Notesale: Turn your study into money

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e-Wealth
Secrets
By

Terry Mason

Lesson Two
Disclaimer: The information contained in this course is given for entertainment purposes
only
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This is a course on making money from the Internet
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All business carries some risk
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Internet Auctions
& Internet Stores (Part II)
In Part 1, I discussed how to set up and run Internet auctions and Internet stores
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What Products Can You Sell?
The answer to what products you can sell successfully and profitably on the
Internet is…anything and everything people will buy! However, some products
are easier to trade in
...
In this section we will take a look at some of the
types of products you can sell in an Internet auction or Internet store
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Antiques and art
Automotive
Books, comics and magazines
Business, office and industrial
Clothes, shoes and accessories
Coins
Collectables
Computing
Consumer electronics
Dolls and bears
DVD, film and TV
Home, garden and family
Jewellery and watches
Mobile and home phones
Music
Musical instruments
PC and video gaming
Photography
Pottery, porcelain and glass
Sporting goods
Sports memorabilia
Stamps
Tickets and travel
Toys and games
• Wholesale and job lots

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Problem Products
There are some limits on what most auction and store sites allow you to sell
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Others are restricted, ie
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For
example, computer software is a popular product in many Internet auctions but
only genuine manufacturer’s software may be sold, not bootleg copies!
Below is a list of products which can be problematic
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Items Often Prohibited
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Airline tickets (private sellers)
Alcohol
Animals and wildlife products
Catalogue and URL sales
Counterfeit currency/stamps
Counterfeit and trademarked items
Credit cards
Drugs and drug paraphernalia
Embargoed items and items from prohibited countries
Firearms and ammunition
Fireworks
Franking machines
Football tickets (private sellers)
Government ID’s, licences and uniforms
Human parts and remains
Lock picking devices
Lottery tickets
Mailing lists and personal information
Offensive material
Prescription drugs and materials
Recalled items
Satellite, digital and cable TV decoders
Shares and securities
Stolen goods (who would have guessed that!)
Surveillance equipment
Tobacco and tobacco products
Train tickets (private sellers)
Travel vouchers (private sellers)
Unlocking software

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Items Often Restricted
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Adult material
Artefacts
Autographed items (require certificate of authenticity)
Batteries
British titles (e
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Lord, Viscount, etc
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If selling on other international sites you
may be able to sell some of these, while different items may be prohibited or
restricted
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Most of it is common sense really
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However, here are some guidelines on some of
the most popular ones:

Antiques & Collectables
In strict terms, an antique is an item that is at least 100 years old
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However, these terms are
used rather loosely and seem to reflect the age of the person using them! To a
teenager, a toy from the 50’s seems antique
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Antiques and collectables are a hot market, but are notoriously difficult to
identify and value accurately
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You can research the ‘old fashioned’ way by checking with books on
collectables at your local library
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Bear in mind
that online pricing, especially in auctions, can reflect values far less than prices
dealers tend to ask in shops
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Reproductions can be problematic when dealing in this sector
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For example, an item described as ‘art deco style’ almost certainly isn’t
from the art deco era
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A good technique for getting the best price with antiques and collectables is
never to quote a minimum price or use ‘ Buy It Now’
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Books (& Other Printed Products)
If you’re thinking about selling books, comics or magazines on eBay or on
any of the other online auction or store sites, then go ahead – these happen to be
one of the easiest products to sell, especially on eBay! Published products sell at
prices that most Internet buyers are very comfortable with – around £5 to £50
meaning that this category has something for everybody, leading to a vigorous,
hot market and a fast turnover of products which is good for buyers and sellers
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They are easy to package, cheap to ship and resistant to transit
damage
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A
good sub-category to specialise in is rare or out-of-print books, where profitmargins tend to be higher
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Your listing needs to be attractive but accurate
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Check
existing listings, especially those from established trade sellers, to see the type of
descriptions that you should use
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Cars & Automotive Products
Motor vehicles, parts, accessories and related areas such as manuals and
collectables are a popular category on eBay – especially in the USA where eBay
has a dedicated eBay Motors site
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Also, as some buyers are
unwilling to buy vehicles from an Internet auction it minimises the market and
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restricts bid values
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Don’t sell
mass-market models that are hard to sell by other methods
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Know what price your car is likely to get before you list it
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Set a reasonable reserve price and/or ‘Buy It Now’ price
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If they wish to view and test
drive your car this should be done before making a bid
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Within this category you can also find shoes, hats, gloves, handbags and
accessories such as belts, ties and scarves
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Names such as Prada or Gucci regularly appear on auction sites, and
Tommy Hilfiger is the most often-sold clothing brand on eBay
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Secondly,
used clothing and similar items sold must be in perfect condition (new clothing
may also be sold)
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Timeless classics and vintage clothing are also popular
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g
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There are probably more ‘hot markets’ in this category
than any other
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Obtaining good stock can also be difficult, as big brands like Sony, Panasonic,
Canon etc
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This can be a profitable area if you have competent market and product
knowledge and good contacts to source merchandise
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Remember that most computer and electronic equipment loses value fast as new
technology supersedes it
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Keep up to date with the latest hot markets - by doing regular
searches on eBay - as they change fast
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Even old reel-to-reel tape recorders and original Apple
computers have their enthusiastic followers!

Jewellery
Jewellery (including watches) sold in Internet auctions and stores tends to fall
into two categories – ‘second hand, high end’ goods and ‘new, low priced’ goods
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The bulk
of jewellery and watch sales are for as little as £5 and rarely over the mid-value
limit of £50
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So you need to find a niche which
can set your products apart from your competitors
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It’s
also important to have a reliable source
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Jewellery calls for particular skill in marketing
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When sold on the Internet it can’t be
picked up and examined, nor placed on the finger and admired
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Your listing needs to do that for them
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Also, using the ‘Gallery’ on eBay can be a good option for jewellery and
watches, since there tends to be a higher-than-average level of browsing
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However, one of the most popular areas with serious
online profiteers is sports memorabilia
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Most US and international sites are dominated by baseball, but all sports
memorabilia is now collectable, from tennis to motor racing, boxing and football
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For example, materials from the
1940’s and 1950’s are relatively rare and therefore more valuable
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For example, try a local programme shop, Also,
collectors’ magazines have advertisements for authentication services
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If you have any really high quality
items among your sports collectables, take them to a conventional offline auction
house for the best return on your investment
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Fake items can be a problem in sports collectables
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For example, a signed England team shirt is good,
but a photograph showing the player signing it for the original owner is even
better
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Good bets are often items related to retired players as values
fluctuate less
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There is a
long history of these items being sold at traditional public auctions so collectors
are already used to bidding competitively
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Also, because certain
conventions of description and cataloguing are accepted around the world, a wide
audience will understand a standard description
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8 million collectors!
On the downside it is important to note that the vast majority of stamps and
coins have modest value, even if they are very old, so large profits can only be
achieved through High Volume Listing
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Also, collectors are a very fussy group of
buyers
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When selling stamps and coins it is essential to try and estimate value
accurately
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If you

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need assistance in stamp identification, or want to find further Internet resources,
the eBay Users Stamp Club is good
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Tickets & Travel
Internet auction sites and stores are in many ways the perfect marketplace for
selling tickets to a variety of events, such as sporting, music and cultural events,
and travel including airline and ferry tickets and package holidays
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eBay
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Their ticket auctions are seen by over 2 million visitors
per day, making it one of the top ticket buying marketplaces in the world
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Anti-touting regulations make the market more difficult and only
commercial sellers can sell some tickets
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Some online profiteers specialise in winning competitions
which offer tickets as prizes, or taking up discount travel promotions in
newspapers, and then reselling the tickets on the Internet! If there’s a buck to be
made, someone’s at it!
One of the problems with selling tickets and travel is that buyers are cautious
about scams, especially those perpetrated by private sellers
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You also need to
establish an excellent feedback record
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These products are well suited to Internet selling as they have a large
demand and low, affordable prices which leads to large numbers of bids
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Here
are some tips:
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Gather as many of one subject area as possible and list them all on the
same day
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However, if you have several copies of a popular item list only one at a
time
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Set minimum bids at 50% of the end price
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Describe them in a positive way
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, which is important for
serious collectors
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(Eg
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, year, lack of represses, the number of plates pressed, etc
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Mention any scratches etc
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You’ll always get more money selling these items individually rather than
as lots
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If you have a lot of items to sell just auction list your best ones and
include a link to your own website where others are listed
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)

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Always be willing to ‘ship worldwide’
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A growth area for the future will be downloadable media
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eBay is
piloting it, but its sale is restricted to selected authorised sellers
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You make your money when you buy, not when you sell!
This simple fact is overlooked by most small and amateur sellers
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It’s much easier than trying to sell an unproven product, no matter how
low the price
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People love the excitement and suspense of bidding in Internet auctions
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Visitors looking at your auction listing have to see your product as a real deal,
whether it’s for a lower or high-priced product
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Most successful Internet sellers rely on only a handful of sources of supply
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First, they sell one-off items that they find

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at car boot sales and other local outlets
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Then, many get ‘auction fever’
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So they begin
searching for a regular supply of goods that they can sell again and again
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When you get to this stage, you don’t need dozens of suppliers but only a relative
handful of reliable suppliers from whom you can buy in bulk at the lowest prices
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Here are some
of the sources and the pros and cons of each:
Your Home: Start by looking around your own home at the stuff that’s
collecting dust on shelves, stashed in the back of cupboards, or in the attic or
garage
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Friends And Family: Tell people you know, not to throw anything of value
away until you’ve tried selling it on the ‘net! You could also consider offering a
selling service for members of the public who would like you to sell their goods
on the Internet for them in return for a commission
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Second Hand Shops: Junk shops, charity shops and even pawn shops can be a
tremendous source of bargain-priced merchandise that will sell for much more
when exposed to the wider Internet marketplace
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(TIP: You’ll rarely find anything
worth much at jumble sales
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Look for items being sold by genuine
private sellers (not traders) which are often undervalued
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When you make such a purchase, select the very
best items to sell on the Internet, list those items, and then sell the rest through
other methods
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One good method is to buy
end-of-season lines – such as summer designer clothes or sunglasses in autumn,
or ski wear and equipment in spring – and then hold them for a few weeks or
months until people want to buy them again
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can be a good way of sourcing
stock as long as you’re discerning about what you buy
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If ‘Loot’, the free-to-advertise newspaper circulates in your area then this can
be a good source, as can ‘Ad
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Otherwise, look in your local newspapers
and freesheets
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Another method to try here is to advertise for goods wanted
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For example ‘Pre-War Dolls Wanted For Cash’ or
‘Model Trains Bought’
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For regular supplies, look particularly at
bankruptcy/liquidation auctions or auctions of seized goods
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Manufacturers and Wholesalers: As a regular online trader, even a part time
one, you’re entitled to buy from manufacturers and wholesalers just like any
other business
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)
The Internet: The great thing about selling on the Internet is that you can also
buy goods for resale on the Internet too
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Don’t think that there is no profit margin in selling something on the Internet
that you have just bought on the Internet because thousands of successful traders
are proving that isn’t the case at all
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Maybe they don’t know how cheaply they could have
bought it, can’t be bothered to shop around or maybe they’ve only just ‘moved
into the zone’ for that product
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That you can buy something cheaply on
eBay
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co
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And that you

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can buy something cheaply in an Internet store and then auction it off almost
immediately for lots more!

More Advice on Buying Stock from Wholesalers &
Manufacturers
As your sales expand you may wish to start buying from wholesalers and
manufacturers, this can be very profitable …
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First, a cautionary note: The Internet is full of opportunities to buy lists of
wholesalers and manufacturers
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You can get the same
quality of information (or maybe even better) for free by using any of the popular
search engines and typing in keywords such as ‘wholesale’, ‘manufacturer’
followed by the item you wish to buy
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You can also purchase wholesale quantities through
eBay
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Be very specific and discerning in your approach
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Find companies who are reliable on both price and
quality and who are flexible, eg
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or a few
hundred
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Remember that trade prices are usually
negotiable, and you can often get a bigger discount if you ask for it!

Dropship as a Source of Products
Some successful Internet sellers choose to dropship
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There are many companies who will dropship for you
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These are often companies who can’t afford
extensive TV and newspaper advertising
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You
sell on auction and store sites and then they send it to the customer for you
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The company sells more merchandise than they
could ordinarily sell, and you win because:
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You don’t have any risk
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You pocket
the difference
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If the products don’t sell, you have not risked your money and have
no capital tied up
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You are free to pursue finding more exciting goods to sell
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Many of these companies have professionally created catalogues and/or
photos that you can use on your auction or store site, sometimes just by
copying in their coding
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You can
either search for specific items or browse the categories …
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With an auction, the listings at the top of the page are the auctions that
will end first
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The listing can be
sorted by clicking on the column label at the top so that the listing can be sorted
by price – either high to low, or low to high
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Reviewing
‘completed auctions’ should give you a good idea about what the going market
price for your item is
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If you’re looking to buy new products, be sure to check other online sources
of the product that you are interested in, especially Internet stores, for example,
amazon
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Occasionally you will find that you can buy your stock from an
Internet store for less than you can buy it at auction!

Know How to Search
Become a search expert: Find every auction selling the item you want
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Several special software packages and Internet services can help you
search for auctions
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Use both the plural
form and the singular when searching
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These two
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searches will return two different sets of search results
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Also search on misspellings such as Hemmingway
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As you
review the listings, take note of these abbreviations and you will be able to use
them to your advantage during searches
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buyer beware! Pay
close attention to condition information
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For every listing, you should answer the following questions: Is it new? If so,
is it also still in its original packaging? Is it in good condition? If so, does this just
mean its cosmetic condition or is it also working properly? Is it reconditioned? Is
it being sold: ‘as is’? (often this means there is some kind of fault)
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The letters ‘B’
and ‘S’ in the column to the right of each feedback entry indicate whether that the
member was a Buyer (B) or seller (S) in that transaction
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Be wary of sellers that have a history of many negative
comments or a few recent ones
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Stay Calm!
Don’t get emotional when bidding
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Experts use a so-called sangfroid (cold blooded!) approach
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Then don’t ever
bid over that amount
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In fact, if you win every auction, you’ve
probably been paying too much! Never be seduced by ‘once in a lifetime’
opportunities and ‘unrepeatable’ deals
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Valuable Auction Bidding Strategies
When buying from an Internet auction always have a bidding strategy
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Do you need the
item quickly, so you can turn it round for an immediate profit? Or can you wait
until the end of the auction in the hope you’ll get even more of a bargain than
expected? Do you want to closely monitor the auction and outwit the other
bidders? Or are you only willing to buy when little competition forces the price
ultra-low? In this next section I will look at some of these strategies
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Once you’ve chosen to bid using Buy It Now, no one else can compete with
you to win the auction
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Keep in mind however, that most
knowledgeable sellers set their Buy It Now prices close to, or higher than, the
typical selling price for that item
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You can also pick up some great deals
using this strategy when it’s obvious sellers don’t know the value of the items
they are selling and you can take advantage of their lack of knowledge (one
reason that I recommend that sellers don’t use this option)
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Proxy
bidding makes full use of the capabilities of Internet auction bidding
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If a competing bidder eventually places a bid higher than your maximum,
that buyer becomes the high bidder
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Auction Sniping Strategy
If you want to win an auction, save some money in the long run and are
willing to invest the time to monitor/re-visit the auction you should use a Sniping
Bid strategy
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Bidding
participants monitor the status of the auction and because many of the bids are
placed early in the auction, bidders have a chance to reassess their personal upper
bid limit
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Emotion can take over and with plenty of time to contemplate the auction and
then bid again, some bidders may finally decide to bid in excess of their original
planned maximum
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Every eBay auction status line shows how many bids have been placed on
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that auction
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The result can be a very profitable auction …
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However, in the case of an auction where a bidder snipes an auction and places
their bid in the last few hours or minutes, the previous high bidders may not have
the opportunity to reassess their upper bid limit and place a counter bid
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Sniping works extremely well in the case of auctions where only two or three
bidders are interested in the auction
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No
one has bid on the auction and the minimum bid is £10
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Buyer A knows that
the item is worth around £30
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00, expecting to win the auction and get a great deal
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Buyer B then
views the auction after Buyer A has already bid, but did not bid at that time
knowing that if they did bid then, Buyer A would then know that another bidder
was interested in the item and would have a chance to see his higher bid and
possibly place a counter bid
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In this case, all Buyer B needs to
do is put in a bid for £10
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(eBay will
automatically send an e-mail to Buyer A notifying them that they have been
outbid, but it may be too late to act upon
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In the case of popular items, if you are the first bidder and bid the
minimum, assuming that the item is worth the starting price, you are likely to
quickly get outbid or sniped
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But the practice of placing bids during the last hours or
minutes of an auction does not conflict with the principle of an auction or any of
eBay’s rules or policies
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Minimum Bid Strategy
If you want to pick up a good deal but you’re not necessarily interested in
winning every auction, you should use a Minimum Bid strategy
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) Many buyers place the
minimum bid because they are comfortable with that bidding method and/or want

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to maintain positive control over their bids
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When you place a minimum bid bear in mind that any other bidders that
place a bid on that auction will become the high bidder
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But what is the upside? If no one else bids, you get a
great deal
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Some
experts (especially those who resell on eBay) place minimum bids on a great
number of auctions expecting to be outbid on many of them
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How To Find Bargains When Buying Stock
If you wish to use Internet auctions or stores as a means of buying stock as
well as selling it here are some tips for getting the best bargains
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Firstly,
prospective buyers are uncertain about what they will be getting so they avoid
bidding in the first place
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It makes the item sound as though it’s worth less not more! Bargains
can also be found in situations where a description raises more questions than it
answers
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A good situation to look out for is inadequate descriptions for new, brandname goods
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Misspellings Mean Profit
|I promised to mention misspellings
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Fewer viewers result in lower prices
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How do you find these items as a buyer looking for a great deal? By either
predicting what those misspelled words might be and searching for them or by
browsing auctions by category
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Can’t See…Won’t Buy
Many people just won’t buy from a listing if it doesn’t include a photo – or if
the photo is blurred or poor quality
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But if the item is a brand name,
you know what it includes and if it has adequate condition information (if little
else) these can be great deals
...
Because no one else is shopping on these days, there’s little
bidding competition
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You can also
get bargains from auctions that are ending during well-watched TV programmes,
sporting events, good weather or when big stories happen in the news
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Saving a copy of the seller’s image file is a
way of proving what was offered
...
) If you receive your item and it is not in the
condition shown in the photograph you have proof showing what the item should
have been like
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This means that you
can give your buyers much more information, and it also looks more businesslike
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However, the most important
aspect of using your own website alongside listings on eBay etc
...


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Think of it this way: A company setting up an independent Internet site starts
out with zero customers
...
But when you connect your site to eBay
and other sites through auction and store listings you automatically tap into over
50 million potential buyers! An increasing number of companies operating
independent websites are also listing on eBay purely for this major benefit
...
You can even design it yourself
and hosting can cost just a few pounds per week
...


The Importance of Follow Up & Back End Sales
Follow up and back end sales, which are both sales of further or similar
products to the same buyer, are a great way to build the highest possible profit on
auction and store sites
...
So, once you have
found and sold to one customer you should consider them a good source of
further revenue, and treat them accordingly
...
Encourage them to leave you feedback,
and do the same for them
...

It is a good idea to use a signature file in all e-mail communication with your
buyers
...
When shipping your products, include
catalogues or leaflets describing any other products you have, or at the very least
a business card
...


Advanced Sales Management Techniques
Once you have a large number of auction or store listings which are active
simultaneously you will need to develop an effective system for keeping track of
them all
...

The greatest risks are, not only can you lose sales, but you may attract negative
feedback because of poor service
...
Auction management
services help sellers track multiple auctions without getting lost in a forest of email bids, notifications and other correspondence
...
Some of them automatically contact winning bidders and
even provide a ‘checkout’ to process financial transactions
...
They often include an auction template so
you can just fill in the blanks and never need to type a product description twice
...
Some online auction management services which work
through your web browser are listed in the appendix
...


Dodges and Scams to Watch Out For
Shill Bidders
Although it is difficult to detect you need to be aware that there are some
unscrupulous sellers on auction sites who are using shill bidders
...
The shill bidder may
even be the seller themselves bidding under a different User ID
...
The seller knows that they will take a loss unless the
price is bid up, so they use shill bidders
...
If it appears that the same buyer bids on that seller’s
auctions repeatedly, but infrequently wins those auctions, shill bidding might be
taking place
...


Bid Siphoning
Bid siphoning is when devious sellers lure buyers off legitimate auction and
store sites by offering to sell the same item at a lower price
...
By going off-site, buyers lose any protection the original site may
provide, such as insurance, guarantees, escrow or the safety-net of the feedback
system
...


A Word About Tax
Car Boots and eBay – Taxable, or What?
One question which is often asked is the tax status of eBay and car boot
sales
...

Firstly it’s easy in one respect, complex in another
...
If
you’re selling your old stuff on eBay or at a car boot, there’s no tax to pay – end
of story
...

Take the tool store you see at most car boots – they have a huge range of
mostly new tools and attend dozens of car boots a year
...

Their businesses should be registered and they should definitely pay tax and VAT
(if over the threshold) – no question
...
They buy and sell constantly
and make a living from it
...

Now the complicated bit
...
They attend SOME car boots
and sell more than their own junk there and on eBay
...
They work full time at a job and only do a
couple of car boots a month, usually on a Saturday
...
She
(let’s hope it’s a she…) probably started by selling her own large collection of
Sindy dolls, realised there was a thriving market, and decided to trade as a hobby
...
She
makes about £100 a week from it
...

Most of them do not and the Revenue do not have the resources to police it, BUT
they are getting around to it as they realise there are hundreds of millions trading
hands
...


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Appendix of Websites: Lesson 2
Auction Management Services
Andale
uk
...
com
AuctionHawk
www
...
com
AuctionHelper
www
...
com
Auction Works
www
...
com
Auctiva
www
...
com
ChannelAdvisor
www
...
com
DEK Auction Manager
www
...
com
ManageAuctions
www
...
com
Meridian
www
...
com
UK Auction Help
(List of auction management services
...
ukauctionhelp
...
uk
Zoovy
www
...
com

Also Useful
ItemScout (formerly Auctiongator)
www
...
com
ItemScout can create eBay ‘search agents’ to find the products you’re interested
in on eBay
...
It can also set up auction notifications to notify you when certain auction
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events occur
...

Please Note: Websites included in this appendix, or elsewhere within the
course, are all operational at the time of writing and I do aim to check and update
these listings on a regular basis
...


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