There are people who buy items that are accompanied by poor (or no) photographs on eBay, take good photographs of these items, and then resell the same items on eBay for a profit.

Of course, this isn’t cost-effective with $5 items. It’s much more likely to be successful with expensive items where the profits can be counted
not in dollars, but in tens of dollars, or even hundreds or thousands of dollars. But any way you look at it, this seems to me a shocking practice,
one that catches your attention. Don’t let this happen to you.

The post eBay Product Photography first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

• If you’re selling more than $1,000 per month, you may be eligible for eBay’s PowerSeller program.
• To turn your eBay hobby into a money-making profession, you need to start with some detailed business and financial planning.
• Most power sellers specialize in a specific type of itemand buy it in bulk.
• Successful eBay businesses keep detailed records and perform regular analyses of their auction activities.
• The more auctions you list, the more value you’ll get from third-party auction management sites and services.
• Opening an eBay Store is a good way to sell various fixed-price merchandise through the eBay system.
• When you start making a living from your eBay auctions, be sure to engage the services of a qualified accountantto manage your tax liabilities, if nothing else.

The post eBay Seller Tips first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

Another benefit of selling merchandise in an eBay Store is that eBay will automatically advertise items from your store on the Bid Confirmation and Checkout Confirmation pages it displays to bidders in your regular auctions. These “merchandising placements” help you cross-sell additional merchandise to your auction customers.

Setting up your own online storefront is surprisingly easy to do, thanks to a service called eBay Stores. An eBay Store is an online storefront where professional eBay merchants market fixed-price goods, in addition to their traditional auction items. If you’re a heavy seller thinking of making the move into real honest-to-goodness retailing, eBay Stores is a relatively painless way to start.

You access the eBay Stores home page at stores.ebay.com

Do You Qualify?

Just about any seller can open an eBay Store. All you have to do is meet the following criteria:

• Be a registered eBay seller, with a credit card on file
• Have a feedback rating of 20 or more, or be ID verified
• Accept credit cards for all fixed-price sales

Given that accepting credit cards can mean using PayPal, you can see that you don’t actually have to be a big traditional retailer to open an eBay Store. Any individual meeting the requirements can also open an eBay Store, thus making eBay Stores a great way for entrepreneurial types to get started in retailing.

Why would you want to open your own eBay Store? Well, it certainly isn’t for casual sellers; you do have to set up your own web page, and keep the store filled with merchandise. But if you’re a high-volume seller who specializes in a single category (or even a handful of categories), there are benefits to opening your own store. These include being able to sell more merchandise (through your store) than you can otherwise list in auctions; being able to display a special eBay Stores icon next to all of your auction lists; and being able to generate repeat business from future sales to current purchasers.

eBay Stores are great for small merchants who don’t otherwise have a Web presence. They’re overkill for the casual seller, however and probably not worth the effort for larger retailers.

You also have to pay eBay for each item you list and each item you sell just as in a normal auction. The difference is you’re not listing for a (relatively short) auction; you’re listing for longer-term inventory.

eBay Stores also offers a full assortment of listing upgrades, just like the ones you can use in regular eBay auctions. These enhancements gallery, bold, highlight, and so on are priced according to the length of your listing. You can also offer multiples of the same item in Dutch auction format.

Setting Up Your eBay Store

Opening your own eBay store is as easy as clicking through eBay’s setup pages. There’s nothing overly complex involved; you’ll need to create your store, customize your pages (otherwise known as your virtual storefront), and list the items you want to sell. Just follow the onscreen instructions, and you’ll have your own store up and running in just a few minutes.

When you’re ready to set up your store, go to the eBay Stores home page and click the Open a Store button. When you accept the user agreement, the store creation process begins. On seceding pages you’ll be asked to choose a store theme, enter a store name and description, provide a logo (or choose from supplied clip-art), and then choose a subscription level. On the last page you’ll click the Start My Subscription Now button, and then eBay will create your store. It’s that simple!

The post Supplementing Your Auctions with an eBay Store first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

Let’s consider an example. Caitlin has found a source for iron-on transfers for T-shirts and sweatshirts. She can buy these transfers for $1 each and (based on her experience and research) can sell them on eBay for an average price of $5. That’s four dollars profit for every transfer she sells.

Caitlin has huddled over her copy of Quicken and determined that she needs to generate $30,000 in profit (not in revenues!) to make her eBay business worthwhile. Assuming that she works 50 weeks a year (everyone needs a vacation), that means she needs to average $600 in profit each week. At $4 profit per item, she has to sell an average of 150 iron-on transfers a week each and every week.

Because only about half of all eBay auctions end with a sale, Caitlin knows that to sell those 150 items she has to launch 300 auctions each week. That’s a lot of work, as you can imagine.

Can Caitlin make a go of it? It depends. Can she physically manage 300 auctions a week? Can she pack and ship 150 items a week? And, more important, can she realistically sell 150 items a week is the market big enough to support that sort of sales volume?

If Caitlin answers yes to all those questions, there’s still more planning to be done. To begin with, this example greatly simplifies the costs involved. Caitlin will need to figure eBay’s costs for all those auctions the listing fees for 300 auctions, and the final value fees for 150 completions. If she accepts PayPal payments, she’ll need to determine what percentage of her buyers will use PayPal, and what her fees for those transactions will amount to. Assuming that she uses a third-party website to help her launch and manage those auctions, she’ll also need to figure those fees into her cost structure.

All totaled, these auction listing and management costs can add up to 5%10% of her revenues. That means increasing her cost per item from $1.00 to $1.50 or more which reduces her profit per item to just $3.50. With this reduced profit margin, she’ll need to sell even more items to hit her profit dollar targets an extra 20 or so successful auctions each week.

All this needs to be factored in before Caitlin launches a single auction. And at these volume levels she’s definitely running a business, which means reporting the income to the IRS and paying taxes. There’s also the matter of sales taxes, which she’ll need to collect on all sales made to buyers in her home state.

The takeaway here is that making a living from eBay sales is just like running a business, especially in its financial complexities. Anyone contemplating this type of endeavor should do some serious business planning, which should include consulting an accountant or another financial planner.

If the numbers work out, you need to answer one more question: Is this something you’ll enjoy doing every day of the week, every week of the year? Even if you can make money at it, managing hundreds of auctions a week can wear down even the best of us. Make sure that you’re up to it, and that you’ll enjoy it, before you take the leap.

The post Real Business with eBay Online Auctions first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

As you can see, there’s a proper feedback and response for every situation. Just be sure to think twice before leaving any feedback (particularly negative feedback). After you submit your feedback, you can’t retract it.

Don’t get too upset if you receive the occasional negative feedback; it happens to the best of usespecially those that run a lot of auctions. You can’t please everyone all the time, and sometimes you make mistakes that justify a negative feedback response. Just try to work out as many issues with other users as you can, and don’t let the occasional negative feedback get to you.

The post Recommended eBay Feedback first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

You can edit your About Me page at any time. The address for your About Me page is shown in the address box of your web browser. The address is typically in the form of members.ebay.com/aboutme/userid/; just replace userid with your own user ID and you should have the URL. (As mentioned previously, my eBay ID is exampleuser123, so my About Me address is members.ebay.com/aboutme/exampleuser123/.)

The About Me page is also a good way for other eBay users to get to know youespecially those who are bidding in your auctions, or hosting auctions in which you’re bidding. Be sure to include text that positions you as a reputable eBay citizenand not some goofball flake who’s likely to cause trouble.

You can then insert this URL into your personal web page, your email signature, or any other item you can think of. It’s a great way to publicize your ongoing eBay activity!

Key points to remember:

• The About Me page is your personal page on the eBay siteyou can create it in less than five minutes, no HTML coding necessary.

• Your About Me page can include descriptive text, a photo, links to your favorite sites, a list of your current auctions, and a list of your most recent feedback comments.

• You can use your About Me page to publicize your eBay activities outside of the eBay site.

The post Publicizing Your eBay Auctions with About Me first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

You can view any user’s About Me page by clicking the Me icon next to his or her user name on any item listing page. (If no icon is displayed, that user doesn’t have an About Me page.) You can also search for other users’ About Me pages by clicking the Advanced Search link at the top of eBay’s home page and using the Find a Member search option.

How to create about me page:

As I said, you don’t have to be a web programmer to create your own About Me page. All you have to do is click a few options and fill in some blanks, and you’re ready to go.

• On any eBay page, click the Services link (above the Navigation Bar), and then click About Me.
• When the main About Me page appears, click the Create Your Page button.
• When the Choose Your Editing Options page appears, check the Use Our Easy Step-by-Step Process option, and then click the Continue button.
• If you’re an HTML wizard and want to code your own About Me page, select the Enter Your Own HTML Code option instead.
• When the Enter Page Content page appears, start by entering a title for your About Me page.
• On the same page, you can now enter two paragraphs of information, using the supplied formatting controls or (by clicking the Enter Your Own HTML link) with HTML codes.
• Still on the same page, enter a link to any picture you want to include on your page, as well as an optional title for the picture.
• In the Show Your eBay Activity section, choose how many feedback comments and current auction listings you want to display.
• If you want to include any links to external web pages, enter them in the Add Links section.
• When you’re done entering all this information on the Enter Page Content page, click the Continue button.
• When the Preview and Submit page appears, choose a layout for your page, and then click the Submit button.

You’ll now see a confirmation page, which includes a link to your new About Me page. Click this link to view your new page.

• You’ll now see a confirmation page, which includes a link to your new About Me page. Click this link to view your new page.

The post eBay About Me Page first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

My eBay is such a useful tool that I make it my primary gateway to the entire eBay site. I never use eBay’s home pageI use My eBay instead. It’s the very first bookmark in my web browser!

Sorting and Filtering

The information in any My eBay list (what eBay calls an information table) can be sorted by any individual column. Just click the column header to sort by that column.

You can also filter the listings presented in most tables to cut down on information overload. At the top of each information table is a series of Show links; click a link to filter the information accordingly. For example, in the Items I’ve Won table (in the All Buying view), you can choose to show All items, or just those items Awaiting Payment or Awaiting Feedback.

Hiding or Displaying Columns

If you don’t need to see all possible information for specific listings, My eBay lets you customize which columns are displayed for each individual information table. Just click the Customize link above the information table, and then select which columns you want to see.

Changing How Many Listings to Display

For most My eBay information tables, you can select how many days’ worth of listings you want to display; you can display up to 60 days’ worth of items if you want. Just pull down the Period list at the top of a given information table and make a new selection.

Leaving Notes to Yourself

Every now and then you might have an auction that requires additional action on your part, or somehow needs further annotation. Fortunately, My eBay lets you add electronic “sticky notes” to any auction listing. Just check the option box next to a particular listing and then click the Add Note button; add your comments into the resulting text box.

The information presented in My eBay looks great on screen but can be a little much if you need a hard copy. Fortunately, My eBay lets you print a simplified, printer-friendly version of any information table. All you have to do is click the Print link next to any section of any view page. For example, to print a list of auctions you’ve won, go to the All Buying view and click the Print link at the top of the Items I’ve Won section.

The post Managing and Personalizing My eBay first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

My Summary View

The My Summary view, is the default view when you access My eBay. It consists of several distinct sections:

• My Messages, which contains important messages from eBay or from other sellers and buyers.

• Buying Reminders, which prompts you about actions you need to take regarding those items you’ve recently purchased.

• Selling Reminders, which prompts you about actions you need to take regarding those items you’ve recently sold.

• General eBay Announcements, which includes links to the most recent eBay system news.

• Items I’m Watching, which lists those auction items you’ve placed on your watch list.

• Buying Totals, which summarizes those items you’re bidding on and those you’ve won.

• Items I’m Bidding On, which lists all items you’re currently bidding on.

• Item’s I’ve Made Best Offers On, which lists those items you’ve made a best offer on, for those auctions that utilize this feature.

• Items I’ve Won, which lists recent auctions in which you were the high bidder.

• Items I Didn’t Win, which lists recent auction in which you were outbid.

• Selling Totals, which summarizes those items you currently have for sale or have recently sold.

• Items I’m Selling, which lists all items you currently have for sale.

• Items I’ve Sold, which lists all items you’ve recently sold.

One other nice thing about the My Summary view is that you can customize it to display as muchor as littleinformation as you wish. Just click the Customize Summary link near the top of the page to remove sections you don’t use often.

I use My Summary as my “home page” for all my eBay activities. It presents a great visual overview of all your important eBay activity, and lets you link directly to individual activities.

If you’re using eBay’s Selling Manager feature, the My eBay All Selling View page is replaced by a Selling Manager page. To return to the normal All Selling view, click the View My eBay Selling link.

One of the things I like about the Items I’m Selling section is the column for # of Watchers. This lists how many potential bidders have placed your item on their watch lists; it’s a good indication of total demand, and a predictor of last-minute sniping.

Like the Items I’ve Won list on the All Buying page, the Items I’ve Sold list is especially useful. The Action column lists the next action you need to take for every one of your closed auctions; click the link to perform the appropriate action.

Also useful is the Items I’m Selling list, which lets you see, in a single glance, the status of everything you’re currently selling on eBay. All items that currently have a bid higher than your minimum or reserve price are listed in green; all items that haven’t yet reached the minimum bid level are listed in red. And, at the bottom of the page, you’ll find a set of links to various selling-related services on the eBay site.

You can add items to your favorites by clicking the Add links to the right of each listAdd New Search, Add New Seller or Store, and Add New Category. From there, follow the onscreen instructions to add the items you want to appear on the All Favorites page in the future.

The My Account Summary list, at the top of the page, displays your last eBay invoice total, any payments and credits made since your last invoice, and any fees accessed since your last invoice. There’s also a section that lets you pay your eBay fees via PayPal.

The My Account page is particularly useful because it contains direct links to some of eBay’s normally well-hidden customer service features, including fees and credits, payment terms, credit card setup, credit requests, and refunds. It’s easier to click these services here than to hunt them down on eBay’s Site Map page.

The post Accessing and Using My eBay first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

When you click the Sell link at the top of the eBay Real Estate page, you’re offered a choice of three selling formats. You can choose to sell your property at a traditional auction, sell at a fixed price, or to create a traditional real estate listing. From there, you enter the specifics of your propertynumber of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, type of property, square footage, lot size, year built, and so on. You can also choose to run a 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, 10-, or 30-day auction, or a 30- or 90-day non-auction listing.

eBay Real Estate charges both listing and final value fees. The charge for a 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, or 10-day auction listing is $100; a 30-day auction listing costs $150. If you prefer to create a non-auction listing, you’ll pay $150 for a 30-day listing, or $300 for a 90-day listing. (Fees for timeshares and land are slightly lower.) The final value fee for timeshares and land is $35; there is no final value fee on residential and commercial real estate.

The post Listing Your Real Estate on eBay first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

If you don’t want to sell your own stuff on eBay, you can let someone else sell it for you. In essence, you let another seller sell your goods on consignment. If the items sell, you pay the consignment seller a percentage of the final price. The consignment seller handles all the eBay stuff for youtaking photographs, creating item listings, managing the auctions, collecting payments, and packing and shipping the items. All you have to do is deliver the merchandise to the seller, and let him do all the work for you.

eBay calls this type of consignment seller an eBay Trading Assistant, and there are lots of them. Many individual sellers operate as Trading Assistants; there are also numerous local and national businesses that operate eBay consignment stores.

If you’d like to become a Trading Assistant yourself, go to the Trading Assistants Directory page and click the Create/Edit Your Profile link. To become a Trading Assistant, you must have sold at least four items in the past 30 days, have a feedback rating of at least 50, and have a positive feedback percentage of at least 97%.

To search for a Trading Assistant near you, go to eBay’s Trading Assistant Directory (pages.ebay.com/tradingassistants.html). Enter your ZIP code and select a category (for what you want to sell) from the pull-down list, and then click the Search button. This returns a list of Trading Assistants in your area; click the link to view the Trading Assistant’s profile. If you like what you see, click the Contact Assistant button to send a message and get the process going.

Not all Trading Assistants are individual sellers. eBay consignment selling has become a big business, with lots of stores opening their doors in communities all across America. Locally-owned consignment stores can be found in your local Yellow Pages. The two largest national chains are iSold It (www.i-soldit.com) and QuikDrop (www.quikdropfranchise.com); visit their websites to find a location near you.

The post Letting Someone Else Sell It for You first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

Start by clicking the Want It Now link on eBay’s home page. When the Want It Now page appears, you can browse through the listings by category, or use the Sellers search box to search for specific items that might be listed in the database. Click a particular listing for more detail from the interested buyer.

To respond to a request, click the Respond button to display the Respond to a Post with a Listing page. If you already have an item listed, enter the item number and click the Respond to a Post button. If you haven’t yet listed the item, click the Sell Your Item button, create an item listing, and then return to the Respond to a Post with a Listing page to enter the listing’s item number.

The interested buyer is now emailed a message containing a link to your item listing. To place a bid on your item, all the recipient has to do is click a button.

The post Finding Buyers with Want It Now first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.