Use My eBay.

If you want a broad overview of where you are with your auctions, make sure you pay a visit to My eBay occasionally instead of just relying on emails. With my eBay, you can see all your auctions in a big table, and sort by things like the number of bids and the current price. If you want to see which of your auctions currently has no bids, then you can do that.

One of the most useful things about My eBay, though, is the ´Summary´ view. If you´re not sure what you should be doing next, then this acts effectively as an eBay to-do list: anything you need to be doing will end up here.

Use Selling Manager.

If you´re willing to pay the fee of $4.99 per month, you can sign up for Selling Manager, which is a more effective version of the My eBay ´Selling´ view. It lets you customise your view more effectively to see the information that´s important to you, see useful snapshots of how things are going, make automated responses to your buyers using email templates, and more.

Selling Manager Pro gives you more features: it keeps track of inventory for you, and lets you relist items in bulk. It will even produce a monthly profit and loss report to help you keep track of the big picture. Unfortunately, it costs $15.99 per month.

Use a Listing Tool.

Even though they´re called listing tools, much of the software out there lets you manage what you´re doing long after it´s been listed, with all the features of Selling Manager and sometimes a few more besides. This programs also often have the advantage of being programs instead of websites, meaning they´re faster to respond and can do more sophisticated analysis.

Remember the ´Relist´ Button.

After your auctions end each time, there´s an easy way to put the exact same thing back again: the ´Relist´ button. You can Relist items quickly and easily this way, as long as you don´t want to change in the listing.

Pay Someone!

Here´s something you might not have considered: if you´re listing so many expensive items that even automated selling tools take too long to use, then have you considered paying someone to help out, as an employee? After all, you wouldn´t try to staff a shop full-time on your own, would you? If you already run a business, you could even give the responsibility to someone who works for you there. Freeing up your own time to do something else might pay off for you in the long run.

When you´re managing so many auctions, sooner or later you might need to cancel one of them early. The next email will let you know when and how you can do it.

About The Author:

Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

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ebay auction tips, auctions, ebay seller tips, sellers, ebay buyer tips, buyers

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Tags: Auction Seller Tips

Phenomenal results are possible, such as last month, where a postcard by artist A. R. Quinton, depicting a cliff view at Herne Bay, fetched £100 plus. By anyone´s standards, the card was worth about £3 for the view and maybe a few pounds more for the artist.

I checked and found that two serious bidders, one of Herne Bay topographical postcards, the other a Quinton enthusiast, had launched a bidding war that was eventually won by the Herne Bay collector, or was it the seller of this rather common-a-garden postcard?

Such events are not uncommon. My own best selling item this month, a pair of vintage cufflinks with ancient Greek Coins, for which I paid £3 at a flea market, went for £34, with the two final bidders being a collector of cufflinks and another of Greek coins. The Greek coin collector won.

You only need two bidders and it doesn´t matter if they´re interested in the same product or specific parts of your product or listing. The end result is always the same; more money for you.
You´re looking for just two people in the whole wide world, these tips will help you find them.
* List a minimum two items (or themes) in one lot. The trick is to make each item valuable in its own right and appealing to more than one person. The cufflinks and postcard are good examples.

I´ve seen other wars raging over two completely unrelated postcards listed together; two books bearing no relation to one another; a pack of artist illustrated playing cards where one bidder wanted the cards and the other collected all things artist related.

* List in two eBay categories to achieve maximum market penetration. You can also list in two shop categories. For the Quinton/Herne Bay postcard I´d list under ´Artist Drawn Postcards´ and ´Topographical´.

* Research and use commonly used keywords for your product to attract the highest audience for your item. Go to eBay Pulse pages for common keywords or use software such as Adword Analyzer to study most commonly used key words and phrases for specific subjects. Although developed largely for search engine optimisation and Google advertising campaigns and similar, products like Adword Analyzer are equally suitable for all areas of the Internet, including eBay. Visit our site, www.1st-in-auctions.com/Keywords.html for more ideas on keyword research with tips from top eBayers and other Internet marketers.

* Offer free gifts and bonuses to attract interest from people selling similar items. For example, offer three cufflinks where most offer two (emphasise these things get damaged, lost, stolen); ship items postage free; add complementary items such as matching tie pin (free or otherwise) with cufflinks, free presentation boxes with every batch of wholesale necklaces, and so on.

* Offer a free gift that is valuable in its own right, worth more than the product listed, and not available from any other source. Remember to change the freebie regularly as frequent buyers will have it already. Study and comply with eBay rules regarding gifts, bonuses and discounts. The trick is to find people not necessarily wanting your listed product, but very keen on the freebie. Learn more at: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-bonuses.html

About The Author:

Avril Harper is a triple PowerSeller and editor of eBay Confidential. She has produced a free guide - 103 POWERSELLER TIPS - which you can download with other freely distributable reports and ebooks at www.publishingcircles.com

Article Source: Free Article Directory at ArticleJoe.com

Tags: Auction Seller Tips

Today´s electronic world pushes the envelop further. With the advent of online trading systems such as eBay, many new forms of payment have flourished.

First of all, on eBay, the mode of payment depends on the agreement between the buyer and the seller. Most often, the seller will specify his or her desired payment method. In these cases, the seller often has primacy in the decisions regarding payment modes. However, the buyer may still communicate with the seller regarding a viable alternative if it suits both parties.

The following is a list of common eBay payment modes.

Cash On Delivery

Cash is, after all, still cash. This payment method can be done through a third party courier system or by the buyer and seller meeting each other at an agreed place. The advantage of a cash transaction is that the exchange of the item for payment is done in the presence of the buyer and the seller (or the seller´s representative). However, some people will not accept the risk present when two strangers meet.

Personal Check

One popular method of payment is personal check. Writing checks is easy and safe. However, many sellers do not like accepting check because they are easy to cancel.

PayPal

PayPal is the payment of choice on eBay. In fact, eBay owns PayPal.

Using PayPal is easy, convenient, and relatively safe. PayPal acts as like an internet ´wire transfer.´

After signing-up for PayPal, one may send cash to anyone with an email address using the PayPal system. PayPal also has security features that safeguard against fraud in case there is a dispute between the seller and the buyer. This system is best for transactions up to $1000.

Escrow.com

Escrow.com is the payment of choice for purchases over $500. Escrow.com holds the buyer´s money from the seller until the seller delivers the item. Only then will the funds be released to the seller. This system makes for a very safe, although highly procedural transaction.

Wire Transfer

This is the payment of choice for countries that do not carry the PayPal service. Wire transfers are risky because the buyer usually has to wire over the funds before the seller sends the items. The chance for non-delivery of items is high.

Other Payment Systems

The number of third party payment services is steadily on the rise. Their systems for payment vary. However, to be successful they must be convenient to use and safe as well.

About The Author:

Discover 101 Ebay Auction Tips http://www.push-button-online-income.com/101ebaytips.zip

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Tags: General Auction Tips

If the price is too high, interest will be low, and the possibility of a sale decreases.

If the price is too low, the seller generates enormous traffic, yet the final bid might be too low to satisfy the seller´s need for a profit.

The following steps will aid in the process of pricing an item for sale on eBay.

Step 1: Determine How Much the Original Item was Worth

First of all, one must find out how much the item cost when it was new. This helps the seller set realistic goals as to how much they can expect to profit when the item is sold.

The seller must remember that the going price for the item in today´s market will be different from its original price. And depending on the demand for that item, he may get a price that is better, or worse than the original price.

The seller must also acceptance the fact that the buying power of today´s dollar is different from that of ten years ago.

Step 2: Do a Little Research

Sellers should research the current price of similar items. This gives the seller a good standard as to how much they should price their item. Searching eBay for successful auctions of similar items is one of the best ways to do this.

Step 2: How Much Has the Item Depreciated?

The seller must check the item for damages and other irregularities from a mint condition item of the same kind. They must then deduct a reasonable amount from the asking price based on their evaluation. Wear and tear on an item will definitely bring down the price of an item considerably. It is wise to make sure that items are repaired, or spruced-up before being auctioned.

Step 3: Start a Little Lower than Usual When Setting the Selling Price

It is wise to start an auction a step or two (or even three) lower than a sellers intended price. This generates interest in the item. It may be hard to believe, but auctions that start lower than the intended price actually have a better chance of overshooting the intended price.

Professional opinions are always available if the seller of an item is in doubt of the value of his or her item. Third party appraisal companies help in this regard. A list of such companies is available at the Authentication & Grading link under Protection and Authentication on eBay.

About The Author:

Discover 101 Ebay Auction Tips in this FREE ebook http://www.push-button-online-income.com/ebooks

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Tags: Auction Seller Tips

So, what can you do to avoid these additional costs? Of course, you can add only one picture per item, but guess what?? Right, the chance that your potential customer/bidder quickly moves to another listing is high. In fact, VERY high!! Because people like to see first what they are buying and do you think that one picture is enough? I don´t, because we live in highly visual world…people want to see the product or item they potentially want to purchase. Yes, the even would like to touch it - if they could. What about you? Do you take the product you want to buy in your hands and touch it? I bet you do. Imagine you are in a shop and want to buy a birthday present for a good friend. If one special gift catches your attention you take it from the shelf and you carefully look at the product, don´t you? You touch it and turn it around to get a feel for it. How can we add this feeling experience to our eBay auction listings? Yes, by adding a couple of good photos. Take pictures of your item from all sorts of different angles. The potential buyer will get a good feel for the item and it´s more likely that they place a bid. As mentioned above: You can add as many pictures as you like - For Free. How can you do it??? The answer is simple: Host your own pictures! Not sure how to do it? Here are some ideas:

1. It´s very likely that your Internet Service Provider offers you also free web space. I have used (and still use) the 10 MB web space my ISP gives me for free. Check the policy of your ISP - maybe an email to them is a first try.

2. Find a free or cheap web host - but be careful! Some of the free webs hosting companies do not allow that their service is being used just for data storage. Read their policy carefully before you sign up.

3. Search for some image hosting services. There are a couple of free image hosting companies out there allowing ´hot linking´ to eBay auctions.

4. In case you own a website you can make a special ebay directory for your auctions pictures.
Upload all your photos and item pictures BEFORE you design your auction listing and copy and paste the image URL into the source code of your auction description. http://www.auction-design-for-free.com may assist you with that, in case you are not familiar with this process.

One important point to mention is the file size. Make sure that your 3 - 4 pictures of your item are NOT 1 MB big. Can you imagine how patient your potential buyers/bidders are? That´s right! That´s right! Not very patient at all. If the pictures are not loading within 20 seconds your visitor leaves your site and moves on. There are maybe other listings offering the same - with pictures loading faster. So, make sure that the file size is in manageable range.

You´ll be amazed how more pictures will add more credibility to your selling practice and gives the potential buyer/bidder the feeling that they can almost touch your item.

About The Author:

Thomas Haselhorst is webmaster of http://www.auction-design-for-free.com and http://www.monster-ebook-sale.com

Article Source: Free Article Directory at ArticleJoe.com

Tags: Auction Seller Tips

eBay´s affiliate program follows this basic formula, but with a few twists.

It pays a lot. Each user who follows your link to eBay, signs up and then bids on anything within 30 days will earn you $20. Most affiliate programs will only give you something like 10% of the user´s first purchase. What´s more, for each existing eBay user who clicks through from your site and then places a bid or buys something, you´ll get 10c.

You can be your own affiliate. If you just link to your own auctions with your affiliate link number from your own website, then you´re getting money without sending buyers to anyone except yourself. There aren´t many affiliate programs that can say that.

So Where Do I Sign Up?

You can visit eBay´s affiliate program at http://affiliates.ebay.com/. Once you´re there, just click ´Join the Program´. You will then be required to sign up for Commission Junction, which is free.

How Can I Get People to Click the Links?

eBay suggest a number of ´business models´ for their affiliates. Before people can click your affiliate links, they need to be at your website. There are two ways to get them there using a search engine, which eBay refer to as ´natural´ and ´paid´ search.

Natural search: This is when someone finds your website in a search engine´s normal results, either because something you wrote is relevant to them or you used SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques. Be careful not to use any dodgy methods to get a high search engine ranking, though, or eBay might come after you and keep your affiliate money.

Paid search: This strategy involves paying for traffic to your website or directly to eBay, by buying ads on search engines. If you go for this option, it´s actually worth placing ads on the less popular search engines instead of the big ones: they´ll have similar click-through rates as a percentage, but the cost typically won´t be anywhere near as high.

Content: What you can do is just have a normal website, with articles on a variety of subjects and perhaps a community forum. Run the website for pleasure, but place the occasional eBay affiliate link there.

Newsletters: Don´t ignore the potential of putting your affiliate ID in each time you send out a newsletter. You can get 10c for every bid it generates with no extra work, which could be enough for the email to pay for itself, whether it leads to any sales or not.

Sadly, our time together is nearly at an end, but there is one thing that I have left to show you. It´s called the featured gallery, and it could help your sales. Look out for the next article!

About The Author:

Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

Article Source: Free Article Directory at ArticleJoe.com

Tags: General Auction Tips

That´s why you should always check the seller´s reputation, or ´feedback rating´. This is a quick and easy-to-read summary of their history as an eBay seller, which gives you some idea of whether or not you should trust them with your money. Buying anything is a calculated risk: you want to minimise that risk.

How to Check Feedback Ratings.

On each item´s description page, there is a box in the top-right hand corner about the seller, with the title ´Seller information´. This contains the seller´s name, their feedback score, and their positive feedback percentage, as well as any stars they have earned.

Different coloured stars are given to eBay sellers depending on their rating, in this sequence: yellow, blue, turquoise, purple, red, green, shooting yellow, shooting turquoise, shooting purple, shooting red. Anyone with a ´shooting´ star is an experienced eBay member who you should be able to trust.

If you click on the seller´s name, you can get to a more detailed view of their reputation their ´member profile´ page. This page shows the total number of people who gave them a positive or negative rating, as well as a breakdown by time. You can also see a complete history of all the comments that have ever been left about them, with the most recent first.

What to Look For.

You might assume that anyone with a very high number can be trusted, but that isn´t always true. It is more important to look at their positive feedback percentage and you should really consider anything below 99% to be a red flag and investigate further.

Take a look through the first visible page with the most recent transactions: are there any negative comments? What do they say? Take others´ experiences into account, as they could happen to you if you deal with this person. Be careful not to punish sellers unfairly, however, if they did bad things in their past on eBay but have improved since. You should look at the breakdown by time and ignore any negative feedback that was left a long time ago. Equally, though, you should sit up and pay attention if a seller seems to have been left an out-of-character amount of bad feedback in the last month or so.

Now that you know who to trust, it is worth learning a little more about how the different kinds of auctions work, so that you don´t accidentally slip up and make yourself and your feedback page look bad. Our next email will be about the different kinds of auctions you can expect to encounter during your time on eBay.

About The Author:

Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

Article Source: Free Article Directory at ArticleJoe.com

Tags: Auction Buyer Tips

There are the obvious costs such as the listing, enhancements and final value fees. Also you have to add the charges made by Paypal if that is the option of payment chosen by the buyer. But then you should really also consider what I call the invisible costs. Let me explain, if for instance you buy many of the items that you sell from Flea markets and garage sales what value do you place on your time going to such events and don´t forget any travel expenses to get there.

Once you have got your items home you will need more time to research, photograph and list your purchases. Now add the time you spend packaging the items after sale and standing in line to post them. You could easily find that each sale you make on eBay could take an hour or more of your time.

If you really want to know how much time you spend on your eBay business you need to keep a detailed diary for a few weeks. Record the time when you leave your home on eBay business and when you return. Add any expenses other than the cost of any items you buy to sell on eBay. Once you are home log any time you spend listing, photographing and packing items.

Do this for a few weeks and this will give you a good idea of the non costed time you spend on your ebay business in an average week. Next decide what you think your time is worth $10, $20 or $50 an hour, this figure is entirely up to you and represents what you would expect to be paid for an hours work by someone else.

You can then work out how many items you sell a week on average. So your figures might look something like this. Average hours per week 6 at $20 an hour, average number of items sold per week 30. This would mean your time is worth $120 a week to you and if you sell 30 items it has cost you $4 of time per item.

So to work out your true profit on any item you need to add not only the cost of the item but also the other costs. eBay, the Paypal and shipping fees and your time costs. You will now be able to calculate what profit or lose you made on the sale. You should also include something to cover those mistakes that we all buy that disprove the theory that you can sell anything on eBay. After that you will be able to calculate the true profit that you are making from your ebay business.

I am not knocking eBay, quite the contrary; I think it is one of the best methods for anyone to build a successful online business. The point is that if you are to make real profits on eBay it is important to make sure that you use your time to best advantage. This can mean getting software to speed up some tasks and possibly reviewing how and where you buy the items you sell through eBay.

About The Author:

Dave Bromley is a writer and internet marketer who specialises in subjects related to ebay and online auctions. You can subscribe tio his newsleter and 6 part mini e course by visiting his information packed web site at http:http://www.ukauctionline.co.uk

Article Source: Free Article Directory at ArticleJoe.com

Tags: Auction Seller Tips

eBay stores come at three levels: Basic for $15.95 per month, Featured for $49.95 per month or Anchor for $499.95 per month (yes, that is typed correctly: almost $500). The best place to start out is with Basic (you can even get a month´s free trial), but if you like what you find then you should upgrade to Featured quickly, simply because it has so many extra features. Note that you must have a feedback rating of at least 20 before you can get an eBay store.

But what is an eBay store? Basically, it lets you list a set of fixed price auctions together on one page for much longer than auctions usually last and most sellers with eBay stores list the items at a slightly lower price. It´s like a list of your special offers. You can put your logo on the store and write a little about your business and policies, and your customers can search your store for anything they might want. Buyers can click through to your store using the door symbol next to your name.

A good way to look at it is that it´s a little like having your own e-commerce site outside eBay where you can list your items more long term except it´s all done for you without you having to learn a new system. Items in eBay stores can be listed for 30, 60, 90 or 120 days, or you can list items permanently, paying monthly for each one.

So you Want an eBay Store Now?

You can visit eBay stores at http://stores.ebay.com. Go there now and click the ´Open a Store´ button on the right of the screen to start signing up for the free trial. Then there are a few steps to go before your store can open for business.

Step 1: Pick a theme. You can have whatever design you want on your store, but to begin with pick something from eBay´s options that you think would be appropriate.

Step 2: Add your store´s name, description and logo. You can pick one of eBay´s pictures for the logo or upload a logo of your own if you have one. Don´t worry, you can always change this later.

Step 3: Choose your subscription level, and then click ´Start My Subscription Now´. Your store is ready! Remember that you can customise it more at any time.

Listing items in your store is just like listing items on normal eBay using ´Buy it Now´, except that the durations you can choose from for the store are much longer.

By now, you´ve probably spent enough time in eBay that you´re starting to get used to it - but then again, you also might have been a victim of fraud by now, or at least seen fraud happening to others. The next article will tell you how to fight eBay fraud.

About The Author:

Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

Article Source: Free Article Directory at ArticleJoe.com

Tags: Auction Buyer Tips

Let’s face it, Ebay is the largest online auction site. It has become so very successful because of its vast marketing plan and the ease of use it offers its users. Everyone knows that if you can find something in the local retail area or you can find it online that you will likely find it too right on the Ebay auction site.

So, how does it all work? Online auction sites are set up to allow for a meeting place of bidders and sellers. They do not sell products themselves but provide a meeting environment for you to find the people you are looking for. Of course to list a product to be sold, or in some cases to purchase a product on the web, you will be charged a fee. This is a necessary part of doing business on these websites but in cases like Ebay, it has become an excellent source of revenue as well.

So, who else is out there? There are other online auction sites that you should take a good look at. These include the following:

- TradeMe
- Yahoo!
- EBid
- Internet Bargain Center
- Marktplaats
- Bidville as well as many more

There are many benefits to using these online auction sites including the ease of connecting with prospective buyers, the use of 24/7 availability, and worldwide exposure to say the least. Many people find excellent reasons to get into the online auction site as a business as well. There is no limit to what can be found on these websites. Taking a look at those that are less well known can be an excellent opportunity as well.

About The Author:

For more information please see http://www.online-auction-sites.co.uk

Article Source: Free Article Directory at ArticleJoe.com

Tags: General Auction Tips