Ask Me Anything About Ebay

[1C5]

What is the best way to win an auction for the lowest price possible?

[cantbeatluck]

We do it all through Consignment. We take 25-40% of the sale and make about 3-6 bucks an item on shipping. I do tv radio and newspaper ads in my area.

[Jay.]

quote the questions you are answering.

[BiPolar_Nut]

What is the exact scam angle on Craigslist posts (typically under computer gigs) seeking out "experienced eBay sellers" to list stuff for them for a commission? Obv, there are multiple exploits possible...just wondering which they were after.

[Jay.]

[ QUOTE ]
We do it all through Consignment. We take 25-40% of the sale and make about 3-6 bucks an item on shipping. I do tv radio and newspaper ads in my area.

[/ QUOTE ]

What exactly do your ads look like? Exactly where are they placed?

What were your first months like when building up rep etc

Any plans to expand?

[BiPolar_Nut]

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What is the best way to win an auction for the lowest price possible?

[/ QUOTE ]

Snipe your bid in the last 5 secs of the auction, never bid early, watch several auctions of the same item to pick the best sniping prospect, be patient enough to pass on "good" deals to get the "great" deals on items commonly sold, possibly gambool on low-feedback sellers (I took a chance once on an item regularly selling for $550-$700 and got it for $350 cause the seller had a feedback of 1...from a purchase (no sales, ever. I checked him out as best I could...name was listed in phone book, address matched where to send a money order, seemed pretty normal in info I turned up during google-recon, exchanged several emails...I felt it was worth the risk)).

[z28dreams]

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We do it all through Consignment. We take 25-40% of the sale and make about 3-6 bucks an item on shipping. I do tv radio and newspaper ads in my area.

[/ QUOTE ]

What percentage of your customers that you sell for are acquired from the TV/radio/newspaper ads? Have you tried advertising on the web? What other methods do you use?

For the numbers you specified, roughly how many products are you shipping out per month?

How many regular customers do you have that use your service?

[cantbeatluck]

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What edge or core compentency do you have that let's you make a profit or prevents anyone from selling the exact things for the exact price that you sell? Do you just have a lock on the supply/manufacture of your product?

How about a link to your ad on ebay?

[/ QUOTE ]

Our Edge is experience and having 100,000+ feedback. We opperate only on consignment basis and get individuals in and companys in about every day that would like to use our service. The best part of our business is that so many people are looking for someone to sell their stuff with no work.

[cantbeatluck]

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[ QUOTE ]
What edge or core compentency do you have that let's you make a profit or prevents anyone from selling the exact things for the exact price that you sell? Do you just have a lock on the supply/manufacture of your product?

How about a link to your ad on ebay?

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe they mainly sell other peoples junk for a percentage of the final sale.

There are a lot of ppl who have stuff they want to sell but don't really know or want to create an ebay/paypal account etc.

please correct me if I'm wrong...


edit: core compentency/edge = high seller rating, experience and market valuation skills. I did not get the impression from any of OP's wording that he is an authorized dealer for any products.

consignment = a shipment of goods under an agreement whereby the receiving party undertakes to sell them as an agent for the shipper. The shipper retains title to the goods until they are sold.

I believe being an authorized dealer, you have to establish a line of credit w/ the company and actually purchase the products that you are going to sell.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your exactly right, we only sell for others, and we take a large % at 25 to 40% with us covering the fees.

[cantbeatluck]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm very interested in ecommerce as a whole, and would love to chat with you sometime.

The obvious question everyone wants to know is - what do you buy&sell?

Some more interesting questions I'd like to know:

- strategies on getting the best price (good times to bid, bad times to bid, days to avoid, etc)

- optimizing shipping cost to get the most bids

- general page layouts/copy that seem to work

- which merchant account do you use to accept payment?

[/ QUOTE ]

We use Turbo Lister for all our items, Paypal for our payments though we do take checks and money orders as well, as far as best time to get the highest price I feel it has to be Saturday and Sunday evening.