Auction Power Guide

How do I make a profit selling on ebay? I have plenty of stuff to sell. And please don’t tell me to read those books.

To do this, you should take good, clear pictures, and learn to write nice descriptions with all the important details.

If i see two people on ebay selling the same thing, i will almost always bid higher for the item that has the best, clearest pictures and a good description that’s not full of crap or disinformation or lies or fluff.

You probably should NOT sell your best items until you get practice on selling, and get some feedback built up.

Many years ago, i tried to sell an engagement ring and i only had 2 feedbacks. People would email me and demand that i use Escrow, and some even told me that they would bid if i had higher feedback score, etc. I ended up selling it for a lot less than I should have, because i was inexperienced.

SO, sell a few books and trinkets first to get the hang of eBAy. In the mean time,learn what the value of your better items is.

The best tool is to use eBay itself. Look under the completed listings section (Advanced Search) and see what similar items actually sold for.

Don’t outright copy people’s listings, because that’s illegal. But it’s perfectly ok to learn from them.

Now, if you want to truly make profits – that is.. buy things cheap and sell them for more than you paid for them.. the key is your BUYING skills. Buying and sourcing really has nothing to do with eBay. Ebay just gives you the platform from which to sell your stuff. The buying part is up to you. After you sell all your stuff from your home, the next step is to learn how to source products. And make sure you only sell things you’re knowledgeable about.
Sourcing ideas are garage sales, auctions, even retail stores if the item is marked down significantly. Selling things to foreigners is a good way to increase profits. There is more risk in shipping stuff to ENgland or Sweden or Germany, but these Europeans like American stuff and sometimes pay a lot for it. But sell things Domestically first, to get the hang of it. Then move worldwide.

Also, sometimes you can use eBay to buy stuff to resell on eBay. But usually you can’t do this profitably until you have lots of experience, and you are buying from someone who is not experienced.

Finally, you should learn what eBay’s fees are. They definitely eat into your profits, and are approximately 9 to 15% all together, including PayPal fees.
So, if you sell something for 50 dollars, eBay and PayPal will probably take up to 7 dollars right off the top 🙁
So, if you paid 43 dollars for that item and sold it for 50, you didn’t make ANY profit. Ebay took it all 🙁

Finally (again) – eventually you will need to get your business and tax paperwork filed. If you sell one or two things a year, no one will care. But if you sell hundreds of items a year, you will be owing taxes. And of course that eats into profits too, for Uncle Sam and your State.

Trying to learn how to start selling on Ebay – I have a paypal buyer account – will it work for selling? Do they charge you any fees?

Yes it works both ways. You can also use it to request money with out selling on eBay and it has a great savings rate if you want to keep your profits in one place. The fee charged depends on the total dollar amount charged including your shipping charges. You are not charged when you use the account to purchase items on eBay. If for any reason you have to refund a buyer you get the fee returned. It also has a great link for shipping with the post office and UPS. You can pay your shipping right out of your Paypal balance. Best of all you can give your packages to your local carrier instead of running to the PO all the time. Good luck.

I like to sell goods to eBay but I do not from where I can buy goods to sell it in eBay ? Can anyone tell me ?
I wanted to say that I will not buy goods those will sell to ebay. I wanted to know who can give me the goods to sell on ebay and after selling goods he/she/they will get price of that goods and I will receive my commission selling her/his/their goods in ebay!

It seems you want to be a "consignment seller" or "trading assistant"

As in you want to list other peoples items and then charge a commission off the sale.

This business model tends to fail but if you want to pursue it -put up flyers around your community, get the word out that you offer this service.

Churches, colleges, supermarket bulletin boards.

I write about stuff like this in my blog here

http://sunforged.wordpress.com/category/ebay-selling-tips/

To be an official ebay "trading assistant" you need a feedback level of 100.

Auctiva.com offers free listing accounts that includes options to keep track of consignment sales.

Google "consignment sales" "trading assistant" and read my blogs as i write them, lol

But, it would be more profitable to sell your own product- check your local craigslist, buy and haggle for stuff you know will sell well and high- i averaged 1200 a month profits at one point buying only wiis and xboxes off craigslist for resale – usually with less that 15 auctions a month! my business has since expanded, but its a great start for seed money

I am going to put up some old clothes on Ebay soon and was wondering what should I call my listing.
The clothes are mostly a mixed lot of teen clothes and a handbag.
Some of the brands are Von Dutch. Valley Girl, Supre, Jeans West, and so on.

I was just wondering what title would attract you to these items?

I would try to put some of the more prominent brand names in the title:

Von Dutch. Valley Girl, Supre, Jeans West Clothes

You are limited, of course, in the length of a title but don’t worry. Prospective buyers can search all listings by title as well as the text in the descriptions in one search. So it really makes little difference.

I don’t know if you are more interested in making a decent profit (read return) on these clothes or a busy person who wants to be ‘done with it’ in one sale with little or no concern for profit/return. The point is that grouped items in one listing will NOT get you as much $ as if they were listed separately.

More expensive (higher priced), similar items are best sold individually to maximize profits. 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.

How can I make my money work for me, to make more money?

Hi Lex,

You can make money from your writings in several ways. You can sell you writings in the form of an e book or report on Ebay. You can sell it in the form of a newsletter on your web page and ask people to subscribe for a small fee.

Another alternative method is to write your article for free but attach a link to it for some product which the article is promoting. There are lots of products on the web which you can sell for other people and earn a good commission. Sometimes up to 70% commission. Examples of such websites are Commission Junction, and Click Bank. You can submit this article with the link to hundreds of Article Directory websites for free.

The advantage of this is that you will have loads of links on the internet promoting your product. This in turn will lead to sales and profits!.Please don’t blatantly promote the product in your article and don’t include links to it in the body of the article. Most Article Directories will decline such articles.

I seek to make money betting on sports. I was hoping a sports betting system is available with accurate betting predictions. I heard of people using sports betting systems before. I just dont know of any sports betting system. please share a sports betting system that you use and has accurate sports betting predictions. Is it possible to even make money betting on sports?

"I seek to make money betting on sports" god bless you stranger! if only it was that easy!

you can argue whether systems exist – assuming there are some out there – most are not widely known to the masses!

once everyone gets ahold of the information – the bookmakers adjust the lines – and often the high % they were winning at before becomes diminished!

There is really no systems out there that is public knowledge that produces a high volume of plays in ANY sport

One of the biggest examples of a system being available on the net for sale and did kind of work – was someone on Ebay a few years ago – sold systems beating both MLB and NBA in 3 game chase systems – it hit a very high % however you were always betting favorites and one 3 game loss would wipe out anywhere to 8 to 12 one game wins. if your just betting -110 and chasing to 3 games you need 8 times the amount for a 3 game series. In baseball you can have favs anywhere from -150 to -200 so chase amounts like that and it was highly risky if you lost 3 games in a row

someone stole the system and is now marketing it bigtime to the masses as John Morrison

He is a FRAUD!

there is sports betting systems you can play individually but they NEVER win all the time – if your going the chase route – you win alot as you should win 1 in 3 games – but one losing streak can wipe out alot of work and small profits

is it possible? YES but you need to have realistic goals – depending on your bankroll –

its unrealistic to expect to double your bankroll in a season unless you are very lucky or not playing high stakes or both!

The number of people who can make a living betting sports is probably under 1% of those who try

you need a huge bankroll which can never be said enough – yet money alone does not mean you will make money gambling. You do need to do the work – have the discipline and even luck!

its an art – not a science!

someone once said about the game of poker – there is no silver bullet – no one thing you can teach or say to someone that can make you a good player – the same goes for sports betting!

It takes alot of effort – and dedication – and skill – and even then you are going against the laws of statistics that suggest despite your BEST efforts you are favored to lose!

Good Luck:)

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.

Im new to selling on ebay, i have listed a few items for sale an hour or so ago. While they appear in "my ebay" I can’t find them online when searching, and when i look at my member profile it says i have no items for sale. How long should it usually take for them to be listed online? Any tips appreciated, thanks 🙂

eBay updates their database every 15 minutes so you should see a new item within 15 minutes of listing. It takes about a day for Google and the other search engines to index it so keep that in mind when you choose a listing time. Make sure that ebay is not having a problem or that you saved a draft and didn’t publish the listing. Also you may have disabled cookies (which are mandatory).

Did you know that you can profit from Wigix without even selling products? And selling items under $25 is free. Sign up for free and become a category expert, add products to the catalog for 5% profit sharing and sign up friends and make money on their profits.

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I just got a website full of products to sell on ebay but the problem is that I don’t know what starting price I should put my items on Ebay. For Example: I’m want to sell a Playstation 3 40GB with Grand Theft Auto 4 and a PS3 Network Blue Ray Disc.

Wholesale Price0 : $411.99
Sale Price :$599.99
My Profit: $188.00

I ask this question before and someone told me that on ebay I need to churn items quickly and not worry about profit and if I make $188.00 per item and sell 1 item but if I make $50.00 per item but sell 12 i will make more money. Is this some kind of wholesale selling technique to sell wholesale products and make profits? How will I make more money by selling 12 PS3 systems and make $50.00 per item if the wholesale price is 411.99 per item?Please explain carefully step by step so I can understand it easily.

I think the point they were trying to make is that if you ask $599 for them, they might not sell, but if you ask $461 for them, they will sell. Would you rather make $50 profit per item and get rid of them, or ask $188 profit per item and be stuck with them?

This is all your choice. You can do whatever you want. You can sell them for any amount you want to ask. The person who advised you was just trying to make a point that it’s easier to make a smaller profit than a large one.

I have a lot of clothes that I would like to sell on Ebay but I have never sold anything on ebay, has anyone sell use clothes on ebay? what are some tips to sell stuff on ebay? what are some recommendations to sale my stuff on ebay?

If you can put someone in the clothes and take ‘neck down’ front / back 3/4 pictures that would be best as they would have more appeal. My clothes look better on me than they do on a hanger.

You can go to ebay for a tutorial for the basics on how to be a seller:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/selling-basics.html

But to get to the nitty-gritty………………..:

There are no secrets………..just common sense + hard work!

Be honest and accurate in your descriptions – Use lots of adjectives in your descriptions. Adjectives make prose and your items come alive. Without them, prose is dull and your items less appealing. Just add a little ‘sizzle’ and even have a little fun with it. In short, make your descriptions stand out above the crowd.

Be professional – use good English with no spelling errors – AVOID ALL CAPS TEXT

PICTURES:

Including one picture is a MUST, more pictures for higher priced items. Make sure your pictures are clear. There are far too many pictures on ebay that are dark. If prospective buyers can’t see your items clearly, your items, more than likely, will not fetch the closing prices they deserve. To remove darkness, use any photo editor to add some brightness and a wee bit of contrast.

Eliminate clutter. Use a SOLID backdrop when taking your pictures as you want to focus all of the attention on your item. In short, the one and only thing you want in your picture is the item being sold. A SOLID white or light blue backdrop is best. You should also crop the photos in your photo editor. Good pictures can add 5% to 10% to final closing prices.

GOOD DESCRIPTIONS + GOOD PICTURES = GOOD PRESENTATION. This is what you should strive for.

TIPS TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS:

Do not limit your auctions to one country. SELL WORLDWIDE. The reason is elementary. You now have access to the largest market ebay has to offer. Limiting your auctions to only one country also limits your potential profits. A basic business tenet is, ‘the greater the potential market, the greater the potential to maximize profits.’ But do note in your listing that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from overseas bidders/buyers. Through experience, you will learn that there are certain problem countries. Italy seems to be one of them. Mail sent to buyers in Italy very often ‘mysteriously disappears.’ If this is the case, just note in your listing you sell to all countries EXCEPT (name(s) here).

However, if you decide to limit sales to only one country, such as the USA, never say NO when you receive an email asking if you would ship to Taiwan, Germany, Australia or wherever. The reason is that you have a ‘FISH ON THE HOOK!’ This person will bid! When he or she does, this may force a previous bidder to enter another, higher bid or force later, first time bidders to come in with higher bids. So always say YES to these emails if you want to maximize your profits. But do say that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from these overseas bidders

Avoid selling ‘nickel and dime’ items. People who list and sell a steady stream of items that close for $5 or less are wasting their time. Less expensive, similar items ($5 or less) are best sold as a group to save time. If you have a large number of these cheaper, similar items, divide them up into sub lots of three, four or five.

More expensive (higher priced), similar items are best sold individually to maximize profits. 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.

If you wish to do your listings offline, download the Turbo Lister program free from eBay. You can then upload them ‘en masse’ anytime.

SHIPPING: Most sellers use Priority Mail. Get the Priority Mail rates from the USPS web site & a $15-$20 postal scale from eBay.

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!