Auction Power Guide

I’m in high school and I play sports all year-round, so it’s hard for me to get a job. I remember seeing an infomercial one time about selling on ebay and people making thousands of dollars a month. Now I’m not looking to make that much money, but I want to know how. What do these people sell that they are profiting from? You can’t just sell your own stuff and make money. So what do I do?

If you want to earn serious money from eBay, you need to have a well-thought out business model. Selling on ebay is getting tougher — just look at the number of auctions that closes without a bid. Go to the boards on ebay and you will hear even oldtimers complaining about how stiffer competition plus higher fees make it so much harder to sell on ebay.

The key success factor is: Sell products that people actually want.

Selling on eBay is not as easy as some portray. In fact, go to eBay and check out the number of auctions that end without a single bid. Competition is getting tough, as more sellers go to eBay; even the big boys are joining in the eBay marketplace. Add to that the increasing listing and final value fees.

eBay has several ways for you to determine exactly what the hot items to sell on their marketplace:

Items In Demand = the most popular items currently within that particular category. To see the In Demand page, go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/sellbycategory.html

Hot Items by Category Report = a monthly report that lists the fastest growing categories on eBay for the previous month. Go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html and select "Hot Items by Category" from the menu on the left.

eBay Pulse = "a daily snapshot of current trends, hot picks, and cool stuff on eBay". Go to http://pulse.ebay.com/ to see eBay Pulse in action.

Merchandising Calendar = eBay promotes specific categories on its home page each month. Savvy eBayers know that this home page exposure results in more interest in such categories. Go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/calendar.html to view the current Merchandising Calendar.

But understand that eBay has a minimum age of 18 policy.

I have sold a few personal items on ebay and found it good fun. I’m a student and I need some extra cash, so I was thinking of buying something to regularly resell on ebay. What kind of items will sell with good profit, that are not the same as what everyone else is selling, yet are popular? Is there anything you can never find on ebay that you think there is a lack of?

Toasted Snowballs are always really hard to find…!

In all seriousness though, there is no magic missing item form eBay, but there are plenty of missing magic sellers.

You need to find a niche market – either something that is hard to find, or a unique way to sell an already popular item.

For example, there is a guy in Scotland who has found a loophole in the law that allows him to sell a few square inches of land, but the new owners are then entitled to be called "Laird of the Manor". He makes around £20,000 a month from selling his back garden!

A great example of unique selling was a woman who lost a load of weight who was selling her dresses and clothes, got her husband to model them in the listing pictures! She made the news on a lot of blogs and forums and also made a tidy sum in sales.

The best place to start is to look at your own hobbies and interests and look at what things you buy. Now ask yourself how much do you think they cost to produce, and how much did you pay for it. Do you think you could buy it wholesale and sell it cheaper than your competitors and still make a profit?

It is best to stick to products that you know well and are familiar with – you will have a better sales pitch than if you tried to sell technological products that you may nothave the first idea how they work or what they do.

You say you are a student – what are you studying, and at what level? You could always impart your knowledge on others by creating an eBook to sell. There is some SERIOUS money to be made through Intellectual Property… (trust me on this, do you think I can write answers like this for fun 😉 ?!)

Also have a look at eBay blogs and discussion groups to see what people are talking about, and what people are buying. Ping are doing a range of multi-coloured golfballs that are fetching silly money on eBay, and the Transformers film has launched a resurgence in the old Transformer toys.

My grandma wants to start selling things on Ebay, and we were wondering how you go about shipping the items? Also, if anyone can explain the whole Ebay selling process to me, I don’t know how this stuff works so any info you have will be great! : )

To start selling on eBay, start with the EBAY SELLING BASICS page http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/howtosell/sellingbasics.html

Remember though, if you want to earn serious money from eBay, you need to have a well-thought out business model. Selling on ebay is getting tougher — just look at the number of auctions that closes without a bid. Go to the boards on ebay and you will hear even oldtimers complaining about how stiffer competition plus higher fees make it so much harder to sell on ebay.

The key success factor is: Sell products that people actually want.

It is important to determine exactly what the hot items to sell on their marketplace. Use eBay Pulse = "a daily snapshot of current trends, hot picks, and cool stuff on eBay".

As for items to sell, you can:

1. Buy bulk liquidation items such as those at Liquidation.com. The capitalization may be big, but the idea is to sell the items individually and profit from it.

2. Find manufacturers of items you want to sell and buy discounted items from them

3. Make deals with retailers in your area, and offer to buy their unwanted items for deep discounts. jayandmarie – the most successful ebay sellers – made deals with music stores where they will buy the entire inventory in the discounted bins, and then sold the items on ebay for 1-cent starting bid.

4. Look for possible partners on the Web, preferably outside of the US. Import items from them and sell them on ebay. There’s huge profits to gain from this approach.

5. Check out deals from outlet stores. Focus on brand names, which you will find to be easier to sell.

As for shipping, many sellers have bought weighing scales that can give the weight of the item. You can then use that information to put in on eBay so eBay can calculate the shipping for you.

Haggling over price is a cultural thing. More common in some foreign countries, no one expects to pay the asked for price.  That’s always just a starting point.  Poke around on the Internet and look for articles on “price haggling” and “bargaining.”  One article we saw noted that in certain countries the first thing the seller does when they see you are a foreigner is ask you where you’re from, what nationality.

This tells them how far they can go in getting the most out of you in terms of price. They know the globe by national nature, which nationalities are hesitant to haggle over prices and which aren’t. Supposedly, Germans are the easiest marks and will pay the first asked for price most often, and the second easiest touches are Americans.

It’s just not part of our culture. We are used to shopping in stores where things have price tags on them. Never would we go up to the counter in Macy’s with a men’s shirt marked at $ 39.99 and say to the lady behind the counter, “I’ll give you fifteen bucks for it.”

They’d look at you like you were daft, a loon. Yes, bargaining is in style in more informal settings, such as garage and lawn sales in the United States, but by and large, Americans tend to shop around looking for bargains, comparing prices, not bargaining with individual sellers to make their own.

The Internet is changing that, with popular auction sites like E-bay and the concept of “Best Offer.” What is Best Offer?”

Well, at noted Dell computer laptop leader www.merkamericaco.com, “Best Offer” is just what it sounds like. If you see the “Make Offer” button below the “Buy it Now” price in the listing, it means that Merk America will accept Best Offers from buyers. What that means is that you can negotiate the price with www.merkamericaco.com, for example, if the price says one thing and you just sigh and wish it were lower? MAKE it lower! No shame or harm in asking. That’s what Best Offer is all about. Cyber-Haggling! You negotiate the price with Merk America and rather than go hunting around on the Internet for a lower price? Make a reasonable offer that you can afford and are willing to pay right on the spot and it gives you the chance to see whether or not the folks at www.merkamericaco.com are willing to move the item out of their inventory quicker rather than let it sit waiting for someone to come along and pay the full marked price. Merk America can either accept, decline, or even make you a counter-offer. It’s like being in a foreign market haggling over a souvenir item on vacation. It can be fun, save you the time of looking elsewhere and of course, save you money in the long run.

Caution, though, you should be serious about your “Best Offers,” and you should only use this feature when you are serious about and really want the item but just feel you should or might be able to get it at a lower price. No vendor likes sitting inventory. A sale is a sale and a moved piece of inventory is quickly replaced with another item for sale. It’s the way to make money. Keeps the inventory moving. That’s why www.merkamericaco.com embraces the “Best Offer” concept wholeheartedly. Also, if your offer is accepted by the seller, you’re obligated to pay for the item, so be a tough bargainer and negotiator, but don’t just play games.

Perpetual Designs
http://www.articlesbase.com/laptops-articles/best-offer-for-serious-money-savers-only-746568.html