--> 3. EBAY – PART 3
In this chapter of Ebay, I’m going to cover some of my do’s and don’ts when it comes to
this business. Ignoring any of these tips can mean serious consequences for you and
your business.
Buying Too Much – This is one of the most common mistakes that people make. They
are so anxious to get their Ebay business off the ground quickly, and they’re so
optimistic about making tons of money, they buy more product than they could possibly
sell. And if the product they bought has no market, they are out an awful lot of money.
So start conservatively. Once you see that you’re making a few sales, you can always
buy more.
Don’t Guess – This is another big problem. Lots of people will see the next new hot item
come out and figure that they can sell it on Ebay for X number of dollars. They do no
research on this whatsoever. Not only don’t they know if the item will sell for X number
of dollars, they don’t even know if the item will sell at all. So don’t guess. Base your
game plan on research.
Taking It Seriously – This is actually a problem with all home businesses. Some people
treat selling on Ebay as a hobby. Well, if you treat it like a hobby, you’re going to get a
hobby income, if you get any income at all. Plus, if you don’t treat this business
seriously, you can find yourself in a lot of trouble beyond just the amount of money we
make.
Fraud – This is something so many people try to get away with. I can’t even count the
number of items selling on Ebay that claim to be an original whatever. There is more
fraud going on at Ebay than you can possibly imagine. Do NOT stoop to that level. Make
sure everything you sell is authentic, or if it is a knockoff, be up front about it an tell
people that it is not an original.
Separate Accounts – Whatever accounts you have right now, get a separate bank and
PayPal account specifically for selling on Ebay. The reason is because you’re going to be
doing a lot of business and you want to be able to keep accurate records for tax
purposes and just for keeping in contact with your customers should there be any
problems like disputed charges. Having separate accounts makes doing this a lot easier.
Get A Digital Camera – You are going to be taking a lot of photos so invest in a good
digital camera. The better your photos are, the more sales you will make. Yes, they are
THAT important.
-->
Set Up A Home Office – You want a place to work where you’re not disturbed. If you live
alone, this isn’t as important. But if you have a bunch of screaming kids in the house, a
home office is a must.
Get A Partner – This isn’t a must, but it’s a suggestion. If you get a partner, you can
divide the work between the two of you. As you do more business, this will become very
important.
In our next chapter, we’re going to cover just what to sell and where to get the stuff
from. This is where it gets exciting.
See you then.4. EBAY – PART 4
In this chapter of Ebay, we’re going to cover what to sell and where to get the stuff from. This is where things get real exciting. Well, at least for me it was. --> I’m not going to lie to you. After you’ve dug up all the things around your house to sell, finding things to hock on Ebay is not easy. Actually, it is the toughest part of this whole business and the one thing that either makes people drop out of not even start in the first place. But I have to tell you, and I can’t stress this enough, if you don’t have the intestinal fortitude to get through this part then you’re not going to cut it for selling on Ebay. That’s just the cold hard facts. So if this is something that you REALLY want to do, then suck it up and go out there and find things to sell. How? You simply have to know where to look. What that comes down to is finding a good supplier. They’re out there. You just have to find them. In some cases, if you want to sell certain items that you feel are very hot, you might have to think outside of the box to get your hands on them. Nobody is just going to send a package to your door. You have to go out and get your hands dirty. One killer way of getting your hands on great products is to go right to the people selling them on Ebay. The powersellers usually have a ton of product and will be more than happy to sell you some at slightly more than wholesale. So while you may not make as much as with a product you bought at wholesale, you can still make a profit. For example, let’s say that there is this product that you can get for wholesale for $10 a piece and sell for $15 a piece. Buying and selling 100 of these, you would make a net profit of $500. Now, let’s say that a powerseller is willing to sell you these 100 items for $12 a piece. If you still turned around and sold them for $15 a piece you’d still make a net profit of $300. This is not as much as you would have made, but without making this deal, you’d be out the $300 you did make. This is called thinking outside the box and getting creative. It’s just one of the many ways you can do this. Yes, you can even go to your competition and make money. They probably, as a powerseller, had 1000 of these items, so selling them at $12 a piece still made them $200, or maybe more as you don’t really know if they had to pay the $10 wholesale price. If they purchased enough product, they might have gotten it for $9 a piece. That’s the beauty of wholesaling. Believe it or not, there are always people higher and lower in the food chain than you are. In our next chapter, we’re going to continue with a couple of terms, OPP and OPM, which is Other People’s Products and Other People’s Money. These are important concepts to understand if you are going to be a successful Ebay seller.
--> 5. EBAY – PART 5
In this chapter of our series on Ebay, we’re going to pick up our discussion with a couple of terms, OPP and OPM. These are important to understand if you are going to be successful selling products on Ebay. Some people, though they may want to sell on Ebay, simply don’t have the money to do so and can’t get it. Not everybody can go out and get a small business loan, especially if they don’t have any credit. For these people, there are alternatives that the Ebay circle refers to as OPP and OPM. This is using other people’s money to sell other people’s products. In other words, you’re simply the middle man here. The simple description of this is as follows. You sell something that belongs to somebody else. You don’t pay them for it right away. You offer to sell it for them for a fee. You then sell the item, collect the money, take your fee from it and then give the remainder to the person whose product it was. For example, you find somebody who has an old vase to sell. They want $100 for the vase. You tell them that you want a $20 fee for selling it. You take the vase, put it up for auction starting at $100. If it goes for more, say $120, you take your $20 fee from the $100, then from the additional $20, you take that, giving you a profit of $40 for selling somebody else’s item. Worst case scenario is that nobody buys it at $100 and you’re only out your Ebay selling fee. We can also do this in reverse. We can buy an item for somebody. Let’s say somebody you know wants that same vase. They’re willing to go as high as $150 for it. So they give you the $150. You look for an auction, see that the vase is going for $110 and the bidding stops there. You big $111 and get it for that price. You go back to the person who asked you to buy the vase, give it to him and you’ve just made $39. Sure, he’s going to haggle over the price but you explain to him that it was only through your great bidding skills that you were able to get it for that price. Finally, you agree to give him $10 back, keeping $29 for yourself. In both of these scenarios, you didn’t use any of your own money or your own product. You basically just did the legwork for other people who had things they either wanted to sell or buy. Yes, you do have to go out and do some hunting for these opportunities, but this is the cheapest way to start your Ebay business because the only thing it’s going to cost you, if you’re a seller, is your Ebay fee. In our next chapter of our series on Ebay, we’re going to pick up our discussion with one of the most annoying things about selling on Ebay. I’m talking about minimum quantity orders. LATER 6&8
