Auction Power Guide

A wholesale drop shipper allows you to sell items without keeping a physical inventory. The company provides and stores products, then, when someone buys an item from an EBay business owner for example, that owner simply processes the order and sends it and payment onto the drop shippers who then package and ship the product to the customer. All you have to do is sell the products listed on the pages of a wholesale drop shipper’s web site for more than the drop shipper is charging and you’ll be on the way to an easy profit.

Drop shippers and wholesalers are an invaluable resource for all EBay store owners. They provide a means of simplifying the entire ordering process and enable entrepreneurs to make greater profits. The customer never knows that a third party exists because drop shippers will package the product using the EBay business owner’s labeling. By purchasing the products at wholesale prices, the EBay store owner profits the difference between that price and the winning bid amount while the drop shippers take care of everything else.

The beauty of drop shipping is that it is virtually risk free. Any business which fails to use a wholesale drop shipping company must bear the expense of buying the inventory and waiting until a sale is made before recuperating an investment. By using drop shippers, nothing is paid out until the customer’s payment is received. It is an ideal arrangement for people with little start up capital.

Basically, time is the only thing that an EBay business owner must invest when using drop shipping. And the majority of that time is spent on research, trying to find the best wholesale drop shippers to supply the quality products they wish to sell.

However, be warned, it is not all smooth sailing. It can take hours to find a reliable source. Believe me, searching for wholesale drop shipper companies using Google turns up middleman and broker network offers almost exclusively.
‘Brokers’ often have a very elaborate system of steps you need to take. Effectively, all that these companies are offering you is a commission sales situation. They require a W-9 to participate, something no real drop ship supplier would demand. In general you should NEVER, EVER pay a fee just to talk with someone about what they offer. No reputable business would require this.

A middleman drop ship company positions itself between the manufacturer/distributor wholesale drop shipper and the retailer. They generally aggregate many different suppliers and present them under ‘one roof’. Many charge a monthly fee and also have per order drop ship fees. In general, middlemen are best avoided as it is difficult to find profitable product lines given their mark up, participation fees, and per order drop ship fees. However, some companies do offer money making potential and if you have lots of time to spare this may be worth pursuing, for example the free trial at Doba.

The true wholesale drop shipping companies referred to throughout this article are manufacturers and distributors who are willing to work directly with internet retailers. You can use these sources to stock your EBay store or other online marketplace and stand to make a good profit. They require little or no money of EBay business owners, and they even take care of the entire logistics involved in getting an item to your customer. So if you are serious about making money on EBay look into the world of drop shipping today. Visit salehoo for a great list of wholesale drop shippers.

Paul Buntrage
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/wholesale-drop-shipping-how-to-make-money-from-home-using-ebay-71488.html

I am preparing to sell my first item on ebay for about 350 bucks. To list it, it is 40 cents, but how much and when will the final value price and any other fees be charged? Do they automatically take it out of my money?

eBay requires sellers to set up an automatic payment method to pay their selling fee invoice, although eBay does allow you to pay early with a different method. When eBay invoices will be due varies for each seller, if I recall, the cut off is either set up for the 1st or 15th, mine is the 15th of the month, and I receive a bill a few days later and then in a few more days the money is automatically withdrawn from my payment source.

eBay – How do I pay my selling fees:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/seller-fees.html

The eBay listing fees are charged to your account when you list an item, and the final value fees are charged to your account when the item sells, but you pay by your monthly invoice.

As to fee expenses. You have eBay listing fees, eBay final value fees if the item sales, and PayPal fees if you are paid via PayPal. I usually allow about 15% for fees.

Basically the costs are the listing fees for most things to "auction" which are about 10 cents to $2 and the final value fee is about 9% plus PayPal fee if applicable, which is about 3% (see further down).

The fixed price fees really require reading the fees chart, but basically about 7% to 13% plus a 50 cent listing fee unless you have an eBay store. There are add-on options you can add like bold and highlight so as you can see, the fee costs are complicated, depending if it’s an auction or fixed priced listing and any extras. The link to the eBay fee page is below.

The PayPal information is:
There’s no fee to use PayPal to purchase goods or services. However, if you receive money for goods or services (such as from selling an item on eBay), the fee for each transaction is 2.9% plus $0.30 USD of the amount you receive. The link is below.

Here is some additional eBay seller info from their web site:

What are the requirements to sell on eBay? Provide us with a valid credit card, debit card, or bank account information. Let us know how you would like to pay your seller fees. Select the payment methods you’ll accept. Make sure your Feedback Profile is public. We also recommend that you become PayPal verified.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

https://www.paypal-search.com/socialsearch/query

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/questions/sell-requirements.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/pictures.html

http://websellerslunchclub.com/s-sellers-area.html

do you have any tips for how i could promote my store or tips for selling products? thanks a lot.

If you have your store setup, you’ll still want to be sure and do regular auctions on some of the items since auctions get more exposure and this will help bring traffic to your store.

Be sure and create your about me page. Make sure and use keywords customers would search for in your titles. Take great photos and always work to improve the look and feel of your listings. Make sure your shipping fees are reasonable. Offer a shipping discount for purchasing multiple items. Put your store items on sale now and then. Create a Squidoo lens about vintage clothing and add a link to your eBay store. I think eBay still lets you a create a free blog thru them, I haven’t done that yet, but should.

Just keep at it and you’ll discover there are many things you can do and not enough time to do them all. I’m currently selling women’s clothes on eBay and although competitive, it can be done.

Wishing you all the best!

With the spiraling eBay fees and competitive pricing, the last thing eBay ebook sellers want to worry about is buying new resalable content. However, there are many sources that you may not have thought about which provide you with free resalable ebooks that you can successfully add to your inventory. This article details just a few of them.

1) Ebay:- That’s right eBay is a great source to pick up free ebooks (OK they’re not quite free but very cheap). Many ebook sellers run auctions that start at 1p to attract customers. If nobody bids on these auctions you can pick up a very cheap resalable ebook.

Furthermore, some sellers run 1p ebook listings in their eBay store. That means that you can actually purchase the item as a Buy It Now for 1p and in some cases receives it instantly. Again another way to pick up a very cheap resalable ebook, courtesy of eBay. Do a search on eBay for “ebooks resell” or something similar, and then list them lowest priced first to see what you find.

2) Newsletters:- When you signed up for this newsletter I gave you two free ebooks. Some newsletters that I am currently a member of give me 5 free ebooks every week. I would recommend joining ebook related newsletters as not only do you receive valuable tips from that ebook seller, you also get free products to add to your eBay store. Have a browse through eBay for the top ebook sellers. If they have a newsletter joins it. It costs nothing and you are likely to benefit greatly.

3) Ebooks: – Usually when you buy a new ebook it contains links to many bonus ebooks with resell rights. Although you may have to pay for the first ebook, this is another way to get a plentiful collection of free resalable ebooks.

4) Online Forums:- Many users at online forums will give away free resalable ebooks or give away links that allow you to access free ebooks with resell rights. Just have a browse through the posts and see what you can find.

5) Ebook Websites:- Many websites that sell ebooks have a free download page. From this you can download free ebooks which quite often come with resell rights. Type “resell ebooks” into Google or any other major search engines, and have a browse through these websites. I am sure you will find more than enough ebooks to keep you going for a while.

Although free ebooks with resell rights are likely to be outdated in relation to the ones you pay for they are still a good way to bulk up your inventory at relatively little cost. The larger your store inventory is as an ebook seller, the more chance that you will get a sale. If you bulk up your inventory with free resalable ebooks which you then sell alongside the more expensive, up to date, resalable ebooks you are sure to enjoy increased success. Good Luck with your Ebook Sales!!!

Kumarsunil

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

Given the average cost (in volume) of eBay is about 18% of gross (considering an average sell through rate of 50% on your listings), I don’t think adding another 15-20% in Adwords PPC is the way to go.

I’ve had the most success targeting eBay users right on eBay versus going off site. Have you tried the eBay Keywords program? Its currently managed by AdMarketplace -http://www.ampkeywords.com/. The average cost-per-click tends to be lower and it is extremely more targeted than Adwords thereby leading to more conversions.

*START EDIT*
I did some additional research and discovered that the eBay Keywords system is no longer active (spoke directly to eBay about this). Admarketplace is still likely a good place to get started on PPC.
*END EDIT*

Are you including anything in your shipments? It is much easier to get business from an existing client base than to land a new client. Maybe a coupon for reduced shipping or something (considering its an eBay store).

Depending on your type of product, there may be some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques you can employ. This can range from articles to microsites about your products. If you are the manufacturer of the product, you have a lot of options in this arena.

Another route, again dependent on your type of product, is to work with Amazon and few of the other resellers out there. I have a friend who was doing about $5M a year on eBay and he has moved nearly 50% of his volume over to Amazon in the last year.

If you are going the route of considering different outlets and your monthly sales are greater than $10K, you should probably consider Channel Advisor – http://www.channeladvisor.com – These guys allow you to sell on multiple eBay channels as well as Amazon and some of the other engines from a single interface.

Finally, and not least, you should have your own eStore outside of the eBay fees. This becomes more apparent as your sales volume increases and you build a return business. I’ve always advised that eBay should be considered a marketing vehicle. You should make every effort to get folks over to a site where you can enjoy the reduced cost of repeat sales versus being hit with new acquisition costs each time you sell something. My company deploys Product Cart and MIVA. Both are good systems and can be setup and hosted fairly inexpensively. Channel Advisor has a cart with their system as well.

Hope that helps!

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 a new business. I just can’t decide what type of business I want to start. I don’t want to have to have a lot of money to get started and I don’t want anything like avon, or selling junk like that. I’m a single mom and don’t have time or money to waste on chasing my tail. I come up with ideas all the time, but I don’t ever know if they are any good. Just some ideas to get going would be nice.

Types of jobs for a single mom would be ones that give you freedom of hours worked.
My sister is a single mom and she is a mystery shopper and a undercover guard at the big department store. You know the one. She goes in two days a week and works undercover shopping and on the other days, when she wants to work, she goes to another set of stores and shops buying products and writing reviews for the products and how she was treated my the store employees.
All stores have mystery shoppers and you can post your resume at Monster.com and on-line for a job as a mystery shopper and as an Undercover guard in a store. Both jobs pay good money and she works a flex time schedule.
My sister has also worked at a photography store, developing photos and she even had several jobs delivering the wall street journal on Weekends. Good money and that job is in the morning.
You want to start your own job in your home and have fleable hours. I suggest Listing items for customers on Ebay. You put up flyers and make the flyers say, " SELL YOUR ITEMS ON EBAY, Give me a call".
This is something you can do with your computer, which you already have and your Email account. You can have your own Ebay store, Ebay account and you can call it " MOM’S Pawn Shop, or Mom sells It".
This is a job that starts out slow and builds up , as you get more customers and things to list. You take a % to list, a % to sell and it is all your account. I have a friend who sent themself through four years of college doing, Tom Sold It, on Ebay. Think about this, You can make lots of money and you make more with more things listed. You actually could go to thrift stores and buy vintage and list that vintage whatever and make a sale that way.
You can contact Ebay and they will help you set the whole account up and help you with your first listings free.
You can make the flyers and pass them out to friends and family and at church and all around town. My friend said it was fantastic because everybody has extra things they would sell if they knew how to do the listings. That is where your New , In-house job, comes in to play. Start small and shoot for the stars. I will be looking for" Mom Sold It" ; on Ebay.

What would make my adverts sound good (I sell jewellery) and what do you put on yours that seem to work if you’re a seller?

I know there’s advice on ebay about this but I’d like to know from fellow sellers too.

I will mark the best answer.

GO!

I’m in your same boat! We make and sell custom jewelry and want to take a try at ebay. There are sooo many sellers there and it seems some are undercutting the market a bit. I would make a website fi you don’t already have one to link to. It may give you more credibility and if you have any press releases that could help. I’ve also been told to do a lot of social networking mentioning your ebay store, word spreads fast that way. One last bit of advice is to get on LinkedIn, there are great resources of what works for online sales techniques in the jewelry retailers groups. Hope this helps a little.

gulyaevandmack@yahoo.com
www.gulyaevandmack.com