Auction Power Guide

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.

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 think it would b really kool to drive one even though they r really old and it might b hard to find parts for it

Hudson pick-ups are beautifully styled – but much rarer than Studes.

Stude made very rugged trucks. Better to find one with the 225/245 6 or a V8 rather than the 169/185 Champion 6 which was a lighter-duty engine. But for truck use, they built their engines with HD valves, timing gears, bearings.

Although Stude cars have been out of production since 1966, and trucks since 1964, mechanical parts aren’t that all hard to find. One reason is as their sales declined, they couldn’t afford to change their models much from year-to–year, so most parts interchange between many years.

And have you checked eBay for Studies & parts – no shortage there !!!

Company’s like Flipkart, Infibeam, Inkfruit, Myntra, Fashion retail etc and Small start ups
Do they really stock all the products which they display on their website? or do they use drop shipping technique where products are delivered directly from manufacturer to the end consumer.

Dropshipping is an excellent way to start and get your business of the ground, thats what i am doing on ebay.

When my business gets out of hand (eg, a thousand sales a day) then I will get a warehouse and employees etc also I will get higher discounts from wholesaler since I will be buying larger quantities.

You can not know weather a website has their own warehouse or are dropshipping unless it says it on their website or they tell you.

an also how much bandwidth would be required to run an auction that just handle auction sales within the United States only.

You’d probably need over 100mbps bandwidth (traffic can get hot and heavy as a popular item gets down to the last minute) and you can’t do it on a single computer. (You’ll also need enough UPS to hold everything on line until the generator stabilizes, dual [at least] internet connections going to different offices over different routes [to prevent a disconnect if someone takes a pole down in an accident], air conditioning that can handle the load [and the UPS and generator have to be able to handle the AC] … etc. Oh – and a 24/7/365 on site staff.)

IOW, if you’re planning to do this on your own – plan to enter the presidential race as an independent this weekend – and win. That’s easier.

Are there any fees? And how does the shipping work, how do you ship it out.

Yes you do. There’s a list of ebay listing charges at http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

PayPal does not charge for personal accounts – https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside

You need to set a realistic price for shipping and ebay has a shipping calculator based on yours and buyers zip code. http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/shipping-costs.html

However some people advise to use a fixed shipping fee – http://www.auction-tips-and-techniques.com/fixed-shipping.html

USPS has a cost calculator – http://postcalc.usps.gov/ so does UPS – http://www.theupsstore.com/qcc/qcc.asp Remember when using these you need the total weight of the package including packaging.

Many people have been using ebay for a long time and know roughly how much shipping should be so don’t go over the top when adding items like the packing materials and your time. Apart from losing sales – I, for one, won’t buy from people who are over the top on their handling fees – it is against ebay policy – http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-shipping.html

I am currently very interested in making money for my future, therefore I have been interested in selling items on ebay to produce a healthy sum of profit. I am going to start selling things from the video game industry, (consoles, games, accesories). This is due to the fact that my interests lie in this region, however, I would like to know any other profitable things worth selling on ebay.

I wouldn’t suggest anyone to become a seller on eBay. The most important thing you need to know is: 1) eBay does a very poor job to enforce winning bidder to honor their bids. 2) you are always the last person who gets paid. First of all, you need to pay eBay insertion fee and final value fee. FVF only applies if your item is successfully sold. Second of all, you will be charge a PayPal transaction fee for payment processing service. Then you need to pay USPS, UPS, or DHL to deliver the item to the buyer. The left over amount, minus your cost and 15% of government tax, will be the actual amount that goes into your pocket.
Although eBay claims your item might be eligible for an insertion fee credit if your item didn’t sell or the winner didn’t honor the bid. However, you can only use it once. In order to be eligible for the insertion fee credit if your winner didn’t pay, you will need to first of all file an Unpaid Item dispute on the 8th day after the auction ended. Then you’ll have to wait another week for the winner to response. If the winner didn’t response, then you can relist your item and get your insertion fee credit when your item is sold the second time. However, if the Non Paying Bidder reply to eBay says they want to complete the transaction, then you’ll lose the eligibility EVEN THOUGH THEY STILL HAVEN’T PAY YOU.
Remember, never ever use the “Sell Similar” feature even you have like 100 identical items because once you list your item through “Sell Similar”, you’re consider relisting your item and you are automatically not eligible for insertion fee credit. Tricky huh?
The most stressful part is their feedback system. Sometimes, there are sick people out there, they bid on your item just to mess around. Some even leave you a negative feedback just for fun. eBay will not do anything to remove it. Even though you think you’re undeserved, eBay will not remove it unless they are presented with a valid court order stating that the comment is slanderous, libelous, defamatory or otherwise illegal. eBay doesn’t remove Feedback without a court order, even if a member believes it is retaliatory, false, unfair, or harmful to his or her name, character, or reputation.
But these are nothing compares to their new feedback policy starting in May 2008. Sellers are no long able to leave negative feedback for bidder. Sellers can only leave positive feedback. Yup! Even the winner doesn’t pay; you still cannot leave negative feedback to him or her. The seller will have no way to find out the credibility of the bidder.
eBay constantly changes their policy. They always have something new comes up everyday and it is almost impossible for sellers to catch up.
Sometimes if eBay thinks your shipping charge is unreasonable, your listing will be removed without prior notice. They may also suspends your account permenantly and will not let you reinstated no matter how many emails you sent to them.
Also, if you’re new to PayPal, even thought you have shipped your item to your buyer, PayPal will hold your fund for 21 days. That’s right, you won’t get paid for 3 weeks even though you have to pay your vendor, the shipping cost, and all the fees that listed above. Here’s the stupid rule that makes new seller’s life in hell:

PayPal and eBay are working together to make payments for eBay items even safer. Because we want both buyers and sellers to feel confident about sending and receiving payments through PayPal, we may temporarily hold payments for items sold on eBay.
Make sure to ship the item right away, so you’ll have access to the funds sooner. We’ll release the hold in 21 days unless you receive a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal on the transaction subject to the hold. We may release the hold earlier if either of the following occurs:
• The buyer leaves you positive feedback on eBay.
• We confirm that the item was delivered.* We can confirm delivery if you ship the item with USPS, FedEx, or UPS and either use PayPal shipping labels or upload tracking information from the transaction details page. This applies to transactions within the United States.
Additional hold period
If you receive a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal on the transaction subject to the hold, we may hold the payment until the problem is resolved.
Learn more about the PayPal policy for payments holds on eBay items.

eBay is not a safe trading place for sellers. Especially for beginners. The buyer can do whatever they want and PayPal always favor the buyer. For instance, the bidder can file a dispute to Paypal claiming the item is not as described. Paypal will then ask the buyer to return the item to the seller. As long as the buyer can provide a tracking number and shows the item is being delivered. The buyer will instantly get their money back even though they just sent an empty box or a piece of garbage. Paypal is not a bank so they are not regulate by the FDIC. However, they can manipulate your money without your consent.

i want to practice cutting hair, and being a barber like giving shape ups , are there any fake figures that you can buy with real type of hair and cut there hair and give them shape ups? if so whats the exact , formal name for it.

I suggest a kit like this one:

http://www.target.com/Conair-19-pc-Pro-Haircut-Kit/dp/B0018ELP56/sr=1-2/qid=1259345076/ref=sr_1_2/177-7598441-7694538?ie=UTF8&search-alias=tgt-index&frombrowse=0&rh=k%3Ahair%20cutting%20products&page=1

Insturctions:

Learn the basics and advanced techniques of hair cutting from an expert in cosmetology at a local beauty school or community college. These classes teach you theory of hair cutting, the proper way to use equipment and how to evaluate a client’s haircut needs.

Step 2 Become familiar with how to hold scissors and the comb when cutting hair. Removing your thumb from the scissors enabling you to use the comb during the cut and passing the comb from one hand to the other are all skills you need to master. Another skill to practice also include holding the hair between your fingers while cutting the ends of the hair and holding the scissors.

Step 3 Identify and perform the two primary types of haircuts–the bob and layered–separately or in conjunction. Use the various types of cutting tools, cutting scissors, thinning shears, razors and clips until you are very comfortable with the purpose of each.

Step 4 Use a practice mannequin first to test different styles and types of cuts. Practice mannequins are available for sale on eBay (see Resources below). Once you gain confidence in your hair cutting skills, look for clients to practice on in your everyday life, church members, relatives and friends are all possibilities. Turn to popular styling magazines and books for current styles to practice.

I want to start selling on ebay. One thing that’s seems to be stopping me is figuring out shipping for my items… I will also take any other tips and cautions about selling stuff on ebay like pricing, and seller’s fees, etc… thanks.

You can go to usps.com or ups.com and use their shipping calculator to estimate the shipping fee for each of your items based on weight and size of the box.

When using ebay, I’d recommend only shipping to the buyer’s confirmed payapl address and always ship with a delivery confirmation so that you can prove it was delivered in case the buyer says it was never received.

You can also set your buyer requirements so that people with negative feedback and or unpaid strikes cannot bid on your items. You don’t want those people buying from you anyway as the chances of collecting payment are not too great.

I just started selling items on ebay. The last few items that I shipped have been light weighted and the shipping is about $10.00… I think it is way too much money. Especially if I will be shipping constantly. Is it because of the size of the box? Please Help.

Figuring out the most economical shipping methods for your eBay sales can be complicated. Here’s a few rules of thumb. For books, CDs, DVDs, etc., use USPS Media Mail – you can ship a 10 pound box of books for under $6! For non-media items under about 5 pounds and not oddly shaped, USPS Parcel Post is generally the cheapest. For heavier items, UPS becomes competitive, especially if you purchase through Paypal.

Here’s an article with additional tips and more detail: http://www.ehow.com/how_4799738_pitfalls-made-new-ebay-sellers.html