When To Bid... That Is The Secret

My Kids Taught Me How To Buy On Ebay

I'm a little embarrassed, I shouldn't be, there is so much to IT that no one person can know it all.

The IT field (which I am not in) has fields that are related but not the main thrust of, IT does not mean applications but IT people are asked to know what it is, Ebay is a website and I do deal in websites but...

The "talent" is not in KNOWING everything but knowing where to go to ask for help.

My daughter taught me how to bid on stuff, I work 80 hours a week meaning I've got my head buried in certain stuff so deeply that the obvious just passed me by:

How To Bid On Ebay To Get What You Want At The Price You Want It For.

1. Look for an auction that doesn't have much time left on it
2. Bid at the last few minutes of the close of the auction
3. Know when to walk away

I got into bidding wars and got so frustrated I simply threw my hands up and bought only from "But It Now" buttons.

The same thing you just lost a the bid on will probably go up for auction again, perhaps in a few hours!

I'm looking for a couple of Windows XP Cds with the serial number, still in the package.

I do NOT want a used copy.

So I'm going to have to order from a computer store, one that also has an Ebay Store (you can do that, if you want to sell stuff, you can open up an Ebay Store online, and you don't even have to have a "real store", you can do so from your coffee table or basement)

Now I get it.... wait until the last half hour of an auction (auctions have time deadlines) and hope the next highest bidder isn't watching their computer screen.

It was that simple (and I missed the obvious)

Be a Buyer Before A Seller

I want to sell stuff on ebay.

I want local (to me) Frederick Maryland people to ask me to sell their stuff on ebay.

I don't yet know what I'm doing

My first thought is to learn my way around ebay by learning what it's like to be on the other end.

... strategy:

Be a buyer before I'm a seller.

To date I've been buying stuff for my computer(s) that I'd normally shop for at tigerdirect.com

Here's what I've learned:

Buy It Now button

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. When you shop on ebay, which is to say when you search for stuff on ebay, the search page is divided into "top sellers" at the top and other listings that may not have the rating "top seller"

Once you scroll down you'll see similar items listed with not very much to help you tell them apart, save the seemingly low prices.

don't waste your time on the low prices... as soon as you bid, the price will go up

I find this infuriating.

I just look for the "buy it now" button and buy it

Amazon.com Putting Pressure on Ebay? Ebay Responds

A couple of posts ago I reported what I'd learned from my newbie experiences delving into the Ebay world. I reported that to offer something for sale on Ebay meant you had to pay Ebay up front. Amazon.com on the other hand let's you offer something for sale and you don't pay until it sells.

You see, Amazon.com has moved aggressively towards using it's juggernaut book seller/ electronics seller, Kindle selling super power and moved to take over a substantial portion of Ebay's auction business. Amazon certainly has the clout and extensive user base to pull this off.

I bought some stuff on Ebay, I bid on stuff, got confused, learned a bit and bought what I'd wanted and paid what I thought was a decent discounted price for it. My merchandise came on time as promised and over all I'd say I had a pleasant experience using Ebay for the first time.

What I learned: People put stuff up for auction and let you *think* they're willing to sell it for pennies on the dollar, or at a tiny fraction of what they really intend to sell it for.

Bait and switch?

Every time I bid on something that was so cheap I just couldn't pass it up, I got outbid... Every time, I mean within seconds. At first I thought someone in another state was bidding at the same time I was. I learned that the seller set a price that he refused to sell it for less, the too good to be true price listed was a ruse.

That pissed me off, I gave up for a time, I belong to a respected online marketing forum or bulletin board and posted a question. That's where I learned most likely the above minimum price point concept. Some one graciously told me about a "Buy it now" button.

I went back to the auction of the computer hard drive, licensed copy of Windows XP that I was after and "bought it now" for a price that I believed was lower than the store but not too much higher than I'd wanted to pay.

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I'm wanting to offer for sale ebooks I've written and plan to write on Ebay. Digital or Intellectual Property. Downloadable digital informational ebooks that have no delivery costs what so ever, no shipping costs at all, a *virtual product*.

I also found that Ebay now offers blogs, well I'm a professional blogger with well over 100 blogs under my belt.

Will post again soon as I learn more

Ebay in Frederick Maryland -Now I'm Buying on Ebay Left and Right

Ebay in Frederick Maryland

Now that I'm comfortable with Ebay I find myself buying software and computer hardware often.

I had to fix my daughter's computer, she managed to get a nasty virus and did not have the recovery disk as she bought her laptop used (and it didn't come with one)

Purchased a copy of Windows XP, with licence, still in the wraper: $61

Purchased an adapter to hook up an older IDE hard drive into a newer computer that uses the SATA format - $4.97 (did not see that it came from a Hong Kong distributor, that will take a while to get here I imagine)

Purchased an IDE hard drive (got it to replace an older computer so we have a spare in the house AND to serve as storage for our back ups, gonna network the computers) $42

Now I'm looking for an older version of Adobe Acrobat, which I'm looking to pay less than $100 for (the latest greatest version probably goes for $300 - $400 or more)

Looking for an older version of Jasc Paint Shop Pro, looking to pay $40 if I can, not worth it to me if it costs more than that.

I will soon get into learning the ropes on selling stuff on Ebay, but I felt it important to observe the Ebay expirience from the buyers view point first.

Last year I saw a store in East Frederick, across from the Sheetz, not far from the Fairgrounds that offered to sell your stuff on Ebay for you. Apparently there wasn't enough interest to generate enough cashflow to cover the rent on store front real estate...

Will see how easy it is to do this for Frederick Marylanders from this virtual platform.

I'm thinking you send me a digital pic of what you want sold on Ebay, I won't bother if you can't send me the pic, pics can be from a cell phone, I wont do it without a pic

more coming...

Just started buying on Ebay

Try it before you sell it

I can't in good conscious write about selling on Ebay without actually testing to see what the expirience looks like from the customers point of view.

Since one of my computers had a virus on it and I needed to reinstall (and said box did not come with a recovery disk because I got it used) I made my first Ebay auction purchase.

A legal (not bootlegged) copy of Microsoft Windows XP ($60.00, with free shipping)

A description of the expirience:

I searched on Ebay for "windows XP"

kept seeing low prices... low enough to make me wanna buy RIGHT NOW

each time I seem to have been outbid within 5 seconds of my bidding... it's as if someone KNEW what I was going to bid as soon as I knew???

This went on for days... I figured that the person or company offering the product had set a pre determined price that was the lowest they would accept.

I saw XP on amazon.com for $80, I saw the same thing on Ebay for $30 (but could never get that price) 3 days running I bid up a dollar and was outbid within milliseconds

What gives?

I gave up... the next day I saw it "offered" at $20... that whetted my apetite!

got outbid again (wonder why I thought it'd be any different???)

Then... I got smart (or the person offering the product got smart, haven't figured out which one of us "got smart" first)

I spotted a "Buy It Now" price... more than I'd wanted to pay but less than I saw it on amazon.com

Presto Chango: my first sucessful "bid"

What to look out for if you want to sell on Ebay

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http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/55529-what-ebay-order-processing-solutions-available.html
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As soon as you get away from personal service you will create unhappy customers who will ruin your feed back on Ebay and then your account can be restricted.
Under the current scene you must accept paypal and all Ebay customers are trained by Ebay to get refunds and raise disputes.

Ebay customers are very high maintenance and with the current trend on Ebay to give more power to the buyer and less to the seller it would be easy with an automated system to lose control

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http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/55242-ebay-amazon.html
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Amazon has a graduating commission rate. The more sales you make, the higher the commissions.

But, eBay pays $25 for each new sign up.

And, using both creates too many choices for your customers.

I'm leaning toward Amazon because...

1. They have a better looking page.
2. I think they may convert better. (not sure about that though)

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Do You Have An Ebay Store?(Article)
In this article we look at the benefits of having an eBay Store. Selling on eBay does not require you to have an eBay Store, but it sure does make things a lot easier. There are 3 store subscriptions you can sign up for with eBay Basic (15.95/month), Featured (49.95/month), & Anchor (499.95/month). Now most people starting out will of course go for the Basic store and not the Anchor. You would need to make huge profits to go for the Anchor ...

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Making money on eBay can be done in a number of ways. With an eBay registration, you can choose items found or purchased from estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores, and so on, or, you could actually become a buyer and then turn the items purchased. If you do a search for a solid selling item and find auctions with extremely low prices, there is no reason you cannot purchase and then turn around only to sell that same item for a higher, yet competitive price.

Another way you can use your eBay registration to make money is by finding items that sell but also items sold in lots. Commonly, people will list lots of clothing, jewelry, shoes, equipment, and other things that could easily be broken down into single sell items. Let us say you found a lot of women’s shoes. In this particular lot was four pair of brand name shoes, all in excellent condition. The seller was simply eager to get rid of things no longer needed so the item is listed at an exceptionally low price. You could purchase the items and then on your own eBay store, list the shoes as individual auctions, increasing the price somewhat. With this, you now have four times the earning power while still giving potential buyers a great bargain price.

The key of being successful with your eBay registration is to learn the insider secrets of how you can increase your money-making potential. The search option provided by eBay is a great tool used by buyers, as well as buyers turning to sellers. Before you start bidding on just any auction however, you want to do some research to identify items that are hot sellers. This way, you do not end up having to sell items at a low cost to move them either.

You might also find that with your eBay registration, you can locate items being sold that would enhance an auction you want to list. For instance, if you had a lot of baby bedding, you might be able to locate baby sleepers in excellent condition that you could offer as a bonus. By pricing the bedding lot right, you could easily absorb the cost of the sleepers and still make money.

eBay registration and all it brings is a very interesting and strategic process. Because of the growing possibilities, eBay’s online businesses have quickly become the fastest growing market in the world. No matter your lifestyle, background, or history, eBay creates an option to start over and build something that can make serious money. With your eBay registration, you can begin the process of learning the various features and benefits so you can take full advantage of what this particular site has to offer.

There have been thousands and thousands of success stories from people who had the heart and drive but no education or experience. Since eBay makes it so easy, these people have taken a dream, learned, and grown to make that dream a reality. You too have the same opportunity by using all the ways to make money, which includes buying at a low cost from other sellers and then reselling at a more competitive price.

Article Written By J. Foley

By: John Foley

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Article Written By J. Foley Simply Click Here Now To Join Or To Buy On eBay!