Here are some tips for the buyers:

1. It is important to know the item first.

The eBay management strongly suggests that a buyer should first read and understand carefully the item listing before proceeding to bidding. He or she must grasp the seller’s shipping requirements and the fees that are attached to it.

2. Buyer should be aware of the return and refund policy of eBay.

Buyers should know this first before bidding so that there wouldn’t be any problems when wishing to do a refund.

3. The buyer should check first the seller’s feedbacks before bidding.

Checking on the seller’s feedbacks will give the buyer an impression if the transaction is trustworthy or not.

4. The buyer should choose a secured payment method.

The only secured way to get through a transaction on eBay is to make sure that the mode of payment required by the seller is protected. This should be clear on the buyer so as to avoid imminent danger of fraud or scam.

5. The buyer should use the “ask a seller questions” section.

It doesn’t hurt to ask. It is best for a buyer to use this section first before bidding on an item. After all, it really pays a buyer to ask and clarify things first before proceeding to the bidding activity.

6. The buyer should know, by all means, the seller’s contact details before sending the payment. This is one way of protecting one’s money.

7. The buyer should take extra precautions on most of the international item listings because this is where most fraudulent activities happen.

8. The buyer should avoid any transaction that involves wire transfers as mode of payment. The eBay management does not approve it and will offer no protection in the event it is a fraud.

9. The buyer should make a documentation of all the transactions and the items purchased on eBay. This will be very handy in case there is a discrepancy in the future.

10. The buyer should be aware and get rid of spontaneous offers and counterfeit escrow services. The eBay management only allows protection for transactions made with eBay-approved escrow services.

But there are three other formats that are less well known.

1. Live Auctions

Before eBay, the traditional auction included live bodies in
chairs and an auctioneer up front (talking so fast he was
frequently unintelligible). Any buyer can still participate
in these live auctions via eBay. Live auctions are a hybrid
- a buyer is ’sort of’ present in a live setting yet is at
home using an Internet connection.

The products for sale are usually expensive and unusual.
There are such items as expensive and unique coins, Asian
art, native American artifacts, incredible jewelry, costly
furniture, memorabilia from major sports stars and even
history. Today, for instance, there are documents signed by
John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, James Madison and Ulysses
Grant (he confides that he was strenuously opposed to the
“wicked” war with Mexico).

If you choose to participate in a live auction, be certain
that you register first because you can’t just drop in on a
whim.

You can find all the details here:
http://www.ebayliveauctions.com

2. Private Auctions

Private auctions are similar to the typical auction that
we’re all familiar with except for one detail – the
identities of the bidders are kept secret. Only the seller
has access to the names.

Why would anyone create a private auction? It’s usually for
one of three reasons:

* The item is quite expensive and buyers might be
uncomfortable having others know they can afford such
merchandise. Their concern about their financial status is
most likely misplaced because it is quite possible to
distance yourself from eBay contact information, but much of
selling is about perception.

* The buyers might be embarrassed by the nature of the
merchandise.

* Some sellers habitually use private auctions to make it
harder for their competition to snoop on them.

3. Restricted Access Auctions

This is usually for sales of “adult” items. The main purpose
is to prevent children from seeing this kind of merchandise,
and is similar to having covers on racy magazines at store
checkouts.

To bid on these items, the buyer must:

* Be 18 years old

* Must have supplied credit card information to eBay.The
theory is that no one under 18 can get a credit card and
therefore cannot get into these sections.

* Agree that he is voluntarily accessing restricted access
auctions

In addition, restricted auctions are excluded from the
Featured pages. So if you are a seller using this format,
your listing will be harder to find.

Even though they are less well known, these three formats
for auctions on eBay still account for tens of millions of
dollars in sales each year. If they suit your business
model, you might consider them.

First off, make sure that your display picture is of the highest quality. You might have the best written description in the world, but if your picture doesnt mirror your description that will turn bidders off. Use a digital camera if possible. Create a clean, unobtrusive picture. Take care in the background and lighting of the picture and you should be all set.

Adding an About Me page is a great way to increase your response as well. If your bidders have some personal information about you and your business this goes along way to establishing that trusting relationship between you and your customers. You can also post a few special offers on this page for people who take the time to look at it. Also, ask visitors to sign up for your mailing list as well.

Sign up at Square Trade, and display their logo on your auctions. This shows potential bidders that you are committed to resolving any disputes that might arise. Power Sellers always carry this logo on their auctions, and you should too. It makes you look much more professional.

Clearly spell out your terms and conditions making it very visible. Give details of things like shipping times and prices, the refund policy and anything else you want to make your buyers aware of. This also helps create trust between you and your customers. Plus having it all spelled out clearly, helps if any dispute issues arise as well.

Display your good feedback on your auction so that visitors dont have to go looking for it. You can simply cut and paste the text, or create a screenshot image of your feedback. If you have a 100% feedback rating, be sure to make a mention of that as well.

If you have room on your auction title, use NR (No Reserve) at the end of your title. Bidders like auctions that have no reserve, so having this on your title allows bidders to see that your auction has no reserve without actually having to click on your auction link.

Make sure you auction highlights the benefits of your product and not just the features. You want to tell your visitors why your product is good for THEM. You can have all the features in the world, but without describing the benefits of those features many bidders will pass on by.

In order to reach those last few buyers that you might miss otherwise, accept various unusual payment methods like checks or money orders. Many other sellers dont take these forms of payment, but the fact that you do may bring you that extra sale.

Upgrade your auction. Buying upgrades helps get you listed higher in the list of items. This can help a lot if your product is in a crowded category. You might just find out that its worth the money.

Dropshipping has been around since Sears first started selling goods from its mail order catalogs over a hundred years ago. However, the idea of dropshipping still confuses many people who don’t understand exactly how the process works.

By definition, dropshipping is a method of selling and distributing goods wherein the distributor or supplier of the product (the dropshipper) ships the product directly to the end user (your customer) on the retailer’s behalf (that’s you).

The process of dropshipping involves three parties who take a product from manufacturing to market. They are a manufacturer, a distributor, and a reseller.

Let’s use a blue widget as a sample product to demonstrate the process:

* Blue Widget Manufacturing (manufacturer): This is the company that manufactures blue widgets. Blue Widget Manufacturing does not sell directly to the public or supply the retailers who ultimately sell the blue widgets to the end user. They prefer to use distributors to handle the task of taking their blue widgets to market. Blue Widgets sells blue widgets by the truckload to distributors who pay $5 per blue widget.

* A1 Distributing (distributor/dropshipper): A1 Distributing is the company that purchases blue widgets in bulk from the manufacturer and supplies them to resellers at a cost of $7 each. The distributor does not ship blue widgets to the reseller, but ships orders directly to the reseller’s customers as the widgets are sold.

* Big Bob’s eBay Widget Store: Big Bob sells blue widgets to the public from his eBay store. Bob orders the blue widgets from A1 Distributing as he sells them (usually one at a time) and has A1 ship the blue widget directly to his customer. Bob sells blue widgets to the public for $10 each, which means that for every blue widget sold he nets $3.

How The Process of Dropshipping Works

Here are the seven steps involved in starting a dropship ebusiness:

* STEP 1: Choose A Product To Sell The very first step in any sales process is deciding what product to sell. There are many factors that should be considered before deciding on a product to sell, but for now let’s say that you decide to sell CD players on eBay.

* STEP 2: Locate A Supplier Who Will Dropship For You Using a research tool like Google, Thomas Register, or an industry-specific resource like The Ultimate eBay Dropship Power Pak. You search for and find a company who will dropship CD players for you. The company offers you a 35% mark up over cost, which means that they will supply the CD players to you for $100 each and you should be able to retail them for $135. You make sure that the dropshipper has a good stock of CD players on hand so you don’t end up selling a product that must be back-ordered.

* STEP 3: Set Up An Account With The Dropshipper You contact the company that can supply the CD players and set up a reseller account with them. This can often be done online or by phone, but some companies will require that you complete and return a reseller application to open an account. Some companies may also require a tax ID and business license.

* STEP 4: Advertise The Product For Sale On eBay Now that you have your supplier lined up and know that the product is in stock, it’s time to make a sale. You advertise the product using an eBay auction. Since you know what you must pay the dropshipper for the product, you know what the minimum amount you will take for the product. In this case you start your auction at $100 since that is your cost. If you are confident that you can get more than $100 for the product you can start with a lower price, but remember that if the product goes for less than what it costs you to fill the order, you will lose money. Also remember that the dropshipper will charge shipping, so you should figure that into your sale.

* STEP 5: The Product Sells Great news: your CD player sells for $135 and your customer pays you with a PayPal instant payment. I highly recommend that if you are selling on eBay you use PayPal or some other online processor to accept instant payments. This allows the customer to pay you faster, which lets you place the order with the dropshipper faster, which gets the product to your customer faster.

* STEP 6: Place The Order With The Dropshipper After your customer pays you, you should contact the dropshipper immediately to order the product on your customer’s behalf. The dropshipper then ships the order to your customer under your company name and address.

* STEP 7: Follow Up After The Sale This is where many new ebusiness people drop the ball. Just because your customer has paid you and you’ve placed the order with the dropshipper does not mean that you are out of the loop. Quite the contrary, if there are problems with the order you are the one that will be held responsible in the eyes of your customer.

Be proactive in your customer relations. Follow up with your customer to let them know that the item has been shipped. Offer yourself as the personal contact for any

Many people are afraid to use dropshipping as a method of sales due to the horror stories that fill the Internet about unscrupulous dropshippers who take the money and don’t fill the orders, merchandise that is eternally back ordered, unscrupulous middle men posing as dropshippers, etc. Make no mistake, the dropshipping industry – like most other industries – does have its share of shady characters who would rob you blind given the chance, but there are also hundreds of honest dropshippers who can help you build a profitable eBay dropship business.

Cars are probably one of the best examples of this.

In fact, eBay is the largest dealer of used cars in the USA. And eBay’s car sales in the UK is also growing significantly. Every 16 seconds, a car is sold on eBay!

If you’re an eBay seller, here’s an idea you might like to consider to make extra cash.

The vast majority of car dealers don’t use eBay. They advertise in the press, usually locally, and their customers likewise usually live within reach of the car dealer.

What eBay Motors has successfully proved is that people will bid on cars from owners hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

Why not take your eBay selling expertise, and offer your services to car dealers in your area?

You know how to create auctions, take and upload photos, and manage auctions. The dealers have vehicles which are getting a tiny fraction of the exposure which eBay could offer.

You might decide to offer this to dealers on a no-cost basis. In other words, you bear the cost of eBay’s listing and selling fees. The benefit here is that there is no reason why the dealer shouldn’t give you the go-ahead. They could get a sale without cost to them and no extra effort on their behalf. That’s what I call a no-brainer!

Alternatively, you could pass on the fees to the dealer on the basis that they would be spending money anyway on press advertising.

The other commercial arrangements are simple. You could work on a commission, where you get a percentage of the sale price. Or you could agree a price which the dealer will accept for the sale of the car, and anything you can get above that price is your profit. This would work particularly well if the dealer has had a vehicle for some time, and has no interest in it.

The best types of cars to sell on eBay are those that are unusual for one reason or another. It might be vintage or classic vehicles, sports cars or high value models. You’re best to avoid what might be termed “normal” cars. It also depends on the kind of dealers you have in your area.

One of the major potential problems is easily handled. You can’t expect the dealer to cease trying to sell a vehicle which you have on eBay auction. In every auction you run for a car, you state that the vehicle is also on sale in other ways, and that you reserve the right to withdraw it before the end of the auction period. You will see such statements on many eBay car auctions.

This idea doesn’t have to be limited to cars. There are big ticket item opportunities in several categories. You’re looking for retail outlets which tend to concentrate on local advertising and local trade. Examples of this would be jewelers, antique traders and real estate operations
.

With big ticket items, just one or two sales per week could make a significant difference to you.

Worth thinking about!

Drop Shipping Benefits

The reason why drop shipping has become so popular and exploded so suddenly is that it is simply the most efficient way to sell retail goods. People surfing the web find a site selling a product they want and then make a purchase. The website owner (drop shipper) then passes that order along to their wholesaler along with payment and shipping costs.

From there, the wholesaler processes the order, packages the product with the website owner’s business name on the packaging, and ships it directly to the customer. The website owner bought the product at wholesale price and then sold it to the customer for whatever price they thought they could charge, and profited from the difference. It really is pure genius!

But, there is more to this than you think and the beauty of drop shipping gets even better! First of all, there is virtually no overhead because there is no store to operate (or employees to pay!) or any inventory to maintain. Stores like Wal-Mart may get better wholesale prices because they buy in such large quantities, but they still do not make as much profit on each item as a drop shipper due to the costs of operating their stores.

Drop Shipping with Ebay

Although websites are definitely cheaper to create and operate than a conventional retail store, they still can require a fairly sizeable investment of time and money. Between paying for servers and either creating or paying for content, websites can definitely eat up some time and money. But, this is where Ebay comes in.

For a small fee, you can post your wares on Ebay and benefit from the millions and millions of people who surf the site every year. This way, you never have to worry about maintaining any website and you can start selling products within a day or two.

Due to the incredible traffic on Ebay, it is definitely possible to make a fortune by drop shipping from the site. If you just think of the Ebay fee as a business expense, there really is no downside to the arrangement and it can definitely be more profitable than operating your own site and worrying about getting people to visit your site.

While some people may not like the idea of depending upon Ebay for their business, the fact remains that drop shippers can substantially benefit from the partnership. Due to the incredibly low operational costs of drop shipping, the Ebay fee is a very small price to pay for the convenience and high traffic offered by the site. If you are thinking about going into drop shipping but are not crazy about the idea of creating and operating your own website, consider posting from Ebay because the benefits far outweigh the small fee charged by the site.

If you are currently making a living on eBay it may be wise to consider opening up other avenues of income for several good reasons.

One reason is that eBay has the right to cancel all your listings at any time at their discretion. This is not unfair in the sense that eBay has to keep an eye on infringing listings to keep the marketplace safer for all. Only thing is that if you have no other source of income and for some reason you are suspended, your money stops right there.

Another factor to consider is the rise in eBay fees. With many other platforms now offering cheaper ways of getting your product seen it is good to get involved with as many as your time allows. Look towards companies like Yahoo Auctions, Froogle, Overstock and uBid to broaden your exposure and presence online.

It is also essential to consider paying for some web-hosting to setup your own website to sell your products from. The advantages to having your own website are numerous but the main thing is that you have complete control over what you can publish and sell and obviously there are no eBay fees involved.

The grand idea should be a multi-domain business that is inter-connected and sends traffic from your eBay AboutMe page straight to your various websites. There is a wonderful technique taught by Jim Cockrum in his eBook “The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay” to funnel the millions on eBay users to your own website. To learn more about this technique visit http://www.auction-buying-tips.com/ebay-auction-business.html

Use eBay in the right way to make sure you do not lose out on valuable prospects and leads that could be generated from the hundreds or even thousands of visitors that visit your eBay listings but do not bid or buy. This is using eBay the smart way, as part of your business, not your only business. Consider eBay as simply one more (very good) channel of income.

There was a new book shop just opened in the city, one of those massive places with a Starbucks and a café on the upper floors. Since I had not read a book for some time, I could kill two birds with one stone ( I hate that saying) and go there to eat and read. I hit the business section. After getting past the pile of Trump books, I found what I was looking for:

The 80-20 Principle, by Richard Koch.

Reading the back cover, it says that… 80 per cent of the output of an activity comes from 20 per cent of the inputs. So how can this help you make more money on eBay? Well, the applications of the 80-20 principle will depend on the approach towards eBay that you’re using. Let’s say that you are dealing in a ‘niche’ market, trading in antiques of a certain kind. I don’t know much about antiques, but let’s say you are buying and selling ancient Chinese antiques. Now, what you might find here is that you’ll have the same people buying these antiques repeatedly. In other words…
80 per cent of your business comes from 20 per cent of your customers.
The implications of this? Firstly, suiting your products to these 20 per cent. If they’re buying X, give them more of X.

Plus, make sure you keep these customers very happy indeed, because thats one way to make more money on eBay and where the biggest profits lie. So think more of what they want, more freebies just for them, constant communication just for them and so on. Also, you might also find that 80 per cent of your great products come from 20 per cent of your supplier base.
Furthermore, you might find that 80 per cent of your hassle comes from 20 per cent of your products, and within that figure, 80 per cent of the hassle comes from 20 per cent of the hasslers! Or, generally, 80 per cent of hassles come from 20 per cent of your customers. Also, you might find that 80 per cent of your profit in a given year comes from a selection of items – maybe 20 per cent of your items produce the profits, the rest only mediocre.

But here’s the interesting thing.

You see, the intuitive thing to do – if you have products that are losing, and some that are winning – is to try and ‘work’ the losers so they come up to speed. Not so, according to the 80-20 principle. Because rather than bothering with these losers, we’d want to do more with those few that are winning.

Sounds strange, huh?

Because most people would try and work with the losers…they’d try to bring them up to speed. Well, the author of this book says that, instead, you should concentrate your efforts on what’s working best:

The 20 per cent that’s producing 80 per cent of the results.

That’s right. You DON’T concentrate on improving the 20 per cent… you simply work harder with the 20 per cent that is producing 80 per cent of the results!
That may sound a bit well, silly – and counter-intuitive. You’d think that if you had ten products, and eight were performing badly… well, most people’s natural reaction is to try and boost the results of the bottom eight. Uh-uh. Go the other way. Try and boost the results of your best two.

Or, in the case of suppliers, concentrate more on the best two. Or, if you’ve got a mailing list of buyers, concentrate on the top 20 per cent. How? As I’ve said, by treating them right… maybe rewarding them with free gifts and so on.
And what if you’re selling products wholesale? And what if you’re selling the same product over and over?
Then what? Do you concentrate on the losers and try and improve them? Uh-uh. Probably wrong. Try the winners… and try to boost the results of what’s already working.

I’ll give you a practical, real-world current example. I tried a listing for a product. It went pretty well. In fact, it went really well, better than I expected. Now, it just so happens that I was selling the same product over and over again – the wholesale approach. But what could I do to expand? The logical thing would be to get more products. But no. Instead of doing that, I listed the same product AGAIN – right alongside the identical product!

That’s right. I simply listed the same product again, at virtually the same time (i.e. running them simultaneously) but with a different picture. And it sold nearly as well. It’s all about getting more out of the winning 80 per cent.

See, instead of diversifying, the implication of the 80/20 principle is actually one of anti-diversification. Because instead of going into new markets and the like, perhaps I should concentrate more on the current niche that’s working very well for me, and yes – working with the current one product that’s working so well. So after the current product is ‘hammered’, and I’ve listed it as many ways as I can (concentrating on what’s working), then I can try other products in that SAME market that’s already producing great results for me.

Make sense?

What we’re doing here is the opposite of diversifying our eBay business. It’s concentrating purely on what’s most effective at the current time, and working out ways to boost the current good results.

What’s your best performing listing right now? Try listing more of it. Try new categories, new approaches, different descriptions and pictures.

Who are your best customers now? Sell them more, and make sure they’re well looked after.

Where are your profits the biggest right now? Instead of trying to expand out in the logical way, try a different approach and concentrate on what’s currently most effective.

Most eBayers don’t think about these things! Very few do! If you stop to think about it for a moment, you might be surprised. If you analyse it, you’ll probably be even more surprised. You might find just ONE product is carrying your business, and it’s that product that deserves a great deal more attention. So I’d urge you to think about the areas of your eBay business where the 80-20 principle might apply – and how to harness it so you make more money on eBay.

The players:

eBay

Largest online auction site where buyers bid to buy products. Arguably the most well-known e-commerce site with over 100 million registered users. Billions in sales are transacted here worldwide.

Shopping.com

Shopping portal that helps shoppers find the least-expensive merchant to buy their desired product from. Shopping.com is one of the largest shopping portals on the Internet. They achieved success by implementing a model that allows online merchants to acquire targeted clicks from shoppers by paying a per-click fee.

eBay Sellers

Individuals, small businesses, and some larger businesses post products for auction on eBay, and also maintain “stores” within the eBay website where shoppers can make purchases without bidding. eBay sellers must maintain a presence on eBay to participate. This means that the shopper never leaves eBay to make a purchase, and the sellers must coordinate a system to process orders through eBay.

Online Merchants

Internet stores, large and small. Stores ranging from independent specialty stores like Surray Luggage, to huge mass-merchants like Amazon.com. Many online merchants do not do business on eBay because it requires them to maintain a separate store, which has both branding and logistical consequences.

What’s happening?

eBay is buying Shopping.com for $620 million. Shopping.com’s key assets include its product comparison technology, large network of product reviewers (formally EPinions.com), brand awareness, and of course, its advertisers.

Background

eBay was originally founded as an online auction where individuals offered used (and sometimes new) products to the highest bidder. Over time, EBay has introduced services to allow merchants to sell directly to buyers through eBay stores that bypass the bidding process. Since everything is done through eBay, merchants are required to have a presence on eBay that is separate from their online store. In other words, the merchant must have two stores: Their current store, and their eBay store.

Analysis

This could go one of two ways:

1) eBay could be buying Shopping.com to monetize its targeted traffic by sending eBay shoppers outside of EBay to the Shopping.com portal. In other words, they will funnel traffic from eBay to Shopping.com, which will then be funneled to the online merchants who currently advertise on Shopping.com.

- Upside to eBay: Increased advertising revenues.

- Upside to eBay Shoppers: Access to more products and increased price competition.

- Upside to Online Merchants: Access to the lucrative community of eBay shoppers.

- Downsides: eBay sellers will face increased competition.

2) eBay could be buying Shopping.com to simply enhance its value to both eBay shoppers and eBay sellers. Shoppers would benefit from the product reviews and price comparison technology that Shopping.com owns. Sellers would benefit from the enhanced shopping experience because demand for their products will further increase.

- Upside to eBay: Increased customer loyalty and listing fees.

- Upside to Shoppers: Better version of the service they’re already comfortable with.

- Upside to Online Merchants: None. Many online merchants have been reluctant to establish an eBay presence because they’ll have to maintain two separate stores.

- Downsides: Online merchants won’t have the streamlined access they’re looking for to reach the eBay community, and the value of advertising on Shopping.com would be diminished.

My Take

I can’t imagine that eBay would spend $620 million on Shopping.com only to disband its network of online merchants who pay a lot of money to be featured there. Accordingly, my prediction is that eBay will maintain a version of Shopping.com’s current advertising network where merchants acquire clicks from buyers (contrary to eBay’s model where buyers never click to leave the eBay website).

If I’m right, eBay’s acquisition of Shopping.com will be huge for advertisers. Advertisers will be able to advertise on Shopping.com like they always have. The only difference will be a massive influx of quality traffic from eBay.

I am concerned because eBay’s press release only talks about creating an enhanced shopping experience for current buyers, and mentions the new opportunity for current eBay sellers. The press release does not mention Shopping.com’s advertisers at all, which makes me question eBay’s true motives. In other words, I may very well be wrong.

Bottom line: Watch this closely. eBay’s acquisition could be a tremendous boon to online advertisers, opening up a fertile new market for online marketing. Or, eBay could be acquiring Shopping.com purely for its technology and product review network with the singular goal of enhancing eBay.com. If so, online merchants will be missing out on a big opportunity.

Online merchants should watch this very closely.

Some of you may be asking “What is “A Call To Action?” Well it’s a simple phrase that you would add to your auction description. This phrase should tell your potential bidder what they should do next. I know what your thinking, “Don’t they know what to do next?” But really, you do need to tell people what it is you expect them to do. You can not depend on or assume that an auction surfer is automatically going to become a bidder without telling him/her what you want them to do. You need to come right out and tell them to buy. And why they should buy. Here are some examples of phrases you could use to entice that potential bidder to take action now and make a bid.

- Bid Now! Save Money!

- Buy Now and Save on Shipping!

- Bid Now! Don’t Miss This Incredible Deal!

- Buy Now! Quantities are Limited!

- Bid Now! One Of A Kind!

- Bid Now! Collectors Item!

You get the idea. If you have what that surfer is looking for any of the above phrases will entice him/her to make a bid now. And this method is not something new. Retail stores have been using this for years. You know any of the big sales where the advertisement says something like “And don’t wait, Quantities are Limited!” This method is time tested. Some experts report you can increase your sales by 50% simply by telling those who are just surfing your auction page what you want them to do.

You can also use more then one call to action. And use them for different reasons in your auction. Say you use one of the above. Bid Now! One of a Kind! But what if this surfer is not interested in this item for auction. Well, don’t let him/her leave without inviting him/her to view your other auctions. Say something like “If you don’t see what you are looking for here – please visit my other auctions” and create a link to your other auctions, possibly your “me page” which lists all the auctions you have running.

Try this method on your next auction.

Happy Selling!