Monday, December 29, 2008

PowerSeller on eBay Gives 3 Important Tips for Success

By Johnathan Z Moore

PROPER RESEARCH IS NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS

Proper research is vital to your success. Investing time in research will diminish heartache and monetary loss in the future. They key to your triumph on eBay is knowing the average selling price of your proposed inventory via research. If you select, from the Main Search page, the Advanced Search Button (located just to the right of the search button. Type in your keywords for your product you are researching, after opening the Advanced Search link.

What you do next is by selecting your related category, then the completed listings link, then search. You are now seeing on your monitor closed auctions for products you are considering selling. Green means a sold product. Red means an auction item that did not sell. Black means the product did not sell, and was originally listed as a Buy it Now listing. Forward this critical data to a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel.

DONT FORGET TO MIND YOUR SHIPPING

eBay buyers have become quite attuned to shipping fees. eBay sellers of old, many times would list a spectacular price on the item. When the buyer went to pay, whoa, shipping was astronomically high (packing in more profit). Many buyers now search for products that promot Free Shipping, this offer gains respect of buyers. Repeat sales can be a future result of Free Shipping, or low priced shipping.

Being fair with your shipping fees can increase sales by word of mouth and repeat business. If you know that you can ship a product for $5.36, pack a couple of dollars into your sale price and offer Free Shipping. Or charge only $2.19 for shipping. This gesture will go a long way to build your reputation and client base.

If THERE IS A DEMAND FOR THE PRODUCT SELL IT -- NO DEMAND, NO SUPPLY

Regardless of the type of deal your supplier may offer you, if your item does not have a demand currently on eBay, it probably will not sell. If someone is offering 50 Harley Davidson Novelty lamps for $25.00 each, and out of the last 50 posts only two have sold for $28.00 each, you may be stuck with some lamps in the near future. Or, worse have to unload them at a loss to clear your inventory.

It is recommend to get off to a good start, find a Dropshipper, a legitimate Dropshipper. With a dropshipper, you do not have to stock any products. Just sell the product, and the dropshipper will send to customer for you. You just collect the profits. Yes, I said legitimate, many so-called "Wholesalers" are retailers in disguise. They give minimal discounts off of retail price, but you are not getting true wholesale pricing. Do a Google search for Wholesale Sources, or Dropship Wholesale, perform your due diligence and deal with a wholesaler, not a middleman.

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