Are there any good primers out there about starting a small business on eBay?
June 9, 2004 9:13 AM Subscribe
My sister has come into some bulk items that she thinks she can sell at a profit on eBay. Are there any good primers out there about starting a quasi-small business like this on eBay? She has basically no eBay experience.
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I'd add that if she has bulk of an item and it's an item that's not that common, she not list them as bulk. IE, sell the first few individually. This:
-- let's you know what $ the market will bear
-- makes it look less like you're a theif (someone with no feedback and lots to sell is suspicious).
-- gets you more feedback (1 for each item you sell instead of 1 for 10).
Of course, it depends what the item is.
Also, without re-reading over my old post, I'll add this in case it's not in the other:
1. Put things up for sale at a reasonable hour of the day as the auction will end at the same time. I buy lots of DVDs for cheap on ebay by scouring the site at 3 am (I'm an insomniac) and no one else is around to bid (most bidding takes place in the last few minutes).
2. Keep your starting price as low as you can. I often put DVDs up for sale at $9.99 that other sellers are offering with starting prices of $25 and buy it now's of $30. More often than not theirs doesn't sell and mine goes way past the $30 mark.
3. If you have lots of the same item, list the first three (not simultaneously) with slightly different titles (which is the most searched part of an auction) to see which garners the most hits (turn your counters on and check at the end of the auction). You would be amazed how many Criterion DVDs I buy on ebay for low prices simply because the seller forgot to include DVD in the title. :)
4. For a new seller, good feedback is the most important thing. Tell her to make sure she ships the items as soon as she gets payment. Do not dillydally.
5. Once she's got some feedback, she might want to open an ebay store which is very easy. eBay doesn't take as much for listing items in a store but they come at the bottom of search results when people are searching for items.
No doubt I'll think of more shit and post it later. Heh. Good luck to her.
posted by dobbs at 10:53 AM on June 9, 2004