FREE PICTURES!
Yep that's right you can have all the pictures of your item you want without paying for a single one. How? well its pretty simple, and like before, you don't need any skill with HTML. First thing you need, pictures obviously, scanned into your PC by one of the methods I mentioned earlier, Next you'll need your own web space. a lot of companies offer free web pages as part of your Internet package, others will give you one for free. Personally I've got a dedicated hosting account that I use. Next you upload your pictures to your site, that's the bit you may need a help with. Now open your site up, and look for the images you want. Position your cursor (pointy thing) over the picture and click your right mouse button, a little list will drop down, select COPY. Now go to the advert your making, and right click again, now select PASTE anywhere on your advert. AND LOOK! a picture, in your AD that you haven't paid a penny to use! that's another 12p per picture saved!
RELIST YOUR ITEM!
Another that some people don't know. If your item hasn't sold first time around, rather than making a new advert, simply relist it, so long as you only relist one, and it sells that time, its free! Just don't relist it more than once, its better to make a new AD with more pictures and posh words because your going to have to pay to relist it.
NEGATIVE FEEDBACK CAN BE A GOOD THING!
No I'm not senile, I'm not old enough. Believe it or not, a lot of sellers will judge you better, by how you reply to poor feedback, than they will to 50 pages of good feedback. Just make sure your reply is factual, and not insulting, and reasonable (no lies or Santa will knee-cap you)
HELP IVE SOLD EVERYTHING I OWN AND NOW IM EATING OUT OF A PAPER CUP!
OK just because you've sold everything that's not nailed down, there's no need to panic or run to the closest wholesaler. The best places to get new stock are:
CHARITY SHOPS, your supporting others AND getting new stuff to sell, and they maybe even replace the furniture you sold! CAR BOOT SALES, OK now headless barbie wont get you much outside of the fetish community, but you can get some really great stuff from car boots, a lot of people are clearing out their old stuff but are scared of ebay, take advantage of it! SCHOOL FETES: A weird thing i've noticed about these things is that they are somehow able to sell the latest PC for 50p, and if you ask nicely, or haggle, they will throw in a new TFT monitor too. Ok maybe that's an exaggeration but they have great stuff, for the equivalent of a 6 year olds life savings. GO GRAB A BARGAIN AND HELP THE KIDS!
DONT BE A TIGHT SOD!
Ok this is a request rather than advice, a lot of charities want your used stamps, as a seller your going to get a lot of them, even the standard 1st class stamps are worth something to them. So fill an envelope with them, and send them off, if you don't know who to support, email me and Ill give you the address of the one I support, and it will only cost you the price of the stamp you use to post it!
GOOD MONEY FOR OLD
Ok now that tank top you found in your grans attic might look like the worst thing you've ever seen, but some punk somewhere will give it a good home if you make a good advert, and you should be able to by the time you've made it this far down the Page! here's a true story, my brother in law came home from work one day and pulled into his drive. He ran over an old tomato soup tin, So for a laugh he sold it as a modern art sculpture and made a quick £10. Another guy I know buys all the music mags he can, cuts out every article, and separates it into different groups and interests and puts them in different bags. He then sell the bags (once full) to the Americans for £20 a shot. That's right he makes money on an asda bag full of old paper!
DO WHAT YOU DO BEST!
Ok I will never sell women's underwear, why? because I'm a man, and don't wear the stuff, except for weekends and holidays. So instead I go with what I know. I like games, gadgets, and electrical stuff. Because of that I know where to look for bargains, and collectable software for cheap. Then i list it here and make a 300% profit. I don't know much about what music is collectible, or what classic trainers are worth a mint, so i don't try to buy or sell them. If you know antiques, specialize in them. Good with pet supplies? there's a market for them too!
MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF!
Ok so you've been selling modern art for the past year, but your user name is something like "Uber CD Seller" change it! The only thing that changes is your name, everything else including feedback follows you.
NEVER CLOSE EARLY
Ok one thing that comes up on a regular basis is people asking them to sell them the item their selling for X amount if they finish the auction early. THIS IS RARELY A GOOD IDEA. People who want you to do this usually fall into one of 2 groups. First is someone who knows the true value of your item, and want to get it cheap before the last hour frenzy kicks in. The other is a rival seller who wants you to close the auction so that their item will get more attention, you will never see the money from that group.
SOME COMPANY KEEPS GIVING ME FREE STUFF I DONT WANT!
Ok Guinness keeps sending me stuff, and as you know Guinness stuff is pretty collectable. So what I do is I save it for a few months so that most people who have received one have either sold or lost theirs. Then I list it and make a fortune from both the british and american collectors! If you get free stuff, make the most of it! I've seen people selling the free pens that the makers of viagra send out sell them for up to £5, that's pure profit!
NEVER TRADE ANYTHING IN!
Ok a lot of companies now offer trade ins on loads of stuff like Games, DVD's, Videos, and old people. They will never offer you as much as you'll get if you sell it on here, seriously, go ask blockbuster how much they will give you on your DVD, then sell it on here, and see how big the difference is, sure it means waiting for the money, but its going to be more.
DONT PAY OVER THE ODDS FOR YOUR ADVERT
Ok I've already said how to save money on photo's and listing designer, but there are other ways too. Think about how often a bold listing title will catch your eye compared to one that's all in capital letters, sure it annoys some people if you use all caps, but its free! Another is that little coloured band they charge you to have, I never pay attention to them, Using a gallery listing is money better spent! Just lay it out well, abuse the free photo idea, and make your description stand out, give good rates of P&P and gallery listing. The only thing in that list you've paid for is the gallery.
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP!
Ok as much as you want to make a million before your X years old, don't try and get it all at once. Before you try to sell your item at what YOU think its worth, look at who else is selling it. If yours is in better condition, start yours higher, if not, use the same or less. It might mean a lower profit margin, but at least it will sell!
ITS WORTH THE WAIT!
Ok this is one that not everyone will agree with, but If I have an item that I know will sell well on a saturday, I list it on thursday, and let it run for 10 days. This lets the people who are searching for that item a better chance of seeing your listing, but it means you'll have two weekends for people to find it, and there are more buyers out here on a weekend!
DONT FLOOD THE MARKET!
Ok this is just good business sense. If you've got 10 of the same thing to sell, don't list them all at once! If people have the choice of 5 identical items, they will go for the cheapest, which means less overall profit. There's ways around this. Only list one. THEN once the auction is over, if the bids are high, issue second chance offers to the best 2 - 3 bidders. Then list your next one, and keep doing this till their all gone.
HELP IVE GOT A NONE PAYER!
Well this happens to the best of us, don't panic or jump in and neg them right away! Instead send a payment reminder, if that doesn't work, send a mail reminding them that they have entered into a legally binding contract by bidding on your item. If these fail, phone them! get their phone number here
http://cgi3.ebay.co.uk/aw-cgi/eBayI...emberSearchShow and give them a call, you will be surprised how often this scares them into paying!