Auction Power Guide

Yes, digital images or photos of your items being posted for sale are not only essential but mandatory, in my opinion.

Have you ever bought anything without seeing the item even though you may have some idea what the item looks like?

You would like to see the condition of the item even though the digital images or photos may not give you a 100% feel of the product that you intend to buy.

It is also important that you are sincere with your photos or digital images and not use photo editing software to beautify your product; e.g. enhance the color or remove scratches on your product. Otherwise, your Buyer would not be happy at all if the color was not what was shown in the photos and there are scratches on the item received, too.

You cannot afford to have negative feedback as you will lose your creditability as you would lose future sales.

In fact, you ought to take photos of your item from different angles; e.g. front view, back vies, side view, inside too if possible. The more you show the item to the Buyer the more comfortable he or she would feel.

This would also lead to zero complaints on the item sold or almost no conflicts in the transaction.

Here ere a few tips on how to take good photos or digital images of your items products:

1. Use natural light instead of flash – try to use light coming in from the windows and minimize any shadows. But do not go out and take your photos directly under the sun.

2. Choose a non-conflicting background – find a white or dark color cloth or cardboard as the base or background so that your item or product stands out; e.g. you would not want to place your item on top of a flowery or multi-color table cloth.

3. Take many photos – since you are using a digital camera, take as many photos as you can and then select the best few for the auction.  Remember to take the photos from different angles to show off how good is your item or product.

4. Remember to re-size your photos or digital images as they do not need to be  too large for the Web else it will affect the downloading time.

Finally, you need not buy an expensive digital camera. An entry level digital camera with 3 mega-pixels is good enough. I am currently using my teenage son’s digital camera which he uses for his school project, a Canon camera.

After a few tries, you will soon be an expert on taking good photos and uploading them for your eBay auction.

Ruby

Hello my name is Erick and my dad and I want to open up an eBay business selling old car parts. We have a bunch of old car parts and I wanted to know if it is worth opening a eBay business. Also, what are the pros and cons of opening it and if there is any tips on opening a business. Thank you.

Hi Erick

Opening an eBay business can be very rewarding and profitable. I would start small by listing a few parts and gaging your response from buyers as to the demand for your products.

You have 2 ways of listing your products,
1) to do the conventional auction listing.
2) Buy it now listing.

Both have their benefits and draw backs as you can imagine. I would be tempted in your case to go for the buy it now system as you are able to obtain a higher selling price I would imagine. Unless the parts you propose to sell are very rare and widely sort after.

Shipping is a very important point to think about. I would call your local UPS depot and talk to them to see what they can offer on shipping rates. Most shipping companies are always willing to talk about their prices and give brake’s to businesses who ship large volumes. Some of your smaller parts I would imagine could be shipped using USPS, Priority Mail. THey offer all the boxes free and you can pack quite a lot of weight into the boxes, up to 70lbs for a very reasonable rate.

Most eBay sellers miss a very simple listing point when selling items, that is to give good contact information. Buyers feel better and are willing to pay more if they feel they can contact the seller easy. I would not only allow them to contact me through eBay but I would also use a Skype telephone number. You can place a recorded message on it and get back to them later if necessary. This seems to give you more credibility and so more sales.

Photographs are another must have. The more pictures the better. Buyers want to see the item from many different angles. Don’t forget the buyer cant touch the item so they rely on the pictures to give them a better idea as to the condition of the item. I would not use eBay’s picture hosting as it is too expensive. Find a business’s that does picture hosting or a business the does both picture hosting and eBay templates. It will save you a lot of money over the course of a year.

eBay Templates! These are a must have. They make your listing look professional and neat. It is a proven fact that templates do increase the selling price of items. You can find many online businesses offering templates for you to use. Remember look for one that hosts your images as well as having templates. Expect to pay around $8.00 per month for their service. Some but not all of these businesses have a huge information system to help you sell on line so they are worth the investment. Also a lot offer the first 30 days free.

Payment is another option you need to consider very closely. Are you going to accept only PayPal? or will you allow customers to send you checks or money orders. The more payment options you have open the wider your market place is. A lot of older people do not like to use systems like PayPal and would rather send a check or money order. Obtaining your own payment gateway can be expensive when you first start. I f your business flourishes, then I would possibly consider one in about 12 months time.

Customers inquiries. These can be a pain, people do not tend to read the item description for some reason and will often send you a message asking about a feature you have explained in the listing. MAKE sure you always answer these questions quickly, as this shows you are a serious eBay seller and that your customers matter to you. I know it sounds stupid stating the obvious but you would be surprised at how many online sellers do not do it.

I was looking into selling my own printed clothing online, I know that ebay is a good idea (opening a shop for my own designs)- how sucessful will this endevour be or should I just stick with shop sales and cut out the hastle?
In other words do many people shop online really?

Oh yes, more and more people are buying online.

Here’s the Bureau of Census statistics on ecommerce http://www.census.gov/econ/estats/2009/2009reportfinal.pdf — in 2009, ecommerce accounted for $145 billion in sales

One way is to use eBay as a test market whether your products will sell. Also do etsy.com if your item qualifies. This way you can see:

– whether there’s a demand for your products
– what kind of sales copy or product description you need to write (note the kind of questions ebay users ask you)
– use ebay to practice taking good pictures of your products, in multiple angles

Once you see there seems to be a demand you can then open your own website. But it should not be an either/or situation — even if you have a website, explore as many opportunities to sell your products. Sell it on ebay, Amazon, etsy, shop sales, etc — the more venues you sell, the better

When you are selling your merchandise on eBay, it is very important to have the perfect picture auction gallery. Today, there are several auction management software packages available that will help design and develop the perfect gallery for your eBay store. Having the perfect gallery as part of your eBay listings or store can mean the difference of having successful and unsuccessful sales.

A picture says a thousand words and so do your pictures on eBay. When you own an eBay store or an eBay site and you are trying to sell a product or some merchandise, your picture gallery is actually what helps to sell your stuff. People will look at and buy things that look nice.

They want to see pictures of the things that they are buying and if the picture is of poor quality, you may end up losing the sale. So, an auction gallery itself is very important in the success of the sale. You only have one chance to create that first impression, so you will want to make sure that your auction management software has an auction gallery that can be changed, altered, and updated frequently.

You will want to make sure that your auction gallery will be filled with crisp, clear, eye-catching pictures to keep that potential buyers interest. It is the picture that really upscales your product or your merchandise on eBay.

When creating your auction gallery for your eBay site or store you will want to take several pictures of your product or your merchandise. Take a couple pictures of the item for sale from different angles.

To begin, you will want to take the pictures of your merchandise against a solid color backdrop. This will eliminate backdrop distractions. The best background to use in your pictures is a black or a while backdrop. It is essential to have a few good front shots, a few side shots and a few back shots.

This will give the buyer a complete picture of the item they are trying to purchase on eBay. Place several pictures on the eBay site with a short description of what the picture is showing. It is very important that your auction gallery paints a true picture of the product that you are trying to sell on eBay.

If the merchandise that you are selling on eBay is of multiple items, there are some tips that you should consider when creating the online auction gallery.

First, you will want to take a couple of good pictures of the merchandise as a whole. This will give the buyer an idea of what you are offering as a whole and it will give them an idea of what to expect when their merchandise arrives. Next, you will want to take several pictures from the front, side, and back of each of the separate pieces.

By doing this, you will give the buyer a better look at each individual part or piece of the merchandise they are buying. This will also allow them to ask you questions about the individual pieces and parts or questions about the merchandise as a whole. By taking several pictures as a whole and as separate entities of the merchandise you are selling you are creating the perfect auction gallery for your eBay listings or eBay store items.

If you are selling something on eBay that is too big to fit into one picture, then it is advised that you take several pictures of the large object and create an auction gallery. Take the pictures from different angles and offer a complete and clear description of what they are looking at. With larger items, you will want to take several pictures from several different angles. This will give the buyer a true picture of the item they are bidding on or buying.

Some people do not offer merchandise on eBay, but they offer a service. You can still have a perfect auction gallery even if you are not selling something physical. If you are offering a particular service on eBay, you may want to place your picture on the eBay space or in the eBay store. You can also use clip art and other pictures that promote your service. Remember, first impressions are very important, so you only have one chance to do it.

In conclusion, there are several auction management software programs available to help you create the perfect auction gallery. First impressions are always the most important, even when they are on eBay. Having clear, crisp, eye-catching pictures may mean the difference between a good sale and a bad sale.

John Jackson
http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/selling-on-ebay-today-requires-the-perfect-gallery-133057.html

With nearly 1 million people earning all or part of their annual income from eBay it is now a fact that eBay has become a juggernaut marketplace capable of creating fortunes.  If you sell on eBay and are interested in making the most of your auction posting than read on to learn 10 tips the powersellers use to rack up giant sales numbers and to keep that pipeline open.

1.   Sell non-mainstream/unique items at a discount – With eBay being open to anyone with a computer and ambition, you’ll find that most of the larger markets have been cornered.  So unless you can give your prospect a better reason to buy from you or a much better price point, stick to selling those items that are harder to find.  Industry or hobby specific items come to mind such as industrial oscilloscopes or rock climbing gear.  So narrow your market and you’ll see a rise in sales activity.

2.  A good customer is worth his weight in gold – Nothing will hurt your sales more than too much negative feedback.  Not only does it destroy your chances with new buyers but unhappy customers don’t buy from you a second time.  Repeat buyers are the bread and butter of successful sellers.  Just ask any powerseller and they will tell you that most of their sales are made to customers who have purchased from them before.   So Ship Items Quickly, Notify After Shipping, Waterproof and Pad Shipped Items and don’t forget to say thank you to your customers for their business.

3.  Use images wisely – The vast majority of buyers search for items with images, so if you’re not using pictures to sell your items… start.  However, a poor quality picture can be as bad as no picture at all.  Invest in a camera that’s 7.0 Megapixel or better and isolate the item to be sold for starters.  Good lighting will help make your item stand out and take more than one shot of the item from different angles.  If your selling products that have specific specifications such as PC power supplies ensure that you get a shot of the label showing all the specs.  Do the same for similar items, it gives the buyer proof that the item is exactly what they are looking for.

4.  Make your auction titles descriptive – People look for items by brand name, model number, item specification, color, size etc…   Ensure that you include these in your auctions title.  Use the common sense approach, put yourself in your customers shoes and do a search for the item yourself and see what you can find.

5.  Make your descriptions focused and concise – Keep it as simple as possible unless you know how to achieve high returns by writing direct marketing letters.  Your description should expand on your title.  Reiterate the brand, specifications, model number, color, size and anything else that might be of importance to your customer.  Contrary to direct sales a person searching on eBay does not need to be convinced that they want to buy your product, so your job is simply to get as many interested prospects to your auction post as possible and let the buyers find you.  Everything else will take care of itself.

6.  Learn how to find great deals to resell – You’ll discover that many of the larger sellers have contracts with manufacturers, for those just starting out however, many items can be found on the internet and resold for a profit on eBay if you know where to look.  A simple search on Google can turn up many products below retail price.  If you have an idea in mind for a product you’ll want to write this down.  Open Google up in a new window or tab and type this in without the quotes “closeouts product/item name”.  You would obviously replace “product/item name” with the product or item your looking to buy.  You can also use words like liquidation, wholesale and discount in place of closeouts.  With this method you should be able to find plenty of low cost products to resell on eBay.

7.  Create an eBay store for more profit – If you sell multiple items in the same industry don’t hesitate to create an eBay store.  This will net you many more sales for the same amount of effort.  All of your auctions will carry a link to your store where you will showcase your other auctions.  Chances are if someone is buying an industry of hobby specific item from you they will also need other items from that same market.  Take some time to brainstorm all the items someone in your market might be looking for and add them to your inventory.

8.  Make use of the Buy-It-Now option – Most of the time you will do much better to include the buy-it-now option.  This is because most buyers would prefer to get the product than out bid the other prospects.  Most of the time you will not see any worth while increase in profit by letting the buyers’ bid-it-out, in fact you’ll more likely than not make less for your product than if you had set a buy-it-now price.

9.  More payment options are better than less payment options – It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway.  eBay users use many different methods to pay for goods,  the more you accept the more sales you will make period.  Just make sure that you have the infrastructure to support every payment type you accept.

10.   Research, Research, Research – Find your customers hot buttons, better yet find their buy now buttons.  This will save you more time, money and heartache than any other tip on this list.  Through research you’ll learn what your customer is searching for, what price to set, how to word your titles and descriptions and even how to expand your inventory for greater profit.  So set aside some time to visit eBay and search for your products keeping an eye out for what the competition is doing that might be making them sales.

For more eBay success tips and to learn how to sell on eBay visit http://www.ebaysellingsystem.com and claim your Free eBay Success Kit Now!

A.J. Clark

The phrase “selling item on eBay” can be understood from two different angles. Since I don’t know from which angle you are viewing it, I will talk about both.

One can understand selling item on eBay as, “I want to sell an item on eBay.” On the other hand, one can also understand selling item on eBay as, “What are the items that are selling on eBay?”

First, let me talk about selling item on eBay from the perspective of you wanting to sell items on eBay.

To sell items on eBay, you need to be a registered member of eBay and you need to register as a seller.

The seller registration process involves you verifying your identity, selecting the way you will be paying your seller fees, and you need to offer either PayPal or a merchant account credit card as payment options for your buyers.

The process of becoming a seller is free of charge.

It is also important to read and understand the rules for sellers. eBay has comprehensive help available that tells you all the rules, give you seller tips, and gives you a seller checklist.

Now, let’s talk about selling item on eBay from the angle of what items are selling on eBay.

One would think that almost any item sells on eBay. That would be true, but some items do sell better than others.

To make money selling items on eBay, you need to focus on those that are the better sellers.

One way to find out what items are selling on eBay is to simply study the main page of eBay. They highlight many items and item categories. You can be pretty sure those are items that sell very well on eBay.

eBay Pulse is also a great way to find the most popular items. eBay Pulse shows you the ten keywords that people search for most often overall and per item category.

If lots of people search for an item, you can be sure that the item is selling well.

I hope I’ve helped you in a small way to better understand selling item on eBay, regardless from which angle you were thinking about it before reading this.

Jason Griffith
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/selling-item-on-ebay-an-introduction-122949.html