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October 31, 2005
eBay Bid Withdrawal
When and How to Withdraw Your eBay Bid (and Why You Might Not Want To).
eBay are a little strict about letting you withdraw your bid. They call it a ‘bid retraction’, and have a stringent set of conditions that you must meet before you are allowed to do it. Here are eBay’s three acceptable reasons for withdrawing a bid.
You made a typographical error: This means that you accidentally typed the wrong amount into the bid box, bidding a far higher price than you meant to. This can be scary: imagine bidding $100 and accidentally adding an extra ‘0’! You are entirely allowed to withdraw your bid in this situation, and bid again if you want to.
The item’s description changed: If you bid on something and then the seller updates the description, you have the right to withdraw your bid. It wouldn’t be fair, after all, to force you to take something that you now realise you don’t want.
The seller is uncontactable: If emails to the seller bounce and they don’t answer their phone, then the auction obviously can’t continue, and you can cancel it.
So How Do I Retract My Bid?
eBay hide away the bid retraction form a bit, because they don’t like people using it. You can find it by going here: http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?RetractBidShow.
Now all you need is the item number from your auction: this can be found on the item description page’s top right corner. If you can’t see it on the page, look in your browser’s title bar, and in any emails eBay have sent you about your bid on the item. Choose one of the three allowed reasons, click ‘retract bid’, and you’re done.
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Are There Any Consequences?
Well yes, there are. The more unethical among you might have considered that you could just cancel bids anytime you feel like it by saying that you accidentally entered the wrong amount. eBay are one step ahead of you. Each time you retract a bid, it is counted on your feedback page for all to see – and anyone with a lot of retracted bids looks more than a little dodgy. eBay also say that abusing the bid retraction feature could get you banned.
So is there a way to retract your bid without facing a penalty? There is if your seller is nice, and most are. Sellers can cancel bids on their auctions at any time, and if you email them with a half-decent excuse then most will be more than happy to do this for you. After all, it’s not in their interest for their item to go to someone who won’t like it, as you might leave negative feedback.
Of course, retracting your bid should still be a rare thing: you won’t win auctions that way! If you’ve followed us this far, the chances are you’ve won an auction by now, or you’re close – but you might be a little puzzled about what to do next. Our next email will give you a few pointers.
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Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.
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Posted by auction at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2005
eBay Auction Buyer’s Tips and Tricks
eBay isn’t just an auction and a marketplace: often it can feel quite a lot like a game. Like any game, you can get ahead if you think strategically, using your head to outwit the other buyers and get the best price. Here are a few things you can try.
Shop in the Summer.
This is simple, but effective. Summer is the quiet season on eBay – almost everything sells for less. While everyone else is out enjoying the sun, invest a little time to find some real bargains.
Beat Them by a Few Cents.
Outbid people by a few cents instead of a few dollars – if they don’t check back before the auction ends, then you will be the winner. To avoid people using this tactic on you, though, always bid strange, hard-to-guess amounts instead of round numbers.
Play Dirty.
If you know when the auction ends, you can get in there at the very last second and outbid your rivals. The chances are that they won’t have the time to sit in front of the auction waiting for it to end – as a rule, he who stays wins. If someone else does retaliate at the end of the auction, though, try not to get carried away in those last few seconds and end up paying too much!
Take Risks.
This is a strategy for the braver eBay buyer. All of the advice you will see for eBay beginners tells you to buy items that have good pictures, clear descriptions, trustworthy sellers and all the rest. If you’re brave, why not take a risk and do the exact opposite?
Many buyers won’t want that item from the seller with a feedback rating of 5, no picture and a one-line description. If you take a calculated risk and bid anyway, you might be able to make a tiny bid and win by default. There are people on eBay who make their living from winning auctions like these, taking good pictures of the item, writing a good description and then reselling it at a huge profit. Be careful, though: do this for long enough, and you will inevitably lose your money at some point. It’s especially unwise to try it with very high-value items.
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Avoid Bidding Wars.
There are few things on eBay that are so rare that you’ll only see them once and never again. There are usually quite a few sellers who have an item. What’s more, they will generally have more than one to sell, even if they haven’t listed them all at once. Always check your seller’s history to see whether they sell your item all the time – and if they do, then wait for the next one instead of bidding to the skies.
Now, there may come a time in your eBay life when you realise that you’ve screwed up your bid, and you wish there was an ‘undo’ button. Here’s the good news for you: there is! The next email will be all about withdrawing your eBay bids.
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Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.
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Posted by auction at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2005
eBay marketplace fraud: How to fight it!
Did you realize that online auctions tops the National Consumer League's list of scams perpetrated online? Although the ebay marketplace has a wonderful track record of 99% honest transactions, you still need to be savvy to the sort of criminal activity that does happen within the ebay marketplace and stay clear of fraud from both an ebay seller and ebay buyers.
Below is a list of the top three offenses that happen within the ebay marketplace community.
1. Bid Shielding: This is when a pre-organized group of ebay bidders enter the ebay marketplace and team up to bid on a particular item, thus inflating the high bid to scare off real shoppers. At this point the lowest bidder (member of the scam) then has everyone else retract their bid and comes out winning the auction at at a dishonest low price. If you sense that bid shielding is going on within the ebay marketplace then report them immediately.
2. Descriptions are are totally misleading or photos that are obviously fake: This is an ebay marketplace sellers scam where the auctioneers falsely and unethically distort the description of the products they are selling. This criminal seller within the ebay marketplace will go as low as stealing photos from online and totally create a false product presentation. And when the buyer receives the shipment it is always a lesser classed product then was bought that does not match the auction.
3. Shilling of the Bids: This scam is perpetrated by the sellers of the ebay marketplace and is something that is hard to catch unless you were closely following the seller in question. Simply put, bid shilling is when a seller auctions off a product on the ebay marketplace and actually raises the bids himself in order to draw attention to it and have the price raised. How does one do this? They use multiple Ids or the enlist other separate bidders to enter the ebay marketplace and team up on the scam.
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Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.
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Posted by auction at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
How to Use eBay's "Featured Gallery" Section
The 'featured gallery' is a little-known and little-used eBay feature, but that's part of its power: it is far more used by buyers than it is by sellers, which means you can pick up some new buyers by advertising there.
Basically, the featured gallery works a lot like 'Featured Plus' for normal listings, which shows your item before all the other results. Buying a 'Featured Gallery' listing shows your listing at the top when someone chooses to use the picture gallery instead of the list view.
Which Picture Gallery?
Exactly - you've probably got no idea what I'm talking about, since it's such a little-used and well-hidden feature. Try doing a search for an item. Do you see just above the results, where you can choose between 'List View' and 'Picture Gallery' (it's next to the options for sorting the results)? Click 'Picture Gallery'. A whole new world opens up before your eyes!
This feature is there for buyers who prefer to work visually instead of by title - and there are a surprising number of them, especially if your items are being sold for their visual appeal.
What Happens When I'm Featured?
Becoming featured in the gallery means that your item will be displayed above the other items in the picture gallery when any search there includes your item in the results. You might think this useless, considering how few people ever look at the picture gallery - but for the people who do look, you'll be right up there. You'll stand out even more, in fact, since so few sellers buy the featured gallery listings.
Not only that, but your picture will appear almost twice the size of the normal gallery listings below it. Your picture will be taking up a big part of the users' screen as soon as they get their results, and they can't avoid seeing it! For users with smaller screens, your picture could take up as much as a third of their display area.
Consider it targeted advertising towards buyers who prefer to work visually - if you want to attract that kind of buyer, you'll do well from the featured gallery. If you sell art then this will be absolutely ideal for you, especially for large, striking pieces. There are independent artists out there who've gone from no sales to bidding wars just by getting featured in the gallery.
So How Do I Get a Featured Gallery Listing?
Just tick the option when you're going through the Sell Your Item process. It costs $19.95 per item, so it's only really worth using on auctions where you think you'll make more than that back in the extra bids.
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Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network"reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.======================================
Posted by auction at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)
Top Ebay Business Secrets Revealed
Ten million-let me say that number again-over ten million people visited the Ebay website last month. With everything from online auctions to drop shipping opportunities, the Ebay business website has something for everyone. If you are thinking about joining in on the hysteria and trying to make your fortune with an Ebay business of your own, here are some of the best things you can do to maximize your chances for success.
Do Your Homework
To begin with, you want to know as much as possible about the items you plan on offering on the Ebay auctions. This not only helps you create more interesting descriptions, but it also helps when trying to answer the barrage of questions that inevitably fly at you from potential buyers. The more knowledgeable you appear, the more likely you are to make a sale!
You also need to know if there is actually a market out there for what you are planning to sell. While you might occasionally hear about some off-the-wall item commanding big money at auction, these are the exceptions and not something to base your Ebay business upon. Run a search on the item and see how many items for that keyword come up to get an idea about your potential market. Chances of success are poor if no one else is selling a similar item.
Keywords and Descriptions Will Make or Break You
People find their way to Ebay auctions by using keywords to find the items they want. Your listing will use keywords to draw people in to bid on your item. If you try employing a keyword that no one uses, then who will come to bid on your item?
There are websites out there that will allow you to type in a keyword and see how many people used that keyword in the past month. These sites are free and a great way to test the keyword you intend to use. Just go to any search engine and type in "free keyword selector tool" and a number of sites will come up offering help finding the perfect keyword to attract people to bid on your item.
Once you have the people coming in to look at your item you are going to need a great description in order to get them to actually bid. If you are not the best writer but are serious about succeeding with your Ebay business, you may want to consider hiring a freelance writer to compose stunning descriptions that will awe people into bidding on your item. But, by doing your homework, it is usually possible to write a great description simply by being knowledgeable about the item and simply conveying some of that knowledge in your description.
Post Items During "Hot Periods"
Anyone serious about succeeding with their Ebay business needs to know when to post items and when to hold onto them. Online auctions offering leather jackets in July may solicit a few bids but they will obviously be lower than they would be had the item been posted in late fall or early winter. If you have an odd item and are not sure what the best time would be to post it on Ebay auctions, try searching for the item on the Internet. Find out what the current buzz is or whether there is any for your item. Also, try finding other sellers on the Ebay business site offering the same item. If you find a lot of people selling the same item now, then clearly it is a good time to post. Timing can really make a difference in the final price you receive for your item.
Now there are of course other things you need to do if you want your Ebay business to succeed such as: post the item in the right category, make buying easy by offering a number of payment options, and keeping your shipping costs to a minimum. All of these are essentials to a successful Ebay business but are not likely to have the same effect upon your chances of success like the other ideas mentioned earlier.
There is no doubt that Ebay auctions are a great way to make some serious money. By doing your homework, using the right keywords and descriptions, and by posting during the hot periods for your items, you significantly increase the odds of your Ebay business succeeding and making all of your financial dreams a reality. So what are you waiting for?
Start doing your homework now!
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Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network"reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.
Posted by auction at 12:19 AM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2005
Doing Your Holiday Shopping on eBay
Most people do far more shopping in the holiday season than they do for the rest of the year – and now you know how to use eBay, why not do it there? If you know what kind of thing your friends and family like then eBay’s categories are ideal places to get ideas. Plus, you won’t have to fight your way through the holiday rush when you’re getting everything posted to you at home!
Buying Presents for People.
Here’s how I do it: think of the last thing the person you’re buying a present for bought for themselves. Type it into eBay’s search engine. Now take a look at which category it’s in, and click the link to look at everything in the category. Straight away, you have a huge list of things that they’re probably be happy to receive – and if you know them well, you should have no trouble picking through to find something really special.
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Look at Their eBay Histories.
If the people you’re buying presents for use eBay, and you know their eBay usernames, then you can take a look at what they’ve been buying to see what they might want. To look at a user’s history, just click ‘Advanced Search’ on the main page, then Find a Member on the left-hand menu. Type in their username and you should reach their user page, complete with all the item numbers of things they have bought. Just paste any item number into the eBay search box to see what the item was. That should give you a few ideas!
Shop in Advance.
It’s a bad idea to use eBay for your holiday shopping at the very last minute – prices will be high, and items might not turn up in time. Every year there’s a present that children want so much that all the shops sell out, and it starts appearing on eBay at a premium. Parents then pay hundreds of dollars and still don’t get one in time for the big day. Don’t fall into this trap.
Remember You’re in Silly Season.
The holiday season is peak time at eBay – loads of people are there, and they’re often inexperienced, bidding things up far higher than they should. Try not to end up paying far too much for an item just because it’s the last one that would turn up in time, or because everyone else is bidding too high. You should always know when to cut your losses, stop bidding and just go get something from the shop instead.
Have Fun!
Don’t take eBay too seriously – treat it like a game, and don’t be too disappointed if you lose. It can sometimes feel like gambling, but when you get that really rare and special thing in the post, it’s all worth it.
That’s it for our series of emails about buying on eBay: I hope you learned something, and good luck in your eBay future. By now, though, you might have started to think it would be interesting to try selling a few things on eBay yourself. Well, you’re not alone. Go ahead and sign up now for our emails about selling things on eBay. See you there!
IMPORTANT - Be sure to grab your free copy of the eBay Buyers Guide available free on the right side of this page!
Posted by auction at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2005
10 Tips for Being a Better Seller on eBay
If you’ve got this far, you’ve got the basics of eBay. There are a few things left, though, that you might not have thought of trying. Quite a few of these tips go against the advice many give for eBay selling – some are a little risky and some are just odd. They’re all worth a try, though, and I’m sure you’ll find at least some you want to keep using.
1. Keep more records. It might sound time consuming, but you’ll actually find it easier in the long run – less time spent trying to figure out which item that cheque you got this morning is for.
2. Post without payment. Don’t even wait for payment to clear! That might sound risky, but it’ll mean that the buyers get their items more quickly – for small items, you might find it worth the occasional loss to give such quick service.
3. Post every day. Once you start shifting a high volume of items, go and post them every day – again, they’ll get there more quickly, making your customers very happy. The best way to do this is if you have items small enough to drop in a postbox.
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Sidebar - Why not grab your free copy of the eBay Sellers
Guide available on the right side of this web page right now!
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4. Encourage an auction mentality. Don’t have a Buy it Now price, and make it very clear when it’s the last or only stock you’ll be getting in. Always refer to winning bidders as ‘winners’.
5. Mention every defect your item has. Now why would you do that, you might ask? The answer is that it builds credibility: the small hit you take from the slight flaws is nothing compared to the big boost in trust you get for admitting it. People bid more when they trust the seller.
6. Say how you got the item. Don’t be afraid to go off on a tangent and give all sorts of fun details of how you got hold of what you’re selling – it gives your auction character and, again, builds trust.
7. Accept odd payment methods. Sooner or later you’re going to get a buyer who wants to pay by sending cash in an envelope, or something equally unusual. Why not let them? Be flexible.
8. Don’t be afraid to sell low. Let the occasional item go for a really low price to a good buyer. You might only just break even on the item, but the person who got that bargain will be back again and again.
9. Give free shipping for a certain number of orders, or orders over a certain amount. People might buy something else they don’t want as much, just to get the free shipping. (Amazon use this strategy to great effect).
10. Ship worldwide. Take the time to investigate the prices, and be nice to international customers – imagine how much you’re expanding your market. That’s not to mention the effect of people bidding highly for items that are rare in their country.
Another way to make it easier is to be a better seller is to use some of the many third party eBay tools that are available. The next email will take a look at a selection of tools you might find useful.
Speaking of tools, check out this eBay resource I use daily.
Posted by auction at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2005
10 Sure-fire Ways to Kill Your eBay Business
It’s surprisingly easy to kill your eBay business, if you’re not careful – sure, you can start over from scratch without it costing you anything, but do you really want to? Still, if you want your business to end up dead in the water, here are some simple ways to do it.
1. Lie about an item: Say it works fine when it sometimes doesn’t work. Say it’s in perfect condition when it has a scratch. Your customers will hate you!
2. Post whenever you feel like it: Make sure to leave your customers hanging around, wondering when their item is going to turn up. This makes sure they buy from someone else next time.
3. Let items end anytime: Few people will be around to care about your auction if it ends in the middle of the night. Why go to the trouble of working out whether auctions will end at a good time?
4. Don’t bother with email: Customers are just timewasters anyway. eBay businesses are supposed to run themselves! Never give informed responses to questions about your item.
4. Sell rubbish: Really, it’s just eBay. You can just sell any old tat from the market for a 200% profit. Let quality be someone else’s concern – I mean, really, what do they expect for that price?
5. Refuse to give discounts: You know what your items cost, you know what your profit margin is going to be, and you’re not going to negotiate. Remember that giving customers special deals might make them feel good and come back to you again.
6. Make your listings ugly: As many colours, flashing lights and animations as possible will really give those customers a headache. Write as much in CAPITALS!!!! as you can. Preferably big, red capitals. Be sure to use the fonts Impact and Comic Sans. For an extra special touch, see if you can figure out a way to add some music.
7. Don’t take photos: It’s such trouble, after all. If buyers are picky enough to actually want to see items before they bid on them, then screw ‘em, that’s what I say.
8. Write short descriptions: Be as brief as possible, and use lots of mysterious abbreviations. This obviously makes you look very cool. You can even just write the title again in the description box. Think of the effort you’ll save!
9. Use reserve auctions: Now, this is a fairly controversial final choice, but it really is one of the best ways to scare away your customers. They’ll see ‘reserve not yet met’, and click that ‘back’ button before you know it. Luckily, they can always bid in a normal auction for the item somewhere else.
10. Now that you know the ten ways to kill your eBay business, how about we explore what to do if you want to do the opposite, and make a success of it? The next email will give you ten steps to successful selling on eBay.
Posted by auction at 07:07 AM | Comments (0)
October 08, 2005
10 Steps to Successful Selling on eBay
So you want to be a successful seller with your own eBay business, do you? Here’s a simple, ten-step path to eBay enlightenment.
Step 1: Identify your market. Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn’t out of the items you’re interested in. Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You’ll probably see the ‘sweet spots’ quite quickly – those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.
Step 2: Watch the eBay competition. Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are. Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them at their own game.
Step 3: Find a product: Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are – don’t be afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the eBay prices you’ve seen are higher than the supplier’s, then you’re set.
Step 4: Start small: Don’t throw thousands at your idea straight away – get started slowly, see what works and what doesn’t, and learn as you go. Remember that it’s very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay, and who knows, they might just work!
Step 5: Test and repeat. Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then don’t be ashamed to keep doing it, again and again. The chances are that you’ve just found a good niche.
Step 6: Work out a business plan: A business plan doesn’t need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you’ve spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for anyone else.
Step 7: Invest and expand: This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy inventory, and start spending more time on your business. Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.
Step 8: Make it official: Once you’ve made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don’t worry, it’s not expensive or hard to do – a lawyer is the best person to help you through the process.
Step 9: Automate: You’ll probably find that you’re writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.
Step 10: Never give up: Even when it looks like it’s all going wrong, don’t stop trying until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you’ll almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.
Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up eBay selling part time. But it’s not always as easy as that – there are all sorts of factors that you need to consider. The next email will weigh up the case for and against taking up eBay full-time.
Bill Enross
OnlineAuctionCode.com
Posted by auction at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2005
10 Great Ways to Source Low Cost Products for eBay
So you’re having trouble finding stock cheaply enough to sell on eBay for a good profit? Well, you’ve come to the right place.
Garage sales. The chances are you’ve gone most of your life seeing ads for these and ignoring them. Start going to as many as you can. You won’t find good things at every one, but when you find one person with good stuff, make them an offer for the lot – they’ll be so happy about it that you can get a real bargain.
Markets. If your area has a market, then go there and look around for anything good. You could buy it there if it’s cheap enough, or try to make friends with the market traders and find out who their suppliers are.
Pawn shops. Pawn shops don’t usually know what to do with the junk they accumulate (unless it’s jewellery, of course). Generally, they put their stock out on the shelves haphazardly, hoping that someday someone with a little money will just happen to come in, search around and buy wildly obscure things. Get them to offer you a discount for bulk.
Real auctions. Go to a real auction, as the chances are that you can resell things for more than they will sell them. After all, they only have a few hundred people in that room – you have a few million to sell to!
Local newspapers. Place an ad in the local paper that reads “I pay cash for [your item type]”, with your phone number. If you can afford it, make it a big display ad, so it’ll be noticed.
Ad boards. Get one of those little ads in the grocery store.
Friends. Ask your friends if they have anything they’d like to sell you, and ask them to spread the word to their friends.
Become known. Give out business cards, mention to people what you do. The chances are that you’ll come across someone who’ll say “Oh, really? I’ve got a load of [item] I don’t want”.
Shops. This might be a little surprising, but some real shops even sell things more cheaply than they sell on eBay. Take a look around your local deep discounter, and pay special attention to any shop that takes trade-ins from customers. The chances are they take a loss on trade-ins as a promotion, and are dying to get rid of that stock.
And finally: eBay! When you’re looking at the completed items view, you’ll notice the massive range of prices that items can sell for on eBay. Try taking the highest-priced item and searching for it on its own, then sort by lowest price first: I can almost guarantee that you’ll see an auction for the same item where it sold for almost nothing. The trick is to find these flawed auctions before they close, win them using a bid sniping service, and then turn around and resell the item.
After all that trouble, though, when do sell the item you might find that a buyer leaves you a feedback rating you just don’t think is fair. The next email will show you what to do about it.
Posted by auction at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
