I want to dive a little deeper into the idea of selling on ebay for 2008 during the recession.
Lets face it if your struggling now to make ends meet, it's only gonna get worse as the economy develops more and more problems.
So something that will help tremendously will be to make some extra cash.
It seems every blog and article wants to tell you how to sell on ebay but not many will go as far as to tell you what types of things you can sell at a profit.
Of course we can't make any guarantees but here we are gonna give you some great ideas of low cost items you can sell.
If you have the investment money to buy Ipods and MP3 players then you will always fair well on ebay as they seem to push the sellers of those type items.
Unfortunately we all dont have that kind of money to start up with.
Although it's tricky to understand customers needs and wants, it's really not as hard to pick a category of items to sell.
First of all go to ebay, and choose a category of interest to you.
Choose something that you know and understand because customers will have questions.
If you know some type of craft, check that category.
If you know books ( not the story but the conditions) whether their book club editions or paper backed, check that category.
If you know auto parts , check that out.
Before buying my new computer, I asked a seller who sold computer upgrades if the one he had for sale ($120.00) would upgrade my computer? I also gave him the name and model numbers of my computer.
He emailed me back to say that he had no earthly idea if it was what I needed and had no idea how to upgrade a computer, he just sold the upgrades.
Needless to say, I didnt buy the upgrade.
You'll want to spend a few days in the category of your choice and watch what sells.
For example, if you choose Jeans/Pants (thats my niche)
You will need to know your brands , study what the average starting prices are for different brands by clicking newly listed in that category.
See what the end prices will average by clicking completed items.
You will need to read many many listings , preferrably of the listings that sold compared to those that sold high and those that didnt sell at all.
What made them special?
Were they new or used?
Were they priced high or low?
What keywords did they use in the titles?
What sizes sold best?
How did they describe their items
Did they measure the waist, inseam and leg openings?
Did they tell you about the life of the jeans, their condition?
Did they use gallery or no photo?
Were the pictures good or was the lighting bad or blurry?
Did their listing come across as comforting or pushy or was it blunt and to the point ?
Was there lots of animation?
How fast did the pages load ?
Keep in mind the new styles, wool pants probably wont sell well these days .
Once you have found a few items you might be interested in selling, you should narrow them down to one or two.
Decided which you can buy cheapest or reproduce for a low cost.
Do your homework and you will do well.
Another important factor on http://ebay.com is feedback.
If you have an existing account - GREAT !
If not you will have to register to sell and have a checking account number or credit card for verification purposes.
The majority of customers on ebay use paypal so you will need to open a paypal account also, unless you only intend to accept money orders or personal checks.
Note: You will lose incredible amounts of purchases by not accepting paypal on ebay.
Next you will need to supply your stock, either by buying a few items of your choice or making a few items ahead of time.
Alot of sellers use drop shippers (thats another blog post) but I prefer not to sell anything I don't have in my hands.
If you dont have an ebay account I would suggest you read all of the rules for both buying and selling before you list your items.
This way you will understand everything that is allowed or not and you will get a feel for what both the buyers expect from a seller and what sellers should expect from buyers.
Ebay is a dog eat dog world and being educated will pay off.
As I mentioned feedback is important to alot of ebay buyers.
You will need to build your positive feedback, the higher the better and you will see that your sales will improve the higher it gets.
In the begining I became easily frustrated that my items didnt sell as well as the other sellers with the same products, prices and quality.
It came down to feedback.
Ebay is not as complicated as some might think, it is a time consuming JOB though, just like any other job it takes time and patients.
Decide how many hours per day or per week you can devote to ebay selling.
If you only intend to ship items once per week then make sure you add that to your descriptions when listing, or your message box will overflow with unhappy customers.
Be honest at all costs when listing your items.
Don't over exadurate the quality of your items.
Trust me most buyers are easy going but there are quite a few that will pick your listing apart to find the mistakes you made with your words, to attain a refund.
New means new, never used, store like quality and thats the only time you should ever use the word new.
Other ways to list the quality might be like new condition, worn once, gently used, very well cared for.
Never use other sellers pictures, it's against ebay policy for one reason, the other is that your customers will expect to receive exactly what was pictured with no differences.
Always try to work out any problems with your customers.
Even if your right and they are dead wrong, as I mentioned feedback is important and refunding $10 - $20 is little cost compared to a negative strike on your selling account.
Always use confirmation on your packages.
If a customer says they didnt receive the package and they will, ebay will only stand beside the seller who has proof through confirmation, that it was mailed and arrived at the buyers post office for delivery.
Once you've found the right product to sell you should be able to supplement your income nicely with ebay.
We will post more on the ebay subject in a later post today.
Have a great day !
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