Easysale's Tips

Should You Offer Free Shipping on eBay?

Both eBay sellers and buyers will be familiar with this tactic sometimes practiced by sellers hoping to avoid eBay’s Final Value Fees: they charge a very minimal price for the item itself (say, 99 cents for a book) but then offer what seems to be an unusually high shipping  and handling fee, e.g., $20 for said book. eBay has cracked down hard on these sellers the last few years, and understandably so, as it hurts not only eBay’s profit margins but also buyers and other sellers.

Some eBay sellers try to go around these restrictions by offering free shipping, and with the holidays just around the corner, you might be wondering if you should offer free shipping on your items as well. After all, you’re probably an online buyer, too, either on eBay or on other e-commerce sites, and have been drawn to many who throw in free shipping with every order or with a low minimum purchase order. Should you do the same?

You can factor the shipping costs into the actual eBay selling price and offer free shipping, but it might make more sense to both you and your buyer to separate the two. A study published in the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy in 2006 found that buyers mentally separate an item’s auction price from its shipping and handling fees, and that as long as the S&H fees were reasonable, they were willing to pay them on top of the final bidding price.

Most people are familiar with the idea of “shipping and handling charges,” which have been around since Benjamin Franklin started his catalog business in the 18th century, and will already be factoring all of that into their purchases. After all, shipping and handling fees aren’t just about postage but also about packing materials and the time and resources you must expend preparing and shipping your packages. Your customers will understand that, especially if you’re transparent in all your transactions and are committed to offering reasonable S&H fees.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should never offer free shipping. Try them as occasional promotional offers, as many ecommerce sites do, and extend them as special offers to longtime, returning and/or frequent customers. Remember that the best customers will come to your eBay store not just because of your price but because of your service. Focus on providing attentive service in your eBay store with immediate, courteous response times and prompt, reasonably priced shipping, and don’t worry about gimmicky promotions. Your customers will reward you for it.

We at Easysale charge reasonable shipping and handling charges on all of our items and have successfully maintained a stellar feedback rating. Our online auction consignment service has handled over 70,000 eBay transactions, taking care of both our buyers and sellers. Easysale’s liftgate-equipped Mobile Trading Units and Arlington distribution center can handle items of almost any size or weight. We also maintain relationships with many freight carriers that allow us to palletize and ship items by motor freight from our docks to virtually any destination. If you’d rather have us take care of all the shipping and handling hassles of your eBay sales for you, give us a call at(469) 759-6266.

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Finding eBay Treasures at Garage Sales: Myth or Reality?

Once upon a time, would-be eBay Power Sellers moved on from selling their own unwanted items to sourcing their inventory from yard sales, thrift shops and estate sales. Stories of the eBay seller who bought a $5 dining table at a garage sale and then subsequently selling it on eBay for ten, fifteen, even a hundred times that much still occasionally make the rounds, inspiring others to try and do the same.

But is it still possible? Can you still find that elusive big payoff at any of the hundreds of yard sales that dot the North Texas landscape every spring, summer and fall?

Sort of. You can make the rounds of every yard sale in your city or beyond and probably find something you can sell for a profit on eBay, whether it’s a used bike, camera gear, exercise equipment, computer games or software, or gently used (or never used) toys.

Unfortunately for the eager eBay seller, though, folks have become savvy about the relative ease of selling things on eBay and other online auction sites. They have any number of other options — both on- and offline, including brick-and-mortar consignment stores as well as online auction services such as Easysale — by which they can get rid of their unwanted or unused items themselves.

Yes, you can still find the odd treasure or two, but to become a successful eBay seller of used merchandise, you must:

• Be vigilant about the resources you spend, and remember that resources refer to more than just the money you fork over to the folks who held the yard sale or the clerk at Goodwill.  Keep meticulous records that track your time researching local yard and estate sales, traveling, cleaning, and listing your purchases on eBay. Let’s say you find a beautiful Nambe metal bowl for only $10. If you sell it for $20, did you make a profit? Well, technically you did, but consider how much gas you spent getting to that yard sale, the time you actually spent there as well as the time you spent getting it ready for listing, i.e., polishing it, photographing it, writing persuasive copy, and monitoring the auction. Then you have to box it, drive to the post office to have it delivered and then maintain correspondence with the buyer to make sure that it arrives safely. After all of that, your profits may really be more like $5, if not less.

• Know your merchandise. Know your Louis XVI from your Louis XIV. Know which baseball cards are valuable, and which are literally a dime a dozen.  If you have specialty knowledge in a particular type of item — whether it’s antiquarian books or vintage soda bottles or classic camera bodies — focus exclusively on that category to make the most bang for your buck.

• Love the thrill of the hunt for its own sake. Not every find will be a treasure. Some will inevitably fail to sell, while others will sell for more than you anticipated. If you don’t sell something, you can always keep it for yourself, store it for a possible future sale or resell it through other outlets.

Of course, if you really do just want to sell stuff gathering dust around your house but don’t have the desire to become an eBay Power Seller, you can always bring them to us at Easysale. We’re one of the most experienced eBay Trading Assistants and Registered eBay Drop-off Locations in the country and have sold literally tens of thousands of items. We do all the grunt work so that you don’t have to. All you really have to is sit back and watch the buyers come to your listing. That’s gotta be more fun than spending your Saturday mornings scouring Dallas suburbs for yard sales.

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Ethics and the eBay Seller

Contrary to popular belief, the average eBay seller really is a decent, ethical person. The truly bad apples get much of the press, and we would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that the site attracts its share of scam artists and counterfeiters, but most people sell on eBay do so because they have a product they don’t need or want and want to make a little money out of it, or they simply want to make an honest living.

Of course, folks new to eBay or who don’t sell on the site very often sometimes don’t understand what makes a compelling eBay listing. What makes people click on your item and want to buy it? What makes them decide to hand over their hard-earned money to you in exchange for a product they have yet to see?

The simple answer: trust.

Trust drives eBay’s success. Trust underscores every one of the millions of transactions that the online auction service processes every day of the year. To succeed as an eBay seller — whether you’re a Power Seller, aspire to be one, or simply want to get rid of some unneeded items — you must do all you can to earn the buyer’s trust and keep it.

Here are some tips on establishing your reputation as a trustworthy eBay seller:

Start out as a buyer. eBay’s feedback system gets a lot of grief and generates its share of controversy, but it remains the most common way that people can evaluate a user’s reputation. If you want to sell something on eBay, buy a few things first and rack up those glowing, positive reviews.

Sell something worth buying. Don’t sell counterfeit products. Despite what many believe, just because a seller is forthright in their listing that their $20 “Louis Vuitton” bag is a knockoff,  doesn’t make their sale any less illegal. Selling knockoffs is against the law, so stick with the real thing.

It’s all in the details. Provide lots of detail about the item you’re selling. If it’s scratched or beat up, say so. Don’t use euphemisms or hype; if the product is worth buying (and chances are, it will be), it should stand on its own merit without the multiple exclamation marks and over-the-top claims. Use persuasive language and colorful description, but don’t overdo it. Ebay buyers are a savvy bunch and will resist the annoying hard sell.

Take lots of pictures. Don’t use stock photos, unless you’re selling a brand new, still-in-the-box item. Buyers will want to know the condition of the item before buying, and they’ll want to see it for themselves. Barring an in-person visit, they’ll want focused close-ups, so make sure you have the equipment and/or software to give them just that.

Communicate! Respond to buyers’ questions promptly. Don’t be vague in your answers, either. Be friendly but professional.  When the auction is over, send a brief email congratulating the buyer on winning the auction (or buying a Buy It Now item) and let them know that their item is on its way.

Ship immediately. Especially with the holidays just around the corner, there’ll be a flood of new and returning eBay fans who’ll be flocking to the site in the coming weeks to do their Christmas shopping. They want their gift items fast, so be the eBay seller they can rely on to deliver on their promise of “fast, easy shipping.” Don’t wait a week or even a day, if you can.

Once you’ve achieved a solid 99%+ feedback rating, do everything you can to maintain it. Repeat all the above steps ad nauseam. It can be hard work, but the results will be worth all the effort.

If this sounds like too much work for you but you still want to sell on eBay, give us a call at Easysale, your local eBay consignment service right here in Dallas. We work around the clock to keep our eBay store’s prized 99%+ rating and will do the same for your listing.

How to Take Compelling eBay Photos

One of the best ways to draw potential buyers to your eBay auction is to include plenty of eye-catching photographs of the product(s) you’re trying to sell. You could spend a lot of time and money adding expensive features to your listing, from borders to bolded text, but if you don’t have photographs to back up your claims as to the item’s appeal, buyers will be likely to move on to the next listing in their search.

If you have a digital camera, it’s easy to create a visually compelling listing that will attract buyers and encourage them to bid on your item. Just follow these simple steps to compose your photographs, and within minutes you’ll have a collection of attractive images to accompany your item listing.

1. Use bright, natural light as much as possible. Indoor lighting can cast harsh shadows and make an image look “flat.” Open windows or, if possible, photograph your item outdoors.
2. If you don’t have access to bright, natural light, use a tripod and take the photo without using theflash. If necessary, use a higher ISO setting (400+), but try not to go too high or the image will look too grain.
3. If you must use a flash, cover it with a light tissue to help diffuse the brightness and minimize glare.
4. Unless you have a macro lens, don’t get too close to your item. Highlighting detail is very important, but you don’t want to be so close that you end up with a blurry image. You can always zoom in and crop later with an image editing program.
5. Pay close attention to the item’s surroundings. Avoid cluttered backgrounds that may distract the buyer from the item itself.
6. If you’re selling clothing, accessories or jewelry, ask someone to model it for you so that buyers have an idea of its scale and how it looks on a real person.
7. Take more photographs than you think you need, from many different angles. That’s the beauty of digital cameras: you can always delete unwanted ones later.
8. Since the pictures will be for the Web, you don’t have to use the highest-resolution setting on your camera, but you shouldn’t go too low either. Opt for medium-resolution shots to make sure that you’re getting as much detail as is necessary.
9. If possible, take your own photographs of your item, even if you find stock or manufacturer photos of it online. It proves to the buyer that you actually possess the item and gives them the chance to view its condition themselves.

At Easysale we have professional photographers with expertise in creating beautiful, irresistible pictures to accompany item listings. Let us do all the work for you to ensure a successful, profitable eBay sale. Call us at (469) 759-6266 for details.

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Start Planning Now for eBay Holiday Sales

Have you thought about your eBay holiday sales strategy yet? If not, you need to do so now. Although the start of the Christmas shopping season doesn’t “officially” kick off until the day after Thanksgiving (otherwise known as “Black Friday”), eBay sellers must have their sales plan in place long before that time.

It’s no secret that retailers are understandably nervous about their holiday sales numbers. Recent news reports indicate that both traditional stores and online retailers plan to limit their inventory to avoid overstocking their shelves and ending up with unwanted merchandise in January. Savvy eBay sellers can take advantage of this anticipated shortage of gift items facing the holiday shopper by offering alternative gift ideas and a reliable source from which consumers can safely and easily buy from the comforts of their own home.

Nearly every holiday season launches at least one “hot,” must-have toy or gadget, but those can be difficult or extremely expensive to obtain for resale. Fortunately, there are plenty of “evergreen” products that gift recipients always welcome and are much appreciated:

• Electronics: mp3 players, cell phones, smartphones, ebook readers, accessories

• Cameras: digital, HD, camcorders

• Computers and software: netbooks, laptops, peripherals, software programs, cases

• Video games: A perennial favorite. Games for the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation and XBox are especially popular.

• Designer and vintage clothing and accessories

• Jewelry and watches

• Books: first-editions, vintage/antiquarian, reference books

• Toys: movie merchandise/promotional tie-ins, dolls, stuffed animals, robots

• Board games: children and adults

If you can offer these to eBay’s holiday shoppers, you’ll stand a good chance of making money on your eBay sales. Of course, if you’re also an individual seller who simply wants to take advantage of the shopping frenzy to get rid of unwanted but still valuable items, you can simply call us at Easysale , or come by in Dallas on Lovers Lane. We’re a full-service eBay consignment store based right here in the Metroplex and will use our expertise and experience to ensure that your auction achieves maximum success.

The economy has forced people to rethink the truth behind the long-held belief that gifts must always be brand-new, fresh-out-of-the-box. They’re doing more shopping and price comparison research on the Web and are more comfortable with online security than in the past. Most importantly, the recession has encouraged them to consider quality, gently-used items for gift-giving. Ebay sellers and consignment stores stand to reap the benefit of this national embrace of frugality.

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