What Three Giddy Teenaged Girls Can Teach You About Making Money on eBay

The eBay Seller's News, May 7, 2008, Volume 8, No. 8

Learn How To Sell More on eBay with The Newsletter for Professional
eBay Sellers by:  Skip McGrath

In This Issue:

Musings

1. What Three Giddy Teenaged Girls Can Teach You About Making Money on eBay
2. eBay Boot Camp DVD Set is Finally Ready to Ship
3. New "Sales" Manual for eBay and Website Sellers
4. Niche of The Month: Garage Sale Finds that Bring Big Money on eBay
5. New eBay Wholesale Sources for May 2008

"Chi fa falla, e chi non fa sfarfalla." ~ Old Italian proverb
(English translation: Those who act make mistakes; and those who do nothing really blunder)

Musings

Karen and I are just back from Italy after a dream vacation we saved for and planned on for the past two years. We started out in Venice and worked our way south stopping in Bologna, Parma, Modena, Maranello (where Ferraris are made), Rimini, San Marino, Ravenna, Sienna, Florence and wound up the last four days in Rome. The biggest problem I have now is trying to stay awake during the day. Three weeks is time to get really acclimated to Italy --8 time zones away. I struggle to stay awake after 8PM and keep waking up at 4AM. But it is getting a little better each day.

Vacations are funny. It feels good to be on them --but it also feels good to be back. But the work stacked up while I was gone and now I have to catch up.

The newly revised and completely updated 2008 edition of The Complete eBay Marketing System has been shipping for over a month now and sales are brisk. The new edition contains all of the information related to the changes eBay announced in January. It has new fee schedules, information on DSRs, changes to the PowerSeller program and incorporates all of the new policies.

In March I also updated my best-selling eBook, 10 Highly Profitable eBay Niche Businesses Anyone Can Do. We have replaced two of the niches that are no longer as profitable as they used to be with two new ones and added a new bonus niche.

If you are attending eBay Live and would like to meet me, there are two opportunities. I will be speaking at an eBay training seminar on the topic of Sourcing Products for eBay at Wholesale Trade Shows on Saturday, June 21 from 12:30 to 2:00PM. The other event is the eBay Meet & Greet, that takes place from 6:30 to 11:00 PM on Wednesday, June 18th . I am one of the sponsors of the event this year. It will be held in the M/X lounge at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. This is right next door to the registration area where you pick up badges and priority passes. The event if free. We will provide some light snacks and there is a cash bar for drinks. This is the 6th annual meet and greet and is a great chance to meet and network with other sellers as well as many of the eBay movers and shakers and enthusiastic board posters.

If you have already registered for eBay Live you can access the entire training seminar schedule now. Just click here and select "My Registration" to access the session descriptions and to build your personalized education agenda.   If you haven't yet registered, you can also do so from that same page. If you want to build your agenda, you will need the email address used to register and your badge number to access this site. Some of the seminars fill up pretty quickly, so I strongly recommend you sign up early.

Lately I have been talking a lot about selling used products such as vintage goods, collectibles and used merchandise in good condition. In fact our Niche of the month is about that. Several readers have emailed me and wondered if that is all I am doing or if I think that is the only way for small or new sellers to make money on eBay. The simple answer is NO. I still sell new merchandise. In fact, new goods make up over 80% of what I sell. But I also sell good used merchandise when I can find it. And, I'm a believer that it is much easier for the small or new seller to start out with. The margins are good, it's easy to source products and there is very little competition from established sellers. It also doesn't require a lot of investment.

If you are a regular reader you know how passionate I am about niche marketing. Starting out by selling used and vintage products is a great way to get some experience, build your feedback, hone your selling skills and make some good money to finance your business. For example, last month before we left for Italy, I sold about $3,100 worth of goods on eBay and my total cost for everything I sold was in the range of $500 -$600. That is a pretty nice profit and could help a lot of new or small sellers get their business going.

I like to think my eBay training material is the best -I suspect every author feels that way. But the truth is learning anything is a process whereby you benefit the most by getting different points of view and learning how others do things. For example, when Lynn Dralle came to my eBay Boot Camp, she showed our students a way to sell that goes against a lot of what I teach, yet she is very successful.

This month I came across Sally Olsen, an eBay trainer who specializes in creating short informative videos on specific topics related to selling on eBay. Her material is good and best of all --not very expensive. One of the really hot topics today is creating videos for your eBay auctions. One of the modules she offers shows you how to do it step by step --so easy, even I could follow it. Check out her site at http://www.SurvivingEbay.com . She will give you 1 free video to get you started and if you use the coupon code skipmcgrath you can save 20% on her other training modules.

That's it for odds and ends. Let's get started with this month's issue:

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1. What Three Giddy Teenaged Girls Can Teach You About Making Money on eBay

I was working away at email on Saturday afternoon when the doorbell rang. Karen and I both reached the door at the same time to find three cute giddy teenaged girls standing on our porch holding a small stereo. Between giggles and teenaged shyness they started explaining to us that they were playing the "Trading Game." This is a game that was popularized by a midwest college student a few years ago who started with a ball point pen and kept trading up for something more valuable until he eventually ended up with a small house. The girls had started with a 1955 penny and now had a stereo after about a dozen trades.

We didn't really want the stereo and couldn't think of anything to trade so we suggested they visit one of our neighbors. Shortly after they left Karen remembered that we had this old giant cow trough in the back yard. No, we don't own any cows. We had bought it the previous summer to use for a pond project in the back yard that never worked out. So Karen went running up the street calling after the girls and told them to come back.

Well they did, but now the nice little stereo was gone and they had a new, in-the-box, gas tank from a 1995 Blazer. So Karen traded the cow trough for the gas tank (at least it was smaller).

The girls were thrilled. "Oh wow, a cow trough. None of the other teams will have anything like that." And, they happily walked down the street dragging a 6 foot long cow trough behind them. (On Sunday I put the Blazer gas tank on Craigslist and got 2 calls the first day. Some guy is supposed to drop by later this week and give me 50-bucks for it).

Now that's a cute story --but how does it relate to selling on eBay? Well as it turns out a variation of this is how Karen and I got our start many years ago. After Karen's mom passed away, she got a very small inheritance once the estate was settled. She didn't want to just pay down bills or spend it on something frivolous. We both loved, but couldn't really afford, antiques and thought about opening a small antique business. So we rented some space in one of those mult-dealer shops and went about buying antiques and collectibles at garage sales and flea markets in the hopes of selling them in our shop.

We knew nothing about the business and learned that we knew even less about antiques. I can't tell you how many times we bought fakes, overpaid for things, or bought stuff that we liked but just wouldn't sell. But we stuck with it and learned as we went along. With only a few thousand dollars of startup capital the stuff we could buy tended to be the lower end of the scale. At one point the owner of the shop suggested we try to upgrade our merchandise or we would have to move out. Actually she even moved us into the attic where we got very little traffic.

But we learned what those girls were learning when they played the trading game. Keep trading up. I was working full-time in the corporate world so we didn't need to take any profits out of the shop. Every time we did make a profit we put it right back into new (actually old) merchandise. And as we learned more we started buying better and more expensive pieces. Within about 18 months we went from selling old radios, vintage kitchenware, and minor collectibles to selling high-end 18th century furniture and fine English and American silver and brass. Pretty soon the owner of the mall moved us downstairs into a premium spot. Eventually our inventory was worth many thousands of dollars. We were selling antiques valued as high as $14,000 each. And, we never put another penny into the business. Eventually we closed the shop and started selling on eBay.

Trading up is just a fancy name for bootstrapping your business. You don't need an antique shop. You can do this on eBay and Craigslist and many other sites today. And, it isn't just antiques --you can do this with almost anything. If I lost everything I had today except that 1995 Blazer gas tank I guarantee you I could turn it into enough to feed my family and build another income again. All you need is the first item to sell, a place to get in front of people (eBay, Craigslist, flea markets, garage sales, etc.) the desire --and most importantly, an attitude that keeps you going no matter how many mistakes you make or how many obstacles are put in your way. It doesn't matter how much or what you start with. There will always be someone who needs a gas tank for a 1995 Blazer.

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2. eBay Boot Camp DVD Set is Finally Ready to Ship

A few months ago a put on a special two-day eBay Boot Camp for a very small group of sellers in my home town in the San Juan Islands. Besides myself, I had Jen Cano fly in from HammerTap to demonstrate and talk about eBay market and product research, Cindy Shebley drove up from Everett, Washington to teach the session on product photography and Lynn Dralle, (The Queen of auctions) flew up from Palm Springs to demonstrate her systems and methods for selling on eBay and take the attendees on an optional garage sale hunt, Saturday morning.

I hired a professional videographer to tape the entire two days including extensive Q&A sessions. We had some technical issues related to editing and package design that delayed the project, but the entire boot camp presentation is now ready. The set comes in a nice package of 5 DVDs that cover 16 hours of presentation and includes a booklet with all of the PowerPoint slides we used.

The shooting, editing, production and printing was very expensive, so I have only produced 200 copies for the first production run. I am running a special $100-off introductory offer for my readers for the first 200 copies. Once those are sold, I will do a second production run and the price will increase $100.

This is a great chance for serious sellers to learn solid eBay business and sales strategies, techniques and dozens of those little practical tips used by top sellers. Please CLICK HERE to read more about the product or to place your order for immediate shipment. 

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3. New "Sales" Manual for eBay and Website Sellers

High Performance Sales Secrets, by Omar Martin is really a book on sales for salespeople. When I first looked at this product I didn't think it would apply to me or any of my readers, but boy was I wrong! To my complete surprise, this product related directly to my eBay listings and web site sales copy.

When you hear the word 'SALES', you probably cringe at the thought of a pushy car salesman or annoying telemarketer. I think that most people feel the same way I do. If you're like me you hate to be pressured into buying something. But let's face it. Whether we sell on eBay, the internet, over a counter in a store or even door-to-door, we all do "sales." When you watch an ad on TV you are being "sold."

As I sat back and read “High Performance Sales Secrets” I found myself drawn into the content soaking up all the information it was providing. The information really opened my eyes to how important proper sales techniques can be. I was able to identify with all of the examples right away and now I can even pick out the techniques in all of the advertisements I see and hear. I can't believe they were being used on me by sales professionals all along!

I learned a basic principle that is so simple I can't believe I'd never thought of it before....

“People love to buy, but hate to be SOLD” So the key is selling without making people feel that way.

After reading Omar's information I found it so easy to visualize applying it to my business.

You will find in this product a great step by step training guide to increasing your own sales. It takes months and even years for sales pros to acquire the knowledge and experience necessary to become “Master Closers” but here it is in black and white, a simple 5 step guide to boosting your sales without a bunch of technical or psychological mumbo jumbo. And yes --this is stuff you can use in your eBay listings. Even though I am a pro with 9 years experience on eBay, after reading about 1/2 of the book, I was online in my auction management system making changes to my listings.

“High Performance Sales Secrets” does not stop there either. Once you you've learned the secrets to sales success, “High Performance Sales Secrets” moves on to SHOW you how they work with actual 1 on 1 TRAINING VIDEOS!

The first video actually demonstrates the 5 steps to a sale. What to say, When to say and How to say the exact things that will make your customers WANT TO BUY.

The second video explains how to raise a customer's willingness to buy from zero to 100% in a matter of seconds.

The third video is the best of all it actually demonstrates the secret techniques that persuade people to make purchases that they otherwise weren't planning on buying. Its amazing! AND...all of it is ETHICAL and DOES NOT RELY ON DECEPTION OR UNDERHANDED TECHNIQUES. Check out High Performance Sales Secrets. The price is reasonable and it comes with a money-back guarantee and some great bonuses.

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4. Niche of The Month: Garage Sale Finds that Bring Big Money on eBay

It's finally spring and one thing that springs up every spring is garage sales. You might say this month marks the start of the Garage Sale Season. I know all of you are looking for the low cost wholesale source for Prada handbags, Apple iPods and Nikon cameras, but folks there are huge amounts of money to be made in used, vintage and collectible products.

People often ask what are the hot selling items. Well yes, there is money to be made in hot toys, fashions and electronics, but believe me there are also fortunes made in the stuff that people walk by every day. You can buy many new products that allow you to make 25% to 40% margins on eBay, but it is also easy to find used and vintage goods where you can make a 90% margin. Would you rather pay $190 for an iPod that sells for $260 or pay $1.00 for an old pair of eyeglasses that sell for $200?

So, what are some of the hot selling items you can find at garage sales? Here is a very short list --but if you do some research you can find many, many more.

Believe me this is a very short list. These are just the few of the items that come to mind and ones that I found after about an hour of surfing around eBay's various collectible categories. The key to any of these items is condition. The better the condition the more it will sell for. I always clean used items up a bit before photographing them. I once had an old DeWalt drill (bought for $2.00) that looked like junk but worked fine. I shot a photo, put it on eBay and never got a bid. So I spent 15 minutes with 4-0 steel wool and cleaned it up and re-shot the photo. It got 16 bids and sold for $44.00.

You can learn more about selling and sourcing goods for some interesting niche markets in my book, Ten Highly Profitable eBay Niche Businesses Anyone Can Do.

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 5. New eBay Wholesale Sources for May 2008

I don't know why, but Crystal is still a hot product after several years and sells at pretty good margins. A good supplier is International Crystal Exchange. they stock over 4500 products.

Colonial Candle sells a very nice and complete line of candles that fit in well with any antique or early American decor.

Collectors Armory is the largest wholesale source for museum quality military replicas, military collectibles and replica guns, featuring hundreds of Old West, Civil War, Colonial, Pirate, Medieval, and World War I & II Gifts and Collectibles

AA Importing runs a sister site called Art As Antiques. You will have to register (just a email and password) to get access to the catalog, but they have some very nice products. I haven't tried selling any of these things on eBay, but I saw a lot of products that I think would do well.

Trax of Alaska is a site run by two Alaskan artists who sell native art based on animal tracks.

Giftsthatbloom sells a really neat line of gourmet herb garden kits and other neat garden gift kits.

Are you a beader? Lots of eBay sellers sell their own handicrafts and art on eBay. Bo's Beads is a great supplier for beaders who create and sell their creations on eBay.

Ocean Fare sells a nice line of nautical decor items including half-hulls. There is no wholesale information on the web site, the prices are all retail, but you can contact them for wholesale pricing information.

Western Express sells a large line of lower-cost western hats, gifts and accessories. Another company that sells western goods is Great Western Trading. No website. You can call them at 800-662-2343 or email them at gwtc@verizon.net and ask for a wholesale catalog and price list.

Leather Links sells a line of luggage, backpacks and lower cost leather items.

UJ Trading sells a large line of remote control toys including helicopters, boats and stunt vehicles.

That's it for this month.

Skip McGrath
The eBay Seller's News

P.S. If you missed the last issue, click here to read it.