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Need Quick Money - Sell Used Goods on eBayThe Online Seller's News, September, 2011, Volume 11, No. 17 Tips, Tools, News and Resources for eBay, Amazon and independent Online Sellers - Published Twice Monthly (except in December)
Musings from eBay, Amazon, and beyond I got an email from my partner in the Proven Amazon Course, Jim Cockrum. Due to the slowing economy and risk of a double dip recession, Jim has decided to lower the price of our most successful training course ever, The Proven Amazon Course. Effective immediately the price of the course has dropped $100 from $189 to only $89.00. If you would like to learn how to sell on Amazon, Check out the Proven Amazon Course here. If you don't want a whole course on selling on Amazon, one of our coaches, Suzanne Wells has just written a great e-book called Amazon FBA Secrets. This is an oldie but a goodie. Last year I told our readers about a program called Let's Get Social. It was one of the most popular promotions I ran all year -both in terms of how many people took advantage of it and the positive feedback I got from readers who bought the program. It starts with a video called: "The Most IN-DEMAND Job on Earth" 
This "Odd-Ball" job didn't exist 18 months ago but demand is SO high right now a total newbie can demand $5K a month part-time or full time. A close friend that was recently unemployed is doing this now... and she is doing more than that. One word of warning: The video is a bit long -but well worth watching. You will learn something even if you decide this is not for you. You won't see any video controls on the video, but if you want to pause it to take a break, just put your mouse in the middle of the screen and you can pause it. You can watch it here.  Some of my long-term readers may remember that a year ago last April I wrote that we lost our long time companion of 15 years our Yellow Lab Tahoe. We have been dog-less since then but just couldn't take it anymore. So a couple of weeks ago we picked up a new puppy. Karen named him Kipling (but I am sure he thinks his name is "no-no bad dog" by now). Kipling is a Golden Retriever Poodle mix. He's a little over 15 pounds now but will grow to about 60 lb when fully grown. We have a great new article on Multi Channel Selling this month. Its located in our Free Articles Section. Don't Forget: September 30th is the last day to remove email addresses from listings. Starting October 1st, any listing containing an email address will be closed by eBay and you will receive a compliance strike. Lets get started with this month's articles: [top] 1. Need Quick Money - Sell Used Goods on eBay If you are one of my regular readers, then you know how I feel about selling used goods. Simply put -Profit margin on used products is far higher than on new products. This has always been true but it is even truer today. On both eBay and Amazon, prices -and therefore profit margins -are being driven down by a combination of the poor economy and fierce competition. I get email from people every day telling me they are out of work and their unemployment is about to run out and they want to know how to make money quickly. My standard answer has been to direct them to one of my eBay training books and tell them to start out selling used goods if they need to make money quickly. Most sellers source used goods at traditional outlets such as small country auctions, flea markets, garage and yard sales, estate sales and thrift shops. I can walk into the thrift shop in our small town tomorrow and buy a pair of blue jeans for $3, which I can sell for over $12 on eBay. That is a gross margin of 75%. If I do that with 20 pair of jeans that is a gross profit of $180. I have one reader from Pennsylvania who does this with over 200 pair of jeans per month. And he tends to get more than just $12 for most of his jeans. But when I sell new goods such as a Starbucks coffee mug or one of my popular chef's knives, my gross margins are closer to 25% to 30% --and of course that's before fees. After fees I am lucky to make 15% to 20%. That's OK since we do a pretty good volume -but remember at any given time I have over $7500 tied up in inventory sitting there waiting to sell. The Pros and Cons of Used Merchandise: Pros
Cons
The individuality of products is really the difference. Since I sell the same coffee mugs and chef knives all the time - I can create one listing and set of photographs and just use them over and over. But if I go out to do used book scouting this weekend and buy 25 books, then I have to create 25 listings. So more work - Yes. But also -more money. I can buy books every day for 25, 50-cents or a dollar and sell them for $5, $10 or more. If you are out of work and/or in dire financial straits, selling almost any type of used goods may be the fastest way to generate some cash. Last year I wrote a book about selling used goods called The Virtual Peddler. This week I came to a decision. I am going to do what I can to help those of you who are struggling in this economy. I am going to lower the price of The Virtual Peddler for the entire month of September from $27 down to $17. [top>top] 2. The Summer Slowdown is Finally Over - What to do now? This has been absolutely the worst summer slowdown on eBay in the 11 years I have been selling. Amazon wasn't as bad but my sales there were slow too. With Labor Day behind us, business should start picking up as more people return from vacation. The back to school season was pretty much a bust for both eBay and retailers. When I went to the mall the day after Labor Day all of the stores were stuck with so much back to school merchandise they were having huge sales. This economy just shows no signs of recovering no matter what the politicians in Washington say. The talking heads on TV keep talking about a double dip recession as if we ever got out of the first one. Real unemployment -not the phony numbers the Labor Department puts out, is closer to 20%. I saw one report that one-fifth of working age Americans is either not working or working a part-time job because they can't find anything else. But looking at the bright side if 20% of the population is not working that means that 80% still is -and that's the market for eBay and Amazon sellers. In this economic environment everyone is looking for deals. So the number one thing sellers need to do now is cut whatever costs you can. Lower prices mean lower margins, so take a look at those eBay optional fees to make sure they are returning results -if not, kill them. Look at your eBay listings. Are you paying listing fees for items that aren't selling? If so, lower the price, blow out the items and use that money to buy goods that will sell. Otherwise you are just wasting listing fees and all of your profit is tied up in merchandise sitting in your garage. Shipping supplies are another expensive item. In the last issue I told you about Mailers USA. They are a low-cost supplier of shipping supplies and they offer free shipping on everything they sell. You can also get free boxes and Styrofoam from local gift shops, kitchen stores and other small stores. These folks have to pay to have this material recycled so they are happy to give it to you. When you are shopping for merchandise to resell, stay away from highly competitive items and look for those really small niches where you won't have as much competition and you can maintain higher prices. What this all means is you have to run your business like a business. That is always good advice but in tough economic times it is critical to your survival. [top>top] 3. Where and How to Find Goods to Sell on Amazon FBA Karen and I have been selling on Amazon for over six years, but since we moved to Amazon's fulfillment program, FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) our Amazon sales have skyrocketed and now outpace our eBay sales almost 4 to 1. We did have a bit of a learning curve to find the right merchandise to sell through Amazon's FBA. One thing I learned quickly is that things that sell on eBay do not necessarily sell well on Amazon (and vice versa). So where do we find our products to sell on Amazon? One service I use is from Jordan Malik. Jordan runs a program called FBA Finds. Essentially this is a subscription service whereby Jordan researches the best deals and tells you exactly what and where to buy. With a lot of work, research and effort you can find these deals yourself, but FBA Finds is a great service for those of you who work full time and do Amazon part time. Here is just some of what you get:
When I signed up I was paying the full price, but Jordan has recently reduced the price almost 50% --making this a super deal. FBA Finds is so affordable that if you only buy one or two items per month and sell them on Amazon, you will easily recover the cost. So where else do we get our goods? It may surprise you but we often find highly profitable merchandise at local retail chains including Home Depot, Target, Toy-R-Us, and Costco. Just this weekend I bought some Christmas lights at Costco for $14.95 that are selling on Amazon for $29.95 and there are no FBA sellers on that item so I will be the only one. I also bought a pair of motion sensor LED lights for $9.95 pair that are selling for $28.95 on Amazon. Here is a look at the listing:  After Costco I hit Home Depot. When you go into a Home Depot the front aisle usually has boxed displays of items that HD features as the Best Buys. I found a stubby wrench set selling for $19.95 that is going for $39 on Amazon, A 70-piece DeWalt set of drill and driver bits for $18.95 now selling for $39 and a 100-piece of Ryobi bits and drivers with a bonus case for $15.95 also selling for $39 on Amazon. Then I found a Kidde Explosive Gas and Carbon Monoxide Detector for $29 selling on Amazon for $51.30.  I also found three things to sell on Amazon that are not currently listed on Amazon so those are products where I control the description and quantity. The tool I use for finding items to sell is FBA Scout on my iPad (also available for iPhone and Android). This tool not only shows me if and how many items are selling on Amazon it also shows how many at what price they are selling for on FBA. And a new release last week, now shows net amount you will receive once Amazon's fees are deducted. Here is a screenshot that shows the Net Payout of an item:  This is incredible information. With this data you just look at the price you plan to sell at and the program calculates all the Amazon fees including FBA Storage, handling and selling fees and gives you the net you will receive when you sell the product. With this tool I can go into any store and essentially perform retail arbitrage. The best thing about FBA Scout is that you get 50 free scans so you can try it out before buying the paid version. I made enough money with my free scans to pay for the service for a full year. The other place I find goods to sell are at wholesale trade shows and our local wholesale merchandise mart. If that type of sourcing is new to you, you may want to get my Wholesale Buying System where I explain all the ins and outs of the wholesale industry. (Note: If you have the Complete eBay Marketing System, then you already have the Wholesale Buying System as it's included in that package). Another way to learn all about Amazon FBA including much more wholesale sourcing information is with the Proven Amazon Course which has just been reduced in price by $100. [top>top] This is a guest article by Helen Fang, the social medial Guru-ess (I think that is the term for a lady guru) who works for Vendio. Vendio is the company I use to manage my eBay listings. But Vendio also supports multi-channel selling on other platforms including Amazon and Facebook. If you're new to the world of ecommerce, deciding how to get started and where to go from there can get very confusing. There's so much information available on how to sell, where to sell and whom to sell to that it all runs together after a while. However, there are some points of note that never change, which make sifting through all the fluff exponentially easier. Those points work like a chain - each link dependent upon the other. Here's what we mean: Higher Visibility = Higher Traffic = Greater Potential For Sales If people aren't spending time where you're spending your marketing efforts, you've done it all in vain. When it comes to marketing your ecommerce campaign, you should work smart - not hard. Working smart means taking your campaign to where the people are. These days, the people are on social media sites like Facebook, which is why it has become such an integral tool in the marketing arsenal of entrepreneurs large and small. The key to a successful Facebook ecommerce campaign is to engage your following to the point where they feel they are getting something tangible from their experience with you - not just being sold to all the time. Facebook provides a variety of subtle tools for you do to that. Further, there are a myriad of ecommerce hosting platforms that provide you with additional tools to market your brand on Facebook - some of which are free of charge. The following is a list of the simple tools that you, too, can use to start selling on Facebook today. Facebook Fan PageToo many businesses think that creating a page is enough. It's not. In order to create an effective Facebook fan page, you must treat it like a community. How do you grow a community? You grow it through interactions and worthwhile engagement. This is where you can really be one on one with your customers. You can post polls, ask for feedback or offer exclusive promotions and deals to your Facebook fan base. Giving incentives for being a fan is not just a good way to attract more fans; it's a great way to maintain the fans you've already established. More fans = more word of mouth advertising = more fans! Facebook AdsFacebook Ads are advertisements created by you that appear on the sidebar of your targeted audience's pages. The set up allows lots of freedom in customizing who your target audience is - including variables like location, age and profession. The ads use an algorithm the pair them with a list of keywords found on the "likes" of your targeted audience. Currently, you can bid on Facebook ads in two ways - CPC (cost per clicks) and CPM (cost per impression). Test both methods and compare results to existing PPC campaigns. You can use Facebook ads to drive purchases, awareness, or simply new fans. Facebook AppsApps are mini-applications that run in the background of a page in order to complete a function or task. In this case, it would be to create a bridge from where your products are for sale online to Facebook, where users can navigate to your sales pages to complete their purchases. Static FBML is a key app that lets you create custom landing pages. Social RSS is a great app that can help you build content in your page - whether it's a feed from your blog, or several blogs that are pertinent to your business. If you're planning to run a contest or giveaway, Facebook mandates that you must use a third-party app like Wildfire to run your contest. Facebook StorefrontIf you're planning to truly sell on Facebook, having an actual store on your Facebook page is way to go. Additionally, you can leverage Facebook's social share features such as commenting, "like", and wish list to help your fans promote your products. In general, shoppers don't want to click through an endless chain of links to learn more and possibly purchase your product. Streamline the process for shoppers by offering your inventory directly on Facebook. This creates a cohesive experience so that shoppers can stain on Facebook while browsing your products. Remember the adage that you can be a "jack of all trades, master of none" and know that this applies to social media. Social media, but it's very nature, is constantly morphing. There will be always be a new app or strategy to try. While there's nothing wrong with experimenting, keep in mind that at the end of the day - your social venture should still create a return on investment. How you define "return" can vary - have you gained more Facebook fans? Did you get more sales through a Facebook coupon? What are the social metrics you've set in place for your business? Keep these in mind so that your selling on Facebook campaign can be successful. Author Bio: Helen Fang is the social media expert at Vendio, an ecommerce software company that enables online businesses to sell on Facebook, eBay, Amazon, and Google from one platform. [top>top] 5. Niche of The Month - Quilting Fabric My wife, Karen, is a quilter and often buys fabric squares on eBay. I was searching for a niche of the month and she suggested quilting fabric. So I asked her to write an article on this niche. According to a study by Quilters in America, there are over 21 million quilters in the US and more than 30 million worldwide. So quilting is a huge market. For quilters, there's never an off season or a time when we're not thinking about a quilt for a child, grown or infant, a special friend, or someone in need of a bit of quilted love. Whether it's a niche of the month may be left up to the reader. For me, it's my niche of the year or perhaps decade. But I'm one of those crazy-mad quilter types who never seem to leave a fabric shop without a bit of fabric to add to my stash. In a quick search on eBay for "Quilting Fabric" I found 38,359 listings, and that was just eBay. Try Amazon or a broader search on Google or Bing and see what you find. I was putting a little crib quilt together for the newest addition of family in England and found that the perfect fabric for the back no longer existed in my favorite brick & mortar stores. But there it was, on Etsy: Two yards of Beatrix Potter's 2006 Quilting Treasures. How did the seller have that special fabric that was no longer in print? It will often need the discriminating person to have a feeling or hunch about something. In fact, as I type this, I'm having a hunch that some of the fabric I saw on the sale table at a favorite shop should be bought in bulk and put away for a future offering. But back to where to find the fabric... The sale table at your local fabric shop is a good place to start. Also many fabric stores hold shop-hops where discounted fabric is offered for everyone participating in the event. Typically, sales in fabric shops happen during the finest weather seasons since there are so many outdoor activities to distract indoor quilting. Summer is add-to-stash-season. (Don't tell Skip.)
Most sellers offer their fabric in 4 x 4 squares, 2 x 4 strips, jelly rolls, with companion thread or patterns. Here is a look at some items offered on Amazon:  And here are some recent sales on eBay:  If you get into this niche, you can also source other quilting supplies and tools for quilters. If you would like to learn more about quilting and find resources, check out www.americanquilter.com or www.allpeoplequilt.com. [top>top] 6. New Wholesale Sources for eBay & Amazon Sellers Let's give our quilters a couple of wholesale sources to start with. The Robert Kaufman Company is a large wholesaler of all types of fabrics. The Rueben & Ziff Company is a supplier of quilting accessories, fabrics, books and tools. OK - enough quilting. The Christmas holiday season is not that far off and one thing I learned long ago was to order my holiday selling items early. So here are some wholesale sources for products that people buy at Christmas. Holiday House Gifts is a home and garden gift wholesaler and they also have a drop ship program. I haven't dealt with them so I can't tell if their program is reliable or not, but they are used by some eBay sellers. One of our advertisers, Topper Liquidators, has some great products for the holidays and the liquidation prices are really attractive. By Case, Inc sells Wholesale Bathrobes, towels, slippers and more. Gametronics Inc is a manufacturer and wholesale distributor of videogame products - offering a wide array of software, hardware & accessories. Vertex Airsoft offers an extensive line of wholesale Airsoft guns and accessories. Big Tree Toys Our product offerings include in excess of 180,000 varieties of toy products including remote control toys, digital toys, sports toys, play sets, educational toys, dolls, and infant toys. Mitech Trading has wholesale prices on gifts, leather apparel, electronics, swords, watches, wholesale gifts, serving trays, perfumes, binoculars, backpacks, leather purses, promotional products, cookware, cutlery, musical instruments, knives, tools & GAMES and GAME accessories. AZ Importer is a wholesaler of a large line of RC helicopters and other RC Toys. These are always hot products at Christmas. Great Neck Tools is Manufacturer of Wholesale Hand Tools, Air + Battery Power Tools, Multi-Tools, Lockback Knives and LED Flashlights YesAnime.com An international distribution company that specializes in both domestic and imported Japanese anime. I found the Pocket Smart String at the ASD Trade show last year and sold a bunch of these on Amazon. I think they would make a great stocking stuffer gift for Christmas. It's somewhat of a strange mix, but Raphael's sells tools and guitars. Candles are hot all throughout the holiday season and now it the time to order for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Good Time Candle is a source for Candles, Candle Holders, Incense, Potpourri, Bath Sponges, Loofah Products, Vases, Lite-Up Pens, Gift Sets, Decorative Tins and Seasonal Merchandise. Laura's Country Products sells soy candles on line at Laura's Country store. Clean burning, nontoxic, recyclable and environmentally friendly products. The website shows retail products. Just click on the tab that says Wholesale Buyer at the top of the page to register to get wholesale information. Skinny Dip Candles wholesales massage candles, body candles, and lotion candles in one. All 20+ scents contain natural skin care ingredients that melt to a rich, warm, moisturizing lotion. Merritt's Antiques sells both real antiques and related products. Use the contact form to email them and tell them you are a reseller to get their dealer discounts. That's it for now. See you again in a couple of weeks. Skip McGrathrath P.S. If you missed the last issue, click here to read it. 
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