eBay is not just an auction and a marketplace. Often it can feel quite a lot like a game. Like any game, you can get ahead if you think strategically, using your head to outwit the other buyers and get the best price. Here are a few things you can try.
Shop in the Summer.
This is simple, but effective. Summer is the quiet season on eBay – almost everything sells for less. While everyone else is out enjoying the sun, invest a little time to find some real bargains.
Beat Them by a Few Cents.
Outbid people by a few cents instead of a few dollars – if they do not check back before the auction ends, then you will be the winner. To avoid people using this tactic on you, though, always bid strange, hard-to-guess amounts instead of round numbers.
Play Dirty.
If you know when the auction ends, you can get in there at the very last second and outbid your rivals. The chances are that they will not have the time to sit in front of the auction waiting for it to end – as a rule, he who stays wins. If someone else does retaliate at the end of the auction, though, try not to get carried away in those last few seconds and end up paying too much!
Take Risks.
This is a strategy for the braver eBay buyer. All of the advice you will see for eBay beginners tells you to buy items that have good pictures, clear descriptions, trustworthy sellers and all the rest. If you are brave, why not take a risk and do the exact opposite?
Many buyers will not want that item from the seller with a feedback rating of 5, no picture and a one-line description. If you take a calculated risk and bid anyway, you might be able to make a tiny bid and win by default. There are people on eBay who make their living from winning auctions like these, taking good pictures of the item, writing a good description and then reselling it at a huge profit. Be careful, though. Do this for long enough, and you will inevitably lose your money at some point. It is especially unwise to try it with very high-value items.
Avoid Bidding Wars.
There are few things on eBay that are so rare that you will only see them once and never again. There are usually quite a few sellers who have an item. What’s more, they will generally have more than one to sell, even if they have not listed them all at once. Always check your seller’s history to see whether they sell your item all the time – and if they do, then wait for the next one instead of bidding to the skies.
Now, there may come a time in your eBay life when you realise that you have screwed up your bid, and you wish there was an ‘undo’ button. Here’s the good news for you. There is!
The next posting will be all about withdrawing your eBay bids.
* * * * *
If you seriously thinking of earning, not losing BIG money on eBay, I definitely recommend a very successful product how to market eBay(R) auctions
eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches -
as a successful eBay Seller, you will need it!
Take Action – Click Here to Download “eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches”
* * * * *
Another viable and most recommendable option, when starting up an eBay business, is to make use of the drop shipping concept, which you can read about in the post – eBay and Drop shipping – What Is It All About?
Click here to find out more about drop shipping.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Stay tuned,
Christer
BTW
Do you also remember to FOLLOW ME on Twitter?
If you find the information useful, don’t hesitate to Tweet or email the post to your friends and colleagues and set up a link on your own blog!
http://twitter.com/christerfolke
Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed
So what is a PowerSeller?
PowerSellers are the people on eBay who have made it, recognisable by the little ‘PowerSeller’ badge next to their name. You have probably seen these people around – and to succeed on eBay, you must think the way they do.
How does People Get the Right to Call Themselves PowerSellers?
eBay gets to decide who can be a PowerSeller and who cannot, and they have strict requirements. To get in at the minimum PowerSeller level, you must have a feedback rating of at least 100 (minimum 98% positive) and sell at least $1,000 worth of items every month for three months in a row. There are different levels of PowerSeller membership as you sell items of greater value: $1,000 total is bronze, $3,000 is silver, $10,000 is gold, $25,000 is platinum and $125,000 is titanium.
If PowerSellers ever fail to meet the required amount of sales, or their feedback falls below 98% positive, then they lose their PowerSeller status. In short, the only people who get to be PowerSellers on eBay are the people who have been successful for a quite a while, and are on track to stay that way.
The Shop and the Marketplace.
This is the most important part of understanding how PowerSellers think. They do not see what they are doing as being some random bazaar, or a hobby. Instead, they see themselves running a business.
Put it like this. If you run a stall in a marketplace, the odds are that you have a general area of business, but you mostly just sell whatever you can get your hands on that week. If your dodgy buddy got his hands of a job lot of something at a discount, then that is what you will be selling. This might be fun – and when you have a good week, you will have a really good week – but it is no way running a real business long-term.
PowerSellers think far more like shop owners. They sell the same things again and again, every week – regular stock for regular customers. They do ‘boring’ business things like keep inventories and budgets. They know what they are going to be selling, how much they buy it for and how much they expect to sell for. Just like a real shop, there can sometimes be hard times, but their income is stable and their business is slowly growing
The best advice I can give you in thinking like a PowerSeller is, please do not take long-term risks for short-term gains. Look after your reputation, manage your selling properly, provide good customer service and the rewards will come to you in due course. And eventually you will get a little badge next to your name that makes people trust you more!
One possibility that you might have realised so far is what eBay can do for any other businesses you might already have. Remember, millions of people visit eBay every day – why keep everything separate when you are starting to tap into that kind of power? In a future posting, I will show you a few ways how you can use eBay to grow your other business areas.
The next posting will show you a few ways you can use eBay to grow your other businesses.
* * * * *
If you seriously thinking of earning, not losing BIG money on eBay, I definitely recommend a very successful product how to market eBay(R) auctions
eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches -
as a successful eBay Seller, you will need it!
Take Action – Click Here to Download “eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches”
* * * * *
Another viable and most recommendable option, when starting up an eBay business, is to make use of the drop shipping concept, which you can read about in the post – eBay and Drop shipping – What Is It All About?
Click here to find out more about drop shipping.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Stay tuned,
Christer
BTW
Do you also remember to FOLLOW ME on Twitter?
If you find the information useful, don’t hesitate to Tweet or email the post to your friends and colleagues and set up a link on your own blog!
http://twitter.com/christerfolke
So what is a PowerSeller?
PowerSellers are the people on eBay who have made it, recognisable by the little ‘PowerSeller’ badge next to their name. You have probably seen these people around – and to succeed on eBay, you must think the way they do.
How does People Get the Right to Call Themselves PowerSellers?
eBay gets to decide who can be a PowerSeller and who cannot, and they have strict requirements. To get in at the minimum PowerSeller level, you must have a feedback rating of at least 100 (minimum 98% positive) and sell at least $1,000 worth of items every month for three months in a row. There are different levels of PowerSeller membership as you sell items of greater value: $1,000 total is bronze, $3,000 is silver, $10,000 is gold, $25,000 is platinum and $125,000 is titanium.
If PowerSellers ever fail to meet the required amount of sales, or their feedback falls below 98% positive, then they lose their PowerSeller status. In short, the only people who get to be PowerSellers on eBay are the people who have been successful for a quite a while, and are on track to stay that way.
The Shop and the Marketplace.
This is the most important part of understanding how PowerSellers think. They don’t see what they are doing as being some random bazaar, or a hobby – instead, they see themselves running a business.
Put it like this. If you run a stall in a marketplace, the odds are that you have a general area of business, but you mostly just sell whatever you can get your hands on that week. If your dodgy buddy got his hands of a job lot of something at a discount, then that is what you will be selling. This might be fun – and when you have a good week, you will have a really good week – but it is no way running a real business long-term.
PowerSellers think far more like shop owners. They sell the same things again and again, every week – regular stock for regular customers. They do ‘boring’ business things like keep inventories and budgets. They know what they are going to be selling, how much they buy it for and how much they expect to sell for. Just like a real shop, there can sometimes be hard times, but their income is stable and their business is slowly growing
The best advice I can give you in thinking like a PowerSeller is, please do not take long-term risks for short-term gains. Look after your reputation, manage your selling properly, provide good customer service and the rewards will come to you in due course. And eventually you will get a little badge next to your name that makes people trust you more!
One possibility that you might have realised so far is what eBay can do for any other businesses you might already have. Remember, millions of people visit eBay every day – why keep everything separate when you are starting to tap into that kind of power? In a future posting, I will show you a few ways how you can use eBay to grow your other business areas.
* * * * *
If you seriously thinking of earning BIG money on eBay, I definitely recommend a very successful product how to market eBay(R) auctions – eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches - you will need it!
Take Action – Click Here to Download “eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches”
* * * * *
Another viable and most recommendable option, when starting up an eBay business, is to make use of the drop shipping concept, which you can read about in the post – eBay and Drop shipping – What Is It All About?
Click here to find out more about drop shipping.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Stay tuned,
Christer
BTW
Do you also remember to FOLLOW ME on Twitter?
My new content from all my web pages is also going there
If you find the information useful, don’t hesitate to Tweet or email the post to your friends and colleagues and set up a link on your own blog!
http://twitter.com/christerfolke