(by 8 people)
Whether you're just looking to clean out your basement or garage and make a little money on the side or you're considering starting one of the fastest growing home businesses in the country, you've surely heard of the eBay revolution.
According to eBay, an object sells on eBay every 1.7 seconds. Someone buys a digital cameral on the site every 90 sectons. And more than 70,000 Americans make their living by selling on eBay. This lens is dedicated to giving you resources and ideas about making money with online eBay auctions.
Look like an eBay Professional
Free tools and templates
Competition on eBay is getting tougher and many people are making a living with eBay. Use these sites to help you improve your listings and make more money. Many of these tools and templates are free.
- Auctionspice 2.0 - Professional Auction Creation Tools
- More than 13 million items are listed on eBay at any given time with millions more listed daily. With more and more eBay sellers, it becomes increasingly important to make your lisings stand out.
- Tools for Site Auctions
- Free shipping rate calculators, auction templates, color charts, and other useful online auction seller tools
- Custom Auction Creator
- ebay hints tips tricks, mix and match backgrounds, affordable design packages, ebay auction templates, ebay custom store fronts, ebay custom banners, HTML tutorials, CSS tutorials, HTML for ebay, auction listing creator, free auction templates
- ListTailor - Getting Started
- ListTailor.com is an auction template and image hosting site. We are not an auction site, but a site that hosts your images and assists you in building your auction descriptions by providing easy-to-use templates.
- Free Auction Templates for eBay Sellers
- Nucite offers image hosting and an abundance of auction templates to its members.
- Free eBay Auction Templates
- Free Ebay auction templates, use our free templates to make your auctions look more profesional
Are you and eBay Powerseller?
Franchise Firms
Many successful eBay entrepreneurs have put together wonderful, successful Trading Posts on their own. Hundreds of others have turned to franchise firms to help them along. Here are some advantages and potential disadvantages of hooking up with a franchise organization, provided by Ron Mansfield, eBay Powerseller, and author of the new book, eBay to the Max: Be a Trading Post Owner, Trading Assistant, & Power Seller (Que Publishing):Advantages:
You get to learn from other peoples' mistakes - good franchisors will help train you and point out the landmines (or at least where the landmines were during their last trip through the field).
You will have a built-in community of peers - similar franchisees who have invested a sizable chunk of their nest egg in a dream just like yours.
A good franchiser has already made arrangements with vendors for fixtures - counters, shelving, etc.
As franchise networks build out hundreds of stores they gain clout with shipping carriers, supply vendors, insurance companies and others. This can often result in discounts, or at least in better customer service.
Joining a franchise can give you instant credibility, if the franchisor has done a good job of establishing its brand and policing the quality of its stores.
Effective franchisors spend a lot of money on professional printed pieces, ad campaigns, public relations efforts, and much more
Potential disadvantages:
The franchisor will want a percentage of your income - perhaps even a percentage of each auction's final ending value, even though you keep only a portion of each auction - this will add up and can really change a balance sheet.
You will probably be told quite a bit about what you can and cannot do in your store.
Selling Designer Goods on eBay
Designer items just hanging in your closet? Here's how to sell them on eBay and make a mint!
You can make money from those things and more - and it's easy to sell on eBay (Plus, you don't have to let the consignment shop keep half of what you get)!
To make your eBay listing shout out at people against all the ones that are boring and plain, use colored text, different font faces and sizes, multiple columns and sizzling graphics!
The easiest way to create a listing that goes beyond plain text is with eBay's Listing Designer, available to all users right from the Sell Your Item page - and it costs only 10 cents a listing!
You can make money from those things and more - and it's easy to sell on eBay (Plus, you don't have to let the consignment shop keep half of what you get)!
To make your eBay listing shout out at people against all the ones that are boring and plain, use colored text, different font faces and sizes, multiple columns and sizzling graphics!
The easiest way to create a listing that goes beyond plain text is with eBay's Listing Designer, available to all users right from the Sell Your Item page - and it costs only 10 cents a listing!
Need merchandise for your eBay store?
Now that you're selling successfully, you may find that you're running out of inventory. I've included some links to wholesale resources directly and listed others below. These links and more can be found in Making a Living with Your eBay Business by Michael Miller.
* www.wholesalecentral.com
* www.wholesalequest.com
* www.liquidation.com
* www.amlinc.com (American Merchandise Liquidators)
* www.amerisurplus.com
* www.bid4assets.com
* www.luxurybrandsllc.com
* www.mywebwholesaler.com
* www.overstock.com
* www.salvagecloseouts.com
* www.surplus.net
* www.tdwcloseouts.com
* www.wholesalecentral.com
* www.wholesalequest.com
* www.liquidation.com
* www.amlinc.com (American Merchandise Liquidators)
* www.amerisurplus.com
* www.bid4assets.com
* www.luxurybrandsllc.com
* www.mywebwholesaler.com
* www.overstock.com
* www.salvagecloseouts.com
* www.surplus.net
* www.tdwcloseouts.com
- Find merchandise suppliers
- Andale's Research Tools, powered by Andale's Market Intelligence technology, provide online merchants with eBay pricing research, "hot item" reports, selling recommendations, suppliers of product, and sales analysis. Andale's suite of Auction Tools, provide core auction automation and management designed to help sellers grow their auction business. From sourcing merchandise to sell through listing creation and customer cross-selling to customer and email management tools and reporting, Andale's services add tremendous value throughout the sales cycle. Andale's Merchant Solutions are aimed to satisfy the needs of a larger online seller and add downloadable bulk listing and research tools, account management and more to the list above.
- Wholesale Merchandise & Suppliers - Wholesale 411.com
- The quality source for wholesale products and suppliers
- Welcome to Buylink
- The consumer goods industry's fastest growing wholesale gift show, with over 5,000 vendors and 14,000 stores - source free, and show free
- goWholesale
- goWholesale provides resources to wholesale buying.
eBay General Announcements
Get the latest company news straight from the source.
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Expert Advice
Get started or improve your eBay auction results with expert advice, books, and education.
- eBay University
- eBay University offers classes across the country or in the comfort of your own home. Whether in person, or over the Internet, take a class from the eBay experts and you'll be buying and selling like a pro in no time at all. All for a great value.
- eBay Articles and Sample Chapters
- Browse articles and sample chapters from best selling books on eBay.
- eBay buys Skype
- Skype is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. It is free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers.
- eBay Home Page
- Link to eBay and get started!
Best Book Bets for Improving Your eBay Success
Whether you're serious about starting an eBay business or you simply want to make a little extra cash, there are several great books to consider.
eBay to the Max: Be a Trading Post Owner, Trading Assistant & PowerSeller
Amazon Price: $29.99 (as of 10/10/2008)
Making a Living from Your eBay Business
Amazon Price: $24.99 (as of 10/10/2008)
Absolute Beginner's Guide to eBay (3rd Edition) (Absolute Beginner's Guide)
Amazon Price: $14.99 (as of 10/10/2008)
eBay Secrets: How to create Internet auction listings that make 30% more money while selling every item you list
Amazon Price: $7.77 (as of 10/10/2008)
Easy HTML for eBay (Easy)
Amazon Price: $15.99 (as of 10/10/2008)
