The New Year's Quick Start and Fix Up Guide

The Online Seller's News, January 2012, Volume 12, No. 1

Tips, tools, News and Resources for eBay, Amazon and Independent Online Sellers
by: Skip McGrath

In this Issue:

Musings from eBay, Amazon, and beyond

1. The New Year's Quick Start and Fix Up Guide
2. Amazon Wants You in the Beauty, Health & Personal Care Category
3. When Will eBay Start Its Own Fulfillment Service
4. Niche of the Month - Store Clearance Items
5. eBay Announces 5-Cent Listing Sale on Media Products to Last through June 2012
6. New Wholesale Sources for eBay and Amazon Sellers

"May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions." ~ Joey Adams

Musings from eBay, Amazon, and beyond

First of all let me wish all of my readers a happy, prosperous, profitable and safe New Year. And let me take this opportunity to thank all of you who purchased my books and who come back week-after-week to read this newsletter. You are very important to us.

The dreaded month of January is the month when eBay announces the new policies that will take effect in March/April. (that's why sellers dread it so much) So check the eBay announcements tab every few days to see what eBay has in store for sellers this year. We will be covering those changes in the next issue if eBay announces them before January 22^nd.

In case you are wondering about the big welcome box for Women's Day Magazine readers on our home page --I was interviewed this month by Woman's Day Magazine for an article entitled 10 things You Didn't Know About eBay. I only have a very short mention in the article but it has been delivering an amazing amount of traffic to the site. (Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, Wall Street Journal - are you listening? Call me any time. Matt Lauer I could make some time for you too!)

Our personal coaching program trained over 40 new eBay sellers and about a dozen new Amazon Sellers last year -most of whom are now running successful businesses. This year we expanded our program to add one more coach who is also an eBay PowerSeller and we are including expanded Amazon training. I am also in the process of interviewing a coach in the UK as we have been getting more and more clients from there.

If you are interested in personal coaching and would like a free evaluation, Call 1-800-578-3449, or fill out this contact form to see if you qualify. We only take a small number of students at any one time. All of our eBay coaches are active eBay and Amazon sellers and our Internet coaches all currently run successful online businesses.

Kindle Fire Update - Well when I am wrong I am wrong. The Kindle Fire out-of-stock sale never materialized. It looks like Amazon finally got the market forecasts right for a new product and it didn't help that the Kindle Fire got some bad press for a few small software glitches (that Amazon is already fixing with automatic downloads).

I bought ten of them. I kept one, used one for a gift. I sold one for $279 early on and the rest are listed on eBay for $229 and a few have sold at that price. So no profit, but we should all at least break even after fees. And who knows, Amazon could run out any day now and we could all raise our prices on eBay -but I am not holding my breath. So my full apologies to readers who followed my advice and invested in these. At least you know I am in the same leaky boat helping you row to shore.

Lets get started with this month's articles:

[top]

1. The New Year's Quick Start and Fix Up Guide

Well it's that time of year again. The holidays are over. The holiday selling season is still going but will be slowing down and sales will be back to normal by the end of February. (We still have Valentines Day coming up so I hope you are already sourcing inventory and getting it off to Amazon if you are an FBA Seller).

Here are a few steps I take every year at this time to renew and rejuvenate my business and some that you can take to grow a little this year.

1. Clean out excess or non-performing inventory. We are still in a very tough economy and the threat of a double-dip recession is still very much alive. So this is a time to really watch the pennies and remember that when times are tough, cash is king.
   
   Inventory sitting in closets is like money under a mattress. It doesn't earn any dividends and it loses purchasing power every day. For reasons I just don't understand people get attached to their inventory. To me a vegetable peeler or a cowboy belt buckle -or any piece of inventory is an inanimate object. Unless something is a collectible that I not only sell but also collect myself, I have no attachment to it. If it's not selling, it's just sitting there wasting storage space and tying up capital. I just put some great, but slow moving products up for sale in my eBay store at 25% off and I went through my inventory on Amazon and made sure I was the lowest price seller so I get the buy box. Yes my profit will be less but Amazon charges me storage fees and if an item takes two months to sell at a high price, I can sell it at a lower price 3 times in that same period and make more money in the same time.
   
   So go through your stuff. Put it up on eBay, Craigslist or Amazon at a steep discount (even if you lose money on it) and get rid of it. Then take the money you get and put it into something that is selling at a profit.
   
   

2. Review, revise and update eBay and Amazon listings, web pages and any online selling material. Just before Christmas I went through my eBay listings and changed them to 3-day listings so I would get more sales and it worked. So now I am going back and changing them and removing the words "Great Christmas Gift." Some of my product listings are two years old and as I am reviewing them I am finding other errors and things that are out of date.
   
   I am doing the same things with my websites. I was looking at an article I wrote about digital photo tips on my EZ Cube Website and saw references to companies that are no longer in business.
   
   So my plan is to set aside one-hour per day for the rest of this month just going through listings and websites and bringing everything up to date.
   
   
   

3. Expand into multi-channel selling. If eBay sellers learned anything over the past three years of eBay's incredibly inept repositioning of their business model, it's that you don't want to have all your eggs in one basket. eBay is finally starting to get things sorted out -but this has been mostly to the detriment of small sellers like you and me. Yes, eBay is still a good venue to sell on, and I hope to still be selling there for years to come -but there are other places to sell that are just as profitable -if not more.
   
   I started selling on Amazon about four years ago and continue to expand my business there. This year we made the leap to Amazon's FBA program where we send all of our merchandise into Amazon and they sell and deliver it for us. I wish I had done that two years ago. Most of the year we average about 12-15 sales a day on Amazon at an average price point of about $40. From Black Friday right up until December 23^rd, we were averaging over 40 sales a day at a slightly lower price point - closer to $32 which works out to $1280 a day. During that same period we sold 34 items on eBay at an average price point of $44.
   
   The advent and incredible success of Amazon's FBA has been huge for sellers. In addition to eBay and Amazon we now have three websites. this year I plan to expand to Facebook. (I have also tried a few other sites like eCrater and others but those have been mostly a waste of time).
   
   I still believe eBay is the best place for new online sellers to start. It does have the traffic and the lowest startup risks and costs, but once you master eBay you want to start looking for other venues like Amazon, Etsy and Yardsellr where small sellers are actually welcome and appreciated.
   
   

4. Look for new ways to make money online. The online business world is continually changing. If you become complacent it will simply pass you by. A good example is Facebook. I was very late to Facebook -but now I am seeing so many possibilities there. The other area I have just started working on is publishing on Kindle. I recently read Kindle Revolution by Amanda Hocking. I saw an article about her in the Wall Street Journal that said she sold over 100,000 eBooks on Kindle and iPad in one month. Her book is for any of you who have an info product or can create your own. If you want to sell public domain material on Kindle then you need the book by my friend James Jones called Kindle Profits Exposed. Actually both books would help if you are going to take the second path because Amanda's book has a lot more marketing and sales help than James's book.
   
   I am going to start by making my books available on Kindle and then go into finding free content to sell.
   
   

5. Stay Focused. There is a risk of becoming unfocused, so don't be abandoning any business that is working, but stay on the lookout for new products to sell, look at things like social networking, affiliate marketing, blogging, Kindle publishing and even offline businesses that might make sense. But do them one at a time. Don't keep jumping around from one thing to another. You may THINK you are a great multitasker, but becoming unfocused is a great way to lose a lot of money and time.

So those are the things I spend my time on in January and February and they always seem to pay dividends. If you are looking at one of my auctions or web pages and see some out of date material, check back in a few days. At an hour a day it takes me a while to get around to everything.

[top]

2. Amazon Wants You in the Beauty, Health & Personal Care Category

Amazon sent out a very interesting email to sellers late last month. they are trying to recruit sellers to sell in the Beauty category and the Health & Personal care category. And they made a very interesting offer. With the email they sent out a downloadable list of over 8,000 of the hottest products in those categories that are not being sold by Amazon. they said that as long as sellers started carrying them that they would stay out. But they also warned, if sellers did not jump on those products, then they would start selling them directly.

The list is too long for this newsletter, so I asked my Webmaster, Marsha, to put it up on a special page. Click here to read and/or download the list in Excel format. (to download, just hit Command A to highlight the whole page, Command C to copy and then open an excel file, click on the first cell and hit Command V).

So where do you get these products? Well I did a little research and an amazing number of them are available at wholesale clubs including Costco and Sam's Club and also a few of them were selling at Big Lots.

A direct way to find spa products and other things is to simply Google the name of the manufacturer, which is usually printed on the package or bottle. In fact in many cases the manufacturer's website is listed on the package. Once you get to the website, simply email the company. If they are a small boutique company, email them and ask for the name of a manufacturer's rep in your area. If they are a large company, ask for the name of your local distributor. then it is simply a matter of contacting them and asking to be set up as a dealer.

Another way to find these products is to attend a local wholesale gift show when one comes to your nearest large city. We attend the Seattle Gift Show every year and there is a whole section of the show dedicated to personal care products. If you have a gift mart or wholesale merchandise mart in your city, you can also find the products there.

[top]

3. When Will eBay Start Its Own Fulfillment Service

I have written a lot about Amazon FBA over the past few months and how powerful it is. FBA is Amazon's fulfillment service (Fulfillment by Amazon), where sellers send their merchandise to Amazon's warehouses and Amazon fulfills the order when a sale is made. Because of FBA, and a service on Amazon called Amazon Prime, (where buyers can get free 2-day shipping), we had strong sales on Amazon right through December 22^nd. Whereas on eBay, our sales dried up around December 19^th.

I think the biggest reason that sellers are finding more success selling new merchandise on Amazon rather than eBay, is that even when a seller fulfills the order themselves they know that Amazon stands behind the buyer 100% with their Amazon A to Z guarantee program. And many buyers do not even realize they are buying an item from an individual seller when they buy on Amazon.

Until eBay can offer a similar guarantee and shopping experience I think they will keep loosing market share to Amazon and their growth will remain stunted.

eBay took a big step last year when they announced a beta program, yet unnamed, but probably something like Fulfillment By eBay (FBE). Like Amazon's program, when FBE goes live (if it does), eBay sellers would ship their goods to an eBay warehouse and when something sold, eBay would collect the money, pay the seller and ship the item to the customer. For this they will certainly charge a Pick&Pack fee, a fulfillment fee and storage charges -thus creating a new profit center for eBay.

You can read more details about the program at eCommerce Bytes, Ina Steiner's blog and newsletter. Here are the two articles:

eBay's Amazonification to Include Fulfillment Service

eBay tests Fulfillment Service to Speed Delivery time from China

However, this will finally bring eBay into the current decade of online commerce and once again allow them to compete with the big boys (which they once used to be the biggest of).

As I pointed out in Musings (above), eBay usually makes their major system change announcements in January for new policies that will take effect in March and April. It will be interesting to see if Fulfillment By eBay is one of them.

If you would like to learn how to sell on Amazon, take a look at the Proven Amazon Course.

[top]

4. Niche of the Month - Store Clearance Items

If you recall, last month I mentioned that for the next few months we are going to be taking our Niche of the Month from the Home Run Guide by Janelle Elems. this is an excellent book and has highly detailed information on over 50 niches. Janelle has reduced the Home Run Guide, price by $25. But you have to use this coupon code to get your $25 discount Skipsniche

This month's article from the Home Run guide is by Bob Willey. Bob is the owner of Bob's Neat Stuff and Bob's Neat Book, on the Delmarva Peninsula of Maryland. He runs the Amazon FBA Resource website FBA Rocks, and is also the owner/moderator of the Yahoo Group FBA Forum. Bob has been selling online since 1998 on various marketplaces, including eBay, Amazon and Craigslist. He recently joined the support team of FBA Power, which is a resource, and tool I strongly recommend if you are going to sell on Amazon.

CLEARANCE ItEMS ARE A SPECIAL CLASS OF SOURCING PRODUCtS FOR RESALE, AND they can be extremely fun! Since they can be found at all kinds of places, you can find clearance items while you are out doing regular shopping or just window shopping. When you least expect it, voila, there are some clearance items!

What Are Clearance Items?

Clearance items are just about anything that is marked down way below their normal selling price. the first thing to note as you scout for clearance items is what type of discount is it? It is a few pennies, a nice discount, or a deep discount? the more significant the price markdown, the better chance you have of being able to resell for a profit.

Tools Needed

It really helps to have a Smartphone with good coverage. Don't cut corners on your phone or your service, as this is your lifeline when out scouting. there are many Apps that can help, including Pocket eBay, the Amazon App, FBAScout, RedLaser, and Garage Sale Rover. Apps like Square can also help so you can take credit card payments if someone wants something you have. Is a Smartphone absolutely required? No, but I can tell you that it really helps and makes scouting so much more fun.

If you don't have a Smartphone, then you can also use the - phone a friend - technique, where you call someone who can do online research for you while you are out. Not as quick or as fun, but it keeps you going with accurate information about the products you are sourcing.

Having available funds in the event that you find a great deal is also important. Nothing more frustrating to find a deal on razor refills and not have the money to purchase your stock. Cash is always king, but in a pinch, you might want to have a credit card for business purposes so you can buy those larger purchases that you will be able to turn quickly and repay the debt promptly. (Or sign up for Kabbage - a program that advances cash to eBay and Amazon sellers -editor comment).

When you find a great deal, it might not just be that one or two items you see on the shelf. Ask a clerk to look it up on their computer; there may be more stock in back, or stored somewhere. If you are going to make money, why not make even more money? Many times you can also get them to check stock in other stores.

What Should You Buy? (Or Not Buy?)

As far as products go, just about anything is fair game. There might be some restrictions depending on your selling venue as certain types of product might have special requirements. It is best to know your venue and any restrictions they may place on you selling certain items. On Amazon, you need to be careful of some liquid products, or products like hair dyes, or items with chemicals in them that might require special paperwork. You can find out more about MSDS paperwork at http://msds.com.

Another category of products to be careful with is food products. If they are pre-packaged and have expiration date codes well into the future, you are normally pretty safe in purchasing them to resell, otherwise be cautious. Other things to think about are items that can be affected by the weather; chocolate melts in the summer and might not be a good product to source that time of year.

So with that said, what are the good items? Just about anything that you can get a deep discount on. For example, if the item was originally $29.95 and is marked down to $27.95, I don't even look twice at it. However, if that item is marked down to $9.99 or $9.00, then I get more excited. So it is not as much about a specific product as it is a deep discount or markdown: the deeper the discount the better.

What to Look For

Here are some tips that will help you find the best items in specific stores. Remember that you can also check these stores online to see if there are offering the same deal online.

• Wal-Mart: The clearance items will almost always have a bright red label with the discounted price and the -Was- price. Sometimes they don't include the -Was- price and you have to research on your own to see if it is a deal. The prices usually end in .00 when it is a clearance item. Most stores have a clearance section, but the items can also be in just about any section of the store, sometimes at the end cap, or near the end of the aisle.
  
  Some of the stores do a 50% markdown on the already clearance- priced items, sometimes monthly, sometimes on the weekend. You need to check with the local store personnel to find out the policies of that store as they do vary. One side note about Wal-Mart: they won't price match their own stores, or their online store.

• Target: Each store has their own policies. Some stores will move items to special section, and some will have items on clearance right where they normally reside. You have to ask for details. Many target stores send their leftovers to local Goodwill. (Many Goodwill stores will mark these items tG.) Some stores don't want to fool with markdown and clearance items and quickly send them to Goodwill, so you have to check in regularly to find the deals.
  
  

• Tuesday Morning: These stores do a monthly clearance, usually at the end of the month. Most of the time they will move their clearance items to an end cap, but not always. Some of the clearance items have fantastic prices. Tuesday Morning is a great resource, especially for items for holidays, like toys and games.
  
  

• Big Lots: They are always trying to turn their inventory, so they almost always have clearance items available. Big Lots can have some really decent deals, but each store will vary as to what products they carry. If you have several in your area, it is best to hit them all on a regular basis. Also, join their Buzz Club. You will get e-mail newsletters and 20% coupons on a regular basis, valid for certain days.

• Toys R Us: They always run sales, and you need to carefully look around the store to find them. The clearance prices usually end in 0 or 8. If you have kids, they are a great way to determine things that will sell!

Summary

The whole concept of adding clearance items to your inventory is to open your minds to diversification. With the current economy and fickle buyers, finding things to make money on can be a moving target, so why not move with it? Keep adding different types of items to your inventory. the more diversified you are the less impact you will feel if one sales area slows down. I love books and media, but toys, games, and all sorts of clearance items help pay the bills.

My Home Run

Recently I was in my local Wal-Mart store shopping for few items. I wasn't out scouting, but as I was going through the aisles, I happened to notice that in the Men's Razor section, near the end of the aisle, were some clearance items (the red Wal-Mart clearance labels really stand out).

As I was checking some of the items, I found that the razor refill kits were on clearance. Regular price was in the $29-32 range, marked down to $5. That just yells Home Run! So I took out my Smartphone (a Verizon Droid X) and brought up FBAScout, one of the Apps that I use to check prices. I scanned the barcode, and voila - the refill kits were selling online at Amazon in the $31 range. So I bought everything they had, a few different models, a total of 14 items at $5.00 each.

After sending to Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) I sold all of them for over $30 apiece. Sales of over $420 for a $70 purchase is a Home Run any day of the week.

(Editor's Note: Another good place to find clearance items is your local Rite-Aid. Every Rite-Aid has a clearance end cap and some stores have more than one. I have bought small electrical appliances at as much as 70% off and health and personal care items at anywhere from 50% to 90% off of retail. Also, stores such as Sam's Club, Costco, Loews and Home Depot will allow you to register your sales tax number so you don't have to pay sales tax on these items).

[top]

5. eBay Announces 5-Cent Listing Sale on Media Products to Last through June 2012

eBay announced a 5-Cent listing sale on books, music, CDs and DVDs and Video Games (but not video game players) that will last from now until June 30^th. this special 5-Cent Insertion Fee offer on select Fixed Price listings using the eBay Catalog actually started back in September 2011 and was supposed to end in December. But, eBay has now extended it through June 30, 2012.

Here are some of the details:

• List in Fixed Price format in the Books, Music, Movies & DVDs, or Video Games categories

• You can create professional, detailed listings quickly and easily using the eBay Catalog

• Sellers pay just 5-Cent in Insertion Fees

• eBay is including a free Sub-title in the deal (that 's a $1.50 savings per listing)

So if you sell in those categories, this is a pretty good deal. Remember if you take advantage of the sub-title to use it correctly. Here are some tips for using sub-titles:

• Sub-titles are not searchable by the eBay search engine, so keep you keywords in the main title.
  
  

• Use sub-title to tell the reader something extra. Here is a shot of a sub-title I use for my fire pit listings.

• Remember - never use the words Free Shipping in your title or Google may not index your listing. Instead use the sub-title to tell them about free shipping or any other promotion you are making with the offer.
  
  

• Additional information about what you're selling (for example, the brand name, artist, designer, accessories, and options)
  

• Words that you think buyers wouldn't necessarily search on, but that may be of interest to them (for example, item condition, benefits, specifications, model number, and any extras or accessories)
  

Although eBay is still most well known as an auction site, in fact over 70% of all sales are now from the fixed price format. So this is a very good promotion that you should take advantage of if you sell in the media category. Hopefully, eBay will release some promotions in other categories as well during the year.

[top]

6. New Wholesale Sources for eBay and Amazon Sellers

Please note - some of these websites feature direct wholesale pricing and ordering while others require you to register as a dealer. the websites who ask you to register before seeing their pricing may want a state sales tax number. Here is a link to an article that explains everything about sales tax numbers (resale numbers) and how and where to get them.

Since eBay is running their 5-cent promotion of media products, here are a few of my favorite media wholesale sources.

Ingram Book Group - Ingram is the largest book wholesaler in the United States. they supply major and independent bookstores and work well with both small and large online sellers. they also offer a dropship program where you can sell books on eBay and Amazon and they will drop ship them for you.

Mountain View Movies, is a wholesale DVD and Video Game distributor located in NY State. they specialize in purchasing closeout, liquidation and surplus stock from large stores and chains.

Jay's Record and tapes, Inc. offers excellent deals on niche music CDs as low as $1.10 or you can check out his package deals of 110 CDs for $99.00. that works out to $0.90 per CD.

Noah's Ark provides a wide variety of items at discount pricing to stores, online sellers, distributors, & churches. Products include Christian movies and family movies on DVD, Christian books, gifts, t-shirts, ties, caps, Christian music CDs, Spanish products & more.

OK - Lets look at some non-media products:

At XSDepot.com, resellers will find name-brand computer related accessories, small electronics, video games and software at low wholesale prices. they also provide a drop shipping service, however I have not tried them and don't know anyone who has, so proceed with caution as you would with any new dropshipper. the best thing to do is buy something for yourself as a trial order to see how fast the service is.

Cotytech manufactures and wholesales flat screen tV wall mounts and LCD monitor wall and desk mounts. We offer high quality products at very competitive prices. We are based in taiwan and the US.

U-have-to-Have-It is a wholesale provider of Chinese made hi-tech gadgets and consumer electronics products for the market with service headquarters in the USA,

All-Battery is a one-stop wholesale supplier for Rechargeable Batteries. they stock AA, AAA, C, Sub C, and D NiMH, NiCd, Li ion/Li Polymer Batteries and many types of specialized batteries.

the Gadget Wholesaler sells the Drive Alert Master sleep warning device for motorists and other gadgets. Some of their products are hot Sellers for web sites, auctions and Amazon.

Motorvicity Distribution is an Automotive Import tuning wholesaler located in Madison Heights Michigan. they stock parts from Sparco, AEM, ACt, Eibach, tokico Apexi and many more.

the Chemical Guys wholesale automotive detail supplies from car wax to car polish and full auto detailing kits. Wholesale car care products for mobile auto detailing professionals, detail shops and car enthusiasts.

the Steal Deal sells an exclusive line of wholesale hip hop clothing. they are distributors of urban wear offering urban hip hop clothes at low wholesale prices for both men and women. Not my style, but this stuff does sell.

Blankets by Zoey is a manufacturer & wholesaler of baby clothes, dresses, t-shirts, bibs, beanies, gowns & blankets. they also sell clothing for babies, toddlers, men, ladies and newborns.

Kerusso is a leading producer of Christian apparel, jewelry, gifts and accessories. they are a family-owned business that has been in business for 22 years.

1-Stop Wholesale sells recycled jeans, tee shirts, jackets, more. they sell a full assortment of quality recycled clothes available in small lots for all buyers. Easy on line ordering, fast delivery.

Hannahdonline is a family owned and operated wholesaler of fashion handbags, jewelry, & accessories.

Feel Safe & Secure sells a wide array of Home Security Products and Self Defense products! they offer free shipping on order over $75.

Eaglecrest features a large selection of military clothing, patches, caps, corporate apparel, and custom embroidered logo wear active duty and wholesale military ball caps, patches, decals, luggage, shirts, coins, and kids apparel.

Supersportz sells wholesale AtVs, Dirt Bikes, Go Karts, Scooters, Mopeds, & Utility Vehicles. Wholesale pricing on brands Like Roketa, KMD, BMS, Lance, Seaseng, Motobravo and More!

Real Action Paintball is a manufacturer of firearm replica paintball guns and markers. they also sell paintballs, tactical gear, and accessories.

That's it for this issue. Remember we publish twice monthly. We are waiting for eBay to make their Spring 2012 policy announcements, which usually come in January. So the next issue may contain some very important information to sellers ...

Skip McGrath
The Online Seller's News

P.S. If you missed the last issue, click here to read it.

Click Here. Double your traffic. Get Vendio Gallery - Now FREE!