EBay, the worldwide auction internet portal, has grown at a staggering rate over the past few years.

The number of eBay users has doubled in less than a year. On its fifth birthday in October, the UK website had 7.6m users - suggesting it is attracting another 600,000 every month. Although eBay has a presence in many countries, the UK site is second in size only to its American parent.

Everyone from independent car dealers to IBM and Sun Microsystems use eBay to attract new customers in a convenient and low cost way.

Ebay is making it easier for businesses to use its site by allowing conventional banking arrangements and providing dedicated customer support. Previously, companies had to enter a credit-card number if they wished to trade.

If you have a product-based business, or are thinking of starting one - eBay provides a very useful method of reaching a massive customer base. Since ebay’s client base is so widespread, you can sell pretty much anything on the site.

The benefits of using eBay (or other auction sites) are many - low costs, rapid secure transactions, and access to a huge potential market instantly.

As with any business however, you are not guaranteed success. You need to find products which are in-demand and sell them at a competitive price. You need to market the products via the listing pages just as you would anywhere on the web.

Although in-depth information is readily available on the ebay.co.uk site, here are the initial 5 steps required to set yourself up as a seller.

Step 1: Set up a new account.

You will be required to provide credit card and bank account details for verification purposes. You’ll also need to decide how you pay your seller fees. There is an initial “insertion fee” of between 15p and £2 depending on the value of your item (or reserve price), and a “final value” fee which depends on the price you sell the product for. This is currently 5.25% of the final bid, but only payable if the item sells.

Step 2: Preparing your item for sale.

This is the essential part of the selling process. As in any supply/demand scenario, you need to find out a) is there a demand for your product and b) what is a typical price for the product. You will then need to cater your supply to the demand on eBay and set the price accordingly. Also check that what you are intending to sell is not prohibited by eBay (refer to their site for details). Examples of prohibited items are plane tickets, alcohol and cigarettes. Other items which could infringe copyright (e.g. albums copied onto CDR) are also disallowed.

Step 3: Listing your item for sale.

Another crucial step - you are effectively creating a sales brochure for your product - complete with description / pictures and presumably some sales patter. You can decide to auction the product or “buy it now”. Finally, you choose whether to list your item for 1,3,5,7 or 10 days.

Step 4: Payment and P&P.

As the vendor, you decide which payment types you are willing to accept (e.g. postal order, cheque or PAYPAL). Paypal is an excellent complete payment system owned by ebay which seamlessly deals with the payment between parties and is obviously recommended. Many buyers will only purchase items if your have the Paypal option enabled. You will also need to instruct the buyers how much postage will be per item, including international options (if necessary). Higher value products are best sent via recorded/registered post, so you will need to advertise these costs on the listing page.

5) Closing the deal.

Once the listing has expired (or the buyer has used the “buy it now” option), you need to ensure that payment is received before sending out the product (Again, Paypal is instant and by far the most convenient way to do this). Both buyer and seller should then leave feedback for each other - pretty much always this is “positive”!

Key Points to Remember

Groundwork - Before you even start, you need to research your market. If you have a product in mind, do you have a lot of competition, can you make a profit by selling on eBay? You can easily check out the competition by searching for products you have in mind and selecting ‘watch this item’ on the buyer page. When the auction ends you will be able to track the final sale price of the item.

Committment - Although selling on ebay may sound easy, if you want to set-up a real business selling, you will need a lot of committment, just as you would in any other business area. eBay is a time consuming business. If you sell small low cost products with small margins, you will spend lots of time packing and posting the items - you need to factor the time likely to be spent into your plans.

Presentation - Marketing your products is as important as any other tip on this page. Your listings pages are like parts of a shop window. Take time creating clear and uncluttered listings templates, make your listings as professional looking as possible and you could gain competitive edge over other sellers in your field. You can graduate to eBay selling platform like Turbolister to assist streamlining the listing process. This is only available after you have done your first few trades.

Growing your eBay business - Organic growth is best. Rather than spending a fortune on products and storage, why not test the water. See how the selling process works in practice, which items are the most popular and then grow the business at a reasonable pace.

Reputation - ebay has a feedback system which rates sellers according to the amount of positive feedback they receive. People are unlikely to buy of sellers with a low percentage of good feedback. Over time, the number of feedback points your get will increase. You can build your rating by buying small low-cost products on eBay for household use. That way you won’t be buying things that will not be used. If you carry out 10 fast trades before you start to sell you will get the feel of the process and build valuable feedback score.

Communication - Despite being Internet based, you will regularly interact with buyers via email. Asking questions, confirming postage costs, etc. Make sure you answer all your buyers’ questions in a timely and professional manner - you may well be selling to them again if you get it right the first time. Remember people are people and some can be unreasonable. If you fail to communicate effectively you can risk receiving negative feedback which will have an adverse affect on your score.

Packaging - When sending goods out to customers, ensure they are well packaged. Receiving a securely wrapped parcel will impress customers and ensure you receive glowing feedback points. For higher value items, we recommend you use recorded or registered post. It is also worth sending a copy of the bid receipt with the package. You can find and buy all the packaging you need on eBay. Buying on the site will also help your feedback score.

Payment - Paypal is the recommended method of payment on ebay - transactions are instant and linked to the buyer/seller’s bank accounts securely. Disputed transactions are easy to clear up. However, to reach as wider audience as possible, you’d be wise to accept all types of payment. If you do opt to accept personal cheques, make sure the payment has cleared before sending out the item.

Keywords & Description - Take time to input accurate keywords relating to your product and make your title line as succinct as possible. Buyers will often make a decision at the search stage, i.e. if the title is clear and not full of sales nonsense, they are more likely to click on the link.

Bill Bailey is a freelance business start up author and journalist. Read more on http://www.schnafflehound.com/finance

By: Bill Bailey

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If you are considering using dropshipping to supply your eBay auctions with products then this article might change your mind and send you in the right direction…

Dropshipping is terrible for eBay businesses!

What is dropshipping? Dropshipping is a method of buying-and-selling that requires very little money upfront and very little effort. In theory.

Here is how dropshipping works on eBay.

You look through a dropshipper’s catalog to find products you want to sell on eBay. Then, you post the products as auctions or buy it now listings on eBay. If the product sells, you collect the payment from the buyer and forward the order on to the dropshipper, using your eBay customer’s payment to fund the transaction. The dropshipper then send the product directly to your eBay customer.

The money you have left is your profit.

The profit is the difference in price between what you pay the dropshipper and what you sell the product for on eBay. So if your dropshipper sells the Nintendo Wii for $230 and you sell it on eBay for $250 have $20 in profit. However, to determine your actual profit you need to include and deduct your eBay fees, PayPal fees, etc. So your final profit is under $20 using the example given.

Why is dropshipping bad for my eBay business? Let me start by saying “bad” is an understatement. Dropshipping is not bad, it is deadly. Dropshipping makes no sense in the eBay marketplace… Just think about it!

Dropshipping is based on the concept that you can get just one of an item and pay near wholesale price. But if you just think about it, that doesn’t make any sense. If we look at how the wholesale industry works it will be obvious.

The wholesale industry works on quantity. Wholesale is all about bulk. When a huge company, such as Wal*Mart, places an order it is in huge quantity (to fill all of their stores). I’ll make you an example using dvd players…

Wal*Mart wants to order 5000 ZIP-ZAM DVD PLAYERS which retail for $105 each. Wal*Mart plans to sell them for a little under retail at $98 each. So, they contact their wholesale distributor who offers them a price of $86 each. Wal*Mart places the order and everyone is happy. But…

Using dropshipping you cannot expect to get that DVD player for anywhere near $86. The distributor offered Wal*Mart the $86 price because of the quantity they were agreeing to purchase. At the $86 price the distributor is only profiting $5 per DVD player. But that is ok. One sale of 5000 units to Wal*Mart is $25,000 in profit. But you want just one, and a $5 profit sale is not going to do.

You have to look at it from the dropshipper’s perspective. If a dropshipper had a really hot product — why would they sell it to some small businesses for very little profit? Anyone using dropshipping is not going to sell huge quantities (or they would use wholesale)… So what is in it for the dropship company? The dropshipper could even sell direct to the public and do much better. They could charge a higher price and probably sell more units. Wholesalers could do this too, but remember, they do not sell one item at a time. They have a completely different business model.

So, when you think about it even a little bit - WHY would any company sell you just one of an item for very little profit? WHAT would be the advantage?

The answer is simple. They do not. The exception to this would be companies that sell large items that most stores do not keep in stock but will special order or very unique specialty items. But in the real world; in the EBAY world, dropshipping will cost you much more than wholesale price. Since eBay is a low-price marketplace, this means that often the dropshipping price is MORE than the eBay price.

eBay is a very competitive marketplace and the profit margins with dropshipping are just too thin to allow anyone to actually make a good living with this method of product sourcing.

But even if you could find a good product with a high profit margin, you cannot use dropshipping’s main advantage. You can no longer sell the item on eBay and then use that money to buy the item from the dropshipper.

You see, dropshipping is about getting paid first and then using that money to buy the product and have it shipped directly to your eBay buyer. So, you list an item on eBay then someone buys it. Then you use the money they paid you (though PayPal) to buy the item, which the drop shipper then ships directly to the buyer.

YOU LIST THE ITEM

YOU SELL THE ITEM

BUYER PAYS YOU FOR THE ITEM

YOU USE BUYER’S PAYMENT TO BUY THE ITEM FROM THE DROP SHIPPER

THE DROP SHIPPER SENDS THE ITEM DIRECTLY TO YOUR EBAY CUSTOMER

eBay’s recent policy changes will make it nearly impossible to start with dropshipping. One of the major benefits of dropshipping has been obliterated by eBay. You can no longer use the buyer’s money to pay for the product you are selling on eBay.

eBay has an new policy in place where they will start HOLDING FUNDS FOR 21 DAYS or UNTIL POSITIVE FEEDBACK IS LEFT! This applies to small sellers, new sellers, and sellers with less than stellar feedback.

Here are the details direct from eBay’s website…

FROM EBAY’S POLICY CHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Occasional holds on payment

27. Which sellers will have their payments held?

In a small percentage of cases where it has been determined the risk of dissatisfied buyers is higher, PayPal may delay release of the payment funds to the seller until the buyer has left a positive feedback or 21 days have passed without a dispute, claim, chargeback or reversal filed on that transaction.

To determine if a transaction may have a higher risk of dissatisfied buyers, eBay reports to PayPal a number of factors, including but not limited to:

Seller’s % Positive Feedback in the last 30 days

Seller’s Detailed Seller Ratings in the last 30 days

Final price for the item

Shipping & handling fee

Seller’s eBay tenure as an eBay member

Seller’s total number of Feedback

29. When will PayPal release the eBay item hold?

PayPal will release the hold when the earliest of the following occurs:

the buyer leaves positive feedback,

3 days after confirmed item delivery* or

21 days without a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal filed on that transaction.

* This applies to US domestic transactions that are shipped by USPS or FedEx and either (i) use PayPal shipping labels to ship items or (ii) upload tracking information to PayPal via the transaction details page.

So, now assuming you are a newer eBay seller (and if you’re established why on earth would you be considering dropshipping) you can not use the money they pay you to complete the transaction as it will be held.

You must use your own money to complete the drop ship order as the funds will not be released for 21 days. Seeing as this “pay only after you sell” feature was one of the best things about the dropshipping method of product sourcing there is really no reason whatsoever to use dropshipping any more.

While this might have you upset. I think it is a blessing in disguise. This will undoubtedly put a dent in the business of the handful of dropship sourcing companies that have made a fortune preying on eBay business hopefuls.

Dropshipping doesn’t work on eBay. It didn’t before and it definitely will not now!

If you are interested in buying products in a method similar to dropshipping (but that actually can help you profit) please visit my anti-dropshipping website at http://www.DropShippingSucks.com

Good luck and no matter what you try remember… If it sounds too good to be true, it is!

By: Christopher Bernard

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The irony of eBay is that as it grows to be ever more successful, it draws the unsavoury element of the internet towards it. I’m talking about people who make it their business to attempt to defraud you and I in our eBay and PayPal transactions.

Of course, not all dodgy dealings on eBay are fraudulent. Some are just mischievous. Others are by chancers, who perhaps reckon their victims won’t be bothered to pursue them.

Whoever causes it, it’s left to the targeted buyer or seller to try and sort out the problem. All that we as users can do is to be extremely vigilant and cautious in all our eBay and PayPal activities.

Here is a list of practical steps, in no particular order, which buyers and sellers can take to help avoid becoming the next victim.

Hopefully you are already aware of some of these. It doesn’t necessarily follow that if one of these applies the auction or person is fraudulent. But if you use your head, and build up a view of the overall transaction based based upon a number of these factors, you will reduce your chances of getting conned.

a) Stock photos and descriptions

Because they don’t have the item they are “selling”, some fraudsters use a stock photograph of the item. And they will probably use the manufacturer’s product description too. So, stock photos and no original description might be a sign. Search for other auctions by the same seller, and see if they are brazen enough to advertise the same item more than once.

b) A price too good to be true often isn’t true

A fraudster wants your money quickly, so you may find they offer to close their auction early with you as the “winner” having bid a price which you know to be somewhat of a bargain. Why would anyone close their auction early if the price hadn’t reached market levels? I’ll give you one guess.

c) High value or high volume, newly registered sellers

Although the vast majority of new sellers are genuine and honest, be cautious of buying from people selling high value items in bulk, very early on in their eBay career. This pattern isn’t quite normal. Think back to your own first sales. You would have been tentative, and probably have tried single, low value items initially. So, a new seller fitting this profile may be someone who has perhaps been previously suspended and has registered another ID.

d) 1 day listings

Although 1 day listing are used by genuine sellers who have more than one item or who want a quick sale, unfortunately this duration is attractive to fraudsters too. They sometimes use a 1 day auction duration to gain a quick sale before their actions can be reported and acted upon. So, be extra wary on auctions with 1 day listing.

e) Invitations to trade off-eBay

This is a classic ploy of fraudsters. Having made some kind of contact with you, or you with them, they will invite you to purchase or to sell off eBay i.e. without using eBay’s auction services. The attraction here to the fraudster is that they can drive the transaction along the lines they prefer, whether that be escrow, PayPal etc. Another reason why trading off eBay is not a good idea is that you have to keep your own formal records of the transaction, and you forfeit any cover from eBay buyer protection and PayPal buyer protection. Plus, and this might be a minor point, but you will not be able to leave feedback to let others know your experience with this seller/buyer.

f) Payment methods with no recourse

Fraudsters prefer to chose payment methods in which the buyer has no protection, like wire transfers where the buyer has no way of tracing where the money is going. Western Union Money Transfers and BidPay are favourites and should be totally avoided. Postal orders are similar although they are a popular payment method among the genuine sellers as they require no clearance time. Bank transfers and cheques can only provide the possibility of your bank investigating the details of the account the money was transferred into. For the best protection use Paypal and fund with a Credit Card. Note there are limits on eBay and PayPal protection, and you should make yourself aware of what these are.

g) Unusual sales pattern

If your seller’s feedback indicates that they normally deal in collectables, DVDs or other specific items, be suspicious that they are suddenly listing laptops, plasma TVs or other high value items. The change may indicate that this seller’s account has been hijacked.

h) Bad english gives you a pointer

Some fraudsters operate from abroad but pretend to be in UK or USA. As they aren’t particularly adept at the english language they might use a translation tool like Babelfish to create their emails to you. So, watch out for emails that are not good english. In itself, it doesn’t prove anything, there are plenty of genuine eBay sellers for whom english is not their first language. But it might add to further evidence you have.

i) Location Location Location

In the case of lazy fraudsters you might find their locations don’t match up. By that I mean the auction says the goods are in the UK, but the seller’s ID details show their location to be, say, Ukraine. This is not a good sign. Often in these cases if you contact these sellers you will receive an excuse as to why the item is not in the UK, and therefore can’t be collected in person. In short, if an auction says the item is in the UK and the seller says that it is not, I would avoid the auction. And don’t forget to cross check with their PayPal account, and see in which country this resides.

j) Ask questions

Always, always ask your seller a question. Any question. Their response, if you receive one, will help you judge how genuine the seller is. Beware auctions that carry a message asking you to contact the seller via a given email address as opposed to via the ‘Ask seller a question’ link. This could be an account hijacker trying to prevent buyers from ‘Asking the seller a question’. They want to stop this from happening because such questions could be routed to the real account owner.

k) “eBay can vouch for me” email

A warning about a relatively new tactic used by fraudsters. If you are proving hard to land as a buyer/seller, they may claim they can get eBay to email you proof of their validity so that you can trust them. eBay, of course, will NEVER do this. The email sent out, however authentic looking, is fake and is designed to get you to part with your money or your goods. This applies equally to Square Trade and PayPal. They will never email you certifying the genuineness of anyone.

l)A PayPal warning

There are fraudsters who use stolen PayPal accounts to accept payments. To lower the possibility of this, check your seller’s location as shown in eBay, and then see if it is one of PayPal’s permitted countries by clicking here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlr701.htm. If PayPal don’t offer their service in the country that the seller resides, be very wary.

m) Passwords

Never have the same password on your eBay and PayPal accounts. Or indeed on any other financial or personal site. Change your passwords every 30-60 days on both eBay and PayPal.

n) Escrow

If your seller asks you to use escrow, and proposes an escrow company they’ve used before, this is a clear indication they are fraudulent. There are many fake escrow sites which will take your money fraudulently. The only escrow site recommended by eBay is http://www.escrow.com. An alternative in the UK is http://www.auctionpix.co.uk Please don’t be tempted to use any other escrow company, however professional looking their websites might be. It is a fact that 99% of escrow companies on the internet are fraudulent. They are set up solely to defraud money out of unsuspecting buyers, and to get goods without paying for them from unsuspecting sellers.

o) Pointers in feedback

Try to read the positive feedback as well as the negative. Read the way your seller responds to negative feedback as this will often give you an idea of how the seller will react if something goes badly wrong. If the seller is offering high value goods, be wary if their feedback has been built up quickly from low value purchases. Also, if the overall rating is good, but there are a disproportionate number of negatives in recent days/weeks, this might indicate the account has been taken over. Finally, be aware that feedback is not the guarantee it once was. Feedback can easily be manufactured. Also, if the user ID has been hijacked, you’ll be reading the feedback of the original account owner, not the person with whom you’re currently dealing!

p) Credit Card payment

For high value items, or for amounts of money you can’t afford to lose, make sure you pay by credit card which has online fraud protection. This will give you some recourse if the seller is fraudulent. In this context, paying via PayPal is not the same. PayPal do have a buyer protection scheme, but there are criteria which the eBay auction has to satisfy in order to qualify. Even if the transaction qualifies, PayPal’s standard protection currently has a maximum value of $1,000. Note that payment by debit card provides zero protection.

q) Address and Telephone check

Use the Ask the seller a question link, and request they email you with their address and telephone number. Any reputable seller will give you their address and telephone number. When you get the number, call it, and see if you get through to the genuine seller.

r) Keystroke capturing virus

This is a computer virus which you inadvertently download onto your PC. It’s task is to capture the keystrokes you make, and to send them to the virus placer. The fraudster then uses pattern recognition software to identify and extract personal information, like username, password, credit card numbers etc. To avoid this happening to you, it is wise to have good, up-to-date virus, firewall and spyware checking software on your PC.

s) Shill bidding

Shill bidding is where people work in cahoots to inflate the bidding on an item. A seller has a “partner” who makes bids on the seller’s items with a view to bumping up the bid price. They have no intention of buying the item. Fortunately, shill bidders and their associated seller can be stupid. The shill bidder will usually makes bids on other items from the same seller. Here’s how to check to see if shill bidding is a feature of a particular seller. First, look at the seller’s closed auctions over the last 30 days. If most of the closed auctions have no bids, it is unlikely the seller has shill bidders working with them. If all of the closed auctions have bids, take a look at the bid history. See if the same bidder appears in the list of bidders, usually with aggressive bidding and normally at the start of the auction. If so, you may have uncovered a shill operation, so avoid that seller’s auctions.

t) Keep your transaction information

Keep your own record of the transaction when you’re buying. Don’t just rely on eBay. You want a record of the seller’s identification, the item description, emails sent and received, plus the time, date and price of your bid.

u) “I noticed your bid….”

Never deal with anyone who contacts you after seeing your bid on another auction. They will say something like, “I saw you bidding on that digital camera. I have the same model available for sale. I don’t have time to list it on eBay. It has more accessories than the one you lost out on. You can have it for xyz.” If you bite, they’ll probably take you down the fake escrow route. Also, if you entertain this proposition, you’re operating outside of eBay and therefore have no auction protection whatsoever.

v) Changed eBay ID

Never deal with anyone who has a changed ID icon next to their name. This icon menas they’ve changed their ID in the last 30 days. Few legitimate people change their eBay ID. When was the last time you changed yours? There’s a 1% chance that an ID change is genuine, but 99% that it is fraudulent. Why take the risk?

w) Changed email address mid-stream

If a seller or buyer changes their email address on you in the middle of a transaction, stop dealing with them. It is likely their previous email account was closed down due to some irregularity - such as a previous victim reported them. If you think about it, why would any genuine buyer or seller change their email address whilst corresponding on a transaction they wish to conclude expeditiously?

x) Complications

Never get involved in any transaction where the seller/buyer tries to introduce a third person into the financial arrangements. They might ask you to pay xyz, who will then pay the seller, and you will receive a discount or commission for your co-operation. Such proposals are always fraudulent. They prey on greed. Don’t be tempted.

y) Time is of the essence

This is a scam which is has more potential for success than traditional phishing attacks, as it is time sensitive. The fraudster searches for high value auctions that have just ended. The bid history for an auction contains hyperlinks to each bidder. The fraudster checks to see if the winning bidder is selling any items of their own. If so, they go to that auction and embed a request for payment from the first auction within a question for seller. This works because winning bidders are expecting request for payment shortly after an auction ends. A variation of this is to offer a bidder a “second chance”. This time the “Ask the seller a question” email pretends that the real winner has backed out, and offers the item at a lower price. The buyer, believing the story, is lured into paying to whom they believe is a genuine seller. Many eBayers have heard of the second chance system, but have no experience of it. This unfamiliarity coupled with the fact that a few weeks might have passed, makes this an effective method for fraudsters. The moral of this story is never get involved in any transaction which arrives in your inbox via the Ask the Seller a Question feature.

z) eBay IDs

Never us your email address as your eBay ID, or part of your eBay ID. Fraudsters have software which monitors internet traffic looking for information such as this. If your eBay ID and email address are the same, it is simple for a fraudster to plausibly communicate with other eBay members in your name.

That’s all in my list. If you have any further ideas on how to prevent fraudulent transactions on eBay, please let me know and I will promote these through future newsletters.

In the meantime, be aware, and be safe in your eBay buying and eBay selling.

By: Jackson Bleu

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In my first How to Sell on eBay article I gave you a broad outline of how to get started on eBay, but here I want to flesh it out a little bit more. In order to learn How to Sell on eBay you need to understand a little about how it works from the buyers side of things.

The Importance of Keywords

When you first log in to your eBay account you will see the most important feature of the page, which is the search bar, This is where potential buyers would type in their keywords for whatever it is they are looking for. Try opening up your eBay account and typing in something really obscure in this search bar and see what comes up. I put in Indian Postage Stamps and got some results for that!

Keywords are very important for both buyers and sellers as they are the words or phrases which describe exactly what is being looked for or sold. The importance of keywords or phrases in learning how to sell on eBay can’t be overestimated, as these are basically what connects the buyer with the seller.

When eBay searches for listings matching the keywords you have typed into the search bar, it attempts to match the keywords which have been entered with the words in the titles or descriptions of items for sale, in order to bring back the most relevant listings to your search. As someone who is selling on eBay, if you don’t have the right keywords or phrases in your title you’re missing the main opportunity to bring traffic to your listing!

The Importance of Categories

Although relevant keywords and phrases are important to your eBay business, they are not the only way people search for stuff for sale. You can also browse listings by using eBay’s categories, which are just underneath the search bar. If you click on a category it will take you to a list of items for sale and you can further refine your search by using the options on the left. A category search is probably something that an impulse buyer would use, in other words someone who is not looking for anything specific. So if you want to learn how to sell on eBay, you need be sure to enter your items in the correct search category for maximum exposure.

Although most of your buyers will find your listings of items to sell through a keyword search, it is important not to underestimate the group of users who will always prefer categories, as impulse purchases can be very important to the overall success of your business.

eBay’s Specialty Sites

As the name suggests specialty sites cater for buyers with very specific demands and this could be something that you could use to advantage as you become more experienced at how to sell on eBay.

eBay Motors is exactly the same as eBay, except that it is strictly for vehicles.

eBay Express provides an alternative for those buyers who prefer the traditional e-commerce experience, such as the one Amazon provides. The main benefit for buyers is that they can load up all their purchases into a shopping cart and make just one payment. They also get a much higher level of security when they purchase here, as not just any seller can use eBay Express. There is a strict criteria that includes providing quality, brand-new goods, accepting returns and having a very good feedback rating.

eBay Stores are mini-sites which run off the eBay server. A store gives you your own separate web page and url and allows buyers to search your listings, just as they would on a standalone website. Once again there are some criteria to fulfill before you can start a store and this would be something to consider after you have gained some good feedback for your sales and more experience of how to sell on eBay.

To Sum Up

As I said at the beginning of this article, the value of Keyword Research cannot be overestimated, as keywords are your main weapon for getting prospective customers to your page. Do this properly and you will have great success with your auctions.

If you scroll to the bottom of the Buy page on eBay, you can click on Keywords and also on Popular Searches to see what keywords your prospective buyers are using.

Whichever method of selling you eventually choose to present your items for sale, your keyword research is the most important aspect of learning how to sell on eBay and get your products before millions of hungry eyes with their credit cards in hand!

Find out more about How to Make Money on eBay by clicking on this link: http://www.howtomakemoneyonebay.biz

By: Peter White

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If your eBay auction is for selling to businesses, then you need to figure out the business hours for all your targeted companies in your niche. A good reputation at eBay auction is worth its weight in gold, whoever was given an overwhelmingly positive assessment by their customers at previous auctions on average achieves noticeably higher returns. eBay auction is a global trading platform where over 147 million 72 million US registered individuals, small businesses and enterprises, buy and sell millions of items, in thousands of categories, from collectibles like trading cards, antiques, dolls, and housewares to practical items like used car.

Serial Number Following the eBay auction is the serial number of the watch if applicable and or available. Make sure the amount you are asking for in your eBay auction is reasonable. Hot linking thumbnails on a message board, personal webpage, or eBay auction is allowed, but direct linking large images is only allowed for paid premium members. The idea of an eBay auction is to allow the bidders to set the final price. Using a flat rate shipping charge for your eBay auction is a great idea. Purchasing property or a home through an eBay auction is a jarring concept to some.

After you eBay auction is successfully listed you are done at eBay. If the only image that you are using for your eBay auction is the one in the template then be sure and check mark. I prefer PayPal because I can offer more payment options; on top of that, the entire payment process for your eBay auction is completely automated if you use PayPal. High quality photos and a professional looking eBay auction is an important step for a eBay power seller.

When an eBay auction is completed, the goods shipped and payment made, you and your buyer can comment on each other in eBay feedback forum. Although the highest bid at any one time on an eBay auction is only one increment higher than the second highest bid, it is possible for the price to go up much faster than that if two people are prepared to pay enough. Shipping and handling fee provided by me at the eBay auction is only an Estimate of the Shipping cost for most of the time it will cover the US 48 stats. The majority of the bidding on an eBay auction is in the last few minutes, seconds. How To Place a Bid Bidding on an eBay auction is very simple, provided you are logged into your eBay account.

eBay the World Online Marketplace is the place to go when you want to buy or sell anything on the Internet. eBay lets its members sell items on the Internet via Auctions, which entails bidding, and through the Fixed Price Format, which means that there is a set price for items on sale. eBay Auction is the more popular selling method between the two. eBay Auction will automatically compare your bid with others and does not bid the maximum amount you entered.

By: Rajinder Kumar

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