Before you start selling on eBay, you need to know the secrets and the tried-andtrue approaches that can make your auction business a success from the start. You're joining a well-established business community, and one that is proving to be popular and resilient despite (or perhaps, because of) the ups and downs of the economy. To stand out from the crowd and make sales, you have to know how to compete on an equal footing with individuals who have auctioned off hundreds, even thousands, of items over a period of years. You've also got to gain the attention, as well as the trust, of bidders from all walks of life and all levels of computer experience. Some are wary of purchasing at auction because they've heard stories about sellers who take bidders'money and never ship what they've sold. To build trust, you need to present your sales items
- and yourself
- in a professional, businesslike manner and give the impression that you are an expert seller even though you're just starting out. That's what this article will do: give you a head start so you can jump right in and sell like a pro.
Learn the Culture of eBay When you're only a bidder, eBay is all fun. You can shop, find bargains, compete with other bidders, and enjoy the thrill of being the high bidder when the auction ends. When you make the move to being a seller, you have to change your perspective. Selling on eBay can still be fun, of course. In fact, it adds a new dimension to your interactions with the other members of the eBay community. And it can certainly be fun to have extra money around at the end of the month to pay bills or treat yourself to some presents. By changing your perspective, I mean that you need to regard your selling activities as a business, and treat them as such. You're going to have to do a lot of hard work, whether it means getting up early on a rainy Friday morning to hit the local estate sales, hauling your wares into and out of the house, packing your
merchandise carefully and taking stacks of boxes to the post office, or waiting inline to ship everything out to your customers. You need to be dedicated and keepyour ultimate goal in sight: generating a regular source of income through sellingon eBay. The following sections help prepare you for what's in store so you can hitthe ground running and start selling.
eBay's Own Educational Programs When it comes to learning how things work, I'm a big proponent of reading articles,but as a article author, I'm not exactly an unbiased authority on the subject. One goodway to learn all about eBay quickly is to read a article like this one and supplementyour learning with some live events and tutorials provided by eBay itself. That way,you'll get the very latest information about changes in eBay's procedures for sellers,and you'll get to meet some other sellers in person. eBay's Education area includes links to tutorials for sellers, seller workshopsheld on the message boards, and instructions on how eBay works in general. You'll find it at http://pages. ebay.com/education/index. html.
eBay University You can pick up advanced tips and meet some experienced sellers and eBay staffpeople alike by attending one of the live workshops eBay sends around the country. The cost to attend is nominal, and you can learn a huge amount in a short period oftime. eBay's education events are organized into different tracks,and each city has a different selection of classes:
- One Track Seminars If you're just starting out, and you can find a OneTrack Seminar in your area, you can learn all about eBay in a single day. In the morning, courses are held for beginners, while advanced topics arecovered in the afternoon.
- Two Track Seminars If you're already an experienced eBay user, lookfor a Two Track Seminar, which lets you take a full day of classes in eitherthe Beginner or Advanced Track.
- Road Shows If you don't have a lot of time to spend, look for a RoadShow, a series of four hour-long courses held in an area.
Power Sellers and Workshops If you can't attend a live event in your area, you always have access to one ofthe best ways to learn about eBay
- online workshops held by experienced sellers. When I checked, the titles of upcoming seminars all seemed useful for sellers:
- How to Ship Large and Delicate Items
- Listing Designer (how to make your descriptions more professional,add character, and have fun)
- Outlet Malls
- Catalog Returns and Overstock
Be Encouraged by Success Stories As I write this, eBay is one of the few parts of the world e-commerce that are not only doing well but continuing to grow with leaps and bounds. More and more individuals are taking to selling on eBay part-time, to get a little extra money, or have even moved to making eBay their sole source of income. The amazing thing to me is that people figured out on their own that they could make a living selling solely on eBay, or supplementing other sales with eBay auctions. eBay didn't market itself as a place where you could create your own eBay business; eBay sellers figured that out by experience. They realized that no matter how offbeat or unusual the item, they could find a buyer for it somewhere around the world. They also discovered that, with a worldwide pool of buyers available, they were likely to get a far higher price online than they could selling through an antique store, flea market, or garage sale. Listen to the stories of the people I interviewed for this article, whose profiles are presented in various articles:
- Bob Kopczynski sells as many as 600 items a month and doesn't even do it full-time. He works part-time buying at estate sales and selling on eBay, but his wife works full-time and various family members and neighbors help out.
- Don Colclough decided to close his antique store and sell full-time on eBay when he realized he could make his own hours, save on travel time, and get more buyers online than ever came through the front door of his store.
- eBay seller decoray sold an antique photo of a tavern for more than $700; he estimates that he's sold as many as 10,000 separate items on eBay, shipping as far away as Africa.
- Sheila Schneider has had a hard time finding regular employment as an interior designer in Portland, Oregon, but she's been supplementing her income nicely through eBay. Need more inspiration? eBay regularly features its own sellers on the Member Spotlight page, http://pages. ebay.com/community/people/spotlight. html. You'll also find member profiles in the eBay newsletter, the Chatter, http://pages.ebay.com/community/chatter/index.html
Beware of eBay Scams and Shams This article doesn't present a glowing picture indicating that selling on eBay always goes smoothly, and that problems never occur. On the contrary, eBay's very popularity attracts an assortment of swindlers, cheats, and outright crooks who seek to victimize buyers and sellers alike. If you're aware of the potential pitfalls and know how to avoid them, chances are you'll run into very few problems during your career as a seller. When you hear about eBay in the news, you usually hear about the weird, often illegal, things that people put up for sale on the auction site. The more notorious things are quickly removed by eBay itself.
You should avoid breaking the law or eBay's own rules for sellers by reviewing the lists of questionable and prohibited items. That's not to say you can't put odd, quirky, or downright weird things up for auction on eBay. A check of the odder eBay categories, such as Slightly Unusual, Really Weird, Totally Bizarre (which are under the Weird Stuff category, which is under the Everything Else category), or the Other subcategory under theMetaphysical category will cure you of that notion right away. The important thing is that you should watch out for typical scams that plague eBay buyers and sellers alike, such as:
- Deadbeat bidders These are individuals who refuse to pay for what they have bought. You run into these folks far less often than you might think, however.
- Scam artists eBay members regularly get junk e-mail from individuals who claim to be representatives of eBay or the payment service PayPal, and who try to trick members into giving them their passwords or other confidential information. The perpetrators can then "hijack" the user's eBay account.
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