Offering international shipping increases the number of potential buyers attracted to your listing, which can fuel a bidding war and increase the final bidding price. To ensure success as you open up your listing to foreign buyers, keep in mind these easy tips:

1. As you would do with domestic shipments, get the specific dimensions of your listed item, including all the packaging. This will allow you to give buyers a better shipping estimate.
2. Use eBay’s Shipping Calculator and add it to your item description. This is where the work you put into capturing your package’s exact dimensions pay off, as the Shipping Calculator will give buyers in just about any country in the world a good estimate on their shipping costs. Make sure you remind your buyers that the Shipping Calculator only offers an estimate of shipping costs, that the final cost may vary and that customs fees and import duties, if any, are not included.
3. Many international carriers automatically provide insurance to all packages up to a certain limit. If it doesn’t, or if the coverage is less than the value of the item, make sure that you purchase adequate insurance. You can offer it as an option to your buyers — international or domestic — require it, or include the cost in your handling fees.
4. If an international buyer opts out of purchasing insurance, inform them — either in your listing or in a separate email to the winning bidder — that you are not responsible for loss or damage to the package once it enters the shipping network. Packages shipped overseas pass through a lot of hands and transportation services, so you’ll need to make sure that you protect yourself should something happen to the item while in transit.
5. Inform the winning international buyer that they will be responsible for any customs duties and taxes once the item enters their country’s borders. Each country has its own customs policies regarding the import of used items. Many foreign buyers will already be aware of these, as they’ve probably had to deal with them before in previous eBay transactions, but others aren’t so savvy and will need to be told upfront so that there aren’t any unpleasant surprises.
6. Some international buyers may ask you to mark the item as a “Gift” on customs forms in order to avoid customs duties, but this is illegal and may result in penalties to you, the shipper. Customs officials are entitled to open any imported package for inspection and can flag your item if it looks suspicious — that eBay manifest/invoice is a dead giveaway! — so stick to the rules and mark the nature of the shipment accordingly on the forms.
7. Insured or not, make sure that the item is packed carefully and securely to minimize damage.
8. Fill out all customs forms completely and accurately. It only looks intimidating but is actually quite simple. Ask the associate at the shipping counter for assistance if you have any questions. In the future you’ll be a pro at filling them out, so take lots of extra blank forms with you so that you can easily offer international shipping on future eBay listings.

If you’d rather not deal with the hassle of selling on eBay, give us a call at Easysale to find out how you can make money with your unwanted or unused items with little effort on your part. We sell to buyers worldwide and take care of all the work of preparing your item for listing and even shipping it to the winning bidder, wherever they are on the globe.Call us at (469) 759-6266 to find out more.

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1. Indoor Christmas décor: Vintage and rare, traditional decorations do especially well on eBay. Although November is always a better time to list these in preparation for the after-Thanksgiving decorating rush, you’d be surprised at the number of people who wait till the week or even the day before Christmas to trim the tree. In addition, you’ll catch bargain hunters who wait till the week after Christmas to stock up on lights, ornaments, holiday village accessories, and wrapping materials for next December.
2. Outdoor Christmas décor: The recession has inspired people to look to the home for comfort and a peaceful respite from the stresses of rampant job losses and wage cuts. They may not be buying outdoor holiday trees and lighted reindeer in droves, but they still want their home to reflect the happiness and joy of the season.
3. Holiday sweaters: You know the ones. Some people consider them festive reminders of the season, others think of them as hideous fashion faux pas. Regardless of where you stand on the sartorial divide, you can’t ignore the tremendous popularity of those reindeer-emblazoned, tinsel-festooned woolen sweaters. A few hardy folks with a wicked sense of humor even throw holiday sweater theme parties – the more outrageous, the better! So dig out those half-forgotten sweaters from the attic and consider selling them on eBay, just in time for the party season.
4. Winter sports attire: Designer coats and boots do well on eBay, but even those from well-known outdoor apparel manufacturers such as REI, LL Bean, Timberland, and The North Face sell exceptionally well. These brands make especially durable and well-made products and often come with lifetime guarantees, so eBay buyers consider them to be worth the extra price.
5. Winter sports gear: Thinking of upgrading your ski or snowboarding gear? If your current equipment is in good condition, consider selling them on eBay. Now’s the time that buyers will be thinking of getting all their gear together in time for the January winter sports season, so dust off those blades or boards and get them ready for their eBay listing. You’ll also be able to catch those folks looking for last-minute gifts for the sports fan in their lives.

Regardless of what you plan to sell, don’t forget to take plenty of high-quality photos and create appealing, extensive product descriptions to entice your eBay buyers to bid. If you’d rather have someone else do all the hard work for you, feel free to stop by your local Easysale store with your items or to call us at (469) 759-6266.

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If you haven’t heard of Freecycle, you’re missing out on a fantastic opportunity to minimize the junk that ends up in our local landfills while at the same time helping out a fellow community member in need. Freecycle is a nationwide, online grassroots movement that seeks to redistribute members’ unwanted and/or unused items to other members at no charge.

That’s right: it’s free, hence the name, Freecycle.  Its mission is simple: members can post items that they would like to give to someone else in the network or to request items that they would like to receive. That’s it! The network operates as a Yahoo! Groups mailing list, so you’ll need to have a Yahoo! account in order to join, but once you have, you’re welcome to jump into the fray.

The Freecycle Network (TM)  is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and has over 4,800 groups and 6.7 million members worldwide, making it the largest online environmental community in the world. Don’t be overwhelmed by the numbers, though: each member belongs to at least one Freecycle community group, with the Dallas/Fort Worth area alone hosting a dozen or so that cater to the different parts of the city as well as the suburbs, including North Dallas, Central Dallas, East Dallas, Plano, Carrollton, Irving, and many, many others. You can choose to be a member of just your own corner of the Metroplex or join multiple others, although keep in mind how far you’re willing to travel to pick something up.

Before you hop aboard, bear in mind some fundamental rules of etiquette that the umbrella Freecycle organization enforces in all of its groups, such as a ban on the distribution of pornography, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, or prescription or nonprescription medications. Local groups each have at least one volunteer moderator who ensures that members adhere to the general Freecycle rules as well as any other guidelines specific to that membership. Many Freecycle groups, especially those that cover small cities or suburbs, are more relaxed about what members can or cannot do, while others are strictly moderated and do not tolerate any member who abuses the rules. All, however, must follow the basic rules regarding the distribution of illegal or inappropriate materials such as those mentioned above.

The most important thing to remember is that the Freecycle Network is a community dedicated to keeping things out of landfills and into the hands of people who want what someone else may no longer need or want. As Freecycle and its moderators take pains to point out, it’s not about finding people to fulfill your wish list of expensive items; selling items (no exchange of money must ever take place over a Freecycle transaction); bartering, which is strictly prohibited; or advertising your yard/garage/estate sales. Some people use Freecycle to source items that they immediately turn around and sell on eBay or even their own garage sales, but most local groups have clear rules governing that particular use of the site, so read the guidelines carefully.

So if you have an old couch, VCR, bicycle, toys, clothes , books, school supplies, appliances,electronics,  or even cars (yes, people have gotten cars off of Freecycle, although it’s not that common), try offering it on your local Freecycle mailing list. Chances are, you have a lot of things in your garage or attic that won’t sell for much on eBay but will likely find a good home elsewhere in the community.

If you’re in need of something yourself, try posting a “Wanted” request, as someone else may have exactly what you need just languishing in their own attic. Freecycle does, however, suggest that members who want something should post an Offer first to establish goodwill, introduce yourself to the group and encourage the spirit of sharing that inspired the first Freecycle transaction.

For more information, visit the Freecycle website.

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So check around your home or business…if you have any of these items just sitting around gathering dust, selling them now with Easysale’s eBay consignment service will get you the fastest sale and the highest price!

1. Educational learning systems (Leapfrog, VTech)
2. American Girl dolls and accessories
3. Karaoke systems with monitors
4. Portable DVD players
5. Internal notebook hard drives (500 GB and larger)
6. Montblanc pens
7. Saltwater fishing rods
8. Ice hockey goalie equipment
9. Lenox figurines
10. Video gaming systems

If you’re ready to take advantage of “what’s hot” on eBay, just visit our Easysale Dallas-Fort Worth eBay store location, or call us at (469) 759-6266

Many holiday shoppers won’t be first-time buyers online, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less wary than virgin Web shoppers about online security. As one of the largest eBay stores in Texas, Easysale prides itself on the trust our buyers and sellers have granted us over years of doing business in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  If you’re an independent eBay seller, however,  how can you reassure your buyers that you will be zealous about protecting their privacy and personal financial information?

1. First and most importantly, do everything possible to maintain a high feedback rating. The fewer transactions you’ve done, the closer to 100% feedback you must have. If you haven’t quite reached that point, help boost your numbers by making a few eBay purchases yourself. Of course, that means being a stellar, responsible buyer as well.
2. Offer a flexible return policy, and then honor it. Display that policy prominently on all your eBay listings as well as in your eBay store.
3. Don’t be coy in your shipping prices in your eBay listing. Be clear and precise in calculating your item’s shipping prices at all levels of delivery (i.e., Overnight, 2nd Day Air, Ground, Media Mail, etc.).
4. Provide full, accurate descriptions and offer as many detailed photographs as necessary to give the buyer enough information in your eBay  listing to make an informed decision about buying. The more valuable the item, the more important it is that you not skimp on the details, especially if it’s used and/or has some damage.
5. Maintain open communication lines at all times throughout the entire auction. Respond promptly to any and all requests for information.
6. Deliver on time! You might be surprised at how often amateur and even some so-called “professional” eBay sellers delay shipping. Ship your items to their winning bidders as soon as the auctions end. That means preparing the item for shipment before the auction closes so that it’ll be ready to go once the winning bidder has been declared.
7. Ship securely. Pack every item carefully, even if it’s just a book or magazine. Wrap small items in gallon-sized plastic zipper bags to protect them from moisture, and use plenty of packing paper and/or bubble wrap with larger items. Tape boxes and packing envelopes tightly so that there’s no chance of them falling apart in transit. Make sure that you include eBay’s printable shipping form to remind the recipient which auction this came from. As a memorable touch, consider a simple thank-you note, too.
8. Repeat all of the above steps for all of your subsequent eBay listings.

Sounds like a lot of work? Consider using Easysale’s easy, personalized eBay consignment service. We’ll take your items, provide you with an estimate of its value, prepare it for listing, and sell it for you in our highly-rated eBay store.  You can then spend the rest of your holidays doing your own personal shopping, maybe even from the proceeds of your Easysale eBay auction!

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If you’ve ever taken the time to read the fine print of even the 1040 instruction booklet, however, you’ll see that the IRS makes no bones about it: all income — regardless of source, even tips and gambling — is potentially taxable.

Perhaps you’ve been operating under the assumption that your eBay sales activities should be considered as a hobby rather than a business and therefore not subject to income taxes. That may be the case, but the burden of proof lies on you. If you’ve been selling secondhand merchandise that you originally purchased new, you might be able to avoid paying taxes if the selling price is lower than the original purchase price, which is what often happens in garage sales, yard sales and eBay sales. Since you didn’t make any money from the sale, you didn’t have any profits to report as income.

However, if the merchandise has appreciated in value — say, a rare video console from the ’80s — and you sell it for more than you paid for it new, then you’re expected to report the profits as taxable income.

Now, the chances of the IRS flagging you for an audit are fairly slim if all you’ve done is sell a few small, personal items here and there, even if you did make a little money off of them. That’s not to say that it will never happen, however, so it’s best to keep all your original purchase receipts so that there’s no question that you ultimately made little or no profit from their resale.

Of course, if you spend a considerable amount of time on your eBay sales and are dependent or even partially dependent on them for your income, you are required to report your sales on your income taxes and will likely need to file a separate form for them, e.g.,the  Schedule C or the 1040-ES for estimated quarterly tax payments for individuals who regularly make profits on a business. The good news, however, is that if you do have an eBay selling business, you’re eligible to deduct nearly all expenses related to running it, from your postage and packaging costs to the transaction fees you pay to PayPal.

Like everything else tax-related, it’s best to consult a qualified tax professional or accountant regarding any questions about your eBay income. Although tax season is still over a month away,  it’s best to start gathering records now so that you’ll be ready to present documentation to your accountant when it comes time to filing your tax forms. Keep meticulous records of your eBay sales, including receipts from the post office and eBay and from your purchases of items you intend to sell on the auction site. Regardless of how you view your eBay sales, it’s best to be prepared for the possibility that the IRS will step up enforcement of income tax laws on eBay sales in the future.

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If you’re selling on eBay for the first time, however, you’ll need to start small, and you’ll need to start now. People have always been careful with their hard-earned cash, but they’re even more so now that the economy has us a little skittish about spending too much of it. If there’s one thing that defines all successful eBay sellers, it’s the reputation of trust that they’ve built over hundreds, perhaps even thousands of transactions. As an eBay seller newbie, you’ll need to work hard to earn and establish that reputation. It’s not difficult to do and is worth the effort, but keep in mind these tips as you launch your eBay selling business:

• If you want to take advantage of the holiday shopping season, start now. Don’t wait until the day after Thanksgiving, because you’ll need to have a decent feedback rating under your belt before buyers will be willing to trust your listings. Start buying a few things now, be an honest and ethical buyer, and get that feedback rating up.
• Start small. Don’t sell your grandmother’s fine bone china right away. Even with a 100% feedback score, if your rating is based solely on a handful of purchases, buyers still have little evidence of your reputation as a seller, especially of high-end merchandise. Start out selling smaller, lower-priced items such as items of clothing, DVDs, CDs, books, or secondhand software. From there you can move on to higher-priced items and price accordingly.
• Think about opening an eBay store. It costs a little more money, but it can help boost your reputation as a professional eBay seller. It demonstrates to buyers your commitment to your eBay business and allows you to expand your selling opportunities by increasing the number of auction listings you’ll have going on at any given time.
• Slow down, but don’t stop on December 25th. People’s minds turn to returning unwanted items the day after Christmas, but there will also be plenty of folks out there on the hunt for post-holiday bargains. This might be a great time to unload some of your eBay store’s slow-moving items at a discount, such as winter wear and holiday decorations.
• Keep going. Like anything worth having, a solid reputation as an eBay seller takes a long time to build and maintain. Continue to offer buyers quality items and well-designed listings, perhaps offering frequent buyers discounts and other loyalty programs. If your eBay store continues to provide outstanding customer service and excellent merchandise, by the time the next holiday season rolls around, it’ll hopefully become the go-to store for eBay shoppers seeking Christmas bargains.

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The Problem

In a bricks-and-mortar retail store, you browse through the shelves and racks until you find the item you’re looking for.  Let’s say, for example, that you want a Sony PlayStation 3.  You would walk to the video games department of your favorite electronics store, and look around until you found the display of PS3 boxes.  Easy enough.

But eBay is different.  In most cases, browsing through a category for a particular item just isn’t practical, because of the sheer number of listings.  Again using our Playstation example, if you simply browsed eBay’s “Video Games” category, you’d find more than 613,000 items currently listed.

So what buyers do instead is use the Search tool built into eBay to find a more precise and manageable list of items.  Searching eBay for Sony PlayStation 3 system, for instance, yields about 580 listings–and you could get an even narrower list by specifying New, 80GB, etc.

And  there’s the challenge:  when it comes to searching, computers are very literal.  Their software is programmed to look for words in the listing titles that match your search terms exactly.

eBay knows that many buyers misspell keywords when they’re searching for an item, so they’ve added programming to suggest possible correct spellings if you inadvertently commit a typo.  For example, if you accidentally search eBay for palystation (transposing the second and third letters), eBay will helpfully ask, “Did you mean playstation?”

But there is no such help for the hapless seller who misspells, either out of ignorance or carelessness, a key word like the product’s brand name in their title.  eBay does not suggest or display misspellings to a buyer who searches for the correct spelling. Thus, if you list a “Palystation” for sale on eBay, the only buyers who will ever see it are those who explicitly search for that misspelling!

Bad for Sellers…But Great for Buyers

For a seller, this is disastrous.  The magic of an auction–whether live or on eBay–is in having dozens of people bid against each other to drive up the price.  But if only one or two bidders participate, there’s little or no competition, and the item may sell well under market value–possibly even for just the opening bid.  It’s as if the address for the location of a live auction was printed wrong in the newspaper advertisement, and instead of the expected crowd, only a couple of people show up because they found the location purely by accident.

(This is a great reason to use a professional eBay store like Easysale rather than trying to sell it yourself.  It’s one of the many kinds of errors that our listing staff is trained to avoid.)

But for you as a buyer, knowing how to exploit this little quirk can save you a lot of money.  If you intentionally search for those typos and misspellings, you can be one of those few people who find the auction–and with few competitors, you can often pick up a bargain.

How Much Can You Save?

To find out just how much you could possibly save with this strategy, Easysale performed a test.  We used a misspellings search tool–more on that in a moment–to generate many possible misspellings of PlayStation.  These included:

Note that one of these, Play Station, isn’t even a misspelling–there’s just a space between the two words, where there should be none–but that’s enough to fool eBay’s search engine.

We then used Terapeak (a subscription service that we use to do product research for our sellers) to find the average selling price (ASP) over the last 90 days for items matching each search term in the Video Game Systems sub-category.

As a reference point, listings that contained the properly spelled word–PlayStation–had an ASP of $140.  (Because we didn’t specify the system version, this average includes both the PS3 and older, less valuable systems like the PS2.)

What we found astounded even us as experienced eBay sellers:  the average selling prices of items with misspellings in the title were $20 to $100 less than the ASP for listings with the correct spelling.  Here’s a graph of the results; the ASP for correctly spelled listings is on the far left.

Just how much of a bargain is this?  Here are the results again, this time showing the effective percentage “discount” off of the “full price” of the properly spelled listing:

In a nutshell, you could get a 15-71% discount–at least in this example–just by shopping smart and taking advantage of sellers’ mistakes!

7 Tips for Finding Your Own Typo Treasures

1. Use software to find and search all the possible misspellings. Many people routinely search for Typo Treasures, so there are a number of of tools available that will take a correctly spelled word, generate many possible misspellings and search for them on eBay.  To get started, try the Typo Treasures Search page right here on the Easysale website.  Or to find some even more advanced tools, search Google for “eBay misspellings”.
2. Do your research so you don’t overbid.  As with any eBay purchase, be sure to research the ASP for listings with correctly spelled titles first.  Know what the market value of the item is, then set your maximum bid on any Typo Treasures at some percentage of that value.
3. Be patient.  You’re not the only one looking on the hunt for typos.  Stick to your maximum bid, and if you do get outbid by someone else who found the same listing, just go back to your search and try again.
4. Don’t ignore Buy It Nows.  The Typo Treasures strategy works best with auction-format listings, but watch for recently-listed Buy It Now (fixed price) listings with typos, too.  You may get lucky and find one with a below-market price before someone else stumbles on it.
5. Search eBay’s international sites.  Misspellings are more common on these sites due to the sellers’ frequent unfamiliarity with the English language.  But don’t forget to check the international shipping costs to be sure they don’t eat up your savings.
6. Watch for deliberate misspellings.  Unscrupulous sellers will often intentionally misspell a trademarked brand name when they’re selling a counterfeit or replica of that brand.  They do this to avoid detection by the trademark owner.  For example, if you search for Louis Vitton, you’ll find numerous items with titles such as “Louis Vitton Inspired” or “Louis Vitton Style”.  These items are replicas of the authentic Louis Vuitton designer products, not the real thing.  Read the listing carefully and be sure you know what you’re buying.
7. If you find a juicy misspelling, don’t tell the seller! It seems obvious, but well-intentioned people do it.  If the listing can still be revised, and the seller fixes the typo, then your “find” will now be visible again to everyone in mainstream search.

If you wanted to open a brick-and-mortar store, one of the things you’ll want to do is check out your competition, right? It’s the same with selling on eBay. By becoming a buyer, you’ll have a close-up look at how successful (and not-so-successful!) eBay sellers run their business.

Some tips on being an eBay buyer:

1. Pick the same category of items in which you’ll be selling. If you’re going to sell antiquarian books, buy something from that category. You don’t have to pick an eBay PowerSeller, but find someone with a fairly high feedback rating (around 96-98%, if not 100%) and a high number of transactions (100+).
2. Study their eBay listings. Analyze how they compose their photographs, how many they upload, how they word their descriptions and titles, and what keywords they use. What kind of shipping do they offer? Do they offer a Buy It Now option? Do they use the reserve option? How long are their auctions? Do they offer or require insurance? What types of payment do they accept?
3. Before you bid, ask a few questions from the buyer. See how quickly they respond (if at all). Do they answer your question(s) to your satisfaction? Do they sound friendly and open to questions, or are their emails brusque and dismissive?
4. After you bid, continue to monitor the listing to see if the seller updates it based on questions they receive.
5. Once you’ve won an auction, see how quickly the eBay seller sends you a notification of your winning bid (if at all). Do they tell you when they’ll ship the item? Do they thank you for your bid? Do they give you a tracking number for your shipment?
6. Once you’ve received the item, examine it closely. How quickly did it arrive? How was it packed? Did it arrive in good condition? Does it match the eBay seller’s description of it in his listing? Did the seller include a thank-you note?

Choose different eBay sellers as you do your research, and soon you’ll have a solid grasp of some of their success secrets. Most of these aren’t that difficult, but you might be surprised at just how lazy and unresponsive many eBay sellers are. Don’t be one of them. Be one of the responsible, friendly, responsive, and professional ones, and soon you too can join the ranks of successful eBay sellers.

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Depending on the volume of eBay sales you have, you may already have actual employees on staff, but if you’re just starting out as an eBay seller or are experiencing moderate growth but don’t yet have the inclination and/or funds to hire someone, start looking at the home first when you need help. Here are some responsibilities you can easily delegate to your children or spouse when it comes to selling on eBay:

Photography: Do you have a budding Ansel Adams in your family? Ask them to take photographs of the items you’ll be listing on eBay. Let them experiment with different angles, backgrounds and lighting. Encourage them to study how successful eBay sellers compose their winning photographs and learn from the pros. Remind them not to use their cell phone cameras when taking photos, regardless of how many megapixels it has!

Shipping & Handling: For many eBay sellers, this is the most tedious part of the job, but even small children can really get into the activity. Who wouldn’t like to play with packing paper and bubble wrap? Have them pack non-fragile items and stick mailing labels on the packages. Don’t allow younger kids to play with plastic bags or tape guns, but otherwise they’ll be happy to hold down the folds of cardboard boxes while you tape them up. Ask your spouse or teenage children to do post office runs for you on their way to or from work and school.

Source inventory: Who loves shopping more than teenagers? They’re also among the most trend-savvy folks out there, so why not promote your beloved mall-haunting offspring to your eBay store’s official Senior Buyers ? Ask them to come with you on yard/estate/garage sale haunts and discount store expeditions. You can learn just what trends are hot now and what will be hot a few months from now, and they can learn how to price inventory accordingly so that the family business makes a profit on eBay.

Inventory consignment: Want to consign your items instead of selling them on eBay yourself? Have your young “shipping staff” or spouse take them to our store in Dallas on Lovers Lane . Or better yet, have them call us at (469) 759-6266. Just like our name promises, the process is fast and easy.

Involving your entire family in the management of your eBay store allows your children to learn valuable lessons about entrepreneurship, responsibility and money management, all while spending lots of fun, quality time together.  As your eBay store grows, you can delegate more advanced responsibilities and might even be able to start paying “salaries and bonuses.” Now there’s an incentive everyone can get behind!

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