Auction Power Guide

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

Iam in USA.Is it right time to start small business at home? I want to import hand made things from India and sell here? I am confused whether to start right way or should I wait for somemore time ? AsI am thinking economy is worsening day by day !!

There is no reason why you need to wait.

However, in the current economy you need to have realistic expectations. Your sales will be slow. Nobody is buying collectibles and trinkets right now. People are sticking to the necessities.

I suggest you operate on a strictly cash basis. Do not go into debt at all for this (not now, not ever, debt is the reason so many companies are failing right now). Only buy what you can afford to pay cash for. At first you’ll have a limited inventory but as you start making sales, you can use the profits to grow the business.

Also, I wouldn’t open a store front at this time. You would have to make enough sales to pay the rent, and it will be hard to do that. Focus on selling things on ebay or at flea markets etc so you don’t get stuck with rent payments you can’t afford.

One mistake that business owners make is that they focus on overall revenue instead of profits. While this thinking is flawed in any business, it can be especially dangerous in an eBay business.

Part of the problem is that this type of thinking is promoted by eBay. For example, you need to reach a certain level of sales volume to qualify for eBay Powerseller programs.

Sellers will also frequently sell products even if they’re not making money on them just so that they can build up their feedback.

I’m here to tell you that if your primary focus isn’t on the amount of profit your eBay business is making then you won’t have an eBay business for very long. It’s not true that if you have enough gross revenue that there will be some net revenue around. Trust me; it’s possible to have a lot of overall sales without making any money.

I remember back when I was more active with selling on eBay that I had a lot of months where I sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise every month, but when I actually sat down and crunched the numbers, I’d actually LOST money for the month. Then there were times where I sold only a few thousand dollars worth of items, but over half the revenue was profit. Can you guess which method I ultimately stayed with?

When I first started my eBay business, I’ll admit that I had this flawed thinking that as long as I got my sales volume up, I’d make more money. What I found was that the more stuff I sold, the more time it took up to fulfill the orders, more packing materials I had to keep on hand, and the more fees I had to pay eBay. The added cost of all these items wasn’t necessarily added into my acquisition costs.

The flaw in my thinking was looking at how much the item would cost me and then looking to see how much it sold for. If the selling price was higher than cost, even just a little bit, I’d buy it.

Eventually I got wiser (probably because I had to in order to stay in business) and started to focus on what items I could purchase and sell for a nice profit. While my sales volume definitely dipped, I made more money, and actually had more time to pursue other business interests.

So if you’d like your eBay business to still be open this time next year, then make sure you’re focusing on the right numbers – the bottom line, not the top.

Gary Ruplinger
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/why-an-ebay-seller-needs-to-keep-a-close-watch-on-profits-not-sales-volume-145345.html

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