Thursday, September 21, 2006

SELLING YOUR FIRST THING ON EBAY

Ok, you've worked your way into some positive feedback, bought a few useless items and ebooks and you're ready to go. Those transactions are not only to get yourself some positive feedback, but also getting yourself acquainted with the Ebay universe. Nothing helps you more in learning than actually doing. You'll get to see what type of people you might deal with. One thing you cannot forget is to keep your customers informed.

Before you get customers, you have to sell something. Let's do that, now log in and go to the "SELL" section of Ebay and start by choosing what type of sale you want to do. I never bother with anything else but live auction. No reserve, no buy it now, just a live raw auction with a low starting price, $0.99. It will get the ball rolling since you low ball everybody, except for the ones selling their stuff at a penny, but those guys usually charge $30 or more for shipping (That's the BIG secret of penny auctions by the way, just saved you some bucks on an ebook!).

Choose the category in which you will sell your thingamagy, because you DID read this blog and you DID do your research...right? Ok, now list it at the price you want and write a decent description. Always let people know what is defective with your doodad if there is anything wrong with it. Take a good picture, people want to see. Even if what you are selling is very rare and in high demand, you will never get top price if your picture is crap. Invest in a decent digital camera that can do macro shots, it will pay for itself.

Putting a picture in a the Gallery for the extra $0.35 is worth it most of the time. When doing a search people will notice your beautiful picture and will just want to go see your listing and they will ignore the other guy who just wrote some long small text, 'cause people don't like to read and they want it fast and now.

Put as much stuff as you can in the title, write in CAPS, it's free. List your stuff and good luck.

More later.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Finding stuff to sell on Ebay and pricing it.

Ok, so you've been through your stuff in the attic, basement or garage. You've found a whole bunch of things you don't use anymore and you might have some stuff that you think is actually worth some big bucks.

Remember the first rule from the first post, RESEARCH. Look up all that stuff in Ebay under completed auctions to find out what it's selling for. Another thing to watch for is to make sure you're not selling the same rare knicknac that 20 other people are selling at the same time. Unless this is an item that is in very high demand(Remember giggling Elmo?), wait a while until the market is not as saturated. You can be sure that if an xyz widget sells for big bucks one week, the next you'll find 20 others for sale at horrendous prices.

Pricing, let's talk about that shall we. Whatever you paid for your stuff, you must consider a few factors in before pricing. Im my book, and that's the way I usually work, I caculate that if I have owned something for more than a year and have enjoyed it for said period of time, it's paid for. Same thing for stuff lying around unused for more then two years. Price of purchase for these items most be considered as zero. That's why %99 of my auctions start at $0.99, it's a number I love to see as a buyer and I'm sure my customers love that as well. If you try to cover the purchasing price of your item, many people will shy away. This way, if more than one person wants your gizmo, the starting price will encourage more buyers to bid and bidding wars is what we are aiming for fellow future sellers.

Shipping, that cost is never calculated in the selling price. Shipping is always paid for by the buyer. Always inform buyers about your shipping rates in the description. This will give the buyer immediate information and will save you a bunch of annoying and uneccesary emails. Calculate your shipping cost ahead of time before posting your item up for auction. You don't want to lose any money on shipping. Offer to ship anywhere in the world, why limit your customer base to one country when you can have the entire planet to sell to. It's not more complicated, just take the time to find out how much it costs. I never bid on auctions that say "If from outside XYZ, email for shipping information" I don't, I WANT TO KNOW NOW and HOW MUCH, RIGHT NOW. I won't bother sending an email. I'll buy from someone else or I'll wait for another gizmo just like it to come up for auction soon enough.

Very rarely do people buy stuff from Ebay because they want it right now. They go to local stores 5 streets away from their house for that. Stuff you sell is already a pain to buy because of things like having to wait for the postman to deliver it, do not add to this by making your auction problematic in any way or demonstrate that the process might be even longer(with stuff like "we mail only once a week"). In this fast paced 21st Century, waiting is not a big seller.

Have you gotten your Paypal account yet? No! What are you waiting for. People hate to wait remember? Checks and money orders take time to get to you, delaying delivery even more. Make your stuff easy to buy with a Paypal account, easy to buy = easy to sell. It's that simple.

Man! Lots of stuff and we haven't sold a thing yet. Work on getting that feedback rating up in the meantime and research some more.

Next post, how to make your first auction.