eBay Shopping Secrets

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.

Jason James asked:


Because ebay is such a busy place of merchandise sales with many various ebay stores and markets selling thousands of items, there must be a few rules that are set in place to insure that everyone is playing fair. Ebay auctions are a gift for us to make easy money without having the overhead or the stress of running other types of businesses so it is ideal that we all adhere to their policies.

Very few other issues will get ebay sellers arguing about the rules no more than the rules on linking to and from your ebay auctions. Ebay has some very firm rules when it comes to liking and it would be wise of you to follow them to insure that your ebay auctions stay online and profitable.

Below are the following links that you may use in your ebay auction description:

1. On your ebay auction, you may have one link to an additional web page for information. This web page is to be used exclusively for further information about whatever ebay item that you are selling from you ebay auction.

2. Your ebay auction may have links to more photo images of the merchandise that you are selling on ebay.

3. If you want your customer to click on a link from your ebay auction that opens up to separate window to send you an email, then that is ok. In fact this little ebay auction email window may increase inquiries of your ebay selling item.

4. Ebay auction links that connects to your other ebay auctions or any of your other ebay auctions stores is also permissible.

5. You may have one link that links to your ebay About Me page. This is in addition to the link next to your user ID that ebay provides for your ebay auction.

6. Ebay authorizes you to have links to your vendors’ websites that help you with your auctions. Ebay considers any type of listing services, payment providers, and software programs to be 3rd party vendors.

In addition to the above Ebay linking rules that are authorized for your Ebay auctions there are also links that are not allowed with ebay.

1. You cannot have any links that link to other websites that offers to sell, trade, or purchase merchandise outside of Ebay. This should be obvious but many new sellers to Ebay auctions break this rule.

2. Links to any other websites that encourages ebay bidders to place their bids outside of ebay are not authorized in your ebay auctions

3. Your ebay auction cannot have links that link to outside websites that offers to sell merchandise that is considered illegal at ebay. 4. Links that connect to websites that solicit ebay user Ids and passwords is also unauthorized to have within your ebay auction.

When it comes to linking from your About Me page the ebay rules are pretty much the same overall with your ebay auction. Because ebay gives you this page to self promote your business, then linking to your website from it is allowed.

On the other hand, you need to be sure that the link does connect to other trading sites or to website businesses that sell the same product or merchandise at the same price or lower price than what is advertised on ebay.

Michael Dappert asked:


I began selling stuff on Ebay in July of 1998. Since then Ebay has grown to enormous proportions and I am not sure how many of the millions of people who visit Ebay every day really know much about what it was like and how it has changed. I will not pretend to present a comprehensive history of Ebay which may have already been done or will most certainly be done at some point in the future. Please, allow me to just relate my own experience of buying items and selling them for profit on Ebay.

In 1996 I was one of the co-founders of a company that provided local dial-up internet access for the small rural community where we live. The company is still in business and has grown with the times to now be a primary provider of high-speed wireless internet access in several communities in 3 counties in the area. So, I have been closely associated with the internet for the past 11 years.

In 1997 or so we started to hear about a web site called Ebay, an online auction site where people were buying and selling stuff. I was no stranger to auctions having attended auctions with my parents when I was a young child. And now as an adult, I still attended estate or farm auctions in the area. So, I checked out the site and thought it might be an interesting thing to try. In 1998 I registered as an Ebay user and started to look for some stuff to sell.

The first item I sold on Ebay was a little hand woven wool rug. It was only about 2 feet by 3 feet and quite worn because it was pretty old. I paid 5 dollars for it and it sold for 20 dollars which I thought was pretty good since it was four times what I had paid for it. If I had a hundred dollars worth of stuff sell for 400 hundred that would be some good money.

I was off and running to sales all over the area. My wife and I bought stuff of all sorts, brought it back to our office, took pictures, wrote descriptions, and listed the stuff during the evening so it would end a week later during the evening when people were home in front of their computers.

At that time Sunday evening was the prime time to have your auctions end. It was then that the largest volume of potential customers were on the Ebay site. Keep in mind that internet access at work was not nearly as prevalent as it is now. People used their computers from home in the evening. The downside to this was the Ebay site would become so busy the site would sometimes become unresponsive for buyers and sellers alike.

There was nothing worse than having to wait for a couple of minutes for each page view in the listing process to happen or, worse yet, have some one trying to bid on your stuff that is ending in a couple of minutes and they cannot get the page up. Ebay was working furiously to update its software and hardware and its internet connections to handle the traffic that just continued to grow.

On the Ebay front page it used to say how many items were for sale at any given time. I remember seeing that figure at around 800,000 and thinking it was huge. I do not know how many millions of items are now for sale on Ebay at any given time and not sure if they even say any more.

I have always focused on selling antiques and collectibles on Ebay. Like any other area of the country there are 8 or 10 auctioneers in a four county area around us. When we really started to go to auctions a lot there would be anywhere from 2 to 6 auctions during any given week one could attend. We bought a lot of stuff because it was usually cheap.

I would have 50 to 75 items for sale on Ebay at any given time. A person could buy stuff for a dollar or two or maybe a little more and list it on Ebay for a minimum of 9.99 and it would sell for maybe 15 or 20 dollars or more. You never knew what something would bring which is why it was so much fun. It seemed like you could sell just about anything for a profit.

Estate sales and auctions have always been my largest source of items to sell on Ebay. In 1998 and for a few years after these auctions were attended by the local public, maybe a couple of collectors, and a handful of antique dealers.

Nowadays, upon arriving at an auction site there are still those same groups of people but there is another group who have come exclusively looking for items to sell on Ebay. These people may have come from 50, 100, 200, or more miles away.

Before the auction you see people going through the days offerings while talking to someone on a cell phone who is probably in front of a computer telling them what something might potentially bring or has sold for on Ebay. Sometimes these people are specialized or sometimes they seem to want to buy everything at the sale. Consequently, prices at live auctions have risen to where many items sell for what they might sell for on Ebay and the people who seem to have to buy everything are most likely just spinning their wheels and really going nowhere.

The cost of doing business on Ebay has steadily increased over the years. It is still a bargain considering the market exposure your offerings receive. In the past the expenses associated with selling on Ebay were kind of an afterthought. Now the expenses are something to consider.

I will certainly continue to sell items on Ebay with the hope of picking up some extra cash from time to time. There are numerous methods, books, and programs to make millions on Ebay. Some of them may work but probably only if you are willing to work hard at it. I am sure there are lots of people whose sole enterprise is selling things on Ebay. There are people selling stuff from warehouses, offices, garages, home offices, off the dining room table, or their bedroom. All of them contributing to making Ebay the most successful online business of them all.