AuctionCUT - Auction and eBay Forum

Mark · Site Admin Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 729

Bob Hamilton & his daughter Jenny run a profitable eBay business. Having spent thousands of dollars starting out purchasing various ebooks and courses on eBay, Bob himself is now the author of an award winning ebook - Ebay Made Simple.

Ebay Made Simple, takes you by the hand and guides you though everything necessary to start and maintain an successful eBay business. AuctionCUT puts our 6 Question Interviews to Bob Hamilton.

1) Why eBay & what advantages does it offer to other channels?

Bob: Who hasn’t heard of eBay? We were curious like everyone else and started selling on eBay as a means of liquidating excess inventory from our brick and mortar store. Once were got started and experienced it for ourselves we sold our store and moved over to eBay as the primary means of selling merchandise.

We have found the eBay marketplace to be full of potential buyers - you need to be sure you get the product in front of the right buyer. We want our products to be seen by a huge number of buyers who are all looking for that product. There are millions of people on eBay. You can open your own brick and mortar store, but it would take a lot of room and advertising money to get the same exposure for your goods. We have found that other auction sites don't sell as well as eBay. Many sell for the starting bid price or don't sell at all.

2) What is the biggest step necessary to turn your eBay as a hobby into a full time business?

Bob: It comes down to having the right mindset. By that I mean when you are selling as a hobby you may allow some things to slide a little. You might take time off and get away form eBay knowing that it is just a hobby. However if you truly want eBay to be your business, you need to develop a business mindset. You need to become more organized, disciplined and business-like in your approach.

There are many secrets we have learned about managing an eBay business. Be consistent about listing items and getting them shipped promptly. Find your own niche. Many times if you have an auction for a larger item and sell accessories that are lower priced in your eBay store, buyers who win the auction for the larger item want to buy many accessories. Even buyers who didn't win your auction (but may have won it from another seller) might have taken the time to look through your eBay store. They may have found an accessory item for the auction they fell in love with or you were lower priced and still buy these accessories from you. Find products that you can earn several $$ or more each time you make a sale, instead of lower end products that you can sell a ton of, but you only make a buck for each sale you make.

3) What is the biggest tool or service you've used to help make your eBay sales a success?

Bob: I would say it is using Endicia for shipping. Using PayPal for international shipments requires a telephone number from buyers who don't always provide that without being prompted to after the sale. Endicia makes it easy; you don't need a phone number for international shipments. They are easy to use and we save money since it is possible to fit 4 address labels on 1 sheet vs. 2 from PayPal. We use a PayPal credit card that earns us 1% back each time we use it and it takes the money out of the paypal account that we collect payments in from eBay. We pay for our shipping with this card, the rebates from this card make using Endicia free! Also, get an account with either DHL, Fed Ex or UPS if you ship larger items. We use carrier pick-up from USPS, but even with small packages we have "overfilled" our carrier’s cars. With larger items it is great to have a large truck come and pick them up.

4) Do you ever offer loss leading products, as a way of increasing your customer base or opt-in list & would you recommend this method?

Bob: Yes. We want prospective buyers to view our auctions. We know that eBay buyers are price conscious. We use low starting prices as our means of driving traffic and sales.

We've started many auctions out at 99cents. The majority of the time these have sold for a profit, but we have also experienced the product not selling or selling for 99cents which is at a loss. I would definitely recommend starting at 99cents or a small amount to get traffic to the auction listing.

5) As a successful eBay seller how do you manage to keep track of successful sales, questions from members and non paying bidders to keep on top of your eBay business?

Bob: Much of it comes down to time management. However we have also developed a few simple systems that allow us to track all of our sales and costs, our successes and misses. We place customer service as our top priority. That means anything associated with customers is done first each and every day.

Each day at the very beginning, I go through our mail on our eBay account, answer all the questions that I am able to do off the top of my head and write down the questions that I need to look up. Then I log into eBay to print off the invoices of everything that has sold and needs to be shipped out for the day. While the invoices are printing I go over who hasn't paid yet and send out invoices on days 1, 3, 5, and 7. At day 8 we send a non payment reminder. I bring the list of questions with me as I do the shipping and get the answers while I am with the merchandise. After I print ship labels I answer the remaining questions and check for any new questions.

6). Finally, is there any other advice you could offer to our members on making the most out of eBay?

Bob: It all starts with moving forward. There are many, many people who want to try selling on eBay. Every single successful seller made the decision to step up and actually start learning and making sales.

Once you have started stick with it. Always keep an eye out for new trends and great buys on merchandise. We have found the grandkids/nieces/nephews are a great source of information regarding what is up and coming.

Locating and purchasing the right products for resale on eBay is critical. Invest the time to find the right products at the right price. They are out there – it just takes time and effort to locate them.

You can read more about Bob Hamiltons, Ebay Made Simple at:http://dogpuss.com/?p=26