THE EBAY SELLER'S NEWS, AUGUST 2005, VOLUME 5, ISSUE #9

by: Skip McGrath

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Well, the eBay summer season is upon us --although I am seeing some slowdown, it's not as bad as in past years. I remember 2003 was the worst. My sales dropped over 30% in July and August. This year I am only down about 4% in June & July from May and actually up 3% over June of last year. Our first article gives some tips for coping with the summer slowdown and how to get ready for September/October when sales always soar.

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Karen & I just returned from a wonderful trip cruising the inland passage to Alaska in a 42 Foot Nordic Tug. We met our friends in Juno and cruised to Ketchikan stopping in some great spots along the way. We saw humpback and Orca whales, cruised right up to a glacier, caught and cooked shrimp, crab, halibut and salmon and stayed in some of the most beautiful and secluded coves on earth. There is something about seafood that is in the pot or the pan within a few hours of catching it that just can't be beat. If you ever have the opportunity to cruise Alaska, take it. The inland passage is simply one of the most beautiful places in the world. I have placed a link to a few photos at the end of the newsletter if you are interested.

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My regular readers know that I have been threatening to hold seminars for a while. Frankly it has been a struggle. It turns out that the marketing costs are pretty high. Seminars are expensive to market and put on. If I am going to charge a lot of money I want to make sure my clients get great value for their dollar.

Eventually I will be offering regular 2 or 3 day eBay boot camps, but I have decided to start off with a smaller seminar to get feedback from my attendees and develop my materials. You can read all about it in the second article.

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Last month I announced a monthly series of free teleseminars sponsored by Seller's Voice. This month's seminar will focus on drop shipping. Drop shipping is one of the most controversial subjects on eBay. It has both large pitfalls and large potential profits. The key word in that last sentence is potential. If you don't do it right, you can kill your feedback rating and spend a fortune in eBay fees chasing elusive profits.

I have both made --and lost, a lot of money over the years drop shipping before I learned how to do it right. I will share all of my experiences and strategies with you during this call --nothing held back.

This Free teleseminar will be held on Saturday, August 20th from 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time. Please click here to register and get a call-in number and password for this free seminar.

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The mentoring and coaching program I announced in the May Issue is off to a good start. We now have several dozen students. If you would like to read more about it, please read the story Is Your eBay Business Struggling in the May Issue and then Click Here for more details.

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I have posted a couple of new articles on our FREE ARTICLES PAGE. One is an excellent article about automation by Brendon Coveney of MarketBlast and the other is Cash in Your Closet by Lisa Thompson.

Last month I introduced you to my new web site hosted with Citymax where I am selling the famous line of EZ Cube Photo Tents. If you are in the market for a low-cost way to improve your eBay auction images, please check it out. But even if you are not, I have just posted a new section called Digital Photo Tips. If you are struggling with your photos or just want them to look better, please check it out --it's free. If you enjoy the information, please bookmark the page because I will be adding to it frequently.

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IN THIS ISSUE

1. Strategies For The Summer Slowdown
2. eBay Seminar in Las Vegas
3. Wholesale Sourcing --How To Prevent Fraud
4. Trading Assistants --Find Merchandise With Garage Sale Scouts
5. Testimonial Contest Winners
6. If I use a Reserve, Should I let People Know What it is?
7. Are International Sales Worth The Risk and Hassle?
8. New Wholesale Sources for August 2005

Let's get started with this month's issue.

1. Strategies for The eBay Summer Slowdown

As I mentioned above this's summer's slowdown is not as bad as past years, but it is here nevertheless. Everyone terms to think of the summer slowdown as involving only fewer buyers as people go on vacation and enjoy the summer evenings outside instead of sitting in front of their computers. But the slowdown also involves sellers --they go on vacation too as we did last week. This is a silver lining of sorts, because fewer sellers mean less competition. eBay will not release figures, but a source inside eBay tells me that listings are off as much as 10-15% during July and August.

There are several things you can do to keep your sales up in the summer:

• This first one is fairly obvious and depending on what you sell may not be practical, but if you sell things that people buy in the summer this will automatically improve your sales. One product we have been very successful with is our fire pit barbeques. They have done well since we began selling them, but sales really took off in June whereas our other products have been a little slower.
  
• Offer special promotions such as free shipping with buy-it-now, free shipping if you buy two or more, a paypal coupon for 10% off on any of my other auctions, and so on.
  
• Pull down auctions for slow-moving items and run more auctions for items you are selling. This may not improve your overall sales, but it will make your existing sales more profitable because you are not spending on eBay fees for items that don't sell. You don't have to kill your slow-moving items --just move them into your eBay Store where fees are less. Also the savings on fees can allow you to reduce your prices a bit and that could help your overall sales.
  
• This last tip is not practical for full-time eBay sellers, but if you are a part-time or marginal seller pay close attention to your business metrics (See Article #5 in last month's issue). I normally look at my metrics monthly --but if I see business slowing down I start watching them weekly. If you aren't making any money, just put everything into your eBay store or pull your auctions down and take a vacation yourself. eBay will still be here when you get back.

The other thing you want to do is use the summer to get ready for the season when it picks up after Labor Day. Now is the time to be doing your product research and ordering your new merchandise for the fall. When your products arrive, get your photos taken, descriptions written and get everything ready to go. When things are slow is also a good time to step back and take stock of your business, clean up and organize your files and your office, try out new software and systems that will make you more productive and any thing else that you have wanted to do but have been putting off. Investing in the time to do this now will make you more productive and profitable when you are busy and don't have time to do these things later.

2. eBay Seminar in Las Vegas

First Time Ever!  This Exciting New Seminar will be held at the Alexis Park Hotel on Saturday, September 10th from 8 AM to 5 PM.

I’ve seen companies charge anywhere from $1,000 to $1,999 for a one-day seminar with less information than what I’ll be giving you here.  I’m charging HALF that for this first seminar, only $999, plus $100 for a spouse or guest. However, for my readers and students, the first 25 can attend for only $499…75% OFF!  And you can bring your spouse or guest FREE. The seminar will be limited to 50 participants. Only the first 25 will get this special price.

You will receive a complete Notebook with ALL of the new material.  This is not available for sale… ONLY attendees will receive it!  And, you will receive $1250 in Bonuses, just for attending!  Not to mention door prizes of equipment and services you can use in your eBay business!

Oh, and 100% of your tuition can be applied towards any future training event…take advantage of this Bonus and it’ll be like getting to come for Free!

1. This is not a beginner's seminar! You must already be familiar with the basics of selling on eBay.

2. I will be video taping the seminar so you will need to sign a release that will allow me to use the tape in my marketing and promotional efforts. Don't worry, we won't use anything that embarrasses anyone --so feel free to ask any --and I mean any, questions you want.

3. You agree to fill out a detailed critique of the seminar that I can use to develop and improve my future events.

Don’t miss this first-time-ever Professional Seminar September 10^th … at this once-in-a-lifetime price! 

Read the rest of the Newsletter AFTER you Click Here to read more about the seminar, and get your reservation in at your Exclusive 75% Discount Rate!

3. How To Prevent Fraud When Sourcing Wholesale

I received the kind of email I really hate to get from one of my readers this week. He had taken my advice to try the Alibaba search engine to source some products from overseas. He answered an opportunity to purchase Apple iPod and was taken to the cleaners to the tune of $2,000.

Alibaba, and other sites, list hundreds of sales opportunities --mostly from Asia, but also from other countries around the world. The problem that any web site like this has is determining just who is a legitimate supplier. This issue is not just limited to Alibaba --eBay has the same problem as well. eBay is pretty good at shutting bogus suppliers down when they learn of them --but unfortunately some still get through. Every time this happens, some one like my reader gets stung.

What to look out for?

There is an old saying: "If something seems too good to be true --it probably is." If you see a plasma TV that normally sells for $3,000 being offered on eBay or any other auction or search web site for $1,500, it is unlikely this is the real deal. (Even a large company such as Best Buy would pay around $2,500 wholesale for a $3,000 TV). Usually when you inquire about buying the product the seller says that you must send a money order or certified check and then he will ship the product.

That should be your first warning. Legitimate sellers understand that there are procedures for handing international transactions that are designed to protect both the buyer and the seller. If you are at all concerned that you will not receive something you paid for there are four things you can do:

1. Pay by credit card. If you don't receive the goods, you can file a charge-back request with your credit card company.
   
2. Use PayPal to a confirmed address only (Make sure the little PayPal shield is shown on their auctions or when you go to pay, the payment page says you are shipping to a confirmed address).
   
3. Use a bank-to-bank wire transfer process whereby the seller's bank does not release the funds until you confirm the goods have arrived, or the seller can prove with a positive delivery signature that you received the goods.
   
   Most small community banks do not offer this facility. You will have to contact a large bank such as Citybank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc.) Some banks refer to this service as a Letter-of-credit while other banks have their own names for it. Just ask for the International Payments Department and they will explain the various options and fees to you.
   
4. Use eBay's Escrow service (Note: There are several phony Escrow companies out there. Do not agree to use any escrow service except those you can link to from eBay at this page.

Do not under any circumstances send a Western Union money order or Cashiers Check to anyone for an expensive purchase unless you know the seller to be legitimate, and have an already established relationship with the seller.

You also want to check out the seller. Do they have any references? If they are listed on Alibaba or Global Sources or any of the other popular sites, how long have they been listed?

Alibaba and Global sources both have a qualified listing. These are companies that have to meet certain standards. On Alibaba it's called a Gold Supplier and on Global Sources certain sellers are listed as Gold Web sites. If someone is not listed as a Gold supplier --it doesn't mean that you shouldn't deal with them --but if you are new to importing you might want to limit your dealings with these suppliers until you get some more experience.

If the seller is on eBay, the first thing I would look at is their feedback and how long they have been on eBay. You might see a seller that has 20 or 30 feedbacks but when you look closer they were all generated from buying --not selling and the seller has only been on eBay a few weeks.

When you look at the feedback of someone selling a very expensive item, they should have several positive feedback comments from people who have bought and paid for the same or similar items. I read about one buyer who bought a complete home theater system including a projection TV for over $3,000. He sent a certified check to the seller (as did several other people). The seller promptly cashed the checks and disappeared. Almost all of the buyers were eBay newbies except one who had over 200 feedbacks. The seller's 100% feedback rating came almost exclusively from buying sports cards for around $1 each.

4. Trading Assistant's: Find Merchandise With Garage Sale Scouts

There are millions of people who are addicted to garage sales. When you advertise your garage sale will start promptly at 8:00 AM and you look out your window at 7:00 AM and see several people standing there, those are the real garage sale junkies. There are also tons of people looking to make a few extra bucks. What if you could find people who have both attributes: They need to make some extra money and they love going to garage sales.

When Karen and I were in the antique business, we always made a point of being in the shop early Monday morning. Because this is when the "pickers" would show up. These were people who went to garage, yard and tag sales over the weekend who had a good eye for value. They would find things that cost just a few dollars that they could sell to us for three or four times that, and that we could also mark up 100% to 200% and sell in our shop.

As a trading assistant, you biggest expense in time and money is finding consignors with attractive goods to sell on eBay. Try This: Put a classified ad in your local paper that says something like this:

Make money buying at garage sales. Call 206-555-1212

When these people call, explain that you are an eBay consignment seller looking for merchandise to sell. If they want to work with you, you will teach them what to look for. If they find any of these items at a garage sale, bring them to you. You will put them on eBay and pay them the value less your commission. You explain that your normal commission of items that sell for less than $300 is 40%, but you are only going to charge them 25% as long as they bring you a good volume of merchandise every week.

Now, how do you teach them what to look for. Robbin Tungett has just released an excellent new book, Garage Sale Strategies. If you want to learn what to buy at garage sales that sells on eBay, this is the best work on the subject whether you want to use it for yourself, or to teach your garage sale scouts what to look for. Remember, if you want to sell it on eBay, you need to know the difference between what items you can buy that will sell for $5 and those that will sell for $50 or more. Robbin's book is excellent --the best I have even seen on the subject.

5. Testimonial Contest Winners

First of all I would like to thank all of you who submitted a testimonial. If you recall the winner will receive an EZ Cube Light Tent and the runner's-up will all get their choice of any of my publications. I have already contacted the winners by email, but here is a list of the winner's names. Some of the testimonials were fairly short while other's were long. I am only putting the first place winner's comments here, but will be using the others in the sales letters for my books.

Congratulations to the grand prize winner of an EZ Cube Table Top Studio: Lori Ezzo of South Florida. Here is part of Lori's testimonial:

 I was working an incredible number of hours full-time, and did eBay around time with my 4 small children, and the profit was just gone.  It was becoming an expensive hobby that was putting me deeper and deeper in debt. So I began searching for a way to turn things around.

I spent a small fortune on books, programs, and ebooks.  Some helped a little, but most were way too basic.  A lot of the eBooks I found were full of old or even bad information.  Skip’s material works!

I was literally at the end of my rope and ready to have a yard sale to just clear out my stock, when a friend told me about you and your courses. I purchased "The Complete eBay Marketing System" and it arrived a lot faster than I expected.  I was so down about my eBay business, I felt like it was a bottomless hole sucking away my money and my time.  I procrastinated about even cracking it open.

When I finally started reading it I got a little sidetracked by your incredible Auction Sellers Resource website.  You have the most complete, most thorough information imaginable on your site, and even more in your courses! 

To make a long story short, I changed a few little things in my auction listings and what a difference!  A huge difference!  One item I had relisted 6 times over 6 months, each time for $.99.  Not a single bid.  Using just a few of Skip’s techniques I finally SOLD it, and not only that, I sold it for MORE than other listings for the same thing, on the same page! 

Skip, you have once again given me real hope that this business is workable, and I can attain my goal of being able to support my family from my little corner of eBay. I cannot even express how important it is for me to make my eBay business really work. I have 4 small children and I must be able to support them!  My husband and I both work in a high paying but high stress engineering jobs. With all the stress and layoffs and cutbacks, all I want is for Larry and I to get out and enjoy life with him and our wonderful children.  I know I am finally going in the right direction.  

One more thing.  I’m doing more and more consignments, especially for the elderly retirees in my area.  It makes me sick when I see what estate sale companies do to these people.  I can make real good money handling someone’s estate on consignment basis.  But I get an immense sense of gratification from knowing that I’m helping them keep a LOT more of their hard earned money, too!  Likewise, I help a local church out with consignment sales to help them raise money… it sure beats what they get at a rummage sale!

Each of the following runner's up can take their pick on any of my publications:

Donna Austin and Freddie Borden

Congratulations to all of the winners and thank you to everyone who sent in an entry.

6. Reader Question: If I use a Reserve, Should I let People Know What it is?

This question came in an email from one of my readers, Diane, a consignment seller had this question (edited for brevity)?

I am selling a motorcycle with a reserve.  I have had 2 potential buyers ask me what my reserve price is.  How would you handle this?  If I give it to them doesn't’t it defeat the purpose of having a reserve?

Here is what I sent her:

When selling expensive items such as art, antiques, industrial equipment,cars and motorcycles I always use a reserve --and yes I will tell people the reserve if they ask. The purpose of a reserve has more to do with using a low price to get the bidding started and making sure you get your minimum amount, than it does with getting the highest bid.

I sold an Indian Scout motorcycle a few weeks ago on consignment.  In my description I made the following statement: "I have placed a reserve on this bike that is well below the Kelly Blue Book value." I was using the retail BB value as my guide in that case.  Anyway, about an hour before the auction ended it was almost at the reserve and a guy in San Jose, CA hit the Buy-it-now button (which stays visble until the reserve is met) and bought the bike for top dollar --about $700 more than we hoped to get.

So, if you make statements in your auction such as "set my reserve at blue book, or set my reserve at my cost, or set my reserve at well below what these items sell for --it tells people

1) there is a reserve and

2) it is reasonable and you can bid until you hit it and still get a great bargain. 

To answer the basic question , yes, I do tell people my reserve if they ask me.

7. Are International Sales Worth The Risk and Hassle?

The short answer is yes --for most people. First of all it depends on what you are selling. There are some things that just don't have a market overseas. One way to find out if your product has a market and what kind of prices it will bring is to log on to some of the English-speaking overseas sites such as Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, hong Kong and Singapore (HK and Singapore have auctions in both languages) and search for your item using the Search Closed Items feature and see if your product is selling and what kind of prices they bring.

My experience has been that I get higher bids from overseas buyers and in most cases they don't mind paying the extra shipping. Last year I bought a few dozen pieces of expensive outdoor clothing from the Outdoor Research factory store here in Seattle. They have a great sale twice a year where you can get things like gore tex jackets at 75% off. When I put them on eBay over one-half of them sold to overseas buyers and the prices were much higher than I was getting bids for from domestic buyers. One pair of fleece lined windblock trousers that normally sold for $125 retail new, went to a buyer in Japan for $129.00. and he paid $30 shipping --and gave me excellent feedback. He later told me in an email that those trousers sell for over almost $200 in Japan at mountaineering stores.

Overseas buyers especially like anything that is distinctly American and they love famous brand names. One seller of vintage clothing told me that every time she has a used item with a name such as Burberry, Gucci, Calvin Klein, etc., it almost always goes to an overseas buyer and always at a great price.

There are several ins and outs to selling overseas. I could tell you about them but I don't believe in re-inventing the wheel --and if someone can write a better article on the subject than I can, I will direct you to it. So click here to read an excellent article on the intricies of selling overseas by Lu Paletta in the AuctionBytes newsletter.

Oh yes, one more thing. When I looked on the eBay message boards one of the biggest complaints I found about selling overseas is the time it takes to fill out the international customs form. I picked up my trusty stopwatch the other day and timed Karen while she filled out a form on an item going to Germany. It took her exactly 34 seconds without rushing. Thirty-four seconds is not a bad use of time for something that will net your twenty or thirty percent more profit than selling the same item domestically. Also, if you use USPS, you can now fill out the forms on line and print them out on your computer which is even faster.

8. New Wholesale Sources for August 2005

Go Wholesale, the internet's largest wholesale search engine, merged with their largest competitor Wholesale 411. I have featured the Go Wholesale search engine on my web site for some time .I visited it the other day when I returned from vacation and it is much improved since the merger.

Petra Industries sells a wide variety of electronic accessories and small electronic consumer items such as DVD players. One item that is a hot seller is an FM transmitter for Ipods. It broadcasts your Ipod music though your home or car FM receiver. You will have to register to see the prices but it only takes a few minutes. They also offer a drop ship program but I haven't checked it out so I don't know if it's worthwhile or not.

Asbery Wholesale has a wide range of merchandise including most of the Maxam catalog items. Forget the Maxam items, you can get them cheaper direct from Maxam --and even there the prices are not that great. However, if you look at the Asbery site there are some real bargains buried in there such as wheel-ed backpacks for Back-to-school selling for $9.95 each.

B&F sells many of the popular products sold on eBay. Once again --pass on the common items as there is too much competition. Look for the more specialized goods to close more auctions and make better margins. Their products include: Automotive, Briefcases, China, Cutlery, Electronics, Flatware, Gift ware, House wares, Jewelry, Kitchenware, Leather Goods, Luggage, Tools, Sport Knives, & Sporting Goods. New products are added through the year. To see the catalog, click here.

Farcountries offers thousands of wholesale products from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. Proudcts include gifts to garden stuff and gourmet foods to things for the garage.

Last year I featured Wholesale Vitamins, USA. A few months later I received an email from one of my readers who said she made a ton of money reselling them on eBay and from the free web site they provided her.

The wedding business is very big on eBay. Wholesale Wedding Gowns offers a large line of wedding gowns, bridesmaid and flower-girl dresses --and they drop ship.

D&H is a large computer products and accessories distributor. They sell everything you need to make your own computer and plenty of accessories to sell to computer buffs.

Dales Rockmall sells a variety of men's, women and children's fashions and jeans.

Dance4Less is technically a discount retailer of Leotards, tights, unitards, dance shoes ,etc, but they will discount their prices furhter if you order in quantity. I saw several of the discounted items selling on eBay for more.

M&M Watch Company is both a manufacturer and distributor of fashion, novelty and licensed watches.

After coffee, tea is the most consumed hot drink in America. The Mark Wendell Tea Company is a large wholesale supplier of speicalty teas, teapots and accessories. You will have to register and give your sales tax number to access the pricing.

Silver jewelry is such a big seller on eBay but everyone has all the same merchandise so I am always on the lookout for new silver suppliers. Plum Island Silver sells a nice variety of low-cost silver jewelry.
They carry many of the same items others have but they also have some unique items if you spend the time looking for them.

Lastly, I have recently changed and updated several of the sources in my Top Twenty Wholesale Sources. If you are current member you may want to check it out. If not, you can buy it HERE on eBay for $2.99.

That's it for this month.

Skip McGrath