E. J. Bantz

Sorry for the delay in posting updates, you know how that goes.

A major milestone was made today… a working demo exists of the product.    Let me know if you want to be a tester.

There were many obstacles to over come.   During the next week will be providing source code samples, which I think will help many people start writing their own programs.

Here are some of the things I had to do:

• Make an eBay API call via an HTTPS POST.
• Hook into the Messages menu items.
• Get the raw text of the email message.
• Embed a web browser in the app to walk through the Auth process.
• Make an Icon

I’m sure there will be other areas to explain too.

It looks like we are on schedule though to have the real deal ready by the end of April 2010.

Now that I have the demo version on my phone, there are already many ideas of features to add.     For now though, being able to quickly answer a buyers question directly from the phone, without having to navigate through eBay website, is a big time saver.

Today our listing for Seller Machine CRM in the eBay Solutions Directory was updated to show the eBay Certified Solutions Provider logo.

Thank you everyone for your support in bringing this application to life.

Have fun!

I am very happy to hear eBay is going to extend the Double Power Seller Discount through March 2009.

Power Sellers get a discount on their final value fees if they meet certain DSR levels.  At 4.9 DSRs we receive a 20% discount.    When we offer Free Shipping on the listing, eBay doubles the discount to 40%.

In the Video Game category, the final value is 15% of the selling price.   So the the 40% is a nice added bonus every month.

Here is a link to the details. http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200812.shtml#2008-12-18120046

Picnik.com is a great tool for touching up images before you post them.

For eBay sellers, you can use this to create nice looking photos of your item you are selling.

You can also use it to make a picture that contains just text.

Grab special attention in your listing
For example, if you are offering a free gift with the purchase, you can make an image with pretty text that says Free Gift.

Avoid Listing Violations
You’re not allow to mention other products that you sell in the description of your listing because it affects search engines that bring buyers to your product.  However, you can put the text inside of an image and add that to your description.

This video show you how to create a photo of a specific size, using Microsoft Paint, and then put text on it using Picnik.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

In this video, I demonstrate sending a PayPal refund to your eBay buyer.

When you send a refund, PayPal gives back the fees they took from the dollar amount of the refund.

In addition, they buyer will not have to pay any fees to receive the refund.

You can only refund the amount that was paid to you.  For example, if the buyer sent you $50.00, you cannot refund $75.00.  You would have to first refund the $50.00 and then send them a payment for the remaining $25.00, of which the buyer my have to pay fees on if they have an upgraded PayPal account.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

I was just listening to eBay Radio and they had a guest, Lisa Suttora, with some great advice for selling on eBay.

The two points I remember most were:

1. Use a simple format when reading your description.  Use a short paragraph at the top followed by a bullet items for the product features.  By the way, this is also the format that Amazon uses in their product descriptions.
2. Use graphic images of text for tag lines in the description.  For example, instead of just typing includes a free carry bag, make an image that contains the text in a large font.  This will draw special attention and increase the chance they will actually read it.

She has other fantastic tips and all of the information in the interview and is well worth the time to listen to.

Now I need to take action on this advice and update some of my listings.

Here are ways I find product ideas:

• Random searches for completed items on eBay to see what people are buying.
• Looking at the feedback of people that have already purchased from me to see what else they are buying.
• Using Terapeak to find auctions that end above a certain dollar amount and have a certain number of bids.

I try to find products that many people are buying, but not a lot of sellers are selling.  Also, if the few sellers that are offering the product have terrible listings, then that is also a good product to investigate.

The next step is to find a supplier.   I use Alibaba and I also ask my existing suppliers if they know someone that sells the product. I prefer to purchase products directly from the factory.   Then I can define my own requirements for the product and possible have it branded with my own name.    You should order 1 sample and try to sell it just to confirm it is what the buyer wants and the product is correct.  Have it shipped by EMS, UPS, FedEx, or TNT.  If that works well, then order maybe 10, or an even case full, and continue selling it.  If that works, then get a 3 month supply and ship it via Air and contact a local customs broker to clear them through customs.  I can help you find a broker once you get to that point.

Finding a source is usually more time consuming than getting the product idea.   It usually involves staying up late at night chatting with the suppliers, or sending emails back and forth for about a week.  I recommend using online chat when finding a supplier.  It helps to build a good relationship and there is less misunderstand than using email.

I’ve had many products idea that I just could not find a supplier for.  And I’ve had even more product where the price the supplier offers is just not enough to make good money.

Ah yes, the other thing is that you need to decide a head of time your requirements for profit margins.

Set both a minimum dollar you need to profit per item, and a minimum percentage profit per item (after all direct expenses including packing material to ship the item).   This is important to do because when you start sourcing the sales people will put the pressure on you to buy.  You might start to get emotionally invested into selling a product before you find a source and might be tempted to buy it even though the numbers don’t add up.

It is very easy to find products to buy for $1.00 and profit $1.00.  That would give you a 100% return on your money, but is only a $1.00 profit per item and that might end up being too time consuming than it is worth.   It can also be tempting to buy something for $100 and profit $10, but that is only a 10% return.  You end up risking too much money to profit very little.

I usually target product were I can get a 100% profit margin with at least $5 per product.

That is basically my core strategy for buying and selling on eBay.

Let me know how I can help you.