eBay is NOT easyBay! (Part 3 of 3– Follow-up)

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Now that you have read Part 1 – Getting Ready and Part 2 – Listing Your Ads, you’ve got your ads listed and you’re waiting for the bidding to end.

Wow! You have bidders! Oh wait, there’s only one or a couple of bidders and the winning bid is way below what you expected. Well, that means it’s time to make some changes. Go back to the beginning to guess if something you did was wrong. Wrong look and feel? Wrong picture(s)? Wrong wording? Too little information? Wrong format, features, price? Wrong timing? Try to figure out why you didn’t get a bidding war driving the ending bid much higher than you had hoped. Fix something and try again. Sometimes you did everything right, but the bidders just weren’t there.

The auction ends and the winning bidder actually pays for it (they don’t always)! Now you have to pack it up, print your mailing label, stick it on and get it to the carrier the same day as the date on your mailing label. Don’t forget bubble wrap, if it can break. Send out the invoice to your customer with the mail tracking information. It is critical that you get your merchandise out the door as fast as possible for you to get excellent feedback. Getting and giving feedback is absolutely crucial to selling on eBay!

Oh no! The customer gets it and doesn’t want it! They want to return it. Do you take it back? Charge them a restocking fee? Let them open a dispute in eBay and/or PayPal, which could damage your reputation? Do you eat the shipping and return shipping costs?

Speaking of costs… Besides time and a lot of hard work, how much can you realistically make? When you are figuring your costs, add in acquisition costs including s/h, eBay fees for listing and for selling (they get you at both ends!), PayPal fees, shipping supplies, shipping costs, insurance, etc. and subtract all of it from what you received. Next take all of the overhead costs like software costs, subscription fees, eBay fees for unsold listings, storage space, etc. and leverage it out over your sales. And tada! You’ve made a whopping dollar per hour of work or less.

There is an inside secret to increasing sales and make a little money on the side. No, I’m not talking about writing a “How to Sell on eBay” garbage book or CD! However, it does involve writing. Create a little information book (couple of pages at least) that has to do with your product. Let’s say your interest is in gardening and you decided to sell seeds. Write a little book on how to care for your petunias (or whatever). Next sell the information on eBay! Information does sell! Not only do you make a little profit from your book, people are more likely to buy your product.

I know this article is long, but I only touched on the basics. There are most likely things that I have left out. There are things that others do, that I didn’t try, like an eBay store. If you give it a try, you’ll need to learn a lot more than just what I’ve written about here.

If I have just saved you a lot of time and money, because you were thinking of selling on eBay, but weren’t sure it was for you, you are welcome. If you are currently selling on eBay and/or are going to start, then I wish you the best of luck! You have more stamina, time, and money for a tiny bit of pocket change, than I did. Over the busy Christmas season and the month after I made a whopping $500. That was before I subtracted out all of the overhead. When I subtracted my overhead…. Ouch! I was in the hole. So much for eBay for me!

JMO -Sharon

P.S. If anyone is interested in buying my inventory and mailing supplies, I’ll sell the lot at my cost as long as you’re willing to pick it up or pay for a moving company. You must reside in the US. The majority of products are electronics and accessories, like headsets. Shoot me an email, if you’re interested. I’ll only reply to serious inquiries. No SPAM, please. And before you ask, the answer is no, I did not write this article just to get rid of my inventory! LOL

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