(Image of Etsy Homepage)

Selling on Etsy is easy and the fees are virtually nothing. There’s no complicated fee structure unlike other auction sites – it costs just 20c to list an item for up to four months, with a final sales fee of 3.5%. There are no featured upgrades, or gallery fees and Etsy staff pick to three lucky sellers each week and feature their items on the home page for no additional cost.

For buyers it’s even easier than eBay. No bidding, No offers. Etsy is a Buy It Now zone only, so the seller sets the price for the item and you simply agree to buy it or not. Shipping is also displayed on most item descriptions worldwide, so nothing will be left tonegotiate afteryou’ve bought the item.

With a massive range of categories from Accessories such as Belts and Watches to Wedding which includes sub categories like Invitations and Jewelry, you’ll find items that you never even knew existed.

For me what really sticks out at Etsy is that buyers have the ability to request custom items which they would like made. This is perfect if you have an idea for an item, but are unable to make it yourself. You simply list what the description of the item your after, the ideal price you’d like to pay and sellers and your deadline. Sellers then bid at your item if they are able to fulfill the request. Never before has it been so easy to get custom items made and having sellers compete to make them. At the time of writing, they’re is a request for sunglasses made out of razor blades (as seen in Lady Gaga’s music video) amongst other bizarre requests.

There’s no doubt that Etsy is here as an permanent fixture, and with some of the low start up costs of selling on the site it’s probably the most ideal venue to for any startup. Signing up as a seller is easy, you just need to verify a credit card with Etsy, although once you’ve done this you can pay your seller fees via paypal.  I’d love to here your opinion of Etsy especially if your a seller on the site. How does it compare to other Internet auction sites? Your comments are most welcome, as always please take the time to read our comments policy first.

The membership area contains information and tips that all eBay users will benefit from, irrelevant of your experience. Fourty-Nine lessons each containing a camtasia video and accompanying article make up the main bulk of the membership area, along with templates to use on eBay, interviews with expert sellers such as Lee McIntyre and John Thornhill, and in an unadvertised bonus you also gain 30 days free access to Auction Selling 101.

Lessons 1-15 are aimed at beginners to eBay and feature on items such as pricing, the latest feedback changes, photo editing, and packaging. Advanced lessons include topics such as How to import from China, Fraud on eBay, Tax Basics for UK Sellers, and even trade shows.

Full Details of SkyHigh Auctions here.

Underground Auction Blueprint takes off with a bang, by containing a warning to reveal never-before-told underground strategies that gives you an undeniable advantage over everyone else. Although it is now a cliche statement that a lot of authors claim to sell their ebooks, the author of this book goes through with the promise and delivers the goods by giving step by step instructions for the perfect blueprint to succeed in eBay.

There are no tricks or loopholes listed. These are 100% hardcore, cunning and direct methods to drive competitors out of the market, profit massively from the latest eBay selling trends, get viral marketing by taking advantage of wacky auctions & even using eBay to collect and sell leads. I would not want to compete with any seller who has their hands on a copy of this eBook. Containing brand new secret tactics, all tried and tested by the author in no time flat you’ll be getting more out of eBay than ever before.

One downside to the book though, is that it assumes that you are not new to eBay and know your way around it. This is not one of those beginner books that gives you pages and pages of instructions on how to list an auction on eBay and other basic things that you can learn from eBay’s help section anyway – this is a book that will teach you how to fine-tune your listings in such a way that your sales improve dramatically.

After reading through this ebook, and learning some of the techniques listed you’ll see how accurate the initial warning is. By following the steps listed you’ll know some killer tricks to monstrously profit from eBay where other sellers dare to tread. Currently priced at $97 and worth every penny Dogpuss thoroughly recommends Underground Auction Blueprint above any other product on the market.

The software to run the live training events (yes, it’s a standalone application) is downloaded from within the membership area of the site. It’s pretty sophistically but at the same time simple to use, allowing you to see the Mr Black & Mr Blue though a web cam, as well as allowing those participating within the conference to join in using their pc microphone or chat by using the keyboard.

The first session lasted for 1hour and 45 minutes, with a whole range of subjects discussed. The Auction Selling hosts were pretty flexible about the direction the session was heading & the subjects discussed. The quality of the audio seemed to be a small issue during the session, but something the team were made aware of so it should be tackled and improved shortly.

During this first session we also gained a further insight into the eBay accounts of Mr Black & Mr Blue, as well as some specific product details including profit margins. One example shown, were some cycling shorts which were being sold at $20, making a profit of $10 each sale. Questions from members took up a large part of the session, with nothing being avoided.

Both hosts, admitted they were new at using the software & that things would improve. However the small audio problem, would be no disadvantage when being compared to the knowledge, experience and insight being picked up from this lesson.

I immensely look forward to the second virtual classroom session from Auction Selling 101 to see what gems we pick up next time. If you join or are already a  member, I’ll see you online at the next session. With more sessions already being planned hopefully it won’t be too long before we get to do it again. More details at our previous post below or at the Auction Selling 101 website.

The concept this ebook offers is actually very good. It’s a market I’d never even consider looking at and can actually be verified by searching on eBay for similar items. When you learn exactly how this method works & start looking into it, you’ll also see how sellers who follow the practice and the advice in this ebook are quickly propelled to powerseller status. I’m surprised that this concept is not promoted by some of the more well know ebay experts given the potential of this market.

How to Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay, is a well written and presented, easy to follow plan,  spread over 92 pages with a number of ebay screenshots to guide you though the process. For newly registered members it also has a section on Starting Out On Ebay.

If your looking for a niche business model, which you can already incorporate with an existing hobby, most importantly at low cost I thoroughly recommend this ebook gets added to your collection.

The only thing that lets this product down are a few cosmetic points. For example the download page is just a html page, which doesn’t give the perceived value of the item you want especially when you’ve just spent your money. The sales page doesn’t actually give the product the justice it deserved. However, if you allow yourself to see though these minor points,
for just $27 you’ll grab one gem of an ebook and have the potential to start building your online business. Details of Avril Harper here.

SaleHoo is split into two sections, The wholesale suppliers database and the private members forum. The private members forum, always seems to be quite active with members sharing their thoughts on dropshippers and specific wholesale suppliers as well as a section for those seeking specific products. Members of SaleHoo seem to be quite willing to share their supplier information and experiences as it is a closed site and the information isn’t publicly viewable.

The wholesale suppliers database literally lists hundreds of wholesalers, dropshippers, manufactures and liquidators in an easy to use format. Each listing has a summary of supplier containing information on what it offers and where they are based. Members are welcome to rate and review each listing, to warn or approve the supplier to other members. Having saw and paid for a few lists of dropshippers over the years, I can say the information contained within SaleHoo is worthy of the membership fee (being as it’s a one time fee for lifetime membership) and is up to date & accurate.

My only reservation with SaleHoo, is the majority of members who join the site will not make use of the information and contacts listed -  putting it on the back burner & never getting round to using it. However this could be said of most users who purchase membership or any informational product. SaleHoo can be found at: http://www.SaleHoo.com

These days, Bob is well on the way to being considered an eBay Expert himself having written hundreds of articles on eBay and completed his ebook. “Ebay Made Simple – The Complete Beginners Guide To Ebay”, is Bobs “How To” guide of building an eBay business from scratch.

Starting with how to build feedback and the importance of feedback, this product is pretty unique as it encourages you to jump in and sell unwanted items first. This will help you to learn how to minimise losses and get to know your market. There is no magic formula that will work 100% of the time when selling, you need to find out what works & what is right for you.

Though out the 205 pages its packed with common sense, practical tips, and answers to those questions others seem to avoid. If your at the stage where you need to start or even grown an existing ebay business then you will get some value out of Ebay Made Simple.

The ebook concludes with articles packed with eBay advice, a list of dropshippers, appendixes on your about me page and shipping items, common ebay terms and conditions as well as a simple where to start on eBay guide.

Feedback Analyzer is a free product (for personal use), that offers to be a comprehensive feedback tool. With the ability to extract feedback comments for any seller & sort this information into easily viewable tables, one of it’s main benefits is the time it could saves you if you were to do the same task manually.

Feedback Analyzer has been designed with the end user in mind. As you can see from the above screenshot, it is very attractive and simple to use. One of the best features of the software, is the ability to collect your own feedback from ebay and build a html table which you simply paste into your own eBay listings. Showing off your ebay feedback this way, gives your bidders more confidence and is something some of the best powersellers do.

The Software works on four different international versions of the site (ebay.com/.co.uk/.ca/com.au) and you also have the option to purchase master resell rights, allowing you to resell the product. Support is offered via the way of Camtasia videos and a support desk.

Feedback Analyzer is definatly worth downloading, if you like to research those who you do business with before it’s finalised. You can download your copy of Feedback Analyzer here.

EDIT: 27th January – Feedback Analyzer is no longer being offered as a free download, but as a only with resell rights for $27

Previously, I’d never heard of Robert Frechette and would find it hard to believe that a simple father and son setup would ever become the number one eBay Volume Seller. However, between May – August 2006 this is exactly what Robert Frechette has achieved selling over 214,000 items during this period.

“How Gilbert & Frech Built an eBay Business One Bid at a Time”, tells the story of how this amazing achievement came about building an eBay business anyone would be proud of. While I’m writing this, their eBay account (Gilbertandfrech) shows a massive 29690 positive feedback comments received within the last month.

With a foreword by Jim Cockrum, of “The Silent Sales Machine hiding on eBay” Cockrum sums up the most surprising and achieving aspect of Gilbertandfrech’s business model. “It would be easy it brag about a company with 30 employees selling tens of thousands of items every month on eBay, but who would be inspired by that?” – Not many of us.

Over six chapters, Robert tells us his story. This is not a how to guide, containing articles and tutorials but told personally by Robert about how the Gilbertandfrech ebay account has made it to the number one position. About how he started selling second hand clothes on eBay, making a profit of just $209 in 1999 and building up their ebay sales to a fulltime business. It wasn’t even intentional, Robert never set out to become the #1 eBay volume seller.

There are even more surprises in store when you learn what the Gilbertandfrech empire mainly sell. One would have presumed they’d be offering high value items, such as electronic items or even selling as a trading assistant offering other peoples unwanted items. But, the main focus of sales is centered around selling Jewelry, mainly for a few dollars each.

The ebook concludes with a few tips of what’s worked and what hasn’t for Gilbertandfrech. This ebook is a real opportunity to follow the biggest eBay success story that was ever created, if your looking for inspiration from someone who has really been there and made it to the top of ebay this is essential reading.

UPDATE: As of September 2007 Rob is no longer selling his ebook. It is only available as part of membership of Jim Cockrums MySilentTeam – Click to read more. 

At 67 pages long, it’s one of the longer ebooks we’ve reviewed. Cockrum goes to great lengths to create credibility for himself, taking up to page 11 to show the audience his previous works, alexa ranking of his websites and his constant clickbank sales that have kept his product at the top of the relevant category. Existing readers of the Silent Sales Machine, will be able to skip this as they will already be familair with Cockrums achievements.

Within the ebook Cockrum goes on to explain about different strategies used to make money from eBay and also what state each of the strategies positions you in. Are you glued to eBay 24/7 or do you have the freedom to leave your business on auto pilot, earning cash while you sleep. In common with most successful eBay strategies, Cockrums unsurprisingly revolves around marketing information products on ebay and online.

However Cockrum’s knowledge of how eBay works comes into a league of it’s own, when he offers some genius ideas for creating your product and even for testing the product to ensure there is a market for a product before you even start putting it together. This one idea by itself would be worth the price of the ebook by itself. As someone who has written hundreds of articles and several ebooks I would never have even considered going down this route.

He also offers his audience suggestions of niches that sell well, and full advantages and disadvantages of resources you’ll need to consider using along the way, should you follow Cockrums plan.

Overall, when you consider the fact that this ebook is currently offered free to customers of The Silent Sales Machine Hiding On Ebay, it’s highly worthy of the $29.97 cost for both ebooks.