Online Business Model #2 – Online Auction: Getting Started on eBay®
When we talk about online auction, the first word that comes into our mind must be “eBay®”. Most people seem to know what eBay® is and talked about it on the Internet. If you have no idea what eBay® is all about and you have never used it, don’t worry since our post and several next posts will explain everything you need to know about eBay®, including understanding the basics of bidding and buying on eBay®, things to know to get started on eBay®, different eBay® auction types, how to successful selling on eBay® and its possibilities, and tips to decide to go full time or part time with your eBay® business.
What is eBay®?
eBay® is an online auction website – and not just any auction site, but the biggest one in the world with page rank #20 worldwide and #8 in US by Alexa.com as of today. If you know how an auction works, then you already know how roughly eBay® works. Someone adds something they want to sell to the site, and then buyers come along and place bids on it. The highest bid wins the item. It’s just as simple as that.
Registered in August 4th, 1995, eBay® being an online auction makes a big difference, especially for cyber world. The unique eBay® auction system is an international person to person auction whilst buying and selling are not reserved for any elite. eBay® accepts almost any item, no matter how small, and will then advertise it on their sites all over the world. It’s a powerful combination of an auction and a slightly chaotic marketplace.
What is Bidding?
Bidding is when you say how much you will pay for an item in an auction. Bidding on eBay®, however, does not work in exactly the same way as a normal auction, at least in theory. On eBay®, you tell the site what the maximum you are willing to pay for each item is, and then eBay® places the bids on your behalf. That means you could say you were willing to pay up to $100 for something and only have to pay $50, if that was the highest maximum bid anyone else placed.
It’s not as complicated as it sounds – the best way to get used to it is to give it a try. First, the best thing to do is to go to the eBay® website designed for your country. If you don’t know the address for it, just go to www.eBay.com and it will tell you there. Now, on the front page you should see a big box marked ‘search’: just type in anything that you’d like to buy there.
Wasn’t that easy? Now you should have a list of items for sale in front of you, along with how much people are currently bidding for them and the time when bidding ends for each item. If you click one of these, you can read the description, and then – if you’re happy with the item and happy to pay more than the current highest bidder is – you can bid!
How Do I Bid?
Go ahead and scroll down to the bottom of an item’s description page, and type the maximum you are willing to pay (your maximum bid) into the box. Then simply press the ‘place bid’ button – you will need to sign in once you press the button, or go through a quick registration process if you don’t have an eBay® username).
If someone else’s maximum bid on that item is higher than yours, then eBay® will tell you and give you the opportunity to bid again. Otherwise, you’re now the new highest bidder! All you need to do now is wait until the end of the auction – if someone else outbids you, then eBay® will email you and you can bid again.
Things You Need to Know to Get Started on eBay®
So you’ve decided that you want to get started as a seller on eBay®. There are a few things that you really need to know before you go and throw yourself in at the deep end.
What to Sell
First off, you need to know what it is you’re going to sell, what’s your specialty? You’ll do far better on eBay® if you become a great source for certain kind of products, as people who are interested in those products will come back to you again and again. You won’t get any loyalty or real reputation if you just sell rubbish at random.
When you think about what to sell, there are a few things to consider. The most important of these is to always sell what you know. If you try to sell something that you just don’t know anything about then you’ll never write a good description and sell it for a good price.
You might think you’re not especially interested in anything, but if you think about what kind of things you usually buy and which websites you go to most often, I’m sure you’ll discover some kind of interest.
Out of the things you know enough about, you should then consider which things you could actually get for a good enough price to resell, and how suitable they would be for posting. If you can think of something of that you’re knowledgeable about and it’s small and light enough for postage to be relatively cheap, then that’s great!
Don’t worry if you think the thing you’re selling is too obscure – it isn’t. There’s a market for almost everything on eBay®, even things that wouldn’t sell once in a year if you stocked them in a shop. You’ll probably do even better if you fill a niche than if you sell something common.
Tax and Legal Matters
If you earn enough money, you should be aware that you’re going to have to start paying tax – this won’t be done for you. If you decide to sell on eBay® on a full-time basis, you should probably register as a business.
Prepare Yourself
There are going to be ups and downs when you sell on eBay®. Don’t pack it in if something goes a little wrong in your first few sales: the sellers who are successful on eBay® are the ones who enjoy it, and stick at it whatever happens.
Anyone can sell on eBay®, if they believe in themselves – and if you do decide it’s not for you, then the start-up costs are so low that you won’t really have lost anything.
If you’re ready to start selling, then the next thing you need to know is the different eBay® auction types, so you can decide which ones you will use to sell your items. Our next post will give you a guide.
If you want to get a FREE access to a video training series of selling on eBay®, click following link – Free eBay® Video Training Series – and discover the step-by-step system that you can use to make thousands of dollars each month with eBay® business.
To your eBay® success!
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