The Effects of eBay on American Merchandising
 by: David Espino

With one brilliantly simple idea, eBay was born just a few short years ago.

From its humble beginnings in the Collectibles business, it went on to achieve the lofty heights it enjoys today.

As eBay has continued to grow to over 30 million registered users, it has transformed the ability of individuals (as well as Corporations) to move product of all kinds.

eBay is now a place where virtually any item imaginable is available, for the right price.

With a few clicks of your mouse, the doors to the world marketplace are opened for you.

Similarly, with a few clicks of your mouse, the entire world can be viewing your merchandise for sale.

It is this awesome power that eBay gives to you, for a small fee.

Is it any wonder that large institutional sellers, such as the U.S. Postal Service, J.C. Penneys, various Police Departments and all types of Corporations have discovered the power and efficiencies of selling on eBay?

The drawback for the smaller seller is that, as more and more individual and institutional sellers sign on to sell on eBay, the supply of similar items will increase.

This increase in supply results in a decrease in demand, and with that decreased demand, lower ending bid amounts and lower profits for all sellers.

This has already begun to happen in some categories as ending bids continue their slow trend downward.

As sellers begin to see profits eroding due to too many sellers “playing the game”, the question of the day seems to be, “What is the best thing to sell on eBay?”

The simple (and somewhat facetious-sounding) answer is, “Whatever people are interested in that is not currently selling on eBay in mass quantities”.

More often than not, success on eBay results from a seller taking on a niche that they are familiar with and enjoy. Many of the top eBay sellers have built their entire business around a niche that they enjoy, such as a certain type of collectible, or a certain hobby, interest or sport.

If you take this approach, not only will you be happier doing that which you enjoy, but listing items will not become a “chore”, it will be an enjoyable experience.

As eBay continues it’s trend-line of massive growth, sellers must be increasingly aware of three things that will ensure opportunities for growth and success:

Opportunities for new products to sell
Alternative venues in which to sell their products
Advanced marketing techniques that can leverage their time and money

Ultimately, it is this extra awareness that will determine who the winners are in the game of Online Auction sales.

About The Author

David Espino is the Author of Beyond eBay and Life In The Dot Com Lane.

To receive a free excerpt from the book – Beyond eBay, visit www.HomeBasedBusinessowner.com

Email: dave@HomeBasedBusinessowner.com

Technorati Tags: Ebay

Seven Secrets to Making a Killing on Ebay
 by: Daegan Smith

The world’s biggest marketplace is the Internet, and its biggest bargain and auction store is Ebay. Here, sellers put their items up for bid with a starting price of their choosing. Buyers bid for a limited amount of time, while sellers wait until their desired price appears before terminating the bidding. Buyer and seller then agree on how the product will be shipped and paid for.

Ebay gives people a chance to buy anything they want to buy, sell anything they want to sell, and perhaps get rich trying. Everything can be done at home, with very little investment.

Are you ready to earn money through Ebay? All you need are seven simple strategies.

First: Study the market. Ebay is not only an online bidding and shopping center. Some companies actually post their wares on Ebay to see how much people are willing to pay for it.

To market test your product, post it three times with three different starting bids: one comfortably low, another at the price you expect it to fetch, and a third comfortably high. Monitor each product post and see how fast the prices rise with the bidding.

This way, you know how much people will be willing to pay to purchase your product. There is a caveat to this, however: you can incur the wrath of people on Ebay if you choose to terminate bidding of your two other products should you choose to retain and sell the one for which you got the best price.

Second, sell something old but new. Now this may sound strange, but all it means is that you have to sell something that has a use or a following, something that is unique without being obscure. Ebay is filled with hundreds of thousands of people loud and proud of their wares. You can’t sell something anyone can find in the nearest grocery store, but you can’t sell something no one will know about either.

For instance, you can sell Used Ball Pen Art – it’s something you certainly can’t pick up at the local Wal-Mart, but it isn’t something everyone might be interested in either. If you are unsure, see Strategy Number One. If you believe in your product, however, move on to Strategy Number Three.

Research. Some sellers make the mistake of calling their product certain things: plaid when the pattern is checkered, large when it is actually medium, brand new when it has a tear across its front. Make sure you know everything about your product, so that if someone is finding something specific, they stumble upon your wares. Don’t make the mistake of advertising something your product doesn’t have. Do so, and your buyers – and everyone else on Ebay – will walk away very unhappy.

Fourth, take a great picture of your product. Showcase its best side, but show any flaws it might have without highlighting the flaws or hiding them. When you have taken the picture, crop it to include only your item, then shrink it down to 72 dpi to make it load faster. This will allow buyers to not only see your item, but see it quickly. If it loads too slow, buyers will turn away in impatience. If you have no picture, you will appear unwilling to sell and wary of showing your product.

So what have you got to hide? Take out that camera and snap those pictures!

At this point, you are ready to get your item onto Ebay, so list your product correctly. What some sellers do is to put their items in the most general category, thinking that more people will see it. This is not true for Ebay, since buyers will be searching for specific things. Put your item in the general categories, and you could miss out on those precious page views.

Sixth, work on your writing. Ebay requires you to have a written description of your product, along with an auction title. Make your written description short and true, and your auction title specific. Remember that some buyers may not have the right Internet speed – and patience – to wait for your picture to load, so you have to grab them immediately with a delicious description.

As a rule, the best descriptions are those which will answer any questions your buyers might have.

Your product is now online and ready to be sold – but how do you sell it right, and when do you stop the bidding? It’s all about timing.

Know when Internet traffic is loose so that you can post your item without much difficulty on your part, and know when traffic is high so that you don’t terminate bidding when people are actually trying to get through to your site but are stuck in an online traffic jam.

So, seventh, watch your market. Watch TV, so you know when popular shows are on. Chances are, people won’t be at their computes during that time. Watch the Weather Channel. In harshly cold or harshly hot weather, people will be indoors surfing the net.

Marketing is all about timing, and in selling, timing is everything. Ebay is no exception, and it can be a great place to earn cash if you strategize and plan.

About The Author

Daegan Smith is the leader of the fastest growing team of successful home business enterpernuers on the net. Find out how we’re creating financial freedom all across the globe and how to get in on the action FREE at http://www.comlev.net.

Technorati Tags: Ebay

Effective Online Car Sales on Ebay Motors
 by: Cherie Szilvagyi

Remember back when selling online was a new experience? Dealers tried everything to sell their vehicles online. Today’s market has expanded to include several hot online marketplaces. The largest online marketplace is Ebay. Ebay has evolved into an online solution for everything from whole towns to your favorite paperback book. Big or small it doesn’t matter, Ebay has everything for the savvy consumer.

Vehicles are plentiful on Ebay. Ebay sells a vehicle every minute for the savvy seller willing to invest his time and money in listing his vehicle online. Just how effective is selling on Ebay? Actually, less than 10% of the vehicles listed on Ebay actually sell. A selected few dealers sell at 80 to 100% of their online car sales.

Who are the auto dealers that are selling effectively on Ebay? Is there a secret to their success? Consider that a vehicle, digital camera and some basic design skills are all you need to sell on Ebay. Which vehicle and how much will it sell for? How to type up the description so that the internet savvy consumer will want to purchase your vehicle?

All of these questions are asked each and every day by savvy individuals and auto dealers all across the United States. A company has come along that can help with your selling situation and take the work out of listing for a car dealer on Ebay Motors. That is right! No work for you! They take the pictures and handle your vehicle sale from start to finish, while handling emails in a professional manner to produce a proven sales results.

A Consulting company called www.AutomobileClearingHouse.com has proven that they can sell cars on Ebay with a sell through factor much higher than the average auto dealer on Ebay. Take the work out of selling your vehicle on the world’s largest marketplace. Check out their website and see how easy selling a car online can be.

“Committed to selling online, put our extensive experience to work for you.” At www.AutomobileClearingHouse.com, their moto says it all!

About The Author

Cherie Szilvagyi

www.AutomobileClearingHouse.com © AutomobilleClearingHouse 2004

cherie@automobileclearinghouse.com

Technorati Tags: Ebay

Kylie Minoque Demands Cancellation Of Tickets Resold On eBay
 by: Christine Paluf

www.TicketNews.com — Performers are starting a new trend: canceling tickets that they find on reseller sites. Kylie Minogue this week joins the ranks of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who may have started the trend with the cancellation of nearly 500 tickets sold during a presale auction on Petty’s fan club site in May.

Minogue insisted that the tickets found on eBay for up to five times their face value be cancelled, going head to head with eBay in an effort to stamp out reselling of tickets to her comeback concert at Wembley Arena. Minoque demanded the cancellation by the arena, so they can be resold.

The demand was so high for these London concerts, tickets disappeared in as little as five minutes.

The singer’s Web site cautions that fans be wary of Internet sales, saying the tickets may be lost, stolen or that the vendor may not even have any tickets. This was prefaced with a list of appropriate places to purchase tickets, including Ticketmaster as an approved vendor.

Not surprising, considering Ticketmaster had a hand in the cancellation of the Petty tickets as well. They also were involved with London’s “T in the Park” concert ticket cancellations, for some of the same reasons.

In order to understand where the performers are coming from, you have to look at this practice from both sides of the coin. The performers and promoters don’t like the fact that in a capitalistic society, the free market reigns. They’re not getting a cut of the markup –and the government isn’t either.

If there were no market for these tickets, the resellers wouldn’t sell them. Wholesale and resale, when you have something someone wants, you sell it to them, plain and simple, and keep the profit.

But in order to call this a free-market practice, there would have to be a free market in the first place, which implies competition. In the case of the primary ticket industry, it’s basically a monopoly.

Ticketmaster has exclusive contracts with over 70 percent of the clubs and theaters and over 90 percent of the large arenas in the United States. Their exclusive contracts make it so that whether or not the arena is independent, if the promoter of the event is contracted with Ticketmaster, the tickets must be sold exclusively through them.

The band String Cheese Incident tried their hand in 2003 at selling tickets directly to their own fans. They use their fan club to help fans avoid Ticketmaster’s myriad of charges, similar to Tom Petty and Dave Matthews’ arrangements. As a result of Ticketmaster’s monopoly on the venues that were sized for their fans, they were unable to play in San Diego. They tried to sue the mega-ticket giant for violating antitrust laws.

Ticketmaster countersued, claiming the band interfered with their contracts.

String Cheese Incident had been relying on ‘holds,’ tickets reserved for performers by promoters and venues. They could sometimes get them up to 50 percent of the house, and would then resell them for only four dollars in fees, according an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, compared to Ticketmaster’s 30 to 35 percent markup.

Ticketmaster changed the rules to make it harder for bands to qualify for the holds, limiting who they could sell tickets to, and defining exactly what those conditions were. String Cheese and other bands were only able to get up to eight percent of seats after the 2002 change.

Incidents such as this and Pearl Jam’s suit against the ticket seller draw a scary picture. This is what happens when you cross a major company that is acting like all other media in this country, consolidating until there are very few choices for fans any longer.

About The Author

Christine Paluf is the Editor of www.TicketNews.com, a secondary ticket industry news and information site.

Technorati Tags: Ebay

My Website Needed More Targeted Traffic. Guess Where I Found It?
 by: Brian McGregor

There’s nothing new about using joint ventures to get traffic to websites. And good information is freely available from many internet marketing sites on how to set up JVs.

This article is for the 97% of webmasters who aren’t aware of a particularly powerful JV partner who already exists, and is willing to work with you.

Before I reveal all, let me just check…..

Like me, I would image you’d be happy if:

Your JV partner’s site gets huge traffic.
The vast majority of page views are by targeted traffic.
You can create links wherever YOU like from their site.
You can start now. There’s no delay in setting up the JV.
The JV continues as long as you want.
It costs you pennies to set up and run.

Does that sound like it’s what you’re looking for in a JV?

If so, welcome to eBay. You’re new joint venture partner.

But I Thought….

“eBay?” I hear you ask, “Isn’t eBay just an auction site?”

Well, it certainly started as an auction site. Today, eBay is an ecommerce phenomenon.

eBay’s 1.5 billion page views puts it in sixth place on Alexa traffic rankings. Ahead of Amazon, AOL and CNN.
eBay members make 79 million targeted searches for items each day.
There are 35,000 categories within which to place items for sale.
There are eBay auction sites in 27 countries.
eBay has 125 million registered users.
40,000 new members join eBay each day.

What we have here is a hugely successful internet business with massive traffic. And, thanks to eBay’s sophisticated categorization and searching mechanisms, the traffic is totally targeted.

More importantly, there are several smart ways to drive eBay’s targeted traffic to your own website. All of these clever methods add up to what I call the eBay Traffic Funnel.

Does it work? Well, I sell a communications product from my website. I run 5 simple auctions in the appropriate categories using the principles of the eBay Traffic Funnel. Each auction costs me 30 cents and runs for a week. I get around 300 targeted leads from these auctions to my website every week. Not bad for one dollar fifty!

Let me show you just one of the ways to get hold of that targeted traffic…

Sell, Sell, Sell

First of all, you make eBay part of your marketing mix. You start selling your products on eBay.

Why do I say this? Well, eBay isn’t just for mom and pop businesses anymore. IBM, Disney, Motorola, Xerox and Dell, are just a few of the major corporates that now use eBay as an additional sales and lead generation channel.

Creating eBay auctions is easy. Anyone can do it – literally. But if you don’t want to learn, you can use a Trading Assistant. These are eBay experts who will create, run and manage auctions on behalf of others for a percentage of sales or a small fee.

When you set up your auction one of the decisions you make is in which category to place your item. This is important. Visitors to your auction page – just by being there – have self qualified themselves as being in the market to buy products in that category. This is targeting in real time.

But merely creating the auction isn’t the trick. Here’s the key tip. In your auction page, make sure you tell your viewers that if they’ve any questions about your auction, your products or your policies, they should email you. And encourage them to do this by having a live email link in your auction, like this one brian@more-auction-sales.com

As soon as they make contact with you, you’ve acquired a targeted lead you wouldn’t have got any other way. You can start building a relationship. You can get them on your list, direct them to your website and start selling to them.

Pieces of Eight

I’ve only the space to show you one way in which you can direct your share of eBay’s targeted traffic to your website. There are eight ways in total. If you want to know the other seven, you’ll find them in my free ebook ‘The eBay Traffic Funnel’.

Setting up a JV with eBay can produce significant results. There isn’t another business on the web that gives you access to the targeted traffic eBay supplies for the price of a few pennies. Best of all, 97% of webmasters have yet to realize the power of this.

The opportunity for you and your website is there for the taking.

About The Author

Brian McGregor specializes in showing website owners how to make more money from their sites by applying inventive and original use of eBay. For a free copy of ‘The eBay Traffic Funnel’ which shows how to use the power of eBay to make more money with your website, visit http://www.more-auction-sales.com/websites

brian@workwinners.com

Technorati Tags: Ebay

Buying & Selling Gently Used Baby Clothing, Strollers, Toys, and Other Baby Items & Products on eBay
 by: Christina Khan

Hi Moms and Dads,

So, you had your precious baby, and you couldn’t resist — all of those cute and beautiful baby dresses, rompers, suits, jean sets, christening gowns, onesies and unique designer baby clothes (like Tommy Hilfiger) that called to you when you were in the Gap, Old Navy, Osh Kosh or Little Me. Not to mention the countless baby clothes that relatives gave you that weren’t quite your style, or too big or too small for your baby and still have the price tags on them, never worn

Well, if you have these baby clothes taking up lots of space in various closets and dressers around the house and thought you would just have to take a loss on these baby items, think again! There is a thriving used baby goods market on eBay, the world’s biggest yard sale, garage sale and online auction. If you’ve got a used baby item, chances are you can sell it on eBay. There are sections on eBay for used baby boy and baby girl clothing for each stage of your baby’s life — 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 2T, 3T, 4T, and 5T. Not only that, but you can also sell your maternity clothes on eBay too!

Have an old car seat, stroller, old or antique baby toys that aren’t being used anymore? Have unused diapers, baby bottles, breast pumps or baby toys that have not been used? You can also sell these items on eBay. I have even seen listings for unused leftover birth announcements! I’m telling you, if you’ve got it, you can sell it on eBay.

Best of all, the process for listing your baby items is easy. All you need to do is sign up to be a seller (it’s free), take photos of your items and post them, write a description and you’re in business.

Now that we’ve talked about the benefits of selling your baby clothes online, let’s talk about the other side of the coin, buying gently used baby clothes and baby items online. Just as you are selling nice gently used baby clothes, other moms around the country are selling their baby clothes and baby items at bargain prices. Since babies and kids grow so quickly, buying used baby clothes and even used car seats, high chairs and strollers can be a great way to get nice beautiful clothes and baby accessories and save money at the same time. Buying used baby items is just as simple as selling them, if not simpler. Just sign up as a buyer (its free also), search eBay for the baby item you would like and place a bid. Don’t want to wait for an auction to end or really want that baby item you see? Search eBay for items with the “Buy It Now” logo and you can just select the baby item and pay for it outright. It’s just that simple.

Ready to start buying or selling or even just want to see what’s online? Even if you don’t want to bid on, buy or sell anything now, you can register on eBay for free (it only takes 2 minutes) so when you want to sell in the future, you’ll be all set! The registration process is quick and easy. Visit http://www.mypreciousbaby.com/selling-on-ebay.htm (or click on the link at the end of this article) for more details.

About The Author

Christina Khan is a mother of a preschooler that that has more than her share of baby clothing and baby products to sell. She has outlined the process for registering to buy and sell baby clothes and baby products on eBay to get you started. Christina also runs a baby birth announcement website with other parenting tips and articles. You can visit her site by going to http://www.mypreciousbaby.com.

Technorati Tags: Ebay

Back with more news for you today. It’s amazing how much good information there is on this stuff out there if you know where to look. Three in particular that I found really valuable were…

eBay Testing New Search Features | WebProNews

eBay said today it is launching a new offering called “Garden by eBay,” an area on the site that will allow members to test new features and provide feedback for improvements and changes. Garden by eBay is an opt-in initiative with a …

EBay Asks Its Users for Help Building New Search Tools – Bits Blog …

EBay is rolling out new search tools on Garden by eBay, a new site where eBay will seek feedback from buyers and sellers on products that it is developing.

Ebay to use crowd sourcing to test new features, starting with …

It's always difficult for any big site to test and roll out new features. Many companies just test internally until …

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.

Have a great day!

Technorati Tags: Ebay

Hey Readers! I’ve been comin across some crazy stuff the past few days from a few different blogs around the web which I just had to share with you. Check em out below…

Ubercart eBay Integration | drupal.org

Ubercart eBay Integration will create eBay listings from Ubercart products and create Ubercart orders from eBay transactions. Currently it only supports the latter since it is in early development. At this point, you should not attempt …

Rugs on eBay | AtticMag

Interior Decorating, Kitchen Design, Kitchen Appliances, Bathroom Design, Antiques Auctions, Collecting, Home Decor Shopping, Home Decorating Blog, Oriental Rug Blog.

Canceling eBay Purchase? – Culture – Kotaku

This morning a family friend said that she bought something from an eBay shop, but then decided that she wanted to cancel or something like that. I looked online and it said that you cannot cancel an order per se (she has not finalized …

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.

Have a great day!

Technorati Tags: Ebay

Hey Readers! I’ve been comin across some crazy stuff the past few days from a few different blogs around the web which I just had to share with you. Check em out below…

Discussing DSRs on eBay radio : TameBay : eBay news blog and forum

eBay Radio is run out of the US and largely focuses on eBay.com issues, but for the last couple of months I've been invited to call in each Tuesday to give a European flavour to the show and talk about issues affecting sellers in the UK …

eBay Page Sprouts New Features – Auctiva Learning Center

'Garden' encourages collaboration between users and developers.

gothauctions: Now, on eBay UK

Now, on eBay UK Small Container w/ Pink beads & mirrors Pagan Esoteric http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250577183551&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT Gothic Cross w/ Black Glass Cristals Silver Type Metal …

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.

Have a great day!

Technorati Tags: Ebay

Ok so you might find the next few links interesting. These are from around the web, just random snippets that I’ve picked up in my reading, but I found some very cool information in them. You might too. Here goes…

Make Money Online: Make Money On Ebay – Is It Too Late To Get …

There are many out there making money on eBay selling items on eBay in auctions daily. The question remains then if others have done it, then why not you?Many people are quite intimidated when it comes to having and running their own …

eBay Developing New Search Tools, Crowdsourcing Feedback on …

When eBay makes changes big or small, a very vocal group of buyers and sellers react. Now, eBay is trying to involve its users earlier in the process by getting their input before new features are introduced. …

eBay UK considers default returns policy for CSA : TameBay : eBay …

eBay UK is consulting sellers on the possibility of imposing a minimum returns policy on all sellers in the Clothing, Shoes and Accessories category. In a post on the PowerSeller board (PS login required), Pink Elisabeth says …

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.

Have a great day!

Technorati Tags: Ebay