Make Money on eBay

How to Sell on eBay Internationally without risk

2005-05-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have been selling internationally on eBay for years, but it is not a step to be taken lightly. All the bases need to be covered. I will go through some very important do's and don't that can save you time and effort.

eBay allows you the opportunity to sell all over the world. It is exciting to communicate with a customer from England, Australia or Japan via email. It is almost as if you are speaking in person. It also opens a huge market! Many US sellers do not sell internationally so you can receive higher bids and more interest in your product; but you need to follow the guidelines I will explain below to ensure your payment.

There are only two methods of payment, which will ensure absolute zero risk regarding sending product overseas:

1. The first is wire transfer directly to your bank.

You can contact your local bank and they will walk you through a wire transfer transaction. It is very similar to the process of having a payroll check deposited in your account. As soon as a payment is deposited electronically into your account it can never be touched by any source other than by you, the account owner. Once the bank notifies you that payment is wired or transferred into your account, you can ship the product.

2. The second is http://www.auctionpayments.com/, which is a division of Western Union. This was originally called BidPay.com and the name has been changed to Western Union (R) Auction Payments.

Payment for this method is completely processed via email. You will then receive a physical check from Western Union. This usually takes three to four days after your email confirmation. Very Important! Do not ship the product when you receive the email confirmation. Wait until you physically receive the check from Western Union.

I do not accept cashier's checks, even from US customers. There is a common misconception that they are as good as cash. They are not! There have been cases where blank stolen cashier's checks, or even bank checks have been forged.

I also do not accept credit card payments from overseas buyers. They offer no protection from fraud as they do in the US. Even if it states Master Card or Visa, they are not governed by the same rules and laws of the United States.

Shipping product internationally is more work, but the rewards can outweigh the time involved. Unlike shipping products within the US, the first major difference is the "customs form". These forms are free and supplied by the shipping carrier you chose, whether it is the US Postal Service, Fed Ex, UPS, Etc. You will need to state the weight, the item and it's value, the destination, etc.

Important lesson - I learned this the hard way! I have a FED EX account, which allows me to print a label and send an item from my computer without having to go to a shipping company. I receive a discounted rate on my shipping as opposed to taking it to a Mailboxes, etc. or a shipping house. I shipped a computer using my account. I didn't realize I would be charged duty taxes on the item, which was an additional $150.00. Ouch!

Now when shipping internationally I use only the United States Postal Service, and the complete shipping amount is paid to USPS upon delivery. Country duty taxes will be collected from the buyer, not you.

Shipping internationally can be rewarding and interesting! Make sure you only take payment in the methods described above, be aware of the shipping procedures, and send via USPS.com.

How to Ship eBay items to APO and FPO addresses

2005-05-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

How to ship to these addresses safely Increase your Ebay sales by selling to these addresses. There are many eBay Sellers who will not sell to these addresses due to the fact they do not understand exactly how to do it with no risk.

What is an APO or FPO address?

"APO" stands for "Army Post Office".

"FPO" stands for "Fleet Post Office".

These are addresses primarily used for military personel. The person may be overseas or in any one of the many US bases located across the US and around the world. Military personal are often moved from base to base as well as having tours of duty overseas. This system allows efficient direction of their mail to the location they are at. Support our military personnel and sell your eBay auctions to them.

The rate you pay for shipping is for the US rate to whoever the APO location is in the U.S, At that point the US post office will take over and send the package to the appropriate person, wherever they are in the world.

The easiest way to prevent fraud with any online purchase is to send with delivery confirmation, and insurance (if the item is lost or damaged in transit to your buyer) an added level of protection is to send with return receipt.

There is extra paperwork and time involved to ship ebay auctions to these addressees, to compensate for this state in your eBay auction that you will ship to APO FPO addresses but there is an additional charge of $X.XX The eBay buyer will understand and actually be grateful to receive your product due to the fact many eBay Powersellers will not ship to these addresses period APO and FPO are "US" addresses. Most are PO Boxes administered by the US Government FedEx, UPS and DHL do not deliver to APO and FPO addressesI have found USPS www.usps.com website to be less expensive the fed ex UPS and DHL in most occasions you can also order free packing tape and boxes online via their website.

APO and FPO addresses are not classified as International addresses. An "International" address is one that is:

1. In a foreign country

2. Is an address of that countries postal system

3. Not part of any US Postal System

Sell your eBay auctions to APO and FPO addresses safely. Follow the simple steps outlined above and support our military personal by offering them the items you have for sale on eBay. It is important to insure your package and use a return receipt which will prove delivery of you ebay auction item.

The eBay selling season is here

2004-11-16T07:54:00.001-08:00

If you have any stuff laying around the house now is the time to put it up for sale on eBay. This is the peak viewing and buying time for online auctions. Take advantage and free up some space!

Texas Holdem Blog

WPT

WSOP

world poker tour

world series of poker

Where to go for the Lastest Ebay News

2004-10-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

If you want to go to one website with all the latest Ebay news and happenings go to
www.auctionbytes.com they have a very good forum with active participants. I participate in the Ebay discussions and they also have excellent tips and various seller strategies.

Ebay has a vast amount of help info on www.ebay.com but it can be such a maze to navigate. I am an Ebay Powerseller and I often go to Auctionbytes first to get the latest news fast in an easy to navigate format.

How To Turn Junk into Ebay $$$$$

2004-10-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

My background is in the computer resale business. I started selling computers in a retail mall store. I worked my way up to corporate sales and finally owning my own computer resale business.

What I found through eBay is that you should never throw away anything before at least putting it up for sale on eBay one time. Even if you feel a product is worthless or even defective.

I stumbled onto this while selling computer parts on eBay. I listed some items that were defective and I labeled them as such clearly in my eBay listing.

I started the auction at 1 penny with no reserve. I was amazed to find that many of the defective laptop computer parts sold for not much less than fully working parts.

I was puzzled about this. I emailed the eBay buyers and wanted to make sure they were not confused and that the laptop parts were defective.

The buyers stated that they were able to salvage good parts from my defective components to make other parts operational.

Ahhhhhh! I have used this technique to buy defective product from many sources for literally pennies and make a great profit on eBay.

Ebay buyers are very savvy and will look for components do not throw away your junk it can be Gold!

Texas Holdem for sale on eBay

2004-10-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

I was searching eBay the other day and was looking to purchase some poker chips for a friendly home game with friends. I searched under Poker and then Texas Holdem. I was amazed at the number of listings. Texas Holdem Strategy guides were avaliable. Small credit card size poker hand ranking cards to fit in your wallet. Texas Holdem softtware simulations you could play on your computer.

I then decided to check google to see what free information on where and how to Play Texas Holdem Online. I found a very informative site and it is Free! Here is the link below.

Texas Holdem Poker

eBay has an excellent free selling tool Called Turbo lister

2004-07-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

There are several advanced selling automation programs available for eBay. If you are selling more than a few items a week it is a must have. All of them have a varied fee structures. I have used all the top competitors and to be honest, eBay Turbo Lister has similar features and it is free.

Turbo Lister includes several great features such as a WYSIWG,
WYSIWYG Editor: Many sellers find that adding a creative, human touch to their descriptions boosts bids and sales. With the easy-to-use HTML WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") design editor in eBay Turbo Lister, you can format the text in your description with a few clicks of your mouse.
Also
HTML Templates: Choose from a variety of pre-designed templates and layouts to help you jazz up your listings - no knowledge of HTML needed. Or if you prefer,customize your own listings by writing your own HTML!

Click Here to download eBay Turbolister

eBay Alternative Liquidation.com

2004-07-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

I have had good success selling larger quantities of my products on liquidation.com. If you have sold on eBay full time you will learn that you do not want to flood eBay by listing many similiar items at the same time. I have found selling my overstock or large loads of equipment on liquidation.com has enabled me to realize my profit quicker in most instances .

The final auction price has be similiar to selling the same item 1 at a time on eBay.

Liquidation.com

Computer Slowing to a crawl, Use this Free Program

2004-07-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

Even though this article is not eBay related, it is a large time saver when you are using your computer more than a few hours a day.

If you notice that your computer's performance has slowed and don't know why, it could be you have inadvertently picked up tracking software or even spyware. These are not virus programs but it is information sent to potential advertisers about your web browsing habits. Which in turn can lead to more sales for them. This data is very valuable.

TO check you system for any of these programs use this award winning free program
it is made by Lavasoft it is called Adaware.

Click here to recieve Adaware for Free

New eBay Scam, Be Safe, You need to read this one!

2004-07-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Today I received an email from an eBay bidder who was savvy enough to contact me regarding a second chance offer. Last week I sold a PowerMac G4 Dual processor on eBay. This morning I received an email from an eBay bidder asking me if I had emailed him regarding a second chance offer.

A Second Chance offer is an eBay option in which the Seller can contact the other bidders on your item if the sale fell through for whatever reason.

I have not seen or heard of an eBay scam using this method yet. The first thing I did was to view eBay ID of the person who contacted me. Yes, they did indeed place a bid on my computer for sale earlier that week.

So it looks to me as if the scammers are targeting hot selling products from eBay sellers with good feedback if they Phished my email with a different header, they might convince an eBay buyer to send payment for the item.

Keep an eye out for this one. I had the bidder forward the email to eBay Safe Harbor. The problem is, I am sure it was Via anonymous email address, very hard to catch.

eBay Summer Blues, Look for Great Buys!

2004-07-03T18:18:00.000-07:00

As a full time Power Seller on eBay, there is definitely a slight slow down during the summer months. There are some fantastic buys to be had in these slow periods. I have consulted with several eBay Powersellers who in the summer slow down, concentrate on buying product on eBay from sellers who need to move the inventory for cash.

Here are a few tips to help you get the lowest possible price. When you type in a search term on eBay also type "n/r", this stands for No Reserve, meaning if the auction started at a penny it could sell for 1 penny if no one else bid on the item. Also type in "No Reserve" along with the item description.

Look for auctions ending at odd hours, late at night or early in the morning. Then simply place your bid from any one of several eBay sniping programs.

There is always an opportunity on eBay, when times are slow look to add inventory the peak fall and Christmas seasons.

eBay and Auctionbytes a great team

2004-07-02T19:26:00.000-07:00

T.G.I.F

Hope everyone has a happy and safe July 4th

I wanted to pass along a great website for eBay and online Auction information. They have a very active discussion forum.
Click here to go to AuctionBytes Auction News

The site does not really go into specifics on any real money making techniques more of a general news and what is happening but it is a very good resource.

eBay UPS and AuctionDrop 3 strikes and your out!

2004-07-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

I just read an announcement this morning in The San Diego Union Tribune, Auctiondrop eBay drop off service will be rolling out nationwide service to 3400 locations. This will be interesting!

They state in the article the items will be dropped of at any UPS store then, the item will be shipped to a new processing Facility in Fremont California, they also state if the item doesn't sell it will be shipped back and Auction drop will eat the costs.

I have sold full time on eBay for over 3 years, I could be wrong but this sounds like a complete disaster waiting to happen. How on earth are they going to handle the logistics of items not selling, being described properly, returns, emails questions etc etc Wow

I think I had a nightmare just thing about it. I checked Auction Drop feedback and it is very good for their volume, but as you may or may not know when you are trying to secure funding or partnerships they are bending over backward to keep that clean right now. These are my thoughts and I am open to any other opinions.

A friend of mine went to eBay live and in one of the discussion groups an employee of Auctiondrop stated that the business model was flawed. Wow, don't put your money on that pony.

They also will charge up to 40% of the final Sale. I think this will be a great opportunity for individuals to offer this service with better support and service.

Be Careful, eBay International Sales can take you for a ride!

2004-06-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

Having completed many International Sales to eBay buyers' overseas, I will give you some tips and insights as an eBay seller. It is good for International eBay buyers to read this as well, they sometimes wonder why some eBay Sellers refuse International bidders. From my experience if you are a US based Seller, the easiest shipping option is to use www.usps.com, The United States Postal Service.
www.usps.com To Ship you prepare your package to ship as if you were shipping to the U.S, except you fill out one of 2 simple custom forms. A customs form is simply an additional form declaring what is inside the package and it's approximate value. There are 2 different custom forms which you will use, one if package is under 4 pounds the other if it is over 4lbs.
(Now you will still have options at to the speed of shipment and the price will vary accordingly.)

If you use the United States Postal Service for International sales once you ship the item you are done. Using FED EX, or UPS you may get charged with a customs fee as the shipper (That is You!) is held responsible for any Value or USE taxes applied upon entry to the country you are shipping the products to. This was an eye opening experience the first time I received a FedEx bill after the fact for $140 customs charge ouch!. Using USPS that will never happen, the buyer upon pickup, will have to pay any taxes or levies to receive the goods.

I recently sold a Macintosh G4 Powermac via eBay, in my auction ad I state I accept international bidders, but payments from www.auctionpayments.com (they are a division of Western Union) or Bank wire transfer. The reason for this is if you accept a credit card or PayPal for any international sale, and the person later claimed the card was stolen, you will be charged back, meaning the money taken back and you will never get the item back, so don't do it. for International Sales I only accept wire transfer direct to my bank account or Western Union. Overseas sales can be profitable, but the do require more paperwork and payment precautions.

New to eBay? Want Good Feedback Fast? Here is How!

2004-06-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

The "Newbie" or new person joining, be it in a video game or the military, sports or even the chess team, are treated with equal parts curiosity and disdain. Even though everyone was a Newbie at one point that fact is quickly erased from our memory banks.

eBay even sets up a list of tasks a Newbie cannot perform until their feedback reaches 10. If you are new to eBay every buyer or seller has a report card of their activities on eBay, it is called the feedback rating.

You can simply find out if the buyer or seller is a flake by clicking the number to the right of the Ebay User ID. There you will see what looks like a report card that be be positive, neutral or even negative. The buyer and the seller of any transaction have the choice to leave any feedback with comments or not at all, it is up to you.

Below is a screen shot of feedback from one of my accounts I sell product through on eBay.

Click
Here to View Actual Screen

The point you want to reach is 10 positive feedback, then you will be allowed access to more eBay seller features such as buy it now, 1 day auctions and many more plus it makes people more comfortable dealing with you.

The simple way to build you feedback is this. Go to eBay and in the search box type in "ebook" then click on search from buy it now and then lowest price. Many of these ebooks are 50 cents or less simply click buy it now, pay and request feedback . These sellers know that the people buying these eBooks are primarily doing it to build fast feedback so they oblige.

Quick Note Do not worry if you get a negative feedback in my 3 years experience selling Full time on eBay is the same as in life you will never be able to please everyone. Have Fun

Changing of the Guard, eBay and item specifics

2004-06-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

Browsing the eBay Power Seller discussion groups, I noticed a large number of unhappy eBay powerseller's ( an eBay Powerseller is an established high volume seller) grumbling about eBay's new feature rollout called item specifics. I decided to check it out.

Existing and long time established sellers on eBay are affected by any eBay format change, not necessarily in a good way. Basically whenever eBay implements a change to their system any seller with existing auctions needs to adjust them all, which as you can imagine would be a royal pain.

I researched on the net and found some interesting articles of new eBay sellers loving the new feature.

I decided to try an item specific auction out. When you go to put your item up for sale you are prompted to choose between prefilled item information or the standard way. At this point simply enter the UPC code located on the product you are selling, example I had "The Matrix" DVD I did not have the box with the UPC code, so I did a simple search on Google with the search terms "The Matrix and UPC" and google pulled it up.

Google Search Click Here

After entering the UPC code a complete description and good looking stock photo of the matrix DVD pulled up. At this point you can select new or used and put the shipping amount etc.

Here is an example of a UPC CODE

It produced a great looking ad in less than 1 minute.

Change is hard, but I see item specifics as a excellent change for all, use it and enjoy

An easy way to obtain hot selling products on eBay

2004-06-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

After you initially sell some items on eBay, most people start off by selling excess items around the house,or garage. People catch the eBay Fever. It is fairly simple to sell and you can receive payments in minutes, there is no other market quite like it.

The problem is you run out of things to sell very quickly. Here is one of the many techniques I have used with success over the years to get in demand products to resell on eBay.

eBay produces a free hot selling items list. This is a 29 page PDF document which shows the Super HOT and HOT selling products and categories. This information is FREE and it is taken from eBay's internal market research.
Click here to view the HOT item list.

There are hundreds of in demand items, I would just target one or 2 of them and place a free or low cost ad in my local newspaper. Simply state cash paid for ABC item, I would receive several calls a week and get products for next to nothing I would immediate sell on eBay

Some eBay Power sellers use the high volume, low profit business model, and they sell hundreds of items a day.
My business philosophy has always been sell less items that are in high demand. This translates to less work and more profit.

How 1 word in your eBay auction title can make or break the sale

2004-06-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

I have been selling full time on eBay for several years and I want to stress to you the importance of the eBay title. When you list an auction for sale on eBay, you will be prompted to enter your description, pictures, price, auction duration etc.

By leaving one key word out of the eBay selling title in one of my recent auctions, I almost had a disaster.

I made a very good buy on some new but discontinued satellite receivers. The first thing you should always do is check completed auctions on eBay prior to listing a new product. At that point you should choose view completed auctions by the highest price. By doing this you will see what similar items went for and how they were titled, what category they were listed in, etc. You can save time and effort by viewing what the other eBay sellers did right!

Too make a short story shorter I was selling dish network 6000 receivers.
I titled the auction “NEW Network 6000 U HDTV Receiver”. I wasn’t getting many bids so I checked eBay for my auction and it didn’t show up.

I scratched my head, I left out “Dish” which then would not have my listing show up when people were looking for this item, the buyers keywords would be "dish network" luckily eBay allows you to cancel your auction if you have an error in the listing, which I did I relisted with the additional word and the receiver ended up selling for over $500

Wheeew! another key point is for you to do a search on eBay and see if your auction sales come up, you may miss a keyword which will cause less buyers to see your auction, which will result in less bids etc.

How to become an eBay Silent Sales Assassin

2004-06-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

There is an underground of eBay buyers right now prowling the darkest corners of eBay and seeking to strike unwary eBay Newbies. These savvy auction predators will stalk and then strike at eBay auctions winning items for 10 percent of wholesale or less, in the waning seconds of the eBay auction.

The tool of these eBay carnivores is called Auction Sniping. Auction Sniping is the automated process of unseen bidders having an automatic bid placed via computer program on a predetermined auction with less than 3 seconds to go. Competing auctions bidders cry out in pain as they sit by there computer watching and waiting for an auction to end manually getting ready to strike. These people throw their hands up in the air time and time again. How come I keep losing these auctions in the last second?. and I would have paid $50 or more dollars for the item. They are unaware of the auction tool eBay sniping. Here is a link for one of the better sniping programs on the market and it is very easy to use!
Click here try this eBay sniping service for Free, Bidnapper

The other effect is on the eBay seller, they scratch their heads in amazement as their auction items go for much less than anticipated. In my future article I will show you a new technique to stop Snipers in their tracks.

eBay Live Hype Fact or Fiction

2004-06-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

I was tempted to buy a plane ticket to the Big Easy and join the Hoopla regarding eBay's once a year convention. I am letting the Power of the Blog take me there.

eBay Live Blog Link

From what I see so far nothing earth shattering, take a look. The bottom line for you to
Make Money on eBay is your product sources. I could take a beginner with little to no experience and have them up and running profitably in a few days with just 1 or 2 good product contacts. Of course fine tuning your auctions with better photos, and descriptions and all the tricks and timing techniques will allow you to optimize your profit per auction. Selling successfully full time comes down to one simple thing. Obtaining the products to sell inexpensively. There are many techniques to do this I will explain in later articles

A Free eBay alternative also know as Freebay

2004-06-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

You can use this free site to buy and sell your items for free. The website is Craiglist.org It started out in San Fransisco and has grown nationwide. If you click this link you will see the Alexa website traffic rating. They are the 168Th most visited website Alexa Ranking for Craiglist.org which is very good. Craiglist is geared toward local markets, with a Craglist site appearing in most major cities across The United States.

Craiglist has been called "Freebay" by some, as it has become a great place to list items for sale in your local market with no fees. There are also many resale opportunities to be had there as well. They also have an active discussion forum. Check them out

The Thrill of the Hunt, Buying Liquidation

2004-06-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

Purchasing liquidation loads from suppliers to resell definitely has an element of gambling involved. Successful Professional gamblers know the odds and will try to make intelligent decisions, but any gambler will tell you luck is involved, which is a big part of the thrill to gambling you just don't know until the cards are flipped or the dice thrown. The first step is to contact the closeout or liquidation department at any large company. Once you are set up on their approved bidder list you will be either faxed or emailed a load or list of products they are looking to liquidate.In most cases the companies use a Blind Bid process (this simply means no one knows what anyone else is bidding). My technique for evening the odds is to try and never bid more than my worst case scenario if all the products were damaged or not sell-able. I will research the list via search engines and also Ebay, checking completed sales history etc. If you win a bid you arrange shipment to your address. When a shipment is delivered I know within 15 minutes if the dealer just threw me an Ace to make 21 or I rolled a 7 on the craps table. I have averaged about 75% of the loads purchased to be profitable. It sure is exciting to open that first load and have it be a winner. But you take some hits along the way.

Here is a simple way to host your images for eBay Auctions for free

2004-06-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

You can also use this free service to host your photos on Live Journals, Blogs and Message Boards.

When you put an item up for auction on eBay only your first picture is free of charge. Every image you add after that is 15 cents.

Adding quality images or photos to your eBay auction listing is a critical step to insure you receive the maximum price for your products.

There are several image-hosting services on the web, but they also charge a service fee.

Here is the info you need to host your images for free, you can then simply link directly to your eBay ads at no charge. This free service is called www.tinypic.com The website title may be a little confusing, it does not make tiny pictures or versions of your images or photos but it produces a tiny URL or link (A url is the web address for a site example www.ap8.com is a URL)

The simplicity of this program is amazing, you simply click on the following link Click here to go to TinyPic

The tinypic website will now appear on your computer screen. You then click on the “Browse” button, which will allow you to navigate and load any picture on your computer. The next step is to click on the button named “Host” your photo or image is automatically loaded to the tinypic hosting site at no charge. A simple short URL or location for your image will appear on the computer screen. Cut and past that link or URL and insert into your ebay ad. Simple and Fast.

There is no catch to this service, you will see a link in which you may make a donation to the owner of the website, but it is completely optional. You can use this site for personal family albums or photos as well as your eBay auction.

Click here to go to host your images for free

How to ship your ebay auctions quicker with less expense

2004-06-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

If you are new to eBay, I will give you a short and quick explanation of PayPal. eBay purchased this company last year, basically PayPal is a payment service in which you can send or receive payment via email in seconds. PayPal has a multitude of security features, which allow you to have zero fraud risk when you follow them. You don't have to use PayPal for just eBay auctions, I have used this service for hundreds of transactions outside of eBay with no problems. If you haven't signed up yet it is free, check it out at www.paypal.com. On to the new features, when you receive a payment from a buyer on eBay it will show in your PayPal account with the amount of money you recieved, you will also see a button to the right which states ship.

Upon clicking the button you will be given 2 options for Shipping, United Stated Postal Service (USPS) or United Parcel Service (UPS). In the past I would have had to either cut and paste all the customer information to a label program or to their website, Then I would either go to the post office and wait in line or apply the postage myself, then I would email the customer with tracking info this is all eliminated now.

After I choose the carrier (USPS or UPS) the address information is entered for you. All you need to do is enter the package weight and choose how fast you want the item shipped.

The shipment amount is taken direct from your PayPal account and then you simply print the label to you printer. The program automatically emails your customer with the tracking. Using this method you can save a huge amount of time.

Two other notes, if you use USPS they include free delivery confirmation which is 45 cents a package this doesn't sound like much but I ship 10 to 20 packages a day, over a month that is about $200 to $300 in savings. Also you are covered by Paypal seller protection of up to $250 if there was any fraud involved.