Auction Ignite

Why You Need a Good Feedback Score on eBay

Admin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:00:11 +0000

Selling on eBay is the same as selling anywhere else in one respect. That is, your customers want to know they can trust you. Buyer confidence is crucial to successful selling. If a buyer has no confidence in you as a seller, they will not buy. So how can any buyer know what your reputation as a seller on eBay is? This is provided by feedback.

When you have sold an item, the buyer is asked to leave a feedback score for you. This feedback can be positive, neutral or negative. If the buyer has had a good buying experience - that is, he received the product in a reasonable time frame, it was in good order, and it was exactly what he expected - then he will be likely to leave a good feedback score for you. This will be seen by other buyers and will establish your reputation as a seller of integrity.

If the buyer has had problems, eg, the product was broken due to poor packaging, or it was not as described, then he is likely to leave a negative score. Other buyers can see this feedback score on every item listing next to your user ID. Once the feedback score is left, it cannot be deleted and becomes a permanent part of your profile, so it is important to get as good a score as possible.

Of course, it works both ways. Perhaps the buyer will be the one to cause most of the problems by not paying what or when he should. This will result in the seller giving the buyer a negative score. The seller can actually prohibit a buyer with a bad reputation from bidding on his products. So it is within the interest of both parties to settle any problems as quickly and as fairly as possible.

It is important to be cautious when leaving feedback reports, especially if you are upset at the result of your transaction. Since feedback reports are public and permanent, you don’t want to leave anything that could give cause for a legal defamation of character case. Ebay has rules about the standard of feedback and is able to remove such comments if they constitute libel. Members can also be given the opportunity to withdraw their remarks using a special Withdrawal Process.

If you feel unsatisfied with your trading partner’s performance, always try and settle the issue before leaving feedback, then make sure it is fair and factual.

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Tags: profit from ebay, make money from ebay, ebay secrets, ebay buying selling, ebay ebook

Why Selling Locally May Make You More Money on eBay.

Admin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:00:08 +0000

Some sellers may think that overseas buyers are the ones that will bring them in the best money and this may be true in some cases, but it’s a good idea to consider your local market as well. Selling locally may make you even more money than selling overseas. Why?

One of the downsides of selling overseas is the high cost of postage. Postage costs are a great deal more to overseas destinations. Then, because the distance is so much greater, you will have to have even better packaging than for a local market. Extra packaging will cost you money. Insurance is another consideration. You would want to insure your overseas parcel.

Another reason that selling overseas could cost you money is the time it takes for the package to arrive. Unless you are prepared for the high cost of sending it by air, it will take up to three months to reach its overseas destination. Many buyers don’t realize that it will take so long and could give you a bad feedback rating. This could cost you money by making other buyers wary of dealing with you.

When selling overseas you may also have to pay import/export duties. And don’t forget that some brand-name products could be banned from going to other countries. If you are not knowledgeable in this area, it could attract a big fine for you. Return policies could be a problem too. If the good need to be returned, will you have to pay for the postage or freight? The further away it is, the more you’ll have to pay.

The Buyer management tool provided by eBay will help you to designate who is allowed to bid on your goods. It can be accessed from My eBay> My Account: eBay Preferences. Using this tool will allow you to block buyers from a country you have not designated. You can also block bidders with a negative Feedback score or with two unpaid strikes in the last 30 days.

Selling that majors on the local market is also likely to be more successful, because it is easier to develop a feel for what wells best in your own country or state. You know what in your countrymen like best, because you are one of them. You understand the way your countrymen think and what they are interested in, therefore you are more likely to have that great idea that is a fit with your country and see it turn into a successful business.

Now I would like to offer you two weeks free access to my eBay Auction Training Membership site. You can get access immediately by going to: http://www.auctionignite.com

Check out our eBay training blog at: http://www.auctionignite.com/blog

Tags: ebay income, ebay selling secrets, ebay profits, ebay home business, auction for income

Where to Find the eBay Rules and Why You Must Follow Them

Admin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:17:09 +0000

Rules are a necessary part of everyday life to enable all concerned to get the most out of any function. We need road rules and school rules for safety and for expedience. So too, we need rules for eBay usage. Rules protect us from the unscrupulous people who try to make a quick buck without working for it. Rules help everyone to know what is expected of them and to get it right the first time round, so they will save you time and money if you adhere to them.

So where can we find these rules? A careful inspection of the eBay site will show you where to find the rules and regulations. One of the lists of rules is found under the clickable link entitled Rules and Policies. That’s just for the actual usage of eBay, but must be adhered to. Other more specific rules can be found in the appropriate pages. For instance there are ‘Rules for Taking Photographs.’ This list will help you take the best possible photo of your article so that it will sell well. If you ignore these rules, you might end up not selling that article at all, so it is in your own best interests to follow them.

There are also rules to help you write a good title and description for the most effective merchandising. Follow the rules and your experience will be a happy and successful one.

One of the most important rules is that you must state your own rules to your customer. Then they will know what to expect from you and that will save many misunderstandings. Some of those rules include:

* Your return policy. It will establish buyer confidence if the customer knows you have a return policy.

* What price you will charge and whether the article is to be sold at a fixed price or auction.

* What freight is to be charged on the article.

* How you will accept payment, eg. Paypal.

* Whether you will offer Rush Shipping. Customers often love Rush Shipping, especially if they want something in time for a birthday present or holiday.

Once fair and just rules are established, everyone is happy - or at least they know where they stand and are less likely to try and scam anyone. If you don’t stick to the rules, you could get banned from using eBay at all, either for buying or selling, therefore it is a wise decision to find the rules and stick to them.

Now I would like to offer you two weeks free access to my eBay Auction Training Membership site. You can get access immediately by going to: http://www.auctionignite.com

Check out our eBay training blog at: http://www.auctionignite.com/blog

Tags: ebay secrets, learn ebay, ebay selling secrets, ebay profit, make money

Where to Find Drop Shippers and How to Avoid Scammers

Admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:32:34 +0000

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When you decide to sell products on eBay, you may need to source products, unless you make your own. One of the best sources of products are called Drop Shippers. These are companies who will sell products to you for the wholesale price, so that you can resell them at a profit. Not only that, but they will in many cases, actually package and post the item to your customer, leaving you more time to spend on the actual selling process.

But where do you find these Drop Shippers? It would be a very hard task to go all over the countryside searching for wholesale companies who are willing to do this for you. Even if you decide to search via the phone book, it will run into a lot of time and money on phone calls. Then, if you find some, how can you be sure that they are truly wholesalers and not about to rip you off by charging you retail prices? Luckily, eBay has compiled a directory of reputable wholesale Drop Shippers that you can access from their website.

They have spent a considerable amount of time and effort searching the country for reputable wholesalers. They are constantly adding to this list and you can be sure that they are careful about whom they allow to be included. They screen each company and make sure they meet certain criteria before including them. This goes for both Drop Shippers and Light Bulk Drop Shippers.

The most important thing for you to remember when selling as a business on eBay is that you don’t make money when you sell; you make it when you buy. This means that if you buy for a high price, you are less likely to make a profit on your item. It is important not to be scammed into thinking you are paying wholesale prices for your goods, when you are paying a retail price. When your customer comes along, he will have been noticing what the general price is on that product in the shops or even on eBay if others are selling the same thing. He will not buy from you if your price is higher than others, unless you have a better return policy or some other unique feature.

You should also be aware of other scams such as “Phishing scams”, where you may receive an email purporting to be from the ‘System Administrator’ of some place like a bank, IRS, AOL, Paypal or some such and asking you to perform an urgent maintenance on your account. NEVER DO IT! And never give out any personal information over the phone or by email even if you are familiar with the business that is asking for it. Rather, hang up and ring the business yourself to find out if they have made the request.

Now I would like to offer you two weeks free access to my eBay Auction Training Membership site. You can get access immediately by going to: http://www.auctionignite.com

Check out our eBay training blog at: http://www.auctionignite.com/blog

Tags: ebay profits, ebay home business, ebay selling secrets, ebay success, making money on ebay

Where Merchants Can Find Great Ebay Selling Tips - From eBay!

Admin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:22:13 +0000

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Once you take the plunge into selling on eBay and decide that you would like to continue, it can be a help to get some of those great selling tips - from eBay itself. Here are some tips hot from the eBay website.

* Your item will stand out more if you list it in bold. This costs only $1.00 and has been shown to increase the final price by 25%.

* Use the Featured Plus tool to get your item noticed more quickly. With this feature, your item may be selected for random display in another area. Shown to increase bids by 47%.

* Use the highlight feature for only $5.00 to increase visibility with a yellow band. Again, this feature seems to increase the final price by about 25%.

* Use a photograph to increase buyer interest and bidding.

* Include payment and shipping terms in your listing and if you accept credit cards it will give you more ability to verify the buyer.

* For higher priced items, insure the article before dispatch and offer an escrow service. This will increase buyer confidence and ensure you get paid.

* Keep your auction going till the last minute to endure you get the last-minute bidder.

* Always be polite and helpful to your trading partner. If emailing, take time to draft the letter with proper full sentences, and opening name and a closing salutation.

* Talk in person if necessary. A quick phone call may be appreciated, especially if the person does not check their email box every day.

* It’s a good idea to check on the buyer’s reputation. Bids over $15,000 require verification before placing the bid

* Be sure to make full use of all the tools and Wizards on eBay

* Learn how to use keywords in your listing headlines and ad copy. This will increase you visibility.

* Consider selling internationally. Ebay has many tools onsite that will help you learn how to do this.

* It is possible to cross-promote your products on eBay and so increase your selling opportunities. Take advantage of eBay’s promotions.

* Learn to use the tracking tools on eBay to find out what works and what does not. Track and analyze your sales to understand what is the key to your growth contributors.

* Understand the buyer mentality. This will allow you t refine your marketing strategies, thus increasing your profit.

* Attend free selling seminars on eBay.

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Tags: online auction, money on ebay, learn ebay, ebay income, ebay powerseller

What to do When Your eBay Buyer Has a Complaint

Admin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:07:26 +0000

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Everyone hopes that they will be able to sell successfully without the buyer having any complaint, but in reality, there may come a time when something goes wrong - at least from your buyer’s perspective - and you will have to be the one to sort it out. How you do this will depend partly on the problem, but one thing that will greatly help you out is to write out a resolution plan before the problem even occurs. It is advisable to do it beforehand, because you will not be emotionally involved and you’ll be able to draft out a resolution that moves the buyer towards your goal of a successful sale.

When you have just received an email that may be accusatory and angry, your first reaction is to say something nasty back. This won’t help to resolve the problem, but if you have the resolution email already drafted, you’ll be able to send it off with a click of your mouse and tempers will be smoothed instead of ruffled. It will also help to preserve your reputation as a seller if you can reply without becoming emotionally involved.

This Resolution Plan can be indicated in your listings. It will help your customers and give them confidence in you if they can see that fair and reasonable dealings have been decided upon upfront. It also makes it harder for a complaint to be legitimate later on, if all your policies are in plain view of them as they buy.

To find out what you should say in your resolution Plan, you can go to various discussion boards, other sellers or eBay itself and just change the wording slightly to make it a good fit with what you are selling. Use similar terms and conditions that used by sellers you respect. These will include terms, return policies and guarantees that have been proven to work for them over a number of years.

Drafting a Resolution Plan in the beginning of your selling venture will not only help you resolve that complaint more quickly, but it will reduce the number of complaints by showing the customer what he should expect. Your customer will have more faith in you and be more likely to give you good feedback, something that will enhance your reputation. It is important to seek quick settlement of a dispute, because eBay’s policy is that it must be settled within 60 days.

Tags: learn ebay, ebay powerseller, make money, online auctions, ebay profit

What Sells Best on eBay?

Admin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:11:13 +0000

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Some people just want to sell that disgusting vase from great-great aunt Emmeline that they have always hated, but if you are looking for a product to sell that will get you a little profit, it is a wise idea to find out what is likely to be the most successful seller on eBay. You don’t want to be stuck for weeks with goods that don’t sell well. So how can you find this out?

You’ll need to watch all the ads that are already there. To do this, log in to the buyers section and see what goods are there. Don’t just notice the ones that are there most often. It could be they are there because they are not selling quickly. You’ll need to carry out your own little survey over a period of time to see how quickly certain things seems to be selling.

But you want to get started right now and you’ve no time to spend in surveys? Then the place for you to go is the ‘What’s Hot, What’s Not?’ link on eBay. This will give you several ways of finding out what is selling well. You can download a monthly PDF describing hot products. It is updated monthly.

‘Ebay Pulse’ is another good facility provided by eBay to find out what are the most searched for keywords, biggest eBay stores and most-watched items. You can also ask for the Merchandising Calendar. This will tell you what items eBay is going to run various seasonal promotions on in the coming months. Subscribe to Marketplace Research that will give you a list of the previous 90 days of selling activity.

The Market Research Wizard is also there especially to help you find out what would be a great product to sell and it will also help you determine the profitability of the product.

Then there is the Buyer Behavior Report to tell you what customers buy and why, among other things, and the Ebay Solutions Directory that provides marketplace research based on your own needs. Of course, once you’ve become a seasoned seller at eBay, you might want to try the resources found under the ‘Advanced Education’ link. There you will find comprehensive and free resources including a downloadable “Advanced Selling Guide” and eBay University where you can take lessons in selling either in person or online. Learn valuable skills from eBay experts.

Seller Onramp and Seller Best Practices are also links available on eBay for those who would like access to more expert selling advice.

Tags: ebay marketing, ebay income, ebay money, make money with ebay, making money on ebay

At What Price Should You Start Your Bidding

Admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:47:25 +0000

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To decide what price you should start your bidding at, you’ll need to do some research. Look at other similar items being sold on eBay to get an idea of the going price. Find out your likely freight or postal charges and the cost of packaging too, if you are going to add that to the cost. The Market Research Wizard that eBay provides is an excellent tool to help you research not only the price of your product, but what products will sell profitably on eBay.

Researching the historical price of similar items in the completed listings section will aid you in the decision of what price to start your bidding at. Once you have a fair idea of what price others have asked, you can set your own price a little lower. One of the basic principles of auction is to get your prospective buyers excited about the item and eager to jump in and purchase it before their competitors. One of the best ways to do this is to lower the starting price. This will get buyers interested and once the bidding starts you may end up getting an even higher price than you expected.

A listing with ‘No reserve’ notice usually attracts buyer interest because the buyer knows they will win if their bid is the highest. If there is a reserve on the item and the buyer does not know, he will assume the seller is simply asking too high a price and move on to greener fields. If you are concerned about a minimum price, you should set your price a little higher.

Some experts declare that you should start your bidding price at only one dollar to get your buyers excited and start a bidding frenzy. This might work in some cases, but if you do it too much, people will get to know and most feel it is a bit on the ‘cheating’ side. They know you really do want more than a dollar for the product. And what if yo only get one bid? It will be a bit silly to sell an item for one or two dollars if it cost you ten.

The best thing is to start the bidding at a fair and reasonable price, the price you would be happy to walk away with, having counted your costs first. This will keep the bidder happy and anything over and above that will be a bonus.

Tags: ebay selling secrets, earn money on ebay, ebay ebook, become a powerseller, make money

Tips For Selling Multiple Items on eBay

Admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:51:10 +0000

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If you are selling for profit, there may come a time when you have a number of identical items that you would like to offer. It would be most time consuming to have to list each one individually, so what can you do? Multiple listings are the answer. Multiple listings allow you to offer a number of identical items in the one lot. For convenience, there are three different ways you can sell multiple listings.

* Fixed Price listing. This is where you have many of the same item for sale. You will list the total number of items and the price for each of them. Buyers can buy however many they want at the set price. This is good for the buyer because they don’t have to wait for an auction to end. The seller must be ID verified to sell in this manner. If they are not, then their feedback rating must be above 30 and they need to have been registered for at least 14 days. Or if you have a Paypal account and accept Paypal as the means of payment, then you need only have a feedback rating of 15.

* Lot listing. This is where you sell say a case of similar things to the one buyer. For example a set of 10 records in a collection that you want to sell for an average of $10 per record. To sell items as a ‘lot’ you click on the ‘lot’ tab in the quantity section. Then fill out the details by entering the digit ‘1′ in the ‘number of lots’ box and in the number of items box you list how many items are in the collection, eg, 10. You the set the price at $100.00. The winning bidder will take all the items.

* Online auction-type listing. This works almost the same way as an ordinary on-line auction. The items are listed with the total number of items and the starting price. This is what the seller would like for each item. The buyers then bid with the number of items they would like to purchase along with their price. The highest bid price per item is one that wins, but the buyer does not have to accept the items unless he can get the number he actually wants.

Sellers are limited to 10 lots of multiple listing to prevent one seller from dominating the eBay marketplace and to make it fairer for other sellers. The seller is not to use multiple seller ID’s to get around this rule, or he will risk cancellation of his listing, account suspension and other unpleasant effects. The exceptions are only for tickets and vehicle light bulbs where you are allowed to have 20 for the former and 25 for the latter running simultaneously.

Tags: make money from ebay, profit on ebay, ebay money, get rich on ebay, auction secrets

Tips For Outsourcing Your eBay Business

Admin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:11:50 +0000

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Once you have a good eBay business up and running you might find that it is taking up too much of your time, or something has changed and you are unable to continue, but don’t wish to pack it up altogether. You’ve put a lot of effort into it and are making some money, so it doesn’t make sense to just close it down. What can you do? The answer is outsourcing.

For a small fee, it is possible to have someone else sell for you. These people are called Trading Assistants. A trading Assistant must have certain qualifications to carry out this work.

* They must have sold at least ten items in the last three months.
* They must have a feedback score of 100 or more.
* This score must be 97% positive.
* Their eBay account must be in good standing.

A trading assistant does not work for eBay, neither are they endorsed or approved by them. Trading Assistants are simply using eBay to advertise and run their operation, just like you have been. The only thing that eBay retains is the ability to remove their profile if customers have justified complaints about them. These assistants may set their own terms and conditions and it is up to you whether to agree with them or not. If you don’t like the fees or terms, there may be room for negotiation. It’s up to you to ask. It is important to communicate clearly and tactfully in your inquiries and make sure you know who is to pay for certain things such as freight and packaging, what the selling price is to be and what happens to unsold goods. You will of course, have a say in these decisions.

A Trading Assistant is responsible for seeing that their services to clients are legal. This might vary depending on the laws of their particular state or country. To find a suitable Trading Assistant, you need to go to the Trading Assistant Directory, which is where Assistants advertise. The directory will list all the main features of each Trading Assistant You will be able to sort out suitable persons by the state they live in, by what type of product they prefer to sell and various other criteria.

Once you have signed an agreement with your chosen Trading Assistant, they are then responsible for everything to do with the sale of the products. They communicate with buyers, they handle the selling process, take charge of receiving buyer feedback and of course they pay the eBay selling fees. They may or may not pass this cost on to you, depending on the agreement.

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