Auction Power Guide

Hello my name is Erick and my dad and I want to open up an eBay business selling old car parts. We have a bunch of old car parts and I wanted to know if it is worth opening a eBay business. Also, what are the pros and cons of opening it and if there is any tips on opening a business. Thank you.

Hi Erick

Opening an eBay business can be very rewarding and profitable. I would start small by listing a few parts and gaging your response from buyers as to the demand for your products.

You have 2 ways of listing your products,
1) to do the conventional auction listing.
2) Buy it now listing.

Both have their benefits and draw backs as you can imagine. I would be tempted in your case to go for the buy it now system as you are able to obtain a higher selling price I would imagine. Unless the parts you propose to sell are very rare and widely sort after.

Shipping is a very important point to think about. I would call your local UPS depot and talk to them to see what they can offer on shipping rates. Most shipping companies are always willing to talk about their prices and give brake’s to businesses who ship large volumes. Some of your smaller parts I would imagine could be shipped using USPS, Priority Mail. THey offer all the boxes free and you can pack quite a lot of weight into the boxes, up to 70lbs for a very reasonable rate.

Most eBay sellers miss a very simple listing point when selling items, that is to give good contact information. Buyers feel better and are willing to pay more if they feel they can contact the seller easy. I would not only allow them to contact me through eBay but I would also use a Skype telephone number. You can place a recorded message on it and get back to them later if necessary. This seems to give you more credibility and so more sales.

Photographs are another must have. The more pictures the better. Buyers want to see the item from many different angles. Don’t forget the buyer cant touch the item so they rely on the pictures to give them a better idea as to the condition of the item. I would not use eBay’s picture hosting as it is too expensive. Find a business’s that does picture hosting or a business the does both picture hosting and eBay templates. It will save you a lot of money over the course of a year.

eBay Templates! These are a must have. They make your listing look professional and neat. It is a proven fact that templates do increase the selling price of items. You can find many online businesses offering templates for you to use. Remember look for one that hosts your images as well as having templates. Expect to pay around $8.00 per month for their service. Some but not all of these businesses have a huge information system to help you sell on line so they are worth the investment. Also a lot offer the first 30 days free.

Payment is another option you need to consider very closely. Are you going to accept only PayPal? or will you allow customers to send you checks or money orders. The more payment options you have open the wider your market place is. A lot of older people do not like to use systems like PayPal and would rather send a check or money order. Obtaining your own payment gateway can be expensive when you first start. I f your business flourishes, then I would possibly consider one in about 12 months time.

Customers inquiries. These can be a pain, people do not tend to read the item description for some reason and will often send you a message asking about a feature you have explained in the listing. MAKE sure you always answer these questions quickly, as this shows you are a serious eBay seller and that your customers matter to you. I know it sounds stupid stating the obvious but you would be surprised at how many online sellers do not do it.

I am willing to spend £300 (or slightly more if i am getting value for my money) on a good telescope. I was trying to find one by myself but i dont know what size the lens has to be or anything like that for it to be a good telescope. When you recommend telescopes please state the statistics and tell me what kind of things i would expect to see like saturn, venus, jupiter or even the andromeda galaxy (i know you can see it without a telescope but it would be much appreciated if you would explain how much detail i would expect to see these in.
Thank you so much.

Well, …, That’s great news! You’ll find that astronomy is a really rewarding pursuit. Buying a scope can be a very personal and gratifying decision or it can be one fraught frustration and disappointment. Your local astronomy club has no loyalty to any brand of scope but we will be happy to give you some advice with respect to scope selection.

1) To Start, Let me suggest first that you read the article wrt to scope ownership: http://www.raleighastro.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=180
2) You may wish to go out to one of your local club’s observing sessions and talk to some of the club members about their scopes and try looking through a few of them. Most astronomy club members are very friendly and will be more than happy to give you all kinds of tips on the pros and cons of scope ownership.

3) Joining your local astronomy club is an excellent way to learn about astronomy, whether you own a scope or not. In fact our club recommends that you don’t buy a scope until you have an opportunity to see some of the scopes that our club members own.

4) One of the benefits of joining your local astronomy club is that, as a paid member, you can participate in the club’s telescope loaner program for free. Not all clubs offer this service so check with your club first. In the case of our club we will actually lone you a decent working telescope for 3 – 6 months so that you can get a real opportunity to "try before you buy". Now, we do not sell telescopes or make profits from the sale of telescopes. However, if you doesn’t offer such a program they can still help you with locate a reputable manufacturer who will sell you one.

5) Once you acquire a telescope your local astronomy club will help you (at your request) learn to use the scope. Many clubs offer free periodic telescope tuneup clinics, as well as, lots of free personal advice on telescope operation and observing techniques.

6) Finally, if after all this you still want to buy a telescope before talking with club members, let me suggest that you do the following (my personal opinion):
6.1) Only buy a scope from a telescope manufacturer or dealer whose primary business is the sale of telescopes.
6.2) Do not buy a scope from a department store, ebay, or warehouse chain (most of these scopes are trash and will not hold up and will perform poorly)
6.3) Do not buy a "goto" or "equatorial" mounted scope. They look cool and promise to do great things but they are very frustrating to setup and operate.
6.4) Do not buy a scope with less than a 6" mirror in it. 6" is the minimum size needed to observe (in detail) deep sky objects.
6.5) Do not by scopes that feature 400X or "super" powers of magnification. Magnification has very little to so with observing. Rather the ability to gather light through a large opening (or aperture) of the primary objective (e.g. 6" mirror) bears more infulence on what you can see through a telescope than than does magnification.
6.6) Look at a few of the following links for some suggested scope examples:
http://www.telescope.com/control/dobsonians/classic-dobsonian-telescopes
http://www.telescope.com/control/dobsonians/intelliscope-dobsonian-telescopes
6.7) Finally, feel free to ask us any question you may have about purchasing a telescope, telescope ownership, or astronomy.
6.8) You really want something that’s easy to transport, simple to setup, and easy to operate. This is why we suggest a 6" to 8" donsonian style scope as a first scope. They are simple to use, easy to transport, and can be setup in a matter of seconds.

I notice you’re in the UK and you should be able to buy a decent dobsoninan 6" to 8" scope int he £300 range. See the last link below for a UK company that sells a 6" and 8" dobsonian scopes in your proce range.

Pros and Cons of Selling on eBay

Are you interested in becoming an eBay seller? If you are, you are definitely not alone, as eBay has become a relatively quick and easy way to make money online. Each day, a large number of individuals use eBay to make extra money from home and a few lucky ones are even able to make enough money to support themselves or their families. Before you jump on the eBay selling bandwagon, you are advised to take a few minutes and examine the pros and cons of selling on eBay.

One of the many pros, or plus sides, to selling on eBay is the fact that is it is relatively easy to do.  Once you create an eBay account, you can start listing items that you have in your possession for sale right away.  When doing so, it is also easy to do.  eBay has a step-by-step process for listing items for sale, in traditional auction formats or buy it now formats.  In fact, eBay also has a program that lets you compile your auctions, with pictures and descriptions, when you aren’t even connected to the internet.  As soon as you connect to the internet, you can begin to upload your listings and have them start right away. 

Another one of the many pros to selling on eBay is that just about anyone can do it.  You don’t have to have big fancy, expensive items to sell on eBay.  In fact, a large number of those selling on eBay are just selling items that are taking up space in their homes; items they don’t want anymore.  If you are interesting in becoming an eBay seller, but you aren’t sure as to how much you can depend on eBay for income, you may want to think about testing the waters.  You can do this by listing the items have you have around your home for sale.  Items that tend to sell relatively well are lots, or groups, of toys and infant clothing. 

While there are a number of pros, or plus sides, to selling on eBay, there are also a number of cons, or downsides, to doing so as well.  One of the biggest cons or downsides to selling on eBay is the competition.  As it was previously mentioned, a large number of internet users have started using eBay to make extra money or even make a living. This is what leads to multiple auction listings for the exact same items.  While this is nice for the eBay buyers, it can hurt you as a seller.  When the supplier is higher than the demand, you may not make as much money off of your items as you had originally hoped to, if they even sell at all.

Another downside to selling on eBay is the fees associated with doing so.  In recent years, eBay has redone their fee structure, often to raise their fees.  Although these fees are still considered relatively low, they could put a damper on your profits, which alone are sometimes hard to come by.  Of course, there are ways that you can the most out of eBay fees.  For instance, if you have a “hot seller,” you could start your auction out at a low price, as the fees are less for doing so; however, you are taking a gamble, as you never have any guarantees as for how much your items will sell for.  Perhaps, the unknown is one of the biggest downsides to selling on eBay; you never really know if you are going to make money or even if you will end up losing money.

As you likely already know, the decision as to whether or not you want to become an eBay seller is yours to make, but, when making your decision, you are advised to keep the above mentioned points in mind. With a relatively equal amount of pros and cons, you may be wondering what your best option is.  For more accurate information, you may want to think about testing the eBay seller waters, as you are able to sell whenever you want, with no minimum auction requirements.

Simon Fusco
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-ideas-articles/pros-and-cons-of-selling-on-ebay-698291.html

Ebay has provided some amazing opportunities for many people to earn online. This widely popular auction site has become the primary destination for users who wish to purchase anything ranging from tangible products to digital items hence making eBay a website visited by millions of people every day. Because of the volume of transactions happening in its pages, eBay has also become a virtual market place where thousands, if not millions, of dollars exchange hands on a daily basis as well.

Do you want a piece of that big, big pie?

Then you must first have to establish an eBay store.

Now, this is not a strong recommendation. This article is not meant as a sales pitch for a membership with eBay, rather, it seeks to present the advantages and disadvantages of building your own eBay store. You must remember that eBay isn’t the only place where you could peddle your goods. It is a good place where you could sell your items, but there are other alternatives you could consider. Should you settle with eBay? Or should you explore the alternative options? Let’s study the matter more closely.

There are most certainly a lot of benefits that could be gained from establishing your own eBay store. Let’s take a look at them.

You’d be able to sell in a hotly visited environment. You’ll be able to expose your products to a wide array of prospects.

Once you have upgraded to a Featured Store, you’d be given $30 worth of PPC keywords per month. This means that your store would appear prominently in the results for the particular keywords that users will search for. Such would most certainly drive more traffic to your auctions.

A Featured Store would also deliver some advanced reports for your auctions. You could use the statistics delineated therein to improve the way you construct your sales pages, and the way you present your items for better efficiency in your future offers.

A Featured Store will also allow you more eBay pages, which would mean more exposure for your products. It’s still a numbers game. The more auctions you have running, the more earning opportunities you could capitalize on.

A Featured Store would allow you to reduce the size of the eBay banner appearing in your every auction. This would give you the chance to work on your page and bring the focus of your visitors to the items you will be selling.

Ebay provides a certain level of seller protection and dispute resolution for potential problems you might encounter with your buyers.

Though these are great advantages for your online business, please bear in mind that they do not come without cost. There are also other disadvantages that are attached to having your own eBay store.

Ebay stores don’t come free. A basic store setup would cost $15.95 per month. A Featured Store status would cost an even higher $49.95 per month. And the king of all kings, an Anchor Store, would require you to spend an onerous $499.95 per month.

Having your own eBay store would pressure you to perform well when it comes to your sales. Though some may consider this as a benefit since such will motivate the seller to plan his course of action, the dangers will be experienced when you fail to earn enough profit to cover the cost of your subscription.

People go to eBay expecting the best deals in the online market. You have to compete at this level, otherwise, the moment people would see the going rate for your auction, they’d immediately hop to the next item up for sale.

You’d be bound by eBay’s selling policies. You cannot go around some of these restrictive policies, otherwise, you account can get suspended, or worse, terminated.

Establishing an eBay store is a solid choice for a business model. But you have to determine your goals as well as your marketing plan. Would an eBay store help you accomplish them? Or would selling your own goods in your own website, or through some affiliate automation program be better for your online business?

The choice is yours.

Of course, it’s impossible to put everything about ebay into just one article. But you can’t deny that you’ve just added to your understanding about ebay, and that’s time well spent.

William Rodgers
http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/the-pros-and-cons-in-establishing-an-ebay-store-79807.html

Most many people have heard about, participated in or bought a book through what is referred to as an Amazon most desirable seller campaign. There are some Amazon campaigns that are tremendously properly planned, when other people are lacking in most approaches.

The question in most authors thoughts is How do I come to be an Amazon most desirable seller Initially of all, you have to have a program. You do not even have to have a book at this point you just have to have to have a program.

1 of the most valuable items in your program is the date you are going to do the launch. You also have to have to program on who will be the project manager of the web based bestseller campaign you or an individual else.

There are pros and cons to each. If you do it oneself, it is going to be a lot way more expense productive. In spite of this, you have to have to make confident you have systems in location ahead of you launch your campaign. If you do not you can basically have a tremendous failure and you can let a lot of many people down by not getting systems in location.

If you program to employ an knowledgeable campaign coordinator you will probably pay thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars for their services.

This might possibly appear like a lot of revenue, but when you look into all that is involved, it can be a marvelous way for you to come to be a bestselling author with exceptionally small perform on your portion as far as the promoting goes. Hiring an web based bestseller campaign coordinator is like hiring a PR individual.

The job of the campaign coordinator is to secure the perfect type of partners and bonuses. They have to have ongoing communication with the partners. They have to either style the webpage or have the webpage developed.

Just about every individual contracted for aspects of the campaign have to be figured into the spending budget. The campaign coordinator offers with any challenges that can take place through the arranging and implementation stages. Challenges can incorporate JV partners pulling out at the last minute, slow response time from partners, and convincing a publisher this is a viable way to sell books.

With the perfect program, vision and team you can stay clear of most of the challenges an inexperienced individual will encounter.