eBay Shopping Secrets

John Case asked:


Tips for Selling on eBay(R)

* The first thing you should do is sign up an account with Paypal.com. Once your account is set up, follow Paypal’s instructions to verify your address and account. This will help build buyers’ trust in you as a seller. Paypal will help you easily accept payment from buyers as well as pay wholesale suppliers securely.

* NEVER respond to an e-mail from Paypal that asks you for your login information, or asks you to follow a link to a login page. This is a scam known as “phishing.” A typical message might include scare tactics such as “We have noted an illegal login attempt to your account” or “You have added a new e-mail address to your account.” If you follow the link, you will be directed to what LOOKS like a Paypal login page, but your login information will actually be sent to crooks, who will promptly use your info to clear out your account. Paypal will NEVER send you an e-mail asking for your login info. If you receive a suspicious e-mail, you should forward it to: spoof@paypal.com and they will reply to let you know if it is authentic or not.

* Never respond to an e-mail from eBay that asks for your login information. Some bogus messages appear to be from interested buyers. For example: “Is your product still for sale? Let me know!” or “I sent payment 2 weeks ago! Where is my product?” Another common message is: “Update your eBay information within 48 hours, or your account will be suspended!” Again, your login info will be forwarded to scammers who will use your eBay ID to artificially drive up prices on their own auctions, or use your eBay ID to run a fraudulant auction in which they collect payment for an item that doesn’t exist. If you receive a suspicious e-mail, forward it to spoof@ebay.com and they will let you know if it is authentic. If you want to respond to a question from a buyer, it is safer to login to your eBay account, and go to the “My Messages” section, and reply directly through eBay.

* When buying from a wholesale supplier, ALWAYS pay through a credit card, or Paypal. NEVER pay for products through Western Union. Many Western Union clerks do not require ID for the seller to pick up the money. It is too easy for a wholesaler to collect the money and not send your order. If a wholesaler insists on Western Union, simply look for another supplier.

* If you pay a wholesaler through an escrow service, use only escrow.com. If a wholesaler insists on another escrow service, simply look for another supplier.

* Before buying from a wholesale supplier, be sure to check eBay for similar items and calculate if you can sell for a competitive price and also get a profit.

Each and every day, an average of $86 million changes hands through eBay(R) auctions. Every day, an estimated 2 million people use eBay(R) to buy things they can not find in stores, or to get rid of things they do not use any more in order to make room in their house. But did you know that 430,000 eBay(R) run a full or part-time business from their homes? Of course, there are the big product sellers, who auction off things like new cars, real estate, or computers. However, there are also normal people running eBay(R) business from their homes, not only selling things that are no longer needed around the house, but selling everyday consumer goods, and making a full-time income from it.

The secret of eBay(R) success is finding products to sell that match your interests and lifestyle, locating a reliable wholesale supplier, and mastering the system of putting up auction pages on eBay(R) in order to keep your seller fees to a minimum while maximizing your profits.

Here are some tips for selling on eBay:

* Remember that eBay users will buy based on cost as well as reliability of the seller. If you have a relatively low feedback score, and you are selling the exact same item at the exact same cost as a seller with feedback of 3000 or more, you are not going to make many sales.

* Create e-mail template message to communicate with buyers. You should make at least three messages: one for when you receive payment, one for when you send the order, and one to send approximately two weeks later, to check if everything is OK. Good communications are essential in building good feedback ratings.

* Feedback is very important. Always leave positive feedback for buyers as soon as payment clears. If a buyer has not left positive feedback by two weeks after the close of the auction, send a follow up e-mail. Be very careful about leaving neutral or negative feedback. Even if you have a valid reason for leaving negative feedback,once you leave negative feedback, the buyer is likely to retaliate with negative feedback, harming your reputation. Instead, use eBay’s “Send an invoice to buyer” or “Report an unpaid item” functions.

Jackson Bleu asked:


Read through this checklist and save yourself time and aggravation. A bit of due diligence will help you avoid eBay scams.

Only buy items with photos. The photograph is a good way to insure the seller actually has the item. No photo is a good indicator of a scam.

Check the photo against catalog photos. Many scammers use photos taken from other auctions or from online catalogs. Look for the background and lighting. Professionally taken photos have better lighting, and clearer backgrounds.

Check the seller’s user history. This is on the feedback page and will say something like this: “Member since: Saturday, Aug 13, 2001 Location: United States” New sellers or sellers who have been members for a long time, but not as active sellers are more likely to be committing auction scams.

Check the sellers eBay feedback. If the seller has few feedbacks or recent feedback as a buyer, but not as a seller this may be a clue. It’s easy to get feedback by buying cheap items. Check the items the seller has been buying and selling. There are links on the feedback page to the auction the feedback relates to on the right side of the page.

Do an eBay search for auctions by the seller including completed auctions. Check to see if he has sold the same thing before. If he has, ask the earlier buyer if they got theirs yet. Here’s a link to the search form.

Make sure the address you send payment to is the same as the seller’s registered eBay address. If it’s not the same address, it may be a tip off to a scam. Here’s the link to get the seller’s registered address.

If you are buying something expensive call the seller. You can get the telephone number with the link above. You have to bid on the item in order to get the contact information. This is a great way to avoid eBay scams. If you buy something and don’t feel comfortable, call the seller.

Ask for advice from knowledgeable sources. If you are buying antiques or collectibles, you should get an idea of the value and rarity before buying. Since most collectibles you see on eBay were mass produced, you will get the chance to buy others.

Educate yourself. Learn about the items you are interested in. Go to antiques stores and shows to see what is available. When you factor in shipping costs and uncertainty about the condition many items are cheaper to buy locally. You will make new friends who share your interests, and will not fall prey to eBay scams.

Have a friend go over and look at the item. I bought some trains last year out of Northern California. (I live in Arizona.) I had one of my friends drive over and look at them. He paid the seller and then mailed me the trains. I sent my friend a check to cover the purchase price and then gave him something for his trouble. This is a bit more work, but much safer than sending large sums of money to a stranger.

Search for information online. Use Google.com to find out more about the specific item you are interested in. You might discover it cheaper at a store, or find out the item is really common and be able to find one later from a less risky source.

Ask the seller questions. This will give you some information about the character of the seller. If you are unsure about the condition, ask for additional photos. The best way to avoid an eBay scam is by getting to know the seller.

Check the payment options. If the seller only takes money orders or wire transfers it might be an eBay scam. If you can pay with a credit card, this will give you additional protection. Almost any- I wanted to all, but am sure there are exceptions- credit card transaction can be reversed by calling the issuing bank. Some sellers only take money orders to avoid bounced checks. If a seller refuses to take anything but a wire transfer run.

Check the description and the tone of the ad. Does the person sound eager to sell? Does the person sound like they know what they are selling?

If the item is valuable because of its color, ask the seller for pictures with a common household item for contrast. My dad bought a rare maroon train car that was actually light red. The seller’s poor lighting caused the car to appear much darker in the photos. If my dad had asked for a picture of the car next to a can of Campbell’s soup he would have seen it was the picture making the car darker because the can would be darker.

Ask the seller about his return policy. Many sellers sell as is with no returns, some sell with returns only if the item is not described correctly. Saying the item is sold with no returns in the auction does not allow the seller to misrepresent the item, but will make it harder for you to press a claim.

Ask yourself “If I saw the item at a show, would I buy it?” Many times people bid on eBay auctions for items they would otherwise ignore . Some reasons for this are greed, ignorance, and impatience. Greed because “It’s a low price, and I can always resell it at a profit.” Ignorance is when you buy items without knowing enough about them. Impatience causes buyers to buy when they are ignorant.

Remember the seller is selling. Descriptive words like rare, uncommon, and unique are subjective and quite over used. Some items are hard to find, but most eBay auctions are for common or relatively common items. Unique is probably the most over used word in describing collectibles. Unique means there is only one. These descriptions are sales techniques to get higher bids by making you think the item is harder to find than it is. Ignore them.

Know in advance what you are willing to lose. I’ll buy any train auction for under a hundred dollars without checking the seller out because I won’t lose much sleep over a hundred dollars. You need to know your attitude and personality to answer this question.

Know when to cut your losses. If you get a eBay scam over a $50 auction, it’s not worth hundreds of hours of lost sleep. I know the scammers count on this attitude to allow them to continue ripping people off, but it’s really not worth the time to pursue a small loss. File a complaint with eBay, leave a negative feedback, then move on.

Don’t leave feedback until the item is received and you are satisfied with it. Feedback is your leverage to get a return if the item is not as described.

ALWAYS leave negative feedback when the seller is deceptive or unwilling to correct his mistakes. This is your way to warn other bidders. If you had been warned, you could have saved your money and time. The feedback system won’t work unless you are willing to leave negatives for bad transactions.

Use separate eBay accounts for buying and selling. This way your selling account won’t be damaged by retaliatory feedback when you leave negatives for others. You have to use accurate contact information when creating each account. EBay will remove feedback from accounts without accurate contact information.

Don’t fall in love with your eBay account. I use a buying account until it gets 30-40 feedbacks and then start a new one. This way no one knows what I am buying. Also, because I know I will be using a new account in a few months, I can be honest when leaving feedback.

If you have been ripped off do not threaten the seller. Ebay calls this “user to user threats” and will suspend you immediately. Some eBay scammers exploit this. They will provoke you into threatening them, then forward the e-mail to eBay and your account will be cancelled. If you have filed a fraud compliant with eBay it will be closed because “eBay does not investigate complaints from non-members.”

If you feel taken by a seller have a friend read your e-mails before you send them. Have your friend make sure they are polite and do not include accusations. Be polite and explain why you are unhappy. Name calling will not help. People make mistakes when listing items, and many sellers will make them right. When you open with an attack, you put the seller in a different frame of mind. For the same reason, don’t threaten the seller with negative feedback in the first email.

Don’t try to renegotiate the price after you receive your purchase. Explain clearly and politely why you are unhappy and tell the seller you would like to return it. I refund the purchase price and shipping both ways when I make a mistake. Sometimes I send the buyer the shipping money instead as a make good. I never do this when the buyer opens with a demand for a lower price.

In closing, remember, most items you see on eBay are common. You will see them again and again. Don’t jump to purchase something, but rather take your time and wait for the right seller and the right item.

EBay is a great forum for buying interesting items for your collection, and you can get some great deals. In the few instances I have felt ripped off, most of the time it was my greed that caused the problems. If I would have asked the seller some questions and gotten more information before bidding, I would have saved myself some grief. While there are eBay scams, a bit of prior prevention will protect you.

Have fun buying on eBay, but remember, a bit of caution will do more to protect you than anything else.

Bobby 1234 asked:


If you do not know how to identify fraudulent auctions then you will be a victim. The only question is when.

Over 44% of all Internet fraud complaints are about auctions according to the FBI’s joint Internet crime center. What is even worse is that according to Michael Ford, President of Elite Minds and eBay safety expert, “…almost every one of these complaints could have been avoided. Yes, I am saying that almost every fraudulent eBay auction can be avoided.”

The biggest problem new members on eBay face is a lack of information. They are able to join and be scammed in under 20 minutes without realizing it. New members do not know how the system works and professional criminals take advantage of this by leading them into well planned con games where the new member loses their money and possibly becomes a victim of identity theft.

New members should never:

1. Pay by a means that does not have buyer protection.

2. Focus on a great bargain while losing touch with reality.

3. Click links or run Trojan programs sent by email.

4. Bid without knowing how to check a seller’s history

5. Join eBay and immediately try to buy or sell anything.

New members frequently do not have a PayPal account to make payments and they may actually prefer to deal with someone who requests payment by check or money order because those are payment methods they understand. PayPal and Credit Cards give the most buyer protection. Scammers often request payments by Western Union, Bank Transfer, check or money order because they can run off with the money and never ship anything. New members should only pay by PayPal or Credit Card.

New members join eBay and find a great deal on something they want. Then they are afraid of losing that great bargain. The fear of loss takes over and they will do foolish things that they would never normally do to avoid losing their perceived bargain. Criminals often sell items just to obtain information from buyers. The crooks offer items they may not even have and then use the auction as an excuse to collect information from the buyer including name, address, credit card number, and even social security number. You should never have to give any information to a seller other than your name and address so they can ship your goods.

If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Criminals often list popular items like vehicles, electronics, and laptops at too-good-to-be-true prices hoping to snare new members who do not know better. Never focus on a good deal ahead of good judgment.

Crooks prey on fear and confusion. They will send fake email messages claiming your eBay or PayPal account has been compromised or there is some other problem and you must click a link to login. The link then takes the unwary member to a spoof or look-alike website that looks like eBay or PayPal but was actually setup by the crook. When the member enters their password, the crook then logs into their account to abuse it. Scammers will also send programs containing Trojan software which they claim is a form that must be filled out before the order is shipped. When the buyer runs the software, the criminal can take remote control of their computer and use it to send spam or steal the person’s password.

Neither new members or experienced members, should ever click any link in any email no matter where the email appears to be from.

Free software can prevent account hijacking. There is a free toolbar at MyLittleMole.com which will alert you if you are tricked into going to a look-alike eBay, PayPal, banking, or most other websites. It will also warn you if you go to any of thousands of known fraud or spam websites. If every eBay member used this software, account hijacking would be a thing of the past.

New buyers do not understand what the feedback numbers mean. Even experienced members rarely know how to truly read feedback and assume that a positive feedback rating is good. It is often not good. The Auction Inquisitor Auction Analysis software from AuctionInquisitor.com will analyze auctions and seller feedback to report common signs of fraud in an auction. This software allows eBay members to spot fraudulent auctions before they bid.

By far, the biggest problem new members face is immediately trying to buy or sell. They act before they understand how bids work or how payments are made. New users and even users who believe they are experienced need more education than they have in order to trade safely on eBay.

It is possible to buy and sell safely on eBay but only if you know how scams work so you can avoid them.

You can find more information on how to avoid scams on eBay at Auction-Safety.org

Kb Lim asked:


Starting an ebay drop-off franchise is fast catching on ebay. There are millions of buyers everyday on ebay and let’s face it, not everyone knows how to sell an item on ebay. Some people just are not interested or not familiar with how ebay works, the terms and conditions and all that stuff. They just want to sell their item and get some cash. That is where an ebay drop-off franchise comes in.

What is an ebay drop-off franchise?

It’s actually quite simple in concept. An ebay drop-off franchise store acts like the middleman in the ebay world. You bring the items you want to sell to the ebay drop-off store. The store will auction it on ebay. If it is sold, the store will send a check to you minus a certain percentage of the sale price. The store will also pack and ship the item for you.

In my opinion, this is a huge untapped market as there are lots of people who have heard of ebay but do not know or want to get involved in the whole auction process as it can be rather tedious. They are looking for people to help them sell.

So why get an ebay franchise?

Getting an ebay franchise is not cheap. It usually cost anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars plus some ebay franchises charges a annual or monthly royalty fee ranging from 3 to 6 percent of your gross revenue.

However, there are some great advantages to getting one.

1) Brand Recognition

The single biggest advantage of getting an ebay franchise is that you get to be affiliated with a recognizable brand. Some ebay franchise such as “isold it ebay store” spent huge amount of money in TV advertising and marketing plus they have a huge network of stores across the country. In that sense, your franchise store gets to leverage some brand awareness without you spending any money on advertising and marketing.

2) Franchise Store Support

Another important advantage is that you can get immediate support and training needed to maintain and operate your ebay franchise store. This is especially important if you do not have sufficient experience doing business. Plus most franchises have ebay drop-off experts who can be stationed in your store when you just opened for business to guide you on the details of running the business.

3) Franchise Buying Power

Because most franchises have a network of stores, they are able to negotiate better pricing on overstock items or with suppliers.

There are a lot more advantages in getting an ebay drop-off franchise. You can visit my website where I discuss more in depth on the different ebay franchises that are available.

Darren Yates asked:


Taking the leap to full-time as an eBay seller is living the dream: earning a real income, working at home, being your own boss etc. It’s the promise of a million scams, but it’s finally come true, at least for some.

What they don’t always tell you in the success stories is that becoming a full-time eBay seller is not for everyone. You really should try it part-time before you consider taking it up full-time, and even then, caution is recommended. Before you go and burn your suit, here’s a list of questions you should ask yourself.

How Much Am I Earning From eBay Now?

Calculate how many hours a week you spend working on eBay related things (be honest here), then divide this by the average profit you make in a week. If you were doing full-time hours, would you earn as much as you earn now?

Do I Have a Good Job?

Consider what you might lose if you quit your job to focus on eBay. If you’re in a well paid job with good promotion prospects then it’s well worth reconsidering: you might get a few years down the line and wish you’d stayed in your traditional job, as you’d probably be the CEO by now.

Can I Really Make Much More Money?

Unless you’re selling a large quantity of small goods, most of what you do on eBay will be waiting for auctions to end and you can wait at work just as easily as you can at home. Whether you would make more money on eBay really depends on what kinds of items you’re selling - for low value items, going full-time could be a good move. For high-value ones, the chances are you’ll hit the limits of how much money you have to invest in inventory long before you hit the limits on your time.

Can I Handle Working At Home?

Apart from anything else, you might find that your dream of working at home is more of a nightmare in reality. Your family can start to depend on you to get things done during the day. If you have a wife and children then they can resent the fact that you’re in the house but refuse to have anything to do with them for large parts of the day. Giving in to them and stopping work for a while will cause your profits to slide.

Would I Survive if it All Went Wrong?

Could you get by if you had a month or two where you sold nothing? Or would you be desperately looking around for a job and cursing the day you ever discovered eBay? That’s the real test.

If you are not phased by these questions, then I guess you could be cut out for the eBay lifestyle - and even if you were phased, you’d be surprised just how far you can get part-time.

David Nettey asked:


It is that easy registering on eBay, many people keep complaining of the fact that, the eBay registration process is the reason they have still not joined the online auction site. I hope after reading this, the perception of most people about eBay’s registration process will change.

Registering on eBay is very simple, provided you follow all the guidelines, you will be registered and become a member in no time. EBay members after joining the auction site can search and browse the various categories available to buy or sell.

EBay gives you hundreds of categories to choose from, add the sub categories that fall within the hundreds of main categories already available and you’ll find a category that has something you want. From eBay Motors to eBay Antiques, you can find from automobiles to collectibles to buy on the auction site.

Buying anything on eBay can be great fun. There is the thrill that comes with bidding and the happiness that comes after successfully bidding and completing a transaction. Buying on eBay can be very profitable just as selling, because after all, you do get bargains and this means profiting from transactions which you would not have profited from if you bought from the traditional brick and mortar store.

But hold it; do not get too excited yet. Before you can buy anything from eBay, you need to be registered first. To do this, go to the eBay website of the country you live in or to www.ebay.com and you will find your country from there. It is worth noting eBay is not available in all countries yet. You will find the list of countries eBay is available in on their website.

Registering on eBay is very simple, and free, but you must be over 18 to join. In three easy steps, eBay makes you enter basic information about yourself onto their secure database. Provide them with an email address and your credit or debit card details for verification purposes. If you do not wish to give your credit or debit card details or you do not have a credit or debit card, eBay has another option for you.

EBay will ask for an additional or secondary email address to be added to your account. This additional email address must be from an established Internet Service Provider such as AOL, the additional email address can also be from a company, organisation or school.

Next you will be asked to agree to eBay’s user agreement and privacy policy. Please do take your time to read this through, so you are fully aware of what your legal obligations and rights are once you are on their website.

EBay then sends a confirmation email to the email address you registered (or the secondary email address if a credit or debit card is not held on file). This helps to confirm that the email address you just registered is valid. This email will ask you to complete your eBay registration by clicking on a link in the email that they have sent you. Once this is done, you become a member of the eBay community and you can start bidding straight away.

EBay has a help page dedicated to registration on their website, which is worth reading if you have a problem any time during the registration process.

Noor Mohamed asked:


Ebay is world’s biggest market online. Ebay provides a great opportunity to make money. You can make money here with almost zero investment. Selling on ebay is very easy with easy to follow steps. It is another unique feature of ebay that you don’t have to spend anything to start selling on ebay. This article comes with an aim to provide knowledge or information to beginners who want to build a successful business on ebay.

Ebay is one of the very few success stories online. Internet is full of quick money scams. Ebay is one of the very few exceptions. We all know over a period of time ebay has provided excellent opportunity for all to make money. So the question is how to make money on ebay. First step required is joining ebay. Joining ebay as a seller is easy and free.

After joining you have to decide on the product you would like to sell on ebay. If you could find product loaded with unique features it makes selling on ebay easy. After you found a product to sell on ebay, start listing your product on ebay. Listing is easy but you have to remember some points while listing. Your sales letter must adhere to certain guidelines.

What is a sales letter? A sales letter is a page that describes your product to its prospective buyers. A sales letter should be prepared in a way to attract customers. A good sales letter brings in more sales. To prepare a good sales letter you have to research a little bit. Searching on top sellers sales letters would give you an idea on how to create a good sales letter. A good sales letter should have all the unique features of the product. It should also have a good description about the product. A sales letter should also have a high quality picture of the product. Two or three pictures taken from different angles multiply the sales. Pictures should also be of good quality to have effect on ebay. Picture should have a minimum of 3 mega pixels quality. With a good sales letter you have a product that sells along with a good promotional tool too. Now go ahead and make as much money as you like.

One of the greatest benefit of ebay is that is has an unending supply of buyers which makes it easy to sell almost anything on ebay. If you want to start a successful career on ebay learn more by visiting http:ebay.makemoneyideas.in

James Finnila asked:


Generally there is only one earning strategy employed by eBay sellers. Buy low and sell for a profit. Sellers may be cruising yard sales on a weekend, op shops, or bargain bins in department stores, or they may have access to suppliers of wholesale goods (including dropshippers). But the strategy is still the same. This is the easiest and most direct method to make money on eBay as it involves listing an item for sale and then within days or weeks seeing a return on the investment.

Sellers may be able to repeat the sales that they have achieved, as in the case of goods obtained in bulk from a wholesale supplier or dropshipper, or they may have different items to sell in each listing. There are many people making excellent money on eBay from this strategy by all accounts and so it obviously works. I do it myself.

There is another strategy, hardly employed on eBay by sellers, which can also earn money for the account holder. That is using eBay as a vehicle for generating traffic to a seller’s other items, located off eBay, or for the seller to create affiliate sales of other peoples’ products. I will endeavour to explain the workings of these two strategies in more detail below.

Buy Low - Sell High

There’s definitely nothing new about this. It has been the backbone of trading since time began and essentially eBay is just an extension of any shopping mall or market place where trading goes on - the only difference is that a lot of eBay sales are conducted by auction, which is somewhat unconventional in a traditional commercial sense.

There are a number of ways that eBay sellers utilise this method of selling and trading on eBay. As mentioned, the auction format is perhaps the most used, or at least the most commonly noticed method of trading on eBay. This may be used predominantly for items that are personal possessions being sold off on eBay, such as old DVDs and clothes, where the seller would be happy to accept any value for the goods seeing they have already used up their value by using them themselves.

It is also used where an item is rare and this is where eBay has built its global reputation as being the place of choice for selling such items so that sellers can attract a global audience to fight over the product.

Sellers often also utilise a fixed price format, or include a buy-it-now price on their listing to encourage quick sales or to set a reserve price on an item in categories in which this option is not available using the auction format. Fixed price format sales are also used for eBay store owners where the listings are generally listed for a month at a time rather than for a week or 10 days or less.

There are advantages and disadvantages to owning a store for different sellers and different items, but as regards the benefits of a store for listings I’m not going to go into that here.

The costs of listing and selling items on eBay, apart from the purchase costs of the items that are being offered for sale are:

* the listing fees payable to eBay calculated as a small percentage of the listing price upfront and the sales price in arrears

* the cost of promoting your listing through use of pictures, highlighting and a premium for promoting your listing on search results or on eBay’s featured listings pages

* a percentage of the total sale amount (including postage) for buyers who use PayPal

* postage costs (although these costs are usually totally offset by the buyer)

* eBay store subscriptions and other eBay subscriptions such as Picture Manager and Selling Manager Pro

Another cost that too many eBay sellers don’t take into account when they start selling stuff, particularly low value (and hence low margin) items such as books and DVDs, is the value of their time. I don’t know about you, but my time is worth money during the day at least. I also put a value on the time that I have after working to spend with my family, or having fun, resting, exercising and eating amongst other things.

When valuing my time monetarily I put a higher value on the time that I spend out of work, just as I would expect to be paid extra for overtime. This time is an important part of any eBay seller’s strategy because it takes time to put up listing, pack and post products, respond to email queries and perform other administrative tasks. And this time is usually time spent after work, i.e. the most valuable time.

All up I allocate at least 30 minutes to a unique listing and 15 minutes to an item I can repeatedly re-list. That means that if I value my time at $20/hour then I wouldn’t list any unique item that doesn’t make me $10 profit or a $5 profit on items I list repeatedly.

If you can make some money selling on eBay with this strategy then there is no limit to what you can do with your business as all you have to do is multiply the number of items that you sell to increase your profits. There are even eBay sellers that employ people to do their postage and packing or other administrative tasks where they are selling more than they can handle on their own.

eBay as a Traffic Generator for Other Products

No doubt, affiliate marketing is a huge money maker on the internet. There are probably millions of products that can be sold as an affiliate and usually all you need is a website or some content, whether in the form of a regular newsletter or blog or articles, to get into the game. eBay is another great place to ply affiliate products, or even your own products, outside of the usual eBay sales channels of auctions and fixed price listings.

If you want to sell anything on the internet then you need some sort of product and some webspace on which to advertise and sell it. Duh. Well eBay is a free platform that you can use to do that - and I’m not just talking about your listings. Every eBay account comes with an opportunity to create an About Me page on which you can tell the world who you are and what you are about.

You can include text, graphics, video and even HTML on that page and unlike the very strict policies that eBay maintains and enforces in regards to the content and links that you include on your listings eBay is much more lenient on the stuff that you have on your about me. About the only restriction is that you don’t link to other auction sites or sites with a catalogue of products for sale (ie eBay’s competition).

You can link to your home page, your blog, your granny’s poker club - anything - including sites that sell certain products that you can refer people to and earn affiliate commissions. This is best done with information products in my opinion, or by inviting visitors to your about me to leave you their details through a web form so that you can send them newsletters (though which you can sell anything you want). This is a very poorly tapped opportunity on eBay.

I use my about me page to invite visitors to my online business website where I have a form to capture their name and email so that I can send them info about building a home business. I’ve worked out that for ever 100 people that view my listings about 15 go to my about me page and approximately 1 goes on to check out my business homepage. Small numbers at this level, sure, but seeing as I average about 1000 listing views per day, that’s 10 people visiting my online business and they convert to leads on my website at about the rate of 2%. So I get one lead from eBay each week.

It’s still a trickle, I’ll give you that, but it’s a FREE trickle that I wouldn’t otherwise get and each year I make about $3000 this way. I’ll take $3000 for free, wouldn’t you?

If you don’t have an online business then you can just promote someone else’s. Just go somewhere like Clickbank and sign up as an affiliate there. Easy money if you ask me.

You can also set up a link in your eBay store header that can take your store visitors to your online business or affiliate business (though I’m not entirely sure if eBay approves of that). I haven’t found anything that directly says it’s a no-no & I haven’t asked or had my store suspended (yet). Until then I’m getting another trickle of traffic there as well.

Conclusion

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think that the key to any successful business is optimising your opportunities. You only have so many and if you are not making the most of each one then you are not going to be in business very long. You should be using all that eBay offers to build your trading business and also adding additional streams of income that you can profit from where available as well.

Buying low and selling high is going to be your key weapon in your business strategy and part of this is going to be finding a good supply of items from which you can profit (though I haven’t gone into that here), but you should have an affiliate stream built in there as well - especially seeing that you don’t have to pay anything extra for the privilege and it’s so easy.

Kevin Sinclair asked:


Along with customer service, finding the right products to offer to the pubic is probably one of the most significant subjects for those wanting to sell on eBay or any other on line retail business. The main aim is to buy in at low prices and sell high. Of course, the majority of people just starting out on eBay begin by selling their own personal goods, all of that surplus stuff they have in the attic or basement. This is a good route to take into eBay as it will help you become familiar with the basics of shipping and general customer service.

When the attic is empty, however, you will need to find more items to sell. Every Saturday and Sunday now involves searching around garage sales and flea markets, looking for merchandise and it soon becomes apparent that this it taking up a lot of your time and money. So, where to turn now? What you really need is to find a wholesaler where you can buy in bulk at cheap prices and make your mark up on eBay.

There are a few ways you can do this, but one of the methods you should avoid is to use search engines on line. This is not a good way to find legitimate and genuine suppliers of wholesale goods; in fact you are more likely to come across scams using search engines.

These scam artists set up a business with real wholesalers and then basically endorse themselves as the supplier. They put up the prices of the stock and simply pass on the orders received to the real wholesaler. By this point the prices are so high, it will be practically impossible for you to sell the goods and make any money. Many of these rip off merchants services will not be free of charge and they will ask you for a monthly fee to be able to utilize their facility. They will also inform you that it is not necessary for you to have a reseller’s license in order to open an account with them.

Evidence that you are an above board business will be required by any genuine wholesaler you approach and such proof is generally in the form of a license for business and a sale tax permit. Although the actual name of the documents required is different from state to state, whatever the name, these papers are vital to have in your possession if you wish to trade with real wholesalers. This should not put you off though! They are not so difficult to get your hands on and if you pop down to the county courthouse you will be guided through the process of exactly what is needed. In addition, if you don’t incorporate, you won’t need the services of a lawyer.

So, when you have decided to start trading seriously on eBay, or with any other on line retailing business, these are the main things to remember about the businesses where you are likely to be buying your stock from.

1. You will not find your supplier on the internet via a search engine

2. Make sure your paperwork to sell is in order as this will be required by the genuine supplier

3. The genuine wholesaler will not charge you to buy from him by way of a setting up fee or an amount to be paid on a monthly basis.

If you come across a wholesaler not fitting into these criteria, you will find he is most likely to be a con man, simply trying to look like a genuine wholesaler.

Ramandeep singh ghumaan asked:


There are many eBay scams out there to keep an eye out for when you are selling on eBay. This article will cover a few of the known and not so known scams to be aware of. Whether you’re a causal seller, or a professional seller on eBay, you need to know about these scams so that you can take measures to prevent or recognize if it’s happening to you.

Bid Shielding

This scam is something you need to watch out for as a seller on eBay. Basically the scam is run using two separate eBay accounts. The scam works like this. You put your item up for auction. Let’s say your item is worth $100 and you have no reserve. The first bidder (scammer) comes along and bids $5 on your item. Right after that, another bidder working with the first bidder comes along and bids $200 on your item. Since your item is only worth $100, you receive no more bids for the duration of your auction. Right before your auction ends, the first bidder backs out and cancels their bid, leaving the $5 bidder the winner, effectively shielding all other potential bidders because of the $200 bid.

Because of the potential for this scam it is always good to have a reserve on your auction. Also, I would put some sort of disclaimer on your auction stating that if you suspect bid shielding on your auction, you reserve the right to back out of the sale. It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on your auctions and watch for this type of behavior. If you suspect this is happening to you, be sure to report the parties involved to eBay right away.

Wholesale List Scam

This scam takes advantage of the fact that many people don’t pay close attention or read the fine print on an auction. This scam is targeted at buyers who are looking for deals on electronics and technological items on eBay. The wholesale list scam is basically an auction that looks like the seller is offering a great deal on a product like an iPod for example. They may have a buy now price of $40 for an iPod that is worth $150. However, if you actually read the fine print on the auction, you will find that you are not really buying the iPod. In fact you are purchasing a wholesale list.

To avoid this scam, just be sure that you read the entire details of the auction before making a bid or a purchase. Basically, just use common sense. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is, so read the auction carefully.

Bad Check Scam

This eBay scam is exactly what it sounds like. The bad check scam is simple. Someone purchases your item and sends you a check as payment. You receive the check, and send out the item. However, 2 weeks later you find out the check bounces and now you are out your item and the money.

To avoid this, simply do not send out any products until the check has cleared.

Spoof eBay Emails

This eBay scam is an attempt to get your personal information and/or eBay account information. Basically the scammer sends you an email that looks like it’s from eBay. The email may direct you to a website (that also looks like eBay) where it asks to you verify your information. In reality, the website is created by the scammer to collect your personal information and use it for identity theft. The scammers can be very tricky and make everything look very official.

To avoid this scam, you need to be wary of any emails that you get. The first thing you need to check is the email header. Emails from eBay, will have “@ebay.com” as the last part of the senders email. Also any links that are in the email may be directing you somewhere other than where they say they are. Also copy and paste the links into your browser, and only visit official links that start with “www.ebay.com”. If anything seems suspicious to you, forward the email to eBay and wait for their response. They will let you know if it’s legitimate or not.

In conclusion, most people you run into on eBay are good honest people and not out to scam you. You may do business on eBay for years and never run into any of this. However, occasionally these things do happen so it’s important to use common sense and use your best judgment when it comes to this stuff. Just be aware that it can happen, and take the necessary precautions and you will be fine. There’s a lot of money to be made on eBay, so don’t let anything scare you off. Keep yourself armed with knowledge and information and you will be successful out there in the auction world!