eBay are a little strict about letting you withdraw your bid. They call it a ‘bid retraction’, and have a stringent set of conditions that you must meet before you are allowed to do it. Here are eBay’s three acceptable reasons for withdrawing a bid.
You made a typographical error: This means that you accidentally typed the wrong amount into the bid box, bidding a far higher price than you meant to. This can be scary: imagine bidding $100 and accidentally adding an extra ‘0’! You are entirely allowed to withdraw your bid in this situation, and bid again if you want to.
The item’s description changed: If you bid on something and then the seller updates the description, you have the right to withdraw your bid. It wouldn’t be fair, after all, to force you to take something that you now realise you don’t want.
The seller is uncontactable: If emails to the seller bounce and they don’t answer their phone, then the auction obviously can’t continue, and you can cancel it.
So How Do I Retract My Bid?
eBay hide away the bid retraction form a bit, because they don’t like people using it. You can find it by going here:
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?RetractBidShow
Now all you need is the item number from your auction: this can be found on the item description page’s top right corner. If you can’t see it on the page, look in your browser’s title bar, and in any emails eBay have sent you about your bid on the item. Choose one of the three allowed reasons, click ‘retract bid’, and you’re done.
Are There Any Consequences?
Well yes, there are. The more unethical among you might have considered that you could just cancel bids anytime you feel like it by saying that you accidentally entered the wrong amount. eBay are one step ahead of you. Each time you retract a bid, it is counted on your feedback page for all to see – and anyone with a lot of retracted bids looks more than a little dodgy. eBay also say that abusing the bid retraction feature could get you banned.
So is there a way to retract your bid without facing a penalty? There is if your seller is nice, and most are. Sellers can cancel bids on their auctions at any time, and if you email them with a half-decent excuse then most will be more than happy to do this for you. After all, it’s not in their interest for their item to go to someone who won’t like it, as you might leave negative feedback.
Of course, retracting your bid should still be a rare thing: you won’t win auctions that way! If you’ve followed us this far, the chances are you’ve won an auction by now, or you’re close – but you might be a little puzzled about what to do next. Our next post will give you a few pointers.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
eBay Auction Buyer’s Tips and Tricks
eBay isn’t just an auction and a marketplace: often it can feel quite a lot like a game. Like any game, you can get ahead if you think strategically, using your head to outwit the other buyers and get the best price. Here are a few things you can try.
Shop in the Summer.
This is simple, but effective. Summer is the quiet season on eBay – almost everything sells for less. While everyone else is out enjoying the sun, invest a little time to find some real bargains.
Beat Them by a Few Cents.
Outbid people by a few cents instead of a few dollars – if they don’t check back before the auction ends, then you will be the winner. To avoid people using this tactic on you, though, always bid strange, hard-to-guess amounts instead of round numbers.
Play Dirty.
If you know when the auction ends, you can get in there at the very last second and outbid your rivals. The chances are that they won’t have the time to sit in front of the auction waiting for it to end – as a rule, he who stays wins. If someone else does retaliate at the end of the auction, though, try not to get carried away in those last few seconds and end up paying too much!
Take Risks.
This is a strategy for the braver eBay buyer. All of the advice you will see for eBay beginners tells you to buy items that have good pictures, clear descriptions, trustworthy sellers and all the rest. If you’re brave, why not take a risk and do the exact opposite?
Many buyers won’t want that item from the seller with a feedback rating of 5, no picture and a one-line description. If you take a calculated risk and bid anyway, you might be able to make a tiny bid and win by default. There are people on eBay who make their living from winning auctions like these, taking good pictures of the item, writing a good description and then reselling it at a huge profit. Be careful, though: do this for long enough, and you will inevitably lose your money at some point. It’s especially unwise to try it with very high-value items.
Avoid Bidding Wars.
There are few things on eBay that are so rare that you’ll only see them once and never again. There are usually quite a few sellers who have an item. What’s more, they will generally have more than one to sell, even if they haven’t listed them all at once. Always check your seller’s history to see whether they sell your item all the time – and if they do, then wait for the next one instead of bidding to the skies.
Now, there may come a time in your eBay life when you realise that you’ve screwed up your bid, and you wish there was an ‘undo’ button. Here’s the good news for you: there is! The next post will be all about withdrawing your eBay bids.
Shop in the Summer.
This is simple, but effective. Summer is the quiet season on eBay – almost everything sells for less. While everyone else is out enjoying the sun, invest a little time to find some real bargains.
Beat Them by a Few Cents.
Outbid people by a few cents instead of a few dollars – if they don’t check back before the auction ends, then you will be the winner. To avoid people using this tactic on you, though, always bid strange, hard-to-guess amounts instead of round numbers.
Play Dirty.
If you know when the auction ends, you can get in there at the very last second and outbid your rivals. The chances are that they won’t have the time to sit in front of the auction waiting for it to end – as a rule, he who stays wins. If someone else does retaliate at the end of the auction, though, try not to get carried away in those last few seconds and end up paying too much!
Take Risks.
This is a strategy for the braver eBay buyer. All of the advice you will see for eBay beginners tells you to buy items that have good pictures, clear descriptions, trustworthy sellers and all the rest. If you’re brave, why not take a risk and do the exact opposite?
Many buyers won’t want that item from the seller with a feedback rating of 5, no picture and a one-line description. If you take a calculated risk and bid anyway, you might be able to make a tiny bid and win by default. There are people on eBay who make their living from winning auctions like these, taking good pictures of the item, writing a good description and then reselling it at a huge profit. Be careful, though: do this for long enough, and you will inevitably lose your money at some point. It’s especially unwise to try it with very high-value items.
Avoid Bidding Wars.
There are few things on eBay that are so rare that you’ll only see them once and never again. There are usually quite a few sellers who have an item. What’s more, they will generally have more than one to sell, even if they haven’t listed them all at once. Always check your seller’s history to see whether they sell your item all the time – and if they do, then wait for the next one instead of bidding to the skies.
Now, there may come a time in your eBay life when you realise that you’ve screwed up your bid, and you wish there was an ‘undo’ button. Here’s the good news for you: there is! The next post will be all about withdrawing your eBay bids.
Friday, May 15, 2009
When to “Buy Now” and When to Bid
You will often find yourself facing the choice of whether to pay a fixed price or keep on bidding. This choice might be presented to you in a single auction, or you might be choosing between different auctions of the different types. So should you use that ‘Buy it Now’ button or keep on trying to outbid everyone else? It’s all a question of weighing up the advantages and disadvantages.
Buy it Now.
- The Advantages.
When you use Buy it Now, you know the asking price and you can take some time to decide
whether to pay it or not – you can even negotiate. You don’t need to keeping your eye on the auction, or get caught up in the last-minute bidding frenzy that is now inevitable on any popular item.
Not only that, but the seller will be happy to get a fixed price for their item, and they’re likely to nicer to you than usual. Some sellers can be a little resentful when they feel that you got a little too much of a bargain on their item.
- The Disadvantages.
You will almost certainly pay more for the item, especially with more expensive items. Also, it takes some of the fun out of eBay. Aren’t you there for an auction, after all? If you want to pay a fixed price then there are thousands of online stores you could be visiting. It’s like pressing ‘collect’ instead of ‘gamble’ on a fruit machine: it’s the boring option. But then, maybe that’s what you want.
These rules are relatively constant: there are few times when using Buy it Now would allow you to get something cheaper, or when bidding would be an easier way to do it. In the end, as with so many things in life, it’s a simple question of price vs. convenience, and it’s up to you.
There are those times, though, when the strategic use of the Buy it Now button can be a useful tool to help you outwit your competition. If the current bid is almost as high as the Buy it Now price, then why bid higher and keep the contest going? Clicking that button is a no-brainer. The same goes for times when a seller has, for some reason, set the Buy it Now price only slightly higher than their starting price for bids. Why bother to go through all the hassle of bidding?
You might also find that there are times when you should leave the Buy it Now button as a last resort: it can be a useful way of ending last-minute contests with a decisive ‘this is mine’ gesture.
In fact, there are all sorts of tricks you can use on eBay, if you want to get ahead of the game. Remember that most buyers on eBay are casual, and don’t know what they’re doing: a little knowledge can go a long way in getting you an advantage. Our next post will have a few tips and tricks for you.
Buy it Now.
- The Advantages.
When you use Buy it Now, you know the asking price and you can take some time to decide
whether to pay it or not – you can even negotiate. You don’t need to keeping your eye on the auction, or get caught up in the last-minute bidding frenzy that is now inevitable on any popular item.
Not only that, but the seller will be happy to get a fixed price for their item, and they’re likely to nicer to you than usual. Some sellers can be a little resentful when they feel that you got a little too much of a bargain on their item.
- The Disadvantages.
You will almost certainly pay more for the item, especially with more expensive items. Also, it takes some of the fun out of eBay. Aren’t you there for an auction, after all? If you want to pay a fixed price then there are thousands of online stores you could be visiting. It’s like pressing ‘collect’ instead of ‘gamble’ on a fruit machine: it’s the boring option. But then, maybe that’s what you want.
These rules are relatively constant: there are few times when using Buy it Now would allow you to get something cheaper, or when bidding would be an easier way to do it. In the end, as with so many things in life, it’s a simple question of price vs. convenience, and it’s up to you.
There are those times, though, when the strategic use of the Buy it Now button can be a useful tool to help you outwit your competition. If the current bid is almost as high as the Buy it Now price, then why bid higher and keep the contest going? Clicking that button is a no-brainer. The same goes for times when a seller has, for some reason, set the Buy it Now price only slightly higher than their starting price for bids. Why bother to go through all the hassle of bidding?
You might also find that there are times when you should leave the Buy it Now button as a last resort: it can be a useful way of ending last-minute contests with a decisive ‘this is mine’ gesture.
In fact, there are all sorts of tricks you can use on eBay, if you want to get ahead of the game. Remember that most buyers on eBay are casual, and don’t know what they’re doing: a little knowledge can go a long way in getting you an advantage. Our next post will have a few tips and tricks for you.
Understanding the Different eBay Auction Types
Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay. There are many people who don’t like the idea that their item might sell for a far lower price than they intend.
Equally, there are people who have hundreds of the same item and don’t want to sell them individually. This email gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and how to spot them.
Normal Auctions.
These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: you bid, others outbid you, you outbid them, and the winner gets the item. Simple.
Reserve Auctions.
Reserve auctions are for sellers who don’t want their items to sell for less than a certain price – a concept you’ll know about if you’re familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that you will be told if your bid has not met the reserve price set by the seller. If no-one is willing to meet this price, then the auction is cancelled, and the seller keeps the item.
You can spot these auctions by looking out for ‘Reserve not met’ or ‘Reserve met’ written next to the current bid on an item’s description page.
Fixed Price (‘Buy it Now’) Auctions.
Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. A seller might add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that you can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This means that you can negotiate a price to someone who offers their items using Buy it Now, which could be a great way to get a bargain on things that don’t seem to be selling.
Fixed price auctions are easy to spot, as they have a little ‘Buy it Now’ logo either next to or instead of the current number of bids on the search listings page.
Multiple Item (‘Dutch’) Auctions.
These are auctions where a seller is selling more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then don’t worry – everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.
What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that they say how many they have, and offer them at a fixed price. You can enter how many you want and then just click Buy it
Now to get them.
After all this, you might find yourself facing a dilemma: when you have the option, should you bid, or should you just use Buy it Now and save yourself the hassle? That’s what the next post will be about.
Equally, there are people who have hundreds of the same item and don’t want to sell them individually. This email gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and how to spot them.
Normal Auctions.
These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: you bid, others outbid you, you outbid them, and the winner gets the item. Simple.
Reserve Auctions.
Reserve auctions are for sellers who don’t want their items to sell for less than a certain price – a concept you’ll know about if you’re familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that you will be told if your bid has not met the reserve price set by the seller. If no-one is willing to meet this price, then the auction is cancelled, and the seller keeps the item.
You can spot these auctions by looking out for ‘Reserve not met’ or ‘Reserve met’ written next to the current bid on an item’s description page.
Fixed Price (‘Buy it Now’) Auctions.
Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. A seller might add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that you can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This means that you can negotiate a price to someone who offers their items using Buy it Now, which could be a great way to get a bargain on things that don’t seem to be selling.
Fixed price auctions are easy to spot, as they have a little ‘Buy it Now’ logo either next to or instead of the current number of bids on the search listings page.
Multiple Item (‘Dutch’) Auctions.
These are auctions where a seller is selling more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then don’t worry – everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.
What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that they say how many they have, and offer them at a fixed price. You can enter how many you want and then just click Buy it
Now to get them.
After all this, you might find yourself facing a dilemma: when you have the option, should you bid, or should you just use Buy it Now and save yourself the hassle? That’s what the next post will be about.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
eBay.com sellers get five free auctions every month
eBay.com have announced five free auctions every 30 days, for all sellers, starting in June this year. Insertion fees will be zero with a final value fee of 8.75% capped at a maximum of $20 (for the sixth and subsequent listings fees will be as normal).
eBay say this is open to all sellers, but that’s not quite true. To qualify you have to use either the Sell Your Item (SYI) form or Simple listing form, you can “opt out” by using an eBay tool or third-party listing solution. Quite frankly not many pro-sellers will want to use the SYI form so simply won’t be eligible, which is probably a good thing if you expect your item to sell for a high price (More than $62.00 final value and you’re cheaper “opting out”.
Also if you’re going to list an item with a Start/BIN/Reserve price of $18 million or higher you’ll sadly be excluded from the promotion. I’d suggest starting your item at at a big price but a pence less than $18 million as then your final value fee will be just $20Adding videos to your eBay listings
Most newer cell phones and digital cameras have video capabilities, so why not use that to your advantage on your eBay listings?
You don’t have to be an experienced video producer to create videos to post on eBay with your listings. Including a video allows you to show 360 degree views of the product, talk directly to shoppers, demonstrate the product in use, and add your own personal creativity to your listings.
Adding video is easy. Just embed the code into the HTML portion of the listing.
If your item is a new consumer item, such as a technical product, you may want to use a TV commercial already uploaded to a public site. This is perfectly eBay legal. eBay likes this - a professionally made commercial will help sell your item, and both you and eBay will benefit. Using a previously uploaded TV commercial will save you time. Let the commercial do the selling for you - why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?
If you are creating your own video, make sure that the final video has a clear picture and good sound quality. Show 360 degree views of the product and demonstrate using the product if applicable.
Write your listing as usual and include all relevant information in the description text. Understand that not everyone will be able to view your video due to slow connections, sound problems, and other technical issues. You want to be sure to use words and photos as well as video to describe the item. You don't want to miss a sale if the customer can't watch the video and there is no other information about your item on the listing. He will get frustrated and just click away.
You can embed code for videos from any of these sites:
AOL
AuctionMercial
AuctionPlayer
AuctionVideo
CarTHINK
CreativeVideosOnline
Dailymotion
Google
i2iAuction
Microsoft
MySpace
Silverdock
Vzaar (Will go into more detail later on this cool new service)
YouTube
Give it a try! You might be surprised at how much fun it can be to include the videos. It is like making your own TV commercial!
You don’t have to be an experienced video producer to create videos to post on eBay with your listings. Including a video allows you to show 360 degree views of the product, talk directly to shoppers, demonstrate the product in use, and add your own personal creativity to your listings.
Adding video is easy. Just embed the code into the HTML portion of the listing.
If your item is a new consumer item, such as a technical product, you may want to use a TV commercial already uploaded to a public site. This is perfectly eBay legal. eBay likes this - a professionally made commercial will help sell your item, and both you and eBay will benefit. Using a previously uploaded TV commercial will save you time. Let the commercial do the selling for you - why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?
If you are creating your own video, make sure that the final video has a clear picture and good sound quality. Show 360 degree views of the product and demonstrate using the product if applicable.
Write your listing as usual and include all relevant information in the description text. Understand that not everyone will be able to view your video due to slow connections, sound problems, and other technical issues. You want to be sure to use words and photos as well as video to describe the item. You don't want to miss a sale if the customer can't watch the video and there is no other information about your item on the listing. He will get frustrated and just click away.
You can embed code for videos from any of these sites:
AOL
AuctionMercial
AuctionPlayer
AuctionVideo
CarTHINK
CreativeVideosOnline
Dailymotion
i2iAuction
Microsoft
MySpace
Silverdock
Vzaar (Will go into more detail later on this cool new service)
YouTube
Give it a try! You might be surprised at how much fun it can be to include the videos. It is like making your own TV commercial!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
10 Ways to Avoid Being Ripped Off on eBay
It is important to remember that eBay is a lot like a marketplace. There will always be a dodgy guy in the corner, selling things that most people wouldn’t touch. The trouble is that, on the Internet, these people can be a little harder to spot. Here are ten tips to help you keep an eye out for the rip-off merchants.
1. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is: This holds for everything in life, but especially for eBay. Things that seem too cheap are usually too cheap for a reason – it might be a complete scam, or the items might just be of extremely poor quality. Investigate before you go further.
2. Know the value of what you want to buy: There are people on eBay who regularly bid such high prices for used cameras that they might as well have gone out and bought them brand new. Check around for prices first.
3. Only bid on real things: eBay has plenty of people who are trying to sell all sorts of schemes and scams. It is never worth bidding for these, no matter how cheap they might be.
4. Don’t do anything outside eBay: Occasionally people will ask you to send them money outside eBay, to avoid the fees eBay charges sellers. Any money you send this way is entirely insecure – don’t do it.
5. Be careful where you send payment: People may hack into others’ accounts, and ask you to send payment to addresses that eBay has not confirmed as belonging to that account – you might send your money and receive nothing in return.
6. Look out for sellers who suddenly change what they sell: Sellers can look like they’ve made lots of transactions, when really they’ve never sold anything of worth. If they suddenly start selling $1,000 televisions, steer clear – the chances are they’re planning to run off with the money.
7. Beware the shill bidder: If someone who doesn’t seem to have bought anything before is constantly outbidding you on a certain item, be suspicious. It might be a seller ‘shill bidding’ to force up his item’s price.
8. Don’t use the seller’s escrow service: If an escrow service is recommended to you by a seller, it could well be owned and run by them – and they’re quite likely to keep your money and send you nothing.
9. Pay electronically: You are more likely to be able to recover any losses if you pay using a credit card instead of sending out cheques and money orders – these low-tech payment methods can’t be tracked as easily.
10. Buy from reputable sellers: Each seller has a number next to their name, which is their feedback rating. The higher this rating, the more you can trust them.
1. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is: This holds for everything in life, but especially for eBay. Things that seem too cheap are usually too cheap for a reason – it might be a complete scam, or the items might just be of extremely poor quality. Investigate before you go further.
2. Know the value of what you want to buy: There are people on eBay who regularly bid such high prices for used cameras that they might as well have gone out and bought them brand new. Check around for prices first.
3. Only bid on real things: eBay has plenty of people who are trying to sell all sorts of schemes and scams. It is never worth bidding for these, no matter how cheap they might be.
4. Don’t do anything outside eBay: Occasionally people will ask you to send them money outside eBay, to avoid the fees eBay charges sellers. Any money you send this way is entirely insecure – don’t do it.
5. Be careful where you send payment: People may hack into others’ accounts, and ask you to send payment to addresses that eBay has not confirmed as belonging to that account – you might send your money and receive nothing in return.
6. Look out for sellers who suddenly change what they sell: Sellers can look like they’ve made lots of transactions, when really they’ve never sold anything of worth. If they suddenly start selling $1,000 televisions, steer clear – the chances are they’re planning to run off with the money.
7. Beware the shill bidder: If someone who doesn’t seem to have bought anything before is constantly outbidding you on a certain item, be suspicious. It might be a seller ‘shill bidding’ to force up his item’s price.
8. Don’t use the seller’s escrow service: If an escrow service is recommended to you by a seller, it could well be owned and run by them – and they’re quite likely to keep your money and send you nothing.
9. Pay electronically: You are more likely to be able to recover any losses if you pay using a credit card instead of sending out cheques and money orders – these low-tech payment methods can’t be tracked as easily.
10. Buy from reputable sellers: Each seller has a number next to their name, which is their feedback rating. The higher this rating, the more you can trust them.
Your Rights as an eBay Buyer
When you buy things on eBay, you pay the seller before they send you anything. This means that you, as a buyer, are vulnerable to all sorts of problems. You might not get the items you have paid for, or they might be damaged or faulty. Luckily, you have two very important rights when you buy on eBay.
The Right to Receive Your Item.
Maybe the seller never sent the item, or maybe it got lost in the post. Whatever happened, you paid for the item. If it doesn’t arrive in the post as described, you have the right to a replacement or a refund, whether it’s the seller’s fault or not.
The fact that you bought something on eBay doesn’t mean that you don’t have the exact same rights that you would have if you bought it in a shop (these rights are pretty much the same all over the world). Plus, under eBay’s rules, the seller isn’t allowed to change their mind about selling you the item: once the auction ends, it becomes a contract – you must buy and they must sell, or face eBay’s penalties.
The Right for Your Item to Be as Described in the Auction.
Sometimes sellers don’t wrap items properly, and so they get broken. Occasionally they write descriptions that are misleading or just plain wrong to begin with, leaving out vital details that would have caused you to change your mind about buying. If this happens to you, you again have the right to a replacement or a refund.
So How Do I Use My Rights?
First, you should take it up with the seller – most will be responsive, as do not want to have their reputation damaged when an upset buyer leaves negative feedback for all their future buyers to see. If that doesn’t work, report them to eBay.
While eBay don’t have many people handling complaints, they do have a relatively effective set of automatic process to handle common problems buyers and sellers have with one another.
Finally, if that doesn’t work, then you should seek advice from consumer groups in your country, and as a last resort from the police. You should never have to get this far, though: problems on eBay that can’t be resolved easily are extremely rare.
Don’t Be Too Quick.
Remember not to get too annoyed and be unfair to the seller: nice sellers have agreed to give me refunds for undelivered items, only for me to find out a few weeks later that they were being held for me at the post office! Always try your best to communicate and think of everything that might have gone wrong: eBay works best when buyers and sellers sort out their problems together, instead of reporting each other to the authorities straight away.
More often that not receiving what they paid for, buyers have an altogether different problem: they knew what they were paying for, but didn’t realise that what they were paying for was overpriced, low quality or a scam. The next post will give you a list of tips on how to avoid being ripped off on eBay.
The Right to Receive Your Item.
Maybe the seller never sent the item, or maybe it got lost in the post. Whatever happened, you paid for the item. If it doesn’t arrive in the post as described, you have the right to a replacement or a refund, whether it’s the seller’s fault or not.
The fact that you bought something on eBay doesn’t mean that you don’t have the exact same rights that you would have if you bought it in a shop (these rights are pretty much the same all over the world). Plus, under eBay’s rules, the seller isn’t allowed to change their mind about selling you the item: once the auction ends, it becomes a contract – you must buy and they must sell, or face eBay’s penalties.
The Right for Your Item to Be as Described in the Auction.
Sometimes sellers don’t wrap items properly, and so they get broken. Occasionally they write descriptions that are misleading or just plain wrong to begin with, leaving out vital details that would have caused you to change your mind about buying. If this happens to you, you again have the right to a replacement or a refund.
So How Do I Use My Rights?
First, you should take it up with the seller – most will be responsive, as do not want to have their reputation damaged when an upset buyer leaves negative feedback for all their future buyers to see. If that doesn’t work, report them to eBay.
While eBay don’t have many people handling complaints, they do have a relatively effective set of automatic process to handle common problems buyers and sellers have with one another.
Finally, if that doesn’t work, then you should seek advice from consumer groups in your country, and as a last resort from the police. You should never have to get this far, though: problems on eBay that can’t be resolved easily are extremely rare.
Don’t Be Too Quick.
Remember not to get too annoyed and be unfair to the seller: nice sellers have agreed to give me refunds for undelivered items, only for me to find out a few weeks later that they were being held for me at the post office! Always try your best to communicate and think of everything that might have gone wrong: eBay works best when buyers and sellers sort out their problems together, instead of reporting each other to the authorities straight away.
More often that not receiving what they paid for, buyers have an altogether different problem: they knew what they were paying for, but didn’t realise that what they were paying for was overpriced, low quality or a scam. The next post will give you a list of tips on how to avoid being ripped off on eBay.
Friday, May 8, 2009
An Introduction to Bidding and Buying on eBay
Have you noticed that whenever you open a newspaper, watch the TV or have a conversation, people seem to be talking about eBay? If you’ve never used it and you’ve no idea what it’s all about, then the chances are that you’re starting to feel a little left out. But don’t worry! This email contains everything you need to know about the basics of bidding and buying on eBay.
So What is eBay?
eBay is an online auction website – and not just any auction site, but the biggest one in the world. If you know how an auction works, then you already know how roughly eBay works. Someone adds something they want to sell to the site, and then buyers come along and place bids on it. The highest bid wins the item! It’s that simple.
eBay being an online auction makes a big difference, though. Buying and selling are not reserved for any elite. eBay accept almost any item, no matter how small, and will then advertise it on their sites all over the world. It’s a powerful combination of an auction and a slightly chaotic marketplace.
What is Bidding?
Bidding is when you say how much you will pay for an item in an auction. Bidding on eBay, however, doesn’t work in exactly the same way as a normal auction, at least in theory. On eBay, you tell the site what the maximum you are willing to pay for each item is, and then eBay places the bids on your behalf. That means you could say you were willing to pay up to $100 for something and only have to pay $50, if that was the highest maximum bid anyone else placed.
It’s not as complicated as it sounds – the best way to get used to it is to give it a try. First, the best thing to do is to go to the eBay website designed for your country. If you don’t know the address for it, just go to www.ebay.com and it will tell you there. Now, on the front page you should see a big box marked ‘search’: just type in anything that you’d like to buy there.
Wasn’t that easy? Now you should have a list of items for sale in front of you, along with how much people are currently bidding for them and the time when bidding ends for each item. If you click one of these, you can read the description, and then – if you’re happy with the item and happy to pay more than the current highest bidder is – you can bid!
How Do I Bid?
Go ahead and scroll down to the bottom of an item’s description page, and type the maximum you are willing to pay (your maximum bid) into the box. Then simply press the ‘place bid’ button – you will need to sign in once you press the button, or go through a quick registration process if you don’t have an eBay username).
If someone else’s maximum bid on that item is higher than yours, then eBay will tell you and give you the opportunity to bid again. Otherwise, you’re now the new highest bidder! All you need to do now is wait until the end of the auction – if someone else outbids you, then eBay will email you and you can bid again.
All sounds great, doesn’t it? But by now you might be wondering whether a site as chaotic as eBay can really be all that safe to buy from. That’s why the next post in this series will be about your rights when you buy from eBay.
So What is eBay?
eBay is an online auction website – and not just any auction site, but the biggest one in the world. If you know how an auction works, then you already know how roughly eBay works. Someone adds something they want to sell to the site, and then buyers come along and place bids on it. The highest bid wins the item! It’s that simple.
eBay being an online auction makes a big difference, though. Buying and selling are not reserved for any elite. eBay accept almost any item, no matter how small, and will then advertise it on their sites all over the world. It’s a powerful combination of an auction and a slightly chaotic marketplace.
What is Bidding?
Bidding is when you say how much you will pay for an item in an auction. Bidding on eBay, however, doesn’t work in exactly the same way as a normal auction, at least in theory. On eBay, you tell the site what the maximum you are willing to pay for each item is, and then eBay places the bids on your behalf. That means you could say you were willing to pay up to $100 for something and only have to pay $50, if that was the highest maximum bid anyone else placed.
It’s not as complicated as it sounds – the best way to get used to it is to give it a try. First, the best thing to do is to go to the eBay website designed for your country. If you don’t know the address for it, just go to www.ebay.com and it will tell you there. Now, on the front page you should see a big box marked ‘search’: just type in anything that you’d like to buy there.
Wasn’t that easy? Now you should have a list of items for sale in front of you, along with how much people are currently bidding for them and the time when bidding ends for each item. If you click one of these, you can read the description, and then – if you’re happy with the item and happy to pay more than the current highest bidder is – you can bid!
How Do I Bid?
Go ahead and scroll down to the bottom of an item’s description page, and type the maximum you are willing to pay (your maximum bid) into the box. Then simply press the ‘place bid’ button – you will need to sign in once you press the button, or go through a quick registration process if you don’t have an eBay username).
If someone else’s maximum bid on that item is higher than yours, then eBay will tell you and give you the opportunity to bid again. Otherwise, you’re now the new highest bidder! All you need to do now is wait until the end of the auction – if someone else outbids you, then eBay will email you and you can bid again.
All sounds great, doesn’t it? But by now you might be wondering whether a site as chaotic as eBay can really be all that safe to buy from. That’s why the next post in this series will be about your rights when you buy from eBay.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
How to Make More Money with eBay’s Affiliate Program
If you’ve been on the web for a while, the chances are that at some time or other you will have taken part in an affiliate program. They generally work by giving you a URL to send people to their site that contains your affiliate number, and then giving you a small amount for each person who comes in using your link and signs up or buys something.
eBay's affiliate program follows this basic formula, but with a few twists.
It pays a lot: Each user who follows your link to eBay, signs up and then bids on anything within 30 days will earn you $20. Most affiliate programs will only give you something like 10% of the user’s first purchase. What’s more, for each existing eBay user who clicks through from your site and then places a bid or buys something, you’ll get 10c.
You can be your own affiliate: If you just link to your own auctions with your affiliate link number from your own website, then you’re getting money without sending buyers to anyone except yourself. There aren’t many affiliate programs that can say that.
So Where Do I Sign Up?
You can visit eBay’s affiliate program at http://affiliates.ebay.com. Once you’re there, just click ‘Join the Program’. You will then be required to sign up for Commission Junction, which is free.
How Can I Get People to Click the Links?
eBay suggest a number of ‘business models’ for their affiliates. Before people can click your affiliate links, they need to be at your website. There are two ways to get them there using a search engine, which eBay refer to as ‘natural’ and ‘paid’ search.
Natural search: This is when someone finds your website in a search engine’s normal results, either because something you wrote is relevant to them or you used SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques. Be careful not to use any dodgy methods to get a high search engine ranking, though, or eBay might come after you and keep your affiliate money.
Paid search: This strategy involves paying for traffic to your website or directly to eBay, by buying ads on search engines. If you go for this option, it’s actually worth placing ads on the less popular search engines instead of the big ones: they’ll have similar click-through rates as a percentage, but the cost typically won’t be anywhere near as high.
Content: What you can do is just have a normal website, with articles on a variety of subjects and perhaps a community forum. Run the website for pleasure, but place the occasional eBay affiliate link there.
Newsletters: Don’t ignore the potential of putting your affiliate ID in each time you send out a newsletter. You can get 10c for every bid it generates with no extra work, which could be enough for the email to pay for itself, whether it leads to any sales or not.
Sadly, our time together is nearly at an end, but there is one thing that I have left to show you. It’s called the featured gallery, and it could help your sales. Look out for the next post!
eBay's affiliate program follows this basic formula, but with a few twists.
It pays a lot: Each user who follows your link to eBay, signs up and then bids on anything within 30 days will earn you $20. Most affiliate programs will only give you something like 10% of the user’s first purchase. What’s more, for each existing eBay user who clicks through from your site and then places a bid or buys something, you’ll get 10c.
You can be your own affiliate: If you just link to your own auctions with your affiliate link number from your own website, then you’re getting money without sending buyers to anyone except yourself. There aren’t many affiliate programs that can say that.
So Where Do I Sign Up?
You can visit eBay’s affiliate program at http://affiliates.ebay.com. Once you’re there, just click ‘Join the Program’. You will then be required to sign up for Commission Junction, which is free.
How Can I Get People to Click the Links?
eBay suggest a number of ‘business models’ for their affiliates. Before people can click your affiliate links, they need to be at your website. There are two ways to get them there using a search engine, which eBay refer to as ‘natural’ and ‘paid’ search.
Natural search: This is when someone finds your website in a search engine’s normal results, either because something you wrote is relevant to them or you used SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques. Be careful not to use any dodgy methods to get a high search engine ranking, though, or eBay might come after you and keep your affiliate money.
Paid search: This strategy involves paying for traffic to your website or directly to eBay, by buying ads on search engines. If you go for this option, it’s actually worth placing ads on the less popular search engines instead of the big ones: they’ll have similar click-through rates as a percentage, but the cost typically won’t be anywhere near as high.
Content: What you can do is just have a normal website, with articles on a variety of subjects and perhaps a community forum. Run the website for pleasure, but place the occasional eBay affiliate link there.
Newsletters: Don’t ignore the potential of putting your affiliate ID in each time you send out a newsletter. You can get 10c for every bid it generates with no extra work, which could be enough for the email to pay for itself, whether it leads to any sales or not.
Sadly, our time together is nearly at an end, but there is one thing that I have left to show you. It’s called the featured gallery, and it could help your sales. Look out for the next post!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Understanding eBay’s “Description Theft” Policy
When a seller writes an original description of an item or takes an original picture, they own the copyright on their work. This happens without any requirement for them to register or even to want the copyright – that’s just the way copyright works. What that means is that it’s actually illegal to copy another sellers description or pictures.
eBay's Policy:
eBay refer to the practice of copying another seller’s listing and using it in your own auction as ‘description theft’. It is against their listing policies, and ignorance of the rules is no defence.
What Could Happen?
If your ‘theft’ is discovered, then your listing will be ended and all bids will be cancelled. Do it more than once and your account could get suspended, and you’re subject to the usual eBay punishments: you could lose PowerSeller privileges, or your auctions could be ended, leaving you with a stack of eBay fees.
Is it Likely?
It’s only likely that eBay will investigate description theft and go after you if the seller whose description you took actually takes the time to report you. When you’re competing with that seller directly, though, don’t be surprised if they do turn you in – after all, you’re their competitor!
Think of how you’d feel if someone was re-using a description that you took the time to research and fine-tune for the most sales – and not only that, but they were using it against you, to list competingitems. That’s why other sellers don’t want their descriptions taken.
But I Don’t Like Writing Descriptions:
Instead of taking another seller’s descriptions, you can use the stock descriptions that eBay have on file for many items, especially things like CDs, DVDs and books. Simply enter the item’s unique ID number (an ISBN for a book, for example), and the listing will be created for you. If you can’t find any unique ID, then you can also search by name to find a matching item.
Once you’ve found your item, you’ll get a listing with all the technical details on the item, and often a stock picture, too. This is called ‘pre-filled item information’, and eBay licence it from big databases on your behalf.
It really is worth taking the time to write your own descriptions, though, as many people will be listing items using the pre-filled information. Remember that if you sell the same things often then you can re-use your own descriptions as many times as you want. You can keep your own database, re-using the ones that get high prices and re-writing the ones that don’t. Writing descriptions is the biggest way that you have control over your auctions.
It’s easy to keep discovering new things about eBay, isn’t it? So many of the rules and functions are completely hidden away that sometimes it feels like unravelling one big mystery – and, for me at least, that’s a big part of the fun. In the next post, we’ll take a look at how to make more money with eBay’s affiliate program.
eBay's Policy:
eBay refer to the practice of copying another seller’s listing and using it in your own auction as ‘description theft’. It is against their listing policies, and ignorance of the rules is no defence.
What Could Happen?
If your ‘theft’ is discovered, then your listing will be ended and all bids will be cancelled. Do it more than once and your account could get suspended, and you’re subject to the usual eBay punishments: you could lose PowerSeller privileges, or your auctions could be ended, leaving you with a stack of eBay fees.
Is it Likely?
It’s only likely that eBay will investigate description theft and go after you if the seller whose description you took actually takes the time to report you. When you’re competing with that seller directly, though, don’t be surprised if they do turn you in – after all, you’re their competitor!
Think of how you’d feel if someone was re-using a description that you took the time to research and fine-tune for the most sales – and not only that, but they were using it against you, to list competingitems. That’s why other sellers don’t want their descriptions taken.
But I Don’t Like Writing Descriptions:
Instead of taking another seller’s descriptions, you can use the stock descriptions that eBay have on file for many items, especially things like CDs, DVDs and books. Simply enter the item’s unique ID number (an ISBN for a book, for example), and the listing will be created for you. If you can’t find any unique ID, then you can also search by name to find a matching item.
Once you’ve found your item, you’ll get a listing with all the technical details on the item, and often a stock picture, too. This is called ‘pre-filled item information’, and eBay licence it from big databases on your behalf.
It really is worth taking the time to write your own descriptions, though, as many people will be listing items using the pre-filled information. Remember that if you sell the same things often then you can re-use your own descriptions as many times as you want. You can keep your own database, re-using the ones that get high prices and re-writing the ones that don’t. Writing descriptions is the biggest way that you have control over your auctions.
It’s easy to keep discovering new things about eBay, isn’t it? So many of the rules and functions are completely hidden away that sometimes it feels like unravelling one big mystery – and, for me at least, that’s a big part of the fun. In the next post, we’ll take a look at how to make more money with eBay’s affiliate program.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Tips for Selling Collectibles on eBay
Yes, collectibles! Collectibles are where eBay started, and they’re still one of its biggest areas – however much they might want you to believe they’re not. eBay's most hardcore and long-time users are almost all collectors of something or other – it is quite common to post what you think is a mundane item, only to have collectors suddenly go to war over it because it is somehow linked to something they collect.
Collectors are the people on eBay who really do pay top-dollar for things that seem like junk to you and I – not to mention to the people you’ll be getting your stock from! That’s why you can make so much profit on collectibles. Here are a few tips.
Go to people’s homes: People’s homes are full of things that someone out there collects – they are the best and cheapest source of collectibles out there. Sure, you might find something if you hang around at enough garage sales, but you’d have competition. Getting invited to people’s homes to look around should be a dream for you, and one you’re doing your best to make a reality.
Buy on other auction sites: You’ll be surprised how much money you can make if you buy the collectibles that people sell on smaller auction sites like Yahoo Auctions, and then list it on eBay.
These sellers will often be perfectly knowledgeable about their item, but simply getting a lower price because they serve a smaller marketplace. Sometimes you can almost double your money.
List in non-collectible categories: If your collectible doesn’t have a category of its own under ‘collectibles’, you might prefer to list it in a category that has something to do with the item but nothing to do with collecting. What you will often find is that people browsing a category for their favourite thing will pay more for your collectible than actual collectors would.
Do lots of research: Never list something you think might be valuable without searching and searching to dig up every piece of information you can on it. Everything you find out is likely to be useful when you come to list it.
List every tiny, tiny detail: Remember that collectors really care about the most seemingly insignificant things. An item from one year can be worth thousands while the one from the year before is near-worthless, or an item that is one shade of a colour can be worth far more than one of a subtly different shade. It’s not worth puzzling over and it’s not worth trying to pass your items off as something they’re not – just make sure you put absolutely everything you know in the description.
When you are listing items that require close research and description down to the tiniest detail, however, don’t be tempted to steal someone else’s work! Whatever you do, don’t take another seller’s description and try to pass it off as your own, as this could have all sorts of consequences for you. Our next post gives you a guide to eBay’s policy on ‘description theft’.
Collectors are the people on eBay who really do pay top-dollar for things that seem like junk to you and I – not to mention to the people you’ll be getting your stock from! That’s why you can make so much profit on collectibles. Here are a few tips.
Go to people’s homes: People’s homes are full of things that someone out there collects – they are the best and cheapest source of collectibles out there. Sure, you might find something if you hang around at enough garage sales, but you’d have competition. Getting invited to people’s homes to look around should be a dream for you, and one you’re doing your best to make a reality.
Buy on other auction sites: You’ll be surprised how much money you can make if you buy the collectibles that people sell on smaller auction sites like Yahoo Auctions, and then list it on eBay.
These sellers will often be perfectly knowledgeable about their item, but simply getting a lower price because they serve a smaller marketplace. Sometimes you can almost double your money.
List in non-collectible categories: If your collectible doesn’t have a category of its own under ‘collectibles’, you might prefer to list it in a category that has something to do with the item but nothing to do with collecting. What you will often find is that people browsing a category for their favourite thing will pay more for your collectible than actual collectors would.
Do lots of research: Never list something you think might be valuable without searching and searching to dig up every piece of information you can on it. Everything you find out is likely to be useful when you come to list it.
List every tiny, tiny detail: Remember that collectors really care about the most seemingly insignificant things. An item from one year can be worth thousands while the one from the year before is near-worthless, or an item that is one shade of a colour can be worth far more than one of a subtly different shade. It’s not worth puzzling over and it’s not worth trying to pass your items off as something they’re not – just make sure you put absolutely everything you know in the description.
When you are listing items that require close research and description down to the tiniest detail, however, don’t be tempted to steal someone else’s work! Whatever you do, don’t take another seller’s description and try to pass it off as your own, as this could have all sorts of consequences for you. Our next post gives you a guide to eBay’s policy on ‘description theft’.
eBay CEO: 'We're Not Amazon'
While Amazon's stock price has risen 41 percent over the past two years, eBay's has lost more than 50 percent of its value -- a fact that hasn't gone overlooked by its shareholders.
But speaking today during its annual shareholder meeting, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) CEO John Donahoe downplayed the comparison, saying that eBay has to factor in the needs of its seller community, unlike its e-commerce rival.
"We're not trying to be Amazon, just as Amazon isn't trying to be eBay," he said. "We have to make changes within the context of a buyer-seller community."
Keeping sellers happy is an especially sensitive issue for eBay. The company's efforts to shore up its business last year hit some turbulence as fee and feedback policy changes prompted outrage within the seller community, resulting in widespread boycotts and some online merchants vowing to defect to smaller startup marketplaces.
But during yesterday's shareholder meeting, eBay executives faced questions about whether it had acted too slowly in implementing necessary changes to reverse the stock's decline.
"Our challenge is that we're a marketplace model and we are deeply committed to that -- we're not retail," Donahoe said. "So on the one hand, analysts ask why we aren't changing fast enough, but the fact is we're sensitive to our sellers' needs, and they say we've been too aggressive and too fast, so we try to strike a balance."
"In 2008, we instituted incremental changes to make the experience safer and easier, in the interim, the competition moved faster, so 18 months ago our user experience had to catch up. That meant making not incremental, but fundamental changes -- that meant making controversial changes to feedback, pricing, search.
The news continues efforts by eBay execs to distance their company from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), by saying that the two are fundamentally different businesses: eBay includes a mix of liquidation, collectibles and flea market-type wares based on a tight seller community, while individual sellers have less of a direct role in Amazon's model.But eBay executives are still under the gun to prove their model can work -- especially after posting fourth-quarter results that included a 31 percent decline in revenue -- its a year to year drop of revenue.
Making matters worse is that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported total sales of $4.89 billion, up 18 percent from the first quarter in 2008 and ahead of Wall Street estimates.
The continued problems have industry watchers wondering whether the company's on the correct track.
"I think Donahoe got it right, in terms of sellers saying, 'Stop, it's too much, too fast,'" Ina Steiner, editor of AuctionBytes.com told us in an intervew. "That's absolutely correct."
"But the real question is if the stock is down, are the changes being made the right changes?" she added. "I was surprised given the results of Q4 and Q1 that instead of saying, 'Sure, you're going in the right direction, just not fast enough,' that someone didn't ask if it was the right approach."
For now, the company is forging ahead with a plan of action laid out during the eBay analysts briefing a month ago. According to that plan, the company expects to continue pushing its PayPal unit as the global leader in online payments, while its Skype Internet telephony unit will be spun off, potentially through an IPO.
Meanwhile, eBay's core marketplace will continue shifting to become a more diversified e-commerce platform focusing on liquidation items, Donahoe said today.Thursday, April 30, 2009
eBay Auction Starting and Ending Day Strategies
It’s usually when auctions are about to end that they get half their bids – sometimes they even get their only bids. If you want your item to sell for a good price, then, it makes no sense to let it finish on a day and time when no-one’s going to be around to care.
Selling to Business:
If you’re selling business equipment and have mostly business customers, you should really aim to have your auctions finishing between 9am and 5pm on weekdays. It is worth, however, trying to avoid mornings and avoiding the ‘lead-in’ and ‘lead-out’ that takes place on Monday and Friday themselves.
Selling to Home:
If most of your sales are to private customers having it shipped to their own home, then you want your auctions to finish when these kind of customers will be around. Unfortunately, these times are the opposite of what they are for the business customers. The ideal time to catch a home customer is on a Sunday evening.
List for Durations:
In order to get your listings to end on a particular day, you can simply change the duration of your auctions depending on what day it is. For example, if you mostly sell to home customers and the day today is Thursday, then your auction needs to run for either 3 or 10 days to hit a Sunday. If you sell more to business and the day today is Friday, then:
1 day auction would be bad (finishing on Saturday),
3 days would be alright (Monday),
5 days would be good (Wednesday),
7 days would be good (another Friday), and
10 days would be alright (Monday again).
You could draw up a little timetable of when you should and shouldn’t be listing depending on the days of the week – make it red, amber and green, traffic light style, and stick it on your wall.
Schedule Listings:
Of course, if that all sounds like too much trouble then there is an easier – if more expensive – way of doing things. Simply use any of the many tools that let you schedule listings (almost all listing programs and sites do) – you can set the start date for any day and time you feel like.
Be aware that you might have to pay a few cents per listing for this if you do it through eBay. With some software, you may also need to leave your computer on all the time, so the software can start the auctions when it’s supposed to. The advantage of this method, however, is that there will be no per-listing fee, since the auctions were scheduled through your computer and not through eBay.
If it’s the home market you’re after, then you might not have realised what one of the most powerful things to sell on eBay is. I’ll give you a clue: it’s not consumer electronics, or media products. It’s what eBay is famous for. Check out the next post for more.
Selling to Business:
If you’re selling business equipment and have mostly business customers, you should really aim to have your auctions finishing between 9am and 5pm on weekdays. It is worth, however, trying to avoid mornings and avoiding the ‘lead-in’ and ‘lead-out’ that takes place on Monday and Friday themselves.
Selling to Home:
If most of your sales are to private customers having it shipped to their own home, then you want your auctions to finish when these kind of customers will be around. Unfortunately, these times are the opposite of what they are for the business customers. The ideal time to catch a home customer is on a Sunday evening.
List for Durations:
In order to get your listings to end on a particular day, you can simply change the duration of your auctions depending on what day it is. For example, if you mostly sell to home customers and the day today is Thursday, then your auction needs to run for either 3 or 10 days to hit a Sunday. If you sell more to business and the day today is Friday, then:
1 day auction would be bad (finishing on Saturday),
3 days would be alright (Monday),
5 days would be good (Wednesday),
7 days would be good (another Friday), and
10 days would be alright (Monday again).
You could draw up a little timetable of when you should and shouldn’t be listing depending on the days of the week – make it red, amber and green, traffic light style, and stick it on your wall.
Schedule Listings:
Of course, if that all sounds like too much trouble then there is an easier – if more expensive – way of doing things. Simply use any of the many tools that let you schedule listings (almost all listing programs and sites do) – you can set the start date for any day and time you feel like.
Be aware that you might have to pay a few cents per listing for this if you do it through eBay. With some software, you may also need to leave your computer on all the time, so the software can start the auctions when it’s supposed to. The advantage of this method, however, is that there will be no per-listing fee, since the auctions were scheduled through your computer and not through eBay.
If it’s the home market you’re after, then you might not have realised what one of the most powerful things to sell on eBay is. I’ll give you a clue: it’s not consumer electronics, or media products. It’s what eBay is famous for. Check out the next post for more.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Find coupons anywhere from e-mail to eBay
One of the easiest ways to save money and live a more frugal lifestyle is to use coupons. To find the best deal on the things you buy, you'll need to know where to look for coupons. Here is a list of the 10 best places to find coupons.
Advertiser flier: Most large stores in your area will have a flier with coupons that can be found in the Sunday newspaper. It can be worth the price of a subscription for just the weekend newspapers.
Back of the receipt: Many grocery stores will have coupons for products in their store printed on the back of the receipt. One advantage of getting receipts as long as a roll of toilet paper are the coupons on the back.
Coupon Web sites: Literally hundreds if not thousands of coupon Web sites can help you save money on anything from clothing to electronics to ink cartridges. Most of the coupons found online are for purchases made at a merchant's Web site. Many manufacturers will also post coupons on their Web sites for discounts on their products.
Product packaging: You can often find manufacturers' coupons for discounts off your next purchase on the outside of the packaging or inside the box. This is how the manufacturer tries to keep us buying their products.
E-mail: Sign up for the newsletters of the merchants you shop most to get coupons e-mailed to you on a regular basis. You can do the same for restaurants. Most restaurants will send you a coupon for a free meal on or around your birthday just for being a subscriber.
Mailbox: One of the best places to find local coupons is by opening your mailbox. Companies like Valpak send out a plethora of coupons for savings in and around where you live.
eBay: A search on eBay.com for "coupons" yields more than than 25,000 results. That's right, a lot of people sell coupons on eBay. Do a search for the name of the store you want to shop at and the word "coupons" to see a list of auctions.
Coupon books: Buy a local coupon book like the Entertainment Book to save hundreds, if not thousands on dining, shopping and entertainment in your city. You can buy the Entertainment book online or through local community groups and schools.
Magazines: Magazines are a great source for coupons. You can find coupons in the advertising section, and sometimes they are inserted between pages..
iPhone: Technology is making it easier for us to save money with coupons. The application Coupon Sherpa has in-store coupons to more than 100 stores. Just show your iPhone at checkout to get a discount.
Advertiser flier: Most large stores in your area will have a flier with coupons that can be found in the Sunday newspaper. It can be worth the price of a subscription for just the weekend newspapers.
Back of the receipt: Many grocery stores will have coupons for products in their store printed on the back of the receipt. One advantage of getting receipts as long as a roll of toilet paper are the coupons on the back.
Coupon Web sites: Literally hundreds if not thousands of coupon Web sites can help you save money on anything from clothing to electronics to ink cartridges. Most of the coupons found online are for purchases made at a merchant's Web site. Many manufacturers will also post coupons on their Web sites for discounts on their products.
Product packaging: You can often find manufacturers' coupons for discounts off your next purchase on the outside of the packaging or inside the box. This is how the manufacturer tries to keep us buying their products.
E-mail: Sign up for the newsletters of the merchants you shop most to get coupons e-mailed to you on a regular basis. You can do the same for restaurants. Most restaurants will send you a coupon for a free meal on or around your birthday just for being a subscriber.
Mailbox: One of the best places to find local coupons is by opening your mailbox. Companies like Valpak send out a plethora of coupons for savings in and around where you live.
eBay: A search on eBay.com for "coupons" yields more than than 25,000 results. That's right, a lot of people sell coupons on eBay. Do a search for the name of the store you want to shop at and the word "coupons" to see a list of auctions.
Coupon books: Buy a local coupon book like the Entertainment Book to save hundreds, if not thousands on dining, shopping and entertainment in your city. You can buy the Entertainment book online or through local community groups and schools.
Magazines: Magazines are a great source for coupons. You can find coupons in the advertising section, and sometimes they are inserted between pages..
iPhone: Technology is making it easier for us to save money with coupons. The application Coupon Sherpa has in-store coupons to more than 100 stores. Just show your iPhone at checkout to get a discount.
Understanding eBay's VeRO Program
‘VeRO’? What on Earth is that? Well, it’s a very scary eBay program that can get your auctions shut down, that’s what it is.
VeRO stands for ‘Verified Rights Owner’. It is the eBay policy that deals with complaints about your auctions from companies who own copyrights, patents or trademarks on the items you are selling.
Unfortunately, it is often abused to remove items from eBay that are perfectly legitimate to resell, simply because the copyright owner doesn’t want people getting their hands on them.
If the copyright of something you’re selling is owned by one of eBay’s 5,000 verified rights owners, be prepared for trouble. eBay have given these companies the right to remove any auction from eBay that they see fit, and, say eBay, “eBay cannot require the rights owner to provide you with the exact reason of the request to remove your listing”. Worse, eBay may even suspend your account, or give your real-world contact details to the company in question.
Why Do eBay Do This?
Basically, they do it to avoid getting sued, or even getting threatened with being sued. There is a law called the DMCA (digital millennium copyright act) that means that eBay must either take these auctions down when it asked to or take full responsibility for them from that point on. eBay doesn’t want to take any responsibility for your auctions.
It’s not worth worrying too much about it – 99% of the VeRO program is aimed at stopping fake brand-name goods or pirated media being sold through eBay. Big companies also seem to get quite upset when eBay sellers take the company’s ad copy, logos or professional pictures and use them for selling on eBay.
If you’d like to take a slightly patronising quiz about copyright to help you understand eBay’s policy, go here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/tutorial/verotutorial/intro2.html.
So Who Are These Companies?
There’s a complete list available here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/vero-aboutme.html.
This list includes everything from the Microsoft and Adobe to Chanel and Nike, not to mention the RIAA (recording industry association) and MPAA (motion picture association). Most of the companies, understandably, deal in software, media or fashion.
eBay Say I Violated VeRO and I Want to Appeal.
Use the link at the bottom of this page:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/vero-removed-listing.html.
That’ll get you to eBay’s VeRO
Seller Appeal Form, where you can put your case to them directly. You are supposed to take it up with the company that complained about you first, however – and sometimes you might find that they just back down, which makes the whole thing a lot easier.
If you have no luck getting any response from eBay by email, it’s not really worth trying to phone them – you’ll find they’re most responsive if you use the ‘Live Chat’ feature or write them an actual, real-paper letter. You’re best off being nice to eBay: they have absolutely no obligation, after all, to ever let you sell anything at all.
On a happier note, have you ever heard of eBay Anything Points? No? Well, you’re not alone. The next post will explain what these little-used points can do for you.
VeRO stands for ‘Verified Rights Owner’. It is the eBay policy that deals with complaints about your auctions from companies who own copyrights, patents or trademarks on the items you are selling.
Unfortunately, it is often abused to remove items from eBay that are perfectly legitimate to resell, simply because the copyright owner doesn’t want people getting their hands on them.
If the copyright of something you’re selling is owned by one of eBay’s 5,000 verified rights owners, be prepared for trouble. eBay have given these companies the right to remove any auction from eBay that they see fit, and, say eBay, “eBay cannot require the rights owner to provide you with the exact reason of the request to remove your listing”. Worse, eBay may even suspend your account, or give your real-world contact details to the company in question.
Why Do eBay Do This?
Basically, they do it to avoid getting sued, or even getting threatened with being sued. There is a law called the DMCA (digital millennium copyright act) that means that eBay must either take these auctions down when it asked to or take full responsibility for them from that point on. eBay doesn’t want to take any responsibility for your auctions.
It’s not worth worrying too much about it – 99% of the VeRO program is aimed at stopping fake brand-name goods or pirated media being sold through eBay. Big companies also seem to get quite upset when eBay sellers take the company’s ad copy, logos or professional pictures and use them for selling on eBay.
If you’d like to take a slightly patronising quiz about copyright to help you understand eBay’s policy, go here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/tutorial/verotutorial/intro2.html.
So Who Are These Companies?
There’s a complete list available here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/vero-aboutme.html.
This list includes everything from the Microsoft and Adobe to Chanel and Nike, not to mention the RIAA (recording industry association) and MPAA (motion picture association). Most of the companies, understandably, deal in software, media or fashion.
eBay Say I Violated VeRO and I Want to Appeal.
Use the link at the bottom of this page:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/vero-removed-listing.html.
That’ll get you to eBay’s VeRO
Seller Appeal Form, where you can put your case to them directly. You are supposed to take it up with the company that complained about you first, however – and sometimes you might find that they just back down, which makes the whole thing a lot easier.
If you have no luck getting any response from eBay by email, it’s not really worth trying to phone them – you’ll find they’re most responsive if you use the ‘Live Chat’ feature or write them an actual, real-paper letter. You’re best off being nice to eBay: they have absolutely no obligation, after all, to ever let you sell anything at all.
On a happier note, have you ever heard of eBay Anything Points? No? Well, you’re not alone. The next post will explain what these little-used points can do for you.
Monday, April 27, 2009
eBay Launches Free Classified Ads Site 'Kijiji'
SAN JOSE eBay Inc. has launched a free classified advertising site in the United States, an experiment the online auction company says could lead to new sources of revenue.
How to Place Your eBay Store on “Vacation”
So you’re going away for a while, and you’re not going to be able to ship people’s orders from your eBay store? Imagine how you’d feel if you got home from a nice vacation, only to find that your feedback rating had been trashed!
Buyers can find your store, pay for items, and then complain about you for not shipping them or responding to emails – without you even being there to stop it. What’s more, no-one will accept the fact you were on vacation as an excuse: after all, what were you doing listing items on eBay if you were on vacation?
So what’s the solution to this little problem? Well, it’s easier than it sounds. Whenever you go on vacation, just make sure you don’t forget to send your eBay store on one of its own.
What Do You Mean?
eBay offer a facility to put your store on ‘vacation’, which basically means that it is temporarily suspended while you’re unavailable to ship items. This means that you don’t need to be available 365 days a year just in case someone orders from your eBay store.
How Do I Put the Store on Vacation, Then?
Go to My eBay and click ‘Manage Your Store’. Now click ‘Change vacation settings’ and choose ‘Turn vacation settings on’. Click the ‘Save Settings’ button, and it’s done. Once the settings are on, you have a few options about what you want your store to do while you’re away.
Hide your listings
You need to do this – your listings will be hidden from buyers, so they can’t bid on them. Be aware that it can take a few hours for your listings to disappear from the search results,
though.
Display messages. If you want, eBay can put a message in your listings and on your store to say that you’ve gone on vacation – just in case anyone wonders what happened to you. You will be asked to say when you expect to come back. You should always do this, as it’s quite inconsiderate to just disappear without telling your loyal customers where you went!
Will I Still be Charged for My Store While I’m Away?
Unfortunately you will – not only the subscription for the store, but also for any listings that expire while you were gone. This is quite cruel of eBay, but what can you do? To lessen the impact of this, make sure you don’t list any new items for a while before you put the store on vacation.
I’m Back! How Do I Turn the Store on Again?
Click: My eBay, Manage Your Store, Change vacation settings, Turn vacation settings off, Save Settings. Everything will now go back to normal. You might want to send out a newsletter at this point, to let your buyers know you’re back.
Here’s another little headache that could get you into some trouble: eBay’s ‘VeRO’ program for copyright holders. I’ll show you how to avoid falling foul of it in the next post.
Buyers can find your store, pay for items, and then complain about you for not shipping them or responding to emails – without you even being there to stop it. What’s more, no-one will accept the fact you were on vacation as an excuse: after all, what were you doing listing items on eBay if you were on vacation?
So what’s the solution to this little problem? Well, it’s easier than it sounds. Whenever you go on vacation, just make sure you don’t forget to send your eBay store on one of its own.
What Do You Mean?
eBay offer a facility to put your store on ‘vacation’, which basically means that it is temporarily suspended while you’re unavailable to ship items. This means that you don’t need to be available 365 days a year just in case someone orders from your eBay store.
How Do I Put the Store on Vacation, Then?
Go to My eBay and click ‘Manage Your Store’. Now click ‘Change vacation settings’ and choose ‘Turn vacation settings on’. Click the ‘Save Settings’ button, and it’s done. Once the settings are on, you have a few options about what you want your store to do while you’re away.
Hide your listings
You need to do this – your listings will be hidden from buyers, so they can’t bid on them. Be aware that it can take a few hours for your listings to disappear from the search results,
though.
Display messages. If you want, eBay can put a message in your listings and on your store to say that you’ve gone on vacation – just in case anyone wonders what happened to you. You will be asked to say when you expect to come back. You should always do this, as it’s quite inconsiderate to just disappear without telling your loyal customers where you went!
Will I Still be Charged for My Store While I’m Away?
Unfortunately you will – not only the subscription for the store, but also for any listings that expire while you were gone. This is quite cruel of eBay, but what can you do? To lessen the impact of this, make sure you don’t list any new items for a while before you put the store on vacation.
I’m Back! How Do I Turn the Store on Again?
Click: My eBay, Manage Your Store, Change vacation settings, Turn vacation settings off, Save Settings. Everything will now go back to normal. You might want to send out a newsletter at this point, to let your buyers know you’re back.
Here’s another little headache that could get you into some trouble: eBay’s ‘VeRO’ program for copyright holders. I’ll show you how to avoid falling foul of it in the next post.
Increase Your eBay Sales with A “SquareTrade” Seal
SquareTrade are eBay’s chosen provider of dispute resolution services. If you want your buyers to have a little more confidence in you, you can get a SquareTrade seal, and put it on each one of your auctions.
The chances are that you’ve seen these seals around. They show SquareTrade’s blue and green logo, along with the eBay user’s ID and the current date. This is followed by the text “SquareTrade Verified Seller, Click to Learn More”. SquareTrade is also used on sites other than eBay, for example Yahoo and eLance – it’s an Internet-wide trust system.
So why will this little seal increase your sales? Well, it signals a number of things to your buyers. Your identity has been verified. Before you can get a SquareTrade seal, you need to let them confirm your real name, address and phone number, which they can do in various ways. They can check you out with a credit reference agency, ask you to fax them a utility bill, or send you a letter in the real mail with a code you need to enter online.
You are committed to resolving disputes through SquareTrade. If you ever refuse to resolve any dispute with a buyer through SquareTrade, then they’ll take away your seal, and you’ll never get it back. This lets buyers know that there’s someone independent they can go to for help if you prove not to be trustworthy.
Real people will review their case. Buyers like that someone will actually take the time to read the emails, establish the facts and all the rest of it – they feel like eBay normally traps them in a chain of automatic responses.
You meet SquareTrade’s criteria. SquareTrade monitor your feedback, and if they feel you’re not up to scratch, they’ll take your seal away. They also operate an anti-fraud ‘early warning system’, which keeps track of the kinds of items you buy and sell, and takes action if your account starts doing unusual things.
Buyers are covered for an additional $250 against fraud. This is very important to buyers – eBay’s standard purchase protection isn’t very much, and this more than doubles it. If they get PayPal’s fraud protection as well, then they’re covered for quite a lot overall.
How Do I Sign Up?
If you want a seal of your very own, all you need to do is go to www.squaretrade.com, choose ‘eBay seller’ under the ‘eBay seal services’ heading, and click ‘Apply’. Enter your name, address, phone number and eBay details here.
You should note, though, that SquareTrade costs you $9.50 per month – it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it. Ultimately, it is often worth signing up just to get the facility to effectively dispute and remove negative feedback. If you think you can maintain a good record alone then it might not be worth subscribing to yet another service to use with eBay.
Here’s a warning: there’s one thing that, if you don’t do it, could land you with an awful lot of negative feedback. Make sure you read all about it in the next post.
The chances are that you’ve seen these seals around. They show SquareTrade’s blue and green logo, along with the eBay user’s ID and the current date. This is followed by the text “SquareTrade Verified Seller, Click to Learn More”. SquareTrade is also used on sites other than eBay, for example Yahoo and eLance – it’s an Internet-wide trust system.
So why will this little seal increase your sales? Well, it signals a number of things to your buyers. Your identity has been verified. Before you can get a SquareTrade seal, you need to let them confirm your real name, address and phone number, which they can do in various ways. They can check you out with a credit reference agency, ask you to fax them a utility bill, or send you a letter in the real mail with a code you need to enter online.
You are committed to resolving disputes through SquareTrade. If you ever refuse to resolve any dispute with a buyer through SquareTrade, then they’ll take away your seal, and you’ll never get it back. This lets buyers know that there’s someone independent they can go to for help if you prove not to be trustworthy.
Real people will review their case. Buyers like that someone will actually take the time to read the emails, establish the facts and all the rest of it – they feel like eBay normally traps them in a chain of automatic responses.
You meet SquareTrade’s criteria. SquareTrade monitor your feedback, and if they feel you’re not up to scratch, they’ll take your seal away. They also operate an anti-fraud ‘early warning system’, which keeps track of the kinds of items you buy and sell, and takes action if your account starts doing unusual things.
Buyers are covered for an additional $250 against fraud. This is very important to buyers – eBay’s standard purchase protection isn’t very much, and this more than doubles it. If they get PayPal’s fraud protection as well, then they’re covered for quite a lot overall.
How Do I Sign Up?
If you want a seal of your very own, all you need to do is go to www.squaretrade.com, choose ‘eBay seller’ under the ‘eBay seal services’ heading, and click ‘Apply’. Enter your name, address, phone number and eBay details here.
You should note, though, that SquareTrade costs you $9.50 per month – it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it. Ultimately, it is often worth signing up just to get the facility to effectively dispute and remove negative feedback. If you think you can maintain a good record alone then it might not be worth subscribing to yet another service to use with eBay.
Here’s a warning: there’s one thing that, if you don’t do it, could land you with an awful lot of negative feedback. Make sure you read all about it in the next post.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
eBay: Back To Basics
When John Donahoe became chief executive of eBay in March 2008, he said it would take him a year to asses the company's portfolio and figure out its next move. Now a little over a year later, recent moves suggests that he's found his stride: getting eBay back to basics.
The online commerce giant is scheduled to report its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday. Analysts expect earnings to be $0.33 per share, according to Thomson Reuters, with a revenue consensus pegged at $1.94 billion. Compared to last year's figures, both numbers are roughly flat but nowhere near the kind of growth that the company once enjoyed.
Though eBay's ( EBAY - news - people ) auction business is idling, its management is not. Earlier this month eBay sold StumbleUpon, a social recommendation tool for Web content, back to company founders. The company then announced that it would spin off Internet telephony service Skype via an initial public offering in the first half of next year.
The portrait management is now portraying suggests a radically different eBay, a company today best-characterized as a hodgepodge of loosely-knit Internet properties and services. The new picture is without Skype, and according to analysts, it could be one without PayPal, too.
Analysts took the recent shedding of Skype and StumbleUpon as positive signs for growth, since both were widely perceived as awkward additions to the company's portfolio. But more than just boosting shareholder value, they say the asset sales should allow management to focus its most pressing tasks at hand--growing eBay's Marketplaces and PayPal divisions.
For now, eBay's online marketplaces are shrinking. Over the last year, growth rates swung from 19% in the first quarter to a negative 16% in the latest one. That's likely indicative of a maturing auction business, says Jeffries analyst Youssef Squali, but could also indicate that the 10-year-old online auction business is entering a permanent decline.
Squali estimates that eBay's gross merchandise volume--that is, the amount of goods passing through eBay's various marketplace platforms--shrunk by 22% in the last quarter. "That's not good," he says, and could mean further restructuring for eBay's portfolio of online properties.
"The harder it is for them to turn around the marketplaces business--in particular the auction business--the more likely they will look to re-capitalize the company by shedding non-performing assets and focusing on growth areas," notes Squali.
Nevermind Rent.com, Shopping.com or Kijiji (all ancillary Web properties owned by eBay). If eBay's marketplace growth is flat or continues to deteriorate, Squali says investors should look to PayPal as eBay's next possible spinoff.
PayPal--the eBay-owned online payment platform--has become the second core business behind marketplaces. Revenues were up 25% to $2.4 billion in 2008, and the service now routes 9% of all global e-commerce. That growth makes PayPal a good target for a spinoff if management decides the company is worth more on its own than as part of eBay.
"If it becomes clear that more than half of the business is not doing anything and is in secular decline," Squali posits, "you could certainly see Donahoe and company looking to do something with the crown jewel."
Design Tips for eBay Templates
Templates are the design elements that you might have noticed some sellers using on their auctions, like the borders around the edge, and the different fonts. Many sellers who are new to eBay don’t bother using them, and you might not have either – generally, a descriptive listing and a good picture will do the job just fine.
If you want to really finish your auctions off and make a really good impression on your buyers though, it’s useful to have a good template. Here are a few tips on what to do and what not to do.
Choose something appropriate: The most important part of your template is what you choose in eBay’s listing designer (in step 3 of the Sell Your Item process), or the equivalent in whatever listing software you’re now using. You might prefer to use third-party software for this, as eBay’s designs can be somewhat… unimpressive.
Anyway, the different template designs will usually be themed, with names like ‘Computers’, ‘Toys’ or ‘Crafts’. Make sure what you choose is appropriate for what you’re selling – those flowers might be very pretty, but what exactly do they have to do with DVDs?
Put the photo at the top: The photo of your item is far more important than the text. Put your best photo at the top of the description, followed by the text, and then finally any extra pictures you have.
The full-size photo of the item is the first thing your buyers want to see when they click your auction – why leave it for last?
Add your logo: A well-designed logo gives a professional air to your auctions, especially if the colour scheme and look fits in with the rest of the template, and it also serves to create more recognition when people have seen your auctions before. Pay a logo designer a few dollars to do you a logo if you don’t have one already.
Don’t be afraid of large fonts: Fonts are supposed to be different sizes sometimes. When you have something important to say, don’t be afraid to put it in a bigger font, headline-style… just as long as you don’t get carried away, of course.
Learn a little HTML: It might sound scary, but there are plenty of books out there about learning HTML, and a little goes a long way. Once you know what you’re doing, you’ll find all sorts of ways to make your auction look better – you’ll be able to put complicated information in a table, Preview your listing. Remember to click that ‘Preview listing’ button to see what everything’s going to look like when it goes live. Good luck!
One of the best things you can put into your auction template to make it more appealing to buyers is something called a ‘SquareTrade seal’. This seal is a promise that you will handle any disputes using SquareTrade, an independent dispute resolution service. We’ll take a closer look at what it is and how to get one in the next post.
If you want to really finish your auctions off and make a really good impression on your buyers though, it’s useful to have a good template. Here are a few tips on what to do and what not to do.
Choose something appropriate: The most important part of your template is what you choose in eBay’s listing designer (in step 3 of the Sell Your Item process), or the equivalent in whatever listing software you’re now using. You might prefer to use third-party software for this, as eBay’s designs can be somewhat… unimpressive.
Anyway, the different template designs will usually be themed, with names like ‘Computers’, ‘Toys’ or ‘Crafts’. Make sure what you choose is appropriate for what you’re selling – those flowers might be very pretty, but what exactly do they have to do with DVDs?
Put the photo at the top: The photo of your item is far more important than the text. Put your best photo at the top of the description, followed by the text, and then finally any extra pictures you have.
The full-size photo of the item is the first thing your buyers want to see when they click your auction – why leave it for last?
Add your logo: A well-designed logo gives a professional air to your auctions, especially if the colour scheme and look fits in with the rest of the template, and it also serves to create more recognition when people have seen your auctions before. Pay a logo designer a few dollars to do you a logo if you don’t have one already.
Don’t be afraid of large fonts: Fonts are supposed to be different sizes sometimes. When you have something important to say, don’t be afraid to put it in a bigger font, headline-style… just as long as you don’t get carried away, of course.
Learn a little HTML: It might sound scary, but there are plenty of books out there about learning HTML, and a little goes a long way. Once you know what you’re doing, you’ll find all sorts of ways to make your auction look better – you’ll be able to put complicated information in a table, Preview your listing. Remember to click that ‘Preview listing’ button to see what everything’s going to look like when it goes live. Good luck!
One of the best things you can put into your auction template to make it more appealing to buyers is something called a ‘SquareTrade seal’. This seal is a promise that you will handle any disputes using SquareTrade, an independent dispute resolution service. We’ll take a closer look at what it is and how to get one in the next post.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
How to Use eBay’s “Pre-Approved Buyer” Function
For sellers who constantly have to put up with bid snipers, non-paying bidders and other anti-social, timewasting buyers, eBay’s ‘pre-approved buyer’ feature is a godsend.
Pre-approving buyers lets you choose in advance who you’re going to allow to bid: not by banning people you don’t want, but by explicitly allowing people you do want. Anyone who is not on the pre-approved list will have to email you and ask you to let them bid.
While that might sound great, it’s only really a good idea to do it on very, very high value items. After all, half the point of eBay is that it’s such an open marketplace – if you’re going to restrict bidding to a few people, why not just email them to offer the item?
Most buyers will be very upset if they come across an item that they need to be pre-approved to bid in. They almost certainly won’t have heard of the rule before, and they’ll think this ‘new feature’ (it must be new if they’ve never heard of it, right?) is absolutely terrible. The one time I required pre-approval for an item, someone actually wrote to eBay to complain about the auction’s format – as if eBay had nothing to do with letting me list that way! The chances are that almost no-one will ever email you asking to be included in the auction – they’ll go somewhere else instead.
Of course, it’d be better if you could just require that bidders have a minimum feedback level, but then that might overly restrict the choices of new buyers, and make them less likely to buy anything to begin with. There’s a delicate balance at play between trust and openness, and pre-approval tends to violate it. If one of your regular buyers wants to bid on your item only to find out they weren’t pre-approved, the chances are they’ll be more than a little offended at your lack of trust.
The only situations in which you might find an advantage in pre-approving bidders are if your auctions get consistently disrupted. Jokers sometimes bid millions because they think it’s funny, or people bid high and then don’t pay as a protest against whatever you’re selling – this is a pain to deal with. Requiring approval makes sense on very high-ticket items simply because it shows the buyer is serious about wanting to buy.
Before you can restrict an item to pre-approved buyers, you have to list it and get an item number.
You can then set up pre-approved bidding on this page:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?PreApproveBidders
From there on, it’s a simple process – just type the usernames of the people whose bids you want to accept, and then keep checking your email.
Remember, though, that you don’t need to restrict your auction to pre-approved bidders to keep people you don’t like from bidding on your auctions. You can simply cancel these buyers’ bids when they appear, and then use eBay’s ‘block bidder’ function to ban them from bidding on any of your auctions again.
Edit your block list here:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?bidderblocklogin
In the next post, we’ll take a look at whether your eBay design is as effective as it could be.
Pre-approving buyers lets you choose in advance who you’re going to allow to bid: not by banning people you don’t want, but by explicitly allowing people you do want. Anyone who is not on the pre-approved list will have to email you and ask you to let them bid.
While that might sound great, it’s only really a good idea to do it on very, very high value items. After all, half the point of eBay is that it’s such an open marketplace – if you’re going to restrict bidding to a few people, why not just email them to offer the item?
Most buyers will be very upset if they come across an item that they need to be pre-approved to bid in. They almost certainly won’t have heard of the rule before, and they’ll think this ‘new feature’ (it must be new if they’ve never heard of it, right?) is absolutely terrible. The one time I required pre-approval for an item, someone actually wrote to eBay to complain about the auction’s format – as if eBay had nothing to do with letting me list that way! The chances are that almost no-one will ever email you asking to be included in the auction – they’ll go somewhere else instead.
Of course, it’d be better if you could just require that bidders have a minimum feedback level, but then that might overly restrict the choices of new buyers, and make them less likely to buy anything to begin with. There’s a delicate balance at play between trust and openness, and pre-approval tends to violate it. If one of your regular buyers wants to bid on your item only to find out they weren’t pre-approved, the chances are they’ll be more than a little offended at your lack of trust.
The only situations in which you might find an advantage in pre-approving bidders are if your auctions get consistently disrupted. Jokers sometimes bid millions because they think it’s funny, or people bid high and then don’t pay as a protest against whatever you’re selling – this is a pain to deal with. Requiring approval makes sense on very high-ticket items simply because it shows the buyer is serious about wanting to buy.
Before you can restrict an item to pre-approved buyers, you have to list it and get an item number.
You can then set up pre-approved bidding on this page:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?PreApproveBidders
From there on, it’s a simple process – just type the usernames of the people whose bids you want to accept, and then keep checking your email.
Remember, though, that you don’t need to restrict your auction to pre-approved bidders to keep people you don’t like from bidding on your auctions. You can simply cancel these buyers’ bids when they appear, and then use eBay’s ‘block bidder’ function to ban them from bidding on any of your auctions again.
Edit your block list here:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?bidderblocklogin
In the next post, we’ll take a look at whether your eBay design is as effective as it could be.
Tips for “Knowing Your eBay Buyer” Before You Ship
Before you send anything to that buyer, you might want to get to know them, especially if you’re selling them a high-ticket item that you couldn’t afford to lose. Even if the buyer has paid, the PayPal transaction could still end up being reversed, leaving you out of pocket. So how do you figure out if you can trust your buyer?
Look at their feedback for others: Go to their feedback page and click ‘Left for Others’. If they leave a lot of negatives for their sellers, then you should try to get away from them as fast as you can – if you do deal with them, make sure not to leave your feedback first. You should consider a negative someone has left to be just as bad as a negative left for them.
Look at feedback from sellers: Click ‘From Sellers’. You might find that they have more complaints from sellers than from buyers – or, on the other hand, it might be the other way around. Some people really are just better at selling than buying, or vice versa.
Pay attention to bid retractions. If they have a high number of bid retractions, you should regard this as a red flag that something might be wrong.
See what else they’ve bought: When someone goes from buying items worth $1 to suddenly buying something worth $1,000, you might want to be a little suspicious of them.
See what they’re bidding on now: If they’ve never shown any interest in your kind of item before, and now suddenly they’re bidding on lots of them, then that’s cause for concern. You should also be suspicious of someone who seems to be spending a lot of money all at once – few buyers have thousands at a time to blow on eBay.
Check their ID history: People who’ve changed their ID are often trying to get away from someone who’s trying to find them. This is another warning sign – be especially wary of someone who changed their ID very recently.
Be nice to new buyers: Genuine new buyers will probably have a name ending in a number and a feedback score of 0 – don’t always think these people are fraudsters. Somewhat counter-intuitively, people trying to commit fraud will almost never do it when they have a feedback score of 0 – they’ll think it’s too obvious. New buyers often have problems with being inexperienced on eBay, however, and you might have to guide them through things like opening a PayPal account.
Email them: If you want to get to know your eBay buyer, why not have a little chat with them about the item, what they plan to do with it? Say that how you know they’re going to love it, and ask if there’s anything else you can do for them. Few buyers who seem chatty and nice will turn out not to be in the end.
If you keep having trouble with buyers you don’t want winning your high-value auctions at the last second, you might want to use eBay’s ‘pre-approved buyer’ function. The next post will show you how.
Look at their feedback for others: Go to their feedback page and click ‘Left for Others’. If they leave a lot of negatives for their sellers, then you should try to get away from them as fast as you can – if you do deal with them, make sure not to leave your feedback first. You should consider a negative someone has left to be just as bad as a negative left for them.
Look at feedback from sellers: Click ‘From Sellers’. You might find that they have more complaints from sellers than from buyers – or, on the other hand, it might be the other way around. Some people really are just better at selling than buying, or vice versa.
Pay attention to bid retractions. If they have a high number of bid retractions, you should regard this as a red flag that something might be wrong.
See what else they’ve bought: When someone goes from buying items worth $1 to suddenly buying something worth $1,000, you might want to be a little suspicious of them.
See what they’re bidding on now: If they’ve never shown any interest in your kind of item before, and now suddenly they’re bidding on lots of them, then that’s cause for concern. You should also be suspicious of someone who seems to be spending a lot of money all at once – few buyers have thousands at a time to blow on eBay.
Check their ID history: People who’ve changed their ID are often trying to get away from someone who’s trying to find them. This is another warning sign – be especially wary of someone who changed their ID very recently.
Be nice to new buyers: Genuine new buyers will probably have a name ending in a number and a feedback score of 0 – don’t always think these people are fraudsters. Somewhat counter-intuitively, people trying to commit fraud will almost never do it when they have a feedback score of 0 – they’ll think it’s too obvious. New buyers often have problems with being inexperienced on eBay, however, and you might have to guide them through things like opening a PayPal account.
Email them: If you want to get to know your eBay buyer, why not have a little chat with them about the item, what they plan to do with it? Say that how you know they’re going to love it, and ask if there’s anything else you can do for them. Few buyers who seem chatty and nice will turn out not to be in the end.
If you keep having trouble with buyers you don’t want winning your high-value auctions at the last second, you might want to use eBay’s ‘pre-approved buyer’ function. The next post will show you how.
Friday, April 24, 2009
E-Commerce Vs. the Economy
Amid a chilly climate for business and consumer spending, how are e-tailers and product manufacturers faring?
For more than a year, eBay has been rolling out incremental changes to it marketplace in an attempt to improve the experience for buyers. The company has tweaked its site's user interface, and enacted several policy changes aimed at promoting reliable, high-quality sellers, changes that have drawn considerable opposition from many of the merchants with stores on the platform.
"Buyers will continue to see improvements in trust, value and selection as we enter the holiday season later this year," Donahoe said.
But Mahaney warned that absent a major effort to shore up the company's marketplace business -- even something as drastic as abandoning the auction model that eBay was built on -- the company's "fundamentals could continue get a lot worse before they stabilize."
The quirks of eBay's e-commerce platform can at times put it at a competitive disadvantage against its principal rival Amazon, as well as traditional retailers that have established robust online stories, such as Wal-Mart and Target.
In the first quarter, sales of eBay's fixed-price listings increased 12 percent, while auction sales dropped 20 percent from last year.
"What I really want to sense is paranoia, frankly, out of the management team. I want to hear them address what's their core problem," Mahaney said.
On today's call, Donahoe was short on paranoia, but did acknowledge that eBay's e-commerce business would grow slower than the industry-wide sector throughout 2009. Next year, he said he expects eBay to perform in line with the industry, and outpace it in 2011.
"While we saw some signs of stabilization in the first quarter, we still have a lot of work to do," he said.
Shares of eBay were up 7.4 percent in after-hours trading.
For more than a year, eBay has been rolling out incremental changes to it marketplace in an attempt to improve the experience for buyers. The company has tweaked its site's user interface, and enacted several policy changes aimed at promoting reliable, high-quality sellers, changes that have drawn considerable opposition from many of the merchants with stores on the platform.
"Buyers will continue to see improvements in trust, value and selection as we enter the holiday season later this year," Donahoe said.
But Mahaney warned that absent a major effort to shore up the company's marketplace business -- even something as drastic as abandoning the auction model that eBay was built on -- the company's "fundamentals could continue get a lot worse before they stabilize."
The quirks of eBay's e-commerce platform can at times put it at a competitive disadvantage against its principal rival Amazon, as well as traditional retailers that have established robust online stories, such as Wal-Mart and Target.
In the first quarter, sales of eBay's fixed-price listings increased 12 percent, while auction sales dropped 20 percent from last year.
"What I really want to sense is paranoia, frankly, out of the management team. I want to hear them address what's their core problem," Mahaney said.
On today's call, Donahoe was short on paranoia, but did acknowledge that eBay's e-commerce business would grow slower than the industry-wide sector throughout 2009. Next year, he said he expects eBay to perform in line with the industry, and outpace it in 2011.
"While we saw some signs of stabilization in the first quarter, we still have a lot of work to do," he said.
Shares of eBay were up 7.4 percent in after-hours trading.
eBay Still Tops Expectations
E-commerce giant eBay saw its revenues slip in the first quarter, but nonetheless turned in financial results that beat analysts' modest expectations.
After the market closed Wednesday, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) reported earnings of 39 cents per share on $500 million in net income, excluding one-time items. That figure was down from 42 cents on $560 million in the same quarter last year, but ahead of the 33 cents analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been expecting.
Overall, eBay posted revenues just over $2 billion, down from $2.2 billion last year, but a tick ahead of the $1.9 billion analysts were expecting.
eBay attributed the declining revenues to a weakened U.S. dollar and the continuing macroeconomic climate that sapped sales in the company's core marketplace business, where year-to-year revenues dropped 18 percent. Nevertheless, President and CEO John Donahoe touted the company's performance at a time of flux in both eBay's business and the broader economy.
"We delivered solid Q1 results, exceeding expectations in a tough economy," Donahoe said on a conference call with analysts. President and CEO John Donahoe said in a statement. "The bottom line is that we're seeing a marketplace business in transition," he said, emphasizing the company's plans to refocus itself on its core e-commerce and payments businesses it outlined at its analysts' day in March.
eBay's payment services division, driven by PayPal, posted net revenues of $643 million, an 11 percent increase over the prior-year quarter. PayPal now accounts for 32 percent of eBay's overall revenue. In the meantime, the company said it is moving swiftly to integrate the Bill Me Later service it acquired last year.
At its analysts' day, eBay said it aimed to double PayPal's revenue by 2011. The company also detailed plans to move into a secondary retail market, snapping up unwanted inventory from retailers to sell on the Internet.
eBay has been flush with news recently. The company recently announced plans to spin off Internet phone service Skype in an IPO sometime in the first half of 2010. Analysts welcomed eBay's plans to shed Skype, a firm it acquired in 2005 for $2.6 billion but has proven a clumsy fit for the e-commerce giant.
Additionally, StumbleUpon, a Digg-like social recommendation site eBay acquired in 2007, recently said it was breaking away from the company to resume life as a venture-backed startup.
Three days later, eBay announced plans to pony up $1.2 billion to acquire South Korean online auction leader Gmarket. At its analysts' day, eBay identified the Asian market as a key driver of its future growth.
But to Citibank analyst Mark Mahaney, those moves are a sideshow compared to the fundamental problems facing eBay's primary business.
"In the core marketplace business, which is still north of 60 percent of their overall profits we haven't had a lot of major news," Mahaney said in a recent interview.
"What they need there is a lot of product innovation, probably some really aggressive moves to entice buyers to come back to eBay, and those buyers seem to be shedding away.
Want to know how much your item is worth on eBay
There are a lot of beginning sellers out there, and some with quite a bit of feedback under their belt, that do not fully understand the power of the eBay search engine, or how to find out how much their item is worth on eBay.. Well, lucky for you, I am here to help!
There are several ways to search for things on eBay, but this approach will look at how to research profit potential for any given item you have. It is a good way to see how much your item sells for, and how high you should set your bid to get the best price.
After reading this, you will be able to more effectively see how much your item is worth, and what its average selling price is.
For the first simple starter example, I will use an item that I was researching to see if it would be worth it to buy in hopes of reselling on eBay. The item was the "Garmin Edge 305 GPS with Heartrate and Cadence Monitor." But if I searched for that whole string I would find very few results. So, instead I just searched for "Garmin edge 305."
This regular search just showed me regular results, but I am not interested in that, I want to see what it has sold for in the last two weeks. To see completed listings you have to scroll down and select the "completed listings" button. Simple enough.
This shows which items sold (Green numbers) and which items did not sell (red numbers). This gave me 209 results for items that sold in the last two weeks. This is good because it shows me that it is not really a saturated market.
To narrow this down further I narrowed down my results by clicking the button on the left which only shows the items that were GPS devices, and then was further narrowed by selecting "Personal GPS Devices." This gave me only 98 results.
That is a very easy number to work with. With those 98 results I sorted by price: highest first. These are the people that I want to emulate, and the prices that I am shooting for.
To see how much an item routinely sells for, it is a good idea to scroll down the page and look for the red numbers (usually the highest numbers) to start to get replaced by the green numbers. The red numbers go from a max of about $280 to about $260 before they start to get green. I know from this that I can not expect to make more than $260 on this item.
From there I keep scrolling down until I see a large section of just green numbers that have a lot of bids next to them. These prices show how much people are willing to spend on this item. The top third of the solid green numbers is a good place to judge how much you should try to sell your item for. This item sells heavily from the $240-$220 price range.
After I narrowed the prices I want to sell my item for down, I can look in that section and see how much I can charge for shipping to maximize my profit. It looks like I can charge from $10 to $17 to have this item shipped. Since this item only costs about 8.95 to ship in a priority box I know that I can make a couple extra bucks on the shipping increase.
With all of this information compiled I would probably do a fixed price, or auction for this item starting at about $230, and charge about $10-13 for shipping.
This is the basic way that I research all of the items that I want to sell, to see the kind of price I should expect, and see where I should set my minimum bid if I do not want to lose any money.
However, there are easier ways to research the popularity of your product, and how much sells for, and even the average sell-through rate. The time saving tool that I have been using, that works very well and I am very happy with, is Hammertap. It is a great little program that researches about a month back or more, and does some pretty in depth research. It also has a free trial right now, for like two weeks!
If you have a lot of items to sell, or plan on doing a lot of research in about a month period, it is worth it to pay the minimal fee. It will save you a lot of time. That is, unless you would like to do it my free and relatively easy way.
Research on eBay is fairly easy with practice. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them in the comment section. Good luck!
There are several ways to search for things on eBay, but this approach will look at how to research profit potential for any given item you have. It is a good way to see how much your item sells for, and how high you should set your bid to get the best price.
After reading this, you will be able to more effectively see how much your item is worth, and what its average selling price is.
For the first simple starter example, I will use an item that I was researching to see if it would be worth it to buy in hopes of reselling on eBay. The item was the "Garmin Edge 305 GPS with Heartrate and Cadence Monitor." But if I searched for that whole string I would find very few results. So, instead I just searched for "Garmin edge 305."
This regular search just showed me regular results, but I am not interested in that, I want to see what it has sold for in the last two weeks. To see completed listings you have to scroll down and select the "completed listings" button. Simple enough.
This shows which items sold (Green numbers) and which items did not sell (red numbers). This gave me 209 results for items that sold in the last two weeks. This is good because it shows me that it is not really a saturated market.
To narrow this down further I narrowed down my results by clicking the button on the left which only shows the items that were GPS devices, and then was further narrowed by selecting "Personal GPS Devices." This gave me only 98 results.
That is a very easy number to work with. With those 98 results I sorted by price: highest first. These are the people that I want to emulate, and the prices that I am shooting for.
To see how much an item routinely sells for, it is a good idea to scroll down the page and look for the red numbers (usually the highest numbers) to start to get replaced by the green numbers. The red numbers go from a max of about $280 to about $260 before they start to get green. I know from this that I can not expect to make more than $260 on this item.
From there I keep scrolling down until I see a large section of just green numbers that have a lot of bids next to them. These prices show how much people are willing to spend on this item. The top third of the solid green numbers is a good place to judge how much you should try to sell your item for. This item sells heavily from the $240-$220 price range.
After I narrowed the prices I want to sell my item for down, I can look in that section and see how much I can charge for shipping to maximize my profit. It looks like I can charge from $10 to $17 to have this item shipped. Since this item only costs about 8.95 to ship in a priority box I know that I can make a couple extra bucks on the shipping increase.
With all of this information compiled I would probably do a fixed price, or auction for this item starting at about $230, and charge about $10-13 for shipping.
This is the basic way that I research all of the items that I want to sell, to see the kind of price I should expect, and see where I should set my minimum bid if I do not want to lose any money.
However, there are easier ways to research the popularity of your product, and how much sells for, and even the average sell-through rate. The time saving tool that I have been using, that works very well and I am very happy with, is Hammertap. It is a great little program that researches about a month back or more, and does some pretty in depth research. It also has a free trial right now, for like two weeks!
If you have a lot of items to sell, or plan on doing a lot of research in about a month period, it is worth it to pay the minimal fee. It will save you a lot of time. That is, unless you would like to do it my free and relatively easy way.
Research on eBay is fairly easy with practice. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them in the comment section. Good luck!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
A Look at Third Party eBay Tools
There are plenty of companies out there offering third party eBay tools. Most of them are web-based instead of downloadable, so you pay a monthly fee instead of just buying the software. But do you know what these sites can do for you? It can be hard to get to grips with what’s out there using a search engine, so here’s a quick rundown of the key players.
Vendio (www.vendio.com):
Vendio offer two editions of their software, Sales Manager: a Merchandising edition and an Inventory edition. The difference between the two is that the Merchandising edition is designed to make it easier to list individual auctions, while the Inventory edition is for sellers who sell many of the same item. They offer a pay-as-you go price of 10c per auction.
They also offer software called Tickets Manager, special software for people who sell lots of tickets on eBay – an odd product to have, but useful if you happen to sell tickets. Other services offered by Vendio include web and image hosting, fancy Flash galleries of your products for your listings, and stores.
ChannelAdvisor (www.channeladvisor.com):
ChannelAdvisor offer their software in three versions: Enterprise, Merchant and Pro. Enterprise and Merchant are both designed for very big businesses, though, and the chances are that the Pro version does everything you’d want.
ChannelAdvisor is popular among sellers who want a solution that they know is used and trusted on a very large scale by enterprise-level customers. It offers all the standard bulk listing and inventory features, as well as the unique feature of being able to create auctions from an Excel spreadsheet of your inventory. The cost is high, though, at $29.95 per month.
And Many, Many More…
eBay maintain a comprehensive directory of third-party software, which you can browse through anytime you have a few days to kill. You can look either for complete solutions or for each part of what you want individually – the choice is so daunting that there’s bound to be something out there for you. You can look at their directory at http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SolutionsDirectory.
Once your items have sold and you’re about to ship them, you might be a little nervous about whether you can trust your buyer. Our next post will give you a few tips for spotting problem buyers before you send them anything.
Vendio (www.vendio.com):
Vendio offer two editions of their software, Sales Manager: a Merchandising edition and an Inventory edition. The difference between the two is that the Merchandising edition is designed to make it easier to list individual auctions, while the Inventory edition is for sellers who sell many of the same item. They offer a pay-as-you go price of 10c per auction.
They also offer software called Tickets Manager, special software for people who sell lots of tickets on eBay – an odd product to have, but useful if you happen to sell tickets. Other services offered by Vendio include web and image hosting, fancy Flash galleries of your products for your listings, and stores.
ChannelAdvisor (www.channeladvisor.com):
ChannelAdvisor offer their software in three versions: Enterprise, Merchant and Pro. Enterprise and Merchant are both designed for very big businesses, though, and the chances are that the Pro version does everything you’d want.
ChannelAdvisor is popular among sellers who want a solution that they know is used and trusted on a very large scale by enterprise-level customers. It offers all the standard bulk listing and inventory features, as well as the unique feature of being able to create auctions from an Excel spreadsheet of your inventory. The cost is high, though, at $29.95 per month.
And Many, Many More…
eBay maintain a comprehensive directory of third-party software, which you can browse through anytime you have a few days to kill. You can look either for complete solutions or for each part of what you want individually – the choice is so daunting that there’s bound to be something out there for you. You can look at their directory at http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SolutionsDirectory.
Once your items have sold and you’re about to ship them, you might be a little nervous about whether you can trust your buyer. Our next post will give you a few tips for spotting problem buyers before you send them anything.
10 Tips for Being a Better Seller
If you’ve got this far, you’ve got the basics of eBay. There are a few things left, though, that you might not have thought of trying. Quite a few of these tips go against the advice many give for eBay selling – some are a little risky and some are just odd. They’re all worth a try, though, and I’m sure you’ll find at least some you want to keep using.
Keep more records: It might sound time consuming, but you’ll actually find it easier in the long run – less time spent trying to figure out which item that cheque you got this morning is for.
Post without payment: Don’t even wait for payment to clear! That might sound risky, but it’ll mean that the buyers get their items more quickly – for small items, you might find it worth the occasional loss to give such quick service.
Post every day: Once you start shifting a high volume of items, go and post them every day – again, they’ll get there more quickly, making your customers very happy. The best way to do this is if you have items small enough to drop in a postbox.
Encourage an auction mentality: Don’t have a Buy it Now price, and make it very clear when it’s the last or only stock you’ll be getting in. Always refer to winning bidders as ‘winners’.
Mention every defect your item has: Now why would you do that, you might ask? The answer is that it builds credibility: the small hit you take from the slight flaws is nothing compared to the big boost in trust you get for admitting it. People bid more when they trust the seller.
Say how you got the item: Don’t be afraid to go off on a tangent and give all sorts of fun details of how you got hold of what you’re selling – it gives your auction character and, again, builds trust.
Accept odd payment methods: Sooner or later you’re going to get a buyer who wants to pay by sending cash in an envelope, or something equally unusual. Why not let them? Be flexible.
Don’t be afraid to sell low: Let the occasional item go for a really low price to a good buyer. You might only just break even on the item, but the person who got that bargain will be back again and again.
Give Perks: Give free shipping for a certain number of orders, or orders over a certain amount. People might buy something else they don’t want as much, just to get the free shipping. (Amazon use this strategy to great effect).
Ship worldwide: Take the time to investigate the prices, and be nice to international customers – imagine how much you’re expanding your market. That’s not to mention the effect of people bidding highly for items that are rare in their country.
Another way to make it easier is to be a better seller is to use some of the many third party eBay tools that are available. The next post will take a look at a selection of tools you might find useful.
Keep more records: It might sound time consuming, but you’ll actually find it easier in the long run – less time spent trying to figure out which item that cheque you got this morning is for.
Post without payment: Don’t even wait for payment to clear! That might sound risky, but it’ll mean that the buyers get their items more quickly – for small items, you might find it worth the occasional loss to give such quick service.
Post every day: Once you start shifting a high volume of items, go and post them every day – again, they’ll get there more quickly, making your customers very happy. The best way to do this is if you have items small enough to drop in a postbox.
Encourage an auction mentality: Don’t have a Buy it Now price, and make it very clear when it’s the last or only stock you’ll be getting in. Always refer to winning bidders as ‘winners’.
Mention every defect your item has: Now why would you do that, you might ask? The answer is that it builds credibility: the small hit you take from the slight flaws is nothing compared to the big boost in trust you get for admitting it. People bid more when they trust the seller.
Say how you got the item: Don’t be afraid to go off on a tangent and give all sorts of fun details of how you got hold of what you’re selling – it gives your auction character and, again, builds trust.
Accept odd payment methods: Sooner or later you’re going to get a buyer who wants to pay by sending cash in an envelope, or something equally unusual. Why not let them? Be flexible.
Don’t be afraid to sell low: Let the occasional item go for a really low price to a good buyer. You might only just break even on the item, but the person who got that bargain will be back again and again.
Give Perks: Give free shipping for a certain number of orders, or orders over a certain amount. People might buy something else they don’t want as much, just to get the free shipping. (Amazon use this strategy to great effect).
Ship worldwide: Take the time to investigate the prices, and be nice to international customers – imagine how much you’re expanding your market. That’s not to mention the effect of people bidding highly for items that are rare in their country.
Another way to make it easier is to be a better seller is to use some of the many third party eBay tools that are available. The next post will take a look at a selection of tools you might find useful.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
eBay Makes $1.2B Proposal for Korea's Gmarket
Korean online marketplace Gmarket has reacted warmly to eBay's $1.2 billion purchase offer. Pending the approval of all necessary parties, eBay will join Gmarket with its existing Korean site, Internet Auction Co. The two could make a good match -- Gmarket is directed mainly at a female audience, while IAC markets mostly to male buyers.
eBay Earnings Call: Low Expectations
eBay will issue first calendar quarter earnings tomorrow after the close of trading on Wall Street, and investors will be looking for quite a bit of information on how the online marketplace is faring, particularly after news of an Initial Public Offering for its Internet phone service Skype, the purchase of South Korea's Gmarket and changes to its e-commerce strategy.
Most investors won't have high expectations, and therefore, if the news is bleak, won't be unpleasantly surprised, Steve Weinstein, research analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, told InternetNews.com.
"It does appear that e-commerce had a solid Q1, or at least better than anyone thought it would, so that could help eBay's numbers," he said. "But for the stock to move, there has to be a major reacceleration of their core business, and there's no real expectation for that to happen anytime soon."
Meanwhile, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has been busy on three fronts: trying to capitalize on Skype; expanding its overseas marketshare; and adjusting its e-commerce policies to improve sales in the online marketplace.
eBay said last week it plans to take its Skype Internet telephony unit public, with an IPO planned for the first half of 2010. The move could mark the final chapter in eBay's dealings with Skype, the Voice over IP (VoIP) service it purchased in 2005 for $2.6 billion -- and has been struggling to figure out what to do with it ever since.
While Skype has proven a rousing success -- the unit took in revenues of $551 million in 2008, up 44 percent from 2007 -- eBay never achieved a way to leverage the VoIP firm to help its core auction business.
The IPO developments came after eBay told analysts earlier in the year that it would no longer look at Skype as a complementary service for e-commerce, but rather as its own entity poised todouble revenues by 2011.
eBay also grabbed headlines last week with news that it is buying South Korean online auctioneer Gmarket for $1.2 billion in cash in an effort to tap overseas growth potential.
The online marketplace agreed to buy 67 percent of Gmarket from investors, including Yahoo, and will make a offer of $24 a share for the rest, according to eBay's statement.
eBay plans to combine Gmarket with its South Korean unit Internet Auction Co., which is anticipated to double its sales there while shoring up its position to continue expansion in Asian markets.
Righting the ship
These developments, along with recent changes designed to improve its e-commerce experience, come at a time when eBay's strategy is to steer away from its genesis as an auction platform to a more diversified online marketplace focusing on overstock sales and more fixed-price sales after losing market share to rival Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).
In its report last week, Barclays Capital came out with a tepid reaction to eBay's recent marketplace policy changes and Skype IPO, stating that while the developments were "positive....we remain cautious on the stock given the continued structural challenges facing the core marketplace biz."
The report goes on to say "Given current market conditions, we believe that the IPO announcement may be more about posturing on the part of eBay before an outright sale. However, we believe that a Skype IPO/sale could provide upside to our overall valuation of eBay.
"Significant Marketplace changes include: a new dispute resolution process, smart FAQs, introduction of multi-quantity fixed price listings, new product and item pages, & a package tracking feature. We believe that these changes are steps in the right direction, but more measures may be needed to have a more significant effect on the platform."
As for tomorrow's news, investors are likely hoping they won't hear more grim financial reports. eBay reported its first year-to-year revenue drop in January, with fourth quarter earnings down 31 percent from the same period a year ago.
eBay's total revenue of $2.04 billion for that quarter was down six percent, or $145 million, from 2007. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters at the time were expecting revenue of $2.1 billion.Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Power of eBay “Store Newsletters”
eBay Stores come with a very powerful feature: store newsletters. When buyers add your store to their favourites, you can offer them the chance to join your mailing list. You can then send highly targeted emails to people who you know were at least interested enough in your products to add the store to their favourites.
How Do I Send Them?
First, you need to get some people to sign up for your newsletter – this will happen with time, as people buy from you and browse your store.
Once you’ve got a few subscribers, it’s worth sending out a newsletter. To send store newsletters, go to My eBay, click ‘Manage My Store’, and then click ‘Email Marketing’. Once you’ve done that, click the ‘Create Email’ button, and you’re away.
All you need to do now is write an email subject and a message, choose any items you want to include in the email, and specify who you want to receive it. The subject and message can be something relatively generic, like ‘here are my latest deals’ – it’s the targeting that’s important, and eBay’s is powerful. You can choose to only send an email to people who’ve bought from you in the past, or only to people who’ve opened your email before.
It is important to note, though, that you can only send one email per week to a mailing list.
The Ups and Downs:
The downside of store newsletters is this: they’re expensive. A basic, $15.95 per month store only comes with 100 emails, while $49.95 comes with 1000. Even the $499.95 anchor store only comes with 4000! Extra emails for all stores cost 1 cent each. That’s $1 per hundred extra emails. If your mailing list has a significant number of people on it, then that’ll get really expensive, really fast.
Surprisingly, though, it can often be worth it, despite the cost. It’s very rare to send out a newsletter to a mailing list of a hundred and not get at least one sale, and you’ll often get three or four, even to small lists.
Measure Your Success:
Each time you send an email, eBay produces a report telling you how well that email did. You can view these reports on the ‘Email Marketing’ page by clicking the subject line of an email you sent.
This report will show how many people received your email, how many opened it, the number of clicks it generated on your items and your store, and the number of bids and Buy it Now purchases that resulted from the email. Some of the numbers might be too low, though, as many people use email software that displays email in plain text format and so stops eBay from collecting statistics. Also, you will notice that you’ll have more success if you send out emails regularly, as people will start to expect them, and react in a more open way – don’t expect the Earth from your first email.
By now, you’re probably getting pretty good at selling on eBay – isn’t it nice to have all those satisfied customers? Not to mention the money… However well you’re doing, though, there’s always room for improvement. The next post will give you ten tips for being an even better seller.
How Do I Send Them?
First, you need to get some people to sign up for your newsletter – this will happen with time, as people buy from you and browse your store.
Once you’ve got a few subscribers, it’s worth sending out a newsletter. To send store newsletters, go to My eBay, click ‘Manage My Store’, and then click ‘Email Marketing’. Once you’ve done that, click the ‘Create Email’ button, and you’re away.
All you need to do now is write an email subject and a message, choose any items you want to include in the email, and specify who you want to receive it. The subject and message can be something relatively generic, like ‘here are my latest deals’ – it’s the targeting that’s important, and eBay’s is powerful. You can choose to only send an email to people who’ve bought from you in the past, or only to people who’ve opened your email before.
It is important to note, though, that you can only send one email per week to a mailing list.
The Ups and Downs:
The downside of store newsletters is this: they’re expensive. A basic, $15.95 per month store only comes with 100 emails, while $49.95 comes with 1000. Even the $499.95 anchor store only comes with 4000! Extra emails for all stores cost 1 cent each. That’s $1 per hundred extra emails. If your mailing list has a significant number of people on it, then that’ll get really expensive, really fast.
Surprisingly, though, it can often be worth it, despite the cost. It’s very rare to send out a newsletter to a mailing list of a hundred and not get at least one sale, and you’ll often get three or four, even to small lists.
Measure Your Success:
Each time you send an email, eBay produces a report telling you how well that email did. You can view these reports on the ‘Email Marketing’ page by clicking the subject line of an email you sent.
This report will show how many people received your email, how many opened it, the number of clicks it generated on your items and your store, and the number of bids and Buy it Now purchases that resulted from the email. Some of the numbers might be too low, though, as many people use email software that displays email in plain text format and so stops eBay from collecting statistics. Also, you will notice that you’ll have more success if you send out emails regularly, as people will start to expect them, and react in a more open way – don’t expect the Earth from your first email.
By now, you’re probably getting pretty good at selling on eBay – isn’t it nice to have all those satisfied customers? Not to mention the money… However well you’re doing, though, there’s always room for improvement. The next post will give you ten tips for being an even better seller.
Special Rules for Selling Software on eBay
Computer software is one of the biggest sellers on eBay – after all, everyone using eBay has a computer, don’t they? There can be problems, however, if you try to sell certain kinds of software that eBay doesn’t allow. Used software is a minefield, and you could end up buying something dodgy to resell without even realising it.
Here are the various kinds of software that you’re not allowed to sell on eBay, and how to spot them. You should always try installing used software before you sell it, as this might give you a few clues.
Pirate Software:
This one is reasonably obvious, but pirate software can be hard to spot. The biggest things to look out for are auctions that don’t have pictures or only have pictures from catalogues, unrealistically low prices, and come with no manuals or documentation. Microsoft software comes with a ‘Certificate of Authenticity’, which you should check. Software that is on recordable media such as CD-RWs is usually pirated.
If you see software that offered for download only, it is often pirated – but not always. Some small software developers allow download licenses for their software to be resold on sites like eBay. Type the name of the software into a search engine, and go to the manufacturer’s site to check. Remember that software you download is very unlikely to come with resale rights, though.
Beta Software:
Beta software is pre-release software, issued by companies for testing purposes. Companies generally do not give permission for their beta software to be sold or redistributed, as it won’t be as good as the final product. Do not buy anything that says it is ‘beta’, and return anything you receive that says ‘beta’ or ‘not for resale or distribution’ anywhere on the CD or during the install.
Academic Software:
Some companies sell special ‘educational editions’ or ‘student licenses’ for their software, which are designed to make it affordable to students and teachers. You can only sell this software if you are a licensed educational reseller for the company, and your buyers are educational users. Academic software will usually say somewhere on its CD or in its installation what it is.
OEM Software:
OEM stands for ‘Original Equipment Manufacturer’ – this is software that is only supposed to be distributed with a new computer, as it came pre-installed on the computer. The licences for this software usually stop you from selling it without also selling any hardware. Look out for the message ‘for sale with a new computer only’, or similar. Note, though, that it’s usually fine to bundle any OEM software you come across with computers that you sell on eBay.
If you sell any kind of software that isn’t allowed, then eBay might shut down your auction, or your sellers might realise what they’ve bought and leave you bad feedback. It’s not really worth the risk.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, how about we try to get you a few more customers for the items you have that aren’t against the rules. In the next post, we’ll take a look at the real power of eBay store newsletters.
Here are the various kinds of software that you’re not allowed to sell on eBay, and how to spot them. You should always try installing used software before you sell it, as this might give you a few clues.
Pirate Software:
This one is reasonably obvious, but pirate software can be hard to spot. The biggest things to look out for are auctions that don’t have pictures or only have pictures from catalogues, unrealistically low prices, and come with no manuals or documentation. Microsoft software comes with a ‘Certificate of Authenticity’, which you should check. Software that is on recordable media such as CD-RWs is usually pirated.
If you see software that offered for download only, it is often pirated – but not always. Some small software developers allow download licenses for their software to be resold on sites like eBay. Type the name of the software into a search engine, and go to the manufacturer’s site to check. Remember that software you download is very unlikely to come with resale rights, though.
Beta Software:
Beta software is pre-release software, issued by companies for testing purposes. Companies generally do not give permission for their beta software to be sold or redistributed, as it won’t be as good as the final product. Do not buy anything that says it is ‘beta’, and return anything you receive that says ‘beta’ or ‘not for resale or distribution’ anywhere on the CD or during the install.
Academic Software:
Some companies sell special ‘educational editions’ or ‘student licenses’ for their software, which are designed to make it affordable to students and teachers. You can only sell this software if you are a licensed educational reseller for the company, and your buyers are educational users. Academic software will usually say somewhere on its CD or in its installation what it is.
OEM Software:
OEM stands for ‘Original Equipment Manufacturer’ – this is software that is only supposed to be distributed with a new computer, as it came pre-installed on the computer. The licences for this software usually stop you from selling it without also selling any hardware. Look out for the message ‘for sale with a new computer only’, or similar. Note, though, that it’s usually fine to bundle any OEM software you come across with computers that you sell on eBay.
If you sell any kind of software that isn’t allowed, then eBay might shut down your auction, or your sellers might realise what they’ve bought and leave you bad feedback. It’s not really worth the risk.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, how about we try to get you a few more customers for the items you have that aren’t against the rules. In the next post, we’ll take a look at the real power of eBay store newsletters.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Interesting eBay announcement
Earlier in the year, eBay announced that it would be making two big announcements per year regarding the eBay Marketplace. Each announcement would be made 60 days in advance of when the changes were scheduled.
eBay has now made the first announcement of the year, and it includes three groups of changes, each with components of their own. As highlighted by eBay the new changes are as follows:
1. Easier, more visual shopping-plus buyer incentives to drive more sales
For one, there is a new item page, that eBay says can impact how your listings are displayed.
There are new product pages. "When buyers search for popular items in some categories like Music or Electronics, they will be presented with a page that displays the products associated with their search terms," eBay explains. "eBay identifies listings for these product searches by looking at 'product details' in a listing (formerly called 'pre-filled item information') to see if there's a match to details stored in our master database (catalog) of products."
eBay tells sellers to make sure product details are listed whenever available to ensure inclusion on product pages.
There is also a new way to list items with multiple variations such as size and color for fixed price listings.
Last on the list for number one, is eBay's "big investments" in buyer incentives and loyalty. They're aggressively trying to drive more traffic to eBay through incentives and rewards for buyers.
2. Key information to set buyer expectations and help reduce your costs
eBay has developed a "Smart FAQ" section that draws "live" information from listings to answer the top 20 buyer questions before buyers reach sellers through "ask a question." You can review and customize questions, or you can simply have buyers go straight to you with their questions.
They have also introduced package tracking in My eBay. "Sellers are responsible for their items until they arrive safely in the buyer's hands. 'Where's my stuff?' is one of the most common buyer questions," says eBay. "When buyers can easily find out for themselves, they're more satisfied with transactions and leave sellers higher shipping DSRs."
Other items that fall into number 2 include:
- Return policy and handling time-deadline extended
- Customized Item Specifics
- Category and item specific changes
3. More updates to make selling on eBay "more efficient"
eBay Resolutions are a subject that should be of great interest to sellers. eBay says:
We are introducing a new, more efficient dispute resolution process for when buyers claim an item was not received or the item they received was different than described in the listing. The goals of the new process are to keep buyers on eBay by giving them a more familiar eCommerce resolution experience, and to reduce the time buyers and sellers spend resolving issues.
Direct communication between buyers and sellers will continue to be strongly encouraged. With the new process, buyers and sellers will also have an option to call eBay. We'll be taking a more active role, and in certain cases when we determine the seller was not at fault we may refund the buyer at our own expense.
eBay will also start directing buyers to resolve disputes on eBay instead of PayPal. This process will be "gradually transitioned," according to the company.
Other updates that fall into this last category include:
- Free Selling Manager with new applications
- Pay shipping, print labels right on eBay
- Tools to bulk edit your listings
There are many more details on every new feature mentioned here at eBay's site. The changes are expected to go into effect on June 15th (though possibly later in some places).
eBay has now made the first announcement of the year, and it includes three groups of changes, each with components of their own. As highlighted by eBay the new changes are as follows:
1. Easier, more visual shopping-plus buyer incentives to drive more sales
For one, there is a new item page, that eBay says can impact how your listings are displayed.
There are new product pages. "When buyers search for popular items in some categories like Music or Electronics, they will be presented with a page that displays the products associated with their search terms," eBay explains. "eBay identifies listings for these product searches by looking at 'product details' in a listing (formerly called 'pre-filled item information') to see if there's a match to details stored in our master database (catalog) of products."
eBay tells sellers to make sure product details are listed whenever available to ensure inclusion on product pages.
There is also a new way to list items with multiple variations such as size and color for fixed price listings.
Last on the list for number one, is eBay's "big investments" in buyer incentives and loyalty. They're aggressively trying to drive more traffic to eBay through incentives and rewards for buyers.
2. Key information to set buyer expectations and help reduce your costs
eBay has developed a "Smart FAQ" section that draws "live" information from listings to answer the top 20 buyer questions before buyers reach sellers through "ask a question." You can review and customize questions, or you can simply have buyers go straight to you with their questions.
They have also introduced package tracking in My eBay. "Sellers are responsible for their items until they arrive safely in the buyer's hands. 'Where's my stuff?' is one of the most common buyer questions," says eBay. "When buyers can easily find out for themselves, they're more satisfied with transactions and leave sellers higher shipping DSRs."
Other items that fall into number 2 include:
- Return policy and handling time-deadline extended
- Customized Item Specifics
- Category and item specific changes
3. More updates to make selling on eBay "more efficient"
eBay Resolutions are a subject that should be of great interest to sellers. eBay says:
We are introducing a new, more efficient dispute resolution process for when buyers claim an item was not received or the item they received was different than described in the listing. The goals of the new process are to keep buyers on eBay by giving them a more familiar eCommerce resolution experience, and to reduce the time buyers and sellers spend resolving issues.
Direct communication between buyers and sellers will continue to be strongly encouraged. With the new process, buyers and sellers will also have an option to call eBay. We'll be taking a more active role, and in certain cases when we determine the seller was not at fault we may refund the buyer at our own expense.
eBay will also start directing buyers to resolve disputes on eBay instead of PayPal. This process will be "gradually transitioned," according to the company.
Other updates that fall into this last category include:
- Free Selling Manager with new applications
- Pay shipping, print labels right on eBay
- Tools to bulk edit your listings
There are many more details on every new feature mentioned here at eBay's site. The changes are expected to go into effect on June 15th (though possibly later in some places).
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