Auction Power Guide

At the beginning of the year I started up a small home business purchasing and re-selling consumer electronics products. Business license and registered with the state (Georgia) as DBA. I am a sole proprietor and the only one involved in the business.

January and February have been kind of rocky. I was learning the best and cheapest ways to ship, the quickest ways to test my products (stuff like memory cards coming from wholesale suppliers that could unknowingly be selling fake/misrepresented cards to companies, etc.) I sell on Ebay only, and I only accept Paypal as a payment method. So every sale, sale date, product description, Ebay fees, Paypal fee, date sold, etc. are all there. When I was a little more naive, I unknowingly flipped some products before I knew of a solid way to test them, so I got some returns and had to refund. Long story short, January and the beginning of February turned into an accounting nightmare in regards to logging everything. I utilize the "Outright" program on Ebay, which pulls all of my Paypal data. So it basically organizes everything, tells me the final profit, the total fees/business expenses for each month and year, the product description, date sold, sale price, Paypal fees, Ebay fees…all of that. The only thing it doesn’t log is the original purchase price and purchase date. I’m pretty much screwed for January and February in regards to proper documentation in regards to bookkeeping, but I do have the final profit amount for both months, all of the expenses and fees, payments received, etc. and I will just have to eat the taxes on the purchase amount vs. re-sold price. So taxing the whole instead of only the profit.

Is there a better way to keep track of this? I did make a spreadsheet in January. It has the item description, purchase date, purchase price, purchase tax paid, purchase shipping fee (I buy all of my inventory online and get it shipped to me from wholesale companies using my tax id), resale date, resale price, shipping fee, Georgia sales tax charged (if they were in my state – I only had one sale to Georgia during January and February and I have logged and paid taxes to the state on that), Ebay Listing/Insertion Fee, Ebay Final Value Fee, Ebay Final Value Fee on Shipping, Paypal Fee and then Finally Profit/Loss at the end.

Yeah, that’s a lot of fields to log for each transaction. Outright seems to do a really good job with keeping up with everything and letting me just print out all fees and sales with proper dates and descriptions. The only thing it doesn’t keep up with is the purchase price. I try to print out the invoice each time I buy something to re-sell and staple that to the printed paypal transaction paper for each transaction, when I have sold it. Is there a good way to keep this from being too tedious? We’re talking probably…$4,000 a month in sales in February. January was rather slow.

At tax time, Outright supposedly makes it easy to just see the total profit, total fees/deductions and such. But it doesn’t have an option to compare my purchase price per item to the re-sale price. So I could print that stuff out…but I’d end up paying taxes on everything for the whole year as a $0 purchase price value.

Any advice from sellers? Apart from "Get a CPA to do it all for you"…I wouldn’t make anything if I did that.

I keep all my items, prices, descriptions, final payouts, etc listed in an excel workbook. It does my calculations for me once I put the formulas in and I have a nice setup now after using it for a while. I don’t have to pay any fees to use it and I’m just very organized and attentive to it. If your business is so large that you can not handle the books on your own, I suggest hiring an employee. It shouldn’t take much training to keep good records. Just discipline.

Do you need to supplement your income? Perhaps you’ve just retired but wish to continue working to accrue additional funds. Working at home with eBay may be just the ticket you need to begin a successful work at home venture. Let’s explore some of the ways you can make money using this auction site.

Have you been storing away unused items or gifts in your attic or basement? Have you been collecting antiques or baseball cards which are lying somewhere in a trunk? Do you have anything of value taking up much needed space? eBay is the auction site you can utilize to begin clearing out your home of unwanted items. Easy to implement; this may become a work at home niche which can bloom into a part-time or full-time job.

In addition, eBay has every tool you will need to successfully post your items; sell them; and using their Paypal service, receive payment quickly and satisfactorily. This is probably one of the easiest methods to make money online and, more importantly you may already have the goods to begin selling today. All you need is a digital camera to upload pictures of the items, and an eBay and Paypal account.

Perhaps you already have a website promoting a service or product. You can advertise your website on eBay as well, as long as you follow the rules and regulations. After you have set up your account with eBay, it is important to read all of the information eBay has made available to you. They have implemented extraordinary guides on how to sell, what to sell, what auction price to choose based on the item, how to effectively determine in which category to sell your item, and other various methods you can use to make your selling experience successful.

If you do not think you have anything worth selling; you would be wrong. Take a day to check out eBay to see what items are being put up for auction. In addition, you also have the capability to check the final selling price of any item. This can be of enormous help in setting your own price for a specific item. It’s also important to note that eBay is very effective in weeding out bogus auctions and keeps you apprised of fraudulent practices.

Selling on eBay can be a fun, exciting and unique experience. However, as with any online transactions, you have to be alert to those who have no scruples when it comes to payment. Checking the rating of buyers is vital. You may want to limit your sales to those who have ten or more successful buys. This will prevent anyone who is a first-time buyer from causing you angst. All of these tips are included in eBay’s selling guide. Read it, research, and enjoy the benefits to be derived from working at home with eBay.

Ken Shorey
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/working-at-home-with-ebay-96752.html

What potential is there for opening an ebay store?
If you have a store, is it your main source of income?
What are the most popular products sold on ebay?

Since eBay and Paypal both charge fees, I truly believe you have to find a niche product and specialize in that category. I chose wrestling shirts and decided to focus on having the biggest selection at competitive prices. There will ALWAYS be people that will try to sell it for less than you will, that is why you cannot focus on price alone.

I make my living by selling online but my 2 brothers use it as a second income. One sells Superhero costumes and the other sells foot insoles. Pick something you think would be fun or interesting.

Also, I don’t think you need to sell ONLY on eBay. Multichannel selling is the smartest thing to do now. Look at selling on other sites like Amazon.com and starting your own web site. eBay is a great place to start though. That is what I did.

I have included a bunch of links to get you started, including some of eBay hottest selling items and training materials.

Brian Barlow
www.extremewrestlingshirts.com

Also, what do I do about my income tax? Do I turn in the income from Ebay or just my regular Job? Thanks!

Trust me; you want no part of the “wholesaler” game. What once was a great idea has now spread so everyone and their mother is doing it. Margins are razor thin at best and I suspect non-existent when you factor in most drop shippers "Membership fees" along with eBay and PayPal’s cut.

Clothing is a BIG business on eBay. Try shopping a discounter like TJ Maxx, Ross for Less, Marshalls or whatever it is called in your area for women’s clothes from designers like Ralph Lauren, BCBG or Tommy Hilfiger. Often times you can find, for example, a woman’s shirt that sells in the mall for $50 on sale for $10. Odds are if you put it on eBay for $25, you’d sell it. The customer thinks they saved $25 and you made $15. 🙂 Now multiply it by 100 sales and you’re in business. I do about $2K a month in sales and I profit about $500 and that’s from just working part time. It’s not "easy money", you do have to work at it, but if you’re willing to invest the time and effort, you can do it.

Regarding your taxes – Find yourself a good CPA – I managed to write down all of my eBay profit and actually showed a “loss” once I factored in expenses. If you are running your auctions as a business, you may write off a portion of your mortgage/rent, utilities, mileage, internet, paypal fees, postal supplies etc. In addition, if you did any shopping while on vacation you may write off a portion of your hotel bills, your food bills and your mileage there as well.

How can i make money using ebay. i have a paypal account. What sort of stuff can i buy and sell on ebay? Also would i make much money doing it?

It doesn’t matter what you sell. To wit, as it is often said, "One man’s trash is another man’s treasure." Most everyone collects or wants something or other.

The thing you want to be aware of with the most popular items is that you will have the MOST COMPETITON from other sellers who sell the same items. You can’t be competitive and make a decent profit unless you get the best wholesale price to maintain an adequate profit margin. If your opening bid price is higher than other sellers selling the same items, you won’t have many sales.

Other suggestions for items to sell:

Look no further than ebay itself. You will not be looking for single item listings but rather your target will be listings that have similar, grouped items. There are ebay ‘vultures’ who just love to swoop down on similarly grouped items in one listing. When they win these auctions, they turn around and sell the items individually and, in most cases, get one and a half to 2 times and sometimes three times what they paid for them on an average item basis. I know this works. When I had more time (read unemployed), I was one of these ‘vultures.’ This is one of those situations where the parts are worth more than the whole. However, do be cautious if you venture into this arena. You have to know your merchandise. Stay in those areas you are familiar with. You can’t jump in blindly to any and every auction that has grouped items.

If you can buy a large lot of similar merchandise for $100 to $200 and turn it around for $300 to $600, it works out very nicely, indeed! Most buyers of these large lots will be vultures as well so you could be ‘butting bids.’ Keep in mind that the higher the closing price at ebay, the less your profit on the turnaround. It’s not an exact science and it does take a little experience to really know what you’re doing but you can’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. When I see an auction of grouped items it tells me loud and clear that the seller is far more interested in getting rid of their stuff the quickest, easiest way possible and ‘be done with it’ rather than in making a decent profit or profit at all.

Short of items to sell and where to find items to sell? Garage and yard sales, church bazaars, flea markets are obvious. These can be the cheapest sources of merchandise. ‘Junktique’ shops are not that good because these folks know their merchandise. This being the case, it is usually OVERPRICED, not under priced.

If you want to let your fingers do the walking, you too can be crafty ‘vulture’ like a select group of other ebay sellers. Become a member of several smaller auction sites and search for bargains there. But as before, ‘stick with what you know.’

These smaller auction sites are great for buyers for the same reason they are bad for sellers:

Fewer potential bidders = Less competition = Lower closing prices.

Turn them around on ebay:

The ebay formula:

LARGEST auction site by far = MAXIMUM competition = HIGHER closing prices

There are also volume sellers who concentrate on only a handful of popular items by buying in volume / wholesale at a discount and selling at a discount. The average schmo at eBay can’t compete with volume sellers of a particular item.

GOODWILL sometimes also has good bargains, but not always. Mondays / Tuesdays are the best days to visit Goodwill as most people will drop off their donations on Saturdays and Sundays and it has to be cleaned, sorted and marked before it can be placed on display.

To maximize profits, sell WORLDWIDE, not just one country. A basic business tenet is, ‘The greater the potential market, the greater the potential to maximize profits.’ It’s TRUE! You will now have access to 200+ million members.

Lastly, keep in mind that experience is the best teacher. Start off slowly listing only two or three items and see how that goes for you. Once you get your feet wet and gain confidence, start listing more items on a weekly basis. You will soon learn the ins and outs and the dos and don’ts in short order and ultimately settle on a system that works best for you. The more items you list, the more items you will sell, the more $$ you will make and the harder you will work. Nothing in life comes easy and that includes becoming a successful seller at ebay. If you are conscientious and put in a little extra effort, you will do well. If you are lazy or indifferent in selling your items, you won’t. Good luck & happy selling!

What is the cheapest way but yet the most profitable way to go on ebay? doing auctions or just running a store. I have bought some things off ebay and have my paypal account but have never checked out the costs to get setup or how much time it takes. I’d love to hear from sellers on ebay to tell me what they think.

The basic eBay store subscription costs $15.99 a month. One advantage of an eBay store is the insertion fees for store inventory range from $0.05 to $0.10 for a one month listing. You can list multiple quantities of the same item for a single insertion fee. When you compare that with $0.20 to $4.80 for a single standard auction listing, it is a bargain.

The insertion fees may be cheaper, but the final value fee (FVF) charged when an item is sold from an eBay store is significantly higher. The fee is almost double the final value fee of a standard auction. For example, the FVF for a $100 item selling in an eBay store is $7.75. For an auction, the FVF is $3.75. This difference in FVF needs to be factored in when deciding whether to list an item as a store listing or as an auction listing.

The main disadvantage of using an eBay store is the store inventory only appears in the main search results when there are 30 or fewer auctions and fixed-price listings found. This means if you are trying to sell a very popular item in an eBay store, it will not will not be included in the standard search results. This makes it very difficult for buyers to find store items.

An eBay store works best if you have multiple quantities of the same item. The best strategy is to list one unit as an auction and list the rest in the store. When buyers see the auction listing, they may check the other items that are listed for sale by the seller. This list will include items from the seller’s eBay store. Buyers may chose to buy the unit out of your store instead of waiting for the auction to end.

Good Luck,
Bill
Visit http://www.newlifeauctions.com for more eBay tips.

I am not planning to open an eBay store. Just wondering if there are tricks to selling on eBay that I don’t know about. Like how to increase traffic to my items, how to advertise, and how to increase bidding. Most useful tips get 10 points.
I have sold a couple of items on eBay but usually not a lot of people bid or put on watch list. I eneded up with just 2 bids and sell for very low price. I wonder how I can get more people to see my ads in the first place.

One great way to attract buyers is to have a low starting bid. I typically start the item at the price I paid for it (I usually rummage through thrift stores and dollar stores for my items – ones that I know could sell for more). For instance, if I find an NFL jersey for $5… I list it for $6, which covers my ebay fees & paypal fees, plus my purchase price. $6 is INCREDIBLY low for a football jersey!

However… you also have to find items that people WANT. Sports items are great… IF the team is doing well or has a strong "die hard" fan base. Children’s clothing also does well (name brands, especially in bigger "lots"), newly released CD’s & movies, some pet items (dog jackets, for example), etc. If you see something you think might sell (that is guaranteed to BE there later)… go look it up on ebay and see if others are getting bids on similar items. I used to just think up as many things to search for as I could and see what did best.

Another big thing is to offer low (or free) shipping. You can either work the shipping into your starting bid price (although that costs more in fees), or just charge people the actual cost to ship. You’ll want to use a shipping calculator through ebay though as most people want to know in advance how much shipping will be, since there’s tons on ebay who will charge $30 to ship a pair of pants or something!

Anyway… other than that… I guess try to have a variety… and if you find something that sells well… buy a BUNCH of it to sell! 🙂 I found Barbie dog jackets on clearance for a dollar one time… bought 35 of them and made several hundred dollars on them! Ya just gotta have an eye for what sells… oh… and make your title catchy and make sure it states what’s being sold.

I want to start selling on Ebay but it looks like its requiring me to have a PayPal Account. I tried to make an account, but it asked for a routing number off a check of mine. I don’t ever use checks and don’t have any. Also, how does selling an item on Ebay work?
Does the money go directly into my checkings account after I ship it or right when they purchase it?

Someone qualified please explain all this.

Please, read the tutorials on ebay and paypal and understand how they work before attempting to use either site. Paypal is required for sellers in the U.S. You don’t have to have a checking account to open a paypal account, so you are looking at something wrong when attempting to open an account – for assistance call paypal at 1-888-221-1161 and they can walk you through it. The funds do not go into any account automatically when you are paid via paypal, you must go into your paypal account and manually transfer the funds once they are in the account. As I said, please read the info and call both sites if you must for clarification on any issues.

How do get paid for your products/items?

I have been doing it for 8 yrs many great deals and bargains. I have also sold a ton of stuff I have and get a very fair price for them.

The basics are simple.

The best way to pay and get paied is Paypal, which is owned by ebay. Paypal does need bank or credit card info but it is highly secured,

When selling you get paid direct by paypal, all electronic. It is insured, so there is protection.

How do you know who you are dealing with. I have been over all impressed with the integrety and honety and fairness of eBayers. With that said there are bad folks. The key is your rating, positive and negative and number of total transactions. For you as a new person witha zero rating you will be some what looked at closer. Not until you get 20 or 50 or 100 transactions (selling or buying) that as positive feed back will people be super comfortable with you. It really is more critical for selling to have a high rating. Most sellers don’t care about your rating unless it is negative. What matters is they get paid BEFORE they ship. That is rule #1. With electonic transfer that can be with in a minute after the auction closes. The item can ship the next day (often does) and arrives in 2-5 days.

DO not make an impulse buy. Know what its worth and never bid more than that. The auction can be competitive. Also the fact is most people wait to bid last second so if you want it bid what you want to pay for it. If you low ball it and its a good deal, chance is you will be out bid. You can wait for the last minute if you want to play that game, but what you want but NO MORE.

Selling. Again set the price to what you are willing to sell it for, Also pack it and weight it. Figure what the shipping will be and included that in the auction as a flat rate. If you charge too little for shipping it comes out of your profit. If you put shipping too high it can turn buyers off. Again PAYPAL is the way to get paid. That is the only thing I accept and what most sellers accept. YOU CAN PUT A NOTE THAT YOU WOULD CONSIDER OTHER PAYMENT, but contact you first before bidding. Let’s say they will send you a check. She you wait 2-5 days for the check. than you have to cash and clear that check if it is not a money order. Than you can ship. That drags things outa week or two? The only down side of Paypal is they charge a few percent service charge.

So keep in mind you pay a small fee to list. A small fee or commision if you sell and pay pal gets a cut. It is not much but it adds up.

I am so happy that I have a way to sell my GOOD junk that is nice and valuable but no longer use or want. Don’t bother selling cheap junk that is not worth anything. It is more effort and cost to list and sell it. Chance is you will not sell it. You will only be out may be 50 cents to a $1.50 listing fee if you don’t sell; that’s nice.

Get an ebay account and start watching. See what stuff sells for. She how people list stuff. The hardest part of listing is taking a picture and up loading it. That is not hard with a digital camara. If you know how to load pictures from a camara to computer you are there. Than you have to come up with a title and text. It is best to use a picture of the actual item. You can sell things with out pictures but that will get poor results.

If you plan on being a buyer, just go slow and watch the sellers rating and fee back which you can read. Read their fine print at the bottom about return and other policy. Most important if YOU ARE NOT SURE ABOUT IT, ASK QUESTIONS. You can write the seller and ask several all the questions you want. Better to ask first than buy and be unhappy.

The down side of doing any mail order is the shipping cost, but the sale price and tax savings makes up for that, However if you have to return an item you don’t like or was not as expected and the seller takes it back, the buyer usually will pay return shipping. That can be $3-$10 typcially. As a seller I highly recommend a $0.75 tracking slip. This keeps buyers from saying they never go it.

GO FOR IT. To get the ebay and paypal accounts is free.

(Be sure when you get email that is fake you do not reply with you user name, password and account number. I get one or two a year but I know what to look for. Don’t get fooled into giving you info to ANYONE. eBay and Paypal will NEVER ask for you password. That is the big threat. The good part is every time anything happens on you account you get a notification. Also paypal will only ship to the account address, so if some one tries to go shopping they can’t have it ship all over the place.)

I’m looking mainly to sell on ebay through paypal, but I don’t fully understand it. Do I need a personal or a premier paypal account? Will it link directly to my bank account?
Any other tips/advice would also be appreciated.

If you plan to sell on eBay then you need more than a personal account. Otherwise PayPal will limit what you can do.

You can link your bank to it but any money you get from sales will go to your PayPal account and you will have to log in to transfer it to your bank.

ALWAYS get on line tracking, (Delivery Confirmation, etc.), to stay safe. If you don’t the buyer can claim they never got the item you sent and get their money back from you.

ALWAYS take good pictures and describe anything wrong with your item you are selling. Even a tiny scratch or stain. Bidders don’t like getting surprised. Communicate with your buyers quickly and fully when the auction ends. Pay attention to your buyers feedback they have left for others.

I strongly suggest you get a simple digital weight scale for shipping. This will save you a lot of time and trouble. eBay will soon be charging their final value fee based on both the price the auction ended at and the shipping charge so make sure shipping costs are accurate to save money.