As time passed, more and more sellers entered the eBay arena which led
to a dramatic shift in starting bid techniques. A majority of eBay
Powersellers now use the fixed price format. In order to do this
effectively, the seller needs to do a lot of eBay research prior to putting
auction items up for sale.

By using the eBay Search Function and researching the last two weeks of
completed auctions on an item, you can gauge what that item should sell
for. It is a good idea to eliminate both the high and low final sale
prices and then take an average of the remaining items to determine the
fixed auction price.

There are several reasons top eBay Powersellers use this pricing
strategy. Even though there are more sellers and increased competition,
buyers are also more knowledgeable and they will also do a simple check of
recent sales before they look for the item priced in the average range
and simply buy it now.

This allows Powersellers to obtain market price and actually increase
their sales because they do not have to wait for the end of the auction
to complete the sale of their items. Another plus, this also thwarts
the auction sniper who uses automated programs to shoot off a
computer-generated bid in the closing seconds of an auction.

Use the pricing technique that the top tier of eBay’s elite sellers are
using today to increase your monthly sales and receive fair market
prices for your auction items.

Tim Gilberg is able to provide information and insight from a unique
perspective – that of someone who is actually doing what others just
talk about. Ebay Power Seller Platinum Status was Attained by Tim Gilberg, which is one of the highest sales levels attained selling on eBay. Tim is active on Ebay and liquidation.com as well as consulting
and working with other Top ebay Power Seller’s to give you real life
in use insight, not theories.Visit Tim Gilberg at his website Make Money on eBay

In a nutshell, here is the drop-ship system:

==>You generate and accept the order.

==>You take your profits out of the sale price.

==>You forward the order and the wholesale cost to the drop shipper.

==>The source factory ships directly to your customer.

The benefits of this arrangement are probably obvious:

* No inventory cost to you.

* Substantially higher profits to you over what most regular affiliate programs allow.

* The ability to quickly set-up inexpensive, highly targeted, niche or mini-sites to test and promote diverse products.

This process has been around for years and has been responsible for many highly successful mail order dealer relationships in the past. Many of the top catalogers and other direct response marketers, have been using this system to increase profits for decades. If you have ever ordered a high priced item from a mail order catalog and been told that the product was being shipped from the factory… then you have experienced drop shipping first hand.

Drop shipping is, I believe, a virgin un-tapped storehouse of profits for todays internet marketer.

On-line directories exist [

Thom Reece is CEO of Online Marketing Resource Center [http://www.WMSTDirect.com, mailto:thom@e-comprofits.com

This presents a dilemma, if the so-called experts aren’t making a decent living how can you expect to?

The 2 factors crucial to your online reselling success are:

1. Finding quality products that will sell.

2. Finding these products at a cost that allows you to sell at a competitive margin.

Most people will use Google or other search engines to find these products. This method has a few flaws. Firstly it is extremely time consuming. But more to the point, the wholesalers that will rank in Google will have search engine optimised their pages, ensuring your results are biased to the worst type of life form – the middleman.

Another popular method of searching involves contacting manufacturers directly and asking them to supply a list of wholesalers in your area. This can be time consuming and difficult, but in the end can pay off.

A final and little discussed approach is to buy a wholesale directory. This technique is often written off, as these directories are typically out of date. However, nowadays some directories employ full time staff to research and present current and quality wholesale suppliers.

You might think, “Why pay for something I can get for free?” This is probably true but it depends on how much you value your time.

As always you get what you pay for. Don’t expect to get information allowing you to triumph over your competitors for $20.

A great evaluation tool is http://www.ripoffreport.com/. You can see what (if any) complaints have been made against the company and assess the quality of the information.

In summery, work smarter, not harder: Assess the value of your time vs. the value of the information and your computer-induced migraine might even disappear.

Jules Boven is a professional auction seller and CEO of http://www.thewholesale-hub.com, an online resource connecting retailers to wholesalers.

In order to answer this broad question we first have to understand what it is about ebay that appeals to so many people. For a company that was only created in 1997 it has experienced some unbelievable success, and there have been few other companies that have seen such massive growth in such a short space of time.

Last year ebay enjoyed record windfall profits of $500 million, a colossal amount in anybodies book. Next year they are tipped to earn even more and there doesn’t seem to be an end to the success of this truly great dot com prodigy.
With vast amounts of people joining on a daily basis, will there ever be a time that this whole concept becomes saturated? Is there a danger of this giant becoming super nova only to disappear beneath the enormity of its own success and size.

A lot of ebay’s success has to be down to its simplicity. Ebay is a common man’s tool, created in such a way so that everybody can trade rich. Poor, young or old. Ebay bridges the gap between all classes, races and religions. It has found a common denominator amongst the masses and has combined this find with the best that technology has to offer.

Our need to buy plays a major part in the modern lives of modern people. Materialism is high on everybody’s agenda and for this reason ebay is ideally placed to meet this demand. People now have more disposable income than they have ever had before, yet like a double edged sword this new found wealth is cruel compensation for the amount of disposable time that has been afforded to us in modern times. People work hard for their lifestyles and way of living. In many families both parents have to work to sustain these proficient lifestyles. Again time is a precious factor and spent wisely where ever we can.

This is where ebay becomes a precious commodity where by once you have entered the virtual realms of its existence, it then becomes a permanent fixture within your life.
You can buy anything that you want on ebay with hundreds of categories and sub-categories to choose from. Why should people take the time to make a trip to their local DIY store when they can buy virtually anything they want to from the comfort of their own homes.

For me ebay will never die. For the next generation ebay will be as prominent in their lives as television is to this generation. It will continue to grow for years and years to come. It is virtually impossible for it to become saturated as by way of nature there will always be more buyers than there will be sellers.
Ebay is here to stay and for those who are savvy enough to grasp this fact, ebay can and will provide a good income.

Get to know your market and create a niche

There are several key success stages to trading successfully on ebay. The first and most obvious is getting to know ebay itself. Its not enough to just open an account, place a listing and watch the profits pour in. sure they’ll probably make a sale, and they’ll probably turn a profit, but there is only so much that a person can sell before they empty their garages or attics of their disposable junk. Furthermore, there are many other people who are trading in this fashion, and this is where competition will be at its most fierce.

Today you can trade in anything old or brand new, and this is the point of difference in terms of an individuals success. Your never going to be an expert in trading antiques unless you know something about them.
There’s one great way to find a product that may sell and that’s a product you know something about. A personal hobby is the ideal solution to finding these products as you already have an advantage in the fact that: a) You already spend time doing the activity. B) You know something about this activity. C) You enjoy this activity.

It’s a lot more fun and long term fulfilling if what you are selling meets the above criteria. You are more likely to keep driving at it if its something you like doing and you’ll have a better understanding of your customers wants and needs. Having a relationship with the product is half the battle won. It’s not completely necsercary but it will help a lot and it will give you a lot of satisfaction. Imagine getting paid for something that you like to do!! Wouldn’t that be something.
OK, so lets imagine you have a hobby. You know what you want to sell and your ready to go. What’s the next step towards finding that elusive product, one that will sell over and over generating profit each time it sells.
For some people finding this product is like finding a needle in a haystack. Where on God’s earth do you start to look for these products? Panic and confusion set in and the mind goes blank. Yet there is a very simple solution to this dilemma and the answer is sitting right under your nose.

Lets imagine that the hobby you love and adore is golf and you’ve decided to trade in golf equipment. Is it enough to simply list the driver you like best and hope that a bidding frenzy ensues. Trading in this trial and error fashion is a waste of time and money and it could very well take you months to finally find a product that sells on a consistent basis. For many people this fruitless period would spell the end to their ebay profession as they would simply give up without the right tools to point them in the right direction.

What you need to know is what product sells over and over again and what kind of price does it sell for.

Even trawling through ebay itself would take an age as any category is vast and spotting that elusive product can be difficult amongst 300 pages of the same category.

Yet ebay does have the answers to this dilemma and there are some incredible tools that are available to anybody and everybody that will enable them to spot these products with simplest of actions.

Copyright 2005

For more information about the latest ebay marketing tools and continuing subscription to my monthly newsletter, please email me with the word subscribe to the following address: James.burney2@ntlworld.com