eBay Shopping Secrets

Marion Adiante asked:


This is the very short trimmed guide on how to get back onto ebay after your buyer or seller accounts got suspended or limited. If you need more in-depth information, then visit my website for: eBay Stealth - The Complete Suspended eBay Account Guide. Please note that we will be making a fully anonymous eBay and Paypal account using fully 100% legal methods.

1. First, you need to Download Firefox. After the download, go to Tools -> Options, Select the Privacy tab, then on the bottom in the “Private Data” Section Press ‘Settings’ and check off every checkbox. Press OK, Now whenever you close firefox it will ask to delete all of those things, just hit OK everytime. (you need these in case you are using 2 different ebay/paypal accounts so they cant track your cookies) And even if you are not using 2 ebay/paypal addresses, do this just in case everytime.

2. Register a Business name in your city. First make up a name you will be using for your new eBay and Paypal Identities. Then Google “register business [your city]” — without the quotes of course. Register a name that looks like a persons name, made up of 2 words, take some foreign words and create something for example; Wanslow Fae

Emily Banks asked:


EBay traders rely on their feedback reputation as much as they rely on their goods. Feedback amounts to the comments that both buyers and sellers leave on the transaction. The better your feedback reputation the more people will trust you as a buyer and seller.  Straightforward enough, you say. But some unscrupulous sellers manipulate their feedback to gain their buyer’s trust. Once they have that trust, they start ripping off buyers.

How Do They Do It?

Feedback Fraud -

A seller sets up multiple EBay accounts.  He then buys and sells items between his identities, making sure to leave positive feedback to make himself look trustworthy.



Purchasing Feedback -

EBay has cracked down on this. However, a simple search shows that it still goes on. A buyer purchases a low price item, say under £1, in return for positive feedback to build up their rating. These £1 friends help schew the true feedback status.



Stealing Feedback -

An unscrupulous dealer may hijack an account. After he does so, he can use its good reputation to scam unsuspecting buyers. This usually occurs after someone has been tricked into entering their password at a counterfeit EBay site.  The link to the phony EBay

site usually arrives in a phishing e-mail.

How To Avoid Being Scammed -

An important thing to in any EBay transaction is to check the other party’s feedback. Try and avoid a seller who has a large negative, or even neutral, feedback rating. Be especially careful if your purchase is an expensive item.

Things to Look Out For -

* Check the IDs leaving feedback.  If there are many from the same ID, alarm bells should ring that the seller might be purchasing feedback.

* What items are the feedback for? A hard sell of Very low-priced items and a sudden change to the seller promoting expensive laptops, you should be suspicious. Check by clicking on the item link - it will show you the auction and winning bid prices within the last couple of months. Pay attention to both.

* Is the feedback for buying or selling? If it’s all been for buying items and suddenly the person is selling, be careful.  Watch out for novice sellers and treat them as a seller with zero feedback.

* Look for the Buy Safe seal. It means that the seller has been vetted and approved by an independent company called Buy Safe. But some legitimate sellers even don’t use this.



What To Do If You’re Scammed -

You should report the incident to EBay, and also to Paypal, if need be. This offers you some recourse, and means you can file an insurance claim through them. Online auctions are like car boot sales.  It’s a case of caveat emptor, buyer beware.

EBay suspends accounts where feedback manipulation is obvious. They have stated, however, that it’s a grey area. SquareTrade is a mediation service that tries to resolve buyer/seller problems.  But if it’s a scam that has caused the problem, they may not be able to assist.

EBay states that only 0.01% of the transactions on its site are scams.  They do their best to police them. And certainly, the vast majority of people experience no problems.

Remember to do your homework before bidding on an item, especially an expensive one.

Emily Banks/Freelance Writer.  Why not visit Buzzed Up?

Thomas Martinez asked:


Although regular sellers on eBay are only required to fill up a registration form to legally put items up for auction or sale, there are a few other things to consider. You will be able to survive longer in the business if you follow rules and regulations. Knowing the right items to pay for to begin is essential so that you avoid possible scams and unknown invisible fees.

What to Do

If you intend to set up a retailing business on eBay, you are required to register or get a license depending on your location. There are laws already formulated to cater to online business owners. These are created by the state, city or country which primarily intends to protect the best interests of both the buyer and seller, as well as prevent any unscrupulous activity. Go to your local commerce authority to register your business. Not doing so will put you at risk for unlawful issues.

There are local commerce and zoning laws as well that cover your business on eBay. Since you will be maintaining inventories for your business, you will be required to get a permit, depending on the type of industry that you are currently in.

Tax and Insurance

You also have tax responsibilities as an eBay business owner. Personal income or self employment tax and sales tax will be required on retail sales. Plenty of eBay sellers are required to pay for a certain percentage of their current income to the United States government, considered as income tax. Sales tax may also be asked from eBay retailers who live in particular cities and localities. Check the laws in your area, so that you can reserve a portion of your current profit for income tax payment or sales tax.

Your business and inventory should be insured too. The value associated in your business will increase over time, which is why you have to get insured to stay free from huge financial losses should there be any accident or sudden change.

Very big and valuable inventories will need insurance. Search for a number of reliable options online and determine the inclusions of their policies. Meticulous records should be kept accurately. You will have to be very careful about every entry to have no problems during tax preparation and insurance processing.

The IRS

Even if you are running a business on the internet, you will have to stay transparent to keep looking credible should the IRS start asking questions about your industry. Social Security numbers need to be collected from customers, especially your regular and biggest clients. There should be a database of social security numbers, addresses, contact numbers and names. The IRS requires SSNs for the purposes of tax. It is only one way of helping others online stay protected against unscrupulous and dishonest individuals.

The IRS wants eBay and other online companies to give out more information regarding high-volume and high-value sellers to narrow the tax gap between the amount that Americans owe and pay for actually. Ebay brokers will have to give some information regarding both the buyer and seller to the government. The data will most likely include gross and net proceeds, size of inventory and contact numbers and addresses. You will find that legally doing business online is the way to go to boost credibility and last for several years.

brad schepp asked:


Want to make a mint on eBay? Thought so. Here are the best sources to help you on your way, based on our years of experience writing books and articles about eBay. They’re in no particular order.

1) AuctionBytes—Online newsletter that covers the auction biz—and not just eBay. Full of great articles, a searchable archive, and two (count ‘em) types of newsletters you can subscribe to. If you’re not reading AuctionBytes now click on this link immediately http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab (then come back and read the rest of this article).

2) eBay’s Site Map—eBay can be a real challenge to navigate, no doubt about it. Here’s a quick way to get to whatever area of eBay you’re interested it. Use this once and you’ll be using it all the time. http://pages.ebay.com/sitemap.html

3) Auction Software Review—Do you list more than 10 items per week? If so (or you just aspire to one day) you should be looking at ways to make listing as easy as possible. You should be looking at auction management software. This is a great site for getting a good fix on what’s “out there.” Updated often. http://www.auctionsoftwarereview.com/

4) Negative Neutral Feedback Tool—This one is for buyers and sellers both. It doesn’t take too many times paging through screen after screen of feedback comments before you wish you had a tool like this one. This handy site lets you enter an eBay member’s ID, and then go right away to any negative or neutral comments he or she has received. What a timesaver. www.toolhaus.org

5) Nortica 500 and Nortica 200 lists. These lists compile eBay’s top sellers as ranked by feedback (Nortica 500), or the number of positive feedback comments they’ve received in the past 30 days (Nortica 200). Review these lists to get a feel for who’s doing things right. The seller’s IDs are hyperlinks so you can easily go immediately to their listings. We know PowerSellers who track this as closely as stockbrokers track what’s said in the Wall Street Journal. www.nortica.com/userarea.

6) eBay Financial Information–If you sell on eBay you better also care how well the company’s doing financially. You’re an employee of sorts (but don’t count on getting those sweet stock options just yet). Even more important than the financial stuff are the eBay services and products eBay’s putting muscle behind (eBay Express, Skype..?). eBay’s Investor Relations area provides easy access to recent analyst presentations by Meg herself, as well as annual reports and other information goldmines. http://investor.ebay.com/index.cfm

7) eBay Radio–Reading from a screen all day is hard on the eyes, as if you needed to be told that. That’s why it’s a good idea to get your information through other means sometimes, and eBay Radio is as good an example of that as any we can think of. The host is the avuncular Griff who often has eBay experts on with something to say besides “buy my product.” http://www.wsradio.com/internet-talk-radio/network.cfm/station/eBay-Radio.html

Terapeak—eBay’s been around since 1995 and millions (billions?) of items have passed through it. So there has to be more information available some place about what’s selling and who’s selling it then what you’ll find on the site. Terapeak is one of those places. Here you’ll find data on what’s selling, when it’s selling, what listing enhancements successful sellers used and a whole lot more. Trust us. It’s worth checking out. It’s not free, but it’s not expensive either. http://www.terapeak.com/

9) The Seller Sourcebook–Once of our favorite PowerSellers, Stephintexas, told us about this site featuring easy-to-use eBay tools. We’re talking about auction templates, listing generators and the like, that aren’t expensive and don’t require multiple college degrees to get the hang of. http://www.sellersourcebook.com/

10) Amazon. Sorry, I write for a living and I’m going to plug books as learning tools. Not just my own, such as eBay PowerSeller Secrets, eBay Million Dollar Ideas, and How eBay Really Works (sneaky, eh?), but the others out there that will help you in your quest to be an eBay Titanium PowerSeller (sound the trumpets)! http://www.amazon.com/. Good luck!

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.

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

Kirsten Hawkins asked:


/>It is important to remember that eBay is a lot like a marketplace. There will always be a dodgy guy in the corner, selling things that most people wouldn’t touch. The trouble is that, on the Internet, these people can be a little harder to spot. Here are ten tips to help you keep an eye out for the rip-off merchants.



1. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is: This holds for everything in life, but especially for eBay. Things that seem too cheap are usually too cheap for a reason - it might be a complete scam, or the items might just be of extremely poor quality. Investigate before you go further.



2. Know the value of what you want to buy: There are people on eBay who regularly bid such high prices for used cameras that they might as well have gone out and bought them brand new. Check around for prices first.



3. Only bid on real things: eBay has plenty of people who are trying to sell all sorts of schemes and scams. It is never worth bidding for these, no matter how cheap they might be.



4. Don’t do anything outside eBay: Occasionally people will ask you to send them money outside eBay, to avoid the fees eBay charges sellers. Any money you send this way is entirely insecure - don’t do it.



5. Be careful where you send payment: People may hack into others’ accounts, and ask you to send payment to addresses that eBay has not confirmed as belonging to that account - you might send your money and receive nothing in return.



6. Look out for sellers who suddenly change what they sell: Sellers can look like they’ve made lots of transactions, when really they’ve never sold anything of worth. If they suddenly start selling $1,000 televisions, steer clear - the chances are they’re planning to run off with the money.



7. Beware the shill bidder: If someone who doesn’t seem to have bought anything before is constantly outbidding you on a certain item, be suspicious. It might be a seller ’shill bidding’ to force up his item’s price.



8. Don’t use the seller’s escrow service: If an escrow service is recommended to you by a seller, it could well be owned and run by them - and they’re quite likely to keep your money and send you nothing.



9. Pay electronically: You are more likely to be able to recover any losses if you pay using a credit card instead of sending out cheques and money orders - these low-tech payment methods can’t be tracked as easily.



10. Buy from reputable sellers: Each seller has a number next to their name, which is their feedback rating. The higher this rating, the more you can trust them.



On that last point, feedback ratings are the most important way that buyers and sellers can protect themselves on eBay - and you, as a buyer, have a rating too! Now that you won’t get ripped off, the next email will be all about your rating, and what you can do to make sure people know that you’re not going to rip them off either

Vickie Sayce asked:


With the birth of the internet, scammers are able to reach more individuals than ever before. And unfortunately, with the technology available to them, these scams are appearing more and more legitimate every day. This can be hard for business owners who are trying to make a living selling on eBay. The time, money, and effort wasted on scammers can cost you more than you would ever imagine. This is why it is imperative to stop scammers before they have a chance to con you, to keep both you and your home business protected.

One of the most popular scams online today with auction websites is the overpayment scam. Scammers will offer to buy your item for significantly more than your asking price, saying that they want the item now and don’t mind paying extra to get it. You, of course, agree, excited to make such a large profit off of an item that isn’t really worth that much. But, there’s a catch: the scammer wants to send you a personal check for more than what the selling price of the item is equal to. The instructions are that you cash the check, keep the appropriate amount of money for yourself, and then forward the remainder of the cash on to another individual, that the scammer supposedly owes money to. The scammer claims to trust you because he can tell you are a reputable seller.

When you take the check to the bank to deposit it, the bank will clear the check in five days. You think that this means there are no problems, and withdrawal the specified amount of money, ship the item off to the scammer, and send the additional money on to the person the scammer asked you to forward it to. Then, you find out a few weeks later that the check is actually a forgery, and now you are out both the money and the original item. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do in this situation to recoup your losses.

The reason this scam works is because banks in the United States are required to make available the funds from any check within five business days. A foreign check can take up to a few weeks to actually process, which means there is some lag time in between when the money is available, and finding out the check is actually legitimate. Scammers depend on this rule to make the scam work. They receive the additional money that you sent on to their “associate,” who was either the scammer themselves, or someone working for the scammer. They also have the item, and you have no way of recovering it. The biggest problem in this situation is that you are not only out the money that was supposed to pay for the item, you are also required by law to pay back the bank for the amount of money you sent back to the scammer.

To protect yourself from this scam, never, ever accept a personal check from someone who wants to overpay you for the value of the item you are selling. This always means that the buyer is up to something. If they ask you to cash a check and wire additional money to someone else, do not fall for it. The only reason someone would ask you to do this would be if they were pulling this scam. A better idea would be to stick to PayPal, and refuse to accept personal checks. If someone tries to pull this scam on you, refer them to PayPal, and let them know they can sign up for free with their bank account if they would like to purchase your item.

Lee Mark asked:


Even though drop shipping is my least favorite way to make money on eBay, there are some cases where it will work. To have your e-bay products drop shipped can be a good way to get started. However, can you really count on it being delivered? And if delivered, delivered on time? And if on time, can you trust it will be delivered in one piece? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. You can depend on drop shippers. They are here to help buyers and make their lives a little less complicated.

You need to find a distributor who will drop ship for you. Once you decide on a distributor, you place your goods online. You place your good on e-bay and give a brief description of your good and add a picture to it too.

There are many drop shipping companies nowadays. You need to make sure that you find a company you can depend on. A company that will deliver on time and wont cost you, your customers.

When a customer buys your product, and has paid you for the same. You send the order to your distributor. The distributor will then drop shift the goods to your customers. The package will show that you are the sender. It will have your address and information on it, without you having to actually ship it. That is why it is called drop shipping.

If your distributors successfully drop ship for you, it can be a win-win situation for the two of you. You will not have to stock your e-bay inventory and your distributor will not have to worry about the retail sales.

Do be careful because there are many distributors out there who will offer to drop ship but who aren’t very reliable. You definitely will not want to try using them. If a good is delivered late or broken or not delivered at all, the customer will hold you responsible. The customer does not care that it is the distributors fault; he/she will hold you responsible. You can’t blame your customers for being mad at you because if you were in their shoes, you would do exactly the same.

The Drop shipping business has the highest number of scams in the industry. Many times companies will pose as the drop shipper, when in many cases they are just another middleman between you and the real drop shipper. Be sure to research any company that you choose to use. You can also find drop shippers thru reputable product sourcing companies like nawca.org. Companies like this will not refer you to companies that are not true drop shippers. 

You should test your distributor, to make sure they are truly dependable. You can trick them by having an order sent to a friend or relative so that you can see how long they take and if they do it without breaking the merchandise. You will also learn if they are reliable or not and if they will indeed drop ship your eBay products within the specified time and with the right labels. 

Ed Brancheau asked:


As if you haven’t already heard, millions upon millions of people of people buy and sell on eBay every single day. Some only make a few sales here and there. Others have figured out what it takes to become “Powersellers.” Powersellers are the very small minority of eBay sellers that do at least $2,000 per month in sales on eBay and maintain a 99% positive feedback rating. Powersellers are the ones that really know what they’re doing and if you really want to be successful on eBay then follow the secrets they revealed to me.

So, what are the secrets, tips and tricks that will cause you to become a Powerseller as well?

Well, I’ll be completely honest with you… I may be well on my way but I’m not a Powerseller yet. However, one thing that I know from creating several successful businesses is that if you want to become the best at something, you need to copy those that are already successful, ask them to mentor you and ask questions and take notes. And now I am going to take what they taught me and pass it on to you.

This is part four of a four part article series. You will find links to the other parts of this article series at the end of this article.

SECRET STRATEGY #16 - OFFER DISCOUNTS

Every single Powerseller that I interviewed offers some type of discount. It could be something like buy one and receive a second at 50% off. Or it could be that you offer free shipping on another purchase. Just make sure that you offer some type of discount and also keep in mind that “free” always works much better than anything else. For example, rather than say “Buy two and receive 50% off” say “Buy one get one free”. “Free” is a trigger word that really hooks people.

Furthermore, I have found that for most items, that offering free shipping can actually make you more money than if you didn’t. For example, a few years back, I wanted to find out if this was actually true. I had two whole rows at a concert and for the front row, I had people pay for the actual shipping costs which was like $9 to send them via FedEx 2-day delivery. A set of two tickets sold for about $400. The row in the back had free shipping and they sold for about $490 a set.

I made $81 more by offering free shipping. And it had to be the shipping because everything else about the auction was the same. In fact the better tickets made me less money. Now, I am sure that there are some exceptions to this rule (like maybe you are selling bulk items for $.01 and really making your profit off the handling) but I can’t really think of many examples. In fact the only exception that I can think of is international shipping.

But my point is that “FREE Shipping” works because it is very noticeable on search pages. Remember that the word “free” is a trigger word that catches people’s attention. The only other words that catch people’s attention like “free” is “you” and “sex”. Hey, I’m scared to think of what might happen if you put all these words in the same sentence!

Finally, with regards to the word “free”, always include it in your title IN ALL CAPS by simply adding “FREE bonus”. And then give your customers something for free. You can tell them what it is or not but always be sure to put a dollar value on it. For example, when I sell my information products, my bonus is a subscription to my email newsletter which I always give away for free but I put a value on it of $9.95 per month because I really believe that it’s worth that much since I know that I always over deliver. So I always tell my buyers that they are going to get a “bonus worth almost $120 per year!”

But here’s the key: it’s doesn’t really matter what the bonus is… all you are trying to do is get eBay users to click on your auction because you can’t start selling your product to them until the open the listing! Remember this every time you create a new listing. Your first objective is to get them to click on the auction listing. Think of it this way, you can’t sell to someone unless you get them in the store!

SECRET STRATEGY #17 - KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR GREAT DEALS!

Every single Powerseller that I spoke with told me several stories about one little deal or something that they found for free that made them a ton of money. One of them told me about how he goes to swap meets and watches the buyers all day looking for one item that a bunch of them seem to be buying. He then buys one for himself and tracks down the manufacturer so that he can sell the product on eBay. This is an awesome idea because really what he is doing is market research by watching the buyers at the swap meet. In addition, this same Powerseller oftentimes buys a large quantity off a swap meet seller at a really low price right before the seller is about ready to leave for the weekend because would the seller rather make a little money or haul everything back?

Another Powerseller went to Africa for his honeymoon and while he was there he found some fabulous African headdresses. He struck up a deal with the maker and bought 500 of the headdresses at $2 a piece for $1,000 total. When he and his bride returned home, he sold the headdresses on eBay for about $75 a piece, made over $36,000 and got to write off his $10,000 honeymoon as a “business expense”! He did so well selling the headdresses that he decided to “take a business trip… tax deductible of course… back to Africa” and order 2000 more. Also, to share the wealth, he “gave the maker a raise” and paid $5 each without the maker even asking for it! I bet he was pretty happy. But here’s the really funny thing… he got such ecstatic reviews for his previous buyers that the headdresses became much more in demand that his average sale increased to over $125! With these headdresses, he has made over $270,000!

So, keep your eyes open and snatch up those great deals. On thing to remember, if you see a bunch of people buying something, then you can be sure that you will be able to find others that will buy. At the county fair? Ask the popular vendors if they would like you to sell their products on eBay and split the profit. See a great deal at Wal-Mart for some killer product? Buy a bunch of them and sell them to people that don’t live near a Wal-Mart or other discount store (and always list your items internationally because international buyers will often pay you more and even pay the shipping for certain items because many times that item is much more expensive in their country… even if it’s made there!) Basically, make offers that you can profit from everywhere you go. Sure, you’ll get dozens of “no’s” but one “yes” can make you thousands of dollars.

SECRET STRATEGY #18 - INVEST IN YOUR BUSINESS

Of course, you don’t want to waste money on your business but I constantly see people that don’t want to spend money on their business to make money. eBay, in particular, has some features that can make you more money when you use them and others that may not make a difference for your product.

For example, one of the biggest mistakes that sellers make on eBay is not spending $.35 to have the product’s photo show up in the gallery. This is the biggest listing mistake! Gallery photos draw considerably more clicks and bids and yet do a search for a specific product and you will see that about 1/3 don’t have gallery photos and always have lower highest bids. Without exception, all of my auctions have a gallery photo and are listed in bold as are just about every Powerseller listing.

And don’t be afraid to invest in your business by purchasing things like auction software, a digital camera (especially now that you can get them for under $100), a postage system (I use Stamps at http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/stamps.html) or a web authoring program like DreamWeaver. Definitely be sure to invest in a high-speed Internet connection like the ones below because they will save you an incredible amount of time and frustration.

Comcast High Speed Internet Cable - http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/comcast.html

Earthlink High Speed Internet DSL — http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/earthlink.html

Qwest High Speed Internet DSL — http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/qwest.html

Verizon Online DSL — http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/verizon.html

Time Warner High Speed Internet — http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/tw.html

Or my personal choice:

Time Warner Digital Cable High Speed Internet — http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/tw-dig.html

Just do some research and determine how it will make you more money before you buy anything.

SECRET STRATEGY #19 - ALWAYS BE LEARNING… ALWAYS BE UP TO DATE

As a personal coach, I recommend that people reinvest 10% of their income in their personal education so that they constant grow. And I suggest something similar for your business. Constantly read books about eBay and the Internet all of the time and you will grow year after year after year. Here are a few titles that I suggest to get started on eBay:

The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay by Jim Cockrum

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/silent-sales.html

eBay Cash Machine by Sebastian Foss

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/ebay-cash.html

What to Sell on eBay and Where to Get It by Chris Malta

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/what-to-sell.html

eBay Powerseller Secrets: Insider Tips from eBay’s Most Successful Sellers by Debra & Peter Schepp

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/powerseller-secrets.html

eBay Timesaving Techniques for Dummies by Marsha Collier

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/ebay-timesaving.html

In addition to these titles above, the is one other great resource: EBAY!

Check out the following eBay pages:

Learning Center — http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/ebay-learning.html

eBay University — http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/ebay-university.html

Security & Resolution Center — http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/ebay-security.html

Well, that’s it! Armed with these secret eBay strategies, you too should be well on your way to making a very substantial income on eBay. However, should you wish to obtain even more information about how to make money on eBay and the rest of the Internet, please visit our eBay store for some fabulous informational products.

Unleash Life Success Coaching eBay Store

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/ulsc-ebay-store.html

And be sure to check out the extremely powerful A2Z Web Building & Internet Marketing Platinum Package. It’s over $1,500 worth of the best web building and Internet marketing books and programs in the world for less than $50. Check out our eBay rating and you will see that people love this package!

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/A2Z-platinum.html

Finally, if you missed any of the four parts of this article, you can read the other three at the following addresses:

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/ebays-secrets-1.html

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/ebays-secrets-2.html

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/ebays-secrets-3.html

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/ebays-secrets-4.html