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Step 1
The first thing to do is find your product. It could be something online that you found at a cheap price, it could be something that you found at the dollar store that you think would be a great seller, or it could be something that you made on your own (which may be the best if you can make it cheap).
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Step 2
Make some considerations about your product, such as these;
1. Would you buy it for triple the price that you are currently buying it at (Which is the lowest common mark-up on many items if include shipping and handling)
2. Look for what type of demand there is out there. If there is only a small population of gnome collectors in Arkansas who may be interested in you product, they'd better be rich gnome collectors with Internet connections before you start selling online.
3. Will it survive shipping - You can't be selling fertilized quail eggs from California and expect them to arrive in perfect tack and still viable in Pakistan three weeks later.
4. Is it worth the shipping cost? Many times shipping can cost more than what you're selling the product for. Often times it just isn't worth the cost. -
Step 3
Consider storage. How many of these things can you stack in your house before your spouse kicks you out?
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Step 4
You need to set up a paypal account. Paypal is the most widely used and safest form of payment used over the Internet today. It also hands out special offers in conjunction with ebay, such as a reduction or coverage of shipping costs.
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Step 5
Customer service should be top priority. When I say this I mean you should keep a record of your sales, and e-mail them within a week asking if the product made it to them OK, and just show that little extra commitment to your product. If they rate you well, you are more likely to sell more in the future, and you may just make a repeat customer.
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Step 6
To really start making a profit on ebay.com, you just need experience. You need to be able to calculate your total losses against all of your profits. You are being charged for any extra pictures or extra services that you pick off of the eBay seller's page, for shipping the product, for any damaged products if you chose the option to pay for returned goods, the sale fee taken by ebay.com, and for the product itself. For the most part these are all hazards and charges that you would have to pay in some way or other, but ebay.com provides a bit more security. EBay makes it so that you don't have to worry so much about the legal issues for building your company from scratch.
Comments
kims3003 said
on 11/27/2009 Very well written. Very helpful information!