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Cherry pick your eBay success
publication date: Feb 14, 2007
****
- Editorial
- Four Ways of Staying In Touch with eBay
On the Move by Mark Kenny
- Tips For Writing Killer Ebay Auction
Titles by R. Heavner
****
Hello,
I've come up with a great idea, one to
ensure every product you list on eBay will
always sell and probably double your money
every time. It could much more than double
your money, maybe a lot more, and this new
idea ensures you won't ever be out of pocket
and you'll never have unsold stock clogging
up your living room.
The idea wasn't mine; it came from a
brainstorming session between myself and my
two daughters, also eBay PowerSellers.
It started like this: I love listing items
at auction, my eldest daughter likes Buy It
Now on ten day listings, my youngest sells
most of her stuff in her eBay Shop.
Each of us has reasons for our own favourite
selling method.
I love watching the last few minutes of an
auction where two or three bidders are
battling it out between themselves and,
although you know your product will sell,
you never quite know how much you're going
to make. It could be many times more than
the price you paid for the item, even with
eBay listing and final auction fees
deducted.
My eldest daughter likes Buy It Now, her
main reason being that she makes money every
day, and she feels more comfortable knowing
how much each product fetches rather than
risking low auction starting prices (to
minimise eBay listing fees) which might also
mean her product selling below cost or even
not selling at all.
Victoria, my youngest, bundles everything
into her Shop. She can list one hundred
items a week, costing about 20 pence each
time, and expect to sell three quarters of
those items within the month and generate
ten or twenty pounds per item, so making
around £3500 pure profit each week.
We all feel very attached to our own little
comfort zone on eBay.
Then we came up with an idea called CABS for
short. It stands for:
Cherry Picking - Auction - Buy-It-Now -
Shop
It works like this.
We only ever buy items to list on eBay which
we know have a very good chance of selling,
preferring to hand pick (Cherry pick) items
individually at boot sales and flea markets,
sometimes collectors' fairs and auction.
Our choice is based on regular research on
eBay and noting current buying and pricing
trends for items we each enjoy buying.
We know auction is the best way to determine
the full extent of how much people might pay
for an item; some might pay £3100 or more for
something that's cost us just a few pounds.
So Auction is the first listing option for
all of our items on eBay. We set the
starting price at twice the amount we paid
(we don't want to work for nothing).
If the item goes unsold first time out, we
list it again, this time for auction with a
Buy-It-Now option which is the same or
slightly above the auction starting price.
We work on the theory that, whatever we paid
for the item (assuming we are realistic
about whatever we buy), there will be two
people somewhere in this big world who want
the item and are prepared to pay double
whatever price we paid. This Buy-It-Now
option creates a sense of urgency to buy, to
get the product right away, to avoid someone
else beating us to it.
If the item still doesn't sell, it goes into
the Shop (at three times the price we paid
for it) where it's offered for immediate
purchase with a Best Offer option. It can
stay in the shop for months for less than £31
overall, and we've found that almost one
hundred per cent of our products do
eventually sell at twice our investment and
usually more.
The trick is to consider Best Offers more
seriously the longer the item remains
unsold. In the first few weeks, decline all
offers below twice the price you paid,
meaning you'll always be generating 100%
profit before expenses. When an item has
been in the shop for three months and still
remains unsold, either sell to the first
Best Offer that covers your buying and
listing expenses or remove it from sale and
list it again in a few months time.
Believe me, it works for us every time.
Happy eBaying!
Until Next Time,
Avril
***
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***
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***
Four Ways of Staying In Touch with eBay on
the Move by Mark Kenny
***
Whether you're addicted to eBay, running a
full time eBay business, or just watching an
item, sometimes you need to access eBay when
you're away from your computer. With mobile
phones, containing more and more features
every year - it's never been easier to use
eBay or keep in touch with what's happening
on eBay from a mobile phone.
This article contains four methods, which I
regularly use to keep up to date with my
eBay sales and bids. By using these, I'm no
longer obliged to have a pc accessable 24/7.
1 - SMS Alerts
Some eBay sites offer sms alerts from eBay
mobile. This allows you to sign up for
alerts such as outbid notices, end of
auction notices, as well as win and lose
alerts. SMS Alerts from eBay are currently
charged at 25p each alert received.
2 - Gmail
Gmail for mobiles, is another application
for mobiles which logs into your gmail
account and retrieves your emails to your
phone. It makes it easy to send and receive
emails without having the latest Smart
phone. If you set your eBay email address to
a gmail account, and turn on all email
notifications (such as outbidding notices,
sale notices) then the latest status of your
eBay activities is only in your pocket.
3 - WAP
The majority of phones have WAP available to
them, and this is an ideal way to track your
eBay activities. eBay has a mobile site at
wap.eBay.com, or in the UK a dedicated
mobile service at: eBaymobile.co.uk where
you can log in and track your bids or sales
within My eBay.
Using wap.eBay.com is the same as using
www.eBay.com, so even if you're not
registered on eBay.com but rather
eBay.com.au you should still be able to
track your activities with ease.
4 - Qicture
For Sellers Qicture is one of the best ways
of keeping on top of your eBay activities.
Qicture is a free downloadable application
to mobile phones, which logs into your eBay
account and retrieves information such as
sales.
As an eBay approved developer, it's pretty
safe and you also need to enter a 'pin' on
your phone to log into the application.
Qicture is currently downloadable free at:
If you're planning to try any of the above
methods, it's pretty much essential to try
them before you need to depend on them. I
once relied on the wap method, to bid on an
item last minute and found my phone could
not display the confirmation page. This
resulted in my bid not being accepted and I
lost out on the item, so make sure you don't
make the same mistake.
Overall, these methods are very reliable.
Join http://www.AuctionCUT.com - the online
auctions and ebay forum. Come and discuss
your eBay or online auction goals, with Mark
and other members.
AuctionCUT offers adrevenue sharing for
members and an exclusive dropshipping
report.
***
Tips For Writing Killer Ebay Auction Titles
by R. Heavner
***
Unless you have an incredibly compelling
gallery photo or are selling Ipods for
$9.95, your auction title is what motivates
your potential buyer to visit your listing.
You are allowed 55 characters including
spaces for your eBay title. Use them wisely.
A few tips:
1. Think about the search terms your buyer
would use when looking for your item and
develop keywords relating to them.
2. Your keywords should be placed at or near
the beginning of your title.
eBay's search engine is weighed more heavily
toward the first half of the title and you
want the first words a buyer sees to
correspond to their search term.
3. It may seem obvious, but don't forget to
tell your buyers exactly what you are
selling. The term Nikon D80 will come up in
a search for Nikon and attract the attention
of someone searching for specific item.
Nikon D80 SLR Digital Camera will come up in
searches for SLR, digital, and camera as
well as combinations of those words.
4. When you've covered the keywords, then
add item extras and additional features as
space permits. The example above may now
read: Nikon D80 Digital SLR Camera, Body
Only. The point here is to give your buyer
as much information as possible.
5. Any title real estate remaining may be
devoted to incentives, acronyms, or
descriptive selling points. (free shipping,
like new, NIB, etc) An example of the
finished title for our camera may now read
something like:
Nikon D80 Digital Camera, Body Only, NIB
free shipping
You have just used 54 characters and told
the buyer exactly what they can expect to
find in your auction.
6. Absolutely avoid any cute gimmicks and
wordplays like LQQK, GR8, or !!!!!! to
attract attention to your title. Nobody
searches for those things and you are simply
wasting space and appearing amateurish.
7. Carefully check your spelling. eBay's
search does not correct misspelled words.
8. Consider using the bold option to attract
particular attention to more expensive or
high demand items. eBay charges a fee of
$1.00 for this option.
Another option is a subtitle which allows
more information about your auction to be
displayed.
9. Avoid keyword spamming. Your title must
directly describe the item listed, and eBay
will remove your auction if it is decided
you are in violation. Carefully review the
eBay policy if you have any concerns that
your title may be construed as keyword
spamming.
Writing a good title is not an art, but it
can take some practice. If you sell a lot of
similar items try different keyword
positions and determine which pulls the most
traffic / bids. It is easy to take writing
an auction title lightly - however it is
likely the only opportunity you get to
attract targeted buyers The author is
webmaster of www.auction-lynx.com and
Internet Auction Directory. For more eBay
auction tips visit our blog at sell-it-on-
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