Ebay made us rich !

Say you’re selling a pair of diamond earrings.  The last time you passed a jewelry store, did you glance at the window?  What color background did the window have?  Gold, silver, diamonds and pearls show up beautifully against a dark background, like black or dark blue or dark green.  Get a nice piece of dark fabric—maybe a remnant of black or dark blue velvet or satin—and use it as the background for your photos of jewelry with pearls or light-colored stones.  If you’re selling onyx, marcasite, or darker stones like emeralds and sapphires, then use a light or white fabric.  Keep in mind that you don’t have to use a luxurious fabric – a plain sheet or tablecloth will work just as well.  But if your item (continue reading…)

Will I win? Or will someone else beat me out at the last minute? The excitement rises and your heart beats faster. This is the draw of the auction – the eBay auction. It’s the same process you’ve seen on television or read about in the news, whether you’re watching fast-talking cattle auctioneers or a group of soberly dressed people selling fine art or Hollywood memorabilia. The differences: the item for sale remains in the seller’s possession instead of having to be transported to the auction site; buyers can come from anywhere and can bid at any time, day or night, during the life of the auction; buyers can set their maximum bid the first time they bid, and need to revise it only if they are outbid or hope to (continue reading…)

At this point, I’d like to mention the concept of the eBay reserve price. In an auction-style listing, the seller can set a minimum price for an item, such that if bidding never reaches that price, the eBay auction will end with the item unsold. That minimum amount is the reserve price.

Why set a reserve price?

Sometimes sellers decide that, for whatever reason, they simply cannot sell an item for less than a given price. But they’re concerned that their minimum starting price will be just high enough (continue reading…)

Have you ever watched the game show, “The Price is Right?” Then you know the goal. You need to guess the price closest to the value of an item without going over the actual price. If you remember the game show, you know that the guesses vary wildly.

As an eBay seller, pricing your items can be just as challenging. You want to find the point that’s low enough to gain the attention of eBay bidders but still high enough to give you a decent profit. And I can tell you that no matter how hard you try, you will at some point be disappointed that your item sold for less than you’d hoped… or didn’t sell at all.

Starting price is dependent on so many things – whether the item is new and unop (continue reading…)

Setting up items without knowing how to sell them will cost you money.  How much?  Let’s go over the facts here. 

Insertion Fees

The fee to list your item on eBay is called an insertion fee.  You pay it as soon as you list your item for sale and regardless of whether or not the item actually sells.

If you’re selling a single item, the insertion fee is based on the item category and the starting price, or the reserve price if you use that method.  If you have several of the same item to sell and choose to use a multiple-item listing and the auction format, the insertion fee is the starting or fixed price of the item multiplied by the number if items in the listing.  There are (continue reading…)

The current economic climate has taken a toll on the finances of millions of households. If you are looking for ways to supplement your income, you are not alone. Even in 2005, a study found that nearly three-quarters of a million people in the US considered eBay as either their primary or secondary source of income. eBay can be the answer for the person who has a job or other ways to make money but who has recognized eBay’s potential to earn more money.

“Part-time sellers” is pretty much self-explanatory: people who sell goods on eBay but have not made it their primary/full-time occupation. They may sell a lot of small-ticket things per month, or a few large-ticket items, or a combination, but they’r (continue reading…)

You’ll be able to upload your photos to eBay for inclusion in your listing; the site can display JPEG (.jpg), GIF (.gif), PNG (.png), TIFF (.tif), and BMP (.bmp) file formats.  The first photo in a listing is free, and each one thereafter is $0.15 at the time of this writing.  Once you’ve read the rest of this section and gotten a feel for the number of pictures you’ll need in your listing, be aware that eBay also has Picture Packages: putting one to six pictures in a listing will cost $0.75, and seven to twelve pictures will cost you $1.00.

If you have the ability to host your photos yourself, you should use only JPEG or GIF formats.

eBay recommends using a medium level of resolution when you take y (continue reading…)