Auction Power Guide

Hi there I just wondered is there anyone out there who has any tips and hints on making a living selling on ebay. Ive heard there are people who do this but I wonder how this is possible. When I look at the various products on sale there dont seem to be many people bidding and it looks quite hard to make a profit. Ive started buying a few items to get positive feedback but when i have say about ten of these where do I go from there?

It is difficult to make a living on eBay!

Most things I sell are used items, but its hard to find what the buyer wants – things that you think will sell or get the highest number of bids, often take the longest time to shift and the things that you think are not so good and won’t get any interest often go for a lot more than you think….

For example…. I make handmade cards, which are really lovely, not giddy and totally worth the money I am asking for them, and yet I struggle to sell them, not because of the price I’m asking, its because people go to the local newsagent or card shop to buy them and don’t think to look for things like that on ebay – on the other hand – I just recently sold a pair of curtains that I was embarrassed to get the money I did for them (not that they were shoddy or anything – perfectly nice pair of curtains) but certainly not worth the 25 dollars someone bid for them! AND just in case you were thinking – the buyer absolutely loved them! sent me an email when she’d received them and gave me awesome feedback!

I personally look at ebay as a way to make a little extra money, when the kiddies have outgrown things, and when I find I no longer use something! I usually put money I earn towards their new seasonal wardrobe (I have 2 young kiddies that are growing like crazy at the moment!) and must admit that it helped at christmas this year too!

I think for you to be able to get a really good living on eBay, you have to have a really good product, a niche in the market, or at least a product that you have enough of that you can get to the top of the page so to speak (eg if you have 100 of an item at buy it now, you will be higher up the page than if you have only 1 of an item to sell!)

Sorry if I sound negative, but just trying to be realistic! The more you sell (or buy) the more accustomed you become to what products are selling and what aren’t! And at the same time, what is worth actually putting on ebay and what is better to just chuck in the bin! I have listed some things loads of times and its got to the point now where even if I sell at a decent price (what the items worth) then I already spent that on listing fees!

Do research! Just have a browse at what you think may sell, and do international searches on both open and closed listings! Its very time consuming, but if you have a product in mind, you can at least see where the land lies!

Good luck with your Ebaying – Hope it all works well for you!

I’m trying to win an auction for an Apple Video iPod and I was just wondering some techniques that anyone may have for me?

Any item on eBay that is very popular tends to demand high prices. So finding a video ipod for "cheap" is kinda hard to do. I would recommend a few things to reduce your cost.

1. Do an advanced search for the ipod but filter for "buy it now" only. Buy it Now’s are only available if there are no bids on the item or the reserve is not met. Sometimes you run into a seller who is looking to get rid of an item quick and puts a good price for buy it now. I have found some sweet deals on BIN’s.

2. Look for auctions closing on off hours (midnight to 6am) or on Thurs, Fri, or Sat. Historically eBay has less traffic on these days / hours. Less traffic generally produces lower auction prices.

3. Do searches for misspellings of the item title. "ipid" "ipof" "i pod" etc… The misspellings will have less views because they are hard to find. Less traffic generally produces lower auction prices.

Hope that helps!

I would like to sell clothing and hair extensions. However, given that Ebay charges a lot of fees (including insertion fees), I want to know how successful others on here have been with selling on Ebay.

And do you have any advice for a newbie seller like me.

I have 10 years worth of ebay advice.

Anything that you want to know, feel free to message me.

What should you do at a property auction where you need a certified check but you are not sure who to make the check out to??

These auctions in my area can be very confusing. If you don’t know this there are a lot of other things you also probably don’t know.

I would suggest that you go to two or three auctions with out bidding. Watch how they work and talk with people that you meet there. Ask them questions. You will be much better prepared after that.

At least call your county government and ask them questions.

If you do, PLEASE give us some tips 🙂 After years of trying different things and asking on Ebay I’m still having no luck. The "suppliers" always seem to be either too high priced or they are selling broken junk. The clothing side is such a headache with all the fake stuff, trendy items changing every week, etc. I’m just looking for something reliable. I don’t need to make a lot of money say a few hundred per month. TIA for any tips!

PS. My "main" business right now is computer service and consulting. Again, I couldn’t figure a way to sell that on Ebay. I do new custom computers and those naturally go for ridiculously low prices on Ebay. I couldn’t even figure a way to cover my costs doing that.
Can you guys talking about the flea markets give some specifics? Believe it or not, I’ve tried that. Don’t get me wrong, you *might* be able to clear 5 or 10 dollars per item but SORRY in this day and age that’s not cutting it! Going to a flea market, spending all that time, buying all that stuff, paying all those Ebay fees to make a few bucks. Not worth it. In fact, usually you’ll be in the hole if that’s all you make.

Go to Flea Markets and tag sales in your area. It will take a while getting to know which items will go for high prices on Ebay but i did this one summer, I made a decent amount of money. Just make sure you arent buying junk, anything that is REALLY pretty can usually sell if you buy it for a couple dollars. Brand names do help a lot.

My brother died suddenly this month and my wife and I are faced with what to do with the contents of house. We’ve been told that we could hold an auction — but then something very valuable might be auctioned for far, far less than it’s actual value.

Can anyone help with this?

Thanks

An auction is the fastest way to liquidate the estate, but some things may sell for far less than value. One way to help prevent this is to be in attendance at the auction. If you know the value of the items you are concerned about, you can bid on them yourself to ensure that they fetch an acceptable price. This should be done sparingly as regular auction attenders frown on it and may resist bidding if they know they are bidding against the house. You may end up buying some of the items back this way and will have to sell them yourself after the auction.

The professional estate sale is a little slower, and tended to cost a bit more in fees. Some professional estate liquidators will buy anything that did not sell during the sale and attempt to sell it latter, but not many will do this. Things that don’t sell are usually your problem.

A garage sale is also of course possible, but takes a lot of your time.

The last way I can think of is eBay. If you do not want to list the items on eBay your self, there are companies that will take the items and do it for you on a commission basis. You can contact a few of them in your aria and see what they will do. If you have an entire estate, they may even come to you.

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

My boyfriend is a talented artist and he’s at university so is a little strapped for cash. What handmade products might you buy on ebay? Cards,paintings etc. Could you suggest anything he could make and sell?

Selling on eBay is a difficult task and requires a lot of time, dedication and patience; however for most people it’s fun and take it in a positive way.

http://hubpages.com/_yaans/hub/Tips-for-ensuring-a-successful-ebay-sale_1

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.

I am hoping to start an eBay seller account, I have a job that gives me a lot of free time and I recently sold some things through kijiji and made some good money fairly quickly. Now I would like to get into finding merchandise and selling it on ebay for a profit… I am not asking for everyone to tell me their business secrets they worked hard to learn but I would like some advice for starting off. Thank you!

Try not to sell something dozens of other people are selling, because you’ll either never make a sale, or you’ll have to lower prices so much that you only break even (or even lose money). If you’re selling multiple related items, offer combined shipping discounts. People will be more inclined to buy more than one thing if shipping is cheaper.