Auction Ebay - Ebay Tips, Ebay Alternatives

BidsTick Best Rated Penny Auction

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1. Before selling on Ebay, try it for yourself first.

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Get acquainted with the buying and selling on ebay, get to know how the eBay marketplace operates.

Why is this important you may ask? After a few shopping spree's on eBay, you will surely know better on what your potential buyers will look for in a seller. You will be able to answer question's like, “Why would I choose this seller?” and "How can I trust what is ordered, will be what is delivered".

2. Learn by doing

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Just like riding a bike, selling on Ebay becomes easier the more that you do it. So after a few buying experiences, it's time to start selling. It’s going to be a rough ride from the onset, but the more you read the help files and forums the more experience you will gain and the smoother it will become.An added bonus for anyone who is not familiar, with auction style buying and selling, trying your hand on selling opens your mind to a whole new perspective in buying which makes you a much smarter buyer in general.

3. Know the Market

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Selling the latest thing that comes out of the Apple store might look sophisticated and trendy enough to actually bring in the cash however, keep in mind that selling such highly speculated products is something a lot of other eBay sellers have already been doing for years now so if you expect to just simply put up your own eBay store and think your going to take away their piece of the pie, you better think again.
Although highly valueable products like the example given above can bring in serious cash for some people, newcomers are even lucky to get a mere speck of the market that eBay power sellers(some are multi-million dollar brick and mortar stores themselves)

So what should you sell on eBay then to bring in some serious profits? Start small by selling unwanted used items. This way, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain especially the much needed eBay selling experience besides the clearing up of your stock room.Once you get a hang of selling, then you might want to sell a variety of things. Items that are not really infested with existing eBay power sellers selling them already. These things are what you call niche items. The best way to search the niche merchandise that suits you is to think of the things that you are interested in. If you sell something that you are extremely familiar with, say something related to a life-long hobby of yours, then your sales pitch will come naturally and other people with the same interest will know right away that you know what you are talking about therefore making you an established expert in your chosen niche. After awhile, you will no doubt notice more profits coming in and you will have more room to explore more niches.

4.Take time to check the actual listings on eBay

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http://listings.eBay.com and familiarize yourself with all the categories and subcategories of everything that is listed and is being sold on the eBay market.

Be aware that the numbers on parenthesis reflect the number of actual auctions for that specific category and subcategory thereafter. This means that the higher the number, the more activity an item has – meaning buying and selling action.

5. Make your auctions audible to generate more sales

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One way of setting your auctions apart from your competitors is by adding more life into them through audio and video. You might think that a voice in your auctions is insignificant but believe me, it will get you more purchases guaranteed. This is how powerful a human voice can be especially in such a relatively inhuman market place.

There are numerous software products online to be able to assist you with putting a talking salesman in your auctions.

6.Get a hold of your own sales tax number

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If you want to be a profitable reseller, you will be dealing with a lot of wholesale companies and these most, if not all, wholesalers require a sales tax number from you. If you think you can get away without this, then you are not planning to be a great eBay seller in the long run.

You can get a hold of this by contacting your sales tax authority in your designated state or county. Calling your local chamber of commerce should be a good start in getting the appropriate information that will ultimately land you your sales tax number.

7. Slowly build your reputation

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In eBay, being trustworthy and reputable is the first thing a buyer needs from a seller in order for the former to even take the time to get to know the latter’s products. In fact, being credible is even more important than your pricing strategy – even if you are selling something at an extremely lower price compared to others, if potential buyers do not trust you, they will not even care about your price.

Building your reputation on eBay takes time. The best way to do this is to slowly amass great feedback from every one of your buyers and presenting yourself as a subject matter expert in the niche of your choice. Adding a personal touch in your about me page by putting in an image will make you and your auctions more professional and reliable especially if given a voice for shoppers to hear.

8.Make the best of your auction headline and item description

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Treat your auctions headline as your main advertising vehicle and your item description is your eager-to-please salesperson waiting for everyone who got hooked by your advertisement.

So, what to do with your headline? Make it as catchy and hot on the eyes as possible without misleading shoppers – misleading shoppers might get your auctions the page views that you want however, views alone do not bring in the cash so you need shoppers to actually make the purchase. Use words like Cheap, Rare, Top of the line, and what have you instead of just simply putting in “good item” on it.

Your item description is where a lot of your copy writing skills come into play. It is where the magic of being able to put your product in the best possible light amidst its competitors. This is where you hopefully close an actual sale after hooking hundreds of shoppers with the use of your title.

And remember, both of these elements have unlimited potential to get you the sales you need on eBay, best of all, both of these are at your disposal FOR FREE.

9.Keywords, keywords, and more keywords

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Why choose the appropriate keywords in your auction headline and description? The answer is simple. Numbers do not lie bidders on eBay end up in an auction by using the site’s search function much like a person searching on any internet search engine.

As a seller, part of your job is to think which magical words might come to a readers mind when searching for whatever product that you are putting on auction. Once you get that sorted out, make sure those keywords end up in the 55 character limit headline of your auction otherwise all the thinking you have put into them is worthless.

Lastly, make decisive use of the 55 character limit for your auction headline/title in order for your auction to get the hits it deserves.

10. Make sure you stand behind your products and services

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This can be done by simply providing a money-back guarantee or a mere satisfaction guarantee will surely go a long way to the impressions of your potential bidders. Doing this automatically adds the much needed credibility factor that you need as a seller on eBay.

Keep in mind that there are of course items that need not have this like say, a house and lot. Nobody wants to have a house and lot returned and nobody buys them to return them either. Will doing so cost you? Yes it will SOMETIMES but, you have my guarantee that the benefits will definitely outweigh the disadvantages.

11.Make sure to get an eBay Store

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The main reason to set-up an eBay Store is its value. The listing fees associated with your products being listed in an eBay store are far lesser compared to the listing fees associated with an auction. This is where you should stock your slow moving items and this is also a great place to stretch your marketing muscles with. How? By a hundred and one ways with putting clickable links on your emails and auctions being among the top on that list.

Another great reason to put up an eBay store is this, the product listings on it can be found using internet search engines such as Google. Best of all, if someone finds his/her way to your store from search engines and actually makes a purchase, you get to save 75% of the final value fee that eBay charges. How can cool is that?

12. Short and more is actually a good thing in auctions

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Auctions that are ending the soonest get to be seen more because eBay puts them on top of search results. This best works for items that are in great quantity because you get to sell more often and that is exactly what a store needs in order to keep capital turning.

Sure you will end up spending a lot more on listing fees but the sheer number of closed sales should be more than enough to cover this up.

13. Have your own PayPal Shop (I don’t think this is still available)

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A PayPal shop conveniently provides your potential customers a link that leads to your eBay store or your website.

Another neat thing you get when you set-up a PayPal shop is a chance to get featured on PayPal’s site thereby skyrocketing your hits in that single day of fame since PayPal has millions of users checking out shops that run their payment system. You would not want to miss this above anything else in the world.

14.Take advantage of email signatures

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Simply putting a clickable link going to your eBay store on your email signature is already a great way of spreading the word about your business. For the convenience of everyone you do correspondence with, make sure to write a short description of what your store is about.

15.Learn to automate your shipping

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Automating your shipping procedures will save you a lot of time especially when the time comes that you will be shipping a handful of orders a day. Thankfully, the US Postal Server and the United Parcel Service now have the capacity to assist you in doing exactly this to your eBay store. You can visit http://www.usps.gov

http://ups.com

16. Quickest way to get great feedback

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Start by selling something really cheap – as in a dollar cheap – and make sure to send them to their designated buyers as fast as you can. After sending out your reputation building items, take the time to post a great feedback to your buyers right away and send them emails telling them of what you have done and that returning the favor will be highly appreciated. Never forget to include a clickable link to the feedback post on your email for convenience as well.

Remember, these transactions are not meant to profit from them directly however, they will definitely turn a lot of sales in the future once you get great feedbacks under your name and store.

17.Getting FREE shipping supplies

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There are many brick and mortar establishments around that are constantly throwing away good quality boxes and bubble wraps and if you will just take the time to get in touch with them, I am certain they will be more than happy if you take away their trash.

One other thing to consider in terms of shipping supplies is this, if you use the USPS’ priority mail service, you get envelopes, a tape, and some boxes for free.

18. In selling expensive merchandise, get fraud insurance

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Be sure to have some kind of fraud insurance, like BuySafe, for your expensive products to give your buyers that extra confidence in the authenticity of what you are selling which in turn leads to higher closing bids.

19. In selling electronic products, offer a 3rd party warranty

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Electronic products are bound to break so buyers will always be more than happy to get a hold of an extended warranty for such items so as a seller, you can take on this opportunity to make some extra cash by selling a 3-party warranty like the ones that www.squaretrade.com provides.

20.Keep your customers happy

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The only way to become a reputable seller is to get as many positive feedback as possible and this can only be done by keeping ALL your customers happy through the following simple and free ways:

Be prompt in communicating – at least 12 hours turn around given the fact that we all can’t be in the same time zone all the time

A simple rule of thumb in customer service is to UNDER-promise yet you OVER-deliver and NEVER the other way around<

To facilitate the quick processing of payments and orders, make use of PayPal

We all want to be given presents so make your packaging something that will excite your buyers. Otherwise, make it professional at the very least.

Everyone loves surprises so if possible, give a freebie in every transaction. If you can afford it, one of your inexpensive products that might be of interest to your customer is the best surprise– who knows, your customers might even want to order more of those the next time around.

21.Keep yourself updated in the online auction world

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Being online means keeping up with the highly dynamic ins and outs of the online auction industry through news and resources that sites like Auction Bytes offer for free.

22.Try your hand on Google AdWords to drive more traffic

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^{Once you get to know eBay like the back of your hand, then you might want to try and explore other means of driving traffic to your auctions or eBay store. One of the most popular ways to be able to do this is to use Google’s AdWords advertising. As a note of caution, thread carefully with this powerful advertising tool because the potential cost can easily overshadow your potential sales.}

^{Why would you want to get more traffic again? Simply because of the 75% savings out of your store fee you get from eBay. To make things even more spicier, you can avail of eBay’s affiliate program and GET A COMMISSION if you get to drive a new eBay user to buy something.}

23.Learning basic HTML commands can go a long way

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^{Since eBay supports some basic HTML commands, it is best to take this into your advantage by using them on your titles and descriptions. You can use Google to get acquainted with some of these basic commands and you will find your auction titles and descriptions looking a lot better with such commands as <B> to make a word or phrase BOLD for emphasis.}

^{You can also visit}^{http://www.web-source.net/html_codes_chart.htm for some HTML codes that might be of use to your eBay store or auction.}

24.Add a touch of creativity to your auctions by using backgrounds

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^{We humans are visual beings so the better looking a store is, the better the sales for sure. Just keep in not to overdo this aspect of your auctions – the last thing you want is for your bidders/buyers to get lost amidst the complexities of your background.}

^{Knock yourself out through the almost 6,000 free backgrounds at}^{http://www.grsites.com/textures/.}