eBay: The Perfect Business?
Filed Under Sellers' Insights | Leave a Comment
eBay is the perfect business, but it may not be the perfect business for you. Think about eBay for a few minutes. They are easily among the elite corporations on the web. With an average of 19 million listings, they represent a substantial amount of the internet’s electronic commerce. Yet they carry no merchandise, they don’t concern themselves with creating ad copy to market the merchandise sold on their site, they don’t bother with packing or shipping, and they don’t worry about returns or other consumer relations issues. They outsource these e-commerce functions to the seller. In fact, they get the sellers to pay them money for the privilege to accomplish these tasks for them. As I said, eBay is the perfect business, but it may not be perfect for you. Read more
In the August issue of Consumer Reports, the magazine released the results of their recent eBay survey. Here’s a synopsis of the results pertinent to sellers:
- 64% of the 700 survey respondents who sold on eBay in the past year were highly satisfied with their transactions.
- 27% of sellers said that their auction listings cost far more than expected.
-About 10% said that freight costs exceeded those computed by the site’s shipping calculator.
- PayPal was used for 89% of the purchases reported on the survey.
No eBay Listing Fees for the Remainder of August 2007
Filed Under Industry News & Analysis | Leave a Comment
Update: This promotion has been extended through the end of September
For the remainder of this month, August 2007, there are no insertion fees for eBay US fixed-price and auction style listings with a starting price of $9.99 and a purchase of a Gallery image. Granted, you are only saving $.40 per listing, but it adds up – especially if you selling something with a slim profit margins.
Sell Coupons on eBay
Filed Under How-To's | 10 Comments
Here’s a new trend that I’m interested in trying: There are a number of people who sell coupons on eBay. Even more fascinating is the fact that there appear to be an equal number of people who buy coupons on eBay! Think about it. No inventory storage issues. Shipping is as easy as a regular envelope, a first class stamp and your mail box – no boxes, packing materials, scales or special trips to the post office! And in many cases, your source of inventory is free. Read more
