eBayNut

The Death of Digital Products on eBay?

2008-03-28T13:19:00.004-06:00

eBay has announced that as of March 31st, they will no longer allow digital products that are sold by download to be offered on eBay UNLESS they are physicl products (on a CD) and advertised in the Classified Ads section. It costs $9.95 to place a classified ad on eBay.

The reason they give is that some dishonest sellers are placing one cent ebooks on eBay and quickly building positive feedback so that they can use other eBay services that require higher feedback levels.

If that was really the problem, they could have solved that by saying that no digital download product could be sold for less than $9.95. By dropping digital download products, eBay has killed off about 10,000 sellers, some of which sell only ebooks (and lots of them).

eBay says you can take your digital product and put it on a CD and sell it. What about handicapped people that cannot do this? What about people who buy your CD, pay for it, copy it, then return it and demand a refund? With digital downloads you can state "No Refunds" right in the listing. Since CDs are a physical product, you have to offer refunds according to eBay's TOS. (Terms Of Service).

Finally, does this really solve the problem? What if a dishonest seller listed a $5,000 course with 16 CDs and 4 manuals on eBay then had three friends "buy" it? In the listing it could say "Payment by certified cashiers check only". Now the financial transaction is not going through PayPal so eBay cannot verify that ANY money was paid. Bingo! Instant Power Seller with just three sales per month to "shill" friends!

There are only two possibilities as I see it.

1. eBay is not telling the whole story and has some other reason for this change. After all, they are loosing the listing fees and final value fees for over 40,000 sales per month with this move.

2. The person who made this decision is far, far, far to stupid to be working for any company and making management decisions. Especially a company like eBay.

You pick, I'll go along with either one (or both).

Personally, I plan to just switch to selling my digital products on CDs. On each CD will be a link to my web site where digital downloads are still possible and I do not have to pay eBay listing fees or final value fees.

What's you take? Leave a comment/feedback and I'll try to respond to each one.

eBayNut

Selling Tips For eBay Beginners

2006-03-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

The following article is reprinted with permission. It contains some good tips about selling on eBay. It does not get into the advanced eBay tactics, but I will cover those in future articles.

*** Start of Quoted Article ***

Crucial Tools for Beginning eBay Sellers

It does not take much to get started selling in eBay. This beginner's toolkit will not magically turn you into an eBay millionaire overnight, but it will improve your competitive position

So you have decided to venture into the world of online selling! Maybe you want to use an old collection as the starting point, or you are trying to turn a cherished hobby into a part-time business. If you want to sell seriously on eBay (or another online auction site), i.e. do more than get rid of the junk cluttering up your garage or attic, you will find that the following items can really help your business, no matter what you are selling. It is assumed that you own a computer with an internet connection and have already started your account with the online auction venue. This beginner’s toolkit will not magically turn you into an eBay millionaire overnight (and you should beware of any programs making such claims), but it will improve your competitive position.

1. A digital camera. Yes, eBay offers stock photos of many items, such as books or DVDs. However, that does not help you if you are selling homemade crafts, for instance, and even if there is a stock photo, you might want to show the item from a different angle, or use a close-up. You do not have to spend a fortune on a high-end model, though an optical zoom, a macro setting and the ability to adjust white balance are important. Some good information on selecting a camera and photographing auction items can be found here: http://www.search.reviews.ebay.com/members/camerajim/

2. A tripod. No matter how firmly you grip your camera, holding it in your hand can easily introduce some blurring, and auctions with blurry photos are less likely to receive bids. A tripod will improve your photos considerably.

3. A photo-editing program. You will want to crop your image, adjust brightness and contrast, maybe add text or a border. You do not need a high-powered program for this, and the freeware Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) may cover our needs. Also, look at older version of programs such as Microsoft Digital Image, which can be purchased quite cheaply.

4. A digital postal scale. As you will mail out your items to the winning bidders, it is important that you invest in a postal scale, so that you do not over- or underpay on postage.

5. Your own website. This should ideally have its own domain, as you want to create your brand identity. You can have it “point” at your auctions (eBay has a tool called HTML Builder that lets you do that) for right now, and maybe later develop it a secondary sales channel.

6. Business cards. Even if you are only starting out to sell online, you want to project a professional image. Have some business cards printed up at an office supply store or one of the many online suppliers (such as http://www.vistaprint.com/) and include your e-mail address and website on them. Slip in a business card with every shipment, and always take some with you, in case your online venture comes up in conversation.

7. Information, Information, Information. Don’t sell things that you know little or nothing about. Research your articles online and at your local library. Research going prices by checking completed auctions on eBay (do a search for the item, then click on the check box “Completed listings” and search again). You can also use Auction Shark (http://www.auctionshark.com/) to check prices on running auctions at eBay, Amazon, Yahoo and Overstock.com.

About the Author Pamela Bruce lives in Austin, TX. She is the owner of Love Beads Unlimited and sells the sterling silver and Swarovski crystal bead jewelry she designs and creates both in her eBay store (http://stores.ebay.com/LOVE-BEADS-UNLIMITED) and on her website at http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com/, where you can also download the free e-book "A Consumer's Guide to Buying Bead Jewelry Online".

*** End of Quoted Article ***
-eBayNut-

The Best Selling Product on eBay

2006-03-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

What is your best selling product on eBay? Every seller needs one or more items with "sex appeal". This will keep buyers coming back and telling their friends about the item. I have two that run continuously on eBay. My ad automator, "Manage Auctions" reposts these two products every time a listing for them ends.

My single most popular product is an electronic download named "Magic Subscriber". You can see it here (a new window will open). Since this is an item that is popular, I advertise it through safelists, emails, and to my newsletter subscribers. Some people who look at it out of curiousity don't buy, but they recommend the product to somebody else who does buy.

Some people, attracted to the listing by my promotions, click to see my other auctions and buy another product.

If you are selling physical products on eBay (rather than items delivered by electronic download) then you need something that draws traffic for those physical items. I have found that the used ham radio items I list always get viewer counts in the hundreds. Some have gone as hight as 600+ visitors viewing an item.

Since I always put prominent links in my listings for my eBay store, my "About Me" page and a link to my other auctions, these ham radio listings pull buyers to my other items. For example, I am selling my mother's old collection of thimbles and butterfly pins. Most ham radio operators are men and they do not usually collect thimbles or butterfly pins.

However, their wives/girlfriends do. I know that my cross promotions are working when somebody buys a ham radio product and also a thimble or butterfly pin!

The moral is, don't think of any of your listings as isolated items, look at them as items for sale and as lead ins to your other products. How often have you gone to the store to buy item X and also left with item Y? Your eBay auctions should work the same way.

Here's that link again to Magic Subscriber (a new window will open). By the way, my #2 best selling item of all time is in the cross promotions at the end of the auction. Can you guess which one it is?

Next time -

FREE eBay Templates For Your Auctions!

2006-03-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

eBay Forums: "Templettes"for "Inserts" ...

I've been on eBay for 6+ years, always have 8 or 9 auctions running there, and I am constantly learning about new features of eBay. Today I discovered a "hum dinger". (For those of you who grew up North of the Mason Dixon line [Yankees] a "Hum Dinger" is a Good Thing!)

There is a forum discussing the "INSERT" feature of eBay's "Sell Your Item" page. You can build templates of your selling policies, shipping policies, payment policies etc. and store them on eBay so that they are just one button away when you build your next listing!

NOTE: The forum is host to a large number of people who design templates. You don't have to get into doing designs yourself. Everything they post in this forum is free for the taking. They even provide source code! Just click and paste and you have got yourself a new FREE auction template. Lots and Lots of free templates.

I have been building templates on my computer and doing "Cut & Paste" to get them into my auctions. No more! Now I just click a button while inside the lister to add borders, headings, notes, and any other boiler plate.

If you sell on eBay, this feature will make your auctions look a LOT more professional and your auctions will be much easier to do. Check it out, you will not be disapponted!

eBayNut

Official Google Blog: It's in the mail...

2006-01-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

Been using Google's GMAIL and bemoaining the fact that there was no Delete button? Problem solved!

Official Google Blog: It's in the mail...

Tell More to Sell more

2006-01-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Research by hundreds of eBay sellers have shown that the more you say about your item, the higher the bids go and the less time you spend answering questions.

Now, here's a tip to sell even more. Describe your item TWICE! The first time, use bullets to highlight major points. Things like,

brand new

hardly used

includes power supply

recently refurbished

etc.

Next, give a long and complete description of the item.

Some folks like brief summaries - they will be happy with just the bullet points.
Some folks like lots of details - they will be happy with the longer description that follows.

Furthermore, when potential buyers come back to take a second look at your item, the bullet summary at the top will give them a quick reminder without having to read the entire long description.

More next time.

Christmas is over, business is up, up, up!

2006-01-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

01/08/2006

Worried that nobody will bid on your stuff since they spent all their money on Christmas? Fear not, the bids and listings are running hot and heavy. Just jump in and list away, the after Christmas business is brisk this year!

Want to find out what is super hot? Just scroll down on the home page and watch the left column. When you see "Pulse", click on it. You are presented with a list of the items with the most "watchers" on all of eBay.

In that list, scroll down to where you can click on a category and see the most popular items in each category. This is good info and can give you some ideas on how to make your listings more popular. It will also give you an indication of what is hot and what is not.

Next time, we will discuss how to review products for eBay and boost your listings in the process.

BidNow on eBay

Online Marketing

2005-12-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

Click this link for a blog about online marketing. Online Marketing

Your eBay Camera

2005-12-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

In order to post pictures on eBay, you need a digital camera. No, a phone camera will not do. Read on.

I've been using an Epson 3000Z as my main eBay camera. It died. This seemed the perfect time to find a newer better camera. After days of in person and online research I settled on the Kodak Z740 as the best eBay camera in existence.

Reasons:

A 50X zoom 5 Megapixel camera! That's 10X optical and 5 X digital. Also, once you learn how to use it, you find that it will focus down to 4 inches. This beats the 12 to 20 inches I was getting from my Epson.

It is also a true TTL (Through The Lens) reflex camera. With the Epson, the back screen was TTL (as are all digital cameras), but the viewfinder looked out through a port in the front of the camera and not out through the lens. The Z740 gets both views through the lens. What you see is what you get.

Attachments: This camera will take filters, wide angle lenses, telephoto lenses and macro lenses. These lenses add onto the existing lens, they do not screw in replacing the existing lens. You are in the $750 to $1,200 range to get true interchangeable lenses. This is the next best thing and was the primary reason I chose the earlier Epson camera, lens attachments.

I bought mine in a local store using a $40 discount coupon I had received. However, search eBay for Kodak Z740 and you will find lots of refurbished ones for less than the $299 list price. Some come in "packages" or "bundles" that include tripods, filters, wide angle/telephoto converters, battery charges, etc.

The three primary considerations in a digital camera are (1) lens quality (you want glass, get Zeis, Leica, or Kodak Retinar the rest are plastic), (2) threads for filters and lens attachments, and (3) optical zoom quality. That last one is important if you will be photographing small objects such as thimbles, brooch pins, coins, etc. A camera with 200X zoom that gets only 2X optical and 100X digital is worthless because digital zoom is ALWAYS a pixel looser. Picture quality will suffer. Since most digital cameras get only 7X to 12X TOTAL (optical plus digital), finding a camera that could get 10X OPTICAL was a dream come true.

Finally, a disclaimer. If you are only shooting pictures of pets and kids and friends, get any camera. The $19.95 Barbie Digital will fit your needs just fine. For eBay, you want picture quality and most non-professionals tend to look only at the pixel count. These folks believe that 7 megapixels is vastly better than 5 megapixels. Only if you know what you are doing. Give me a camera that meets the three qualities I listed above and I will outperform your 7 MegaPixel camera (that does not have the three qualities listed) every time. Even if my camera (with the three qualities listed above) has only 1.8 MegaPixels!

So why did I start out saying a phone camera would not do? Easy, it has NONE of the three desired qualities we discussed above AND it has a low Pixel count. In other words, it is the worst possible "Kid And Dog" camera and its photos are not suited for auctions if you are going for top dollar bids.

Too Funny Turkey Card

2005-11-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

Turn your speakers on, click the following link and prepare to laugh out loud.

CLICK HERE

Happy Turkey Day!

-eBayNut-

ThinkFree Corporation

2005-11-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

If you use Microsoft Word or Excel or Powerpoint to create any part of your eBay listings, you will be very interested in a program called ThinkFree. It replaces all three of those programs, can run via a browser or as a workstation application and it is only $49.95. You can check it out here.
-eBayNut-

ThinkFree Corporation

New eBay Phishing Fraud

2005-11-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

By now almost everyone is familiar with the "Your account has been suspended" ploy to get you to enter your eBay login info at a bogus site. Now there is a new one.

In this latest scam, you get an email that looks like an official "Message From Another eBay Member". All the graphics are authentic (should be, they are loaded from the actual eBay site), but as with all such phishing emails, there is a catch. You have to log into eBay to answer such messages.

The "gotcha" here is that when you click on the "Reply" button, you get what looks like the real eBay login site. However, if you place your mouse over the Login button, you will notice that the host site is NOT eBay. If you fill out the login, you have just given away your most confidential eBay login information.

If you have already fallen for this, change your eBay login info at once. The way to avoid problems is to NEVER reply to these "Message From Another eBay Member" emails. Instead, log into your eBay account and check for messages in "My eBay". If you have any VALID messages from eBay members, they will be listed in your My eBay page.

-eBay Nut-

Shavar's Cool Blog

2005-11-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

I've never linked to someone else's blog before, but this one is so special that I decided to give him a link. Check it out, you will be pleasantly surprised!

Shavar's Blog

-eBayNut-

Hilarity The Day AFTER Halloween

2005-11-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

Everybody else is posting Halloween stories and pictures today. For something very, very, very funny and completely different on this post-Halloween day, try this laugh out loud site, ANGRY ALIEN.

They add new stuff every now and then, so check back from time to time.

-eBay Nut-

Microcredit Loans Make A Big Difference

2005-10-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

***Note: I do not support most US charities because they waste so much of the money they receive or else they use up too much of it in "overhead". I give to my church because I know where the money goes and that is about it. However, the following program is different.***

To see the difference between private initiative and government initiative, one only needs to look at various loan programs. We are all familiar with Social Security fraud, SBA Loan fraud, World Bank fraud and waste, etc. However, when private individuals step in, the picture changes drastically.

Let's look at Mike Espinilla who makes glass swans out of old flourescent lighting tubes. In America he would be celebrated as an environmentalist and a unique artist. He works out of his home in Philippines and the proceeds of his Microcredit loan are used to support his family. His loan came from the Philipine affiliate of the St. Louis-based Enterprise Mentors International. There is no government money here. Private individuals give money which Enterprise Mentors loans to needy families in third world countries. The repayment rate is 95.3%. Bankers in any developed nation would drool over a rate that astronomically high.

Loan recipients are expected to pay back their loans and then run their business off of their earnings. The original money is then loaned out again to someone else. "Each family we serve has an average total of five dependents who are beneficiaries. It's not just about money, but about how people discover their own potential for rising above poverty," said Jovy Guanzon, executive director of the Philippine Mecroenterprise Development Fountation, a division of EMI. "We teach them that poverty is just a place, and they can move out of it when they're able to recognize their own true potential."

One supporteer of EMI remarked that "The greatest pandemic of the world is poverty. What a poor and miserable world this would be without kind and thoughtful people to reach out and provide help."

One family in El Salvador uses their $50 loan to make and sell pinatas. One of the EMI representatives took a visiting girl from the USA to visit the pinata "factory" in the home of the Salvadoran family. The visiting girl was reduced to tears by the abject poverty she saw. When she understood what a difference the loans had made to poor families, she was determined to make a contribution. Upon returned to the USA she inspired her high school classmates to raise $50,000 for the program.

The vast majority of the recipients of the loans are women, many of whom are single mothers who lack the education or means to provide adequately for their families.

Loan money to support the program comes entirely from private donors. A donation equaling the cost of one tank of gasoline in the United States can make a significant difference to someone living in poverty.

For more information, go to www.enterprise-mentors.org.

Amazing Weather Photos!

2005-10-28T09:39:00.000-06:00

Link To Photos

A day in the life of a storm chaser. These are truly amazing pics and somebody risked life and limb to get them. We can't "see" what the wind looks like normally, but when it turns nasty, like in these photos, the cloud formations "show" us what the wind is doing. Simply Amazing.
eBayNut

It's Time to Winterize eBay!

2005-10-27T15:12:00.000-06:00

Some things sell better on eBay in the winter and some sell better in the summer. Winter time is upon us in North America and it is time to switch to the winter items.

With Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years all stacked up in line, now is the time to put up for sale anything you have that is in any way related to those days or can be made to relate through your clever description. Almost anything can be described as "The Ideal Christmas Gift" and thus related to Christmas.

Some types of things that sell better in the winter include, Infomation CDs, Music CDs, eBooks, How-To-Do-It Guides, Catalogs, Wholesale Source LIsts, Books, Magazines, Decorations, Gift Tags, Mailing Labels, etc. Think of indoor activities and anything related to indoor activities and you will quickly build a great list of items that only sell well in the winter.

If you don't have an inventory of things to sell, search eBay for listing that contain the terms "Resell" or "Resale" or "Wholesale". Caution, some items listed as wholesale on eBay can be bought cheaper at your local K-Mart, Target, or Wall-Mart store. However, items marked with resale rights can be resold. I have purchased a dozen or so ebooks from various sources and I keep them listed on eBay at all times. I have even been able to successfully sell them at much higher prices than other sellers. How do I do that? Read on.

The trick to getting more for an item is to tell more about the item. We've all seen those ads where there may be a poorly lit photo and three lines of descriptive text. These sellers do not have a clue. They remind me of the kids who used to come to the door long ago looking sad, selling magazines, and their opening line was, "You don't want to buy a magazine, do you?". Now there's a motivating sales line. Just start out by telling me I don't want what you have for sale.

When you listing is too brief, you are telling the prospective buyers that your either don't know much about the article you have for sale, don't care much for the article you have for sale, or that you don't think it is worth the time and effort to describe. Maybe you are saying all three in your all too brief listing.

Jazz it up! Tell how much it weighs. Tell how you got it if there is an interesting story about it. I increased my sales of antique snuff bottles by telling that I had inherited them from my Grandfather. (Which is true). Sales went up once I added that little tidbit of information. Is the color or finish unique? Is the model you are selling a hard to get style, color, or type? Are there other uses for the item besides the usual one? Tell, Tell, Tell if you want to sell, sell, sell.

Until next time this is eBayNut
My eBay Page
My eBay Listings

A Few Ham Radio Links

2005-10-20T16:34:00.000-06:00

If you are interested in Ham Radio, you might find the following link page to be of some interest. It leads to info on IRLP, manufacturers, dealers, etc.

Check it out here.

Settler's Of Cattan Variations

2005-10-20T16:01:00.000-06:00

There are over seventy variations on Settlers and here are just four of them.

1. Three Dice - You roll three dice on every turn. You can keep the totals from any two of the three. Unless you roll two or three of the same number, this gives you two or three choices of where to land. This also has the affect of speeding up the game and leads to a lot less complaints of "I never get a good roll".

2. Four Dice - You roll four dice on every turn. You may keep any one, two, three or four of the dice so long as the total on the ones you keep is equal to 12 or less. This gives even more choices of where to land and seems to make the game more fun for all players.

3. Lazy Robber. The robber starts out in the desert, laying down. On the first roll of seven he "wakes up". (Stand him upright) However, he does not move. On the next roll of seven he is moved as in regular play. On the third roll of seven he goes back to sleep (lay him down) and is out of the game. He can be removed from the board. Caution: With three or four players, this can cause the bank to run out of some resource cards. If that happens, just put him back in the game.

4. Dishonest Robber - This bounder can be bribed. Everyone decides in advance the number of resource cards required to "bribe" the robber to not land on your producing property. He goes back to the desert instead. Variation #1 - Two bribe prices. For a certain size bribe he goes to the desert instead of your resource tile. For more money, he can be bribed to go to some other resource square that you want to block. Variation #2 - Decide in advance if successive bribes are allowed. For example, someone "bribes" the robber to land on a tile that you want to keep in production. In this variation you could pay the higher bribe and move him somewhere else or back to the desert. NOTE: The robber is not a player and so has no use for the bribes he gets, so they are paid to the bank rather than to the robber.

I'll put more out here as time allows.

-Ebayer-

First Day Here!

2005-10-19T14:48:00.000-06:00

My Neice Heidi started a blog here and after looking at hers, I decided to start one.

This one will feature eBay Tips, Tricks and Resources plus other ramblings. And sometimes it will also discuss Ham Radio and some of the 70+ variations on Settlers of Catan.

-eBayNut-