Ebay Selling As a Business - The Reality of It All Part I

August 12, 2008 at 6:28 pm · Filed under make moneys

As an eBay Powerseller, I have had a fair amount of experience selling on eBay. One thing I can tell you for certain- it can be quite a ride! Most of my customers (but unfortunately not all) have been extremely pleasant and honest to work with. That in and of itself makes the eBay experience well worth the time and effort you put in to it. I have met, virtually speaking, some very nice people and have had some wonderful conversations with an interesting variety of people from around the world. If you are looking for an opportunity to interact with some fascinating people, then selling on eBay may be well worth your time.

That being said, there have been many, many articles written about how to sell on eBay and how to make great amounts of money. The possibility does exist but it may not be as simple as some would suggest. You cannot just go to a wholesaler and buy a pallet load of dollar store or overstock items, resell them on eBay and expect to make a lot of money. It just won’t happen. First of all, it is very difficult to locate wholesalers with quality, name brand items who will be willing to work with you. Secondly, if you purchase off brand or slightly defective items, you won’t be able to sell them at a profit.

Now don’t be completely discouraged because there are things you can do to make money on eBay. There definitely are people who do. I will let you in on a couple of selling secrets. One, you need to sell name brand items,. People often search for items on eBay by the name brand and that is what they are most willing to buy. Second, don’t sell extremely low priced items. If you are selling an item that you can get $20 for and you paid $10 that may seem like a good profit. However, once you deduct eBay fees, PayPal fees, possible auction management fees, and your time, your profit is next to nothing. Then consider how many of these items you would have to sell and ship in order to make a decent amount of money. Yikes! The trick to solving this problem is to find a niche in higher cost items that you are able to purchase at lower prices and leave yourself a considerable profit margin. You will need to do a bit of research to determine what your niche should be but this is an important step in developing your eBay business. We will discuss some ways to do research in future articles, but for now consider the areas you have the greatest interest or knowledge in as a starting point.

Finally, if you are going to sell on eBay as a business, make it a true business. Take it seriously and set up your business structure and your bookkeeping as you would any other business. You can find more information on this topic on our website, Inc to Wealth. Come back and check our future articles in this series for more information on the eBay experience.

Happy selling!

Karen Grant is CEO of Divine Finds, Inc. and has written the book “Incorporate Your Way to Wealth” which is included as part of the company’s business start-up package for eBay and internet entrepreneurs. This package is currently available at http://www.inctowealth.com She has also developed several websites, the latest being http://www.FindMoreFacts.com an informational website for home decorating, remodeling, and organization and small business resources.

Share This

Comments

How Do Sellers Get Paid On Ebay

August 11, 2008 at 3:09 am · Filed under make moneys

Today, eBay is considered to be one of the most lucrative auction sites available in the Internet.

However, selling on eBay is not that easy, and the very first thing a seller should do is to find the ways on how he or she will get paid once the item is sold. And so, here are the different ways how a seller can be paid:

1. PayPal

PayPal is the most common and convenient way of sending and receiving money based on an eBay transaction. Here, the payment for the sold item is sent directly to the seller by means of an established bank account or a credit card.

2. Personal Check or Cashier’s Check

Sellers may choose this kind of option. However, the drawback of using this kind of payment method is that the seller still has to wait for a number of banking days before the check gets cleared.

3. Credit Cards

Sellers must have a merchant account to be able to accept payments from its buyers through credit cards. This is applicable only if the buyer will be paying directly to the seller. If the buyer still wants to use credit card but wants a safer transaction, he or she may opt to pay the seller through PayPal with the use of the credit card.

4. Bank to bank wire transfers

In this type of payment, the seller can be paid through a bank-to-bank transaction. Here, the buyer will transfer funds from his or her bank account to the seller’s bank account.

5. Money Orders/Bid pay

This is one of the recommended payment methods of eBay. This is considered safe because the seller or the buyer can track down the mailing address of the concerned person.

6. Escrow

This is strongly suggested for high-priced item transactions. The escrow service guarantees full protection while the transaction is not yet closed. Through this service, the seller has to wait for the confirmation that the buyer had received the product before receiving payment.

However, sellers and buyers should take extra precautions on dealing with escrow services. There are a lot of counterfeit escrow services lurking on eBay these days. It’s best to check if the escrow service was approved by eBay.

8. Cash

Sellers on eBay may receive payments through cash. However, this is a high-risk activity and offers no guaranteed protection.

8. Instant Cash Wire Transfers like western Union and Money Grams

Sellers may opt for this type of payment method. But, they should keep in mind eBay is strongly against this mode of payment and that insisting this to the buyer may result to suspension or termination of account.

Dan Lim is an avid ebay fanatic who has been quietly earning a comfortable living online. For more ebay selling secrets and strategies, visit bestnzb.com

Share This

Comments

Do You Need To Sell Before You Profit From Ebay

July 31, 2008 at 9:07 pm · Filed under make moneys

Since ebay was started in 1995, it has helped ordinary people with no business skills to start an online business especially those who want to find a lucrative way of earning a living. A lot of people contend that it is only with eBay that they were able to make a full-time living working at home.

Recently CEO Meg Whitman publicly announced there were about 720,000 people making an full-time living from ebay. That’s half a million people!

But the question of the majority still remains. Do people really need to sell something first before they can profit from eBay?

The answer is, undeniably, yes! Here some facts about eBay to support the answer:

The nature of eBay is focused on one thing: ONLINE MARKETING.

The concept behind eBay is the fact that it is an auction website. Therefore, to gain profit in a site like eBay is to sell something. It involves monetary transactions and deals, a niche market, and strategies that can be commonly found in a typical market site.

Hence, a person that has no intentions of selling something on eBay does not actually have any business on eBay.

However, others may contend that buying a quality at the same time affordable product can also be considered as a profit. But nevertheless, taking a closer look at what profit really means, all of these boils down to the fact that whoever earns money benefits more.

Everything is a commodity.

Nowadays, everything seems to be a commodity, from mobile phones to even ideas. With an increasing rate on financial crisis, everybody seems to be finding ways on how to earn a living. This goes to show why there are people who sell even the weirdest thing on eBay.

Some may assert that these things may not be true at all. But the question is, what if it is, indeed, true? What if there is really somebody out there who is in dire need of money and that there is nothing that he or she can trade but his or her own virginity? Actually, i did see a listing on this once but it was pulled from the category pretty quickly.

These things may seem like too nuisance and may seem cheaper than what they had bargain for, but when necessities butts in, it’s down to a now or never battle in life.

Indeed, the realities of life are clearly manifested on the kind of transactions that goes on in eBay. In fact, what eBay has on its context is the same as what goes on in real life. Like eBay, life is like an auction, there are those who win and there are those who lose.

Dan Lim is an avid ebay fanatic who has been quietly earning a comfortable living online. For more ebay selling secrets and strategies, visit bestnzb.com

Share This

Comments