How to Sell Used Books on eBay

It is a very attractive notion to work completely from home.  No more getting dressed up in the morning and wasting gasoline by rushing out to some rat race that is completely exhausting.  No more bosses, either.  A nice, calm yet fun lifestyle from home while running one’s own profitable eBay business is the best type of business to be in.  Perhaps this is why many have looked to the question of how to sell used books on eBay.

Books are all around us.  It is possible to pick up amazing deals on interesting books when one is looking out for them.  People get tired of their books and sell them off inexpensively or even give them away.  Anyone who is a book reader for entertainment normally goes through many books a year and requires a constant supply of them.  Some people read for entertainment, some read for enjoyment while still others merely read to relax and unwind.  It seems that book lovers can never get enough books.

For anyone who would like to own a business selling used books on eBay or half.com, there are many possible sources of used books.  For one thing, a good place to start is by thoroughly cleaning out the house and selling your own old books.  Next, try perusing flea markets for good bargains on books.  Also, consignment stores may have interesting books at great prices. 

Once the book has been purchased, or even while the business owner is making the decision whether or not to purchase the book he could look up the book on www.abebooks.com in order to help determine the potential market value of the book.  Some experts feel that the best books to purchase for resale are nonfiction books with the dust jacket still on and the backs or “spine” of the books should be unbroken.  These are the books that have the greatest potential for resale and profit.

After researching and purchasing the book, it is really the simple process of obtaining or taking a nice photo and following through with the listing process as outlined by eBay.

This is similar to the listing process for selling any other item.  As with any type of sale, it is important to design the ad attractively and list the benefits to the buyer.  Buyers seem to like the ‘best price’ option.  Also, the ‘buy it now’ option could be used.  Buyers are always comforted by the money back guarantee option.  Equally popular is when the seller bears the shipping fees.  It is up to you if you want to do these things.  Business owners must consider whether or not they can afford to offer these benefits to your customers.

One of the best parts of having a business selling used books on eBay or half.com is that there really is no major startup funding required.  How much could a used book cost?  If a business owner is buying the book for the purpose of resale, then it is not advisable to spend over one dollar to buy it.  There are some exceptions to this obviously, as in the case of an extremely valuable book which could be an investment piece.  However, more than one dollar is not wise nor is it advised as expenditures for beginning business owners.  

The above is some advice on starting a business selling used books on eBay.  Follow these suggestions and use your own selling experience as a guide as well.  Selling used books on eBay can be a profitable and very fun business that can be run from home.

How to Sell Bulk Wholesale Clothing on eBay

Did you know that on eBay, there is a pair of women’s jeans sold every 22 seconds? Clothing has long been a hot seller on eBay, which is exactly why getting into sourcing bulk wholesale clothing is a viable business option for many eBay sellers!

If you are new to selling on bulk wholesale clothing on eBay, here are a few quick tips to get your started:

Start by doing a little research on what sells best on eBay. So many sellers are afraid of the words “market research” because they think it’s difficult and time consuming. The truth is, while it can take time, without it, you can easily fall into the same situation that so many other sellers who avoid this crucial step.

When you include market research in your preliminary planning, you are giving yourself a huge advantage over your competitors.

How to perform market research on eBay.

One of the best things you can do is search through eBay’s completed listings. This is one of the best ways you can research selling bulk wholesale clothing. Start by clicking ‘Advanced search’ which is located next to the search field on pretty much any eBay page. Then enter keywords describing the clothing items you are looking at selling. For example, if I want to sell True Religion jeans, I would enter this as my search term. 

Then scroll down to the option ‘Completed Listings’ and check the box next to it. This tells eBay that you only want to view results of listings that have already ended.

When the results are generated, you should see the prices of the sold items represented in both green and red. Using this color code, you can see which items sold (prices shown in green) and which listings ended without being sold (shown in red).

Go through the results and count up the number of red results and the number of green, and compare them. If there are more green results than red, you are onto a good thing! If not, try searching for something else. I look for items that have sold 60% of the time. This is a good benchmark to work with when you are selling bulk wholesale clothing. I recommend that you go through as many pages of results as you can to get a more accurate idea of how well the item sells. Some items may only show you 100 results, whereas other items such as bulk wholesale clothing items might give you say 5000.

You don’t need to go through all 5000 results and count up the results, but I would recommend trying to gather data from at least 200 listings.

Finding a wholesale clothing supplier

When you have decided what to sell, it’s time to find a bulk wholesale clothing supplier. For many sellers, this can be a daunting task, as there are so many different ones to choose from. I’ve dealt with my fair share of supplier over the years. Some worked out great, while others turned out to be a disaster! So to help you avoiding some of my pitfalls, here are a couple of things to look out for when finding a new supplier:

Avoid suppliers of fakes. This is really important. Back in my rookie days, I thought it would be a great idea to fool my buyers into thinking that the “Gucci” sunglasses I was selling were made by he, himself, Paolo Gucci. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to sell even one pair, because the minute they arrived in the country, they were seized by Customs. Leaving me $500 out of pocket!

Another of my mistakes that you can learn from is not using safe payment options. I was ordering a bulk lot of stuffed wild animals, and dealing with a new supplier that I found through a Google search. After emailing my order through, the supplier insisted that I pay via Western Union. What I didn’t know at the time is that Western Union is one of the most unsafe payment methods available!

When I received my order, many of the stuffed animals were damaged (some had no eyes which made them look very creepy!). I contacted the supplier, but he didn’t want to hear about it. When I requested a refund several times, he ignored me.

If I had paid by credit card, I could have requested that my bank perform a chargeback, which would get me all my money back.

I hope you can learn from my amateur mistakes!

How to Attract More Buyers to Your Auctions

If you are looking for some guidance on how to attract more buyers to your auctions, then you will want to read this article.  Specifically, I will go over proper ad design, attractive offers and buyer trust.  After you are finished reading this article, you will be ready to attract far more buyers to your auctions. 

Ad Design

Ad design is a crucial aspect of attracting buyers to an auction.  There is a great deal of information on the internet and as the seller you have only moments to attract a buyer.  Naturally, you will want to use good photographs with close ups in order to achieve this.  Also, be certain that the proper keyword for your item is used in the advertisement.  Some people actually forget the keywords and that causes the item not to be at all discoverable in a search.  At times, buyers will be hunting for the very thing you are selling but if you have not placed proper keywords in the ad, then they will not see your ad at all.  Finally, your ad should have eye appeal.  Be sure that your ad really looks nice.  Even if you have to take several photographs, be sure that every detail in the picture is showing to best advantage.

Attractive Offers

When you are setting up an advertisement in order to sell something, you are making an offer.  Be sure that your offer has elements within it that are interesting to the buyer.  In other words, think about the sale from the customer’s point of view.  What do they want?  What can your product offer them?  Many people have found that putting up the “best offer” option encourages buyers.  Also, it helps if you have a product that is in demand.  It is a much better position to be selling something that everyone wants then to be selling something no one has ever heard of before in their lives. 

One great way to generate a feeling of goodwill with a buyer is to offer free shipping.  People always jump at the free shipping offer since everyone hates to pay those shipping fees. 

Another great idea is to use loss leaders.  This is basically when you advertise a few of your product at an extremely low price in order to get many customers into your store.  Then you can more than make up the loss on the additional sales that you will make from the other items in your store.  Department stores do it when they run sales and they do it for a reason:  it works.

Another thing to think about is whether you would like to serve a specific niche or not.  It has been found to be a good marketing strategy to focus on one target group of people.

If your product has a brand name, then use it and in fact use it in the headline of the ad.  Brand names comfort people, because they feel like they can trust it.

Buyer Trust

Buyer trust is a crucial aspect of a business transaction.  Some ways to inspire buyer trust include offering a money back guarantee.  This shows that you stand behind your product.  In fact, in some industries a money back guarantee is in fact an industry standard.  People will look askance at you if you don’t offer a money back guarantee because everyone else does. 

Also important in the subject of buyer trust is the importance of obtaining very good feedback scores.  Feedback scores are posted and everyone will see them so keep that in mind and do not sabotage yourself. 

The above is some information and strategies about how to attract more buyers to your auctions.  You now are aware of the importance of ad design, attractive offers and buyer trust.  Use this advice and prosper in your auctions.

eBay Selling Tips

Tip #1 - Create “smart” titles

The first item of importance in this list of eBay selling tips is creating a “smart” item title. I’m amazed at how many eBay sellers don’t realize how important a good title is.   You can have the lowest price, the best shipping, and the most beautiful description in the world, and it won’t matter if no one can find your listing.  This makes creating a good title one of the most crucial eBay selling tips.

The vast majority of buyers search only by keywords, so it’s crucial that you pack your title as full of popular, relevant keywords as you can.  Try to use as many of the 55 allotted characters as possible. To determine which keywords to include, pretend you’re a buyer looking for that item.  What would you type into a search field?  Would you type in “WOW”, “L@@K”, or “$$$”? Probably not, so don’t include those terms in your title. 

Once you’ve come up with some great keywords for your title, here are other important considerations:

·         Separate each keyword in your title with just a space.

·         Avoid punctuation unless absolutely necessary.

·         Avoid any other special characters (*, $, &, %, #, -), as they can confuse eBay’s search system and prevent your listing from appearing properly in search results.  Many of these characters are advanced Boolean search commands, which can affect the search results, so it’s better to stay away from them. Plus, very few buyers include special characters in their keyword searches, so using them can prevent your listing from appearing in search results.

·         Capitalize the first letter of every word -- after all, this is a proper TITLE.

·         Look at other listings for your product.  If most of them use lower-case letters, or a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, use all caps for your title, and vice-versa.  That will make your title stand out in the search results.

·         Your title doesn’t have to be catchy, clever, or even grammatically correct.  The best titles are long strings of popular, relevant keywords. 

Tip #2 - Appearance Matters

Another important addition to a list of eBay selling tips is that appearance matters.  To create a successful listing, factors like pricing, shipping cost, and title are very important.  But you also can’t get away with incomplete, haphazard, or unprofessional-looking descriptions.  Your description might be what separates your listing from all of the others with similar prices, and could make the difference in whether or not you have a successful sale.

An eBay listing is an advertisement, pure and simple.   An item description that is too short, poorly-written, too plain, or otherwise unattractive, can do nothing to help you sell the item, but only hurt your chances of selling it successfully.  Please take this very seriously; this is one of the most effective eBay selling tips you can employ.

Tip #3 - Be Original

Leading into the next important item in this list of eBay Selling Tips, although eBay has made some effort to provide sellers with visual “helps” like Listing Designer and Store Themes, these have been so widely-used that most of them are now so common, they often seem trite and unoriginal.  One of the best things you can do to make your listings and/or eBay store stand out from most of the others is to refrain from using these eBay default features.   There are many other options at your disposal, and most of them are just as easy to use and implement.   This is yet another wise addition to any good list of eBay selling tips. 

Want to Buy and Sell Online?

So many people want to buy and sell on the internet but they are afraid to lose money and venture into unknown territory. Internet auctions are such a great way to make money, yet those who are beginners are often frightened of the uncertainty of doing something so new. What is really needed is a way to obtain knowledge and guidance from someone trustworthy. Luckily, all this is available in an online community called SaleHoo.

How comforting it is to be able to trust in an online community that really has the know-how and the expertise to give assistance to the business owner. SaleHoo has the knowledge and experience base to help you whether you are completely new at online selling or whether you have been around for a while but just need a bit more guidance to reach your full potential.

As one of the biggest, most trustworthy communities of wholesalers online, SaleHoo is the best place for anyone who wants to buy and sell on the internet. SaleHoo is very trustworthy because SaleHoo has more than eight thousand premium, completely safe wholesalers in every type of industry that exists. SaleHoo has even arranged it so that in many cases you can go with suppliers who have a low minimum order or no minimum order, which is extremely beneficial for small business owners.

There is no need for confusion because it is really easy to use the search feature at SaleHoo in order to quickly find what you are looking for. Check out SaleHoo’s member reviews in order to get some feedback on any supplier you would like to do business with prior to deciding. SaleHoo can easily accommodate your need for drop shipping and international shipping.

One of the most impressive benefits of SaleHoo is definitely the fantastic Research Labs. By using SaleHoo’s education tools the risks involved in buying and selling online are greatly reduced or eliminated. This is because the state of the art Research Labs can give you guidance about such important matters as what profitable niches are, choosing a good supplier and how to write your listing.

SaleHoo helps you base your decisions on facts and even help to explain about import duties. SaleHoo has selling down to a fine art and even offers advice on when to start and end your auctions because the timing could make a difference in your profits as well.

Another great benefit of SaleHoo is the support staffs that are available ten hours a day, six days a week to assist you. You can also email your questions to support staff. SaleHoo also has a very active forum with seventy five thousand members to discuss important matters with.

Check out SaleHoo’s informative selling guides for knowledge and assistance in getting started. SaleHoo has created The Dropship Handbook as well as a guide on what are profitable products to sell. There is also a handbook titled Shipping Handbook 2010 as well as some niche specific Market Guides. There is also How to Find Fantastic Suppliers.

When you join SaleHoo for only $67 per year, you get to have all the following amazing benefits plus their full 100% money back 60 day guarantee immediately:

-Member’s Forum

-Customer Support

-Supplier Directory

-SaleHoo Research Labs

-Smart Seller Training Guides

Now you know what SaleHoo is and some of the advantages associated with it. With all of these benefits to joining SaleHoo and with such a low price, why not join SaleHoo today? You can achieve your dream of buying and selling profitably on the internet and start rolling in the profits.

Discover the Secret To Wholesale Sunglasses Sourcing Success!

It’s well known that sunglasses are a hot seller on eBay. And many eBay sellers are making a full-time living from offering them on eBay. The trouble is, new sellers who want to get into the wholesale sunglasses niche don’t know where to go to find them. If you are stuck in a supplier finding rut, here are a couple of options that will get you and your wholesale sunglasses business off the ground!

Supplier directories

These are by far the most popular and reliable way to find new suppliers. Thousands of sellers use supplier directories everyday to find the best of the best suppliers.

While not all supplier directories are made equal (some are absolutely useless!) the best ones make finding and getting in touch with suppliers very simple. When looking into using supplier directories, there are a few things you should know:

·          

      Directories with any less than 5000 suppliers will not be useful to you. Anything less than 5,000 and you are unlikely to find the products that you are looking for.  

·         Free directories should be avoided like the plague! These are bad news, and are usually full of scammer suppliers, or broken links which take you nowhere.

·          

      You should only use a supplier directory that verifies their suppliers. A verified supplier offers a legitimate service, does not sell fakes, offer safe payment methods and has a good track record of satisfied users.

·         A good supplier directory offering wholesale sunglasses is http://www.salehoo.com

Google Searches

Google is the first place we go to find anything, so why would wholesale sunglasses be any different, right? Well actually there are a couple of reasons why Google is not the best place to source your stock.

First of all, when you use Google to search for suppliers, you open up the floodgates for thousand of illegitimate suppliers to pop up in your search results. These suppliers are after one thing: your money which they will take, then run if you do use them.

While it is possible to use Google to find decent suppliers, I advise that you avoid doing so until you get more experience in what to look for in a wholesale sunglasses supplier.

Trade Shows

Trade shows are a great way to find suppliers for wholesale sunglasses. Trade shows bring together the best of the best in product suppliers, all under one roof. After attending trade shows, sellers are always amazed at how many amazing deals are available through the suppliers they meet. Because suppliers are competing with hundreds of other suppliers to get your attention, they offer some amazing deals on the day. To find wholesale sunglasses, I recommend checking out fashion clothing and accessories trade shows. Most of these are held in large cities such as New York and Los Angeles, or other centers around the world. 

If you can get to a trade show over in China, you are likely to stumble across some of the best wholesale sunglasses suppliers in the world, who offer rock bottom prices. Not only that, but the Chinese really know how to put on a good show, and are very hospitable.

The only down sides to trade shows is that because they are mainly held in main centers, many sellers have to travel for them which can be a hassle. Also, some attendees feel rather overwhelmed by all the suppliers there that are gagging for their attention, or trying to get them to commit to a large order or contract, right there on the day.

Just make sure you are prepared to say no to any pushy suppliers!

Which of these product sourcing methods have you used in the past?

Liquidation Suppliers: Can they help you build your business?

Liquidation suppliers are suppliers who source their stock from multiple avenues and resell it directly to retailers. Liquidation suppliers specialize in buying factory seconds, slow to move retail stock, or items from stores that are going out of business.

Liquidators are a fantastic source of a variety of items as they rarely stock the same items regularly. What’s more, they offer rock-bottom prices, every time. The main downside of using a liquidator is that they are not the most reliable source of stock. While at times they will have an abundance of items to offer you, there may also be times when they have very little in stock.

Another downside is that most liquidation suppliers only sell by the pallet load and have a ‘take it, or leave it” policy. This means you could buy an entire pallet of stock that is barely sellable, due to damage or faults. This means that it can be a bit of a gamble buying from them. While you could end up with some great items that will sell like hotcakes, some will barely be looked at by buyers.

Another reason that many retailers avoid using liquidation suppliers is because they can require a large single order which can cost anywhere up to $5000, which isn’t exactly possible if you are a new seller who is just starting out.

Where you can find liquidation suppliers

By doing a Google search: While this isn’t the most recommend method, it can produce many options for you to choose from. However, if you are a little overwhelmed by the number of results Google comes up with, you can easily narrow it down by searching for a specific product. For example, if you are looking at selling computer monitors, you could Google the keywords “liquidation suppliers + computer monitor”.

While Google is free, fast and easy to use, it’s not a recommended for retailers who are inexperienced in dealing with suppliers. This is because you can easily led yourself directly to a site owned by a scammer who is ready and waiting to take your money, and run off into cyber space!

A much more reliable option is to use a supplier directory. By far, this is the most popular method of finding new suppliers. The great things about supplier directories is that the good ones actually verify all the suppliers they list in their directory, so you never have to worry about being scammed by them.

A word of warning though, do not use free directories. In all my years of product sourcing, I have never come across even one that lists legitimate suppliers. In fact whenever I have used them, I have always been taken to either scam sites, supplier sites that require me to pay them to sign up, or I just end up going nowhere because the link is broken.

Another option is using a local supplier that you can find in your own town or city. If you live in a large city, it can be easy to find liquidation suppliers. The main benefits of this option is that you can visit the warehouse and see that they are a real operating business. You can also see all the stock up front. Another great benefit is low or no shipping costs. If you can hire a U-Haul for a few hours, or even fit your stock into your own vehicle, this really gives you an advantage over your competitors.

The only down side is, you probably won’t be able to find a huge selection of liquidation suppliers locally, even if you live in a large city.

Make Money on eBay

The question of how to make money on eBay is the most fundamental concern of just about every eBay seller.

Within the topic of how to make money on eBay, there’s a multitude of information you can review.  But far be it for me to simply rehash old material.  Instead, the ideas in this article are ones I consider to be of utmost importance and either bear repeating or haven’t been covered enough by others, in my opinion. 

Avoid the 5 high-risk categories

To approach the question of how to make money on eBay, one of the most fundamental questions every seller has to ask is, “What Do I Sell?” There are so many popular categories and products on eBay that this can be a daunting question.  One thing that can help is to eliminate categories and products that will likely be more difficult or problematic than others, particularly if you’re a new seller.   By eliminating the products and categories that are the most fiercely competitive, for instance, you’ll also eliminate most of the products and categories that are considered the most “high-risk”, according to eBay and PayPal.  Here are those categories: Electronics, Cell Phones, Computers, Cameras, and Video Game Systems. 

Think outside the product sourcing box

Another key factor in discovering how to make money on eBay is where to obtain products. The methods eBay sellers use to obtain product are often determined by their financial situation, particularly any capital they may have to invest.  

Many sellers come to eBay with strong financial footing, seeking to expand their success, and are able to easily obtain products in bulk from wholesalers or manufacturers.  But sellers with little to no assets can be successful on eBay as well.  They may just need to be a bit more creative, observant, and patient than other sellers.  One of the easiest ways for them to begin is to utilize drop shipping as their primary method of product sourcing.  Most drop shipping yields much smaller profit margins than wholesaling, though, so it’s important to be on the lookout for new and different ways to source products. 

Obviously, wholesaling is a strong option to pursue once you have enough capital available, but don’t rule out other extremely viable options, such as             contacting manufacturers directly, establishing eBay businesses for local merchants, and/or serving as a Trading Assistant to sell products for other people who don’t know how to sell on eBay themselves. 

Watch your spending

One of the most insidious traps many eBay sellers fall into is overspending.  Many sellers have little to no business acumen and think that the way to make money on eBay is just to sell a lot of items.  They think that the more they sell, the more money they’ll make.  In many cases, that couldn’t be further from the truth. 

To make money on eBay, you need to monitor your “cost of sales”.  This is the percentage of your sales that’s applied to your eBay and PayPal fees.  This amount should ideally be less than 10%.  You can monitor your eBay Sales Reports to keep track of this percentage on a weekly and monthly basis.  

Be careful that your fees are worth it.  Many upgrades and subscriptions aren’t, such as a Premium store subscription.  For a Premium subscription to be worth $49.95 a month, you need to use its additional features, and they must generate enough sales to justify the cost.  Otherwise, it’s a waste of money.