eBayNut

eBay has announced that as of March 31st, they will no longer allow digital products that are sold by download to be offered on eBay UNLESS they are physicl products (on a CD) and advertised in the Classified Ads section. It costs $9.95 to place a classified ad on eBay.

The reason they give is that some dishonest sellers are placing one cent ebooks on eBay and quickly building positive feedback so that they can use other eBay services that require higher feedback levels.

If that was really the problem, they could have solved that by saying that no digital download product could be sold for less than $9.95. By dropping digital download products, eBay has killed off about 10,000 sellers, some of which sell only ebooks (and lots of them).

eBay says you can take your digital product and put it on a CD and sell it. What about handicapped people that cannot do this? What about people who buy your CD, pay for it, copy it, then return it and demand a refund? With digital downloads you can state "No Refunds" right in the listing. Since CDs are a physical product, you have to offer refunds according to eBay's TOS. (Terms Of Service).

Finally, does this really solve the problem? What if a dishonest seller listed a $5,000 course with 16 CDs and 4 manuals on eBay then had three friends "buy" it? In the listing it could say "Payment by certified cashiers check only". Now the financial transaction is not going through PayPal so eBay cannot verify that ANY money was paid. Bingo! Instant Power Seller with just three sales per month to "shill" friends!

There are only two possibilities as I see it.

1. eBay is not telling the whole story and has some other reason for this change. After all, they are loosing the listing fees and final value fees for over 40,000 sales per month with this move.

2. The person who made this decision is far, far, far to stupid to be working for any company and making management decisions. Especially a company like eBay.

You pick, I'll go along with either one (or both).

Personally, I plan to just switch to selling my digital products on CDs. On each CD will be a link to my web site where digital downloads are still possible and I do not have to pay eBay listing fees or final value fees.

What's you take? Leave a comment/feedback and I'll try to respond to each one.

eBayNut

Labels: Digital Delivery, eBay, Restraint of Trade, Stupid Decisions

The following article is reprinted with permission. It contains some good tips about selling on eBay. It does not get into the advanced eBay tactics, but I will cover those in future articles.

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Crucial Tools for Beginning eBay Sellers

It does not take much to get started selling in eBay. This beginner's toolkit will not magically turn you into an eBay millionaire overnight, but it will improve your competitive position

So you have decided to venture into the world of online selling! Maybe you want to use an old collection as the starting point, or you are trying to turn a cherished hobby into a part-time business. If you want to sell seriously on eBay (or another online auction site), i.e. do more than get rid of the junk cluttering up your garage or attic, you will find that the following items can really help your business, no matter what you are selling. It is assumed that you own a computer with an internet connection and have already started your account with the online auction venue. This beginner’s toolkit will not magically turn you into an eBay millionaire overnight (and you should beware of any programs making such claims), but it will improve your competitive position.

1. A digital camera. Yes, eBay offers stock photos of many items, such as books or DVDs. However, that does not help you if you are selling homemade crafts, for instance, and even if there is a stock photo, you might want to show the item from a different angle, or use a close-up. You do not have to spend a fortune on a high-end model, though an optical zoom, a macro setting and the ability to adjust white balance are important. Some good information on selecting a camera and photographing auction items can be found here: http://www.search.reviews.ebay.com/members/camerajim/

2. A tripod. No matter how firmly you grip your camera, holding it in your hand can easily introduce some blurring, and auctions with blurry photos are less likely to receive bids. A tripod will improve your photos considerably.

3. A photo-editing program. You will want to crop your image, adjust brightness and contrast, maybe add text or a border. You do not need a high-powered program for this, and the freeware Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) may cover our needs. Also, look at older version of programs such as Microsoft Digital Image, which can be purchased quite cheaply.

4. A digital postal scale. As you will mail out your items to the winning bidders, it is important that you invest in a postal scale, so that you do not over- or underpay on postage.

5. Your own website. This should ideally have its own domain, as you want to create your brand identity. You can have it “point” at your auctions (eBay has a tool called HTML Builder that lets you do that) for right now, and maybe later develop it a secondary sales channel.

6. Business cards. Even if you are only starting out to sell online, you want to project a professional image. Have some business cards printed up at an office supply store or one of the many online suppliers (such as http://www.vistaprint.com/) and include your e-mail address and website on them. Slip in a business card with every shipment, and always take some with you, in case your online venture comes up in conversation.

7. Information, Information, Information. Don’t sell things that you know little or nothing about. Research your articles online and at your local library. Research going prices by checking completed auctions on eBay (do a search for the item, then click on the check box “Completed listings” and search again). You can also use Auction Shark (http://www.auctionshark.com/) to check prices on running auctions at eBay, Amazon, Yahoo and Overstock.com.

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About the Author Pamela Bruce lives in Austin, TX. She is the owner of Love Beads Unlimited and sells the sterling silver and Swarovski crystal bead jewelry she designs and creates both in her eBay store (http://stores.ebay.com/LOVE-BEADS-UNLIMITED) and on her website at http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com/, where you can also download the free e-book "A Consumer's Guide to Buying Bead Jewelry Online".

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-eBayNut-

What is your best selling product on eBay? Every seller needs one or more items with "sex appeal". This will keep buyers coming back and telling their friends about the item. I have two that run continuously on eBay. My ad automator, "Manage Auctions" reposts these two products every time a listing for them ends.

My single most popular product is an electronic download named "Magic Subscriber". You can see it here (a new window will open). Since this is an item that is popular, I advertise it through safelists, emails, and to my newsletter subscribers. Some people who look at it out of curiousity don't buy, but they recommend the product to somebody else who does buy.

Some people, attracted to the listing by my promotions, click to see my other auctions and buy another product.

If you are selling physical products on eBay (rather than items delivered by electronic download) then you need something that draws traffic for those physical items. I have found that the used ham radio items I list always get viewer counts in the hundreds. Some have gone as hight as 600+ visitors viewing an item.

Since I always put prominent links in my listings for my eBay store, my "About Me" page and a link to my other auctions, these ham radio listings pull buyers to my other items. For example, I am selling my mother's old collection of thimbles and butterfly pins. Most ham radio operators are men and they do not usually collect thimbles or butterfly pins.

However, their wives/girlfriends do. I know that my cross promotions are working when somebody buys a ham radio product and also a thimble or butterfly pin!

The moral is, don't think of any of your listings as isolated items, look at them as items for sale and as lead ins to your other products. How often have you gone to the store to buy item X and also left with item Y? Your eBay auctions should work the same way.

Here's that link again to Magic Subscriber (a new window will open). By the way, my #2 best selling item of all time is in the cross promotions at the end of the auction. Can you guess which one it is?

Next time -

eBay Forums: "Templettes"for "Inserts" ...

I've been on eBay for 6+ years, always have 8 or 9 auctions running there, and I am constantly learning about new features of eBay. Today I discovered a "hum dinger". (For those of you who grew up North of the Mason Dixon line [Yankees] a "Hum Dinger" is a Good Thing!)

There is a forum discussing the "INSERT" feature of eBay's "Sell Your Item" page. You can build templates of your selling policies, shipping policies, payment policies etc. and store them on eBay so that they are just one button away when you build your next listing!

NOTE: The forum is host to a large number of people who design templates. You don't have to get into doing designs yourself. Everything they post in this forum is free for the taking. They even provide source code! Just click and paste and you have got yourself a new FREE auction template. Lots and Lots of free templates.

I have been building templates on my computer and doing "Cut & Paste" to get them into my auctions. No more! Now I just click a button while inside the lister to add borders, headings, notes, and any other boiler plate.

If you sell on eBay, this feature will make your auctions look a LOT more professional and your auctions will be much easier to do. Check it out, you will not be disapponted!

eBayNut

Been using Google's GMAIL and bemoaining the fact that there was no Delete button? Problem solved!

Official Google Blog: It's in the mail...

Research by hundreds of eBay sellers have shown that the more you say about your item, the higher the bids go and the less time you spend answering questions.

Now, here's a tip to sell even more. Describe your item TWICE! The first time, use bullets to highlight major points. Things like,

brand new

hardly used

includes power supply

recently refurbished

etc.

Next, give a long and complete description of the item.

Some folks like brief summaries - they will be happy with just the bullet points.
Some folks like lots of details - they will be happy with the longer description that follows.

Furthermore, when potential buyers come back to take a second look at your item, the bullet summary at the top will give them a quick reminder without having to read the entire long description.

More next time.

# posted by Ebayer @ 2:10 PM 0 comments

01/08/2006

Worried that nobody will bid on your stuff since they spent all their money on Christmas? Fear not, the bids and listings are running hot and heavy. Just jump in and list away, the after Christmas business is brisk this year!

Want to find out what is super hot? Just scroll down on the home page and watch the left column. When you see "Pulse", click on it. You are presented with a list of the items with the most "watchers" on all of eBay.

In that list, scroll down to where you can click on a category and see the most popular items in each category. This is good info and can give you some ideas on how to make your listings more popular. It will also give you an indication of what is hot and what is not.

Next time, we will discuss how to review products for eBay and boost your listings in the process.

BidNow on eBay