Buying And Selling On Ebay:

Quick tips and resources to help you make the most of eBay auctions.

This site has mostly visitors from the Central New York area. But that doesn't mean that this information can't be useful to people from other places. eBay is international. Anyone from anywhere can buy and sell things on eBay. The market is enormous!

eBay Buying Tips:

The basic idea (when buying) is to look for the product you want and try to buy it for a lot less than you can locally. Remember to include shipping costs when deciding whether or not to buy.

It's exciting to find a real deal (or steal). Look for listings that are misspelled, they won't be viewed by as many buyers.

Also, listings without pictures attract fewer bidders.

Watch out for inflated shipping costs.

Check to see if the product is shipping from your country. If it isn't, it may take a lot longer to arrive. However, if you are willing to wait a bit, buying from (for example) Hong Kong, can save you mucho money.

If you use PayPal to buy, there can be some built-in buyer protection. PayPal is kind of like an online bank that can hold money or automatically deduct it from you bank account or credit card. I believe they are directly affiliated with eBay.

Most sellers list a warranty. Sometimes it's just enough to verify that what you bought is in working condition – For example: 10 days. If you buy something new it probably will have a manufacturers warranty.

At the very last few minutes of an auction, bids can escalate rapidly. This is usually where most of the bidding occurs. Some people have software to ram in a last minute (or second) bid to grab the product. If you search Google, look for “free eBay software”

You can poke around eBay without an account. But I recommend getting an account first. If you happen to find what you want, but theres only a couple of minutes left in the auction, you're out of luck.

Here's a link to sign up for eBay: Click here for eBay!

Also, it's nice to have your PayPal account set up in advance. Click here for PayPal.

eBay Selling Tips:

When deciding what to sell, look at the listing for similar items. See what they are selling for. See if anyone has bid on the item. Pay special attention to items that are about to expire If nobody is bidding, either it's priced too high, or no one wants it.

Most people have success with popular items by setting the initial bid low. Unless you absolutely have to get at least a certain price, take a chance on a low initial price. On average, you will get more bidding interest and more money than you would by being greedy.

Try to include some cost of packaging in the shipping costs, but don't try to gouge the buyer. Most buyers are smart. They don't like being cheated.

When you sell something, ship it as soon as you can. This will help your feedback rating. When you are highly rated, buyers trust you. It makes it easier to sell in the future.

Be honest. If it's got a scratch or other defect, tell about it in your listing. There are many items listed on eBay that don't work at all. They are sold “as-is” for parts, etc.

Take some good pictures. You don't need a great (or expensive) camera for internet viewing. Take views from different angles.

Write a good description of the item. The better you write, the more interest (and bids) the item will receive. I once saw a bra for sale on eBay that had fallen out of a ceiling during renovation. The seller wrote a very interesting account of this (and it was funny also). This crappy, dirty item was bid above $100!

You can pick things up in flea markets or yard sales to sell.

You can get products from drop shippers. When you make a sale, you order the product from a wholesale drop shipper. They ship it directly to the buyer. Just make sure they have it in stock before listing it for sale.

A good source for wholesale drop shipping information is here. (they charge for the information)

If you use PayPal the money can go into your online account immediately. You can then transfer it into you bank, if you wish. Or, you can get a debit card that allows you to withdraw the money from ATM's. They can calculate the shipping charges. You can even print a shipping label on their site.

The link to PayPal (again) is Here

Also,

Click here for eBay!

Have fun!