Auction Power Guide

Just some poverty dreams … or statistics rather. I’d like an estimation. Now it’s priced around 40 000 euros / $ 50 000 at least, new.

Just to give you a relatively rough idea, I have a 2001 E430 w/80K that I am getting ready to sell (so it is nearing nine years old) and I am going to ask about 11K for it, and it was between 56 and 57K new. M-B is hard to fix a cost on, the book values are always way low compared to what you can find them for. Book on mine is about 9K but on ebay and the private party sales on autotrader are running between 11K and 14K. The CLS will probably see even greater premiums since there are fewer of them running around.

You may be trying to decide how to go ahead with your dreams of an online product sales business. Many times a new product seller is torn between creating an eBay store and setting up a web store on your own domain. Because many sellers get their feet wet by offering a few products on eBay, it’s easy to move smoothly into an eBay store, but is it the right choice for your business?

Positioning is Everything
The first thing to remember is that there isn’t anything magical about setting up an eBay store. Some have the idea that an eBay store gets better exposure online than other options. This just isn’t true. An eBay store only gets as much attention as you stir up for it.

eBay users, the people who do find your store, tend to be looking to pay as little as possible for whatever they want. If you’re looking to make a good profit on your products, a traditional web store is usually a better choice. People who find your web store are more likely to be looking for a good product, not just a bargain.

Financially Speaking.
There are costs involved in creating a presence on the web. When you use a Basic eBay Store, you pay the monthly $15.95* plus any insertion and final value fees. With a Watersweb Shop Kit Plus, you get started with one time license fee and a flat rate of $10 per month. You own your shopping cart and never pay any additional insertion or final value fees on your sales.

Let’s Compare Costs For A New Shop Owner.
If you sell 10 products a month for a full year, each valued at about $25 through an eBay store. You would have sold over $3,000 and paid $417 in costs. With Shop Kit Plus, you’re costs would only be $205.00.

Another Comparison.
The difference in fees gets more noticeable as you grow more successful. If you sell 100 products a month for a full year, each valued at about $25 through an eBay store. You would have sold over $30,000 and paid $2,599 in costs. With Shop Kit Plus, you would still only have paid $205.00 in costs. The only time your costs would increase is if you needed additional storage space, server resources or bandwidth. And then your additional costs are still fixed—instead of growing with each additional sale.

It’s Smart Business
It is better to start now with the big picture in mind. Starting a website now means that all of your time spent in promoting your business will have long term value. As you spread the word, you share your domain name and people will remember it.

With some simple search engine optimization tactics you’ll soon start to receive good traffic from the big search engines. At Watersweb Shops, we include several resources to our new store owners for learning how to market your site, optimize for the search engines and target the people who are looking for your product.

You Can Still Use eBay
Once you have your store ready to go, if you want to reach the eBay crowd, list a few items and put a link to your website in your About Me page. This can be a great option for selling your clearance items—that won’t eat up your profits.

*Ebay pricing accurate as of September 12, 2006

Michelle Waters
http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/ebay-store-vs-ecommerce-website-57219.html

Many people do make good money with their eBay businesses. You can be one of those people if you take the right steps at the beginning to set up your business. You should approach an eBay business like any other. Do the necessary research first. Don’t rush into it with dreams of making a quick fortune.

Take your time and familiarize yourself with the eBay website. Take notes of the type of products you are thinking of selling – check out the competition, pricing and most of all take particular note of actual selling prices and whether the bidding was slow or fast and furious.

There are literally millions (somewhere in the region of 100 million) of eBay members, but this does not mean you are going to reach anywhere near that number. They won’t even know you exist unless you prepare your strategy first.

You’ll find that a large number of successful eBay sellers have started off as buyers. This is a good idea as you can get a feel for how the whole system works, plus you will know what buyers are looking for and what problems you are likely to encounter. Being a buyer will certainly help you become a proficient seller as you will understand the system from both sides of the fence.

A few things to take note of while you are learning from the buyer’s point of view:

• the customer service you received

• the accuracy of the description of the selling item

• the ease and speed of finalizing the transaction

• whether communication was good or not

• was the sales page well set out

• were delivery costs fair and reasonable

If you approach an eBay business like any other online business you will have a much better chance of making a good income. The following points should give you an idea of what you should be thinking about.

1. Decide whether you will set up an eBay Store

Whilst checking out the eBay website, you would have noticed a number of sellers have their own eBay Store. The advantages of this are many and you would be wise to check out the details of setting up your own eBay Store. Information is readily available on the eBay site.

2. Setting up your own Website

For many reasons, it is advisable to have your own independent website. Look at it as your “Head Office” with your eBay store as a subsidiary. If at some time in the future you decide to discontinue your eBay store, you will still have your business website.

Another good reason for setting up a website is that it gives you the ability to diversify your business. This can mean the difference between success and failure. It will also give you the ability to build a subscriber list that will be beneficial for both your eBay business and your own website business.

3. What Products are in high demand?

Take particular note of products that sell well and what the competition is. Also check the availability of the products as well as the cost. Armed with this information you can determine whether or not a product is a viable proposition.

4. eBay Learning Center and University

Before you think of buying tutorials on eBay trading, check out the resources provided by eBay.

The Learning Center will provide you with tutorials and guides relative to the different areas of eBay. In addition, you will find many free resources on the internet in the form of reports, tutorials and e-books. So have a good look around before paying for this type of information. Of course if you do purchase training products they will more than likely be a taxable deduction.

The eBay University runs offline and online courses covering every aspect of an eBay business. This is where you can learn tried and true methods from the experts.

Running your own eBay business can be a rewarding experience. To ensure you succeed, research your market and your product before undertaking your first Auction.

Remember you will receive queries from prospective bidders, so you must be extremely knowledgeable about your product.

Sam Crowley
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/winning-at-the-ebay-game-55038.html