New Member looking to start an eBay Store - Advice please

Hello, My name is Bill and I'm a new member. (I think my previous 2 posts must be in cyberspace somewhere) I am a retired
actor/comedian who has decided to try selling on the net after losing lots of money in other ventures. Hoping that a successful online business will help me play better golf.
Can anyone let me know how to open an Ebay store and how much it normally costs?
Thanks, Billb

To list on ebay without a store visit this link to see the fees for listing each item and the final value fees

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To open a store it is $15 a month for a basic store. The listing fees and final value fees are different for store inventory vs auction fees. The auction fees remain the same as the above link. Visit this link for the store inventory fees.

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The more you list, the more it will cost.

I don't know about golf cause I do don't even hit a hole in 12, but ebay is easy enough. You should also hire a CPA, Form a Coperation, Do a butload of research and hang on to your balls....Its not that hard realy, but do the research. All that you need to do is get a good supplier, Have money, dont be a pussy. A good book to read is 'Titanium eBay' by Skip McGrath. I have a copy but I will sell it when pigs fly out of my butt.

Welcome and you are in for a bumpy ride. The road is rough and if you ain't careful the wolves will eat you alive. So get out your planner and plan wisely. All I can say is do a lot of research. This will save you time and money later. Once you understand which direction you want to go than its all down hill. Getting started is the hard part. Maintaining isn't as bad.

Skip mcgrath the man who says stay away from salehoo,but use alibaba.The same guy who promotes WWB and gowholesale where you get 10% commission on every sale.Where a 20g refurb xbox is 199.95 and the same xbox sells on ebay for 149.00.The man who has affiliates the ones he dont promote or suggest people shouldnt use,they are at the top of gowholesale.I see why he writes books.He can lay the marketing on thick,hes good.Only he should follow his own advice.

Bill I would not suggest jumping straight into a eBay store. I would suggest just selling on eBay without the store and see if your getting the results your looking for first of all. Ebay is not the same place it once use to be. This is due to the economy and all of the changes since Meg Whitman left. There was a point where you could sell anything on eBay and make a profit but those days are long gone now. If your not smart you can loose lots of money.

I know this post is old but this applies to any new person starting...


welcome and as stated before watch your back. everybody and their brother will try to sell you something. Ebay is soo hard right now. I feel that a store is a bit much and you should walk before you run... imho.

tip #1 stay away from monthly paid membership crap that will bleed you dry.fake clubs like doba,megagoods,
shopster, simplx just to name a few.

stay away from ebooks that promise you they have the secret list. all lies. stay away from alibaba. I cannot lie I have sourced products from china before and even returned items and got compensated but I have heard and know quite a few people that have lost a small fortune.

tip #2 do ALOT of research. Everything you ever wanted to learn about ebay is found right on ebay.. get a good ebay calculator to figure out what your breakeven price will be before you list. use theresearch demo at terapeak.com until you understand what you are doing.

read through forums like this one and
Link hidden: Login to view,
forums.digitalpoint.com.
check out Jimcockrum.com/blog/, terry gibbs info at Link hidden: Login to view. they are generous people with alot of free info.

tip#3.

If I were starting out I would do research on terapeak for the last 2 months and then zero in on a niche. alot of products have outlets. call and find out the price they have it for at the outlet and start that way. you can always return the item after 7 days if it does not sell. Ex. Coach mens wallets,belts. Movado watches,Ralph Lauren shirts sweaters.

*** I sell allot of american brand items to people overseas.


or...

tip #4
forget the product sourcing and go the affiliate route. Join the ebay network , it's free. Want to sell rolex watches without the inventory? create a store with rolex watches from others that have auctions on ebay, amazon etc...only and drive traffic with articles. Don't know how to write? hire people on digitalpont.com,seoarticles.com,elance.com.

hope this helps.

I would start out with auctions because eBay is the perfect setting for this, always seems to be. Consider the value of your product.

Research the product on a base by basis analysis. Now throw it up there for the actual under value, or what you sense someone would start out paying for it.

Leave the listing up for 10 days, and here is where the fun begins.

You know what will matter with your eBay success and store, is TRAFFIC.

To get a whole lot of traffic, what you want in your eBay title is KEYWORDS.

The type of keywords you need are the type that anyone doing any business online needs- HIGH TRAFFIC KEYWORDS.

So here's what I suggest you do. Go to Link hidden: Login to view (US search) and search for a set of keywords you'd find in google/msn. Find from there, where people are going. Check which keywords apply to your product. Put the KEYWORDS in your PRODUCT title, not anywhere else.

Submit that everywhere or use a traffic generator like for instance traffic freedom, and then watch the bids fly in like mad. I sold 'MORE OF' anything I can count on my hand on eBay(and the like) by using this method as they just simply went fast. Traffic means sales. eBay's traffic is fairly good but NOT enough

You want everything out of there fast then you need MORE traffic, one thing that NO business owner - I don't care what field you're in as it applies to everybody - that NO business owner can ever have too little of. Is traffic. And content designed to get traffic.

Hello, My name is Bill and I'm a new member. (I think my previous 2 posts must be in cyberspace somewhere) I am a retired
actor/comedian who has decided to try selling on the net after losing lots of money in other ventures. Hoping that a successful online business will help me play better golf.
Can anyone let me know how to open an Ebay store and how much it normally costs?
Thanks, Billb

You first have to start an ebay account with a Paypal account. You can search my threads to find out how best to do Paypal.

Then once your eBay account is open you have the option in the left hand section of your eBay account to open a store. Search there and you will find it.
I am pretty sure you will have to have some FB before they let you open a store.

As some others mentioned, make sure you have enough product to fill your store before doing so or you will be paying 16 bucks per month for nothing.

If you have some nice collectibles from your career dont put them up for auction until you get about 50 FBS so people will have some trust in paying good money for those items. Otherwise you'll be selling stuff way below their value.

Start slow and build steady.