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103 best eBay tips of the year
publication date: Dec 20, 2007
eBay Confidential eZine
19th December 2007 Hi, It's coming up to Christmas and the New Year, both reasons I have made today's eZine a compilation of our very best eBay tips from recent years for you to read over the festive season and put into action immediately the New Year's hangover fades into oblivion. These and the remainder of 103 specially compiled tips are also available for you to download later. As for those tips, here they are, in no particular order: * Don't think if an item goes unsold on eBay first time round that nobody wants it. Many times I've had items that failed to attract even one visitor but achieved multiple bids and high profits on second or third appearance. eBay is a fast changing marketplace with new members appearing daily and many more categories to list previously unsold goods. See the next tip. * A more appropriate listing category might increase sales. For example, I had some World War One stereoviews which eBay's suggestion tool considered most appropriate for listing under 'Antiques and Art > Art > Photographs > Pre-1940', where I sold some, but not many of my 200 photographs. I relisted unsold items under 'Collectables > Militaria > World War 1' and lowered the price from £4 to £3. Almost all sold, many at £3, others up to £40 each. Magic! * Market your most likely best sellers outside of eBay. For example, I had a brass statue recently depicting a Greyhound, but not just any Greyhound. This one had won the revered Waterloo Cup in 1906. I listed it under Collectables > Animals > Dogs > Greyhound but visitors were few and the statue went unsold. I relisted it in the same category, but this time I wrote to editors of specialist Greyhound and Dog Racing magazines which I'm certain helped lift a simple 'Dog' statue into a much prized Racing collectible that sold for fifty pounds. (It cost me 10p at a flea market). * Look for anniversaries or other events which might inflate the price of your goods significantly, and list them close to the appropriate date. For example, an early autograph I had of Fay Wray, heroine of the film King Kong, had gone unsold over two listings, until she died recently, whereupon my third listing suddenly attracted dozens of bids and a cool £20 profit. * Be aware that it's just as easy (some say easier) to sell to people who have money as to others on tiny budgets. So rather than offer cheap items with tiny profit margins, go for big ticket items. You'll probably achieve fewer sales, but you won't work so hard and there'll be fewer communications to handle. Consider: computers, fine jewellery, designer clothing, original art, cars, motorbikes. But be careful and check listing fees before pressing the submit button. Some items, like cars and motorbikes cost more to list and could eat extensively from your profits. Check carefully or do as I did and promote a pair of cufflinks shaped like motorbikes under Motorbikes > Accessories, and realise later you paid £6 in that category compared to the 35p you'd have paid under 'Jewellery'. * Sell coals to Newcastle! Some items naturally attract more people in their country of origin, especially collectibles such as books about New York City or 'Arizona' printed souvenir china (they'll attract more interest on eBay.com), and others from Melbourne, Australia (best on eBay.com.au), and Berlin, Germany (ebay.de). In reality, really enthusiastic bidders check the entire eBay marketplace through the 'Search' facility on every eBay page, but you can never be sure, so consider your market for every new listing ('new' meaning untested items). Notice too that recently eBay limited the search for items listed in the UK and some other countries so as to stop those items appearing to US bidders and thereby protect American sellers. This has since been reversed, perhaps temporarily, so be sure to check market penetration before listing. * Spread your listings to maximise your audience: You can list each item under two categories to ensure a wider target audience. Imagine you own a car that once featured in a well-known television programme, like 'All Creatures Great and Small' or 'Coronation Street'. Do you list it under 'Cars' or 'Television Memorabilia'? The seasoned eBayer might use both categories in one listing. But if it doesn't sell, you've just lost money, more than if you'd chosen just one category. Two categories can work wonders, generating lots of bids and high realisations, but is normally best used with experience. So work at getting the first category right before expanding. * Use Feedback carefully. It goes without saying, don't give negative feedback to others without making thorough checks first. The other person could have suffered a bereavement, be ill, or in the middle of a two or three day power cut and that's the reason they haven't paid you! That other person could be dead! Be fair, be nice, do unto others... ! * Look for ideas in the strangest of places. We needed pictures of our new dog design cufflinks and wanted something special, with a luxury feel. We scan most of our products by placing them directly onto the scanner bed but find the scanner lid makes an unattractive backing for most items. We needed something different, colourful, a background to emphasise the quality of these lovely gold plated items. We tried velvet pads from jewellery boxes, plain paper, hankies, nothing worked. Then we tried M & S silk lilac undies, they worked a treat. The lilac looked wonderful against the gold and the silk wrapped delicately around the cufflinks without creasing. Better still, using that background for all of our jewellery lets regular customers spot ours among thousands of competing listings. * Don't write or price directly and indelibly onto delicate items. For example, write in ink on a stamp or book, append a price label onto a second hand toy, tie a tag onto a delicate necklace, and value drops drastically. * Do keep whatever you are selling as close to original state as possible. For example, leave toys in boxes, book with dustcovers, sets of postcards in original envelopes, records in original sleeves. * Do repair what you can without spoiling the item or reducing its value. Toys, jewellery and most household goods can be cleaned, clothing can be repaired or refashioned, marks can be removed from some pictures and prints. For rare items like paintings, postcards, stamps, consult an expert or leave it alone. * Do consider if something can be done to an item to increase perceived value and price and interest a wider audience. Prints from early magazines can be removed, cleaned, coloured and framed, for example, and modern dolls and toys can be touched up and combined into multi- item offerings. Stamps are another good example of items often worth little on their own, but sorted into themes, say space travel, Disney, Elvis Presley, bagged and priced low, can attract multiple bids. * Offer a free gift with your products. This helps cut competition where your listed product is available from numerous sources. The gift does not have to be expensive, but it should be unique. Useful examples include: a book you've written or compiled yourself; a gift certificate for a discount on other of your products; a key ring or other small novelty created especially for your business. * From second-hand buying sources like boot sales and flea markets look for multiple same-product items in need of repair or renovation. Few people want to repair items themselves so prices will invariably be low for damaged goods. Take the best parts from each item and create one or several perfect or near-perfect items to resell. We did this recently with a pair of Black Americana Money Boxes with movable parts. One box was dirty and paint badly damaged, with mechanical parts unaffected. The other was clean and unscratched but the moving bits were missing. With good bits from each matched and remodelled the money box made £40 pure profit. * Make a big thing of proving the authenticity ('provenance') of your products, by including historical details in your listing or as a separate document to go with the product. Or do both and you'll find words used inside your listing will attract greater search engine traffic, while the separate document buyers receive will increase perceived value of your product. * Be warned against fantastic eBay testimonials placed for various sellers and products. These testimonials might be fake and placed by sellers or their agents purely to induce confidence in their products which may not actually deserve the glowing accolade. * What to do if you under-price an item. If you make a mistake and price a product at £1 rather than £100 which someone buys before you realise your mistake, you do not have to part with the product. Under what is known in the UK as 'Invitation to Treat' the law holds that a contract is not formed when your buyer agrees to pay your price but when you actually take payment. Until you take payment the contract is still incomplete and you can withdraw your offer at any time. Some will say it isn't ethical, you could get negative feedback, but it's still good to know the law is on your side. Of course, like all legal rules and regulations, there are exceptions which you can learn more about at: http://www.sghlaw.com/it * Visit as many auctions as you can to learn how individual auction companies operate. There are good, bad and downright ugly auction houses. All auction houses are bound by national and local, sometimes international regulations, and all have their own independent rules detailing what they expect of bidders and buyers and what you can expect of them. Legally rules must be displayed somewhere prominent, in the auction catalogue, for example, or on a wall or notice board in the saleroom. Most companies combine national and company rules in one location. Read and make sure you understand what they mean and ask any questions before bidding. * Be on your guard against popular offline auction cons, such as pieces from one lot being exchanged for bits from another, after you have viewed and just before the auction begins. Be especially careful of large lots of collectibles, such as postcards and cigarette cards in albums or boxes, stamps, pieces of vintage jewellery, sets of toy soldiers. I've lost count of the number of times I've viewed postcards one day, bid and paid for them the next, and later discovered the real gems of the collection were missing. The cards have been moved to another box or album, originally containing low value cards which have been bought for next to nothing by the ruthless perpetrator. Check content before leaving and inform auction staff about irregularities. It's too late when you get home. The 'panic button' is a popular con, whereby, as you are bidding, probably against just one other person, someone will tap you on the shoulder and say something like: "Don't touch those ornaments, they're fakes'. In the time it takes you to realise what's going on, some other person will have had the lot marked down to him. He and his friends have got what they wanted, in more ways than one! Watch out for bids being 'taken off the wall', involving non-existent bidders. This rarely happens in reputable auction houses, incidentally. Taking bids off the wall means what it says, and sometimes there is no-one bidding against you but the price keeps going up, and up. A dishonest auctioneer is reading your face to see just how far he can. * Inside your listing, give viewers a reason to call back later if they are in a hurry now or not quite ready to bid. Ask them to visit your 'About Me' page for a free eBook or newsletter and be sure they give their email addresses for you to contact them later. You can also begin a mailing list for later sales outside of eBay. Remind them, too, to add you to their 'Favourite Sellers' list. * Choose keywords to describe your items and use them in the heading and body of your listings. People can choose to search according to heading (title) or by checking body text too, but few remember to check the box to include this second option. Most people will find your product by either going directly to category listings and clicking through to their appropriate sub-category or, most likely, by simply keying words to describe the item into eBay's search tool. This means if your title does not include those keywords your listing will be missed. Check what keywords are most common when people search for items like those you are listing by going to http://pulse.ebay.co.uk (or .com or other) and continue through the sub-categories until your product type appears. Now check the most commonly keyed search terms at the left of the screen. Alternatively, go to 'Advanced Search', top right of screen and on the next page use keywords to describe your item and tick the 'Completed Auctions' box. From the results choose 'Price: Highest First' to locate similar items, check the keywords used in the heading on which to model your own. Be careful not to breach eBay's stringent rules on 'Keyword Spamming'. * Avoid using too many bells and whistles in your listings. One that is guaranteed to make me move away really fast is the wizard that flits about the screen thanking me for visiting and generally getting in the way of everything I am trying to see. Music, flashing lights, moving conveyor belt pictures of other products available from the same seller have roughly the same effect, as do many other totally useless and generally hugely frustrating devices. ******************** I hope you enjoyed those tips, I hope even more that you will actually use them to grow your eBay business to hitherto unexpected profits. All that remains now is for me and everyone else at Canonbury Publishing to wish you and all of yours a very Merry Festive Season and a Profitable and Happy New Year. Download '103 PowerSeller Profit Tips' free at: http://www.avrilharper.com Merry Christmas! Avril ------------------------------ http://www.powerselleracademy ------------------------------ |
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