What are eBay auction Templates and Why do I need them?

Auction templates are pre-designed templates that contain special designs to enhance your auction. Think of the templates as a piece of stationary paper that you write on to send a letter to a friend. The stationary makes the letter look more appealing to the reader. Auction templates work in the same way by adding color and flavor to your auction. They help distinguish you from your competition and allow buyers to remember who you are. For example, lets take the Wal-mart smiley face logo. Every time you see that bright yellow smiley face you think of Wal-mart which makes you more likely to go there at some point and spend money. So take that same concept and apply it to your auctions.

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Your auction title is probably the most important part of your listing. If your title doesn’t inform and entice potential customers then they simply won’t open it. eBay allows you to use around 56 characters in your title, so use them wisely. Note that subtitles are not searchable, so make sure you include as many keywords and selling points in your main title as possible.

It’s important you spend time analyzing past auctions, comparing different titles and decide which have been most successful. You can view completed auctions by searching under the “Advanced Search” section.

You’ll notice that the titles of the auctions with the most success will usually be very clear, to the point and include a lot of keywords. Keywords are words that potential customers will use to search by. When these words are entered into eBay search field, if they match your title, then your auction will be displayed. So, the more keywords you can squeeze into your title the better. Read more…

There are bargains to be had buying domain names on eBay.  I buy a few every week and bid on lots more.  Here’s a few tips for a successful domain buying experience on eBay.

1. Know the Value of What Are Buying

There are lots of resources on the internet to check the value of domains. If you are buying 3 character domains 3character.com provides a price guide each month. Another great source of historical price data is EBay itself. At EBay.com click on Buy tab. In the search box type in ‘domain names’ and click on the Search button. The brings up the following navigation:

Computers & Networking > Other Hardware & Services > Domain Names > .com

Click on the Domain Names link to get a list of all domain names. Now click on the Advanced Search link. Then next page click on the checkbox near the top that says “Completed Listings Only” and ensure that the ‘In this Category’ pick list reads ‘Domain Names’. Now scroll to the bottom and click on the ‘Search’ button. You should now see a listing of recent selling items. The items in red are those which failed to sell and the green items are those which did sell.

2. Check Buyer Feedback

After each EBay transaction both the buyer and seller are invited to rate the performance of the other. This provides a valuable rating tool that allows you be comfortable that the seller will carry out their oblgations after you pay them for a domain. On the far right of each EBay listing is a section that says “Meet the Seller”. To the right of the sellers name is a number in brackets - this indicates the number of unique feedbacks by other buyer or sellers. Below this is the percentage of positive feedbacks. Personally I look for unique feedbacks of at least 10 and percent positive feedback of 100% or at the least in the high 90’s. You can click on the feedback number to see the individual comments of other EBay’ers who have bought or sold with your potential seller.
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Drop shipping is a process by which a seller advertises an item on eBay, but doesn’t actually pay for the item until it sells. Once a customer buys the item and pays for it, the seller contacts the drop shipper and pays for the item, and the drop shipper ships it directly to the customer. Sellers don’t have to store the item or ship it. I personally don’t use this method for several reasons:

I can find merchandise more inexpensively through other meansThe profit margin is very smallI am not able to physically handle the item and answer questions about it or give measurementsSome drop shipping companies charge a fee to use their servicesReturns can be confusing

Let’s look at an example. You can purchase high quality wool sweaters from a drop shipper for around $30. In my experience, you are lucky to get a sale price of $30 for a brand new wool sweater on eBay. You can also find quality wool sweaters in a thrift store for about $3. The item might be used, but if it is a quality name brand and in very good condition, you can sell it on eBay for $20 - $30. Many people (especially international customers with limited supply in their country) are willing to purchase gently used clothing as long as it is in good condition and a quality or designer name. If you purchase the item from a drop shipper, your profit will only be a couple of dollars at best. If you find the sweater on your own in thrift store, consignment store, estate or garage sale, you have significantly increased your profit margin to and will profit around $17 to $27 on just one item. Read more…

dear eBayer,

 I found this site pretty useful in providing you an instant graphical representation of the latest hottest selling item on eBay.

Nothing beats a one screen view of the highest bid item and spying your compeition using this site. So make full use of your new found secret weapon.

=> http://bidthumbs.com

I will place this link permanetly onto the side bar in case you lost this post.

Cheers!