What You Need To Know Before You Get Started On Ebay.

So you’ve decided that you want to get started as a seller on eBay. There are a few things that you really need to know before you go and throw yourself in at the deep end.



What to Sell.

First off, you need to know what it is you’re going to sell: what’s your speciality? You’ll do far better on eBay if you become a great source for certain kind of products, as people who are interested in those products will come back to you again and again. You won’t get any loyalty or real reputation if you just sell rubbish at random.

When you think about what to sell, there are a few things to consider. The most important of these is to always sell what you know. If you try to sell something that you just don’t know anything about then you’ll never write a good description and sell it for a good price.

You might think you’re not especially interested in anything, but if you think about what kind of things you usually buy and which websites you go to most often, I’m sure you’ll discover some kind of interest. If all else fails mention it to your friends and family: they’ll almost certainly say “Oh, well why don’t you sell…”, and you’ll slap your forehead.

Out of the things you know enough about, you should then consider which things you could actually get for a good enough price to resell, and how suitable they would be for posting. If you can think of something of that you’re knowledgeable about and it’s small and light enough for postage to be relatively cheap, then that’s great!

Don’t worry if you think the thing you’re selling is too obscure – it isn’t. There’s a market for almost everything on eBay, even things that wouldn’t sell once in a year if you stocked them in a shop. You’ll probably do even better if you fill a niche than if you sell something common.

Tax and Legal Matters.

If you earn enough money, you should be aware that you’re going to have to start paying tax – this won’t be done for you. If you decide to sell on eBay on a full-time basis, you should probably register as a business.

Prepare Yourself.

There are going to be ups and downs when you sell on eBay. Don’t pack it in if something goes a little wrong in your first few sales: the sellers who are successful on eBay are the ones who enjoy it, and stick at it whatever happens.

Anyone can sell on eBay, if they believe in themselves – and if you do decide it’s not for you, then the start-up costs are so low that you won’t really have lost anything.

If you’re ready to start selling, then the next thing you need to know is the different auction types, so you can decide which ones you will use to sell your items. Our next email will give you a guide.

About The Author:
Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

Making Money on EBay the Easy Way

The trouble with making an income out of EBay is

1. The competition is fierce
2. Most of the good ideas have been exhausted
3. You may not have the finances to buy in stock

About 6 months ago my son decided to have a go at supplementing his pocket money by trying to make money on EBay. I have no idea how he managed it however he is now earning approx £200 per month with no hassle or risk, He simply used the small amount of brains he was blessed with, from his mother’s side no doubt.

Finding the right product

This was the most difficult thing, for weeks he looked at what other people were selling on EBay. It became apparent that many of the Power Sellers are simply selling items listed on Amazon, making their profit by marking up the prices slightly and then having them delivered straight to the winning bidders address. This idea was dismissed as the Power Sellers have this area well tied up.

I advised him to look for a product that would cost him very little to produce. He then spent the next week looking at all kinds of software, he had plenty of ideas, however I informed him he would not be allow to sell anything that would be illegal. I remember to this day he stomped off like Kevin the teenager.


The product

Eventually he exclaimed he had found the right product, software manuals, help manuals etc. I looked into the products he had chosen and found it was all legal.

He then went away and using his P2P software downloaded about 20 of these manuals.

The next day he listed the manuals on EBay, it took time to start with as his feedback rating was low, however eventually his orders started rolling in.

Over the past 6 months he has built himself up slowly and now earns around £200 per week. He expects his sales to grow at a slow rate in the future.

Conclusion

This has shown that there are still opportunities on EBay, getting young people involved not only gives them a little financial independence it also gives them the confidence to venture deeper into the business world.

Unfortunately EBay has become a haven for conmen and hoods, however there is money to be made by decent law binding people who are just looking to earn a few extra pounds, my son has shown that.

If you decide to give it a go, good luck.


About the author - Peter Arkwright recently retired from the military, he is now the Managing Director of http://www.bizseller4u.com A new portal that allows people to list their Business for Sale

EBay's Squeezing Store Owners

In an effort to justify the price increases by 3% and taking the eBay stores selling fees from 7% to 10%, Bill Cobbs, in an open letter to eBay entrepreneurs, attempted to calm the outrage. He says eBay is "Resetting the Balance of the eBay Marketplace". This outraged eBay Store users, who are making a business from the online auction moving inventory with the "Buy Now" feature, since their margins are slipping away as their auctions costs are climbing.



So while the increases may appear small many store owners are complaining it's going to drive some of them out of business, because on top of eBay fees you have store fees, picture storage fees, listing fees, promotional fees, and when it sells, they get hit with this new selling fee, and then finally Pay Pal fees. With all the fees many sellers operating on a tighter margin are seeing themselves being squeezed out of the stores.

According to eBay, stores represent 83% of listing, while they only represent 9% of revenues. As eBay stock prices are falling, shareholders are looking for ways to increase stock value, and the quickest and easiest way is always increasing revenues and lowering costs. So it should come as no surprise the cost of selling on eBay increases as they look to increase revenues.

According to ComScore eBay holds an overwhelming share of the market, eBay reportedly received 66 of the estimated 68 million auction visitors in Feb, 2006, alone, and while overall the market of online auction user is climbing every year by 10%. Although there overall market is being nibbled away by other auction sites like Bidz.com and uBid.com overall eBay continues to grow and as bad as some portray this price structure change on stores, it will not have much bearing on eBay's success and growth.

The sellers most affected here are the ones moving cheap article or their selling popular items that buyers expect to pay less from eBay, then if they where purchased from a retail chain and where there is a lot of competition. These retailers are faced with major decisions like start increasing prices, find more profitable products or close down their stores and move to the regular auctions and deal with a more complex administration of their business.

Although Many would argue that eBay stores still offer great value for the money, at a base price of only 16$ per month the eBay stores offers many great features including a fully customizable store front, high visibility, analytics monitoring tools, and increase visibility, so you can move products to a very targeted audience more efficiently. This is bad news for the low margin eBay store sellers taking the squeeze.

I don't see eBay being dethroned any time soon, but it will be interesting to see this market segment itself as major players like Yahoo and Google move in. As eBay gets out of some of the less profitable niches this prove to be the fuel in the fire to get this market segmentation going for other smaller online auctions to move in. So as some less profitable entrepreneurs may get squeezed out of eBay stores, many shrewd ones will be looking to get in, but we may see the little online auction, finally get a break from the auction giant.

Author, Roy. Roxen is an auction enthusiast, seller and buyer as well as an online marketing consultant and internet consultant he can be reached here for quality online auction experience.

Selling through Auction Marketplaces

Consumers are increasingly feeling more comfortable in buying products through the Internet. According to a report released recently by the Department of Commerce first-quarter retail sales rose 23.8 percent to US$ 19.8 billion in the United States from US$ 16 billion a year ago. E-commerce sales during the first quarter of 2005 rose 6.4 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. Forrester Research estimated that 2005 online retail sales will increase at a pace of 22 percent. Today, a third of all households in US make at least one purchase online within a year, a figure which will grow to almost 40 percent by 2009, predicts Forrester. As a seller, this strong growth of online sales means that you have to put considerable stress on your Internet sales endeavor if you are not doing this as yet.

According to statistics compiled for the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide, the top retailers in 2004 garnered combined online sales of more than US$ 51 billion, which accounts for 58.3 percent of all US Internet sales. The growth in online sales is quite impressive for large retailers. J.C. Penny Co. Inc., for example, reported a 35 percent year-over-year rise of online sales in May, 2005. Can new online ventures boast same type of significant growth? Unfortunately, not!

Each day, there are thousands of new companies are setting up shops on the Internet trying to sell every conceivable type of products and services. Most of these websites do not attract enough visitors to make them profitable. Competition on the Internet is fierce! Internet marketing campaigns are becoming increasing expensive. Many small companies can’t afford to spend money required to promote their sites. So, what are the options available for a small company with modest product range to thrive on the Internet? One of the best sales channels, in my opinion, on the Internet by far is auction marketplaces. Of course, no matter what, you will still need to promote your website with all the methods you can master. However, selling your products and services through established auction marketplaces has its own advantage.

eBay

With 63.8 million unique visitors hitting the auction site only in April of this year, eBay has established itself as the largest marketplace on earth. In 2004 alone US$ 34.2 billion worth of merchandize exchange hands on eBay. Presently, the site has around 135 million registered users in 32 markets worldwide.

With such a vast community of buyers and sellers, eBay should be your number one choice for selling your products or services online. On the eBay you can sell any kind of item. The varieties of stuffs people are selling through eBay are mind boggling! At any given time there are over 29 million items displayed on eBay. The number of new items added each day exceeds 3.5 million. However, still many offline sellers perceive eBay as an auction site for mainly collectible items. They can’t be more wrong! The largest selling category on the eBay is, believe it or not, automobile and accessories, which comprises of almost 22 percent of all sales. I have, personally, bought three luxury cars over the course of last two years through eBay and I have nothing to complain about.

As a seller on the eBay, the biggest advantage that you gain is the possibility of becoming from a local merchant to an international player over night. If you are already selling merchandize to consumers online or offline, eBay gives you an additional sales channel without any extra cost. If you are planning to begin selling goods or services through the Internet, eBay allows you to start your business online quickly and with minimum expenses.

Yahoo

You may have difficulty in imagining the biggest portal on our planet as a marketplace, in some countries, like Japan and Canada, Yahoo auction is, actually, doing better than eBay. In the US market Yahoo has just announced its intention to eliminate fees charged for using its auction site. This is a good news for even many eBay power sellers. Some of them will definitely move to Yahoo in a bid to save on high fees charged by eBay. The good thing about Yahoo is slowly it is becoming a major hub for many small business web stores. As a matter of fact, according to Yahoo, every eighth online store is now hosted by Yahoo.

Amazon

Amazon, may be is not as popular as eBay or Yahoo as far as auction marketplace is concerned, however, many auctioneers claim that some of the products sell better on Amazon than any other auction marketplace.

Why should you consider selling through auction marketplaces?

Here are some reasons, why auction marketplaces are viable sales channel for businesses:

• The auction marketplaces are very popular and each of them has huge community of buyers and sellers.

• There is virtually no start-up cost involved.

• No extra overhead is required.

• You really don’t have to set up a website to start selling.

• Easy to learn.

While determining what to sell through auction marketplaces, choose your products very carefully. Don’t try to sell products like DVD, cellular phones and similar common items. There are way too many people are trying to sell those products. Do your research before jumping into online auctions. Go through the categories of your choice. See how your competitors are doing. Check out the listings of sold items. For how much the products you intend to list are getting sold for? What keywords your prospective competitors are using to market these products? On which auction site these products are selling better?

Go with the trend! Travel, cosmetics and jewelry sales are expected to do better than other categories of e-commerce in coming years. In every category of goods and services you will find a niche, which is doing fairly well. All you have to do is find that niche by making extensive and thorough research!

Selling through auction marketplaces like any other business process requires sound judgment and careful planning. Be sure to use them before starting your online sales.

Nowshade Kabir, is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com – a Global B2B Exchange with solutions to create e-catalog, Web store, business process management and other features to run a business online. You can read various articles written by Nowshade Kabir at http://ezine.rusbiz.com.