Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Online Auctions How to Turn Online Auctions into Successful Home Based Business

Nowadays most people are aware of what Online Auctions are all about. Most of us have, at some time or the other bought or sold something on Online Auctions. But very few people know that Online Auctions can be a very profitable home-based business. A lot of people worldwide have made a lot of money with their online auction sites.

To start a home-based Online Auction business is very easy. Unlike other home-based businesses, it requires no investment. All it requires is a few moments of your time to get started. The advantages of starting a Home-Based Auction Online are �

No investment is required; hence there are no financial risks like other businesses.

There are no fixed working hours. You can choose to work when it is convenient to you.

No technical skills required.

You can get your Online Auction Business started in less than 10 minutes.

Wow! That sounds real easy does not it? Well it is. No wonder that people all over the world are making thousands of dollars with their home based online Auctions.

Now let's get down to the details of how to get started with your home-based Online Auction, first and most important, you have to get an idea how Online Auction works. To get an idea you can visit various online auction sites like:

http://www.ebay.com
http://www.auctions.yahoo.com
http://www.ubid.com
http://www.onsale.com
http://www.qxl.com

It�s easier to understand how auctions work if you have first hand experience of buying an item on an online auction. You become familiar with how to register with an auction site, how to place your bids and how to make payments and receive delivery of your goods.

What You Buy is Up To You:

Even if you want some item very badly, do not buy it because it is the last item of its kind available on the auction site. It might be over priced. You can try to best to get what you want at other online auction sites.

Late is Best:

It is always best to leave your bid till the last few minutes before the closing of an auction. This prevents the price from being driven too high.

No Time? Then Automated bids are the Best:

If you are hurried for time then automated bids are the best way for you to place a bid online. You can use automated bidding sites like eSnipe http://www.esnipe.com.

You can open a free account on eSnipe. When you want to make a bid all you have to do is type your bid amount. eSnipe automatically places the bid for you before the closing of the auction. You pay eSnipe a small amount if you win your bid, otherwise you pay nothing.

Lookout for Wrongly Spelt Items

Many items on a home-based Online Auctions are wrongly spelt. You can use this to your advantage, as there will be less people searching for wrongly spelt items.

Buying and paying for an item online teaches you how things work from a buyer�s point of view. This gives you a good idea about what kinds of customer services you can offer buyers on your own online auction site.

List Unwanted Items

Now lets get into how to start setting up your own home based online auction. Look around your home. You�ll see many things that you have no use for. You can also ask your friends for unwanted items. Make a list of all these items on your site as well as their photographs. There is nothing like a photograph to instantly grab the attention of the buyers.

Description of Items On Sale

This is very important as it give your buyers a good idea of want they will get. Make sure that you give all the technical and detailed descriptions of items on sale.

Offer A Guaranteed Refund

To convince your buyers about your honest approach to business and your integrity, offer to refund money if the goods sold by you are less than satisfactory.

Feed Back Forms

Positive Feed Back forms are an absolute necessity to show your prospective buyers that you have satisfied customers. And to have satisfied customers your quality of service has to be very good. Positive feedback reassures your prospective customers of your integrity.

Set a Reserve Price

Always sell items on your home-based Online Auction site for what it�s worth. Never ever sell it for less than its value. To do this you need to set a reserve price, below which you will not sell. Make sure that your reserve price is not too high, as it will scare customers away.

Different Payment Modes

Make your site more customer friendly by offering a number of payment options, like credit cards, Pay Pal (www.paypal.com) etc. Make sure that all payments are secure.

Now that you have all the necessary details on how to start your home-based online auction business think of catering to a niche market. This will reduce the competition from other online auction sites.

Remember that it is within you to ea thousands of dollars with hardly any investment.

Good Luck

Pradeep Agarwal - EzineArticles Expert Author

Pradeep Aggarwal is the creator of Auction Spectrum the online auction hub. This site is dedicated to helping people start and run a successful online auction business by providing Inteet Marketing Tools to build profit making websites.

Online Auctions How to Tu Online Auctions into Successful Home Based Business Nowadays most people are aware of what Online Auctions are all about. Most of us have, at some time or the other bought or sold something on Online Auctions. But very few people know that Online Auctions can be a very profitable home-based business. A lot of people worldwide have made a lot of money with their online auction sites.

To start a home-based Online Auction business is very easy. Unlike other home-based businesses, it requires no investment. All it requires is a few moments of your time to get started. The advantages of starting a Home-Based Auction Online are �

� No investment is required; hence there are no financial risks like other businesses.
� There are no fixed working hours. You can choose to work when it is convenient to you.
� No technical skills required.
� You can get your Online Auction Business started in less than 10 minutes.

Wow! That sounds real easy doesn�t it? Well it is. No wonder that people all over the world are making thousands of dollars with their home based online Auctions.

Now lets get down to the details of how to get started with your home-based Online Auction, first and most important, you have to get an idea how Online Auction works. To get an idea you can visit various online auction sites like �

http://www.ebay.com
http://www.auctions.yahoo.com
http://www.ubid.com
http://www.onsale.com
http://www.qxl.com

It�s easier to understand how auctions work if you have first hand experience of buying an item on an online auction. You become familiar with how to register with an auction site, how to place your bids and how to make payments and receive delivery of your goods.

What You Buy is Up To You
Even if you want some item very badly, do not buy it because it is the last item of its kind available on the auction site. It might be over priced. You can try to best to get what you want at other online auction sites.

Late is Best
It is always best to leave your bid till the last few minutes before the closing of an auction. This prevents the price from being driven too high.

No Time? Then Automated bids are the Best
If you are hurried for time then automated bids are the best way for you to place a bid online. You can use automated bidding sites like eSnipe http://www.esnipe.com
You can open a free account on eSnipe. When you want to make a bid all you have to do is type your bid amount. eSnipe automatically places the bid for you before the closing of the auction. You pay eSnipe a small amount if you win your bid, otherwise you pay nothing.

Lookout for Wrongly Spelt Items
Many items on a home-based Online Auctions are wrongly spelt. You can use this to your advantage, as there will be less people searching for wrongly spelt items.

Buying and paying for an item online teaches you how things work from a buyer�s point of view. This gives you a good idea about what kinds of customer services you can offer buyers on your own online auction site.

List Unwanted Items
Now lets get into how to start setting up your own home based online auction. Look around your home. You�ll see many things that you have no use for. You can also ask your friends for unwanted items. Make a list of all these items on your site as well as their photographs. There is nothing like a photograph to instantly grab the attention of the buyers.

Description of Items On Sale
This is very important as it give your buyers a good idea of want they will get. Make sure that you give all the technical and detailed descriptions of items on sale.

Offer A Guaranteed Refund
To convince your buyers about your honest approach to business and your integrity, offer to refund money if the goods sold by you are less than satisfactory.

Feed Back Forms
Positive Feed Back forms are an absolute necessity to show your prospective buyers that you have satisfied customers. And to have satisfied customers your quality of service has to be very good. Positive feedback reassures your prospective customers of your integrity.

Set a Reserve Price
Always sell items on your home-based Online Auction site for what it�s worth. Never ever sell it for less than its value. To do this you need to set a reserve price, below which you will not sell. Make sure that your reserve price is not too high, as it will scare customers away.

Different Payment Modes
Make your site more customer friendly by offering a number of payment options, like credit cards, Pay Pal (www.paypal.com) etc. Make sure that all payments are secure.

Now that you have all the necessary details on how to start your home-based online auction business think of catering to a niche market. This will reduce the competition from other online auction sites.

Remember that it is within you to ea thousands of dollars with hardly any investment.

Good Luck

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Pradeep Aggarwal is an Inteet Entrepreneur and a leading Online Business consultant, He has conducted many workshops and seminars across the world empowering people on How to start money-making Home Based Business. He also provides niche Website Promotion Tools for inteet marketing timings

Multiple Income Streams on eBay within 30 Minutes

POWERSELL Status, the secrets revealed.

If like thousands of people you have been using eBay and wondering how to gain a regular income, and work from home, this article will help you.

Like many, I have been searching for years for that illusive system which will allow me to work from home, and spend more time with family and friends. MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS are the answer.

What are Multiple Income Streams?

Multiple Income Streams are the Holy Grail of the Inteet, those things you hear about but never quite see. The 24 hour a day, 7 days a week income machines.

I have found a very simple technique which has proved very beneficial, and in fact eaed me POWERSELLER Status on eBay!!

My secret is simple:

I pick a very popular subject, for example Playstation Repair Guides (eBooks) which are a consistent seller on eBay. First you need to acquire the Guide (from eBay) with Resell Rights. Then you need to think of associated eBooks, which would appeal to buyers of the Repair Guide. I use two such associated eBooks, which are :-

Playstation Cheat Guides (with resell rights) and Repair / Build your own PC (with resell rights)

My reasoning behind the eBooks?

They are connected and will appeal to buyers of the Repair Guide, and anyone searching for either Playstation Repair Guides, Playstation Cheat eBooks OR Repair / Build your own PC guides will come across your Auction. In effect 3 Auctions for the price of one !!!

Other potential pairings would be:

PS Repair Guide, Cheat Guide and Fruit Machine Cheat guide

xBox Repair Guide, xBox Cheat Guide and Repair / Build your own PC Guide

xBox Repair Guide, xBox Cheat Guide and Fruit Machine Cheat Guide

Hopefully the picture should become clearer, and the potential is enormous.

What about PRICING?

All of the eBooks mentioned above can be bought for 99p each, with RESELL Rights. Rather than list two seperate Auctions, with two sets of charges, I list one Auction and charge �1.99 for the package. This has a massive impact on your profit.

One Auction for 99p may incurr basic Auction charges of 50p PLUS 25p per item sold, and 25p per PAYPAL Payment received. Leaving you with a profit of 50p, only after sale number two.

One Auction selling the three eBook Package would also incur basic Auction charges of 50p PLUS 25p per item sold, and 25p per PAYPAL Payment received. Leaving a profit in the region of �1 on the first sale, and �1,50 per sale after that.

I PREFER TO LIST AT LEAST 5 ITEMS FOR SALE IN EACH AUCTION

When the Auction has finished you just relist, and wait for the sales to come through.

This is just a snap shot of the potential for selling small amounts of targeted eBooks on eBay. The opportunities are endless, and very quickly you can build-up 10, 20 and more consistent Income Streams on eBay.

Imagine:

One Income Stream

5 sales per day, making �1.50 per sale = �7.50, �52 a week, over �200 a month

Two Income Streams

5 sales per day x 2, making �1.50 per sale = �15, �112 a week, over �400 a month

Ten Income Streams

5 sales per day x 10, making �1.50 per sale = �75, �525 a week, over �2000 a month

The potential to gain this kind of income is open to people looking to put in the work and effort.

Good luck!

Mark Benson

http://www.e-zone.uk.com

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Do you shop online It s easy

I hope many of you prefer shopping online instead of going to a store and queue up to avail all the discount benefits during holiday seasons when there is huge rush and shopping becomes a havoc. Even manufacturers and sellers are launching their websites so as to sell their products. You can easily purchase with online discount coupons and codes. Discount coupon is a ticket or document that could be exchanged in retu of a purchase of a product. These coupons are issued by the sellers as a part of sales promotion. You can easily get these coupons through newspapers, magazines, emails or inteet.

Features of discount coupons
Discount coupon allows the retailers or sellers to award the consumer with some sort of discounts and rebates. This helps the retailer to get the customer back to its product. These discounts could be limited to specific products or could be unrestricted.

1. Discount coupons carry a limit and as such they cannot be used more than the number of times specified.

2. These have a start and end date.

3. Coupons provide discount to the total price of the product.

4. These provide discount to specific products or specific category of products.

5. Coupons can be limited to a specific customer and can also be set so that it is used over a minimum amount.

A discount coupon has attributes such as a name which you define while you create a coupon, a start date, an end date and a use count that is number of times it can be used.

How online coupons work?
1. You need to find the suitable coupon from the shopping website and click on the corresponding link.

2. After you finish your purchase, you have to enter a coupon code during the check out process.

3. The place where you enter your coupon code varies from retailer to retailer. It could be anywhere from the shopping cart to the billing page.

4. You will find a box to enter coupon code, promotional code, savings code where you have to enter the coupon code.

5. You have to make sure that your discount coupon is reflected in your order before you confirm your order.

Finally, shopping this way can help you save many bucks.

Visit our website entertainment-coupon-book-2006.info

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Olivia Andrews, writer of entertainment-coupon-book-2006.info is a freelance joualist and has written many reviews on subjects such as finance, education, health, entertainment, music, apparels and mobile phones.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

EBay No Way Yes Way Ten Seller Themes

Hearing that there are more than 1.2 million registered eBay users, that more than 25,000 members make five figure income as full time eBay entrepreneurs, and that more than 250,000 part timers make several thousand dollars a year of supplementary income from eBay enterprises would make anyone comment in disbelief with, �No Way�. But the correct response to this is, �Yes, way.� In fact, it has also been reported that the number one eBay entrepreneur makes over a million dollars a year. As Austin Powers would say, �Yeah, Baby.� Or should we say, �E-Baby.�

So what�s the deal with eBay, anyway? There is a lot more to it than one would think. It can be simple for an occasional buyer, but it gets increasing complex as users/sellers become more entrenched at deeper levels of use. Here are 10 key ideas or themes for sellers to consider about this phenomenon called �eBay�.

1. What �s for sale? While some sellers are out scavengering the garage sales and their own garages, others are purchasing quantities of items wholesale to put up for auction. One would think that the right product is of paramount consideration, and most sellers agree that the unusual or the hard to find is the best bet. However, this is not always true either. Timing, meaning the right person at the right time seeing your item, is where it is at. You have to be visible and be out there with a clear message or product that seems like a steal, or at least reasonably priced. With the thousands and thousands of items for sale, there is no shortage of competition. However, the good thing is that there are a lot of buyers out there that should enable the sale of just about anything.

2. Communication and descriptive details about your product is a key in getting noticed. The description of your item and the pictures to display it will get the buyer�s attention. If a person is a serious seller, having an adequate digital camera is a must. Again, photos are extremely important.

3. The well written detailed description to accompany the item is of great benefit. Being open and honest about the item will demonstrate integrity as a seller and will keep people coming back. Being available to answer questions for prospective buyers and remembering to be courteous and helpful follows along with the never-to-be forgotten premise of �the customer is always right.�

4. With customer feedback being a key element in the ratings statistics that will promote you or haunt you during your eBay career, it is important for a seller to be professional and kindly in all business dealings. People like and appreciate personal attention. Take the time to give it. Being positive, accommodating and helpful is a winning combination for good customer relations.

5. Shipping information and how you present it can win over a customer because they notice when a buyer is tying to take advantage and ask an unreasonable amount for shipping. Of course, a seller must take into account time spent, the handling charge, when pricing the shipping. Time is money, and a seller should be compensated for all aspects of the service that is provided.

6. Some advice about setting up your auction items would be to consider having your item run seven days with an end of bidding time somewhere between 7 PM and 9 PM on a Sunday night. That seems to be the consensus amongst the top sellers. There has been much dialog on just how to increase the amount and number of bids, but there are too many variables to consider. Suffice to say, it really does depend on the product itself (and what the condition and competition is our there).

7. Some of the most unique aspects of selling have to do with the seasonal items that permeate the auction block at certain times of the year. If a seller wants to work year-round, he or she will have to broaden the horizon by finding seasonal items for all seasons. Yes, you can sell Christmas items and move right into Valentines Day and Easter and so on. Why not? These are what people are looking for.

8. One controversial topic is drop shipping. If a seller is getting a product from a third party, drop shipping is a convenient way for the seller to deliver the product. It keeps them out of it. However, that means that a back ordered item could result in a poor rating for the seller because the item was delayed. Most buyers picture the item in the hands of the seller and expect to receive it within a few days. The pros and cons of this arrangement need to be carefully considered.

9. Now to the fun part. How do you get the money? More and more people are using PayPal. It is quick, efficient and simple. A seller can make other arrangements and accept a check or money order, but the wave of the future is setting up an account with PayPal. In addition, setting up an online account with the United States Postal Service will also save countless hours in the lines at the post office. Work smarter, not harder, etc., etc.

10. A seller can look at other things to sell besides a physical product or item. Many are getting into self publishing or offering a service. Some expanding entrepreneurs are opening up a consignment shop situation, which helps those who want to sell but �don�t do computers.� The possibilities are unlimited.

Selling products and services from a home-based business can be an exciting, and hopefully profitable, situation. Go into it with a solid plan based on accurate information and with the knowledge that it is going to be hard work, just like any other job.

For more on eBay selling and using online auctions visit the How To Sell On eBay Resource Page located at http://www.sbmag.org.

Copyright usage: No permission is needed to reproduce this story. The About the Author statement with hot links must remain in tact. Request for reciprocal links will be considered. mailto:barb@sbmag.org.

About the Author
Barbara Snyder is a retired Califoia Distinguished School Principal and Coordinator For Human Resources. She has a master�s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She holds elementary education, secondary, community college, and administrative credentials. She is currently the publisher of http://EducationResourcesNetwork.com, co-publisher of Strictly Business Magazine, http://www.sbmag.org.

eBay Stores Tips and Tricks for New Owners

After you have sold a number of items on eBay via auctions (maybe just stuff that cluttered up your garage), you might consider opening your own store on eBay.

Stores have certain advantages: you can choose the name (as long as it is not taken yet), set the theme, obtain a permanent URL that you can use in advertising it, and list items very cheaply as store inventory (for data on the currrent fee structure, see http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/storefees.html). Furthermore, you also gain access to certain tools, such as Traffic Reports or the HTML Builder.

There are also drawbacks in owning a store. First, there is a monthly fee (currently $15.99 for a basic store), and store inventory items generally do not appear in the main search (for details on this, see http://pages.ebay.com/help/specialtysites/sif-in-search.html), so you will still have to run a number of auctions and include a link in them to drive traffic to your store.

Therefore, you should not expect the world to beat a path to your eBay store the moment you open it.

Here are a few tips to help the new or prospective owner of an eBay store:

  • Select a theme for your store, whether it be used books, vintage cameras or hand-crafted tea caddies. I have seen stores that sell anything from DVDs to used children's clothes to garden fuiture, but never could remember them for long.

  • Choose your store name carefully. "Tom's Coer" is much less memorable than "Tom's Vintage Beer Signs".

  • Think carefully about the structure of your store categories (of which you have a limited number). I have actually come across stores that list "Category 1", "Category 2" etc. in their navigation menu, which is hardly helpful.

  • Prepare your photos and descriptions beforehand and then stock your store quickly. It is no fun for buyers to find a store that sells only 1 or 2 items.

  • Read Owen and Emma's Store Library (http://www.owenandemmadesigns.com/ebaystores.html) which contains numerous links to useful articles for store owners.

  • Spend some time on the eBay stores discussion forum (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=21). You might not understand everything, and you probably should first "lurk" without posting questions, but this is the place to go with any of your questions. There are many knowledgeable and friendly people there!

    Pamela Bruce lives in Austin, TX. She has been beading since her teens. She is the owner of Love Beads Unlimited and sells the sterling silver and Swarovski crystal bead jewelry she designs and creates both in her eBay store (http://stores.ebay.com/LOVE-BEADS-UNLIMITED) and on her website at http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

  • Tuesday, April 7, 2009

    How to Set Up Your Ebay Account

    Go to www.ebay.com and you will find a menu at the top of the page reading something like this � home, pay, register, and site map. Click on register to be directed to the registration page. Registration page consists of three sections � personal details, id & password details and acceptance of terms & conditions section.

    Personal details section asks for your first name, last name, street address, city/town, state, zip code, country, phone numbers and email address. It is advisable to create a new email id for your Ebay operations since you can expect lot of emails while being active on Ebay. You will be asked to retype your email address in the last box in this section. Ensure that you retype it, and not merely copy paste it from the above box. This will ensure correct email address being given to Ebay system. Creating a new email id for Ebay operations prevents your regular emails being mixed up with those from Ebay and allies.

    Second section on the page demands selecting user id and password for the logging in purpose. Select an id of your choice or one suggested by Ebay. Then go on to select a password. Ensure that you have written down your password somewhere on your personal notes. The password should be minimum of six-character length. Ebay will then ask you a secret question like mother�s maiden name or pet�s name. Select the one that you can recall anytime, and provide the answer. This is provided for security purpose and case when you forget your id or password. Then select your birth details from the drop down menu.

    In the last section, check on the box below �Terms of use and privacy� indicating your agreement to terms of use (for a more detailed person, it is recommended to read the whole set of terms & conditions). Click continue button. That�s it. You will receive a mail from Ebay for confirmation. Click on the confirmation, and now you are registered on Ebay.

    Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay sellers, retailers, and flea market vendors.

    How to Use the Immediate Payment Feature for Your Item on eBay

    When you have labelled a �buy it now� price for your item you would obviously want the buyer to immediately pay you. This can be done on eBay using the Paypal. This is used mostly when your item needs to be sold within a time frame, for example, football match ticket. The buyer has to know the exact figure of payment hence add all the involved cost and other seller and shipping needs.

    When a buyer clicks on the �buy it now� link of your listing he is instantly directed to pay through Paypal. If the buyer delays in doing the payment formalities the item remains open to other buyers to purchase. So the buyer who is able to pay fast becomes the winner of that item. And when the buyer pays, you have to ship the item. With your item having the �buy it now� tag, you can use the instant payment feature on eBay with any selling format as the online auction, store inventory or fixed price.

    When a bid is placed or the bid matches with your reserved price in your auction like listing, both �buy it now� and immediate payment tag vanishes. The listing now becomes a regular auction-style listing and the item goes to the highest bidder. This auction-style listing ends with a higher bidder. Paypal remains the only payment mode for immediate payment option. Before the completion of payment if the listing reaches its ending time then nobody wins the item and you are free to list it again.

    Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay sellers, retailers, and flea market vendors.

    He also manages http://www.wholesalecloseoutforum.com an online wholesale and closeout forum.

    Donny can be reached at 718-389-5502

    Monday, April 6, 2009

    How to obtain Sources for Wholesale Products to sell on eBay

    There are more sellers on eBay today, but there are also more buyers. As you browsed eBay, I'm sure you noticed or purchased from several high profile, high volume eBay sellers. I always marveled at the amount of sales generated by these Powersellers so I decided to find out how they accomplished this.

    There are niche products that sell on eBay. However, if you want to ea more with less work on eBay, it's a good idea to target name brand products. Having a background in information and technology sales, I decided to target top eBay sellers in these categories and try to locate their product sources. You don't need to target technology. I have worked with many successful eBay sellers who achieve great success with home appliance product lines, cosmetic lines, and automotive products, to name a few.

    eBay buyers use the name brand in their search so target products lines with excellent branding. After researching one eBay Powerseller, it was very evident that the name brand he was selling was Gateway. He was generating high volume sales by selling their liquidation and overstock items.

    It was fairly simple to obtain Gateway's telephone number, so I called and asked for the Liquidation Department. I said to myself, "It can't possibly be this easy!" It wasn't! After leaving several messages with no reply, I found an auction website in which Gateway was offering some bulk liquidation loads.

    My thought process was that if I could win at least one of the liquidation loads, even though the price was higher than I wanted to pay, I would gain access to the department head. I did win one load. I hardly broke even on the price, but it did enable me to have contact with the person handling the Gateway Liquidation Department. I was also contacted to see if I wanted to be notified of any other closeout loads. "Mission Accomplished!" I was put on their bidder list.

    Contacting the liquidation or overstock departments of major corporations may take more than a few phone calls. Be creative and try to purchase some of the lesser sought after items. Once you are in the company database as a buyer, many opportunties will become available to you to obtain excellent wholesale products.

    Tim Gilberg is able to provide information and insight from a unique perspective - that of someone who is actually doing what others just talk about. Ebay Power Seller Platinum Status was Attained by Tim Gilberg, which is one of the highest sales levels attained selling on eBay. Tim is active on Ebay and liquidation.com as well as consulting and working with other Top ebay Power Seller's to give you real life in use insight, not theories.Visit Tim Gilberg at his website Make Money on eBay

    Sunday, April 5, 2009

    Low Cost High Profit Dream Products To Sell on eBay and Amazon

    Finding quality products to sell is the key to continuing success. Keeping a pipeline of low cost, fast moving items to sell is also a must. Sometimes it takes weeks of searching to find a load of quality electronics or computer equipment that you can sell online at double your cost. I'm sure you agree that this is a very good rate of retu. The problem is that you may have to outlay several thousand dollars to buy the inventory. If you are new to online selling and would like to pick up high quality, easy to ship products for pennies, read on.

    Did you know that 95% of books that have been published are no longer in print? What does that mean to you as an online seller? It means that you do not have to compete with traditional booksellers. I have seen books that would not catch anyone's eye fetch over $80. This is because it is an out of print book even though it might be only a few years old.

    Money Making Tip

    Books, audio book cassettes, and VHS tapes very often are the last items to be picked over at rummage sales or thrift stores; but I have found them to be the lowest cost, most profitable items to sell online. Most can be picked up for next to nothing, especially if you are shopping the last day of the rummage sale or at closeouts at thrift stores. Some vendors actually give the books away to clear space.

    With a partner last Fall, I set up a dedicated division just for selling the above items. We are averaging over $14,000/month in book sales on Amazon and eBay. Our inventory cost to buy these books has never been more than a few hundred dollars for a full truckload.

    Why would I share this secret? It works! There is no way we could obtain all of the books available.

    To Find the market value for a book, tape or DVD, simply enter the ISBN number into the Amazon or eBay search Box.

    You may Ask What does ISBN stand for? Inteational Standard Book Number. Where can I locate the ISBN number? It is located on the back cover of most books, it may also be found on the first page inside the book.

    Selling your Books, tapes and DVD's is easy and highly profitable, with low cost sources for these items in abundance.

    Tim Gilberg is able to provide information and insight from a unique perspective - that of someone who is actually doing what others just talk about. Ebay Power Seller Platinum Status was Attained by Tim Gilberg, which is one of the highest sales levels attained selling on eBay. Tim is active on Ebay and liquidation.com as well as consulting and working with other Top ebay Power Seller's to give you real life in use insight, not theories.Visit Tim Gilberg at his website Make Money on eBay

    Thursday, April 2, 2009

    How To Stop Ebay Auction Sniping

    Every day, hapless bidders get beaten to the punch by auction snipers who jump in at the last minute. I know how annoying it can be, as I once had it happen to me three times in a row on the same item! The thing is that the only people who can help the poor bidders are us, the sellers.

    The Problem.

    Bidders will bid on an item and then wait for days until it finishes, only to have someone else outbid them at the last minute. In a traditional auction at a real auction house, this isn't a problem at all, as the auction keeps going until everyone has bid as much as they want to, and the auctioneer double-checks with the classic phrase "going, going, gone".

    The problem on eBay is caused by the fixed length of time that eBay's auctions last, and the fact that they aren't extended significantly if someone places a new bid in the last few seconds of the auction. Imagine if a real auction house worked that way, letting people shout "50 cents more!" at the last second and win an item. It would simply be unfair, and many buyers think it's unfair on eBay too.

    The Solutions.

    Until eBay decide to fix the problem (and by now it's looking unlikely that they ever will), you're the only one who can do anything for your buyers.

    First off, you can encourage your buyers to use eBay's proxy bidding system the way it was intended. The idea of the system is that they enter the maximum they're willing to pay for an item and eBay places bids for them automatically up to that maximum. They're not supposed to come back and bid an extra dollar every time they get outbid.

    If your bidders are bidding high enough, then no sniper will even come along and beat them – because they will have set the maximum snipe level in their sniping software to less than the normal bidder's maximum. Changing the way people use eBay is hard, though.

    One alteative is to keep an eye on who's bidding on your auction, and cancel bids from known snipers – but this requires you to be around right at the end of the auction to cancel their bids. You might also want to set your auction to end sometime when bidders will be around so that they can outbid snipers themselves. This is good business sense anyway – most of the bidding always takes place in the last few hours of an auction.

    An easier way to thwart bid snipers is to offer 'Second Chance' sales to bidders who get outbid by a sniper at the last minute. This is good for you, and for them – they still get to buy the item they wanted, and you've just made two sales: one to the sniper and one to them.

    Once you've sold your items, though, you might be upset to find that one of them gets retued for a refund. Our next email will show you how to tu these retus into profits!

    Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

    Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and inteet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

    How to Find Your Way at eBay

    Despite its colossal size, navigating through eBay pages is not a problem at all. Here is a quick summary of how to find your way at eBay.

    If you want to sign up at eBay (that�s the first thing you will have to do, if you want to take active part on eBay), look for �Register�. If you have already registered yourself with eBay, click on �Sign in� to enter into the most exciting market place in the world for participation.

    If you want to buy something on eBay, look for �Buy� on the main page. Once you have selected an item for purchase, and you happen to be the highest bidder after the expiry (delisting of item), you have to click �Pay� to facilitate the payment for the item won by you. Similarly if you want to sell something, simply clicking �Sell� on the page will redirect you to desired place.

    After having registered at eBay, your account is opened at the market place. This can be accessed by clicking �My eBay�. EBay�s efforts on making the website user friendly are laudable. You can have help two ways � through �Help� or having a live help (through chat).

    EBay also offers host of other services for the buyers and sellers. Click on �Services� to have a look at the services offered by eBay to its members.

    Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay sellers, retailers, and flea market vendors.

    Wednesday, April 1, 2009

    E bay Auctions Sell Better Spend Less Tip 1

    Just about everyone alive today has heard of E Bay.com, but most people don�t realize the sheer size and complexity of this Auction beast. Do you have something to sell? Then read on for the single most important tip to Selling better and Spending less.

    79 million searches are done on E bay each day. Yes that is a very large number of searches, large enough to contain very valuable selling potential, but there are also around 19 million items on E Bay.com alone on any given day. After you have time to take this in please continue reading this article.

    How can I sell more effectively? How can I lower the cost of my auctions? These are good questions with many answers, but I will cover in my opinion, the most important and effective e Bay tip of all.

    More Pictures!!!

    It is a proven fact that the more pictures taken of an item, the better it will sell. Not only will you get more bids, but you will get a higher final price.

    The Problem.

    You will never list as many pictures as you should because E-bay by default charges per picture. This causes you to ask yourself, do I really need another picture? This kind of thinking is bad for business. You should instead be asking yourself, how many different pictures can I take of this item? This brings us to the problem. Ebay charges you for every picture they host. So more pictures = more expensive auction.

    The Solution

    The single best thing you can do as a seller is to look into paying for an Unlimited Picture Hosting Service. These services will host an unlimited number of pictures for you and some are very easy to use. Let me show you an example. My favorite is FoamTemplates.com.

    FoamTemplates.com give you unlimited uploads and they are very easy to use. And even more imporantly, they don�t restrict how many times your picture can be seen! This is very important. It is very annoying to view an auction and see that Bandwidth exceeded message. Foam Premium costs around $8 a month and includes a really nice template maker that allows you to design your whole auction on the FoamTemplates webpage. It even gives you the option to thumbnail your pictures if you have very many so your viewers don�t have to scroll 3 miles down to see your payment information.

    If you see any other services that come close to this, please contact me and let me know and I will compare them. Hope this tip will save you as much money as it has me!

    Joe Regan is a freelance writer for various websites.

    More FOAM Information:

    Free e bay.com Auction Image Hosting for your Auction Picture Hosting Needs. FOAMTemplates is compatible with E-bay and other online Auctions. Free E Bay.com Auction Template Maker allows you to design custom auction templates for auction sites including but not limited to E-Bay. Any Html auction service will work. We also offer a members only section with enhanced features such as unlimited picture uploading, and auto thumbnailing. Thank you for your interest. - FOAM Team

    Online Auctions 10 Secrets You Should Know Before Bidding At An Online Auction

    You may have heard about ebay and other online auctions.

    You may have participated in some of the biddings.

    But before you do the next bidding for a product or service, here are some few important secret tips to help you:

    1. Know the value of the product before you bid. If the product is brand new, check to see what price retailers are charging for it. If the product is used or reconditioned, you will want to pay way less than the retail value.

    2. If the product's description or picture isn't detailed enough for you, contact the merchant to get more information before you bid. You don't want to take a chance to waste your hard eaed money.

    3. Know the highest price you will bid for the product and stick with it. Don't get caught up in a bidding war; you may end up paying more than the product's worth. Don't forget to add in the shipping price with your bid.

    4. Visit a few online auctions before bidding because some merchants auction the same product in many auctions. You usually can purchase the product for a lower price in a unpopular auction because there are less bidders.

    5. Know the time the auction begins and ends. You also want to know how long it will take to ship. If you need the product by a certain date, you'll want to estimate the time it will take to receive it.

    6. Know the payment options the merchant accepts before you bid on their product. If they only accept checks or money orders, it may take even longer to get the product because the payment has to clear. If they accept credit cards make sure they have a secure server.

    7. Know if the merchant offers a warranty or money back guarantee or before bidding on a product. You don't want to get stuck with a product that does not work or you're not satisfied with.

    8. Online auctions will, sometimes, allow you to check the merchants history with their auction. Check to see if people have complained about the their products or business practices before you decide to bid.

    9. It's important to place a bid early in the auction to show other bidders you are interested in the product. If someone does out bid you, don't be afraid to out bid them. Remember not to go over your maximum bid price.

    10. Another reason to know when the auction ends; you can place a last minute bid. The other bidders may not be keeping track of when the auction ends or may not have the time to bid again.

    Warmly,

    I-key Benney, CEO

    I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of "Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System", home based business, online investment opportunity (http://www.mscsrrr.com) which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

    Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free �cash�.