How Ebay Consignment Centers Work.

Author: Kirsten Hawkins

You might not ever have heard of eBay consignment centers - don't worry, most people haven't, as they're a relatively new concept. The idea is that you drop off anything you want sold, and then the consignment center will sell it for you and share the profits.

You Can Sell at Consignment Centers.

Just find something to sell and take it to a consignment center - they'll sell it for you on eBay, handling all the listing, description and shipping.

You do, however, give up some profit when you sell through a consignment center, not to mention losing all control over your auctions - and who's to say that you couldn't sell it better than they can? The chances are they will only give you a fraction of the item's real value, to the point where you might as well have just taken it to the pawn shop.

You Can Be a Consignment Center.

A better option is to be a consignment center for the non-eBay-using public in your area. After you've been selling things on eBay for a while and you've told a few people about it, someday a friend will walk up to you and say ""Hey, could you sell this on eBay for me?"" Give it a try - if you like doing it, then why not start up your own consignment center business?

Put an ad like this in your local newspaper or anywhere else you think is appropriate:

""Create Space and Get Money For Doing It! How would you like someone to come and clean out the old stuff in your house that's taking up all your space, and then give you cash for the lot? I am currently looking for things to sell on eBay and I can do this for you. Call me on [your number].""

Go round to a few people's houses and take some things that you think are sellable, giving the items' owners a sensible amount for them - not too much, since they don't know how much they're worth. It's best to try to take things that are part of a set or collection, so you can sell lots of the same kinds of items. You're in a strong position: why would they so no when you're offering them money for things that, to them, are rubbish?

The only requirement to be successful with this is that you need to know what you're doing, and be able to spot a high-value item when you see one, regardless of what it might be. It's also worth opening a new account to sell items you get from other people. You can't guarantee quality as well, and your regular account should only be used to sell the one kind of item that you decided you're an expert in.

One thing many sellers don't realise when they sell items is that they need to change their strategy depending on what season it is - things sell for different prices depending on the time of year. We'll take a look at this in the next email.

About the author: Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

The Myths And Magic Of Ebay Drop-Shipping Vendors.

Author: Kirsten Hawkins

If you've never heard of drop shipping, then prepare to be impressed - it sounds like every eBay seller's dream. With drop shipping, you don't have to keep any stock at all. You simply list auctions for what your drop shipper sells, without actually seeing it yourself.

Each time something sells, you let them know, and they deliver it for you - directly to the customer. They'll charge you a near-wholesale price for the item they delivered, you charge the customer whatever price you agreed, and then you pocket the difference as profit.

The Magic.

Just think of the sheer amount of trouble this takes out of eBay selling. You don't have to find space in your house to keep your stock in, or money to buy it with. You don't have to take any risk by buying things that might not sell. You don't have to deal with suppliers. You don't even have to pack or post the auctions yourself. Wow! Can you imagine how good this would be if you could pull it off?

But, as with all things in life, if it sounds too good to be true...

The Myths.

Drop-shippers don't do deals with just anyone - any drop shipper who says they'll take orders from unregistered businesses is likely to be a scammer. They might not send out anything at all to your customers, or you might send out very poor quality merchandise that they will then return to you for a refund.

Also, beware of companies that claim they will put you in contact with drop shippers for a fee - they are inevitably rip-offs. At the end of the day, the best way to find drop shipping companies is to contact them in the 'real world', not by typing 'drop shipping' into a search engine.

Doing it for Real.

If you want to make a profit with drop-shippers, be prepared for it to be quite a small one: you're not going to make sales on eBay at a big mark-up from drop shipping prices. You will also have to accept that you can't inspect stock before it gets sent out, and some of your descriptions might not be as good as they could be.

You should also be prepared for a few frustrating experiences with your drop shipper, as they might not share the same customer service values as you. The first time you'll realise that they never sent something to one of your buyers is when you hear about it from the buyer a week later.

If you can accept all these things, though, and find a reputable drop shipper, then there's money to be made. Good luck!

If you'd like to give up a little more profit and control over your eBay business to save the trouble of doing everything yourself, then you might be interested in eBay consignment centers. You can sell your items at an eBay consignment center by just leaving them there. Stay tuned to these emails for more.

About the author: Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

How To Turn Ebay Returns Into Profits.

Author: Kirsten Hawkins

Don't worry, getting items returned happens to everyone eventually. You can't satisfy all of the people all of the time, and occasionally someone's going to want to send something back to you. Turning returns into profits isn't easy - but with a little determination, you can manage it.

Don't refund shipping charges: If followed our advice and you're now making a decent profit on your shipping charges by using cheaper materials, then you might still be able to come out ahead with returns. Just refund the charge of the items but not the shipping. I know sellers who make $1 profit on the sale and $2 profit on the shipping. If they get a returned item then they don't really mind: they still get to keep two-thirds of their profit.

Charge a restocking fee: You're perfectly within your rights to charge a restocking fee, and that's nothing but profit for you. Bear in mind that this will get customers very annoyed, however.

Resell with a better description: Now that you know if there's something wrong with the item, you can write a more honest description. Surprisingly enough, items can sometimes sell for more the second time around, simply because word has had time to spread that you were selling the item and there might be a few people looking out for another.

Take their packing materials: Inexperienced buyers will send back your items using all sorts of expensive luxury packing materials - take them and re-use them the next time you want to give a buyer an extra special service. Incidentally, this also applies when you buy things on eBay - you'll find that you can save a lot on packing when you re-use every piece of packaging that comes your way. Make sure to take off any labels first, though.

You know what they want: Remember that every buyer who buys something from you and then returns it was at least interested in it. They're a potential sales lead, and you should add them to your mailing list to follow up later - if you were nice to them when they returned the item, they might be willing to give you another chance.

Replace with a better model: Finally, if the buyer is returning the item for a replacement, then tell them that the only replacement you have in stock at the moment is a slightly more expensive model - but you'll send it to them if they pay the extra. Again, more profit for you.

Of course, it's up to you whether you want to use these techniques: you might think it's more valuable to refund the shipping on returns as a gesture of goodwill, as part of your perfect customer service. I would tend to agree with you: your reputation is invaluable. If what you're interested in is making as much profit as possible in the short term, then go right ahead - but remember that in the long-term you might be sacrificing some repeat business for the sake of a few dollars.

In the next email, we'll look at the myths and magic of drop-shipping vendors, and what they can do for you.

About the author: Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

Your eBay Super Seller Business, Insure It's A Success

Author: Kurt Rorbakken

eBay is now the 8th most visited site on the internet and it has just one purpose - sales. With 40 mill visitors per month most ebay sellers are missing a golden opportunity. They are missing the opportunity to cultivate long term clients.

It is a proven fact in marketing that some will continue to buy over and over again from folk and corporations that they know, like and trust. Yet 95% of all internet marketers fail when it comes to the Bay. Most are looking for the fast buck. They have completely miss the opportunity to use the Bay as a lead generation tool. They miss the opportunity to create a list of folk that will be willing to consume the products over and over again.

Lead generation on ebay can be accomplished in several ways. The most popular way is by using the self liquidating ad. A self liquidating ad is one that pays for itself. In other words customer directly pays the advertiser the advertising costs. They purchase from the advertiser, some form of advertising.

Let me give an example of a self liquidating advertisement. Some friends of mine recently saw this in a magazine an ad for a pair of sunglasses. The ad claimed that the sunglasses were free, they just had to pay the shipping and handling costs. Their guess is that the advertiser potentially wasnt making much money on the sunglasses. But they also werent loosing any cash. The shipping and handling most probable covered their actual costs. What they really wanted was something far more valuable, customers contact information and folks permission to market to. In other words they are looking for qualified prospects - prospects that are interested in the products and services they are selling.

Once a concern has a customer's contact information and permission to market to, they will begin to establish a relationship. They will do this in a variety of ways including sending ads for other product and services the customer may be interested in. Over time most customers will be worth many times more than their initial purchase.

Since ebay is purely a commerce site it is a perfect place to do a self liquidating ad. Lets look at an extreme example. Lets pretend that some customer own a car dealership that only sells high end cars. Let's assume that folks average car sells for $65,000. One way the seller could use a lead generation self liquidating ad would be by selling a special report. For example people could sell a report on ebay.com entitled 18 Ways to Drive the Car of Your Dreams for Less Than the Cost of a Yugo.

Does anyone think a report like that would get some attention? The report is really nothing more than an advertisement for a customer. Of course the seller would have to write a report that had real content and offered up ways for the consumer to really do as the title suggests. A report like this however, would cost literally nothing to produce except time, and there would be no overhead, no inventory, and no headaches.

Since this report would be nearly all profit the seller could set a low Buy It Now price ($4.97) to attract a huge number of prospects. The revenue generated would easily offset the eBays seller fees.

In the report the seller could suggest several real ways for folk to drive a luxury car for little money. Seller could also list in the report a resource for them to research. The resource the seller suggest would of course be a car dealership.

The report did not cost the seller anything to produce or sell and it fully paid for itself with each person that ordered. The person buying the report is more possible interested in what seller have to offer and are therefore partially qualified. Anybody that contacts after reading the report is a fully qualified prospect and should be marketed to aggressively.

Once a seller have their name and contact information the seller could send them a weekly hot sheet of cars that they are trying to sell. Once they purchase, he or she could then sell them accessories and branded clothing. And the list goes on and on.

If a seller study the Bay there very few folks using it as a lead generation tool. Yet lead generation and specifically self-liquidating advertising is a proven winner. Nearly every type of business can benefit from lead generation advertising. If done correctly lead generation advertising can actually become another source of revenue for peoples enterprise. Special news are one excellent low cost lead generation tool that people can use. Look at the Bay as more than just a fast buck. Look to the Bay as a way to create long term clients. If worked properly ebay can be the best source of fresh leads and can really explode seller's sales.

About the author: eBay

How to Prevent Disappointing eBay Auctions

Author: Greg Lietz

You should be able to find several indispensable facts about eBay in the following paragraphs. If there's at least one fact you didn't know before, imagine the difference it might make.

The information about eBay auctions presented here will do one of two things: either it will reinforce what you know about eBay or it will teach you something new. Both are good outcomes.

Many first time eBay sellers have one thing in common - their eBay auctions flop. Many of them flop time and time again, with the seller never understanding what is going wrong. The seller ends up doing hours of research looking for the perfect item to sell, gets the auction set up, and waits for the bidding to begin. Hours go by and no bids are placed. Days go by, and there are still no bids - or there are very low bids. Finally the auction ends, and it turns out to be a total failure. Considering the huge number of sellers who run eBay auctions, there are specific things you must do, and specific things you must not do if you are to be successful.

There are many reasons why eBay auctions fail to produce. The most common reason is that the item is not in high demand. This problem can be avoided by doing the necessary research to determine which items sell well, and which items should be avoided. This research takes a great deal of time - but in the end, you will find that it is time well spent.

Another reason for eBay auction failure is pricing. No matter what your reserve price is, your opening bid price should never be more than $50. A low starting price is how you will attract potential bidders to your auction. If you set that opening bid too high, most people won't even click the link to read the description for your item. Another pricing problem is lack of research. Before you set your reserve price, you must determine what your item is really worth, and the price of similar items that have sold in past eBay auctions.

Poorly written descriptions are another cause of failed eBay auctions. Poor grammar and misspelled words drive people away. Failing to post a picture of the item will also keep people from visiting your auction page. Pictures show the buyer exactly what he or she will be getting and give them an idea of the true condition of the item. Make sure that your item description is well written. A well written description with enough detail about your item is essentially your sales copy.

Exorbitantly high shipping prices scare people away from eBay auctions too. Find the lowest shipping prices that you can find and consider paying for the shipping yourself if it won't cut into your profits too much. Do not charge handling fees.

Offer great customer service for all of your eBay auctions, and ask your buyers to give you feedback. If the items that you sell are everything that you said they would be, and you offer great customer service, you can expect wonderful feedback - and this feedback will help a great deal in your future auctions.

Those who only know one or two facts about eBay auctions can be confused by misleading information. The best way to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the truths you're learning here.

About the author: Greg Lietz is an internet businessman and frequent eBay user. To make a recurring passive income with eBay auction items, Adsense and Clickbank combined visit The Ideal Auction Site .