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Pay up or the dog gets it...

publication date: Aug 16, 2006
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*******
 - Editorial
 
 - Light Camera eBay - Taking
Pictures that Sell by ChrisMalta and
RobinCowie
 
 - How To Sell $20,000 Per Month On
eBay Selling At Wholesale Prices
by JorgeOlson
*******
 
***
Editorial
***
Hello,
 
If you thought the self-employed can't ever
go on strike, think again, because more
than 100 UK eBay sellers have today
grouped and taken action to protest against
eBay's recent price changes for shop listed
items.
 
I have to admit I took little notice of an
email informing me about these fee
changes, but it seems the problem stems
from eBay raising the percentage they take
from final shop sale prices, going from 5%
to 10%.
 
Other changes to how eBay's search
engines work which seem now to favour
eBay Express Shop owners over users of
traditional eBay Shops, are also causing
sellers in America and the UK to take
action against eBay.
 
In the UK more than 100 shop sellers have
gone on strike and literally closed shop for
the day, while our American counterparts
are lobbying Google to develop an auction
presence to rival eBay (see their open letter
to Google at
 
Rubbing salt into an open wound eBay says
they are not too bothered about the strike
action, alleging these 100 complainants are
just a tiny handful of thousands of people
registered as eBay sellers in the UK.
Whose side am I on? Well let me tell you
with reference to a trip to my vet yesterday
to pick up a repeat prescription for my
Boxer dog, Gregory, who takes fits and
without the prescription he'd surely die.
Handing over my £325, as I have every
month for almost two years, the
receptionist said: 'Sorry, the price has gone
up, it's £335 now, do you still want them?'
'Do I still want them?' Yes or no? The
alternatives are: say No and my dog dies,
say Yes and I can expect many more years
of love and enjoyment from him.
And in my opinion, the same goes for
eBay. Say No to the price increase and you
can go draw unemployment benefit or look
for a job working for someone else; say
Yes and you'll continue making money on
the Internet's biggest auction web site.
 
A number of blogs have commented on the
strike today and virtually all offer the exact
same piece of advice: Get Over It! eBay
offers what most people consider the least
expensive, highest profile selling market,
nothing compares to eBay on or off the
Internet. They strive continuously to
improve their service to buyers and sellers
and invariably they succeed with eBay
growing bigger and better every day.
 
There is no such thing as 'fixed costs' in
any business, except over the short term,
but you don't see high street shop owners
closing shop the minute the local council
increases rents or business rates, and you
don't see factories turning off machines
and shutting down when electricity costs
increase.
 
So let us look more positively at the recent
fee increase and bear in mind when the
going gets tough, the weak get going, and
that means less competition for people like
us with genuine entrepreneurial spirit.
 
Happy eBaying!
 
Avril
 
***
Light, Camera, eBay - Taking Pictures
That Sell by ChrisMalta and RobinCowie
Worth a Thousand Words
***
One of the biggest things you can do to
build potential eBay buyers' confidence is
to accent your listings with good, quality
photos. Shoppers may not believe
something just because you say it, but they
will believe it if they see it with their own
eyes. Showing them the condition of your
item is just as important as telling them
about it.
 
The Right Equipment
 
While it's not necessary to run out and buy
the fanciest camera, there are a few features
that can help you take pictures that let your
customers know precisely what they're
buying. These may be worth investing in:
 
* Macro Capability for Close-Ups. For
extremely large items - your Buick, for
example--a zoom feature that lets you
focus from 10 or 12 inches is sufficient.
But for smaller items, like jewelry or
stamps, where you need to capture details,
you should be able to focus from =BD an inch
to 2 inches away. If you focus from closer
than your camera's rated for, your pictures
won't turn out, so measure the distance
you're shooting.
 
* Aperture Priority (also called Aperture
Value). This allows you to control and
extend which parts of the photo - from
foreground to background - are in focus.
You may need to have more than one plane
in focus, such as the mount and the item
sitting on it. You should be able to check
the spec sheet or the manufacturer's
website to see if a camera has this feature.
Or you can go to http://DPReview.com,
and look in their camera section under the
brand and model specifications.
 
* Manual White-Balance. All light has
color - house lights, sunlight, reflector
lights, it doesn't matter. This color shows
up in photos, which is why you often see
pictures where everything seems to have a
green, red, or blue cast to it. A white
balance lets your camera read and adjust to
whatever light you're in, so your photos
give an accurate representation of your
item's appearance.
 
Shedding Some Light
 
Lighting your object well is essential to
having clear, detailed pictures. You don't
have to buy an expensive lighting kit,
reflectors, and soft-boxes. According to
DanielGrotta and SallyWeiner-Grotta,
contributing editors of PC Magazine and
authors of Shooting for Dollars--Simple
Photo Techniques for Greater eBay Profit,
you can set up your whole studio on a
shoestring budget. Says Grotta, "We set up
a studio in our laundry room for under
twenty dollars. It was just a background
cloth with two clamps and two reflector
lights that we bought in a hardware store."
 
Getting great pictures for your listings isn't
hard. Lighting your photos sounds very
complicated. But assures Weiner-Grotta,
"In essence all you have to do is flood an
[object] with light to make sure it's well-
illuminated... Just play around with placing
the lights at different angles, and see how
that affects things. After a day of
experimenting, you should have control
over it."
 
ChrisMalta and RobinCowie of
WorldwideBrands.com (learn more about
 
***
Sell $20,000 per month on eBay
by Jorge Olson
***
 
First of all let me tell you selling on eBay is
easy, but it takes time or money. eBay has
fees that you have to pay and if you want to
grow quickly you will spend a lot on fees
while you are learning.
 
My wife had an eBay business and she was
a Gold PowerSeller selling more than
$20,000 per month. She sold mostly
watches, lots and lots of watches. She sold
them wholesale, by the dozen or by the
case, 30 to 60 at a time. They were
inexpensive watches; we paid from $2.50
to $4.00 for each one and sold them from
$3.50 to $12.00 depending on the quantity
purchased.
 
When selling on eBay there are several
tricks. Let me tell you the tricks I think are
the most important.
 
Trick #1: Build your reviews. Your
reviews are your lifeline on eBay. You
need to build your reviews so people trust
you and want to do business with you. If
they don't trust you, you won't sell
anything on eBay. When you start you will
have to offer good deals, free shipping or
great communication. I always encouraged
people to call me on the phone and ask
questions by posting my phone in every
listing. I didn't get a lot of calls but I did
get a lot of reviews.
 
Trick #2: Make big margins. You need
those margins. You can't buy something
for $10 and sell it at $12, not even at $15.
The listing fees alone will eat you.
Remember, you have to pay a listing fee,
you have to pay a fee if you sell the product
and on top of that you pay PayPal when
you collect the money. You could easily
pay up to 10% or more of your selling
price. This could be your entire profit. If
you use any special listings to showcase
your product you could be looking at $20
extra per listing category. So again, don't
try to make it on volume, try to make it on
big margins. The best things to sell are
either unique items or collectibles, name
brand items that people are looking for like
iPods, or hard to find items or imports.
 
The funny thing is we only sold wholesale
on eBay. And it seemed we were the only
ones really selling wholesale. Most people
selling at 'wholesale prices' were selling at
about 3 times what we could get any of
their items.
 
Many of our customers had eBay stores,
others had convenience stores or gift stores,
many of them had other businesses and
wanted giveaways for their customers.
 
This is only a small example of what you
can do with Wholesale Distribution. And
believe me, it's not the most profitable one
or the easiest to start. But I have made
much more from my other wholesale
distribution businesses than what I made on
eBay and I worked less too.
 
JorgeOlson is a consultant, speaker and
entrepreneur and owns several Wholesale
Distribution companies. His latest
Weebsite teaches you step by step how to
get started and make money in Wholesale
Distribution. You can find it at
 
 
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