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Saturday, January 30, 2010

Do you ship internationally? If not, you should!



Uggg--customs forms, foreign languages and long shipping times. Who would want to bother shipping internationally? Ebay sellers who want to sell more and make more do!

Ebay is global and it makes financial sense to ship your items worldwide. If you don't already offer international shipping, this change alone could increase your sales.

Buyers from around the world have access to your listings on the ebay US site but if you choose, you can gain even better foreign exposure by listing directly on the foreign Ebay sites. Look for the option in the List Your Item form on ebay.

If you are concerned about customs regulations, you can research particular countries and their restrictions on USPS.com. You can also let your buyers know right in the listing that they are responsible for knowing if an item is allowed through customs.

If you are concerned about shipping time, Canada and the UK are relatively quick. Australia is slow but reliable (the packages eventually get there.) France and Germany are quite slow and somewhat strict with customs. Brazil is VERY slow.

If you are worried about shipping times, start out shipping just to Canada and the UK.

Remember, foreign ebay buyers cannot affect your "top rated" status, but they can still bang you with negative feedback. Ship super quick and remind them of the expected time of arrival. Most overseas buyers realize that shipping times may be long. If you ship quickly and answer any questions, they are usually pretty patient.

I've always shipped internationally and am surprised to find sellers that don't. The best way to take advantage of ebay's huge audience is to sell to all of them!

Friday, January 29, 2010

FREE Things You Can Sell on Ebay

There are a lot of things you can sell on Ebay for no monetary investment--just a little bit of your time and energy.

SERVICES: There is a section in ebay titled "Specialty Services." Browse through it to come up with ideas. Do you have skills that may be in demand? Do you do copywriting, edititing, proofreading? Perhaps you have great design or HTML skills. What do you (or have you in the past) gotten paid for and how could you incorporate that into something to sell? Perhaps you are a whiz with accounting or taxes, you could list your services for online sellers or small businesses. Every one has skills that are unique or worth paying for. Get creative here!


TICKETS: Look at Ebay's section of tickets. Hundreds of tickets sell above face value every day on Ebay. You can buy tickets for a hot show or sporting event, it can be in any city, and resell them as the event gets closer. Watch what similar tickets end up going for and buy carefully. There is a lot of money to be made in ticket sales but make sure to study the market.

OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF: You can quite easily become a trading assistant officially through ebay and be listed to do consignment sales. You can also solicit consignment sales on your own. After approaching friends and relatives, get creative. Call people who have items listed in the classified or on Craig's list. Many of these sellers want to unload their stuff but don't have the patience or inclination to sell on ebay. Consider approaching small businesses in your area. Offer to list slower moving items and split the profit. There are hundreds of small shops in every metropolitian area, you might be able to get a nice source on unique inventory.

Keep your eyes open and your pocketbook closed when first selling on ebay. There is a lot of potential profit out there at NO COST to you!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Quick Cash Generating Ideas!



Need to jump start your cash flow? There are endless ways to make some quick money. My cohort at My Silent Team, James Jones, has written a great ebook, entitled "101 Emergency Cash Generators." Members at My Silent Team have access to this book for free, or you can get your own copy for free right here. 101 Emergency Cash Generators


This ebook is LOADED with creative ways to generate money online and offline. It would be impossible not to make money using James's ideas. A few of my favorites:

Cash Generator #43 Garage Sale Sale Traffic Guru
Lots of people have garage sales every weekend. Their biggest challenge is getting traffic to the garage sale. Offer to solve this problem for them. Use the local newspaper to find where the garage sales are. Approach the garage sale host during the week prior to the sale. For $25, offer to place a bunch signs within a 10 mile radius. Have the signs printed up in advance leaving the date and time blank. Have the signs made up in advance leaving the date and time blank. If you score ten Garage Sales in a weekend, you can generate close to $250. (Remember to take the signs down when you are finished.)

Cash Generator #48 Professional Lint Remover Last year more than 15,000 house fires were started from the lint in people's dryer. Most people do not even realize lint buildup can be a problem. They often call their local appliance repair shop because they think the dryer isn't working right, when the problem is actually lint buildup. Cleaning dryer lint is quite easy (but most people have NO CLUE how to do it!) You need some simple tools--a vacuum cleaner with a hose and a chimney sweep with an extension pole (check you local hardware store.) To clean the dryer, disconnect the vent from the back of the dryer and run the chimney sweep all the way to where the vent goes outside. Loosen all the lint. Then vacuum it out.

This should be a very easy service to sell considering the safety issue. If you are not comfortable going door to door, you could sell it through flyers or ask the local appliance repairman for a referal. I imagine a person doing this in my neighborhood could CLEAN UP! Make sure you look very non-threatening and have a business card available.

Emergency Cash Generator #71 Christmas Wrapping This is one I have thought of before. I HATE to wrap. I find myself super busy at Christmas time and would gladly shell out a few dollars per package to have my gifts wrapped. Mr. Jones suggests marketing especially to men and advertising where men hang out, barber shops, dry cleaners, bars. There is money to be made here!

These are just THREE of the 101 GREAT ideas in the book 101 Emergency Cash Generators. There are dozens that will appeal to any personality.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Using Your Ebay Store



Yeah! I love my ebay store.

No matter where this ebay journey takes me, there will always be time to scour garage sales and put treasures into my ebay store to wait for the right buyer. It seems like just as I tire of looking at them on my shelf, and wonder if they are ever going to find a home, someone comes along and snags them.

This weekend a buyer plucked a group of five coffee cups out of my ebay store. He paid $20 for them. They cost me a total of 50 cents. I LOVE that profit margin!

The math:

Sale Price $20.00
Handling Charge: $1.00
Inventory Cost: .50
Store Carrying Cost: .18 (six months in the store at .03/month)
FVF & PayPal 3.00
PROFIT: $17.32

Lynne Dralle, AKA the Queen of Auctions, clued me into the coffee cup idea. She is an expert at figuring out what to buy at local garage sales to sell on ebay. I have learned a lot from her and highly recommend her as a teacher if you want to sell collectables.

She has written many great books and has an entire "boot camp" dedicated to helping sellers learn how to find antiques and collectibles and sell them on ebay.

Take a look at Lynne's book right here