Manage Your Auctions

Manage Your Auctions

Making Your Auctions Run More Smoothly

In this section, I discuss a few more things that you’ll need to round out your eBay home base. The following things are important, but you must decide which tools you’ll use. Some people prefer a totally automated office while others prefer the old-fashioned way. One of my favorite eBay power sellers works with file folders, a hand-written ledger book, and hand-written labels. If it makes you happy, do it your way. I’m just going to suggest a few options to ease the pain of paperwork.

Software you can use

These days, software is available on this planet to accomplish just about anything. It would seem fitting that an all-encompassing software exists that can help you with your auction, right? Well, maybe. It depends on how much you want your software to do, and how much of your business you want to fully control.

Throughout the following subsections, I go through some software examples that you may find useful.

Auction management

Auction management software can be very helpful for automating tasks and making record-keeping easy. You can keep track of inventory, launch auctions, and print labels all by using just one program. Unfortunately, most of these programs can be daunting when you first look at them (and even when you take a second look).

But after you’ve mastered one, you’ll more easily manage your auctions.

You have choices to make regarding software: How much are you willing to spend, and do you want to keep your inventory and information online?

Maintaining your inventory online enables you to run your business from anywhere; you just log on and see your inventory. Online management software is tempting and professional, and may be worth your time and money.

A good many sellers prefer to keep their auction information on their own computers. It’s convenient and allows sellers to add a closer, more personal touch to their auctions and correspondence. Some folks say that keeping the information local, on your own computer, is more suited to the small-time seller. I really think it’s a matter of personal preference.

HTML software

You may want to try some very basic HTML software to practice your ad layouts. Templates are available, but you’ll want to preview your auctions before you launch them.

You can either check out your auctions in these templates with full-blown Web page software (such as FrontPage), or you may want to keep it simple. I use some software called CuteHTML all the time because it’s about as simple as it can get. Go to www.globalscape.com where you can download a 30-day free trial. If you like it, buy it for only $39.99.

Spreadsheets and bookkeeping

Many sellers keep their information in a simple spreadsheet program such as Excel. It has all the functionality that permits inventory management and sales info. For bookkeeping, I like Quickbooks, which is as complete as it gets. It’s straightforward, but only if you have a basic knowledge of accounting.

Collecting the cash

Credit cards are the way to go for the bulk of your auctions. Often, credit cards make the difference between a sale and a no sale. People are getting very savvy (and more comfortable) about using their credit cards online because they’re becoming better informed about the security of online transactions and guarantees against fraud when certain credit cards are used for those transactions. So although you might truly love and adore money orders, you need to take credit cards as well. In this section, I discuss another decision you

need to make: Do you want your own private merchant account or would you rather run your credit card sales through an online payment service? For more about these options, read on.

Online payment services

If you want to accept credit cards for your eBay sales, you may want to go with the services of an online payment service such as Paypal. Paypal offers excellent services and their rates are on a sliding scale, depending on your monthly dollar volume. When online payment services accept credit cards they

charge you a small fee and process the transaction with the credit card company. The auction payment is then deposited in an account for you. Unless your sales go into tens of thousands of dollars a month, an online payment service can prove to be more economical than your own merchant account.

eBay Auction Action

eBay’s Role in the Auction Action

Throughout the entire auction process, eBay’s computers keep tabs on what’s going on. When the auction is over, eBay takes a small cut of the final selling price and instructs the seller and buyer to contact each other through e-mail. At this point, eBay’s job is pretty much over, and eBay steps aside.

Most of the time, everything works great, everybody’s happy, and eBay never has to step back into the picture.

But if you happen to run into trouble in paradise, eBay can help you settle the problem, whether you’re the buyer or the seller.

eBay also regulates members with a detailed system of checks and balances known as feedback. The grand plan is that the community polices itself. Don’t get me wrong — eBay does jump in when sketchy activity comes to light.

But the people who keep eBay most safe are the community members, the buyers and sellers who have a common stake in conducting business honestly and fairly. Every time you sell something or win an auction, eBay members

have a chance to leave a comment about you. You should do the same for them. If they’re happy, the feedback is positive; otherwise, the feedback is negative. Either way, feedback sticks to you like glue.

Building a great reputation with positive feedback ensures a long and profitable eBay career. Negative feedback, like multiple convictions for grand theft auto, is a real turnoff to most folks and can make it hard to do future business at eBay.

If your feedback rating becomes a –4 (negative 4), eBay can suspend your buying and selling privileges.

Buying It Now at eBay Stores

You don’t have to participate in an auction at eBay to buy something. If you want to make a purchase — if it’s something you really must have — you can usually find the item and buy it immediately. Of course, using Buy it Now (BIN in eBay speak) doesn’t come with the thrill of an auction, but purchasing an item at a reasonable price without leaving your chair has its own warm and

fuzzy kind of excitement.

Visiting eBay stores is as easy as clicking the eBay Stores link from the home page. Thousands of eBay sellers have set up stores with merchandise meant for you to Buy It Now. eBay stores are classified just like eBay, and you can buy anything from pantyhose to jewelry to toasters. Sellers who open eBay stores have to meet a certain level of experience on eBay, and you’re protected by the same fraud protection policy that you are covered with in eBay auctions.

To find out how to zero in on some of the lowest prices and best bargains at eBay Stores, skip over to Part III of this minibook.

All About Auctions

All About Auctions

The value of an item is determined by how much someone’s willing to spend to have it. That’s what makes auctions exciting. eBay offers several different kinds of auctions, but for the most part, they all work the same way.

An auction is a unique sales event where the exact value of the item for sale is not known. As a result, there’s an element of surprise involved — not only for the bidder (who may end up with a great deal) but also for the seller (who may end up making a killing). A seller pays a fee, fills out an electronic form, and sets up the auction, listing a minimum bid he or she is willing to accept for the item. Think of an auctioneer at Christie’s saying, “The bidding for this diamond necklace begins at $5,000.” You can bid $4,000, but it won’t do you any good. Sellers can also set a reserve price — sort of a financial safety net that protects them from losing money on the deal.

Bidders duke it out over a period of time (sometimes the minimum three days but usually a week or even longer) until one comes out victorious. Usually, the highest bidder wins. The tricky thing about participating in an auction (and the most exciting aspect) is that no one knows the final price an item goes for until the last second of the auction.

So you wanna sell stuff

If you’re a seller, creating an auction page at eBay is as simple as filling out an online form. You type in the name of your item, a short description, add a picture if you want to, set your price, and voilà — it’s auction time. eBay charges a small fee ($.25 to $4.80) for the

privilege.

When you list your item, millions of people from all over the world can take a gander at it and place bids. All you do is sit back and watch the bids come in. With a little luck, a bidding war can break out and drive the bids up high enough for you to turn a nice profit. After the auction, you deal directly with the buyer, who sends you the payment. Then you ship the item. Go out and meet your friendly mail carrier, courteously accept your payment, and grin wildly all the way to the bank. Abracadabra — you just turned everyday clutter into cash!

So you wanna buy stuff

If you’re a collector or you just like to shop for bargains, you can browse 24 hours a day through the items up for auction in eBay’s thousands of categories, which range from Antiques to Writing Instruments. Find the item you want, do a little research on what you’re buying and who’s selling it, place your bid, and keep an

eye on it until the auction closes.

When you see an item you like, you can set up a bidding strategy and let the games begin. You can bid as many times as you want on an item, and you can bid on as many auctions as you want.

90 day Power seller challenge Ebook

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