The Rare Gang

There are many reasons why I believe that eBay has ‘had it’s day’ but two in particular come to mind.

Visibility just isn’t what it used to be on eBay. Most eBay sellers that you speak to will tell you that their product views just aren’t what they used to be. Since 2007, eBay have been altering their search algorithms to try and improve the results you get when searching eBay for products. However, every time they change something, they seem to just make it a little worse. The sellers with poor feedback and reputations often have products above sellers with good feedback. eBay recently introduced a policy whereby duplicate listings would be omitted from search results. They hoped that by doing this, the search results would be far better. Although this is a good idea, it just doesn’t seem to have worked. All I see when I search eBay for something I want is a long list of products that are exactly the same and from the same seller. The products that I actually end up buying are often pushed down to the bottom of the list.

When selling on eBay now, you have to accept PayPal as a payment option. There are lots of payment options for online stores and marshalls yards speaks about some of them. Although eBay claim that this is because PayPal is safe and secure, it is simply to get more money out of you. The standard PayPal fees are currently 3.4% plus 20p per transaction. This however, isn’t the main problem with PayPal. The buyer protection scheme was designed to ensure buyers are protected when a transaction goes wrong. Many buyers know how to manipulate this system to get their money back after receiving their goods. PayPal tell sellers that they can protect themselves by sending products via a recorded delivery service but if you sell low value items, this just isn’t cost effective.

In my opinion, if you have a product to sell, having a website like this car styling site or this trains set website is a much better idea.

When you sell on eBay, it’s important to know how to take advantage of the kinds of markets you encounter in the different seasons. As a rule, the summer months are slow and the winter period is fast, but there’s more to it than that.

It Depends What You’re Selling.

Your sales won’t necessarily be slower in the summer than in winter - they might just be different. If you’re selling sports equipment, for example, you’ll probably find that surfing gear sells in summer while skiing gear sells in winter. You should make sure you are aware of any seasonal variations there will be in your particular market, and plan in advance to take advantage of them.

Selling in Peak Season.

The holiday season is eBay’s peak, and the best time to be selling on eBay - the December rush is relatively short, but if you play it right then you could make half your year’s profit over those few days.

In the holidays, people are looking for presents, and eBay run more advertising than usual targeted towards buyers, not sellers. Target your auctions more towards new users than experienced ones, writing easy-to-understand descriptions. If you have any items that are in demand, try listing some at auction and some with high But it Now prices, to see what works best.

The chances are you’ll be surprised when the Buy it Now auctions go almost instantly and the auctions rack up bids like nobody’s business. It is important to remember, however, that most of these buyers will only buy from you once.

Selling Off-peak.

For the rest of the year, the market is far slower. Don’t worry though - you can still make money. It’s a little like being a stockbroker: you can make money whether the market is good or bad, if you know what you’re doing.

Remember that your target market is a little more ‘expert’: you’re mostly selling to people who know what they’re buying, and know what they want to pay. Cater to this by providing a service suitable for these customers. Show that you know what you’re selling and sell things consistently and you’ll have people coming back again and again.

Here’s one extra tip that you might try. If you know of items that have a consistent value, it might be worth buying up as many as you can cheaply in the summer, storing them for half a year, and selling them during the winter rush. If you’re willing to give over a little space for storage, you can make a lot of profit for little effort. After all, you don’t even have to take the items out of the packaging the last seller put them in.

If you’ve tried searching for a few more eBay tips using the big search engines like Google and Yahoo, then you might have come across someone offering to sell you all the secrets of eBay success for a ‘low, low price’. In the next email, I’ll let you in on their little secrets for free.

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