“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.”

How do PowerSellers has a combined feedback rating of more than 35,000, get started? The actual circumstances vary. In some cases, wholesale sellers who have been supplying clothing or other items to a small group of retail merchants realize that they can start selling directly to the public on eBay.

In other cases, people who are dissatisfied with their current circumstances look for a way to apply their knowledge and ambition to making money on eBay: stay-at-home moms realize that they have the time to make some extra money “on the side”; office workers who spent their energy in business for someone else decide to go into business for themselves.

Whatever the circumstances, all of the successful eBay sellers start with the realization that they can do things differently: The status quo isn’t sufficient for them anymore. Not only that, but they sense that eBay can provide them with a way to change their lives. With millions of sellers on eBay all over the world, there are millions of different stories describing how this “Aha!” moment turns into a concrete plan of action. But for most of the sellers I’ve interviewed for this and previous eBay books, it starts with a little bit of self-examination—a look around at what they already do, what they already collect, or what they love—and identifying that as their sales niche.

For example, after his radio business failed, Phil began to sell on eBay, but not haphazardly. He knew the importance of drawing up a business plan, even if it consists of handwritten notes on low-tech paper. “I definitely had a business plan. I had been through the business mill before, so in November 2002, I put things down on paper to work out what sort of timeline I wanted to achieve my goals.” The thing to remember is that you need to project what you want to do and how much you want to make over a given period of time.

Then set about meeting those goals. For example, Phil called his eBay business Entertainment House. (Its home page is at http://www.entertainmenthouse.net.) The home page of one of his eBay Stores (http://stores.ebay.com.au/ENTERTAINMENT-HOUSE), shown in Figure 1-1, identifies his business niche and his mission: to sell “hard to find movies and music at great prices.” He used his existing knowledge of the entertainment industry to build a new business.

Phil admits that it’s getting more difficult to sell on eBay due to increased competition. It’s still possible to start a new eBay business and make it successful, but you need to have a plan for acquiring and keeping
customers, he says. “If you can acquire customers through eBay and then sell to them directly, your sales will really grow. We are planning to send newsletters to our existing customers; we haven’t marketed to them yet. We are going to offer them $5 off the first purchase they make directly from us. Anyone who buys a DVD from us receives a chocolate koala bear in the package. One in every five positive feedback comments we receive is because of the
chocolate. It shows the customer you actually care.”

Entertainment House was in the process of revising each of its storefronts to incorporate the checkout system provided by Marketworks and Channel Advisor. When someone makes a purchase, the system enables the seller
to upsell (suggest other things the customer might want to buy, based on purchases they’ve made in the past). “We are going to do everything we can to cultivate customers who came to us through eBay,” says Leahy.
That’s another essential habit of eBay PowerSellers: They do everything they can to retain customers. They send them gifts with purchased items. They do everything they can to entice those customers to buy from them
directly after buying something on eBay.

The most successful sellers on eBay are the ones who are designated PowerSellers—
entrepreneurs who have generated at least $1,000 in gross sales on eBay for three consecutive
months, and who maintain a high positive feedback level. Within the PowerSeller designation,
there are five levels; those at the Gold, Platinum, or Titanium level are the elite. These
individuals—sellers who have become millionaires or are in the process of making their
first million—also focus on their business as a business. It’s not a hobby or a way to make
some extra spending cash. They have a business plan; they set sales goals; they cultivate
relationships with their customers and their suppliers; they are constantly on the lookout
for new software tools they can use to find buyers or conduct more transactions in a given
period of time.
The “eBay millionaires” realize that on eBay, as in other areas of e-commerce, businesses
succeed by focusing on the customer’s needs and meeting those needs as efficiently as possible.
They know that eBay shoppers want bargains, they want a convenient shopping experience, and
they want a vendor they can trust—just the same kinds of things that businesses have always
known. You have to start thinking like a committed, successful eBay seller; before too long,
you’ll be one yourself.