Auction Power Guide

Many people have at least entertained the idea of starting up their own business on eBay, to allow them the freedom of working from home on their own schedule. However, few actually make the leap into trying, and fewer still are actually successful at creating a home business on eBay that brings in a decent income. The reason for so many failures is that most people don’t bother to do their research, pay attention to their customers’ wants and needs, or even take advantage of the tools available to them to increase their chances at success. You can save yourself from making these pricey mistakes and steer clear of failure with these simple tips:

Do Your Research

Before you start picking up items on eBay, do some research to see what items are selling well at the moment. Just by checking out the current auctions on eBay, you can find the most profitable products that you can sell yourself to make money. Try viewing different categories, and then organize the listings by highest bid first, to see what items are fetching the highest price. These are the items you want to focus on selling yourself.

Focus On Customer Service

This is the most obvious way to build up a successful business, and yet, so many sellers completely ignore it. Customer service is the cornerstone of any good business. Unhappy customers means less sales, and ultimately, an unhappy seller. Go above and beyond with your customers, offering them a return policy, exceptional service, polite responses to their questions, and prompt solutions for their problems. Include extras in your packages, like a hand-written thank you note, or a small bonus item along with their auction item. Every little bit counts, and your customers will definitely take notice. These are the things that keeps customers coming back, and will encourage them to spread the word about your business.

Take Advantage Of The Extras

Sellers on eBay have a lot of tools available to them to boost their visibility and their business’s profits. Take advantage of everything eBay has to offer. Build up your about me page with information about you, your business, and your customer service policies. Use your eBay blog to talk about the products you are offering for sale. Participate in the forums and help new buyers out, and they’ll likely follow the link to your store. Anything that gets your name out there can help you gain more customers.

Taking the time to utilize the options available, provide your customers with quality customer service, and researching the items that sell before investing in anything are the three key steps to building a successful home business on eBay. With so many sellers skipping these essentials, you can really push yourself ahead of the competition if you just take the time to work out your strategies before you begin selling. Focus on these methods, and you will no doubt see wonderful results if you stick to it.

Vickie Sayce

Many people have at least entertained the idea of starting up their own business on eBay, to allow them the freedom of working from home on their own schedule. However, few actually make the leap into trying, and fewer still are actually successful at creating a home business on eBay that brings in a decent income. The reason for so many failures is that most people don’t bother to do their research, pay attention to their customers’ wants and needs, or even take advantage of the tools available to them to increase their chances at success. You can save yourself from making these pricey mistakes and steer clear of failure with these simple tips:

Do Your Research

Before you start picking up items on eBay, do some research to see what items are selling well at the moment. Just by checking out the current auctions on eBay, you can find the most profitable products that you can sell yourself to make money. Try viewing different categories, and then organize the listings by highest bid first, to see what items are fetching the highest price. These are the items you want to focus on selling yourself.

Focus On Customer Service

This is the most obvious way to build up a successful business, and yet, so many sellers completely ignore it. Customer service is the cornerstone of any good business. Unhappy customers means less sales, and ultimately, an unhappy seller. Go above and beyond with your customers, offering them a return policy, exceptional service, polite responses to their questions, and prompt solutions for their problems. Include extras in your packages, like a hand-written thank you note, or a small bonus item along with their auction item. Every little bit counts, and your customers will definitely take notice. These are the things that keeps customers coming back, and will encourage them to spread the word about your business.

Take Advantage Of The Extras

Sellers on eBay have a lot of tools available to them to boost their visibility and their business’s profits. Take advantage of everything eBay has to offer. Build up your about me page with information about you, your business, and your customer service policies. Use your eBay blog to talk about the products you are offering for sale. Participate in the forums and help new buyers out, and they’ll likely follow the link to your store. Anything that gets your name out there can help you gain more customers.

Taking the time to utilize the options available, provide your customers with quality customer service, and researching the items that sell before investing in anything are the three key steps to building a successful home business on eBay. With so many sellers skipping these essentials, you can really push yourself ahead of the competition if you just take the time to work out your strategies before you begin selling. Focus on these methods, and you will no doubt see wonderful results if you stick to it.

Vickie Sayce

Many people have at least entertained the idea of starting up their own business on eBay, to allow them the freedom of working from home on their own schedule. However, few actually make the leap into trying, and fewer still are actually successful at creating a home business on eBay that brings in a decent income. The reason for so many failures is that most people don’t bother to do their research, pay attention to their customers’ wants and needs, or even take advantage of the tools available to them to increase their chances at success. You can save yourself from making these pricey mistakes and steer clear of failure with these simple tips:

Do Your Research

Before you start picking up items on eBay, do some research to see what items are selling well at the moment. Just by checking out the current auctions on eBay, you can find the most profitable products that you can sell yourself to make money. Try viewing different categories, and then organize the listings by highest bid first, to see what items are fetching the highest price. These are the items you want to focus on selling yourself.

Focus On Customer Service

This is the most obvious way to build up a successful business, and yet, so many sellers completely ignore it. Customer service is the cornerstone of any good business. Unhappy customers means less sales, and ultimately, an unhappy seller. Go above and beyond with your customers, offering them a return policy, exceptional service, polite responses to their questions, and prompt solutions for their problems. Include extras in your packages, like a hand-written thank you note, or a small bonus item along with their auction item. Every little bit counts, and your customers will definitely take notice. These are the things that keeps customers coming back, and will encourage them to spread the word about your business.

Take Advantage Of The Extras

Sellers on eBay have a lot of tools available to them to boost their visibility and their business’s profits. Take advantage of everything eBay has to offer. Build up your about me page with information about you, your business, and your customer service policies. Use your eBay blog to talk about the products you are offering for sale. Participate in the forums and help new buyers out, and they’ll likely follow the link to your store. Anything that gets your name out there can help you gain more customers.

Taking the time to utilize the options available, provide your customers with quality customer service, and researching the items that sell before investing in anything are the three key steps to building a successful home business on eBay. With so many sellers skipping these essentials, you can really push yourself ahead of the competition if you just take the time to work out your strategies before you begin selling. Focus on these methods, and you will no doubt see wonderful results if you stick to it.

Vickie Sayce

Every year federal, state, and local government agencies find themselves with surplus goods that they no longer need. To get rid of this excess stuff they offer it at government surplus sales and auctions at big discounts. These sales and auctions are full of the same items you’ll find at any retail store with the only difference being price.

These surplus auction sales can be a great place to find office supplies for new and growing businesses. You can also find household items that you can use around the house. These sales can also be a good place to buy surplus items at a big discount that can then be sold at a profit on auctions sites like eBay.

All government surplus auctions and sales are free to the general public. As long as you are 18 years of age or older and have a valid drivers license. You will of course need money as well if you wish to purchase or bid on anything.

So why does the government have all this surplus it needs to get rid of ever year? The simple answer is that all these government agencies, from federal to local, buy billions of dollars worth of equipment, supplies, and sundries every year. This leaves these agencies with lots of older, slightly used, goods that still have a useful life outside of government use. Buy selling these items at surplus sales or auctions the government is able recover some of the cost and save the American taxpayer some money.

If you are wondering what you can find at one of these surplus sales the answer is just about everything. Cars, trucks, vans, and other modes of transportation can be had at highly discounted prices. Small business owner can find great deals on office furniture and supplies which can help keep operating expenses low.

One of the best ways to find government surplus sales and auctions is by using an internet auction website. These sites provide updated lists of times, locations, and the items that will be offered for sale. In some cases you can make purchases and bids right from your computer. It doesn’t get much easier to save money then that.

Andrew Bicknell
http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/government-surplus-sales-and-auctions-671154.html

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 can’t find this bit of info anywhere, 🙁 It would be useful for a research paper I’m writing, but I’m also plain curious.

eBay revenue shrinks for first time in history
Profits plummet 31 per cent
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
In the fourth quarter, for the first time in its history, eBay saw a decline in year-over-year revenue.

"We’re not happy about that," CEO John Donahoe told analysts and reporters during the requisite conference call announcing the company’s Q4 results.

For the quarter ending December 31, eBay pulled in sales of $ 2 .04bn, a 6.6 per cent drop from the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, profit tumbled 31 per cent to $367.2 million, or 29 cents a share

Excluding certain one-time items, earnings came in at 41 cents a share, down from 45 cents. And that beat the prognostications of Wall Street prognosticators. Following the company’s earnings announcement, eBay shares dropped 4.5 per cent in after hours trading, but at last check, they were up 0 .73 per cent to $ 13 .28.

Donanhoe and company blamed their Q4 results on a weakened worldwide economy – and a strengthened US dollar. "Clearly, we’ve been operating in an almost unprecedented external environment," he said. "There’s no doubt ebay was impacted by the macroeconomy, and our fourth quarter results reflect this."

Gross merchandising volume – or GMV, the sum of all auctions closed on eBay during the quarter – shrunk 12 per cent, after shrinking for the first time in Q3. This translates to a 16 per cent revenue drop for the company’s Marketplace unit, which includes eBay-branded sites as well as sister sellers like StubHub, Shopping .com, Kijiji, and others.

eBay was the web’s most visited site during the December holiday season, with over 85.4 million visitors, according to those clever researchers at comScore. But that’s a 4 per cent drop from last year.

But the quarter was kind to eBay’s Payments unit (spearheaded by PayPal) and the Communications unit (Skype). Payments pulled in revenue of $623m, an 11 per cent increase from 2007, thanks in part to the recent acquisition of instant-credit outfit Bill Me Later. Active payment accounts reached 70 million during the quarter, a 23 per cent increase, and Donahoe said that for the first time, PayPal dollar volumes off eBay exceeded those on.

Meanwhile, the Communications unit nabbed $145m in revenues, a 26 per cent increase. Skype added 35 million users during the quarter, bringing the total population of Skypeland to 405 million.

eBay predicts that in Q1, revenues will fall somewhere between $ 1 .8bn and $ 2 .01 billion, or 32 to 34 cents a share. The Wall Street guessmen, for what it’s worth, were looking for 40 cents a share guesstimate.

In October, as it spent between $70m and $80m acquiring Bill Me Later and two Danish classified outfits, eBay announced it would lay off 1,000 from a staff of 16,000.

http://www. asiaing .com/ ebay-2008-annual-report .html
eBay 2008 Annual Report
Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Here’s the eBay first quarter 2009 report: http:// files.shareholder .com/downloads/ebay/630415504x0x289176/f4b1d2f8-f565-408d-9b58-54a5280ab957/ eBay_Q109_EarningsRelease .pdf

eBay’s Q1 2009 Earnings Call
http:// investor.ebay .com/ eventdetail .cfm?eventid=66175

A report made on March 3, 2008 says "Ebay’s revenue could dry up"
http://www. theinquirer .net/inquirer/news/579/1014579/ebay-revenue-dry

It was the original blue Dell restore disk that came with my computer that the MoBo fried on. I saw several auctions on ebay for the same thing. (still are) I noticed that they were selling them with a ram chip or hard drive to, as they put it "comply with microsoft and ebay rules to sell it" so I did the same thing but still got my auction shut down. It was unopend and unused. This is what I got from them.

Dear g95437 (slidellcomputers.com@gmail.com),

You recently listed the following auction-style listing:

120953159649 – New Dell CD Restore Disc Microsoft Windows XP Professional with service pack 3

Your listing has been removed.

LTC Trusted Reporter

The rights owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the rights owner, Microsoft Corporation, notified eBay that this listing violates intellectual property rights. When eBay receives a report of this type of violation, we remove the listing to comply with the law.

Copyright infringement is unlawful and against eBay policies. Copyright is the protection provided by law to the authors of creative works, such as movies, music, software, photographs, and books, both published and unpublished. Copyright owners have the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to distribute copies of the copyrighted work, and to perform or display the copyrighted work publicly.

eBay doesn’t allow the listing of unauthorized copies of copyrighted works. Unauthorized copies include backup, pirated, duplicated, or bootlegged copies.

If the product you are selling is a copy of another work that you aren’t authorized to copy, don’t list the item. eBay doesn’t allow the sale of software if this violates the manufacturer’s copyright license.

Anyone know what the real scoop is on this? What do I need to do to sell it legaly? Or is it just eBay in bed with Microsoft…

There is no real scoop as you put it.

You have been told the reason. Copyright Infringement.

By selling an OS Restore disc your selling a pirate copy
of the original OS!

Auctions on eBay are inherently boring, with nothing more than black text on a white background, and maybe a few photographs of the item in question. Sellers can get lost in a sea of boring auctions, as buyers skip from item to item with nothing really sticking out in their mind. For stay-at-home moms running their own home business from eBay, using HTML is a cheap and easy way to give their auctions a little burst of life.

HTML stands for hypertext markup language, which is the “language” of the internet. Every single website you visit using HTML to work. There are many different things you can do with HTML, and additional languages that work in conjunction with HTML to make some presentations that really pop online. HTML in and of itself, however, is not hard to learn. There are a few basic tags that you can use over and over again to spice up your auction pages, and it won’t cost you but a few minutes of your time to do it.

The best way to learn basic HTML is by surfing the web. Thousands of websites online offer free tutorials on the basics of HTML. Find one that focuses strictly on HTML for eBay, and you’ll find everything you need to know about working with HTML on eBay. Basic tags, like bold and italic, can help you build a better auction. You can also find codes for changing font and background colors, adding in your own images, and creating links so that buyers can e-mail you directly from your auction, or visit your website.

If you want to do more with your auction than what HTML offers, then the next step is to do some research on CSS. CSS stands for cascading style sheets, and gives you more control over the look of your auction. CSS isn’t much harder to learn than HTML, but it lets you change your link behavior, scrollbar, cursor, and even add a background image to your auction. Be sure to adhere to the rules of eBay, however; CSS generally applies styles to the entire webpage, and eBay requires than any style changes made may only apply to your auction.

Once you have gotten a grasp for the basics of HTML and CSS, you can go as far as making your own auction templates. Design an auction template that you would like to use for all of your auctions, and then you can simply copy and paste your auction information into the template every time you list a new item. This can save you time, and give your auctions a more uniform and professional look.

If you are having trouble working out the kinks with your auction’s template, you can always visit eBay’s forums, right on their website. There is a section dedicated entirely to helping sellers set up their own customized auction templates, and they are more than willing to help you figure out what you’re trying to do, for free. As you work with HTML more and learn how to appropriately apply it, you’ll soon become a master of it yourself, and then you may find yourself helping others who are just starting out as well.

Vickie Sayce

You may know every Internet Giant, from Amazon, Yahoo, to AOL, Google, but not forget eBay. Only eBay is so close that home based business can make money online. It is the easiest way to make money online selling on eBay.

You may not realize it yet, but you are about to begin an exciting new lifestyle! The world of online auctions is not only a very profitable world, but it can also mean a lifestyle change unlike any you could’ve imagined just a few years ago.

eBay is now the world’s largest marketplace and the online auctions model which eBay first brings into business actually allows you the opportunity to make money online quickly. So why not use this to the advantage of your website and your business? By creating an easy-to-use eBay Store and listing some hot, in-demand items at a small discount from the price on your website, you can drive traffic from eBay back to your website as well as creating sales and revenue for your company through eBay. eBay Store’s monthly fees is nominal and can easily be paid off from the profit of just a few small sales. eBay Store is set up to where your item can be listed automatically saving your valuable time and making the maintenance of your eBay Store effortless.

Compare this with the majority of businesses out eBay, which may actually take a year or couples of years before they realize any real profits, you will feel satisfied. Is it amazing to make money online selling on eBay?

By simply understanding and knowing what you are doing, you can be very successful doing your online business to make money selling on eBay.

The traffic on eBay is massive, check out the figures for yourself at any source you trust. eBay has a staggering 10 million items on sale at any point in time. The site gets 1.5 billion auction page views each month. This is the key that makes it so easy for ordinary people to make money on eBay. It is simply a matter of taking your products to where the customers are waiting for it. But you need to know what you are doing. It all boils down to getting the formula to maximize your auction effectiveness.

You can be found by more eBay users by being as descriptive as possible in the item description and by using as many keywords as possible that describe your item and industry within the Item Title. Reports show that over 90% of searches on eBay are done using the search facility. What users do not know about eBay search facility is that by default it only searches the item titles – not the descriptions of the items.

Imagine building a website that got more than 10 million unique visitors per Day. Do you think you might be able to find a way to make money online selling on eBay? One of the greatest benefits of selling on eBay is this sheer volume of traffic that you automatically acquire as a registered seller of eBay.

eBay allows you to set up an account with only some basic personal information and a credit card for billing. There is typically no up-front investment required! Meanwhile, you can use PayPal as your tool to collect your money from selling on eBay. If you compare this to traditional business, you have to admit this is for your utility.

One of the main concerns that sellers have about trading on internet is: “How do I know that they are going to pay?” That is not a question at all. eBay and PayPal have protections for sellers and protect buyers also. One protection is “feedback”. This is simply a recorded “comment” (either positive, neutral or negative) left by both the buyer and seller after a transaction ends, telling future buyers and sellers how that particular transaction went.

Just imagine the facts that there are numerous of people making money online. The facts are that there are numerous of people who make money online selling on eBay. So why the next one is not you?

bing zou
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/make-money-online-selling-on-ebay-120858.html

One of the wonderful things about eBay is that they offer a wide variety of different tools to help sellers generate more business. One of the more popular tools that eBay offers its sellers in the eBay Selling Manager, which is a sales management tool that can help you manage your auctions more efficiently. eBay also offers a more inclusive version of their selling tool, called Selling Manager Pro. Both of these tools do come with a low monthly fee that is added to your eBay statement, unless you run an eBay store, in which case it is free.

Deciding which version of the eBay selling tool you need can be tough. To start out, go for the basic package. You can always upgrade if you find you need to later. At the present time, the basic version is only $4.99 per month, so it won’t put a big dent in your budget. If you have a small to medium amount of sales to manage per month, this is all you need. You also get a 30 day free trial with the basic version, so if you decide it’s not right for you and your business needs, you can cancel before your trial is up and not waste any money.

The Pro version offers more tools for higher volumes of sales. If you have a large inventory to manage, the Pro version is probably a better choice for your business. At the moment, the pro version is just $14.99 per month, and it also offers a 30 days free trial. The basic Selling Manager is also free for basic store subscribers, and the Selling Manager Pro tool is available for free to those with a premium or anchored store.

Both tools have software that needs to be downloaded to be utilized. Both software programs support just about any operating system, so you shouldn’t have a problem with compatibility issues. Once the software is downloaded, your eBay selling links will automatically be replaced with your Selling Manager links, making it easy to use the selling tool with your current selling methods.

The software makes it easy to list and re-list your auctions, view scheduled listings, sold items, and closed auctions. You can track your sales, sent bulk invoices and e-mails to customers, and easily leave feedback for all of your buyers using the software. For record keeping purposes, the Selling Manager also lets you download or import your sale information to your computer or into a new Excel spreadsheet, making it easy to track your sales for tax purposes, or for your bookkeeping needs.

The Selling Manager can make boring and tedious tasks quick and easy to manage. You can keep track of your auctions with ease, and stay in contact with your buyers with the click of a button. This eBay tool makes it simple to manage your eBay home business right from your computer without needing to log into eBay, and can boost your efficiency, working like a dedicated employee for you around the clock.

Vickie Sayce