will see a continous (but gradual) improvement in image quality. If you are considering buying for more than just eBaying ( such as amateur photography or art purposes) I highly recommend you choose something at the five megapixels range or better. You should be able to get a good five megapixel camera for less than 400 dollars.

Optical Zoom Vs Digital Zoom

Generally speaking, digital zoom is nigh on useless. The digital zoom works by taking the optical image and increasing the size of one part of the picture, reducing the quality of it. It isn’t strictly “zooming” at all. The image will initially become horribly pixelated or blurry, and at the far range of the digital zoom it will become utterly ugly and useless. Photos taken without digital zoom, you’ll notice that it does not allow us to zoom in anywhere near as close, but the quality is infinetely better.

It is easier just to get the camera closer to the item, isn’t it? But if you really don’t feel you have the time and patience to get the camera closer and focus nicely, gointo your camera and use the maximum resolution. Then, you can manipulate the photo with Photoshop after you’ve taken it. At least (in comparison to the digital zoom) the buyer will be able to seethe item quite clearly. And you’ll have much more control over the details in the picture.

Digital Camera Glossary

CCD

In essence, this is the electronic version of film for a digital camera. Standing for charged coupled device, this refers to the chip used to record image information. Light hits the CCD when a photo is taken, and then the analog CCD converts the information to digital. This is one of the two main recording devices used in digital cameras.

Compact Flash

This is the memory card with the largest physical size and storage capacity. About the size of a matchbook and weighing about half an ounce, these cards come with a capacity as high as 2 GB. These cards are better for use with high-megapixel digital cameras. There are also versions that store at a high-speed rate, which is helpful for shooting several pictures in succession.

DPI

Standing for dots per inch, this refers to the resolution of an image. The higher the DPI, the better the detail of an image. It is a measurement of the number of dots found in a one-inch square of an image. For instance, if you wanted to print the image, you would want a DPI of at least 300. An image on a screen, however, is only 72 DPI-but you should rework this later or the image you originally take will turn out bad.

F-Stop

This is the number assigned to determine the aperture, or size of the lens opening. A high f-stop number means a small amount of light is allowed in, which would be used to avoid an overexposed image. A low f-stop number means a large amount of light is let in, as you might use to shoot at a high shutter speed without getting a dark image.

LCD Screen

This is a feature included on most cameras, which allows the user to preview images immediately after a photo is taken. It is this single feature that persuades many to switch the digital cameras. These preview windows, however, can be vulnerable to cracking or malfunctioning. So be careful with them. The size and quality of LCDs is usually one of the things you will find most debate about in digital cameras reviews.

Memory Stick

Long and slender, this memory card also can be found with a “select” feature which doubles its memory. The cards come in maximum capacity of 128 MB, but the select version stores 256 MB.

SLR

Standing for single-lens reflex, these are higher-end digital cameras revered by serious photographers. The digital versions of SLRs work in this manner: the shutter retracts so an image can be recorded. One of the prime benefits of using a digital SLR camera is that lenses are interchangeable.

xD Picture Card

This is the smallest of the common memory card formats, yet it has a large capacity (a maximum of 512 MB available)

Decide On Your Camera

Now you should have a basic idea of what to look for in a camera. When you start looking for one, scrutinize and cross examine the reviews you find, and if you can’t work it out from there, try the camera yourself. Only you can workout exactly what sort of camera you want and need for your business.

We’ve covered the hardware needed, so let’s get down to some more eBay related business. Let’s get down to actually making auction on eBay.

Internet Explorer

2007-11-26T08:12:00.001+07:00

Now, without further ado, let’s go onto Internet Explorer. And Firefox for that matter. One thing that you should note about the system requirements of Turbo Lister, and you’ve probably noticed, is that they claim to require Internet Explorer. This is probably technically true-but considering that Windows XP and 2000 come with Internet Explorer stock standard, you won’t have to worry about this too much. Back to what I mean about “technically true”, however, is that I mean you don’t need to strictly use Internet Explorer for all of your browsing needs. In facts, as a personal preference, I would avoid it like the plague, mainly due to the fact that most security exploits (ways that people can hack into your computer, and generally do nasty or annoying things) are written for Internet Explorer, but rarely affect third-party programs (such as Firefox). Here’s the recommended specifications :

Internet Explorer Recommended Specifications

Computer with a 486/66-megahertz (MHz) processor or higher (Pentium procesoor recommended)
RAM requirements depend on the operating system
Windows 2000: 32 MB of RAM minimum
Full install size : 11.5 MB
CD-ROM drive (if installation is done from a CD-ROM)
Super VGA (800x600) or higher-resolution monitor with 256 colours

Again, we’re getting into exaggeration territory with the resolutions, but Microsoft are actually pretty honest with their requirements here. Let’s now take a look at Firefox, the leading free alternative to Internet Explorer.

Firefox Recommended Specifications

Pentium 233 MHz (Recommended: Pentium 500 MHz or greater)
64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
52 MB hard drive space

There’s an obvious gap between their requirements. In some ways, I think that Firefox’s requirements are slightly more realistic than Microsoft’s. But they are still fairly low, thankfully. Now that we’ve gone through the system requirements for the sofware we’ll need, you ought to have a pretty good idea that we can get away with a fairly low end (cheap) PC for general eBay purposes.

Example Computer Specifications

Pentium III 500mhz
128 megabytes of RAM
A hard drive with at least 40 gigabytes of space
A CD-ROM drive
An ADSL modem, for broadband Internet usage
Other basic peripherals, such as a mouse and keyboard

The above computer is available from most computer recyclers. At the time of writing, I noticed in the a local paper that you can buy a AMD 64bit 2600 with an 80 gigabyte hard drive, 256 megabytes of RAM, CD-ROM drive, a full system (if you’re not a computer person, this is far and above the specifications required for what you will need) for $299 without monitor. This price is a shock, it’s so good. Now, keep in mind, this was a special-but it gives you a good idea of just how ludicrously cheap a half decent computer can be for. The monitor will set you back about another $200, so all up you have a computer that has room to move for $500 dollars. I’ll bet you never thought you could get a computer so cheap, did you?

Now that we’ve covered the computer, let’s explore the sort of camera you will need.

Macintosh Hardware

2007-11-26T08:11:00.002+07:00

We’ve been discussing IBM-compatible PC computers, however if you have a half decent Mac, don’t rush out and buy a PC for eBaying. Your current computer will probably do the job nicely. Macs are generally god for Internet access and image manipulation.

Computer Stability

2007-11-26T08:11:00.001+07:00

Stability is important, as the computer will be your greatest ally as you make money on eBay. Depending on what you buy and where you buy it, your computers’ stability can range from one extreme to the other.

For intance, if you plan on purchasing a refurbished PC unit, I highly recommend that you make sure the computer comes stock standard with Windows XP or 2000 (this goes for new computers, also). Now, I personally tend to recommend againts so called ‘Green’ computers, as they are using old hardware which is more likely to break down, and more importanly, you rarely get what you pay for. Anything under a Pentium 4 or Athlon XP really should not go for more than about $350-and ‘Green’ or refurbished PCs are generally more than this ( unless you buy them from small computer stores, these are generally much cheaper, as they are often made from leftover good bits of hardware salvaged from dead computers). Other concerns with these PCs revolve around the hard drives inside them,as even some of the better hard drives I have worked with have ‘conked out’ within five years or so. Because of this, the very idea of buying computer with a hard drive of such an age causes me to expect the very worst. Plus, most hard drives of that era weren’t exactly large, so generally a refurbished PC will land you with only twelve gigabytes of space. That’s not much at all, considering the size of today’s data files and applications. Obviously, a more recent computer is better.

Other things to look out for include the design of the case. If you are able to feel the vibration on the case when it is running, if it makes a lot of noise or feels very warm to touch: these are warning signs for problematic systems that you want to avoid.

When you do get your PC, try to avoid filling it up with too much non-business related applications and make sure the latest security patches from Microsoft are in place (visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com) or even the most stable PC can become vulnarable.

Turbo Lister

2007-11-26T08:10:00.000+07:00

Turbo Lister is a program for automating your eBay auction listings. It is covered extensively in the “Turbo Lister” chapter of this book.

Turbo Lister Requirements

Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
100 Mhz processor
64 MB RAM
60 MB free hard disk space
Modem or Internet connection
Mouse
Internet Explorer 5.01 or later

From this information, we know we require a version of Windows (Windows XP or 2000, if you want tohave something worth thr bother), a minimum of Pentium 100, a minimum of 64 megabytes of RAM, and an Internet connection. We’ve already talked about Internet connections, and we’ve established that we’d ideally need some form of broadband. The minimum processor requirement of 100 mhz is very low, but I suspect this would be easily met by any computer you’re likely to come across. If we go much higher, the system in question will without a doubt have more than 64 megabytes of RAM, so that’s covered, and the same goes for the hard drive. We don’t need to worry because the minimum requirements for Turbo Lister are quite modest.

Macintosh Alternative

Garagesale is a program for mac that has similar functionality to Turbo Lister.

Photo Editing For eBay

2007-11-26T08:09:00.000+07:00

If you are going to be doing some professional photo editing, then I might recommend that you get a fairly heavy duty computer- but during your eBay career I highly doubt you will be dealing with anything massive. If you use really large images, you’ll need to consider the costs of bandwidth for hosting images, and the added hassle of uploading large files to the Internet. Also consider, if you are going to be making a business out of this, you really don’t want to be hassledwith doing large amounts of editing to large files which inevitably take a long amount of time to upload. Images on eBay are usually quite small, normally no larger than 500x500 pixels (dots across and down). 500x500 is almost half the size of a typical screen, so anything more is really a waste. If you want to go all out on an item, be my guest-but it’s nice to know that you really won’t have to go buying a photo editing monster to do some serious eBaying. A medium one will do.

Next, we’re going to use Photoshop as an example of a program we need for editing photos.

The latest edition of Photoshop, version CS2, has hideously high system requirements that even my fairly high ended PCs are currently looking worriedly at. While I’m fairly sure that their system requirements are overdoing it slightly, I’m going to give you the requirements for a slightly older edition of Photoshop (version 7). Photoshop 7 is readily available and cheaply, too-it has all of the features you could ever care for during the course of basic photo manipulation, and will do everything the average user will need it to do. A lot of people would also recommend that you use a cut down version of Photoshopnlike Photoshop Elements-but I disagree, as I still think you will find that this is more expensive than a copy of Photoshop 7, and less efficient too. Read on.

Photoshop 7 Minimum System Requirements

CPU : Pentium 4, 750 ( or equivalent), PowerPC (750 MHz)
Operating System : Windows ( 98,2000,XP)-Mac ( System 9+,OSX)
RAM : 512 MB
Hard Drive : 200 Mb Available Hard Disk Space
Video : SVGA at 1024 x 768, 16 Bit Colour

I’ve seen Photoshop 7 running on Pentium 3 500. It works perfectly, if not just a little slowly. So, these requirements may not necessarily prevent you form using a program, however the farther you travel from the recommended setup, the more your user experience is likely to suffer.

Onething to carefully note is that the hard drive space requirements that are being listed for each system requirements are simply required for it to run. Without meeting that requirement, the program won’t work. If you actually want to do anything ambitious with your photo manipulation software, you are going to have to have more space than that.

To be fair, we’ll also include The Gimp for Windows, which is a wonderful Open Source photo editing program (Open Source programs are completely free and are the product of acommunity effort).

The Gimp Minimum Requirements

Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
Pentium II 300 Mhz / K6-2 300Mhz
128 MB Internal memory
120 MB free space on hard drive

Please keepin mind that The GIMP (or GNU Image Manipulation Program) does not strictly have any system requirements. However, this is a vague set of guidelines that I’ve set down for it so that you won’t have to wait for hours (‘til dinner, perhaps!) to see what your high-res picture looks like after running a filter or manipulation on it.

Internet Access For eBay

2007-11-26T08:08:00.000+07:00

ADSL, a form of broadband internet, is getting gradually cheaper than dial-up access. It’s worth it for the ease of use, permanent connection, and speedy upload and download rates (you will be doing a lot of the former). The is also the important distinction that you will be connecting to the internet often, and the primary advantage of broadband is the fact that you will not have to pay for a phone call every time you connect to the Internet, which will save you a lot of money in the long run- depending which plan you end up going for. I would recommend that you avoid the larger Internet service providers that are part of larger telecommunication companies. Some smaller operators offer reliable service and excellent customer care. For Australians, you can compare the companies and their competitive offers by going over to whirlpool.net- where you can compare services side by side. Personally, I have a completely, unlimited deal for $40 dollars a month with a smaller operator. This suits me, but you may find a cheaper deal if you do not need unlimited download and upload rates, given that you may be able to find a deal with a low “download cap” for about $15-20 a month. In my opinion, the ability to download unlimited information is worth the extra twenty dollars a month. Most of these deals will need you to buy an ADSL Modem or Router (depending on howmany computers you are linking to the Internet). This piece of hardware will cost you anywhere from about $70 upward. There are usually initial connection fees for around $50.

Your computer will at least require one Ethernet or USB port to connect to broadband.

Tools for eBay: Computer

2007-11-26T08:07:00.000+07:00

Some people will tell you that you need a very expensive computer to really get started withyour eBaying. It’s not true. You can use quite a modest computer and get great results on eBay. Your computer will only need to do the following tasks:

We need to surf the Internet, so we need Internet Explorer or Firefox.
We need to edit our pictures, so we need Photoshop or some such similar product.
We need it to run Turbo Lister. ( Turbo Lister is covered in its own chapter: is it is an eBay listing automator, which takes the work out of putting up numerous eBay entries)

Choose Your Auction Type

2007-11-23T13:19:00.001+07:00

Real estate sellers have always known that location counts for a great deal. Locating your sale in the right part of the eBay auction world can make the difference between makind your sale a hot item or a dud. Wherther you’re a full time or a sometime trader, one of the first steps to mastering eBay is simply understanding the different kinds of auctions that are available to you. The following sections give you an overview of the various auction categories on eBay.

Regular Online Auction

The classing type of eBay auction, the one you see most of the time, enables sellers to sell to the highest bidder after a fixed length of time. Auctuons can list 3, 5, 7 or 10 days (real estate auctions can run for 30 days). eBay simply calls this a “regular” auction. (Please keep in mind, though-Ten-day auctions will cost you an extra ten-cent listing fee). This fee does not apply to three-, five-, or seven-day auctions.)

Reserve Price Auction

A reserve price auction is the same as a regular auction in that it lasts for a fixed amount of time, and the sale goes to the high bidder-but the difference is that the highbidder only win if his or her bid meets or exceeds an amount the seller has designated as a reserve prive. A reserve price protects a seller against selling something for less than what it’s worth. If a seller simply won’t part with something for less than $50 because that’s what it cost in the first place, the seller puts a reserve of $50 on the item. Bidders only know that there is a reserve price; the auction listing makes it clear whether or not the reserve price has been meet or not. The actual reserve prise is kept secret. See “When to Use Reserve Auctions” later in this chapter for more information. Another impirtant note:while Australians oncehad the option or a reserve price in most instances-this is no longer the case, and the reserve prise is only available on automobule auctions.

Online Auction With’Buy It Now’ Price

You can also sell an item for a fixed price called a ‘Buy It Now’ price. However, if you choose the Online Auction format, the Buy It Now price is disappears when the reserve price is met. For instance, if you have an item you paid $10 for and you think (and hope) it’s worth $20, you can put a reserve price on it of $10, and an initial bid of $1. Additionally, you can put a Buy It Now price on the item of $20 in the hope that someone will purchase it immediately at the price you consider ideal.

The beauty of the Buy It Now price option is that it allows you to use eBay as your personal store, without the rigmarole of hoping that people will pay you what you’re expecting for your items. Of course, this can also backfire with no-one actually buying the item, but that’s the risk that you take (this is the closest you can come close to the old “reserve price” scheme of yesteryear).

Dutch Aution

A Dutch aution is one in which the seller puts two or more identical items up for sale. The seller then specifies the minimum successful price for each of those items, as well as the number of items available. Potential buyers can buy at or above the minimum for the number of items in which they are interested. At the close of the auction, the highest bidders purchase the items at the lowest successful price (that is, the lowest bid that is still above the minimum price). An example should make this easier to grasp. Suppose you uncover a box full of ten Chuckles the Cat Bean Bag for sale at the same time in a single Dutch auction. You specify a minimum bid of $20 for each cat. Eighteen separate bidders place bids: One bids $30, two bids $25, three bids $24, two bids $22, two bids $21, and the rest bid $20. The ten highest bidders win: these are the individuals who bid $30, $25, $22, and $21 respectively. However-this is the confusing part-in Dutch auction, they all purchase at the lowest successful price, which is $21. Those who bid $20 lose out because there are no more than ten cats available.

Next we’ll examine the main tools you need to run your eBay auctions: a computer and a digital camera.

Write Clear Descriptions

2007-11-23T10:18:00.000+07:00

No matter how clear the images are, there’s no substiture for your own knowledge, much of which is provided by or augmented by research. Part of the fund of creating auction listings, in my opinion, is taking the time to find out something about what you want to sell-how old it is, how rare it is, and what makes it special. You can do your reasearch at one of the many web sites that describe antiques and collectibles, for instance. One of the best and easiest place to do research though is on eBay itself.

Just go to the Search page:

http://search.ebay.com/ws/search/AdvSearch?sofindtype=1

Once there, check the box next to Completed Items only, enter your search terms, and click the Search button. You can search through past auction descriptions in that they need to be complete and honest about any flaws or shortcomings in what you’re selliong. You don’t want to get in a dispute with a buyer about a chip or crack in something that the buyer doesn’t discover until the package is unwrapped. Be honest up front, and you’ll avoid such surprises while building trust among your customers. (Besides, if a buyer really want what you have to sell, chance are a few minor flaws won’t discourage them from bidding anyway).

Provide Clear Images

2007-11-23T09:35:00.000+07:00

Presentation is important. After all, you have to worry about getting the item to sell before you can worry about packing it. These are all important aspect-we’ll address them one at a time.

Displaying a digital picture of your product in the web broser window is the online equivalent of placing the merchandise on table, for inspection before bidding. This is, above all, the most important aspect of your auction. The image you provide will make or break your auction to each respective buyer. The clarity of the image you see depends on the clarity of your computer monitor and the quality of your computer’s video card. Because the image is broken down into tiny segments of digital information called pixels, and the visual details have been compressed into special graphics formats used on the web in order to get them online, you don’t get a perfect refresentation of the image when you see it online. If you can provide more than one image, so much the better. And you should do this. There’s really no excuse for not presenting multiple views of an item, since digital cameras make photography so easy and image hosting on eBay is so straightforward.

Making Clear Images

Making a good clear image for your eBay auction should not be difficult-especially with the advent of modern cameras. With a little time and patience, not to mention a well lit room and a digital camera, you can make your auction pieces sparkle and shine. You owe it to your self to show the items off in their best possible light.

Angle Is Important

The first thing to do is work out what angle your item looks best at-this is not necessarily to hide any scuffs and imperfections on your item, but to show it at it’s best for when the bidder first enters the page. With a dull photo, they may think of it as below spec and leave the item-whereas if you take a nice photo they might hang around to actually check out what the item is, what condition it is in (you should supply additional photos showing clear detail) and whether ofcourse they wish to buy it. One photo may not sell your item, but it may at least get the bidder interested in your other auctions.

Lighting Is Important

When taking any good photo, it is important to get good lighting on the item you are shooting, otherwise it will look bad no matter how preety your angle is. Depending on the item you are looking at lighting, this can range from easy to difficult-and as this photography and not videography, you don’thave to worry about permanent lighting. You may thing-why can’t I use a flash? And there is a simple answer to this-you can, but it won’t always yield the best result. In fact, the best results come from just a little bit of carefyl lighting, and your best friend for lighting small to medium items is the humble dest lamp.

Providing your desk lamp has a normal incandescent bulb in it, the colour you should get from using it as your main illumination will be fantastic. Now, for your feature shot you should use the lamp to illuminate the item so that it looks impressive, and has just a little shadow for dramatic effect. This is the shot we’ll use to grab the attention of the bidder, so it has to look suitable impressive. Take this piggy bank for example-it looks strange but you can’t deny the picture has certain something that will make you linger on it for just a little longer.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your lighting-I find the best sort of lighting comes from the top right, covering the item with a clear light, but not actually completely filling the subject. If you are not completely sure you are happy with the lighting of the item, don’t hasitate to ask around for opinions on the job you have done. After all, you can only better your self by asking questions and listening.

As you shoot your pictures, you will probably find formula that works bestfor you. Not every item has to look fantastic, but it can’t hurt. And if you can find that sweet spot between time and effort, you will find that it will take no time at all to get quick effective result for your photos. One last thing before we get on, if there is what you consider to be a major fault with your item, advertise it not only in the description but by a separate photo of the damaged area also. The main reason for this if the problem with the item is well advertised, you will not get any negative feedback (although I’m sure some of the narkier bidders won’t hasitate to give you bad feedback-you can either settle this with eBay’s auction settlement scheme or just take it in your stride. After all, one piece of bad feed back isn’t the end of the world when compared to a long list of positive comments.

Build Customer Trust

2007-11-23T08:14:00.000+07:00

In any kind of e-commerce, the seller needs to build trust and confidence in buyers who never meet them in person. The one-on-one contact that theinternet provides can do a lot toward building such confidence: quick e-mail respondses, speedy shipping, and honest descriptions all encourage buyers to check out your sales in the future and keep bidding.

When it comes to encouraging bids initially, the single best way you can develop trust is to develop a good feedback rating. That can only be done over time, by making a commitment to follow through quicky and honestly on all of your transactions, whether you are purchasing or selling. Any buyer can check your feedback rating by clicking on the feedback nmber that eBay list next to your name. Your eBay ID card appears. Your goal is to have feedback like boomer1967, who has an avalanche of positive comments. Other buyer can read this feedback, which of course will result in them forming a positive impression of you as a business like operator.

When it comes to gaining good feedback through selling, the three most important things you can do are the following:

Pack your merchandise carefully
Ship it out quickly
Answer all correspondance quickly and professionally

Auctioneering eBay style

2007-11-23T07:11:00.000+07:00

Creating auctions on eBay requires a particular approach, which will be familiar to people who work in the internet industru or have experiencecreating e-commerce services. The rest of us will require some introduction to the process, which will have you creating your own auctions on eBay in no time.

Sourcing Stock

2007-11-22T16:54:00.001+07:00

When you begin finding items for same, I first recommedscouring your house with a fine toothed comb, looking for anything that you feel you don’t want any longer, but could be some value. Unwanted presents are wonderful in this instance, things like overstock of crockery; doubles of DVDs/CDs/Books that you have been given that you already had-there is muchfund to be had clearing out a lot of stuff that really just clutters up the house. Dig deep into those cupboards, looking for that star item that could really make you up a little more money.

Now, you will habe to put in some effort to obtain items worthy of selling. You will have to carefully organize where you will obtain these items, and generally go to a lot of sales and auctions before you start turning a decent profit and getting into the swing of things.

There are many different ways to get items for auction and one of the best is what we call the wholesaling option. This is the most common method for making money on eBay, but also the most monotonous-and more often than not the one with the lowest profit margin. However, it is a much safer bet than some of the more unreliable ways of making money-for instance, if you were to go the auction house way of selling, you may find that one weeek they don’t have much that you feel would sell, and hence you won’t be able to buy anything to sell that week. With wholesalers however, you can feel safe and assured that your product supply will remain fairly constant. Wholesaling can also be an expensive option for those with very litle capital to play with, but not all is lost. There is nother method of wholesaling, known as dropshippling-which does not require much in the way of start-up fees, and basically involves filling a more traditional role in selling goods. We’ll explore this later in more detail.

Some people like to buy knick-knacks on eBay. Some people like to buy a lot of knick-knacks on eBay. And somepeople function like astronomical black holes of knick knackery, acquiring so many metric tons of ceramic gnomes and “glass art” that their homes develop their own fields of gravity and exert a small but measurable pull on the moon.

There are many different ways of obtaining money through eBay-about half of them involve what I like to call hunting. Hunting can be fun, and I highly recommend it as a test of your intestinal fortitude-as you can extend this to such extremes that you may want to invest in a truck for hauling furniture. But one of the easier alternatives for starting off your eBay hunting frenzy is going out to garage sales.

Garage sales are great way of whiling away your weekend. The beauty of garage sales is that they are consistently held every weekend. I guarantee you that if you open up your local paper on Saturday morning, you will find advertisements for at least one, usually three or more in your local area. These sorts of sales vary wildly in quality, but it’s best if you get there as early as humanly possible to scour for the best quality offerings your money can buy. Getting there soon after the sale opens is a good way of getting access to any bargains, but don’t arrive earlier than the advertised starting time. It also helps if you make general chitchat with the people holding the sale, as this can help your status when the inevitable haggling starts. You will be tempted to buy utter trash-resist the temptation and be careful to note what condition the items are in. For instance, if you believe you have found a collectable board game, ensure all the pieces are intact and the set is complete.

On the upside, Garage Sales are not your only alternative. Another alternative is the magicof the opportunity shop.

You may think that it is immoral to be buying things at an opportunity shop for sale. Hell, you may not even know exactly what I mean by an “opportunity” shop, as this term seems to be fading away. An opportunity shop is an establishment that relies on donations for its stock, and it’s profit are usually and allegedly given to charity. In my humble opinion, this is not as pure as it sounds-as the prices in these shops (which were once low, and aimed at the lower class as means of obtaining cheap clothing, furniture, etc) have begun rising at an alarming rate, to the point that where is more aimed at themiddle class than the original market they once were aimed at. This doesn’t mean that they are not worth perusing, as their prices are indeed still low-it just means that you will find some of these shops are extremely pricey, while others are affordable.

The most affordable in even the priciest of these establishments is their range of furniture. While their prices are still high by comparison to what they used to be-they are still cheap for the price of your average piece of furniture. You can pick up some of wear and tear-but don’t just pick up any old junk. Aim for really fancy looking antique stuff, and then haggle with thepeople at the dest to get a better price on the more exciting looking items. Anything with intricate designs, good lathe work (described by my late grandfather as ‘in and out bits’ lathe work refers to anything with even dips and curves by a lathing tool) and well conditioned upholstery if applicable. But what I’m saying here is antique furniture is really all you will be able to sell on eBay out of the range these stores offer, unless you are lucky enough to find for example some new-ish lounge suites that have been donated from a deceased estate or something similar (more on deceased estates later).

Now, what I have stated is a slight exaggeration. There are some special items of clothing that you may be able to snaffle up, or perhaps some old vinyl records that have somehow gotten lost among large boxes of vinyl donated to the store (you’d really have to be a music expert). Other things that you should keep an eye out for in these establishments are collectabke toys, especially items like vintage Disney items or golliwogs. Actually, I really must stress that real golliwog memorabilia, old blaxploitation and similar Amiricana material goes for mint on eBay, provided it is actually genuine. Among the rubble you may also find old videos that might earn you some cash. For instance, I found a rare ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales’ video starring Rik Mayall, which I bought for $2.50 at the op shop, andsold on eBay for $25.50-that’s over ten times the initial investment. Of course, finding those nuggests of quality requires you to be constantly alert, noticing items that hold a special intrinsic value. Finally, op shops sometimes have a glass cabinet where they keep the ‘special’ items. This is usually jewelerly, but sometimes they can have some really interesting goods in there-keep an eye out in these cabinets for a great price.

Keep an eye out for places in your local area that are going out of business. Especially discount stores and the like, as they are no doubt desperate to shift stock, so you will be able to well and truly reap the benefits with the bulk discounts you will receive from them. For instance, if you found a local Manchester store that is going out of business, you could search through their stock for a range of truly spectacular items, and ask if you could get a group discount on the items. They will usually agree to fairly hefty discount to offload the stock, and you can then resell it on eBay and end up getting a near, but not quite an exact, recommeded retail price for it from your buyers. In the end, you will probably receive about 150 percent of your investment back-so it is best to get quite a hefty order of good stuff so that you can negotiate a better initial price, making these sorts if arrangements worth your while.

Finally, one of my favorite ways to make money is hard junk. Often people will leave their bulkier ‘rubbish’ out on the sidewalk, which can be anything from junky pieces of broken furniture to something fairly valuable that the property owner is replacing. Half the time ‘junked’ electronic items like fridges, heaters, computers, and even TVs can be found in various types of condition-but often they work! All they may need is a little spit and polish, and while not as good as many new-still quite nice and often ready for sale. Now, I’m not saying you should collect every piece of junk you encounter on the sidewalk on the off chance that it still works-but if it looks to be in reasonably good condition, there’s a good chance it can be revived.

A lot of people seem to think when there is even slightest thing wrong with any chosen piece of expensive technology that the best policy is to buy a new one. Often, particularly in the circumstance of hi-fi gear or computer hardware, all it needs is a little bit of work. If you wish to take this avenue of selling, this can be exploited to great effect. A Playstation 2 games console that I once pick upoff of the side of the street is a good example. The casing just needed to be opened up and cleared of dust. It then sold for $170. That’s $170 gained with no cash outlay whatsoever.

Now we’ve gone through the basic option of making money on eBay, let’s get into the finer details in the Chapter Two.

How Should I Get Started?

2007-11-22T16:53:00.000+07:00

When I first started using eBay, It took me sometime to get around to actually selling anything. When I did, I found something of moderate collectable value (a Red Dwarf comedy TV series interview CD, which came along forgotten video compilation – not rare, but not easy to come by either) and threw it on eBay without any dash or ceremony. Five minutes later, I had three people watching my auction. By the end of it, my item that had starting price of only five dollars was raised into a $35 winner. It’s just that simple-after you get through a few small auctions and start gettingthe hang of it, you might turn your sights to selling merchandise that might yield you better return.

High-Roller Autions

2007-11-19T08:04:00.000+07:00

The five most expensive items ever soldon eBay are:
1. Grumman Gulfstream Jet ($4.9 million)
2. 1909 Honus Wagner Baseball Card ($1.65 million)
3. Diamond Lake Resort-Western Kentucky ($1.2 million)
4. Shoesless Joe Jackson's "Black Betsy" Baseball Card.
5. Round of Golf with Tiger Woods ($425,000)

So, when you look at the figures, two are collector's items, and one could feasibly be considered a collector's item (the jet, not the round of golf). This bring us to the undeniable fact that collector's items sell best on eBay. Now it's also down to discretion as to what should be sold on eBay, and what as to what shouldn't. For instance, if you had something of extreme collector value, like for instance a first appearance issue of an old andpopular comic book charatacter, you may get better results (for example: Action Comics #1, featuring the first appearance of supperman-at an extremly conservative estimate worth at least $200,000 American dollars-will probably go far a lot more if announced to rabid gaggle of collectors). If you had an item of similar rarity, your best bet would be to research the collector's value of the item, then research where to best advertise your sale.

Remember, the more people who get to using eBay, the larger the market becomes. There are other auction sites of similar designs-but they have smaller user bases, and are less likely to show off your items to the maximum amount of viewers.

Why Should We Sell On eBay?

2007-11-19T07:51:00.000+07:00

The Answer is simple-millions of people visit eBay everyday. It is cheap to put your items onto eBay and get instant exposure to hundreds of people who can see your individual items-and potentially buy them. Collectable items especially benefit from the eBay system of commerce, as you will find that most people head to eBay to look for missing Collectable in their collection. Unlike your average auction house, almsot anything you can think of is sold, and sold well-on eBay. From novelty condoms to bizarre converted cars, eBay has it all.

It is extremely cheap to sell your items on eBay, with a minimum of just $1.10, up to a maximum of $3.30 with all the trimming to list an item. How much you spend on listing your item depends on how far you feel you need to cover your item as far as advertising goes-how much you think the item will be worth in the end, and how much you are willing to spend anyway. And just because you don't spend alot of moneyon advertising one particular item doesn't mean it won't get sold-but there is a chance that you could have sold it for a better price with more people seeing the auction in the first place.

The interface of eBay is very simple and easy to use, and with the added integration of PayPal, selling and buying on eBay is a snap. In Short, eBay offers you ease of use, low cost, and a large consumer market just past your keyboard.

Welcome To eBay!

2007-11-19T07:30:00.000+07:00

Chapter One: Welcome To eBay!

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of eBay.
This blog explores the amazing world of the online marketplace and how you can make money from it! eBay is of course the most popular online auction website on the internet. Thousands of items are posted, auctioned and sold on eBay everyday by ordinary people. The auction winners then make a personal transaction with the vendor of the auction and are posted or shipped the goods.

It's really quite amazing what you find on eBay, and this characteristic is something that you can use to your advantage.

This blog is created for and aimed at anyone who wants to transition from being an average occasional eBay trader to someone who wants to make enough moneyto possibly earn a decent living from it. A lot of this depend on how you obtain your items to sell, what you havetosell andhow you choose to sell it-you may not make a million dollars overnight. However, it is entirely possible to make a small fortune on eBay with the right know-how.

Thankfully, eBay has a well-designed and intuitive interface-many of you will already fully understand how to use it. For any readers who may not, here is a quick refresher course.

Looking at the eBay username, you'll see the number next to it represents of how many transaction they have made, and the yellow star that show us the feedback from their buyers or sellers. At this point I should point you that many buyers will not deal with you untill you have a feedback score at least10. The next item is positive feedback-and the 100% rating tells you that nobody has ever had any complaints with them. The rest of the information there is more than self explaination.

Good Luck ^_^