November 30th
1. Interview with a surplus inventory company
2. Quality website traffic
3. Quick tips:
- Top sellers on Ebay list
- Getting more positive feedback
I came across a website recently that lists out the top selling accounts (by eBay ID) on eBay.
The site is: www.TopSellerListLive.Com
It’s an interesting list because you can learn a lot about what works well on eBay just by visiting some of the listed sellers to learn how they do what they do on eBay.
To look up any of the sellers listed use this link for the eBay seller look up page.
One of the most interesting things I immediately saw on the list at TopSellerListLive.com is the number of sellers that are using a domain name as their eBay account name. For example, on the day I checked the list someone with the eBay ID “justdeals.com” is listed as one of the top accounts on eBay. I’ll bet that website gets a ton of traffic from all that targeted eBay exposure!
When you look at the list of sellers and visit the listed accounts found at TopSellerListLive.com what observations and lessons do you learn? Take five minutes and explore a little…and share your thoughts!
Use the comments button below to submit your observation or question. I have a prize for the most insightful observation.
UPDATE: CONTEST WINNER
You guys came up with some great observations. Thanks for sharing them with us! Comment #10 by Melissa wins the prize though. She DIDN’T win because it was the longest comment or because it spoke very highly of my books and newsletter (although I do appreciate that). She won because she presented some great ideas that ANYONE can use to profit on eBay. Nice job Melissa! Her prize? $40 paypal cash!
November 22nd
1. Stop procrastinating and get on eBay!
2. Buying inventory in bulk isn’t complicated
3. Quick tips:
- Thanksgiving and a family
- Green week
As mentioned in the newsletter I will be interviewing the CEO of a top surplus inventory company. They have a bigger than 60,000 square foot facility FULL of inventory that they will sell to eBay sellers. This is your chance to learn more about bulk inventory and how you can expand your ebay business.
The intial investment can be as little as $100! The CEO of the company has agreed to let me ask him some tough questions. I told him this isn’t a “press release” type interview - this is going to be in depth and only made available to my most loyal customers.
So if you have any ideas for questions you’d like me to ask him let me know by leaving a comment. I’ll take the time to get all his answers recorded and put the full interview on the resource page.
Remember - the resource page is only available to those that buy a copy of (or have ever bought a copy of) “The Silent Sales Machine”
November 15th
1. Hottest Christmas toy of ‘06
2. Sideshow Auctions
3. Quick tips:
-Tips from professional consignment sellers
-We will pay you just to let others know
I’m as certain as I can be that the soon to be released Sony PS3 gaming system will be a VERY hot item to sell on eBay between now and Christmas. I’m predicting it will be THE hot item of this holiday season. You heard it here first…
In the U.S. I expect overnight lines at nearly all Best Buy, Target, Walmart etc. As evidence consider that the PS3 systems sold out in hours in Japan when they were released a few days ago.
The Japanese version of the PS3 is selling for $1200+ on eBay already. The prices keep going up.
Want to get your hands on one?
It’s likely you’ll have to stand in line VERY early at a large retailer to have a shot. They go on sale in the U.S. Friday November 17th. It will be hard to justify keeping it if you do get your hands on one though.
With millions of die-hard PS2 fans in the U.S. alone it’s likely that the hundreds of thousands of units rumored to be shipping here will sell out quickly and will then in turn sell VERY WELL on eBay.
Why the shortage?
In mid-Sept Sony cut its PS3 shipment forecast to 2 million worldwide units down from 4 million units due to a shortage in a key machine component. Recent reports indicate that Sony may not even acheive its lowered shipment forecast in time for launch.
No one is sure how many units are going to be shipped, but when I do the math it sounds like not very many per store. Some are saying as few as 3 per store, but that’s obviously a worst case scenario.
My prediction:
ALL PS3 UNITS WILL SELL OUT ON THE DAY THEY ARE RELEASED. The only question is will you have to spend the night camping out to get them or not. I have no intention of camping, but I’d be interested in swinging by Best Buy around 9AM or so if they still have some!
As early as mid-day Friday the 17th I expect to see PS3’s on eBay selling for 3 to 5 times retail price.
My advice for getting your hands on one:
Being there when the doors open will likely be too late. Be early.
If you live on the west coast read the news posted at online news sources early morning Friday Nov 17th to see if the hype is real…then hustle to a Best Buy, Target, or Walmart if they aren’t sold out already on the East coast.
Monitor news reports by going to yahoo.com or google.com and search for “buy a ps3″ and click on “news” between now and Friday. There is still a chance someone might sell pre-sale units online.
If you do get your hands on one (try to get two!) and you want to make a “clean” sale with as much profit as possible on eBay I suggest you note the following precautions and tips:
-Make sure you take an original picture and make sure that your picture of the unit contains proof of possesion. Do this by hanging a sign in the frame that contain your eBay ID as proof for potential bidders. A simple handwritten sign is best.
- If you are new to eBay allow someone with atleast 50 or so feedbacks to sell it for you so you can maximize bidding activity. Experienced sellers earn far more per sale and attract far more bids because of their credibility.
-In the past hot items like this quickly cool off. You aren’t likely to regret putting the unit up for sale immediately on a 3 day auction. Don’t wait a week to sell it and don’t make it a 10 day auction. On an item this hot there is no need to run an extended auction.
Disclaimer:
I could be wrong. The PS3 hype could just be hype, but it sure feels like demand is WAY stronger than supply on this one.
Nov. 9th, 2006
1. Jim got fired!
2. Can I grow a mailing list using my eBay auctions?
3. Quick tips:
- What is your item worth on eBay?
- How to get easy traffic from eBay.
- Today is .10 listing day
November 2002 was a big month for my family.
Four years ago this month I was FIRED from a great job. I was a good sales rep for my software company making what I thought was a decent income. A great base salary and plenty of commissions and incentives. A dream job for most people…
Getting fired is never good news for anyone with a wife, 2 kids (and my wife Andrea was pregnant with a third on the way), a mortgage and two hefty car payments.
Here’s how it happened:
I was a good employee with a nice salary, a good boss and I got good reviews. I was doing pretty well on eBay at the time though and I told my manager about it. My manager and upper management knew that I was making a pretty nice income on the Internet and eBay and that I would possibly be leaving the company at some point in the next few months. I wasn’t quite ready to make the leap though when I told them about my side biz.
Since I had a good relationship with management I asked them to let me know what sufficient notice of my departure would be - I didn’t want to just walk out on them one day.
They responded by firing me the day after I told them this. This isn’t a sob story though…
That was the best day in my entire career! I HAD to make my online business work - and I did.
This month (November 2006) marks the four year anniversary of that very significant career event for me.
I personally know hundreds of people who need only an Internet connection and occasionally a cell phone to run their entire mega online business. I’m one of them.
How’s my business doing you ask? Let’s just say that even in a slow month I earn about four to five months worth of my old salary pay.
Have you ever found yourself doubting that anyone is really making a good living using eBay and the Internet?
I’m proof that IT REALLY CAN HAPPEN to anyone willing to do a little work.
What do other people think of my approach to success on the Internet? Read what they say here:
http://www.silentsalesmachine.com/comments.html
FACT: There are over 750,000 people who call eBay a source of family income - many of them full-time.
I also know that among those 750,000 eBay success stories are many readers of my book and this newsletter and we share a common dream.
At no time in human history has it been easier to establish a successful business that reaches a worldwide audience. Let me show you how I did it and how you can too. Start 2007 with the goal of being financially self-sufficient…
Then let your boss fire you!
If you’ve been reading this newsletter awhile you may recognize that a version of this article has run before…but it’s a big month for me so I hope you’ll humor me!
Please leave a comment below if this story inspired you or made you think!
A reader of this newsletter dropped us a note awhile back that read:
“Hi Jim, I Love your newsletter! In your next newsletter would you consider addressing the eBay seller problem of non-paying bidders?
Since I became involved in selling *product deleted*, I occasionally run into these deadbeats. Any suggestions on how to avoid them? I don’t leave negative feedback for these people as I don’t want to ruin my 100% positive rating. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.”
Thanks!
Bonnie
———————
Jim’s Reply -
I’m happy to help you solve this problem. It’s getting easier to avoid and squeeze non-paying bidders!
…and since this newsletter is called “Creative eBay Selling” I even have a slightly “mean” way to resolve the problem that actually works quite well! I’ll save that for the end of the article.
Non-paying bidders can cause a lot of grief for an eBay seller who doesn’t yet understand their rights and resources, but once you take a few precautions and understand your options it’s really not that big of an issue. It can be reduced to a rare and minor inconvenience.
Let’s start with prevention.
The best solution is to keep “bad bidders” from ever winning your auctions.
Here are some ideas…
I’ve found that 90% of my “non-paying” bidders are NEW to eBay.
One way to avoid getting burned by these “newbies” is to monitor your auctions - especially the higher end auctions. Send an email request to bidders with less than 3 positive feedback and request that they reply to your email to “verify their identity” and to let you know that they truly intend to buy the item if they win.
Your email to the newbie might look like this:
————-(start email)———–
SUBJECT: (ebay ID of your bidder) - YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED!
Thank you for bidding on my auction #0000000″.
I noticed that you are fairly new to eBay. If you have questions please let me know.
I have a favor to ask - please don’t take this wrong, but…
It is my experience on eBay that 99% of all transactions go very smoothly, but when there is confusion it usually is the result of a new eBayer not understanding the eBay system.
MY SIMPLE REQUEST:
As a courtesy to me and the other more experienced eBay customers I have please allow me verify your identity and intentions. Please reply to this email with a simple statement that you do intend to buy the item you’ve bid on if you win the auction. Please include your first and last name in the response.
I promise to then leave you alone until the end of the auction.
Don’t be uncomfortable with this request since this is all information I’ll need if you win anyway.
Unfortunately failure to meet this request within (reasonable time frame) will result in the cancellation of your bid.
Thanks for understanding and happy bidding! etc.”
————-(end email)———–
If that sounds like a lot of work remember I said to ONLY use this idea on higher priced auctions!
If you don’t get a reply within a reasonable amount of time cancel their bid. I’ve done this MANY times and only ONCE did I upset a potential customer enough that they emailed me to complain.
NOTE TO EBAY MANAGEMENT: It would be great if you could automate the above process for your sellers! It would be a nice feature of the “Buyer Block Preferences”.
Back to our article…
EBay Sellers can cancel the bids of their customers by visiting this page:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/cancel_bids.html
Don’t want to monitor your auctions that closely? There are other options.
You can also automatically block “dangerous” ebayers (or bad feedback bidders) from bidding on your auctions by setting up “buyer blocks”. Details here:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences
I’ve virtually eliminated non-paying bidder headaches this way.
Finally, you can opt to use the “Buy it now” option in your listings and thanks to the fairly new setting called “Require Immediate Payment” your item will remain up for sale until someone completes the payment process. In other words, the item remains up for sale until a successful payment is processed into your paypal account.
Dealing with the occasional non-paying bidder is a fact of eBay life though. When dealing with non-paying or slow paying bidders use this eBay resource page as a reference.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/unpaid-item-process.html
If you follow the steps listed on that page you don’t have to pay seller fees on non-paying bidder items.
You should also know that if a buyer gets too many “non-paying” strikes in too short a time period, their account will be suspended indefinitely. It is your responsibility to report these trouble makers. Details here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unpaid-item.html
Finally, if you are selling low end priced products my advice is to just move on…don’t waste your time tracking down deadbeats. Just relist the item back up for sale. Don’t leave any negative feedback.
REVENGE OF THE SELLER:
I promised you a “mean” solution to the non-paying bidder problem.
The last tip I want to give you is a little “evil”, but I really like it. I have to admit I haven’t had the chance (opportunity) to use it yet myself.
To give credit where credit is due I first heard this idea from my pal Terry - http://www.silentsalesmachine.com/terryg.html
Terry keeps multiple eBay accounts active (a great idea for many reasons). One of his accounts is rarely used to buy or sell anything. Let’s call that unused account his “dummy ebay account”. His “primary selling account” is very active however.
When Terry encounters a non-paying bidder on his “primary selling account” he gets real sneaky…
For our example let’s assume Terry just sold a blue widget to a deadbeat bidder who won’t pay. The winning bid was $100. Once he’s sure the bidder is backing out he puts his “evil” plan into motion.
Terry opens uses his “dummy ebay account” and sends the winning (deadbeat) bidder a note that reads something like this:
“Dear [ebay id]-
I noticed that you recently purchased a blue widget on eBay for $100. I’ve really been wanting one of those and I’ll give you $180 for it right now if you can ship it quickly! Please respond!”
The deadbeat has no idea that the seller is sending this email. Terry says that deadbeats pay up quickly when they get his note. Pretty clever isn’t he?
Does this violate any eBay regulations? Yes it does. But who will complain? You aren’t avoiding eBay fees since you won’t be paying the deadbeat $180! You are actually helping eBay collect their fees!
…don’t hold your breath waiting for eBay to approve this sneaky tactic.
Do I feel bad tricking a deadbeat into paying?
Nope - I sure don’t.
