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"I was doing a search for my favorite perfume. I found this one ending soonest. There was no bids with 1 day left. I left a high bid with my sniping program.
The title had several errors and did not come up in a search for this brand. I
was thrilled to get it at half of eBay's going price and a third of retail. A very good example of the importance of correct titles." Here is the listing:
Fatal errors:
1) Brand name not spelled out. The brand name is Thierry Mugler.
2) 3.4ozANGEL is squeezed together without spaces. You always want to put spaces between the words so the search engine can see them.
3) Shipping fee is high. Could easily be put into a flat rate mailer (wrapped in bubble wrap) and shipped for $4.95.
4) According to Hammertap, this product has a 67% sell through rate and sells for as much as $95 on eBay. Click here to see completed listings. Had this seller done a few small things differently and more thoroughly, she could have doubled her sale price. These situations are unfortunate for the seller, but good for sharp-eyed buyers.!
Thanks for sending that in, Deborah. This week I will be posting more seller success stories and eBay flips, so send yours in! After the new year, it will be eBay business as usual.
Do you enjoy this blog and find it helpful? Spread the word and help other sellers by sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, or other sites. Just use the SHARE bookmarklet below.
Happy Selling!
Find sloppy listings and resell the items for way more than you paid for them! Click here to see my personal examples.
"I was at a second hand store and picked up 3 new food saver canisters and jar sealer with hose for $3. I sold it with 3 food saver canisters that I just never use that I got in my food saver kit along with 2 square food saver containers that I had purchased for around $12. Auction ended at $73." Here is Amy's listing:
Do you enjoy this blog and find it helpful? Spread the word and help other sellers by sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, or other sites. Just use the SHARE bookmarklet below.
Happy Selling!
Want to know about more thrift store finds to sell on eBay? Check out Thrift Store Goldmine, which contains 61 pages of items just like this. You may already have some of these huge money makers in your house, and not even know they are valuable!
I earn money online doing many things besides selling on eBay, and I encourage you to do the same. Here is an update on my other internet ventures for the month of November.
eHow = $506.87 Examiner = $331.79 Clickbank = $330.16 Commission Junction = $260.63 My own eBooks = $155 Google Adsense = $130.22 Swagbucks = $62
Total: $1,776.67
1) Ehow. I finally broke the $500 mark on eHow. The key here is to do the keyword research before writing your articles. It is all about quality, not quantity. Click here to see my articles and you will notice that I only submit about 10 a month, and each takes about 15 minutes to write and submit. My earnings were $506 for about 2 and 1/2 hours worth of work in November. Click here to get started on eHow, or if you are already writing for them, how to increase your earnings.
2) The Examiner. $331 for November. Most of this is sum is from referrals. You can make $50 per referral to this site. Click here for instructions on how.
3) Clickbank, $324.84. I promote these products in a variety of ways including here on my blog, on Facebook, Twitter, on my eHow articles (in the resources section), and in my groups and forums. Click here to get a free eBook and learn how to get started on Clickbank.
4) Commission Junction, $260.63. Commission Junction pays you commissions based on leads, clicks, and sales according to what the advertisers pay. It is free to join. Click here to find out more about making money with Commission Junction.
5) My own eBooks, $155. I write them, you can too. Click here for information on how to write your own eBook to sell online. You can even add it to Amazon's Kindle and reach millions of people. Click here for the steps to get your eBook on Kindle.
6) Google Adsense, $130. This is on my blog. Get paid by Google for allowing them to place relevant ads on your blog or website. Totally passive income. Click here to learn more about Google AdSense.
6) Swagbucks. $75 in Starbucks gift cards I sold on eBay for $62 - practically zero effort. Click here to find out how to use Swagbucks.
So there you go. Just shy of $1,800 earned online, at home, from my chair and couch. Nothing to ship. No customers to worry about. Diversify and try some of these income opportunities. I am living proof that it can be done!
Do you enjoy this blog and find it helpful? Spread the word and help other sellers by sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, or other sites. Just use the SHARE bookmarklet below.
Consumable products are the ideal type of product to sell in any business, including eBay. Why?
1) Consumables run out and have to be replenished. 2) Consumable products create a stream of repeat customers. 3) Once type of consumable can lead to others in the same niche and are easy to cross sell.
Ok, so what are consumables? These are products that are used up by the customer and must be replenished on a regular basis. Some good examples include:
Vitamins and supplements Printer ink and cartridges Coffee Cosmetics Hair Care Products Diet and Weight Loss Products Gourmet Food Items Medicines
The key to an auto-pilot eBay business with consumables is having a reliable source for your product. You don't have to look far. Try warehouse clubs like Sams and Costco. These members clubs have different merchandise in different parts of the country. Yours may offer something that is not available everywhere in the nation, or the world. You can also try a wholesaler. Click here for a list of 395 eBay friendly wholesalers along with 5 important facts for choosing profitable wholesale products to sell on eBay.
I just wanted to share an eBay success story. I decided to start selling on eBay about one month ago, and so far it has been a really fun and rewarding experience. I have been able to make a profit from things just sitting around my house. I happened to listen to the podcast on antiques and I realized I had one of the items you mentioned right in my garage. Turns out this Texas Instruments Speak and Spell that we couldn't even sell at a garage sale for $5 about 2 months ago sold on ebay for $76!!!
I have been doing quite a bit of Christmas shopping on eBay and my packages are starting to arrive. I am shocked to see how many items I have received that do not have delivery confirmation or any type of tracking on them. Some of these items cost over $75.
I feel compelled to say {SHOUT}, "Always put Delivery Confirmation on your items!" 3 reasons.
1) If the customer inquires about their item, you can send the DC# and they can check the progress.
2) If the customer claims they did not receive the package, you can check the DC# on USPS.com and verify that is was delivered. If the customer files a claim, you will win if you have the DC#.
3)Dishonest eBay buyers have figured out the system. They know that if a seller ships an item without DC, it cannot be tracked. The buyer can file a claim for non-receipt and get their money back through Paypal - even if they really did receive the item. The seller will be out the merchandise and the package. In other words, there are rip-off artists on eBay waiting for you to send out something without tracking, so they can claim they didn't receive it.
eBay sellers, please please protect yourselves. Mail gets lost and there are dishonest people out there who know the system better than you do and they will take advantage of you. Spend a few extra cents per package and use Delivery Confirmation - it will save you time, money, and headaches.
If you do your shipping through Paypal, Delivery Confirmation will be included. If you use another shipping method, you can order DC forms here, or pick them up at your post office.
Here is a cool technique for finding niche products to sell on eBay or Amazon. Sell accessories or complimentary products that correspond with expensive popular products that are selling like crazy. For example, go to Walmart.com, Target.com, Amazon, and the eBay main page and look at the products they promote on their front page. For example, let's say you go to Target.com and see they are promoting a Garmin GPS tracking system. That tells you that GPS systems are hot. So you piggyback off of this product and look for accessories to sell - mounting systems, cases, chargers, cables, map updates. There will be a market for these products, too.
Then go into your research tool (Terapeak, Hammertap, completed listings, whatever one you use) and research what the accessories sell for. Next, you would go online and try to find a supplier for the product, and determine if you can buy the item at a low enough price to resell it for profit. A supplier could be a wholesaler, a closeout center, outlet store, membership club like Sam's or Costco, etc. This is the hard part - finding the product at a low enough price to resell for a profit.
Keep in mind that niche products will change over time, sometimes only a few months. For example, a few years ago, a VHS tape rewinder or cleaner might have been a hot niche product. But now, it would not be. Same holds true for analog cell phone accessories - nobody needs those now.
Try using this technique and see what you can uncover!
Happy Selling,
Click here for a list of 395 eBay friendly wholesalers along with 5 important facts for choosing profitable wholesale products to sell on eBay.
Thanks to Lisa for submitting this guest post. If you have considered selling anything homemade, give Etsy a try in addition to selling on eBay.
Etsy is a terrific venue if you sell handcrafted items or craft supplies because Etsy is limited to just those categories. You have the advantage of a very targeted audience!
The down-side – the competition is quite fierce. Exceptional photos, unique, high quality items and creative marketing are your keys to success.
Below you will find the “basics” for getting started on Etsy.
An Esty shop is free. Shop set-up is fairly straightforward and Etsy makes it even easier by walking you through the process.
Once you have set up your shop, you can begin listing items. There are no auctions on Etsy.
The cost to list an item is 20 cents. If you have multiple of the same item, the cost is 20 cents per item, not per listing. Your listing is active for 4 months.
When an item sells, Etsy’s take is 3.5% of the selling price.
Sellers can accept Paypal, checks, money orders and any other forms of payment the seller has access to.
Feedback on Etsy is similar to eBay with the only exception being that sellers can leave negative feedback for buyers.
You can market your listings several ways on Etsy. Some are free and others come at a cost. There is no seller email marketing available on Etsy which makes social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) extremely important marketing tools for Etsy sellers.
Billing on Etsy is monthly. Paying your bill is an easy manual process through Paypal. Etsy does not provide automatic withdrawal for bill payment.
Part One of How to Sell on Etsy should answer most of your basic questions and help you get started (etsy.com). Stay tuned for more details on marketing your Etsy shop and exciting tips and tricks for selling success in Part Two of How to Sell on Etsy.
If you would like to submit a guest post, follow these guidelines and send it to me at ebaycoach@yahoo.com.
Limit your post to 300 words. Topic must address selling online, eBay, or other helpful eCommerce tip. Include a link to your website, blog, eBay store, Etsy store, etc.
You may have heard me talk about selling gift cards on eBay. Here is my most recent sale of Starbucks gift cards, which I obtained FREE by using Swagbucks:
This is the strategy. Sign up at Swagbucks. You earn points for using their search engine. You don't have to use it exclusively, but just use it a few times a day.
Once you have 130 points, you can redeem a $10 Starbucks Gift Card. The Starbucks cards are the only ones on Swagbucks that are NOT e-Cards. In other words, you get an actual gift card in the mail in about a week. Every other gift card on Swagbucks must be redeemed online - such as at Target.com, Amazon.com, etc. And with e-Cards comes shipping fees on the merchandise you are getting free, so your "prize" can actually be eaten up paying for shipping. (I found this out the hard way.) The Starbucks card is is an actual physical card that you can sell on eBay.
I usually wait until I have a few and sell them as a batch. That reduces your listing fees, final value fees, and Paypal fees. And always use delivery confirmation when shipping a gift card, so you can prove that the item was delivered to the buyer.
Click here to sign up at Swagbucks and start earning points for Starbucks cards to keep or sell for cash on eBay!
I am a big believer in multiple streams of income. This one is easy. It cost me zero dollars to accumulate these gift cards, which I then sold on eBay and my profit after fees was $62.00. Not bad for something you can do without ever leaving your chair. So far this year, Swagbucks gift cards have helped me earn over $800 on eBay without doing more than creating a listing for a gift card and mailing it.
Do you like free stuff? Check out these articles on how to get more freebies you can resell on eBay or Amazon.
Thanks to Tara for sending in her success story on a North Face girls coat. Tara writes, "I sell everything and anything on eBay, lots of thrift store items, and this item happened to be one of them. The thrift store across the street from my work has tons of name brand items - and all their kids items (no matter what it is) are only $1! So when I found this girl's North Face jacket, I figured I'd at least make $10 on it. I took it home, OxiCleaned it to get all the stains out (which works WONDERS!) and see for yourself the final bidding price. keep in mind there was still a minor stain or two which I had listed. Honesty never hurts!"
Here is Tara's listing:
Tara's price: $1 Selling price: $51 Profit before fees: $50
Fantastic sale! Some related winter items to look for at thrift stores:
Check out my huge list of thrift store items to sell on eBay.
Want to know about more thrift store finds to sell on eBay? Check out Thrift Store Goldmine, which contains 61 pages of items just like this. You may already have some of these huge money makers in your house, and not even know they are valuable!
I stumbled on this one by accident. I had sold one of these a couple of years ago - found it in a thrift store for $1, new, had never been burned. It sold for about $20. I came across this one at Tuesday Morning marked down to $7. I actually bought it for myself because I liked the scent. Then I looked it up on eBay and found that it has been discontinued / retired and is selling for $30. So much for keeping it. Watch stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, and Tuesday Morning for this line of candles.
A fair return policy on eBay is critical for building your customer base. Having a fair return policy creates trust between you and your customers. How likely are you to buy something from a stranger on the internet without being able to return it if something isn't right or if you change your mind about it? If you sell on Amazon, you already know that Amazon requires all sellers to offer a 30 day return policy. (If you have not tried selling on Amazon, click here for a great guide that explains it.)
A fair refund policy allows refunds within 30 days. Research shows that the longer the return policy timeframe, the LESS likely customers are to use it. There is no sense of urgency. They forget about it, put the item on a table and it gets covered with other things, and they find it six months later. Consider extending your return policy to 30 days.
Accept returns for any reason, not just if the item is grossly misrepresented, as many eBay sellers state in their return policies. It really doesn't matter why the customer wants to return the item, if they aren't happy, you lose as a seller. The buyer gets the last word, even if they didn’t even read your policy. You are risking negative feedback and losing a customer who will never buy from you again.
Make it clear in your listing that the customer is responsible for paying return shipping fees, unless it is the seller's error. (You sent the wrong item, etc.)
If an item is returned, you can always re-list the item again. Refund the customer’s money, and then go to eBay and find the item in your archived listings. Relist the item with one click, and you are done. You can still get positive feedback from the first buyer, especially if you promptly process his refund and include a professional email thanking him for his business. Make the customer happy and get positive feedback.
Are you into estate sales? Or maybe you want to learn about estate sales, but have no idea where to start? Some people just love the thrill of the hunt and looking and all that old stuff. It can be fun.
AuctionZip is a cool website that provides information on local estate sales and live auctions. Just enter your zip code, and you will get a calendar like this: Then, click on the links on the calendar to find out where and when the auctions take place. It will look like this: Then, click on the auction you are interested, and you get all the details, including an inventory of what will be there. It looks like this: Now for the best part. Click on VIEW PHOTO GALLERY (if offered), and you can preview what is going to be up for sale. It looks like this:
So, for example, I see they have a lot of vintage books. I am not a book expert. I also see that they have some vintage gas station maps. I know about those - they can go for between $50 and $100 on eBay depending on the year and where they came from. This is where you will spend some time researching the items before you go to the estate sale to figure out what you should spend and how much you can sell the items for. I call this eBay recon (reconnaissance).Exploring in order to gain information. And you can do this from home. So check out AuctionZip.com to see what is happening in your area. You might find some real gems hiding out there.
The movie New Moon opens on Friday so this fun giveaway is just in time! The winner will receive the New Moon book and one tube of DuWop Lip Venom V. Lip Venom V is a shimmering crimson lip stain suspended in a venom-laced liquid lip conditioner with a super potent bite (watch out!), and contains argan, avocado, olive oils and vitamin E. Retail value of this giveaway is $27. Great gift for your favorite vampire or Twilight fan.
To enter, just leave a comment below. For extra entries, help me promote this giveaway by doing any of the following:
(Please remember to put an email address in your comment, or make sure it links to a place where I can easily find your email! I need a way to contact you if you win.)
Post on your blog Post on Twitter Post on Facebook Post on a forum or group (Facebook, Yahoo Groups, etc) Stumble this post Digg this post
Be sure to leave a comment for each extra that you do, and your email address so I can contact you if you win! Good luck!
I found Nicorette Commit Lozenges on clearance at Publix this morning while I was doing my grocery shopping. I ALWAYS check the clearance section no matter where I am, you never know what gems are hiding in there. The box of Nicorette Commit lozenges, Cappuccino, 72 count, 2 mg, was marked down to $12. Regular retail price is about $40. You may remember a post a while back aboutNicorette orange flavor gum that was discontinued and was a hot item for a while.
So here is the research. Whenever I find something like this, I check it out on Hammertap to see the sell through rate and average sale price. When I searched for the terms NICORETTE LOZENGE 72 CAPPUCCINO, I got these results:
Then, using Hammertap, you can go to this screen and see the actual listings:
Hammertap is a couple of days behind, because the data is extracted from eBay and sent over - it isn't like looking at completed listings that are up to the minute. So you always want to check completed listings, too. Here is listing for this exact item that ended yesterday, November 6:
Now you may ask, "How did you know to buy it?" I kind of already knew that the stop smoking products are expensive, and this seemed like it had been marked down quite a bit. I went up to customer service and asked if they could tell me what the regular price was, and they looked it up - regular retail is $44. I asked if this flavor had been discontinued, and they said they didn't know. The expiration date is 5/10, the package is sealed, so I took a chance. I will let you know how it goes, and please let me know if you find any or learn if this product is discontinued. If it is discontinued, it will probably be selling for much more in the future.
Julie's cost at a resale shop: $8
Want to know about more thrift store finds to sell on eBay? Check out Thrift Store Goldmine, which contains 61 pages of items just like this. You may already have some of these huge money makers in your house, and not even know they are valuable!
Here is a cool technique for finding niche products to sell on eBay or Amazon. Sell accessories or complimentary products that correspond with expensive popular products that are selling like crazy. For example, go to Walmart.com, Target.com, Amazon, and the eBay main page and look at the products they promote on their front page. For example, let's say you go to Target.com and see they are promoting a Garmin GPS tracking system. That tells you that GPS systems are hot. So you piggyback off of this product and look for accessories to sell - mounting systems, cases, chargers, cables, map updates. There will be a market for these products, too.
