Auction Power Guide

Ebay’s new policy changes have resulted in a huge drop in sales – the biggest I’ve seen in my 10 years of selling on there. Many sellers speak of selling on other sites, but the few that I can find seem to not be worth the time.
What are these sites? Does anyone else sell online?
I sell antique jewelry…

Sales may be down but it could very well be due, in great part, to the economy. This may be especially true if you are selling high-end jewelry. Regardless, people who have been affected by the economy will forgo jewelry to buy necessities.

However, before you jump ship, consider your potential market. How many members does the new auction site have compared to tens of millions of members at ebay? You may be saving money on fees or paying no fees at all but any new auction site will have a small fraction of the members that ebay has. You may sell an item for $10 at another auction site with far, fewer members that would likely sell for substantially more at ebay with its much, much greater membership. This is a classic example of “stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny.”

These smaller auction sites are good for buyers for the same reason that they are bad for sellers:

fewer bidders = less competition = lower closing prices.

These bidders/buyers are smart and have been taking advantage of those sellers who have left ebay.

Ebay is the largest auction site on the web with the most members. There isn’t another auction site that is remotely close, and I do mean remotely close, to having the number of members that ebay has.

Regardless of the fees, I suggest you stick with ebay:

The most members = maximum competition -= higher closing prices

There isn’t another auction site on the web that can hold a candle to ebay and the millions and millions of members it has. Many have tried and many have failed and yet, many are still trying. Ebay has a virtual lock on this business. This is where you want to sell as ebay has the largest potential market. A basic business tenet is ‘The greater the potential market, the greater the potential for maximum profits.’ My advice: Don’t be penny wise and pound-foolish. But the final choice is yours.

Tips to maximize profits:

Do not limit your auctions to one country. SELL WORLDWIDE. The reason is simple. You now have access to the largest market ebay has to offer. Limiting your auctions to only one country also limits your potential market. To maximize profits, sell worldwide. But do say that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from overseas bidders

Do not limit your payment options – Offer all of them. Sellers who offer only PayPal or only money orders or money orders and checks are further limiting their potential market and reducing their potential to maximize profits. Some people will not bid on items that do not have PayPal as an option. Then you have a smaller percentage who refuse to use PayPal and prefer to pay by check only or money order only. For checks, the buyer should have at least 25 positive feedbacks and a 100% feedback rating.

However, if you wish 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 for these overseas bidders.

Several members above mentioned Craigslist. Keep in mind that Craigslist is basically a classified that limits you to a particular geographic region. This drastically limits your potential market. Ebay reaches tens of millions of people. My point is simple. Ask 100 people to name an auction site. What do you think the answer will be 99 to 100 times, Sell-It-Here or eBay? If you want to reach the most people to maximize your profits, ebay is still the way to go despite the economy. Craigslist, for the most part, is for larger and heavier items that are cumbersome to ship easily like furniture, dumbbell sets, cars, swing sets, etc.

Hello,

I am aware of the Lead free law in California, but i live in New Jersey and i have not found anything about it being illegal to sell lead jewelry.
I am going to start a internet business and I am trying to get all lead free/ Nickel free products but in some cases, some products may not be lead free…. i know it is possible that i could sell to someone living in California. If i put "Not Lead Free" in the description, is this ok??

does anyone know of any laws like California in New Jersey? Or selling in the internet?

Pls advise

Hi, im not too sure about US law, but have you considered checking international laws in different countries and targeting them instead ? Im guessing your store is going to be a real world retail store which is good for targeting local sales but i think you should consider starting your business online either to start with or in coherance with you retail store.

The reason is because you will be able to target much more of your market and the costs of having an online store are a lot less than having a physical retail store. You should check this software out – www.esellution.co.uk , im using them for my store at the moment and theyre good cuz i can list all my products, brands, categories, inventory etc and it will create me a store that basically can be placed on Ebay, amazon, facebook etc as well as my own custom website and when i update or change anything, it also changes it for all my stores so i dont have to login to each one and change the details so it saves loads of time. Also it lists all my orders and give me a statistics page showing how many time an item was viewed and sold etc. I would recommend you look into it because i think maybe selling online would get you round this issue but i would deffinately check with a solicitor before hand.

hope this helped 🙂

My wife has recently begun selling on eBay, and she really enjoys it. What are some tips to ensure that she has success in selling?

Right product, right time.

If she’s selling an iPhone for instance right now, or a Wii, she’ll do well, if she’s selling other stuff it’s a crap shoot. Not just electronics though, but general items, she needs to know the market.

Who is she selling to? Who’s on that other end? Are her customers male or female? What’s their income? Why are they buying on ebay and not in the real world? How old are they?

Then she needs to fill the needs of her target market. She can also gear her pitch for her target market. For example if her target market is rich women, and she’s selling jewelry, she may want to use words that make her jewelry sound even more upscale, like "luxurious" or "fabulous" or "couture". Conversely if she were selling jewelry for men to give as gifts to their significant others she may want to use something like "she’ll love it" or "remind her how much you love her with this beautiful ring" or "the perfect engagement ring" or something like that.

So first she needs to know her market. Then she needs to have the right products for that market. High end shoppers don’t want low end goods, and people with low income don’t want expensive goods for example.

Then she needs to know the time. Some products will sell better at different times of year. Jewelry may sell better in summer because of wedding season, socks may sell better in winter because it’s cold, shorts in summer, pants in winter. By knowing when something is popular, and when it’s not, she can avoid posting something at a time when it won’t sell, and thus minimize her risk. Also she can put more of the popular items on at peak times.

She should also know the peak time of day, she can just check bid history, if she puts something out for a week, sporadically through that week she’ll get bidders. If they share a common time range, say 9-midnight or something, after work hours, then she can also figure out when to list things so that the closing time will coincide with the larger amount of customers bidding, and avoid posting something when there’ll be fewer people bidding. Compare it to a regular business, they have set hours because that’s when customers come in, businesses aren’t open when there’s not going to be any customers, that’s just wasting money.

So yeah, know your market, know your customer, have the right product for your market, and the right timing. That’s the best you can do.

I’m applying for various jobs and I was wondering if I should include my ebay selling experience on the resume. I have been selling handmade jewelry and I have a 100% positive feedback. I have been doing this for about 3 years. If I should include this, what do I write for job title and where on the resume should this be included?

Hello Crystals
Resume’s are designed to sell yourself to a perspective employer. You want to put your best foot forward and give the employer a reason to pick you over someone else. That said I would only put it in if it is relevant to the position you are applying. If it is not relevant to the position I would not include it.
Selling on eBay can be a profitable source of income have you thought about selling on eBay as a source for a substantial second income. I have a valuable DVD resource for anyone contemplating making money selling on eBay at: http://onlinemarketplacetips.com/freetraining/

I opened up an eBay store last summer, selling handmade jewelry, keychains and other little knick knacks. Unfortunately, sales have been very slow, the fees are piling up, and eBay as a whole seems to introduce or remove a new feature every few months that tips the balance of power further and further towards the buyers.

Would selling my products in an Amazon store be more ideal? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of running an eBay store vs. an Amazon store?

looked at the folksy site.. quite good. also have you tried ‘oztion.com.au’ its an australian auction site very similar to ebay. it looks good too.. good luck

If you’ve ever tried to sell your work on the tremendously competitive and crowded pages of Ebay, your quick answer to the above question may be no. But don’t be so quick to answer. If you keep these few things in mind, you can have a successful jewelry business on Ebay.
Before I started my website, http://www.a-zjewelrydesign.com/, I sold my jewelry designs exclusively on Ebay. And, as with any business, with an Ebay business, you need to have a business plan. The odds are against you on Ebay if you simply make a few pieces, list them, and hope for the best. Your chances are much better if you spend enough time to develop a significant inventory of several types of items that show your individual style. After all you may only have one chance with an Ebay buyer… if they visit your auctions, and you have only a few unrelated items up for sale, they may never come back. But, on the other hand, if they see a nice inventory of things that they would love to buy, they will bookmark your store.
You will also need a listing/sales strategy. There should be two types of items in your storefront:
Store Items: Have a well thought out inventory of items in your Ebay store. (These items will always be there at a fixed price.) All you need to do is make a sample, upload a photo, and remake the pieces as the orders come in. (Earrings are great store items.) Ebay has a low store-listing price of $.05 per listing, and a monthly $15 store fee. Remember, you will have to sell enough to cover this Storefront expense above and beyond the per piece profit, however.
Auction Items (or fixed price listings): These listings are much more expensive per piece, but, no will find your store without them! It may unnerve you to start a listing at $.01; but, your best bet is to start your auction listings low. Let me give you a typical example that I have seen a hundred times: Sue starts a choker at $9.95, because that is what she paid for the materials. Lisa starts the same choker at $.01. Sue’s item gets zero bids. Lisa’s item sells for $30. Here’s the lesson: The final bidder was willing to pay $30, but she was tempted by the idea that she could get it for nothing. Ebay buyers are always looking for a bargain!
Featured Listings: Another very important thing I learned is that you must have at least one Featured Listing at any given time. You pay a premium for Featured listings on Ebay ($19.95), but they put your listing in the top page of your category for the duration of the listing. Featured Listings are your best portal into this very competitive market of jewelry artisans. You cannot think of the expense of a Featured Listing as a selling expense against the one-featured piece, but as an advertising expense for all your listings and storefront. (For instance; if you have twenty auctions in a week and one is featured, you can consider that you’ve spent $1 per piece to get ebay buyers in the door to your store.)
You must understand that you will not get rich selling handmade jewelry on Ebay! I always felt that what I averaged per piece on Ebay was like wholesale prices. But – let’s face it – if you are selling through stores that resell your work, you will not be making retail on your work either. Plus, you will be running around, schlepping your work, and most likely leaving it on consignment with boutiques. After all, wholesale on ebay is pretty good when you’re able to work from home, list the things you want and make your own hours doing something you love!
The biggest mistake jewelry sellers on ebay make is to step into it too casually. You must have a certain amount of patience, and understand that there will be upfront expenses that will not come back to you immediately. (In what other business venture would we expect such a thing?). If you take the time to study Ebay, watch what the successful sellers are doing and develop your own inventory and a strategy – you can be successful on Ebay!

Linda Blackbourn
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/can-i-make-money-selling-my-handmade-jewelry-designs-on-ebay-70616.html

After using LoveBites and Bruises can anyone offer me advice on selling my custom jewelry online – maybe on ebay – but preferably somewhere free?

you could advertise it on Gumtree – that is a free site.
www.gumtree.com
Good luck with selling your jewelery