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How Titanium Powersellers Make Money on Ebay
Summary of Titanium Powersellers Mentioned in The Ebay Millionaire
Subjects > Computers > Internet > Web > Ebay > Ebay Auction Site Tips On How To Make Money On Ebay
List of Titanium PowerSellers?Create covered in The Ebay Millionaire:
- A City Discount - Company summary: 20,000 sq. ft warehouse in Atlanta. 5 year history of 25,000 ebay auctions. Revenues from $400,000 in 1999, to $10 million in 2004. Titanium since March 2003 under the name acitydiscount. Revenues generated through high volume of average $300 sales, mostly selling ice cream makers to small restaurants and consumers. Mentioned on Page 25 of The Ebay Millionaire
- Initial success was with coffeemakers and mandoline slicers, selling 500 of the slicers in the first year.
- Tips:
- Old inventory from out of business companies may be able to be sold on eBay. Such inventory can be obtained at government auctios, or deals with businesses that are closing or renovating.
- New items work better than used items in some categories on ebay
- Used equipment not fully tested and defects fully described should be sold "as is"
- Drop shipping saves a lot of time and expense for inventory carrying, shipping, and packaging.
- Auction Drop - Company summary: Established first San Francisco area store in March 2003 for people to drop off items to be sold on ebay for a commission of 20% - 38% of the final sales price, plus the ebay listing and final value fees, adding as much as 5.25%. Handles auctions for other people, similar to how an eBay trading assistant handles auction items for other people. Has sold more than 30,000 items, total value over $2 million. Ebay id: auctiondrop. Sells 92% of items listed, vs. 41% of all ebay listings that sell. Partners with The UPS Store to provide this service across the country. Auction drop saves money by handling all sales from a central warehouse in San Carlos.
- Tips
- Forming alliances with other companies can improve growth
- Know and use common misspellings and abbreviations related to your auction items
- Mentioned on Page 37 of The Ebay Millionaire
- Carsyours - Company summary: Is Titanium despite only selling 700 items in 5 years, mostly cars, with an average final bid of $40K. Sells 17 to 20 cars a month. Spends about $60K in ebay fees each year.
- Tips
- Start all items for $1 or less, but set a reserve value, and a Buy It Now price based on fair market estimate.
- High feedback ratings improve buyer trust
- For high priced items, consider taking phone call inquiries, always offer email for inquiries
- Financing can help to sell high priced items
- Exotic vehicles such as Lamborghinis and BMWs are selling between individuals
- High priced items need even more careful descriptions to answer all possible buyer questions
- Expensive items like cars may have be listed 10 or more times. Ebay says the $400 cost for this compares favorable to cost a dealership spends to sell a car, which can involve as much as $500 advertising.
- For automobiles, make sure the car is clean, and low mileage helps improve sales
- Shipping an automobile by truck from Buffalo New York to California can cost $1000
- Mentioned on Page 47 of The Ebay Millionaire
- Cord Camera - Company summary: Midwest photo retailer with 37 stores plus ebay. Began selling online in 2002. Revenues of $1 million first year, to $3 million in 2004, using just 3 employees in 2004.
- Tips:
- Overstock and demonstrator items often sell for better price on ebay than in a store.
- Auction management software should be used to automate dealing with ebay. Some free choices include Auctionworks, by Marketworks, and eBay's Turbo Lister.
- Ebay buyers like to receive a detailed invoice along with a copy of the eBay listing
- Tagging used items with an inventory number that matches the listing number helps you make sure you ship the right item to the right buyer.
- Accept as many forms of payment as possible
- Auction item photos are very important to answer buyers questions, especially when auctioning used items.
- Macro setting on a digital camera is necessary for taking closeup pictures of items. A 2 or 3 megapixel camera is sufficient for listings.
- Make a clear backdrop for photoing items using a sheet. Have extra lights such as florescent lights, and a tripod for the camera.
- Doesn't use reserves, instead just price the item at the reserve price. This saves on reserve fees. Buyers then know the minimum price you want.
- Take care of any customer problems very quickly to ensure positive feedback.
- Studying the competition's feedback can give ideas about how to improve service. Biggest problems that buyers complain about include:
- Not shipping items quickly upon payment
- Shipping the wrong items
- Bad customer service that doesn't respond quickly to problems.
- To eliminate problems with payments and fraud, be sure billing and shipping addresses match the credit card address.
- Avoid paypal problems by only shipping to the paypal confirmed address
- Shipments to foreign countries are hard to confirm and track.
- The interview talks about fraud problems on ebay and helping to stop a stolen credit card ring.
- Mentioned on Page 59 of The Ebay Millionaire
- Dealtree - Company summary: Specializes in high volume outsourced auction management. Started by auctioning items that were returned to companies. One of ebays top 300 sellers. Sales of $4 million to $10 million a year, and growth of 50% a year. Uses 15 different IDs, including dealtree-auctions, dealtree_deals, visioneer-auctions, dealtree-closeouts, etc. Sells computer cables, cordless telephones, DVD and MP3 player, watches, and video games. 22 employees handle 400-600 new listings a day.
- Liquidators often pay 10 to 15 cents on the dollar for computer equipment, but Dealtree averages 35 to 70 cents on the dollar.
- Uses a custom written auction management system that uses the EBAY API, via the Ebay developers program, which costs $500 - $5000 annual membership, plus $100-$200 for certification, and monthly usage fees.
- Tips:
- It is often possible to auction items that would have been thrown out by companies
- Sell suppliers on your skill at using ebay, and how that skill will benefit them.
- When calculating your profit on ebay items, you must accurately consider the time spent processing each item.
- Try to avoid flooding the market with too many copies of the same product.
- The furnishings at your auction location are not important to buyers.
- Mentioned on Page 71 of The Ebay Millionaire
- Designer Athletic - Company summary: Deals in retail closeouts from stores and wholesale brokers, styles from last year. Sells approximately 5,000 shoes a week. 2004 revenues of $3.5 million.
- Tips:
- Overstock and last season merchandise can be purchased at considerable discount.
- Mentioned on Page 81 of The Ebay Millionaire
- eMoviePoster?Create.com - Company summary:
- eValueville - Company summary:
- Glacier Bay DVD - Company summary:
- Grapevine Hill - Company summary:
- Hess Fine Art - Company summary:
- Inventory Solutions - Company summary:
- 1StopAuctions?Create - Company summary:
- Pugster - Company summary:
- Rock Bottom Golf - Company summary:
- SCGaynor Auctions - Company summary:
- Sell2All - Company summary:
- zTradingPost?Create - Company summary:
The book "Ebay Millionaire" also includes "Fifty Strategies for Successful eBay Selling" as well as a "Resource List for Building Your eBay Business".
For more details about how these PowerSellers?Create became successful on eBay, get this great book focusing only on proven tips from Titanium Powersellers:
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