Buying, Selling And Making A Healthy Profit From Online Trading Sites

Making a Living from E Bay, Amazon and Other Sites

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• Publisher: Straightforward Publishing Digital
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781847164551
• eBook ISBN: 9781847164933
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: E-Commerce
• Index: Business

Using this book, you will learn everything that you need to know about using trading sites and making healthy profits by buying and selling online. The book concentrates heavily on the two big sites, E-bay and Amazon, but also includes lists of the other sites that are growing in size. By the end of this book you will be able to confidently trade online and begin to develop your own business - to a point where you are generating a healthy income.

Chapter 1

All About eBay

A Short History of eBay

eBay was founded in Pierre Omidyar’s San Jose living room back in September 1995. It was, from the start, meant to be a marketplace for the sale of goods and services for individuals.

In 1998, Pierre and his co-founder Jeff Skoll brought in Meg hitman to sustain the success. Meg had studied at the Harvard Business School and had learned the importance of branding at companies such as Hasbro (an American toy manufacturer).

Meg culled her senior staff from companies such as Pepsico and Disney, created an experienced management team with an average of 20 years of business experience and built a strong vision for the company -- that eBay is a company that’s in the business of connecting people, not selling them things. It is when people are connected that they buy and sell.

The Business Model

eBay has built an online person-to-person trading community on the Internet, using the World Wide Web. Buyers and sellers are brought together in a manner where sellers are permitted to list items for sale, buyers to bid on items of interest and all eBay users to browse through listed items in a fully automated way. The items are arranged by topics, where each type of auction has its own category.

eBay has both streamlined and globalized person-to-person trading, (which has traditionally been conducted through such forms as market sales, collectibles shows, flea markets and more), with their web interface. This facilitates easy exploration for buyers and enables the sellers to immediately list an item for sale within minutes of registering.

Though the first things sold on eBay were collectibles and home items, the company branched out to higher profile sellers like Disney and General Motors. These companies sell items in the same manner as the individual sellers. The eBay community was resistant to these changes at first but soon grew accustomed to the presence of big business hosting auctions.

The Website Half.com was bought by eBay in 2000 and fully integrated into eBay’s web community in 2001. Half.com allows users to buy and sell items at lower rates much like eBay but without the auction feature. In October of 2002 eBay acquired Paypal Inc. for $1.5 billion. Paypal is the preferred way of making payments for eBay auctions and is growing in popularity for other Internet uses. Paypal allows a person to send or receive money via an email address. Money in a Paypal account can be spent on the Internet, sent by check to the account owner, or deposited into a bank account. Paypal also offers credit cards, debit cards, and a bill paying function.

What is eBay?

Having looked at the history of the development of eBay, we can look specifically at what the purpose of the site is.

•   A place to buy. Get nearly anything you need or want at prices better than you can find in traditional bricks-and-mortar or even online stores. Though there are lots of bad deals on eBay too, the careful consumer can always come out ahead. Vey soon, it will now be possible, for example, to buy paintings and other fine art from Sotheby’s. So, if you fancy a Picasso or Warhol you can get one on eBay.

•   A place to sell. Whether you’re a big retailer or just an average Joe cleaning out your house or garage, nearly anything you list on eBay will sell if you’re flexible enough about the price. eBay’s global reach can even move unusual items that aren’t in demand in your own area.

•   A meeting place, not a store. eBay doesn’t actually sell any goods itself. All of the goods on eBay are sold and delivered by third party sellers that are neither employed by, nor have any other relationship with, eBay itself. Instead, eBay’s business is to give entrepreneurs and sellers a place to reach buyers, and to give buyers access to the world’s largest collection of things for sale. As we said above, eBay connects people.

•   A place to shop. Because of the immense variety of things that can be found for sale on eBay, many members have discovered that eBay is one of the best places in the world to window or comparison shop. The millions of item listings created by sellers often include photos, detailed descriptions, and owner experiences (very important for a seller, as we shall see). Because you can see lots of the same item side-by-side in various conditions and know what each one sold or is selling for, eBay gives you insight into the real market value or “street value” of most types of goods around the world.

•   A place to collect. eBay is the world’s largest marketplace for rare, discontinued, collectible, or hard-to-find items, no matter what the type or price. Whether you’re looking for turn-of-the-century box cameras, hand-made Victorian doilies, Soviet army service medals, or 1980s vintage arcade games, eBay will give you a better selection than just about anyone else anywhere.

•   A website. There is no physical eBay store. Founded in San Jose but now operated from several cities, eBay’s service exists entirely online, and all aspects of business other than the delivery of bought and sold items themselves are typically handled through the eBay website.

•   Free for buyers and inexpensive for sellers. It costs nothing to become an eBay member, to shop for goods, or to purchase goods from eBay sellers. Sellers pay a minimal amount to list items for sale, and another small percentage of the value when an item is sold. There are no monthly fees or other hidden costs.

•   Like the real world in many ways. Just as you’ll encounter both honest and dishonest people in the real world, you’ll find both honest people and crooks on eBay. Thankfully, eBay’s site includes a selection of tools like the feedback system that are designed to help you to remain safe as an eBay member.

eBay is now a marketplace where individuals and business sell to an online audience of about 17 million people a month in the United Kingdom. As it is global in scope eBay also helps people and business buy and sell with people all over the world.

In a nutshell

Sellers offer goods for sale using an online form to post a written description of their wares and also post a picture of the goods. Buyers can either bid using an online auction system or buy instantly using the Buy It Now feature (more about that later). Buyers judge the trustworthiness of sellers using a feedback system of user reviews. Some eBay sellers are accredited as Top-Rated sellers for delivering consistent good service.

As stated above, eBay acquired Paypal as a payment service and almost universally buyers and sellers on eBay will use this service. Sellers sometimes offer free postage and packing to buyers, but if there are carriage costs involved these will usually be covered by the buyer. Postage costs are detailed on the View Item particulars when the buyer examines the item.

Once payment is received by the sellers, the item will be despatched. As mentioned, sellers pay listing fees to place their items for sale on eBay and also pay a Final Value Fee commission on a successful sale. The fee and commission depends on the value of the goods sold and also the category that they were listed in. Both buyer and seller can then leave feedback for their trading partner depending on how it all went.

In the event of things going wrong, which they can sometimes do, buyers are covered by eBay Buyer Protection and sellers who get ripped off by a buyer are also protected by eBay. Although there are processes in place to stop fraud, like any other form of trading the potential is always there.

In the next chapter, we will look at the process of registering on eBay. However, before registration, it is necessary to look at the basic equipment that you will need to function as a trader.

A good computer

This is the most important piece of kit that you will need. No computer, no eBay! The computer you have will need access to the web, the faster the better. Whether you use Apple or PC is neither here nor there although some of eBays features are not compatible with Apple mac. However, there are ways to get round this so you can use a Mac or PC.

Digital images

I mentioned above that you will need to post a photo with a description of your goods. You can use a digital camera or a smartphone to take these. If you are using a smartphone this will need to be combined with an eBay mobile app.

As more and more customers are buying using their mobile phones then it is very important that crystal clear imagery is used. If you post up a poor image then it is very likely that a potential buyer will move on. Remember, as a trader you will be competing with other traders selling the same type of good.

A flatbed scanner as well as a digital camera will be useful, particularly if you are selling small items or paper items that will fit on the screen, such as stamps or postcards or jewellery.

Printing and packing

You will need a good quality printer because you will have to print out despatch notes and other paperwork. If you intend to trade for a profit on eBay think of yourself as a business person and make sure you are well equipped from the outset. My advice would be to use a laser printer as they are more efficient and faster than ink jet, and also cheaper to run. It’s also a good idea to ensure that you have a supply of good quality packing material, padded envelopes, bubble wrap and cardboard. As a trader, think quality and think safety and make sure you use decent packaging.

The use of mobiles in e-commerce

The buzzword here is M-Commerce or mobile commerce. As many people now access the web using a smartphone, so an increasing amount of trading is carried out via mobile phone or tablets such as iPads. This has transformed how people buy and sell on eBay as they can do this on the move.

If you want to join this ever-growing army of people, you will need to get the relevant apps for your devices. On many phones nowadays, such apps will be pre-loaded or you can get them via the app store for your gadget. The full array of eBay apps can be accessed at:
https://anywhere.ebay.co.uk/mobile/iphone/ebay/

You can also get apps for PayPal or Amazon and all sorts of other e commerce sites. You will need such apps not only to use for your own purchasing, but to see what your listings look like on a mobile device. If they look good then fine. However, if they look grainy or unclear you will have to do some work to smarten up your images.

In the next chapter, we will look at how to register on eBay so that you can begin your journey to becoming a successful trader.

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Chapter 2

Using eBay-Initial Steps to Register

Registering on eBay

Actually registering with eBay is a simple process. The very first step is to go to the main eBay site and provide your personal details as in the below example.

Get Started on eBay

See form overleaf.

Create your personal account or start a business account.

First name

Surname

Email

Create your password

Confirm password

By clicking ‘Submit’ I agree that:

• I accept the User Agreement.

• I give consent to the processing of my data- .

• I may rec...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. All about eBay
• Chapter 2. Using eBay
• Chapter 3. Buying Goods on eBay-Looking at things from a buyers perspective
• Chapter 4. Selling Goods on eBay-The First practical Steps to take
• Chapter 5. What Goods to Sell
• Chapter 6. Setting up a shop on eBay
• Chapter 7. The Legal Rights of Buyers on eBay
• Chapter 8. International sales
• Chapter 9. Reasons for Failure as an ebay seller
• Chapter 10. Selling Goods on Amazon
• Chapter 11. Selling on Other Sites
• Chapter 12. Using Multi-Channel Software
• Chapter 13. Understanding Business Structures
• Part 2. Setting up on your Own
• Conclusion and summary
• Index