Info-Leeches and other E-Invertebrates

Liquidation sales are sales that retailers use to move merchandise before clothing their doors for good. They are usually run by professional liquidators whose job is to liquidate the contents of entire stores.

You need to know that in most cases the liquidator first buys the merchandise from the store and then sells it from the store location. Liquidators will pay roughly 5 cents on the dollar for the retailers products, and then make their money by selling at highly discounted prices.

This is important to know because it means that the liquidator can make money even if he or she sells the merchandise for 6 cents on the dollar. Be prepared to offer him a really low price since he himself has bought the merchandise for even less.

And since the liquidator has at most a couple of weeks to sell all the merchandise he will be under pressure to move it. Once the lease is up the retailer needs to vacate the premises, which means that the liquidator must sell out before then.

Spend your first day at the store making notes of the items available for sale. Next, research those items on eBay and see how much you can sell them for.

If you sell at a flea market or out of a retail store, you would follow the same steps.

Go back to the store and offer the liquidator a bulk amount for all of the items that you want. Show the liquidator that you have done your research, this will show him that you are serious and that your prices are based on research.

The reason you want to offer a bulk price is because the liquidator will be more willing to make a deal when he sees that you are interested in buying in quantities.

Remember that the liquidator is interested in selling as much as possible before he needs to vacate the premises.

Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay sellers, retailers, and flea market vendors.

With the comfort credit cards offer by filling up application forms without having to go personally to a bank or see a sales agent, online shopping had tremendously escalated to greater heights.

Here, there, and everywhere, people seemed to be charging everything they see online. Because of this a lot of e-commerce enthusiasts these days have ventured into a more lucrative way of earning money.

For many surfers, E-bay is one of the world’s easiest and money-spinning online shopping portals. But despite the convenience it offers to most online shoppers, it has its own set of pros and cons as far as its sellers are concerned.

The big question is: Is selling items in E-bay advantageous or not? Here are some things to ponder:

PROS

1. Selling items on E-bay is a great way to start a small business.

For business wannabes who are low on cash, an E-bay is a good way to start things right.

2. It’s the best way to earn money while discarding some “trash”.

3. Sellers get to expose their items 24 hours, 7 days a week.

4. Items being sold on E-bay have a wider market reach.

5. Selling items on E-bay is also a good way to complement an existing venture.

6. No hard selling. Selling is made easy through E-bay.

7. Selling items had never been this fun. It only happens on E-bay.

THE CONS

1. Payments can be risky especially if it concerns an international market.

2. Frauds and scammers are just around the corner. The seller might be the next victim on-the-waiting.

3. The buyers are unidentified or most are new buyers, thus, increasing more risk. Besides, it’s easy to create false identities over the Internet.

4. There are possibilities of unscrupulous mode of payment like use of a cashier’s check.

5. Feedbacks are provided. There may be instances wherein people might play with the seller’s feedback section. This will definitely ruin the seller’s reputation.

6. The seller is gradually becoming a part of a corporation that seems to be monopolizing the industry. If this were case, then everybody would do transactions on e-bay alone, giving the other businesses a no-chance fight.

7. The seller will be missing life’s real drama, witnessing other people’s reactions and talking to them face-to-face.

Whether selling on E-bay is good or bad, only one thing’s for sure: it’s definitely more money to those who benefit from it.

David Riewe is a Publisher and Online Marketer. Visit his eBay Blog to Discover 101 Ebay Auction Tips in this FREE ebook www.push-button-online-income.com/ebayblog

Turn on CNN or Fox News, read a column on the Internet or play your favorite all news radio station an you’ll become acutely aware of the “so-called” fraud online – specifically related to eBay.

Definition of Fraud: “In a broad strokes definition, fraud is a deliberate misrepresentation which causes another person to suffer damages, usually monetary losses.”

Like many, I have had negative experiences one eBay. However, I’ve also had negative experiences with unscrupulous people in the real world. The truth is that eBay is just a microcosm of real-life society where 99.9% of people are good nature.

Have you had a bad experience on eBay? I spoke with someone recently who said that a “fraudulent experience on eBay” ruined their desires to use eBay as a sales platform.” That seems just a bit immature, don’t you think? Just a few weeks ago my nine year old daughter left her board shorts on a lounge chair while swimming in the pool (at a nationally recognized vacation resort). When she returned, her shorts were gone. Someone stole her shorts. Fraud and theft. How should my nine year old respond? Should she never swim in a public pool again?

Of course not. But, she can learn a valuable life lesson of how to protect herself and her property. And to that we discover the purpose of this article. How can we protect ourselves from potential fraud on eBay?

Fraud on eBay, while small in proportion to the number of transactions that take place, is a real issue for the unsuspecting eBay member. Follow the following points to reduce the potential of fraud on eBay in your online trading adventures.

Fraud Tip #1: Understand Phishing

1. A new word to the Websters’ Dictionary for 2005, this has become #1 of the top areas of Fraud Alert in the history of the internet. Here is the definition from dictionary.com: “A method of identity theft carried out through the creation of a website that seems to represent a legitimate company. The visitors to the site, thinking they are buying something from a real business, submit their personal information to the site. The criminals then use the personal information for their own purposes, or sell the information to other criminal parties.“ In specific terms, it may relate to your eBay membership, PayPal account, bank account, credit card, or other account where you need an ID, password and/or personal information.
2. Fraud on eBay can occur when you receive a phishing email that sounds 100% legitimate. It might come from: support@… And looks like this: “Dear eBay member, You have received this warning because we have strong reason to believe that your eBay account had been recently compromised and it could be used by a third party without your authorization. In order to prevent any fraudulent activity from occurring we are required to open an investigation into this matter. To speed up this process, you are required to verify your eBay account by following the link below.”

   a. Here’s what happens: when you click on the link listed, you are taken to a web page that looks exactly the same as the sign-in page — for example, you are sure you are at the eBay sign-in page. You are asked for personal information, including ID and password, etc.

3. How to protect yourself? You need to know that eBay, PayPal or any other secure site will NEVER ask for your personal, identifying information in an email. What should you do? Delete the email and tell yourself you’re not going to fall victim to a phishing scam.

A high percentage of online and eBay fraud is eliminated simply by understanding phishing and knowing how to deal with it.

Fraud Tip #2. Only Buy From Sellers With an Established Feedback Score

• Love or hate eBay’s feedback system, but is has its purpose. By doing your due diligence you can weed out potentially fraudulent eBay sellers simply by reviewing their feedback score. Pay particular attention to the last 90 days and be sure read all the comments posted on the first 3 pages. A sellers feedback score will is increasingly important if you are purchasing a high ticket item. Fraud on eBay can be dramatically reduced by following this Fraud Tip.

Fraud Tip #3. Do Not Pay With Western Union

• The chance of Fraud on eBay has been reduced through eBay’s own internal policing of buyer payment options. If you are going to pay for an item you purchase on eBay – always use PayPal as you are covered by PayPal’s buyer protection program.
• Here is eBay’s latest “Safe Payments Policy:

“Permitted on eBay.com: Sellers may offer to accept PayPal, credit cards including Mastercard/Visa /Amex/Discover, debit cards and bank electronic payments online for eBay purchases. Sellers may also offer to accept bank-to-bank transfers, often known as bank wire transfers or bank cash transfers. Sellers may accept COD (cash on delivery) or cash for in person transactions. Sellers may offer to accept payment through Certapay and Propay. Sellers may offer to accept personal checks, money orders, cashier’s checks, certified checks and other negotiable instruments.

Not permitted on eBay.com: Sellers may not solicit buyers to mail cash. Sellers may not ask buyers to send cash through instant cash transfer services (non-bank, point-to-point cash transfers) such as Western Union or Moneygram. Sellers may not ask buyers to pay with Stormpay. Finally, sellers may not request payment through online payment methods not specifically permitted in this policy.”

With regards to cash payments on eBay, “The U.S. Postal Service tells us it’s unsafe, and now eBay is telling everyone that it is unsafe,” said Matt Halprin, eBay’s global policy VP. “So if a seller solicits or encourages offers to accept cash, [they are] encouraging unsafe payment methods and we do remove that seller’s listing.”

eBay Fraud, which accounts for only a small fraction of one percent of all transactions can be significantly be reduced by your use of PayPal.

Fraud Tip #4. Preventative Measures - Tips For Your Protection

• The IFCC ( Internet Fraud Complaint Center) has an excellent website that includes a tips page where you will read about Internet Auction Fraud, Non-Delivery of Merchandise, Credit Card Fraud, Investment Fraud, Nigerian Letter Scam, and Business Fraud.

In a perfect world, everyone would be honest and trustworthy, but, unfortunately, there are those who will try to take advantage of others. The Internet provides tremendous opportunity – like anything else, use it wisely.

Adam Ginsberg – Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker

Adam Ginsberg is internationally known as a small business and online expert and highly sought after speaker and trainer. Adam has published the #1 best sellers “How to Buy, Sell & Profit on eBay”.as well as “The Automatic Money Machine on eBay”.

For more information or to contact Adam you can also visit:

Adam Ginsberg

Inexperienced auction sellers, or those lacking in confidence, often want to make their auction listings more dramatic and exciting. They dread the possibility that buyers will be bored by their auction and turn away with indifference.

Therefore, they reason, they will spice up their auctions with some “animations” - graphics that blink, change colors, spin, travel around the web page.

Or the seller may be a tech person who loves toys and is proud of his ability to create unusual effects.

Regardless of their reasons, animated elements on an auction page are almost never a good idea for the following four reasons:

1. Rather than attracting attention to the merchandise in your auction, your potential customer may watch a spinning ball or follow Santa and his reindeer through the sky. We want the customer’s total attention on that all-important question: “Do I want to buy this widget or not?” Distractions are not good for your wallet.

2. Animations can make the load time of your auction listing much longer. I have been using DSL four years and have forgotten (happily!) how horrible it is to use dialup. However, for many places on this planet, high-speed connections simply are not available. For these folks, loading your page might take forever, and you can be sure they won’t wait. Experts tell us that the average user spends only 7 seconds at a webpage before departing for greener pastures. If your sales page is still loading, no sale for you.

3. It takes time for you to figure out how and whether to use animations. This is time that would be better spent on writing more exciting and dynamic copy - copy that will turn a prospective customer into a real buyer. A smart business person will treat time as her most precious commodity and spend it on what is most likely to bring a sale.

4. Many of these animations are just downright annoying. I personally do not enjoy looking at screens that are twirling, whirling and blinking. Two particularly irritating animations are an inescapable message that follows up and down the left side of the page, regardless of where I’m looking, and “trails” that follow my mouse.

A huge majority of people feel the same, apparently. Sellers need to make it as easy as possible for people to buy, rather than throwing obstacles in the way.

Are there any occasions when animated pictures are of any value in an auction listing? Possibly. For example, if you are selling to graphic designers then animated elements might be appropriate. As always, testing, testing, testing is the only way to truly know.

But for the rest of us folks - forget the glitter and focus on your merchandise. That’s what makes us buy.

Learn how to sell on eBay with 16 hours of online instruction taught by a 10 year eBay veteran. Own an eBay business instead of an eBay hobby.

There are many different ways to search for your office chair and purchase through eBay. You can use the eBay search keyword box and enter “office chair” or for more specific styles, you can input a variety of additional words. Mesh chairs, executive traditional, leather and ergonomic are all popular search terms. Simply press the search button and eBay will automatically show you a variety of choices and models to choose from with the option of buying from an auction listing or from a fixed price listing in an eBay Store.

Today, December 8,2005 when inputting the term office chair on eBay’s Homepage, I was able to pull up 735 different listings and 1365 listings in eBay Stores with 216 different online eBay stores carrying office chairs. Some of these eBay Stores had hundreds of models to choose from in chairs alone, not to mention the furniture and supplies also offered on most sites.

Even when searching for a chair on eBay, it is apparent that with the upgrades made to this top auction shopping site, there are even several different ways to shop. You can try the auction style listings and bid on an item and hope that in the end you are the winning bidder and have placed the highest bid closest to the end of auction. This can be more time consuming, can lead to prices going higher than normal due to aggressive bidding wars and delays the shipping of the chair to you.

You do need to remember that sometimes, if you have the time, while no one is paying attention, you might find that great auction deal and not be outbid, winning your chair at a small fraction of the regular price. So it is said that auction style listings and the thrill that can come from bidding on an item has it’s charms too.

Another method of search on eBay is to use the eBay Store Pages. With easy to search listings, custom ordered items, and purchase now, pay now options, these sites have the look and feel of any online shopping site. Each eBay store has their own store home page and site with store policies. You can find these stores on the left hand navigation bar on the eBay Home Page or at the bottom of the regular lisitngs in a display box.

These stores, while also having more listings and products than the standard auction ads on eBay for office chairs, also have the highest in feedback ratings and customer service satisfaction guarantees. You can compare prices, purchase directly through the Buy It Now option, pay directly through Paypal immediately and have the item shipped to you quickly. Most stores feature a chair guarantee and should have a return policy clearly stated on their listing.

Ebay stores tend to be run by eBay Powersellers, which puts them a step above the rest when it comes to proven customer satisfaction and high sales volume with the best shipping prices available. Many different pricing discounts can be found on eBay and with quoting from eBay sellers for quantity discounts, you should be able to find the best price possible for what you are looking for. No matter which search method you use, auction or stores, to find that perfect chair on eBay only takes a little time and effort.

Amy Lieberfarb has been in the office furniture and interior sales industry for 11 years and currently runs two online websites dedicated to Office Chairs and Furniture. Providing information on how to pick the right ergonomic chair and featuring hundreds of different chairs, the site is very informative.
http://stores.ebay.com/liebswholesale
Specializing in Office Furniture and Ergonomic Chairs.

http://www.liebswholesale.com
Amy Lieberfarb is an expert in most things office chairs and is an eBay Powerseller with years of experience and great positive feedback from all of her loyal customer base.

Everyone’s talking about eBay these days. With the frequency of the TV advertising campaigns increasing, and no sign of any sizable competitors the eBay empire is only going to get bigger.

Now personally as friends and family hear about eBay they normally come to me for advice, How do I use this feature?, How do I sell this item?, What am I doing wrong? Where do I start? And I’m not just talking about people unfamiliar with the net or e-commerce.

I have friends who work within the IT industry and they are the ones who call me most often! Computer technicians, Network consultants, even company directors of IT firms. It seems that over the years of selling on eBay surprisingly we’ve gained quite a rare skill.

People are slowly realizing that they can turn to eBay to make some extra cash and get rid of some unwanted junk at the same time. In the last few months I’ve helped friends and family sell cars, wedding dresses, suites, televisions, videos… I could go on but I’m guessing you may be familiar with a similar situation already.

In fact look though eBay now and see how long it takes you before you see a listing containing the following text

“This item is being sold on behalf of a friend so please contact her with any questions on:07500xxx000″

It won’t be too long before you find a similar statement.

So why not do it for a living or at least to make some extra cash. Officially eBay has a scheme called Trading Assistants and a directory of a Task on the eBay site.

As eBay itself says “Want to sell your stuff on eBay but don’t have the time? Let a Trading Assistant do it for you? Trading Assistants are experienced eBay Sellers who will sell your items on eBay for a fee.”

eBay has just four requirements in order to register as an official trading assistant. These are:

- You’ve sold four items within the last 30 days

- Feedback above 50

- 97% of your feedback should be positive

- eBay account in good standing

Looking at the list it’s not to hard to register as a trading assistant. As long as eBay have your billing method on file and you pay your fees on time, all the other requirements are easily obtainable.

In the US, there are hundreds of eBay Trading Assistant Drop off stores. These are stores where you drop off your item and they sell them on eBay for you typically charging up to 33% of the item value. Some even charge up to 50% of the value. In the UK there are just two drop off stores that are instantly findable. There may be others available but I couldn’t find them doing a quick search. I truly believe that in the UK these stores will start to open up and expand over the next few years. Now’s the time to get involved so register as a Trading Assistant today and start using eBay to its maximum potential.

Mark Kenny is an online entrepreneur who specialises in developing turnkey websites including a new eBay Trading Assistants website. You can see this at: http://www.Trading-Web-Solutions.com

Q. I hear so much about people who started selling on eBay and eventually turned it into their full time business. Is it really possible to build a profitable business just selling junk on eBay? — Alex K.

ANSWER:

If Fred Sanford were alive today, Alex, I’m sure he’d be earning his ripple money by selling quality junk on eBay. While it’s also true that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure (I have a garage full of treasure to prove this point), your chances of building a profitable business selling “junk” on eBay (or anywhere else, for that matter) are slim to none.
While there is a lot of junk/treasure for sale on eBay, it is typically sold by individuals who have “I break for yardsales!” bumper stickers on their cars and not serious business people.

For serious entrepreneurs, however, selling on eBay can be a good way to start a new business if you are willing to put in the time and energy required to make the business a success. eBay is also a good option for existing businesses to expand their reach by selling online.
Everyone from small used car dealers to giant companies like Dell Computers have discovered that eBay is an excellent place to hawk their wares simply due to the huge number of folks who visit the eBay site on a daily basis. Nowhere else on earth will you find such a large pool of potential customers.

Consider these numbers:

· There are nearly 69 million eBay users who spend $59 million every day.

· Most eBay sellers are home-based businesses that sell everything from porcelain dolls to locks of Elvis’ hair to $100,000 Mercedes convertibles to $5 million dollar vacation homes.

· Every minute of every day more than 150 new items are listed for sale, more than 500 bids are placed, and seven new people register to shop on eBay.

· At any given moment, eBay is conducting some 12 million auctions, divided into about 18,000 different categories

· About two million new items are offered for sale every day, and 62 million registered users scour the site to find them.

· One company is grossing more than $5 million dollars a year selling brand new pool tables on eBay. Their eBay store is so profitable that they have closed their retail location and now sell solely online.
That’s right, $5 million dollars from the sale of pool tables: proof that you can sell just about anything on eBay if you know how to do it.

Be aware, however, that eBay is no magic bullet. As any eBay Power Seller (a seller who sells a minimum of $10,000 in goods per month) will tell you, building a profitable eBay business takes hard work and requires long hours, and often the financial rewards do not make it worth the effort spent.

When it comes down to the mechanics of it all, running an eBay business is no different than running a brick and mortar business. You still have the same considerations regarding product selection, inventory purchasing, product pricing, inventory management, order processing, fulfillment, customer service, etc.

You must also consider the legal and accounting aspects of the business. Just because you’re selling online does not mean that Uncle Sam won’t expect his piece of the pie. Revenue generated by an eBay business is just as reportable and taxable as revenue generated from a brick and mortar store. And if you sell to customers within your state you may also be responsible for collecting city, county or state sales tax.

One of the biggest obstacles to building a successful eBay business may be the stiffness of the competition. Many sellers sell identical items and the price wars often get ugly, but that’s to be expected in a free market place, which is exactly what eBay is.

You may be the only store in town that’s selling that one of a kind, custom made just for you, broke the mold after they made it, Dale Earnhart Memorial Bobble Head Action Figure (Earnhart fans would string me up if I called it a Doll), but do a quick search on eBay and you’ll probably find a hundred others just like it.

So, can you build a profitable business selling on eBay? Certainly, thousands of people have done it and so can you. Here are a few tips to help get you started.

Sell Quality Products

Don’t sell junk! Leave the knick-knacks and fake leather jackets to the less informed. You should offer only quality products at a fair price.

Research The Competition

Once you have your product in mind, don’t invest a dime on inventory until you have spent some time on eBay to see what the competition is doing. If you want to sell motorcycle helmets, for example, you should look at current auctions to see how many others are selling similar helmets and what prices they are charging. This step is vital since you may discover that you can’t compete with current sellers on price or there is simply no market for what you have to offer.

Start Slowly

Many people believe that the more items they have for sale on eBay the better. They will invest thousands in inventory and spent hundreds on listing fees (yes, eBay charges you to list items for sale and collects a final fee if the item sells). Those are the folks that usually end up with ten thousand Ginsu knives forever in their garage.

Test, Test, Test

A fair portion of eBay auctions result in no sales, so it’s best to test the waters before jumping in with both feet.
List a few items and see how they sell. If an item doesn’t sell, list it at least twice more. Some items might not sell the first time, but may the second or third, then sell steadily from then on. If an item gets no bids the first time, consider adjusting your price or your terms. If an item sells well, keep it in stock and then experiment with another item.

Do Your Homework

eBay is too broad a subject to be covered fully here, but there are a multitude of books available that can help you start an eBay business.
In fact, I bet you’ll find most of them for sale at this very moment at eBay.

What’s my bid…

Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur
and syndicated columnist, Tim Knox.
Tim’s latest books include “Small Business Success Secrets”
and “The 30 Day Blueprint For Success!”
Related Links:
http://www.smallbusinessqa.com
http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

There are about as many different ways to ship ebay items as there are ebay sellers. That being said, there are many eBay sellers who don’t ship using the correct packaging or the least expensive service. These 10 tips are written to help sellers get started shipping their ebay items correctly.

1) Always Pack the Item Properly
The biggest mistake you can make when shipping an item is to go lighty on the packaging and send an unportected item. Buyers will instantly leave negative feedback if the item arrives damaged due to bad padding. Make sure you look into the proper packaging for the item you are shipping - a book is different then a china doll, and both require proper materials.

2) Never Pay For Packing Materials
Right behind improper packing is over paying for shipping materials. There are far too many sources of free boxes and free padding to need to buy them. I have been a powerseller on ebay for 4 years and not once have I paid for packing materials. EBay and USPS offer free boxes, UPS offers free shipping labels. Local retailers will generaly have old boxes lying around also - this is perfect for those large items.

3) Ship Promptly After the Auction Closes
So you’ve just spent $400 on the newest game console - purchased it from an eBay Seller. Do you want to wait a week just for the seller to ship the item? Neither do your customers. Always ship the item as soon as possible after the auction is closed.

4) Box the Product Before the eBay Aucton is Over
It is a good habit to get into packaging your items before the auction is finished. This makes it exceedingly easy to ship within a day of the buyer paying. Shipping quickly will grab good feedback more than anythign else.

5) Use UPS Ground Shipping for Large Items
It is generally the best to use UPS ground for anything that weighs more than 10lbs. It is very inexpensive to ship large items with UPS. Though slower than USPS, it is far more cost effective on larger frieght.

6) Use USPS Priority Mail for Sending Small Items
Anything less than 10lbs is best shipped with priority mail. Priority mail is very fast, and very inexpensive for small things. Shipping with priority mail is also very good for your buyer, as it will get them their item quickly and effectively.

7) USPS Media mail is Best for Shipping Media Items
If you are shipping a book, cd, dvd, or any other item that fits in the media catagory - it is probably best to ship with media mail. This is a very cheap service, and is great for the items it is meant for. If your item is expensive, however, it may be better to use priority mail to please your buyer.

Include a Thank You Note in Each Package
This is one of the most overlooked methods of creating return customers. You need to ship the package anyhow, why not attempt to get another eBay purchase out of each customer? Almost all of the big players on eBay use this tactic.

9) Use Paypal to Print Shipping Labels
Printing eBay shipping labels from Paypal is one of the easiest and most time saving features availible to new sellers. Larger eBay sellers might want to look into furthor automation, but for everything under 50 packages per week - electronic labels from Paypal are the way to go.

10) eBay Shipping Takes Getting Used To - Don’t Quit
Not everyone gets into a rythm immediatly. Shipping on eBay can be a trying task - but keep going and you’ll soon be rewarded with happy customers and efficient practices. It is important to learn and rethink and establish you’re own personal best practices. With time, anyone can ship like a PowerSeller.

Mason Hipp has been an eBay Powerseller for over 5 years. During the last two years he has dedicated most of his time to helping people learn to sell on ebay. More of his articles and information about ebay shipping are availible at www.selladeal.com/guides/shipping/

If you’re bidding for items on eBay, sooner or later you’ll end up having your bid beaten at the very last second by a “sniper”. This can be a frustrating experience. In theory sniping is against the rules and you can report it to eBay. In practice, however, they never do anything about it.

The best way to beat the sniper is to become the sniper. Once you understand the process of sniping, you can use it to win more auctions, more often, and at a lower price than you would otherwise pay.

Sniping Manually

If you have a lot of time to spare and a reasonably fast Internet connection, sniping manually is not all that difficult. Make a note of the time when the auction you are bidding on will end. Then make sure you’re sitting in front of the page at that vital last minute. Then just outbid the current winning bidder, or defend your own winning bid.

Here’s a valuable tip to remember for manual sniping: make sure you set your maximum bid quite high. Otherwise you risk being automatically outbid, and the auction will have ended before you can bid again.

It’s not worth your time to compete against someone who is using an automated sniping service. If their service is any good, they will always manage to outbid you. In the sniping arms race, you need to find a sniper on full auto.

Sniping In The Age Of Automation

If you enter “ebay sniping” into your favorite search engine, you’ll find a long list of online services that will snipe on your behalf for a small fee. They usually offer a free trial, so give it a go.

If you don’t want to pay each time for an online service, then you can buy sniping software outright — for example, SnipeRight or ISnipeIt (just add a “.com” to the name to find them on the internet). You pay once and use them as much as you want.

After you’ve installed the software on your computer, you tell it which auctions you want sniped and the maximum amount you’re willing to pay. The software then places your bid in the last few seconds of bidding. One drawback to this method is that you need to be able to leave your computer on nearly all the time, or you might miss the end of some auctions.

An Alternative To Sniping

If you’re reluctant to lower yourself to “playing dirty,” then there is another, more low-tech way to get around sniping. You can just email the seller and say that you were sniped at the last minute, but would really like the item. If they have another unit to sell, chances are they’ll agree to sell it to you for the price at which the auction closed.

Good luck, good sniping, and good shopping.

Visit Shop Ebay to learn more. Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer, visit his website at Website

Copyright 2005 Ron King. This article may be reprinted if the resource box is left intact and the links live.

Many people just getting started on eBay have reservations when it comes to selling to International buyers. Possibly they’ve heard a few second-hand horror stories, or they feel it’s simply not worth the extra hassle.

eBay provides you with the opportunity to sell to buyers all over the world. This opens a huge new market to the seller. It also allows you to receive more interest in your items and higher closing prices.

In many categories, some of the most active buyers live outside the United States. As an example, at the time I’m writing this, if you were selling collectible Pyrex glass, many of your serious bidders would be from Japan.

I have been selling internationally on eBay for five years and have been selling to International buyers right from the start. It’s not difficult, doesn’t take much more time and, if you follow a few simple do’s and don’ts you shouldn’t run into any problems

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.

There are three other methods of payment that you will need to decide if you will, or will not, accept. These do pose a small amount of risk:

1. Paypal payments. You will find that many International buyers have PayPal accounts and will ask to pay through PayPal. While PayPal does provide a seller protection program, it requires that you have proof of delivery. The United States Post Office (my recommend shipping venue for reasons talked about below) doesn’t offer this for International Mail.

I’ve been accepting PayPal from International buyers all along. However, nearly all my International sales are in the antique and collectible categories. Historically, collectors have never been as much of a non-payment risk as people buying consumer products. If I was selling in the electronic or computer categories, for example, I might seriously reconsider my payment policies.

2. International Money Orders. Many sellers accept International money orders in US Dollars. There is a common misconception that these are as good as cash. That’s not the case. There are instances of stolen and forged money orders right here in the States. This problem, while minute, exists for International money orders also.

3. Cashier’s Checks. Just like money orders, there is a common misconception that they are as good as cash. There have been cases where blank stolen cashier’s checks, or even bank checks have been forged.

Additional considerations when shipping products to International buyers.

Shipping products Internationally does involve a little more work, but it’s nowhere near as involved as many make it seem.

Unlike products shipped within your own country, the major difference is the need to include a customs form. These forms are free and supplied by the 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.

When shipping Internationally, use only the United States Postal Service. Most, if not all countries charge duty on items coming into their country. These are based upon the value of the item and, for expensive items, can get pretty healthy. With some other carriers, you may find that you end up paying this duty tax and not the buyer. With the USPS, all import duties are collected from the buyer and not you.

Shipping internationally can be profitable and fun. You may even find that you end up becoming good friends with some of your overseas buyers. Just be careful about how you take payment, be aware of the shipping procedures, and send via USPS.

Gary Hendrickson has been making his living selling on eBay for more than six years. He’s the author of two eBay related ebooks, has a blog for eBay sellers, and is the owner of ColdItems.Com.

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