Auction Power Guide

What are some things I could resell on ebay for profit?
I am doing this silly little contest thing with a friend where we are to take a hundred dollars to purchase products to resell on ebay. Whoever gets to a certain amount in profit, wins. I have some ideas of what to purchase but I thought I’d try to get some more ideas here on good ole yahoo answers. It can’t be things I already own.
The idea is to kind of get the ball rolling.

It doesn’t matter what you sell. As it is often said, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Most everyone collects or wants something or other. If you want to win this contest, you will have to buy stuff on the cheap, not retail or even wholesale.

The thing you want to be aware of with the most popular items is that you will have the MOST COMPETITION from other sellers who sell the same items. To wit, you can’t be competitive and make a decent profit unless you get the best wholesale price to maintain an adequate profit margin. If your opening bid price is higher than other sellers selling the same items, you won’t have many sales.

Where to find stuff cheap:

Look no further than ebay itself. You will not be looking for single item listings but rather your target will be listings that have similar, grouped items. 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. However, do be cautious if you venture into this arena. You have to know your merchandise. Stay in those areas you are familiar with. You can’t jump in blindly to any and every auction that has grouped items.

If you can buy a large lot of similar merchandise for $100 to $200 and turn it around for $300 to $600, it works out very nicely, indeed! Most buyers of these large lots will be vultures as well so you could be ‘butting bids.’ Keep in mind that the higher the closing price at ebay, the less your profit on the turnaround. It’s not an exact science and it does take a little experience to really know what you’re doing but you can’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. When I see an auction of grouped items it tells me loud and clear that the seller is far more interested in getting rid of their stuff the quickest, easiest way possible and ‘be done with it’ rather than in making a decent profit or profit at all.

Short of items to sell and where to find items to sell? Garage and yard sales, church bazaars, flea markets are obvious. These can be the cheapest sources of merchandise. ‘Junktique’ shops are not that good because these folks know their merchandise. This being the case, it is usually OVERPRICED, not under priced.

If you want to let your fingers do the walking, you too can be crafty ‘vulture’ like a select group of other ebay sellers. Become a member of several smaller auction sites and search for bargains there. But as before, ‘stick with what you know.’

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

Fewer potential bidders = Less competition = Lower closing prices.

Turn them around on ebay:

The ebay formula:

LARGEST auction site by far = MAXIMUM competition = HIGHER closing prices

There are also volume sellers who concentrate on only a handful of popular items by buying in volume / wholesale at a discount and selling at a discount. The average schmo at eBay can’t compete with volume sellers of a particular item.

GOODWILL sometimes also has good bargains, but not always. Mondays / Tuesdays are the best days to visit Goodwill as most people will drop off their donations on Saturdays and Sundays and it has to be cleaned, sorted and marked before it can be placed on display.

To maximize profits, sell WORLDWIDE, not just one country. A basic business tenet is, ‘The greater the potential market, the greater the potential to maximize profits.’ It’s TRUE! You will now have access to 200+ million members.

GOOD LUCK!

As we all know, online penny auction has become more and more popular throughout the world with an increasing number of followers. But there are also some bad comments about it. Should I believe in this kind of online auction?

It is a scam. Here’s a good tip: anytime it occurs to you to ask whether something is a scam or not, it’s a scam.

Here’s how penny auctions work: A seller lists a valuable item for the unbelievably low price of a penny. Then, bidders compete with one another to win the auction, with each bid only increasing the cost by one penny. At the end, someone wins a sports car or similar for $118.96. Sounds amazing, right?

Wrong. To use these sites, you have to BUY bids. Each bid that you place costs you an exorbitant amount–something like ten bucks. "Okay," you might be telling yourself, "Ten bucks plus $118.96 is $128.96. That’s a steal for a sports car!" It’s not that simple. For EACH bid, someone paid $10, which means that car went for $11,896 worth of bid fees, plus the winning amount of $118.96, for a total of $12,014.96 to the seller.

All you do when you bid on those sites is pay $10 toward an item that somebody else will win. If you’re the final bidder, that’s great, but the auctions extend for 10 minutes every time somebody bids. You and ONE other person could be bidding on the same item for hours or days, and at the end, you’ve both spent thousands of dollars on bids for something that only one of you will win.

It’s a scam, plain and simple. Things that seem too good to be true ARE too good to be true.

Move over eBay, there’s a new site in town! ZapADeal is a brand new online auction site that is turning the online auction world upside down. Why? Because ZapADeal has created something called “reveres auctions.” In a reveres auction, the “bidder” causes the price of the auction item to go down instead of up. Let me repeat that, the price of the item goes down. It actually keeps going down until it reaches zero, than the last bidder wins the item for free.

That’s why we call it online auction entertainment. You can’t sell anything on ZapADeal, only the site owner’s list items. And, all items on ZapADeal are brand name, brand new items. Items like a brand new 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, and many different iPods and iPhones, Mac Notebooks, Nintendo Wii’s, and the list just keeps going on. Everything is brand new and maintains the factory warranties.

How can ZapADeal afford to put on an online auction like this? Well, it really is a simple yet very smart concept. Let me explain. Let’s take a brand new Nintendo Wii that would sell for $350. It would be listed on ZapADeal and start at $350, but the price is always hidden. Every time someone clicks on that item the current price is revealed to them and the item price drops 20 cents. This continues to happen until eventually the price reaches zero, at the time the last bidder wins the item. Now, the key on this is every time you click on the item to reveal the current price it costs you 1 credit. 1 credit equals anywhere from 50 cents to 2 dollars. Remember, the price only dropped 20 cents on that click where you spent 50 cents. So on every click there is a 30+ cent profit for the company.

You may be thinking, “That’s not that great of a deal, spend 50 cents to save 20.” That’s where you are wrong, because if you are the last person to click on it before it reaches zero, you just spent 50 cents to buy a $350 Nintendo Wii. That’s why it’s called Online Auction Entertainment. It’s an entertaining social game. You are competing with people allover the world to be the last person to click and the winner wins the item.

ZapADeal has positioned itself as the new social networking site, the latest and greatest gaming site, and a legitimate way save big money on great brand name items. The people who win these items will tell you, the reward is worth the cost.

Now, ZapADeal has several other auction styles as well, the bid to zero I just described is simply the most common one. I recommend heading over there and checking it out for yourself. You just might win that 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. At the very least you’ll have a good time. You can also go to Google and do a search for ZapADeal and find out some more information about this unique and fun online auction

Paul Merryman

Auction Bids To Zero

How about online auction sites where the item gets cheaper with every bid that comes in. How interesting is that? This particular auction house category is titled….’Bid to Zero’.

Imagine if you were bidding on a car or any top brand product….and your bid….did get to zero! Forget it….it won’t happen. Someone will zap it up before that possibility!

With these auctions….the item starts off at the normal sale price….and then goes down with each bid.So if it reaches a price that someone is happy to pay….that’s it….sold. Really….won…would be more accurate.

Reverse Auctions

To continue the same scenario as above, while an item price is being bid down….there could be twenty people biding. Out of those 20 bidders….5 bidders may be looking at paying….say….$500 for the item. All five bidders claim the bid at $500. In this case the online auction sites use a special formula to decide the bid winner.

Another auction bid type is the unique reverse auction. As the name suggests the above scenario does not happen.The bid has to be ‘unique’. To add to that….there are two variations.

1. Highest unique bid….unmatched at the close of the auction….wins the biding.With these the maximum bid is set at a below normal sale price.

2. Lowest unique bid….has to be unmatched at the close of the auction. Another couple of bidders could of each bid…an identical lower price, but their bid would not be unique. With this type of auction the starting price would be at the normal sale price.

You can see that internet technology is the catalyst for these auctions. Offline….the purpose of an auction is to attain the highest possible bid price. The Collins Dictionary defines an auction as ‘a public sale where articles are sold to the highest bidder’. The emphasis with reverse auctions…seems to be more on its competiveness…as opposed to the actual price.

The Next Generation: Social Competive Interaction

It should never be forgotten that the primary purposes of the online auction sites are to sell products. Because the items are sold at a fraction of their normal price…is neither here nor their. It is great for the successful bidders, but every auction bid is paid for. I’ll explain that further.

To participate…you register online,select a username and get some ‘bid credits’. When you go to the site and login with your username….you’ll see your available ‘bid credits’ displayed. As you bid…the number of available bids reduces. If you’re biding on the ‘Bid to Zero’ auction house….the bids are 50cents to 66cents each. That bid puts the item price down 20 cents. The residue….the difference in the bid cost and the item price reduction….goes to:

1.The cost of the purchase of the item

2.The cost of the freight and handling to the winning bidder

3.To administration costs of the online auction sites and their profit

All the costs are taken care of…by the participants purchase of ‘bid credits’. So the emphasis….as I alluded to earlier…is towards the competive nature of the participants. Social competive interaction online….expressed in a style of auction entertainment….WOW! Whenever I was biding at an (offline) auction….I never saw it as entertainment….except when the Guy chasing flies…had an item knocked down to him. That gave everyone else a laugh!

Internet technology has made this form of social competiveness possible. Not the same as the ‘survivor series’ on TV….but maybe more rewarding.

New International Internet Auction Site

A United States company is the latest developer of one of these online auction sites. In building this new system they have gone with quality top brand products to offer. It would be fair to say they have picked the eyes out of the best methods…currently used in similar European auction sites. Eventually they will have as many as eight auction houses…all with various auction styles.

They are making the auctions available on an international basis. Something the other auction sites have been slow to do. I have been advised that they will probably have special delivery arrangements for large items won by bidders living outside of the US…..makes sense!

You Can Become a Business Associate

Also different about this new auction entertainment website is that a business opportunity has been incorporated. Business associates will be able to market the opportunity for the specific purpose of encouraging people to buy bid credits.

What seems sure…is that this social competive interaction as they call it…is highly likely to be very popular. Therefore the business opportunity will very likely….be lucrative!

My Summary

Are these real auctions? You can look at it this way:

Those auction houses where the bid causes the price to rise….even if the rise is fixed at only a penny or a nickel for each bid…do qualify under the definition of an auction.

The auctions where each bid causes the item price to fail….surely are not auctions….but ‘reverse auctions’. As in ‘done’ and ‘undone’.

These online auction sites are a new marketing outlet for the product manufacturers and merchants.They are good business for the auction sites, who make their money on shifting quality products. The bidders could pick-up a new car or TV or computer or a million dollar life insurance policy….for example. Also they could do that for an outlay of $20 worth of bid credits and a whole heap of fun! That seems to make online auction sites….a win-win-win situation….for all participants!

Darcy John
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/online-auction-sites-where-the-bid-lowers-the-auction-price-671089.html