eBay is the number one international market place for all types of products over the Internet. eBay is an online retailer or ‘e-tailer’ that offers people the opportunity to sell and buy goods online. The site charges a commission on sales as well as a charge for listing. eBay typically works through an auction model – i.e. items are auctioned to the highest bidder. The seller can also specify a price below which the item cannot be purchased. You can find almost anything on eBay, and a large proportion of online shoppers know about this website.

eBay is used mostly by small start up businesses, many of which operate from home. There are a number of success stories on eBay, since it enables people to set up a small business and grow it into an online shop. There are actually businesses making millions of dollars, all through their eBay store. The typical success story runs like this: a regular person, just like you and me, looking for a great product, hits on one either on his own or through an eBay search for the hottest items. He finds a source for it and puts it up for auction on eBay. As his sales grow, he sets up a shop on eBay and uses the item listings on eBay to drive traffic to his site. This can be antiques, designer bag replicas, DVDs, almost anything. The market is virtually limitless.

The reason for the popularity of eBay is the convenience and cost savings. You can start from your own home, with absolutely no investment – you don’t even have to give up your day job. Further, due to its wide network, eBay can give your products and your online business much needed visibility for a small cost. The amount of effort and money you would expend on marketing for even an online business, to create awareness for your product, would be much greater. A huge Internet population shops here, so it’s like having your product on display at the biggest department store in the world, except that it would be much easier for a buyer to find it.

Further, people who sell on eBay claim that it is a large, helpful community that will enable you to learn from your peers and grow as an online business owner. There is an eBay University, chat rooms and forums for members to interact and educate themselves through others’ experiences. Also, since you have not invested much, there is room to make mistakes and learn as you grow.

eBay has all the technology in place that helps you to have your own online business, without the hassles and knowledge required to run a site. It is a very user friendly site and makes the buyer’s experience comfortable, which is important for your online business. For instance, eBay has features that allow a buyer to place a maximum bid on an item and automatically monitor the activity on the item till bidding closes. So selling is made that much easier for you on eBay.


Article Source: TimesPR NewsWire | Free Article Directory | News Release

“If You’re Going to Sell for a Living, You Might As Well Sell Something Expensive”

A look at Drew’s completed auctions on eBay indicates how he is able tomaintain his PowerSeller status. He sells his share of watches and fine gifts for up to, say, $80. But as soon as he sells one pen for $3,995, he’s made his
Silver PowerSeller quota for that month. Over $10,000 in gross sales per month and he maintains his Gold PowerSeller status.

How is he able to consistently sell such high-priced merchandise on eBay? First of all, he knows his customers: he has identified them, he knows what they are looking for, and he has learned how to connect with
their needs and tastes. “My customers are professionals like lawyers, gynecologists, plastic
surgeons, and dentists,” he says. “They like to exhibit their ‘jewelry for
men’ especially among professional peers. When they get together at their
annual conventions, they compare their pens.” He also knows what dedicated collectors like to hear, and he provides
them with all the juicy details he can. A sample of one of his glowing sales descriptions is shown in Figure 3-1.

Drew doesn’t sell just any kind of pen. He sells rollerball and fountain pens that are manufactured in limited edition quantities using high-quality materials. Pen manufacturers like Montblanc have known for years that
pens, like works of art, can actually gain value over time if they are produced in limited, numbered editions.
An inspection of White Mountain Trading Company’s listings for Michel Perchin pens turns up phrases that are certain to interest bidders,

such as:

● “One of several last remaining . . .”

● “Brand new . . .”

● “An extremely limited edition . . .”

● “It is an extremely attractive and HIGHLY COLLECTIBLE item since being reported as SOLD OUT by the manufacturer . . .”

Get the message? This pen is rare because the manufacturer intended it to be that way. It’s a really desirable object and, if you don’t buy it now, it’s going to be permanently unavailable to you. That’s the message that Drew Friedman communicates, and it’s one that connects with his market.

Everybody want to have successful business, with eBay you need this 8 steps to mastering eBay business.

1. In order to perform all of these tasks that go into running a successful eBay business enthusiastically and diligently, you need to have the right frame of mind: You need confidence in yourself and what you’re doing.

2. Be clear about your business’s mission and believe that you’re doing the right thing; all of the steps involved in running a successful business come that much easier.

3. Develop a mission statement for your business and put it in writing on your web site or eBay Store.

4. Try to find something unique to sell on eBay, and promote the fact that customers can’t find that type of merchandise anywhere else.

5. Try to reach a worldwide audience for merchandise that would only be found locally if it wasn’t for eBay.

6. Consider installing special software for managing auctions and automating tasks to improve productivity.

7. Create a business web site that enables you to sell directly to customers and establish a professional identity.

8. Develop a strong set of ethics and communicate them to your employees, so they can put them into practice when dealing with your customers.

The rule that in order to be a successful full-time PowerSeller, you have to find a wholesale supplier and sell consumer goods at high volume or high profit, isn’t one that applies to everyone.

I will like to says selling vintage and collectible goods is a more certain way to make a profit and stand out from the crowd. “This is just my opinion, but people who sell vintage and used goods are going to survive longer than those who sell new items that have a small profit margin. I think selling on eBay is a tough business to break into. Every time eBay raises its sellers’ fees, it hurts those sellers who work on volume. It wouldn’t take much to drive someone out of business because margins are so tight. Not only that, but you can carve yourself out a niche, and then run into a ‘clone’—someone who figures out who your suppliers are, and what your secret of success is. You always have to stay one step ahead of the competition. “For me, my success depends on my knowledge of vintage things. If I sell things that can’t be duplicated, then I have less direct competition.”

On eBay, customer

service boils down to a few simple practices:
● Answering e-mail as quickly as possible
● Being available on the phone when needed
● Shipping out items as soon as payment is received
● Being clear about your returns policy
● Being receptive (not necessarily submissive) to claims that
merchandise was lost or damaged in transit

Being able to do all these things requires an almost obsessive dedication—or at least the ability to delegate the responsibility to your employees. In either case, if you can’t be at your computer virtually all the time, you need to check your e-mail several times a day. The trick is to check your e-mail frequently during the hours you have designated for work; when your work schedule is done, take time off so you don’t let your work take over your entire life.

Remember! Customer service on eBay often makes the difference if you’re selling merchandise that isn’t unique and that is sold by many other vendors.

You can sell anything you want on eBay. In fact, sellers put up for auction everything from grilled cheese sandwiches that allegedly bear the image of the Virgin Mary to homes created from nuclear fallout shelters or commercial airliners. You don’t have to love what you sell or be attached to it in any way. You don’t have to be a devoted collector of the type of merchandise you sell, either. But at the very least, you should be knowledgeable about what you decide to sell in your niche category. If you like what you sell, so much the better. But try to be an authority about what you sell—or at the very least, be enthusiastic about the act of
selling it.

For many PowerSellers, the act of selling itself is the attraction; the thrill of running one’s own business and making a success is the attraction, not the books, works of art, shoes, or watches they happen to sell online. That’s a good thing, since they’re likely to spend far more than 35 or 40 hours a week selling them online.

my advice is "Sell Something You Know"

It’s tempting to start out with an approach along the lines of, “you’ll find the two or three things that are sold most often on eBay; since that’s what people want the most, that’s what I’ll sell.” There are several problems with
this “copycat” reasoning:

● Stiff competition If something is already being sold heavily on
eBay, that indicates that some sellers are already heavily involved
in offering that type of merchandise online. You’re likely to encounter
a wall of competition.

● Lower feedback Customers who are used to making purchases
from sellers who have higher feedback ratings (and by extension,
more established reputations) than you do will be unlikely to
switch to a less-established seller like you unless your prices are
substantially lower.

● Potentially low margins If there is already heavy competition for something being sold on eBay, chances are the profit margins are already very small: The existing competitors are driving each other’s prices down. In order to have any hope of attracting customers, you
would have to cut your profit margin to a razor-thin level. (And the manufacturers or wholesalers that provide you with inventory to sell might not approve of this; they may accuse you of undervaluing their products and hurting other authorized sellers.)

You dont have to sell the type of merchandise that’s especially unique or unusual. You can find CDs and DVDs practically everywhere. You don’t have to go on eBay to buy your music and movies; you can go to a department
store, an electronics store, even the big video chains that sell as well as rent movies.

You can succeeds because

● You specializes in hard-to-find music and movies: concert videos,
collections of classic movies, or overlooked films that have been
released on DVD. And as shown in Figure 1-3, he has a large
selection.

● You can offers reasonable prices for items that are hard to find.

● You has developed a good reputation; as he says on his home page, “We have the fastest shipping on eBay with the lowest postage and handling prices and we guarantee all our shipments.” It also doesn’t hurt that he started out relatively early on eBay, and he sells at such a large volume that no other seller in his part of the world can
compete with him. You can try to follow Phil’s example, but you’re better off developing your own sales niche. As one PowerSeller told me: “Too many people try to do what everyone else does. You already have 10 or 20 people selling computer equipment on eBay. New people look and think, ‘I can do that, too.’ They find out right away that they can’t compete with sellers who have built up a business over time.”