Billion Dollar eBay Products
publication date: May 18, 2006
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-Editorial
-Billion Dollar eBay Products - They're More
Common Than You Think
by MarkBacak
-Coffee Makers and eBay are Perfectly Matched
by Carol Hansonly
-Distinguishing the Differences between Auctions
by HeatherColman
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Editorial
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Hi there,
I'm sorry that this eLetter didn't arrive yesterday
- I'm afraid there was a technical problem. Better
late that never I suppose! Anyway...
Welcome to another eLetter and articles to help you
continue your success on eBay. It seems things
have gone a little quiet for sellers on eBay, at least I
am experiencing a quiet time which I put down to
summer days keeping people away from their
computers for longer than is usual during the winter
months.
Summer actually causes a quiet time in lots of
businesses, certainly those operating online, whose
buyers have turned their thoughts to holidays and
spending time outdoors, meaning less time is spent
looking for products to buy on eBay.
But that's largely for mass market products, stuff
you can buy on the high street anyway, often at
lower than eBay prices.
The quiet time does not affect niche market
products, selling on or off the Internet, which brings
me to another special free guide I've just found for
our readers.
This week's freebie is a guide to making money
from Niche Markets both on and outside of eBay.
Send an email, subject, NICHE MARKETS to
mailto:avril@clippingsfactory.com and as soon
as I can I'll send the download details.
Happy eBaying!
Avril
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Billion Dollar eBay Products - They're More
Common Than You Think
by MarkBacak
*****
eBay does a massive amount of business on a global
level every day. Last year, in fact, eBay sold 38
billion dollars worth of goods and services.
Fourteen per cent of all transactions that take place
online are done via eBay's auctions. 45,000 people
buy products through eBay every day, and it's only
growing as eBay expands and enters new markets.
eBay provides a tremendous amount of opportunity
to all people of an entrepreneurial mindset.
So what are people buying on eBay?
The truth is that people are buying anything and
everything. Of source, there are some markets that
are more popular than others. The billion dollar
business takes place in the following categories:
- Clothing. In eBay land, an article of clothing sells
every three seconds. Much of this clothing is gently
used, bought on clearance, or has been sitting in a
closet for years. Power Sellers usually buy
wholesale and sell below retail.
- Electronics. This covers a lot of technology -
televisions, broken equipment for parts, outdated
computers. A digital camera sells every minute on
eBay - an important thing to know if you're
constantly upgrading your own technology at home.
- Collectibles. This is the niche lover's dream. Avid
collectors of antiques, artifacts, pop culture, and
even used dental equipment swarm to eBay to
compete over the next addition to their collection.
- Jewelry. People buy costume jewelry, handcrafted
jewelry, wedding bands, precious stones and
antiques. The profit margin is usually much better
than you will get at an estate sale or pawn shop.
- Sporting goods. Every day somebody throws in the
towel and gets rid of that unused ab cruncher,
weight bench, or boxing gloves. There always
seems to be somebody else that is eager to take that
sport or activity on themselves.
- Cars. This is the top grossing category on eBay by
far. eBay sells more cars in a morning than most car
dealers sell in a year. This is why many car dealers
are taking their hard-to-sell trade-ins and auctioning
them off on eBay. Other car sellers on eBay have
turned their fixer-upper mentality into a profit by
going to local government auctions, replacing parts,
and then auctioning the car off to the highest bidder.
No matter what you're selling on eBay, there is a
market for your product. These categories will give
you an idea of where the most common profits
come from, but don't think that you can't carve a
niche out in a different category. There is plenty of
room to develop, and test, new products on eBay
and find your own spot in the market. Just do your
research, be creative in your marketing, and make
sure your auctions have good descriptions and
accurate pictures. And if something isn't selling,
you can always change to a new category or change
your product lines. In many cases, you can actually
change your entire focus overnight! How many
offline retailers can do that?
MattBacak, Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio
show host became a '#1 Best Selling Author' in
just a few short hours and the co-author of an
amazing new ebook that will teach you how to
Retire From Your Job This Year and Still Make
More Money Than the Average Medical Doctor.
Read about it at
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Coffee Makers and eBay are Perfectly Matched
by Carol Hansonly.
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Coffee goods and the eBay auction website are well
suited to each other, with the technical assistance of
eBay you will find thousands upon thousands of
items that will help you enjoy the magical beverage.
You may be saying to yourself, why on earth would
you purchase used specialist coffee blends or glass
coffee pots? well quite simply hundreds of coffee
targeted goods are auctioned on eBay each day and
a large number of items such as stainless steel
coffee machines and coffee travel mugs are brand
new and untouched.
Locate a section which is relevant to beverage and
gourmet food and simply type in your particular
item or items of focus, Now here's the real solution
for picking up a bargain on eBay, Say you are
hunting for a Jamaican Coffee product don't just
type that into the eBay search field, try as many
coffee related searches as you can because someone
selling merchandise such as antique coffee spoons
or Coffee grinder blades may possibly have more
than just one coffee product on their merchandise
list.
A further great tips for sourcing coffee products or
related products on eBay is this, take note of
spelling errors, Just recently I acquired an automatic
coffee grinder for a discount price simply because I
used spelling mistakes when I made my initial
coffee searches with the eBay search tool. Masses
of coffee products are sold on eBay each month and
a great many of them have been advertised with
spelling mistakes, an individual could be selling
gourmet coffee beans or a trial coffee packs and
miss out single letter which means you may easily
be the only bidder searching for coffee products and
the only buyer to succeed with a winning purchase.
Another great reason for purchasing coffee items
and food and beverage merchandise on eBay is the
fact that a fair amount of unwanted coffee products
are placed there because of the financial
predicament of the soul selling them, a vintage
coffee table being auctioned for thirty 25% lower
than in the marketplace may not be as unusual as
you may think.
A coffee product might perhaps find its way onto
the eBay listings simply because it was purchased in
a government auction, you may possibly end up
purchasing whole lots to resell this way.
The Free Secret Coffee Makers report by Carol
Hansonly the author of this article. It can be found
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Distinguishing the Differences Between Auctions
by HeatherColman
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It seems like new information is discovered about
something every day. And the topic of auctions is
no exception. Keep reading to get the most current
auction information available.
Learn about the differences between various types
of auctions, on and offline.
English auction: This is what most people think of
as an auction. Participants bid openly against one
another, with each bid being higher than the
previous bid. The auction ends when no participant
is willing to bid further, or when a pre-determined
'buy-out' price is reached, at which point the
highest bidder pays the price. The seller may set a
'reserve' price and if the auctioneer fails to raise a
bid higher than this reserve the sale may not go
ahead.
Dutch auction: In the traditional Dutch auction the
auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is
lowered until some participant is willing to accept
the auctioneer's price, or a predetermined minimum
price is reached. That participant pays the last
announced price. This type of auction is convenient
when it is important to auction goods quickly, since
a sale never requires more than one bid.
The Dutch auction is named for its best known
example, the Dutch tulip auctions; in the
Netherlands this type of auction is actually known
as a 'Chinese auction'. 'Dutch auction' is also
sometimes used to describe online auctions where
several identical goods are sold simultaneously to
an equal number of high bidders. Economists call
the latter auction a multi-unit English ascending
auction.
Sealed High-Bid Auction: In this type of auction all
bidders simultaneously submit bids so that no
bidder knows the bid of any other participant. The
highest bidder pays the price they submitted.
Vickrey auction: Also known as the sealed second-
price auction. This is identical to the sealed high-bid
auction, except the winning bidder pays the second
highest bid rather than their own.
Silent auction: This is a sealed variant often used in
charity events, but involving the simultaneous sale
of multiple items. Participants submit bids normally
on paper, near the item. They may or may not know
how many other people are bidding or what their
bids are. The highest bidder pays the price they
submitted.
Procurement auction: This kind of auction reverses
the roles of seller and buyer. The buyer puts out an
RFQ for a given commodity and providers offer
progressively lower prices in hopes of getting the
business. At the end of the auction, the lowest bid
wins.
Digital art auction: In this indefinitely long auction,
designed for unreleased works that are trivially
reproducible at zero cost (recordings, software, drug
formulae), bidders openly submit their maximum
bids. The seller may review the bids and close with
a price of their choosing at any time. The successful
bidders that pay this price are those whose bid
meets or exceeds it.
Open outcry auction: This type of auction can refer
to any auction where the auction is conducted orally
for people to hear typically used in stock exchanges
and commodity exchanges, where trading occurs on
a trading floor and traders may enter verbal bids and
offers simultaneously. This type of auction is being
replaced by electronic trading platforms.
Unique bid auction: In this type of auction users
post blind bids and are given a range of prices they
can place a bid in, often a capped limit. The highest,
or lowest, unique bid wins. For instance an auction
is given a maximum bid of 10. If the top five bids
are 10, 10, 9, 8, 8 then 9 would be the winner being
the highest unique bid. This is a popular online type
of auction.
Buy-out auction: This auction has a predetermined
buy-out price in which the bidder can end the
auction by accepting the buy-out price. The buy-out
price is set by the seller. The bidder can choose to
bid or use the buy-out option. If no bidder chooses
to utilize the buy-out option, the auction ends with
the highest bidder winning the auction. You can
often find this type of auction on eBay.
Be sure you understand the type of auction you are
participating in before it starts. Sometimes mistakes
made at an auction can smart and be costly if you
don't know what you are doing.
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