What is Ebay????
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, and everything You want To Sell On Ebay.
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You're familiar with the name. You've seen it in stories on the evening news. You've heard co-workers talking about it around the water cooler. Your niece says she even did her back-to-school shopping there. So what is this eBay phenomenon, anyway?
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Useful Information for eBay
Read All It Will Surely Helps You
For Earning Money!!!!!!
eBay is the largest and most exciting auction service on the internet. With millions of auctions running, and many millions of users, if you want it you probably can find it there. If you want to sell it, you surely can find buyers. Warning: It can quickly become addicting!
Below you will find some notes and links that offer help to eBay users, and general informational links that will assist you both on and off of eBay.
I had to remove many of the eBay links I once had on this page as eBay kept changing the urls, making it impossible for me to keep up with their changes. I felt it was better to just remove them, than to offer a page with a ton of dead links. I hope you will still find the information here useful.
To begin selling on eBay:
1. Before even attempting to sell or use eBay, read everything you can on the eBay site, take the tutorials, and avail yourself of resources such as help pages and the community area. Tutorials and help pages can be found on the eBay site map, or in the Help sections reached by clicking on the Help button at the top of any eBay page.
2.Take a look in your local area for products to sell. A unique local craft item, something manufactured in your area, Antiques, collectibles or the like. Find something you are knowledgeable about, like and can buy with enough profit left for it to be worth selling.
3. Research how similar items do on eBay. You can search completed auctions under the advanced search tab on the search page. If you can buy them at a price where you can make money, then it might be a good deal.
4. Get a few of the items and list them for sale on eBay. Write a good title and description, be sure to have good photographs of what you are selling. Provide good customer service including communicating with your buyers, offering convenient payment terms, and reasonable priced shipping. Ship quickly.
5. Handle problems as the occur cordially. Good communications is the key to success on eBay. If you do not know how to handle something, go to one of the community boards such as the eBay User to User Q & A Board and ask. users there will be glad to help.
Repeat steps 2-5, often, and you should do fine. As you gain experience, branch out into additional products, or consider handling some items on consignment.
Helping your Item Sell:
The following will definitely help:
Searchable title, accurate, with the right search terms in it. You have 55 characters available in the title, Use it! Write a good description, accurate, with all flaws described, shipping and payment terms/costs right in the auction.
Writing a Description to sell your item:
The fuller you make the description the better. If I am selling a piece of pottery I can either say:
"Pottery Ewer, Seagrove, North Carolina. Green glaze, good condition, 8 inches tall, no chips or cracks"
Which will get some bids, or I can say:
"Beautiful handmade pottery ewer, made in Seagrove, North Carolina 1960s. Very typical North Carolina form to this graceful pitcher. Notice the beautiful green luster glaze, made using chromium oxide, in a reduction firing process that takes many steps. A true expression of the potters art. Only a few area potters work with this difficult glazing technique. Seagrove pottery was started in 1958 by Dorthy Auman and her husband. Was continued by her, and her children, up until Dorothy's death in 1990. This piece was made in the 1960s. Good condition, 8 inches tall, no cracks or chips".
This will get many more bids.
Pictures and the Gallery:
I do think adequate pictures are necessary. Notice I didn't say great pictures, speed is important. In my opinion, an adequate picture that loads fast is better than a great one that loads slowly. I do think that the gallery option can help your sales. For it to have impact you need a dramatic picture, that will look nice as a thumbnail. With gallery pictures now being shows as thumbnails on search and category pages it has become even more important. I also do think some of the featured auction choices can help, but only if the piece is pretty expensive, rare, and warrants it.
There are several methods of getting the pictures on the internet, and ready for eBay. Image editors should be used to crop and resize the pictures for optimum presentation and speed of loading. You can use an FTP program to post the picture to your own web space if your ISP provides space, or you can use one of the Image Hosts listed in my table on the first page. . eBay now offers image hosting for auction use. The tutorials, and other information on my first page will help you.
For capturing the images, there are several ways to go. A scanner is ideal for small flat items, such as paper, coins, even some three dimensional items such as small jewelry. I have had good success using a scanner for fishing lures. Good scanners are relatively inexpensive. Using the scanner you can also scan photographs of items taken with a regular camera, but using film and scanning can get rather expensive.
A regular film camera can be used, and the film developed on disk, or even automatically stored on the web. Kodak offers such a service, as well as other film developers. For the occasional seller, this may be a way to go, it can be expensive in the long run if you plan to sell on a regular basis.
Digital cameras are an ideal solution for the Internet seller. The cameras are getting better, and cheaper, they do an excellent job, and with regular use, more than pay for themselves. This is one item where you really do get what you pay for. Some of the cheaper cameras really are not adequate for the seller. I recommend at least 640 x 480 resolution, a zoom lens, and good close-up capability, most cameras now will exceed this resolution. . I heartily recommend the line of Sony Mavica cameras, few cameras can match their ease of use and versatility. .
For the serious seller, a combination of both a scanner and a good digital camera can hardly be beat.
Backgrounds, Fonts and Music:
If you must use backgrounds, keep them simple and fast loading. Be very aware of browser compatibility. Some things that will work for Netscape will not work for Internet Explorer and vice versa. Make sure your font colors and sizes are easily readable. Avoid blinking or scrolling text. Animated Gifs: small, fast loading, animated gifs can be cute. Avoid large gifs with slow load times, or a great deal of motion, it can be distracting, and it can cause computer problems. I do not think music is a good idea in an auction, it causes browser problems for some, additionally if someone dislikes your music choice, it will drive the bidders away, it also slows down the loading considerably, and may lock up some computers. In addition, folks browsing at work, will get the shock of their lives when music comes blaring out of their speakers, and it may get them in trouble.
Feedback Your Reputation on eBay:
Build your feedback through fair dealing. The higher your feedback goes, and stays positive, the easier you will find dealing with bidders. They will see your fair treatment of customers, and will be more likely to bid in your auction. The same holds true with buyers, as feedback builds, you will find dealing with most sellers easier. If you do have to leave a negative feedback for a user, and they leave one for you in turn, most users will be able to see it is retaliatory. If you are forced to leave a negative or neutral, keep it calm, factual, and businesslike. As a seller, leave feedback for your customers. Not only is it a thank you, it also will help generate repeat business.
Terms in the Auction:
Some terms are necessary and desirable. Such as payment terms, whether you sell internationally, and shipping terms. For shipping, it is good if you can provide an exact amount. If you will check the USPS link above, there are rate calculators available on their site, eBay now offers a shipping calculator to use in auctions. . Some terms are not good, and can discourage bidders. If your terms and conditions get too long, and are too strict, folks will be reluctant to bid. Make sure payment terms are realistic. Requiring payment 5 days after auction closes is too tight, seven is iffy, ten to fourteen is much better. Consider the types of payment you will offer. It is better to be as flexible as you can, you will get more bidders. I think sellers who accept Money Order or Cashiers Checks only lose business. Avoid any mention of negative feedback or consequences in the auction description, it turns off bidders. Some categories may require stricter terms than others, I think it depends where you concentrate your selling.
E-mail and Keeping your Bidders Informed:
To me this is one of the most important points to consider. No one likes to be kept in the dark. Always notify your bidders of their wins as soon as possible. Let them know when you receive payment and ship. Hopefully they will keep you informed as to when they send payment or when the item is received. Always respond to questions on your items while the auction is running. Ignoring an e-mail inquiry will result in the possible loss of a bid. Always keep e-mails friendly, but keep them businesslike as well. Respond to problems promptly.
Handling Problems:
Always remain calm, cordial, and business like. You will find that you get much more accomplished both as a buyer, and seller, when problems occur. Being confrontational or rude rarely accomplishes your set goal. Yes, you have to be firm. Stick to your terms, and rights, but you can do so in a businesslike manner. You will find far fewer problems if you do this. "Kill them with kindness" is more than a cliché. It works. Say you get a nasty note from a bidder. Rather than returning it in kind, write them back, and be firm, but couch your reply in cordial businesslike tones. IE:
"Dear Mr. Jones, I'm sorry you were not pleased with your item. If I made a mistake in my description, I will be glad to accept a return. When the item is returned in the same condition as sent, I will send you a refund. "
This will defuse a bad situation. The same holds true for feedback. State "just the facts" Don't waste time with recriminations like calling the user a liar or thief. All that does is make you look bad, and lessen the impact of your feedback. It also invites retaliation.
No matter how often you sell, or buy, sooner or later you are going to run into a total jerk. Someone who cannot be pleased. You may have to absorb a negative feedback, but you don't have to put up with harassment or etc. if a user harasses you, report them to eBay and their ISP. Be firm, yet still cordial, and let them know you won't be bullied. Reacting emotionally often will feed their needs. and result in a continuation of the behavior.
Build a Me Page:
Anything you can tell a bidder about yourself, and your business will help make them more confident in dealing with you. eBay allows you to build a page for doing this. Once you do a little icon appears beside your name on eBay, folks can click on it and go to your me page. Click on this link to build a ME page: About Me
You can take a look at my ME page to get some idea of what I have done: Click Here
Finding Inventory:
Sell your own inventory. Dropshippers that specialize in eBay sales suffer from a couple of problems. Generally they either are selling poor quality merchandise, or if better merchandise, it is overpriced. Either way they flood the market with similarly priced items, making it very difficult to compete. Everyone is selling the same thing for the same price, just not that much demand. The only one who makes money is the dropshipper.
Next problem is the hit your feedback, your reputation on eBay will take if the dropshipper packs poorly, does not have the items in stock, or otherwise fouls up.
Wholesalers that specialize in eBay are also a mistake. For some of the same reasons that dropshipping is not a good idea. The items are poor quality, expensive, and they flood the market with similar merchandise. . Many also charge membership or sign up fees. Many of the drop shippers or wholesale sellers that specialize in eBay sales are scams. Just get rich quick schemes that do not work.
Some people sell lists of wholesale suppliers, or dropshippers, on eBay. These lists are largely scams. You can find the same sources for free, if in fact the sources are real and not scams themselves. .
Find your own source of wholesale inventory for something folks want, at a fair price where you can make money. Make it something you like, and something you are knowledgeable about.
If you are an artist, or good at a craft, you might consider selling that. If you do, be sure to tell your buyers as much about your art or craft as you can. Show them the work that goes into the item. Sell yourself as well as the item. A Me page can help with this, also.
If you want to sell antiques and collectibles yard or garage sales, antique auctions, flea markets, antique shows, antique shops, and antique malls are all good sources. Even the most overpriced shop will often have a few bargains that can be sold on eBay. Knowledge is the key. Buy some books on antiques, study them, learn how to judge value or be able to look it up. You can search completed listings on eBay to see what similar items sell for.
You can even buy inventory on eBay. Wholesale lots, or lots of antiques or collectibles can often be bought fairly, and broken up to sell at retail.
Some Thoughts:
Here are some things to keep in mind. The internet is fallible. E-mail can bounce, and get lost. Many folks have other things going on than eBay. Be as considerate of your bidders as possible. Remember not everyone can check e-mail hourly. While you may be in a hurry, the other party may not know that. Be reasonable in all your dealings. Its easy to get in a spitting contest with someone on the internet. The perceived anonymity of the internet lets some people's bad side show. Keep all dealings businesslike, unemotional, and friendly. Don't fight fire with fire. Remember a bidder is also a customer. To me the best rule has always been: Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Basic Steps for Putting a picture on eBay using your own webspace or a Picture Host:
1. Scan or load the picture from your camera, save as a JPG file. Using your image editing program (Probably came with scanner or camera) crop as much from the picture as you can, keep it under 50kb, preferably 25-30kb to save loading time, save the image to your hard drive.
2.Next you will need somewhere to store the images. If you are going to use a picture host, they will tell you how to upload them to their site, (skip to last step) If you are going to store them yourself, read on.
3. You have to use an FTP program to upload them. Either Cute FTP or WS_FTP work (AOL users have built in ftp). You will need to get the info from your ISP to use the FTP uploading, including servers, ftp usernames, passwords, and location. You enter these into your FTP program. A list of some FTP programs is on the first page of my eBay help.
4. Once uploaded, or stored on a picture host, you will need to find the url for the picture. That is where it actually is located on the internet. It will be something like: http://www.myisp.com/yourname/mypicture.jpg. You enter this into the sell your item picture form. For multiple pictures you add <img src=http://URL of the picture>
to you description, susbstituting the urls of the pictures. It's much easier than it sounds.
to you description, susbstituting the urls of the pictures. It's much easier than it sounds.
eBay does offer image hosting, some users prefer to use other hosts or their own webspace.
See my first eBay help page for links to additional image tutorials and other links that may help.
A couple of things to never forget as a seller:
First, you are not doing the buyer a favor to sell them your items. They are doing you the favor of buying them.
Buyers are not the enemy, they are the folks who want your stuff, and send you money for it.
Second, since these folks are doing YOU the favor of buying your items, it pays to be a flexible as possible regarding shipping, terms, and payment methods, as possible. Communicate quickly and cordially. Communications and Customer Service are the key to success.
When you do run into problems, and you will, handle them cordially, in a business like fashion.
Treat others as you would like to be treated, even if the other person is nasty.
Kill them with kindness. Even the maddest customer can often be calmed down with reason, respect, and cordial treatment. Rather than continuing a fight, and adding fuel to a fire, there also comes a time to cut your loses and communication, rather than adding fuel to the fire.
Patience goes a long way toward success and the reduction of stress for both you, and your buyer.
A laid back, and easy going, selling style can benefit both you, and your customers. Just because a transaction goes sour, that is not the end of the world. Create consistent policies, and stick to them, but when creating them incorporate as much flexibility as possible.
Organization and structure benefit both you, and your customers. Send your communications in a timely manner, keep your items and communications organized. Be consistent in your time schedules.
Be as efficient a seller as possible. Automate what tasks you can to make things easier for you, but remember to keep communications with your customers as personal as possible.
As a seller you need to insure you get good payment, but do not make minor business risks mountains you have to overcome to sell an item.
Weigh risk against the likelihood of its occurrence. What may be risky for an expensive item, might be safe for an inexpensive one.
Describe your items fully as to condition, and you will have fewer problems.
Know what you are selling. Stand behind what you have sold.
More Information About Ebay
- What is eBay?
- How did eBay start?
- About eBay the Business
What is eBay?
You're familiar with the name. You've seen it in stories on the evening news. You've heard co-workers talking about it around the water cooler. Your niece says she even did her back-to-school shopping there. So what is this eBay phenomenon, anyway?
Simply put, eBay is:
- A place to buy. Get nearly anything you need or want at prices better than you can find in traditional brick-and-mortar or even online stores. Though there are lots of rotten deals on eBay, too, the careful consumer can always come out ahead.
- A place to sell. Whether you're a bix-box retailer or just an average Joe (or Jane) cleaning out your garage, nearly anything you list on eBay will sell if you're flexible enough about the price. eBay's global reach can even move unusual items that aren't in demand in your own neighborhood, turning paperweights into cash.
- A meeting place, not a store. eBay doesn't actually sell any goods itself. All of the goods on eBay are sold and delivered by third party sellers that are neither employed by, nor have any other relationship with, eBay itself. Instead, eBay's business is to give entrepreneurs and sellers a place to reach buyers, and to give buyers access to the world's largest collection of things for sale.
- A place to shop. Because of the immense variety of things that can be found for sale on eBay, many members have discovered that eBay is one of the best places in the world to window or comparison shop. The millions of item listings created by sellers often include photos, detailed descriptions, and owner experiences. Because you can see lots of the same item side-by-side in various conditions and know what each one sold or is selling for, eBay gives you insight into the real market value or "street value" of most types of goods around the world.
- A place to collect. eBay is the world's largest marketplace for rare, discontinued, collectible, or hard-to-find items, no matter what the type or price. Whether you're looking for turn-of-the-century box cameras, hand-made Victorian doilies, Soviet army service medals, or 1980s vintage arcade games, eBay will give you a better selection than just about anyone else anywhere.
- A website. There is no physical eBay store. Founded in San Jose but now operated from several cities, eBay's service exists entirely online, and all aspects of business other than the delivery of bought and sold items themselves are typically handled through the eBay website.
- Free for buyers and inexpensive for sellers. It costs nothing to become an eBay member, to shop for goods, or to purchase goods from eBay sellers. Sellers pay a minimal amount to list items for sale, and another small percentage of the value when an item is sold. There are no monthly fees or other hidden costs.
- Green. eBay is has proven to be a boon to the environment. Millions of tons of goods that would otherwise go into landfills or more resource-intensive recycling programs instead find new homes every year thanks to eBay. Some of these goods include consumer electronics items like computer parts and mobile phones that release toxic substances once they're discarded and exposed to the environment.
- Socially responsible. Because eBay eliminates middlemen and lowers barriers to buying and selling, potters in rural Mexico and bead weavers in central Asia can sell hand-made goods directly and inexpensively to a massive global audience. This brings new economic opportunities to developing areas and increases cultural understanding between populations. eBay has become one of the world's most interesting and exciting trans-national ambassadors.
- Like the real world in many ways. Just as you'll encounter both honest and dishonest people in the real world, you'll find both honest people and crooks on eBay. Thankfully, eBay's site includes a selection of tools like the feedback system that are designed to help you to remain safe as an eBay member.
In short, since eBay's founding in 1995 it has become the world's largest place to buy and sell, a community of hundreds of millions of regular people, small businesses, and even big businesses from all of the seven continents. Millions of items of every kind imaginable, in every condition imaginable, change hands every day on eBay for prices ranging from one cent to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars (or pounds, or other forms of currency).
According to eBay's mission statement, "eBay's mission is to provide a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything."
By nearly any measure, eBay has succeded at its mission beyond its wildest dreams, and it has done so almost entirely in the online universe. But don't take my word for it. Visit eBay and explore one of the largest success stories of the Internet. Then join eBay to start shopping for great deals on your favorite items or to start turning your old junk into fresh cash.
How Did Ebay Start?
To look at eBay today you'd never guess that it sprang from a modest, even comical beginning. Lacking is the glamour of the hotshot enterpreneurial firm and high-voltage venture capital so commonly seen in other companies that are babies of the dot-com bubble. Instead, eBay can be traced back to a home page and a broken laser pointer.
Sometime before September, 1995, 28-year-old software developer Pierre Omidyar, who had previously worked with Claris developing software for Apple computers, sat down to write the code that would eventually evolve into what we know as eBay today.
Originally called AuctionWeb and hosted on the same server as Pierre's page about the ebola virus, the site began with the listing of a single broken laser pointer. Though Pierre had intended the listing to be a test more than a serious offer to sell at auction, he was shocked when the item sold for $14.83. Pierre knew that he'd created something big as soon as he contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the pointer was broken.
"I'm a collector of broken laser pointers," came the reply.
AuctionWeb soon took over Pierre's entire domain, www.ebay.com, short for Echo Bay, which was the name of his consulting firm at the time. By 1996 the company was large enough to require the skills of a Stanford MBA in Jeffrey Skoll, who came aboard an already profitable ship. Meg Whitman, a Harvard graduate, soon followed as president and CEO, along with a strong business team under whose leadership eBay grew rapidly, branching out from collectibles into nearly every type of market. eBay's vision for success transitioned from one of commerce—buying and selling things—to one of connecting people around the world together.
With exponential growth and strong branding, eBay thrived, eclipsing many of the other upstart auction sites that dotted the dot-com bubble. By the time eBay had gone public in 1998, both Omidyar and Skoll were billionaires.
The rest, as they say, is history.
About eBay the Business
eBay is the one of the world's premier online properties and the corporate home of a number of successful Internet brands. With nearly 100 million active users, eBay's core marketplace site hosts millions of retail and wholesale transactions in some 30 countries every day.
Core Businesses, Figures, and Numbers
Headquartered in San Jose, California, eBay corporation has two core businesses, a payments business of which PayPal is the flagship brand and platform and a marketplaces business of which the eBay website along with its various international versions are the flagship brand. While eBay formerly also had a third core business in the communications space with Skype, which it acquired in 2005 and built into a 500-million-user juggernaut, eBay's majority stake in Skype was sold to a consortium of investors in late 2009, though eBay retains a minority interest in the platform.
Founded in 1995 by 28-year-old Internet entrepreneur and current Chairman Pierre Omidyar, eBay is headed today by President and CEO John Donahoe, who took over from former President and CEO Meg Whitman in March of 2008. eBay, Inc. employs some 17,700 workers around the world.
eBay was taken public in 1998 and today enjoys a market capitalization of approximately $40 billion. In 2010, eBay's marketplace trading volume amounted to nearly $62 billion in transactions and its payments processing volume amounted to some $92 billion in payments. According to SEC filings, eBay's evenue in 2010 amounted to some $9 billion with approximately $2 billion of operating income.
History, Strategy, and Market Position
eBay's position in the ecommerce, retail, and payments landscapes continues to change as each of these sectors evolves. eBay's 1998 IPO occurred during the fabled "dot com bubble" and was influenced by many of the forces that made other technology and Internet IPOs so (in)famous. eBay's initial $18 target price gave way to a steady climb, reaching a high of just over $58 per share in 2004 before embarking on a steady decline. eBay's revenue growth was initially 30 percent or more year over year, making eBay one of the breakout winners of the dot com race.
In recent quarters, however, year over year growth has slowed, with an increasing proportion of overall growth coming from its payments business and an ongoing process of reorganization and strategic change coming to characterize the marketplace business. Some of the declines and difficulty in this latter sector are due to increasing competition from competitors, most notably Amazon.com and Google. Recent economic conditions have also taken a toll, with revenue, profit, listing volume, and share price all falling through 2008 and into 2009 before something of a turnaround took hold on the strength of new strategic orientations both in core businesses and marketplace platform structure, pricing, and policy.
The changes implemented during John Donahoe's tenure have proven to be controversial as shifts in rules and fees structures and an increased orientation toward high-volume, fixed-price retail channel selling have alienated portions of eBay's traditional community even as the competitive landscape around eBay stiffens. The recent turnaround in critical metrics was prefaced by a 2008 restructuring and a matching round of layoffs that appear to have served their purpose, at least for the moment.
eBay's 2011 acquisition of GSI Commerce, Inc. for some $2.4 billion—eBay's largest acquisition since the $2.6 billion acquisition of Skype in 2005—may signal eBay's move into yet another core business area, that of major-brand and retail marketing, customer service, and ecommerce as eBay finds ways to leverage the GSI client list and integrate it with marketplace and payments strategy. Prominent GSI clients include such names as Levi Strauss, Adidas, ToysRUs, Hewlett Packard, Radio Shack, Bath and Body Works, Ace Hardware, and GNC, amongst numerous others.
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