Uk Auction Line News. Issue 7

UK Auction Line News. Issue 7

The leading ezine of users of Ebay.co.uk...

11 Sept 2003

Editor's Note

Welcome to the seventh issue of UK Auction Line News.

I would like to say a special hello to all the new subscribers. The purpose of this newsletter is to give help and advice to anyone who uses the Ebay.co.uk on line auction site. Any contributions from subscribers whether in the form of hints, tips questions or articles relevant to our subscribers interests are welcome.

Last week I had quite a shock. I received notification from Square Trade that I had received a negative feedback. This is the very first one I have ever had and when I looked at it I found that the buyers cause of complaint was that I had made no contact with her since the item had been sold 18 days before. When I checked I found out that she had sent me a question for seller and actually before I replied 12 hours later she had already made the purchase on the Buy it Now item. Even so I answered her question and a few hours later Paypal sent out an invoice out to her. ( I use their automatic service) . As is my practice I then sat back and waited for payment to arrive. I tend to leave it for 21 days before I chase up payment so to say that I was surprised by the buyer action was an understatement.

I am very proud of my feedback record but if I believed I was at fault I would have held my hands up and tried to make retribution but in this case I could not see for the life of me what I had done wrong. Fortunately I subscribe to Square Trade an Ebay service designed to resolve disputes between buyers and sellers and they do have the power to cancel a negative feedback if the fact warrant it. Currently it costs US$10 to have a case investigated but I think it is worth it.

Having submitted all the details to Square Trade all I can do now is sit back and wait for the buyer to submit her version of events to Square Trade. At the moment as far as I know despite Square Trade having e-mailed her she has not responded.

My own belief is that this lady, (she has a fairly low feedback rating of less than 20) possibly does not understand the seriousness of submitting a negative feedback and the effect that it can have for genuine retailers. In my opinion a negative feedback should be reserved for only the worst offences such as accepting the money but not shipping goods or grossly miss describing a listed item.

In the time that I have been trading on eBay I have never submitted a negative feedback because I have never had cause to do so. It is also worth remembering that if you do submit one there is always a chance that the other party will respond in kind. And that is pointless. If you have a problem, contact the other party first and try and resolve the issue before you rush to the negative feedback button.

Dave Bromley

Contents:
1. What Can I Sell
2. Name Your Price
3. Final Thoughts

Content section 1

What Can I Sell.
by Dave Bromley

This is one of the most common questions that I get asked by readers who want to start selling on Ebay. With over 30,000 different categories available it is not an easy question to answer.

I think the most important factor is to sell items that you are interested in. For instance I love books and therefore get a lot of pleasure looking for bargains at car boot sales, auctions and second hand bookshops. And of course you can even define this down further by specialising in say books about fishing or cooking. If you were a car fanatic and enjoyed tinkering about with old cars you might consider selling spare parts or repair manuals. If you need some inspiration just browse around Ebay and see what catches your interest.

Having chosen area of products the next stage is to find out if there is a demand for those products. Is anyone else selling similar items on Ebay? Lets hope they are because this will tell you that there is a market there. Just because there is no one else on Ebay selling cheese labels does not necessarily mean that you will clean up and make a fortune. It might just mean that nobody wants cheese labels.

Now it is quite important in your research that you view completed sales rather than just the items on current offer. From this you will learn two important pieces of information, what is selling and for how much. For many fields of collecting there are price guides but I have found that these are often wildly inaccurate and dealers price lists and adverts in specialist magazines will give you a better idea of what people will be prepared to pay.

Having decided what you want to sell and discovered the price range you can expect to sell at you can now search for a source. It is amazing the number of people who buy first without researching the market. If you don't know what you can sell items for how do know how much to pay for them?

A roam around some of the forums and chat rooms may well give you ideas for items that you can sell on Ebay. There are links on our web sites to some wholesalers who can supply you with goods in quantity. If you find a good source of supply and are willing to share it with others we would like to know about it so that we can pass it on.

We shall be returning to this subject I am sure but for the moment I hope I have given you something to think about.

Advertisement

Headline Creator Pro Software will help you create a hundred headlines in under a minute. Simply answer 3 or 4 simple questions , press a button and hey presto your headlines are ready to select and use. Great from creating listings. For more details CLICK HERE

Content section 2

Name Your Price

One of the big dilemmas when listing an items is what price to start it at. Go to high and you will deter bidders, go too low and you might end up losing money. Should you place a reserve on your item or not? These are the questions this article hopes to address.

In the USA a company called Genco Distribution Systems a company that sells liquidated or bankrupt stock through Ebay.. They would list an item and make the start price somewhere between 30 -35% of the original cost of the item. There average selling price worked out at around $60.

As an experiment they decided to start all their items off at $9.99 irrespective of its actual value. And what they discovered was that they attracted more bids and the average sale price went up to between $75-$80.

I have experimented setting the price for an information product presented on 5 CDs at 99p. Even at that price I am not taking too much of a risk because of the low cost of the blank discs and in fact on one occasion I only received one bid and that was the price I sold them at, but on other occasion they sold for 20 or more.

For most people especially those just starting off with Ebay, setting your opening price at below your costs can be a risky business. One answer to this problem is to set a low opening price but set a reserve price. i.e. a price below which you will not sell. One important point to remember about setting a reserve price is that it will cost you nothing provided the item sells, but if it does not reach the reserve price Ebay will charge you an extra fee above the standard listing charge. Currently an unsold item with a reserve of Ј14.99 or less costs 40p, between Ј15 and Ј99.99 will cost 75p and above that 1% of the reserve price.

If you sell lots of similar items you can experiment to find out which start price works well for you. However, if you sell mainly one off items the best answer is to study the market. Look up completed sales of similar items as yours to discover what were the start and sale prices. Did somebody starting his or her item off low get a better final price than someone who started higher.

One final thought on starting prices, remember that if you list an item for £4.99 it will cost you 20p, list it for £5 and it will cost you 35p. In other words you will make 14p more or save 14p by starting at the lower price.

Advertisement

Would you like 2 Free chances to win one thousand pounds?
To check it out CLICK HERE

Content section 3

Final Thoughts

I hope that as I recommend in UK Auction Line you have taken the opportunity to down load TurboLister Ebays free listings submission software. One very useful tool in this program is the listing fee calculator. The other day I created a listing and then selected various enhansements such as Bold, feature and so on to see the effect on the listing price. I also had a look to see the difference in cost between listing one of an item and 5 or 10. It was quite an enlightening exercise.

I think that effects such as enbolding and gallery can increase the impact of your listing but it is something you should test to see what effect if any these have on your sales.

Now that the Summer is well and truely over people will be migrating back to thier computer screens and from now until Christmas I expect to see a surge of busineess through Ebay. I hope you get your share.

If you are serious about building a business selling on Ebay I would recommend that you look at a piece of software called Deep Analysis. Since I discovered it I have found it an invaluable tool for researching possible markets. You can check out how other sellers are doing, what products are attracting the most bids and stacks of useful information. Do you think it would be useful to know which categories have the highest percentage of sales to listings. Which are the current hot sellers within a category or what sales a particular keyword atttracts. This is not a cheap piece of software, it costs US$179 but the is a 30 day Free trial and it is well worth down loading this as you will be avble to gather an awful lot of information in 30 days and then you will be able to decide whether you want to buy it or not. It is free for 30 days so why not try it.

For your download Click Here

Advertisement

Money Master Magazine
Money Master is a subscription only Business Opportunity magazine, that is published monthly. Editor "Shirley Garlick" is a committed eBayer and in consequence there are often interesting and informative articles about eBay in the magazine. If you would like a sample copy, send four x 1st class stamps to:
Ezeeweb Solutions Ltd
Office Suite 5
Poplar Road Business Centre
Cleethorpes
DN35 8BL

Information & Credits

The UK Auction Line News is published by Ezeeweb Solutions Limited.

You can send your feedback to feedback@ukauctionline.co.uk.
Post licensing queries to license@ezeeweb.co.uk.

Subscription information

You are receiving this ezine because you are a registered subscriber with UKAuctionline.co.uk. To unsubscribe send an email with the subject of Unsubscribe to UKAuctionline.