Selling on www.Ebay.com , My point of view


veropierre
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1 Mar 07 06:48:57 pm
I just got a visit from a friend of mine looking for advices making money online selling products as I do.
He came with plenty of great ideas and wanted me to approve them. Well he got very frustrated, blaming me for not wanted to share my experience. In fact he doesn’t want to hear the truth.

So here are some of my tips and comments about selling on eBay.

The eBay margin is low
It’s true that your margin will be low after paying all the fees.
But eBay brings you tons of customers all day, everyday and free of charge. Imagine that you sell Abercrombie Jeans and you make a mere $5 net margin... and you feel it’s doesn’t worth it. Not if you sell one a day but what about 200 a month?

It’s true that you need to pick your niche.
Do you know that in the last 2 weeks, there were 7,690 Abercrombie Jeans listed on eBay and 4,897 were sold? That’s 63% selling success. In the same last 2 weeks, 2,608 2Gb generic MP3 were listed and only 630 were sold? That’s only 24%
It’s very important to find a niche. Use the Marketplace Research tool that eBay 'rents' at $25 a month. It gives you plenty of information that will help you to define your niche and your selling points.

It’s true that opening an eBay store helps a lot.
Start with a basic one, and feed it with tons of products within your niche. It costs less than $0.20 per items per 30 days. Use only gallery feature marketing for your store, everything else is a waste of money. A store has 2 advantages. First, you sell more if potential buyers see that you carry tons of items, they feel more confident. Second, you get cross-sales, they look for jeans and purchase a shirt in your store. We sell 20% of our items from our store.

It’s true that Store margins are bigger.
If you sell jeans and your auction selling point is $20, the exact same item in your store should be between $25 and $30. Potential buyers see the price difference as savings and bid on the auction. Others just don’t wait the end of the auction and “Buy it Now” at the store price putting more money in your pocket.

It’s true that email newsletters and flyers work well.
Add an eBay flyer with your shipment and have a regular eBay newsletter. It brings you almost free sales - we get an average 15% customer return from flyers and newsletter - our eBay distribution list is (was) around 3,000, 15% of that is 450 free additional sales. Don’t make daily newsletter, it bothers more than anything and don’t go further than every month.

It’s false that Reserve Price limit your sales.
A reserve price works much better than a selling point start. For example you want to list a nice pair of jeans and your selling point is $30. You’ll have more success starting at $0.01 and a ‘low reserve’ of $30 than a No Reserve and a start bid of $30. Also, when potential buyers look at a list of items, they always visit the cheaper ones even if there is a reserve. Doing so they see you cross-selling products giving you more exposure and more chance to sell something.

It’s stupid trying making money on shipping
How many items did you purchase at $25 with $20 shipping?
Even if some eBay masters recommend it, it’s a real bad idea. We tried. We sold 10 items in Dutch format $20 price and $15 shipping we sold one only and we got a neutral feedback like expensive shipping. Then we re-listed 10 items at $29.99 and the real shipping cost (5.70) and we sold all of them. Also buyers can file a claim for shipping cost abuse.

Having a lots of feedback helps.
That’s true, our feedback pages are visited 2,000 times a day. But you have to start somewhere. When you start at zero don’t try selling big items. Potential buyers will have some concerns risking $2000 with a less than 100 selling positive feedbacks. Start with small items under $50, and raise the bar with your feedbacks rating.

It’s true that you don’t have to be the cheapest
That’s impossible. Just sell your items trying to make money. Do your homework to find your selling point and if you make few dollars, that’s good. There are always sellers than sell grey market goods, sellers that buy 5,000 items and get bigger discounts. So don’t worry too much about not being the cheapest, just try no being the most expensive.

It’s bad to use pre-written descriptions
Yes, it is. Some wholesalers and drop-shippers have ready to post items. Imagine that a wholesaler has 300 eBay customers selling the same pair of Jeans at the same price with the exact same description, title and pictures. You are part of the crowd and if one seller has a better discount or looks for a smaller margin, you sell nothing. You have to stand out, make your own descriptions, use your own words, your own pictures, be creative. Now there are 299 similar pairs of jeans and yours. Guess who will sell the most?

The last one for today: NEVER tell anyone.
What your niche is, how much you make etc... In this long post, I never say what my niche is, how successful I am and what is the name of my eBay store... I’ve enough competitors already :wink:


dinine
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2 Mar 07 10:03:38 am
nice^^


jimmy_huber
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2 Mar 07 03:26:50 pm
The last one for today: NEVER tell anyone.
What your niche is, how much you make etc... In this long post, I never say what my niche is, how successful I am and what is the name of my eBay store... I’ve enough competitors already


I have to agree. 10,000 people trying to sell exactly what your selling can really mess up your profits. I sell many different products which I bring a steady stream of money on, but Ill never tell people what I make the most money on, :wink:


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5678gil
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4 Mar 07 02:48:14 am
I think that allowing others to see your auctions, especially new ebayers is not a bad idea, it gives them an idea on how to research properaly and allows them to see what works and doesnt work


bayericlowe
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4 Mar 07 06:32:10 am
I think that allowing others to see your auctions, especially new ebayers is not a bad idea, it gives them an idea on how to research properaly and allows them to see what works and doesnt work


I have nothing to hide so I'll gladly let you see my recently completed auctions, and show you what works and what doesn't.

Keep in mind that even with as much experience as I have, things go wrong all the time, as you will notice, the high 'BIDDER' who was SUPPOSED to pay for my brand new listed 'iPod' product was a NIGERIAN scam! And the 'BIDDER' spoiled the chances for the rest of the buyers, but still it was recently completed, and it has over 200 visits

So it should show you a good example, I'll give you links to SEVERAL that were recently finished with bids and alot of visitors.

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As you can quickly see by study, there's anywhere from 1 to 5 bids on them and all were successful.

The one at the end of course would be discovered to have used an illegal credit card and thus the purchase not completed.

But in any case, you see I never give out too much information especially on eBay.

You have to keep it straight, to the point, and only what you the seller can offer. Use very dramatic catch phrases sometimes to get your point across, but keep it simple. Its called 'KISS'

Keep it simple, to the point, and regardless of what anyone offers you stick to the rules and that includes your supplier as well. If there is an issue bring it up. Be ready to deal with it right as soon as you LIST the item for sale, don't be ready to deal with it afterward!

Even those with extremely low feedback can get going and climb upwards I have found with those simple steps. It works for me anyway, when it comes to a particular market.

It won't work for everyone across the board because everyone's market is different. Don't try to BE your competition, because there are DOZENS of powersellers and 'wholesalers' selling and doing the same similar thing anyway! Instead, rise above your competition and offer exactly what you say you can offer and be straight about it in a unique way.

A POSITIVE feedback is infinitely more important, many times, than a goldmine of a sale.


veropierre
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4 Mar 07 02:12:19 pm
There is a big difference between bringing visitors to your eBay listing and bringing competitors who are eager to find or extend their niches.

For example if you tell me you make $4,000 a month with your iPods and that your supplier ABC wholesale is great.

Guess what I may do... :wink: yes... buy some iPod from ABC and sell them 5% less than you are. Your $4,000 will shrink quite quickly.

A friend of mine found a gold mine, factory refurbished laptop and sold them around with 40% margin. He had the stupid idea to brag about it... the last one he sold on eBay was less than 5% margin.


jimmy_huber
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5 Mar 07 03:27:22 am
There is a big difference between bringing visitors to your eBay listing and bringing competitors who are eager to find or extend their niches.

For example if you tell me you make $4,000 a month with your iPods and that your supplier ABC wholesale is great.

Guess what I may do... :wink: yes... buy some iPod from ABC and sell them 5% less than you are. Your $4,000 will shrink quite quickly.

A friend of mine found a gold mine, factory refurbished laptop and sold them around with 40% margin. He had the stupid idea to brag about it... the last one he sold on eBay was less than 5% margin.


This is absolutely true. No true buisnessman is going to let you know how they make thier money. If they are profiting in an already flooded market its ok. Because you have to play it smart to make money in a saturated market. I personally sell in several different markets. If someone new asks me for a selling Idea I can throw them the way I got started but Im not going to boast my true profit maker. Most salehooers know I sell movies on one of my accounts and clothes on another making 4-6 per sale on average. But I also sell in a market that is barely touched. And I have no competition in this area. There are listings in this field but there are no people actually only selling in this market aside from me and my wife. In this area we make as high as $40.00 profit per item.

People will have to find thier own niche markets. Through hard work and research. No one can help you in that field. We can give you ideas but in truth your only going to succeed in what you choose.


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ladiez1st
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9 Mar 07 11:44:00 am
Good points.

thanks


dropshipwholesalers
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3 Apr 07 03:39:12 pm
The key is finding niche types of products to sell on eBay and get away from the dream of selling high end stuff like ipods, xbox's, etc.

Everyone is trying to sell these items and most likely the people making money on these items are buying them in bulk so their cost is much lower than from trying to buy them one at a time from a dropshipper.


wholesalejoe
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3 Apr 07 04:33:29 pm
Very good points I agree with JIMMY


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mana2006
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6 Apr 07 03:30:07 am
I like the good old rule about trying to just reach 1% of the population. Forget selling the items that everyone else is selling. I want the items where people only have a few suppliers to choose from. I also like small companies that create their own brands. You get in good with a small supplier and you can get great deals. By supplier I mean a small company just starting out. They might have two or three products that they sell enough of just to pay the bills.


jmoon87
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17 Apr 07 05:23:29 pm
This is funny . I understand not giving up ones source as to where they get their product but not saying what they sell is even funnier -thats the whole point of selling is to tell others what they sell .. Got news for ya anybody can go to EBAY and see whats hot and whats selling -the problem is getting the source to sell the item yourself ....I also sell in a market thats is untouched out of print caps - i get them for $2-3 and sell on average for $10-45 but is difficult to find them .good luck.


tiny_deal
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17 Apr 07 11:21:52 pm
I dislike ebay very much i think their prices are too high. I like using ebid, there arent as many people on it but it is good. Come check out my store Link hidden: Login to view
thanx :wink:


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dropshipwholesalers
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18 Apr 07 01:15:06 am
There are also sites like ubid, yahoo, etc. that charge less fees but they don't have the same traffic as ebay does.


nogdirect
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21 May 07 06:48:07 pm
I do use UBID and I like very much :P

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bayericlowe
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22 May 07 10:28:18 am
Well uBid has alot of the traffic eBay does now, and so do a few others.


I would say traffic varies. But the key thing is like they said. Sell a niche.


You may find it hard to believe but the highest grossing markets are going to be niche markets, ones that only certain type of people go to in order to buy.


Online games might be a niche market, pool cues might be a niche market, playing cards might be a niche market. A copy of adobe first edition might even be a niche market, you don't know.

Not xbox360s and dozens of cell phones, which everyone and their brother is selling all over uBid, eBay, Stormpay etc etc...


Its not as hard locating a niche market as it is doing the required research, and bringing the niche market to your vision: ie your products. But when you do and you get your questions answered, you can sell those niche products at a 100% profit and attach rate all the time. Constantly. And restock it and you can make it much easier to buy in bulk and expand however you wish to, your store.

Bring the traffic from all over to you, don't just rely on the marketplace or selling site to sell for you. You will be surprised.


hottestarena
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25 May 07 08:15:51 am
really gud post


bayericlowe
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25 May 07 03:45:49 pm
And always go back to purchase sites like eBay, uBid etc because every other day might be a different day.

Sometimes they may decide to just cut the listing fees alltogether, for competition I guess.


On those days it might be not more than $.015 to LIST pretty much ANYTHING.....When that happens, LIST WHATEVER YOU CAN.



And flood whomever over to your store while you have it.


 

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