Ebay Business

**pcbres16** · 03-31-2009 07:43 PM

Hey all,

I am going to start an ebay business this summer, since no jobs seem to be avalible in my region. So... what tips can you all give me? I have sold on ebay before, but just here and there...nothing consistant. My main target for gaining customers will be these Co-op buildings where I live, full of seniors with stuff that they can sell.

So, what tips can you all give me?

**myfayt** · 04-01-2009 10:02 AM

Buy cheap, sell high. Is really the best advice.

You can setup a ebay drop off shop. There used to be one in my town. You'd pay a fee to have someone list an item on ebay for you. So like if you wanted to sell a car for $2,000, they'd charge you like $50 to list it.

**Scott Sutherland** · 04-02-2009 08:22 AM

Hi, I'm operating an eBay store by dropshipping customized merchandise from Hong Kong. It's pretty good, brings in ~$200 month for practically no work. Perhaps your situation is different as mine, as your customers won't likely have to wait 8-12 days for product delivery, but I found a few things to be helpful:

1) Set up an automated response system for your customers. People like to get messages from their seller assuring them their order has been processed.

2) Don't get suckered into eBay image hosting. I have a hosting account at GoDaddy and so for all my image needs, I simply embed images from this hosting account into my listings rather than pay for image storage on eBay's servers.

3) Answer customer questions quickly. eBay is saturated with sellers so don't dawdle.

4) If applicable, purchase a domain name that hot links directly to your eBay store. Dot coms carry a slight weight of professionalism

5) If you know HTML, use it on your postings. eBay allows you to embed whatever and however much HTML code into your postings as you would like. This gives you much more control over the appearance of your listings.

Hope some of these tips help. Always make sure to keep an eye on your competition!

**Scott Sutherland** · 04-02-2009 08:24 AM

And also, if you can be the only person on eBay selling a particular item, if it's the right item you can make a fortune just because you're the only person who has it. I have this random mousepad design of a skull with blue flames behind it and people go nuts for it; I sell at least one a day.