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The coupon code that you’ll need at checkout is: CJUNE0810P

Again, it expires on June 30,2008 and has a maximum discount of $100

If you didn’t get an email from eBay, it may not work, but it’s still worth a try in case it didn’t get to your email box. As far as I know it will only work for those that it was sent to, but again, give it a try and see.

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Enter repxchange. It’s an online repository that allows you to report bad buyers to other sellers. The buyers get updated when they become no longer registered. And you can quickly throw together a list of the maximum 5000 blocked bidders. Registered sellers also get access to a search that allows for searching by eBay user id and reports back anything that has been reported on that user.

All in all, this could be a very valuable tool. At some point, eBay will have to find a better way or a new way to fix their feedback as the current system only seems to be getting more and more lopsided. And there doesn’t appear to be much help from eBay for jilted sellers. Maybe repxchange can help out with that.

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After you’ve made purchases and it’s been credited to your eBayBucks account, you can then use those eBaybucks in the same way that you would an eBay coupon or Paypal Coupon. The program could end up being a pretty good deal for some buyers that do most of their purchasing on the auction giant.

We should begin hearing more about this program now that it’s being rolled out, but don’t expect any concrete facts about it until (if) they roll it out to all users. If they decide it’s not worth it, or not profitable, then it will most likely get shuttered and we’ll never hear about it again.

Salehoo is one of the largest wholesale product sourcing directories on the internet, and a frequent stop for folks looking to start a product based business - particularly eBay sellers. The site features almost 8,000 suppliers in over 10,000 product categories, and there is an active members for with over 45,00 members. The statistics sound interesting, but does is actually deliver?

It’s important to remember that SaleHoo is a directory. They don’t stock any products or have any prices on their own. But they have gone through the trouble to find the best suppliers of every type (dropshippers, wholesalers, manufacturers, liquidators) from all over the internet, made sure they were authentic, written up a summary of what each supplier could offer and then organized it all in a searchable database.

Each supplier is reviewed by SaleHoo staff, an independent eBay power seller and by the community members. For new members, in particular, the reviews help you understand what you are getting involved with before you place an order. The comments vary from technical points, such as: "They require a $100 minimum order.," to the realities of eBay competition: "Their prices are good if you’re buying for yourself, but for auction selling there’s not much profit to be made, especially on eBay!" One of the most interesting parts is the private member’s forum, where you can find gems of firsthand advice and experience that you can’t find elsewhere.

Membership to Salehoo is 100% refundable if you are not satisfied so, if you’re looking to expand your product supply chain for your eBay business… it might be worth checking out.

Finding an eBay coupon or Paypal coupon is a little like finding a needle in a haystack.  But why is it so hard?  Why aren’t there more ebay and paypal coupons available?

Well, the reason is pretty simple if we stop to think about it. There is hardly any benefit in it for eBay and Paypal.  Paypal coupons are nearly non-existent for that reason.  When a coupon is used on Paypal, the amount of the transaction goes down.  Paypal charges on the amount of the transaction.  They make less. 

Like it or not, that is also one of the reasons that eBay doesn’t do coupons very often either.  They own Paypal.  So if PayPal makes less, so does eBay.  The other reason is that they still have to pay that money to the seller.  So if you find a $50 eBay coupon, and use it, eBay still pays the seller that money. 

Normally, when a coupon is used, it is used at the market that it is issued from.  So a Home Depot coupon is generally used at Home Depot.  It directly benefits Home Depot.  An eBay coupon only indirectly benefits eBay.  Since it isn’t a direct benefit, eBay is somewhat hesitant to issue the coupons. 

For the most part, the coupons that are issued are customer appreciation coupons.  They are issued to buyers on eBay.  What the requirements for getting said coupons is, is not known.  But we’ll all continue using eBay anyways, so we can only cross our fingers and hope. 

You can still do a search for eBay and PayPal coupons and every once in a while, you will find one.  Often, they are tied to a user id though and will be unusable to anyone else.

After taking a look at it quite a bit in the last few weeks, I have to say that it’s quite the improvement.  The research stuff has multiple new graphs and information that gives you that extra edge in pricing your products.  They’ve also added a "Hot Research" section that allows for researching in through the hot categories, media, searches, products, and titles.  That gives you the ability to get a good feeling for what is up and coming and what is on fire at the moment.  It should help users keep on top of trends really well. 

Of course, the one thing that I use Terapeak for at the moment is the product research.  It’s so much easier than trying to do completed auction searches on eBay.  With the new version (Terapeak 5.0), I get a much easier to digest overview of the item.  Without scrolling down, I get the averages, general stats, days of the week, and the highest listings.  If I want more detail, I can scroll down and see all the data including all of the auctions that the search returned. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again here.  Terapeak is a very valuable tool.  They’ve still got the free (limited) search, but at just under $200 a year, it may very well be worth the money.  You’ll probably make it back in the first month!

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Of course, to get to the 75% bracket, you’ll need to send several million in sales to eBay. Most of us won’t be able to do that, so we’ll have to settle for a lowly 50% cut. Yeah, that’s not so bad either is it. Add to that the $25-$35 they’ll pay you for new members and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success if you send enough their way.

So, how do we take advantage of their generosity? We build websites of course. There are several ways we can go about this. If you’re comfortable with some design work and scripting (most won’t be) then you can build your own sites. All you’ve got to do is sign up for the eBay affiliate program at affiliate.ebay.com and then get an eBay developers sign in to get all the info you’ll need. It’s not an easy way to do it, but it gives you complete control over what and where you show the auctions.

If that sounds too complicated for you, and it will for most, there are several programs that will help you out with the process. One such program is BANS (Build a Niche Store). The program comes with many different website templates and all the coding is already done. You simply have to spend a little time setting up the hosting, domains, and a few settings in the software and you’re off and running, free to go about promoting the new eBay affiliate site you just made. Of course, something that makes something fairly difficult and makes it really easy isn’t going to be free. The cost of BANS is a one time purchase of $97. It seems steep, but the potential to make that money back quickly is there. Even if you only get a few people to sign up for eBay, you’ve made your money back. And the maintenance on a website is so little that you can easily leave it be and collect the money as people trickle in.

If you can’t leave eBay (or never used it in the first place), you might consider joining them as an affiliate. You automatically get the support of a multi-million dollar brand name and marketing behind you and the largest selection of product to “sell” in the world. You don’t have to worry about sourcing your product, shipping your product, or deal with unhappy customers. You just point them in the right direction and collect the rewards. Give it a try and see what you can do!

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Many of us pay for our eBay listing fees, final value fees, feature fees, and even store fees without batting an eye. We pay them because it’s the price of doing business with eBay. What if I you could eliminate nearly all of those fees? Would you? You bet you would.

Starting your own store can be much cheaper and easier than you might think. Let me break down the steps and costs for you. One of the first things you’ll need is a domain name. This is the address where web browsers will find your store. (e.g. ebay.com for ebay.) You’ll want to pick something that will be familiar to your current customers and also something that is explanatory in what you sell. If you sell computer hard drives, you’ll want it to be something along the lines of joesharddrives.com. Some companies get away with funny names that don’t explain much of anything, but they generally have pretty impressive marketing funds as well. Your domain name should only cost you about $7-$10 a year. See the resources below for where you can pick one up.

Once you have your domain name all picked out, you’ll need to find a host to host the website. In most cases, you can purchase the domain name from the host, so look for a good host at the same time as you’re looking for your domain. I like to use 1and1.com’s hosting as they include the cost of one domain in the subscription for the hosting. When you are looking for a host, there are a few things that you’ll want to look for. You’ll want to make sure that you have the ability to run the store software that you have chosen. (more on this later) In some cases, the hosts will actually help with the installation of the software. The thing to remember here is that it’s relatively easy to upgrade your hosting account, but it’s a bit more difficult to change hosts. Again, I currently prefer 1and1.com, but also have used/use godaddy.com. Both have very affordable packages (about $10 a month) and have pretty decent customer help desks.

Lastly, you need to select a software to run your store. There are many, many options that are available. A couple of the more popular ones are OSCommerce and ZenCart. And guess what. They are free. There are paid solutions that are available, but why pay for something when there’s a perfectly good free alternative? The one caveat with the free softwares is that they generally don’t come with much in the way of extra designs or add ons. Of course, you can pay for extras along the way if you want to pretty up the site after getting it up and running.

As a final tip, let me tell you that setting up your own storefront will be quite a bit more difficult than setting up your eBay store. There are a lot more settings that will have to be set and even more that can be set. But the bonus there is that you are in complete control of your site. You control how it looks, feels, works, and everything in between. eBay can’t tell you what to sell, or how to sell it. The rewards that can be had from running your own site can be numerous. Along with that comes the risk of not having eBay as a go between. If a customer has a problem with your product, they come directly to you, not to eBay. Weigh your options carefully, but I think you’ll like it if you do it.

Resources:

Domains and Hosting: 1and1 or Godaddy
Software: ZenCart, OSCommerce, Others (select e-commerce on left hand sidebar)

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Selling on Amazon is really pretty easy. You simply have to log in to your Amazon account, search for the item you want to sell and then click the “sell yours” link. Add a few details, a price and agree to a few terms and it’s listed. Listing an item is free. There are some pretty hefty final value fees and Amazon doesn’t let you adjust what you charge for shipping so you can come out short on occasion. But it does even out as you come ahead sometimes too.

You also have the option of subscribing to the Pro Merchant program for $39.99 a month and getting access to some more powerful listing tools that make listing large amounts of items a lot easier. The account also cuts the fees a bit and gets past the 40 item restriction that regular seller accounts have.

Each listing is active for 90 days after which it is closed and available for relisting. You can relist as many times as you would like and you can adjust pricing anytime while the item is active or closed.

As I mentioned before, the shipping is fixed. You receive a flat amount for the standard shipping or a flat amount for the expedited shipping. If you pack the item heavier than what Amazon allotted for the item, you’ll end up paying extra to get it where it’s going. One other thing to note is that they don’t make an easy way to handle shipping. Unlike eBay which is integrated nicely with PayPal (doesn’t hurt that they own the service), Amazon only allows for printing reports and such and then you’ll need to create your shipping labels separately.

Selling on Amazon could be easier, but the selling prices are usually a bit higher than what they are on eBay. The difference, of course, being that your price is being compared to the retail price that Amazon has listed and the fixed prices that your competition sets. If you’re in a hurry to sell, you can simply price your item lower than others. If you aren’t in a hurry, you can price it higher and see if it sells. You can always adjust the price later.

At the very least, Amazon is a great supplement to eBay. It can also serve as a great alternative to eBay. Many of the sellers that close up shop on eBay are making the move to Amazon.