In particular, you want to track unit cost and final selling price for every auction you list. You should also track all your ancillary costs shipping, PayPal fees, eBay listing and final value fees, and so on. By tracking all your costs and revenues, you can generate an accurate profit and loss statement, and thus determine how much money (if any) you’re generating from your online auction activities.

It also helps to track information about the buyers of your auction itemsname, shipping address, email address, and so on. The name and shipping address are necessary in case an item gets lost in transit; the email address is necessary not only for auction-related communication but also for promotional purposes which we’ll discuss next.

The post Tracking Revenues and Costs first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

Although beginning eBayers can find items to sell by haunting flea markets and estate auctions, power sellers most likely won’t find what they need in those venues. A better strategy is to approach local retailers or wholesalers and offer to buy 10 or 20 (or more) of a particular item. Buy whatever quantity earns you the best price break as long as you think you can move them.

You can also buy bulk lots of merchandise from online wholesalers and liquidators. We discussed some of these sites in Chapter 11, “Determining What to Sell And for How Much.” Check out Liquidation.com (www.liquidation.com) and Wholesale411 (www.wholesale411.com) to see what’s available, or use Ándale Suppliers (www.andale.com) to hook up with suppliers of specific types of merchandise.

If you’re a serious collector, you might have your eBay business right there. When your comics collection numbers in the tens of thousands, or you have thousands of rare coins filed away in your basement, you’re ready for power selling and power buying. Just remember to buy low and sell high, and you’ll be in business.

Finally, consider the selling price of the items you want to sell and the profit you generate on each item. You have to sell a lot more of a $5 item than you do of a $50 item to make the same amount of profit. (Assuming both generate a similar profit percentage.) And, of course, the more items you sell, the more work you have to do. The most successful power sellers do it by selling higher-priced, higher-profit items, for which the revenues and the profits add up a lot quicker.

The post Maintaining Your Sales Inventory 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.

For tens of thousands of eBay users, making a living from online auctions isn’t a dreamit’s reality. It’s definitely possible to sell enough items to generate a livable income from eBay auctions. It takes a lot of hard work and it’s as complex as running any other business; but it can be done.

One of the steps to running your own eBay business although not a requirement, by any means is to become an eBay PowerSeller. eBay’s 100,000-plus PowerSellers generate enough business to warrant special attention from eBay, in the form of dedicated customer support, premier tools, and the occasional special offer. Plus they get to display that cool PowerSeller logo in all their auction listings.

To become a PowerSeller, you must meet the following qualifications:

• Maintain a consistently high level of eBay sales
• Maintain a minimum of four average monthly total item listings for three straight months
• Have been an active eBay seller for at least 90 days
• Achieve and maintain a minimum feedback rating of 100, 98% positive
• Deliver post-auction messages to successful bidders within three business days of each auction close
• Be an eBay member in good standing and uphold eBay’s “community values”including honesty, timeliness, and mutual respect

The most important point is the first, because it’s the most quantifiable. There are five levels in the PowerSeller program; qualification for each level is based on average gross monthly sales, calculated over the past three months of selling activity.

Note: To keep your PowerSeller status, you have to maintain this sales rate. If your sales drop below these levels, eBay will give you 30 days to bring your account back into compliance; if you don’t, your membership in the program will be revoked. (You’re free to re-qualify at a later date, however.)

That’s right, there are some eBay sellers who average $150,000 or more a month. That’s almost two million dollars a year in revenues from eBay auctions no slight accomplishment!

Membership in eBay’s PowerSellers program is free. However, you can’t apply; PowerSeller status is by invitation only. Each month eBay sends out invitations to sellers who meet the PowerSeller criteria. You become a member by (1) meeting the criteria; (2) receiving an invitation; and (3) responding positively to the invitation.

The post Make a Living from eBay first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do if you receive negative feedback; under normal conditions, feedback comments cannot be retracted. (There have been some exceptions, when the feedback has been obscene or slanderous in nature.) What you can do is offer a response to the feedback, which you do by going to your My eBay Feedback page and clicking the Review and Respond to Feedback About Me link. When the feedback comments list appears, click the Respond link next to a particular comment and then enter your response. Your new comment is listed below the original feedback comment on the Feedback Profile page. Just try not to get defensive; the best response is one that is calm, clear, and well-reasoned.

The post How to deal with negative feedback first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

The Items I’ve Won list is worth an extra glance. Not only does it list those auctions in which you’re the winning bidder, but it also includes an Action column that lets you know what you need to do next for each itemleave feedback, view payment status, and so on. Click the link in the Action column to perform that action.

Also interesting is the Items I’m Bidding On list, which presents all your current bidding activityeven those auctions in which you’ve been outbid. All auctions you’re currently winning are in green; all auctions you’re currently losing are in red. And, at the bottom of the page, you’ll find a set of links to various buying-related services on the eBay site.

• Buying Reminders
• Items I’m Watching
• Buying Totals
• Items I’m Bidding On
• Items I’ve Won
• Items I Didn’t Win

Selling Page

You use the All Selling Page, shown in, to keep track of all the items you’re currently selling or have recently sold. The page contains several lists of use to sellers:

• Scheduled Items
• Selling Reminders
• Selling Totals
• Items I’m Selling
• Items I’ve Sold
• Unsold Items

Note:

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.

The post My eBay selling and buying page first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.

• 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 much or as little information as you wish. Just click the Customize Summary link near the top of the page to remove sections you don’t use often.

The post My eBay Summary View first appeared on Tips For Sellers & Buyers.