How can it be?

Well, the US Federal Government has started a crackdown on such “2nd hand” sales.  If you are selling any kind of item that the manufacturer has ever recalled, then you could be in trouble.  This particularly applies to selling toys or other items for children.  The government is calling this crackdown “Resale Roundup.”

This crackdown is not only being targeted at eBay sellers, but also to 2nd hand stores like Goodwill, Salvation Army and such, and also Garage Sales and other such 2nd hand sales.  Websites like eBay and Craigslist are also not immune.

I am all for safety, but this might be very hard for any seller who is selling 2nd hand items.  You see, if anything has been recalled for even up to a decade ago, it cannot be sold 2nd hand!  Also, the Consumer Products Safety Commission issues recall orders every day, and there are thousands of products recalled regularly.  Keeping up with this could be considered quite onerous for the average small seller who is having a garage sale – real or virtual.

So, if you are planning to sell used items, be sure to do your homework!  If you don’t, it could lead to trouble.

What do I mean?

Well, I believe that on eBay, a small guy like you and me can compete head to head with the big boys.  I mean, as a small time player, it can be hard for us to compete against the big businesses in the “real world.”  But, online, the game changes.  As a matter of fact, for a small, single person operation, we can generally move more quickly than the big boys.  We don’t have to gather a meeting of 20 people in order to decide to change the color of our auction listing from red to blue.  When we decide to change the color of our listing, we don’t have to run it up the flagpole and get approval from 13 different people.  We decide to change it, make the change and move on to the next challenge or improvement.  Small business can move more quickly, be more spry, by more dyamic than the big guy.  It’s that simple.

As a small player, we can also do things that help us take advantage of some of the benefits and advantages that the big boys have too.

What?  Didn’t you just say that the small guy has all the advantages?

Well, I didn’t say all the advantages.  Fact is that the big players have some advantages that the small guys can’t have.  A big company can have a whole staff of employees devoted to selling the product.  They can have people on duty 24/7 to answer e-mails or address customer concerns.

You can too!  Yeah, that’s right, you.  How?  Well, you don’t need to hire a whole staff of people, you can pay for a service to do it for you.  The truth is that a lot of those e-mails, feedback, auction listing, etc., are things that can be automated by computer.  You can set it all up yourself, or you can simply pay a small fee for an auction management service to do it for you.

In my past life, when I was selling big time (for a small player!) on eBay, I used a company called “Marketworks” to handle automated e-mails, feedback, etc. for me, and they did a great job.  Since when I was selling, Marketworks has changed it’s name, and I believe they are now doing business under the name “Auctiva” – I don’t know if they are still as good as they used to be, but when I get going in a bigger way on eBay again, I will certainly check them out.  I think you should too.

Using Marketworks cost me some money.  It’s fairly inexpensive, but not dirt cheap.  As I recall, I used to spend about $500 to $600 per month for Marketworks’ services, but I was selling many thousands of dollars at auction each month, so it worked out to a small percentage.  But, you know what.. the way I look at it, Marketworks did not cost money, it made money for me.  You see, because of the automation, I could concentrate my efforts on making money, not on doing mundane tasks like posting feedback for people.  Also, instead of being able to personally handle only 100 or 150 auctions at a time, I could run 1,000 or 2,000 auctions at once without even breaking a sweat.  You don’t make money on eBay running only a few auctions, at least not the kind of money that I am interested in.  When you are able to start running 500, 600 or thousands of auctions at the same time, that’s when you start making some real money on eBay.  And, in my opinion, as a small player, you cannot do that kind of volume without either hiring employees, using an automation service, or doing both.  I did both.

Did you know that in the recent past, some of the “big boys” have started noticing that doing business on eBay and other online auctions can help improve their business models?  I’ll be writing more about that soon, so come back and check it out!

I didn’t really disclose everything, though.  I have been able to work a deal in which I would be able to ship the stuff each way for free.  I am not going to give details on how I am going to do it, because that is part of my competitive advantage.  I will only say that there is a way to do it.  Absolutely zero out of pocket cost to me to ship between the USA and the Philippines.  This was going to give me a real leg up on any competition.

For about 2 months now, I have been testing my shipping technique, which I thought was foolproof.  Unfortunately, almost every step of the way, there have been hitches in the system, though.  I am expecting my first shipment from the USA any day now, and I am able to track it online.  It appears to be coming, but because of the other problems I have experienced with it so far, I am a bit worried.  If the package arrives as it should, I expect to see it sometime this week.  If I do see it, I will update you and let you know.

However, these little problems that I’ve had to chase down and fix every step of the way have me a bit worried, though.  With the problems occurring so readily on this first trial, if I can’t get this straightened out, I will certainly end up losing shipments, and if I do that, it will be difficult to make money.  I am happy though, that if there were to be problems, they happened in the first trial run, because it gives me things to think over.  Can I still make money if I must pay for the International Shipping?  Probably I can, but it cuts into my share!

Well, I still have more testing to do.  I am not actually selling on eBay yet, because my testing is not complete on this.  So, this will slow me down a bit.  Hopefully, though, I’ll have everything worked out soon!

Well, now, thanks to eBay, you can enjoy eternal pleasure by positioning yourself atop Marilyn Monroe!  That’s right, the burial crypt directly above Monroe is currently for sale on eBay!  It’s not cheap, though.  But, you could be the only man who could say that you will rest in eternal pleasure, atop Marilyn Monroe!

According to the eBay listing, selling the crypt:

The lucky bidder will be deeded a piece of real estate that he or she will make their last address. And below you will be Marilyn Monroe.  In fact the person occupying the address right now is looking face down on her.

I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of anybody being buried face down, but I certainly understand why!  My only question is why is the current resident being moved?  I suppose that the family wants or needs the money, and the dead guy certainly can’t complain, although I’m sure he would if he could.

I’ve always said that you can sell anything on eBay.  I suppose this gives me a bit of confirmation!

As I write this, the current high bid is $2.5 Million!  Are you willing to bid more?  How much is an eternal resting place atop Marilyn Monroe worth?

A piece of land in a cemetary: $20,000
The headstone:  $10,000
Eternity atop Marilyn Monroe:  Priceless

Ha ha ha….

Any bidders?

UPDATE: I just checked the auction (Saturday August 22, 9:30am, Philippine time) and the bidding is more than $4.6 Million now!

I’m talking about eBay’s Daily Deal.

eBay has four Daily Deals each and every day.  A Daily Deal is something with a very deep discount, and also Free Shipping!  That’s right, every item that is on the Daily Deal must feature free shipping.  The price you see is the price that you pay, delivered right to your door!  Well, it is delivered to your door if you live in the USA.  Or, if you have an address in the USA that the item can be shipped to.

Most of the time, the Daily Deals that I see on eBay are Manufacturer Refurbished items.  In other words, the items cannot be sold as new, because they have been previously purchased.  As a former retailer, I know that what happens is that people buy things and then after a day or two, they return the item.  They say “it doesn’t work” or something like that, and they get a refund.  There is usually nothing wrong with the item, but these things are returned to the manufacturer.  The manufacturer checks them out, repairs them if necessary (which is hardly ever the case) and then must get rid of them somehow.  The items cannot be re-sold as new, so they have to be sold as refurbished somehow.

Back when I was a retailer, I am not sure how the manufacturers got rid of the stuff.  Maybe they threw it away.  Maybe they sold it cheap to employees.  Maybe the stuff ended up in a Flea Market somewhere.  I don’t know.  But, nowadays, a lot of manufacturers are turning to eBay to liquidate these problem items.  These items generally come with a full warranty, the same as any other new item that the manufacturer sells.

The discounts offered on the Daily Deal are huge, though.  As an example, yesterday there was a printer for sale on the daily deal, it normally retails for $99, and it was on the daily deal for just $39.  Today I see a Microsoft Mouse for sale on the Daily Deal regular price $29.99 for just $7.99.  A few days ago I saw a Netbook (small laptop) for $179.99.  I regularly see full sized laptop computers in the $250 price range.  In fact, I have seen laptops on the Daily Deal that sell in the Philippines for around $1,000 for just $250 on the eBay Daily Deal.

A laptop for 75% off what it usually sells for here in the Philippines?  Do you think that would make a good item to resell on eBay.ph or what?  I sure do!

Digital cameras are very, very expensive in the Philippines.  Cameras that regularly sell for $200 or less in the USA can be found in the Philippines for about P30,000, about $600 or so.  Guess what?  I regularly see 10 to 12 Megapixel cameras on eBay Daily Deal for $49 or $59, free shipping!  What a steal.  Getting $300 or so for that camera on eBay.ph would be no problem at all.  Or, there are other Online Auction sites in the Philippines that you can use too.

Anyway, do you follow the eBay Daily Deal?  I do!  I rarely miss a single day of seeing what’s up on the Daily Deal!  After writing this, I suppose I’ll be getting some competition from some of my “friends” for that stuff, though!

As I pointed out in an early article, I plan to sell merchandise on eBay and other online auctions using a “two pronged approach.”  Firstly, I am going to sell items from here in the Philippines on eBay.com, the US site, aiming at US buyers.  The second prong is that I intend to purchase some goods from the USA (or other countries) and sell them on eBay.ph, aiming those products toward Philippine based buyers.

As an American living in the Philippines, I have an advantage doing this for two reasons:

1. Having lived 38 years in the USA, I know what is available there, and what is not.  I know what stuff costs there.  Sometimes I see things for sale here which would be a huge bargain in the States, or are not even widely available in the States.  So, I can buy things from the States that are needed here, and I can buy things from here that are expensive there.
2. Having lived nearly 10 years in the Philippines, I know what things are available and not available here.  I know of certain things that I wish I could get from the States.  If it is something that I want to get a hold of, there must be others in this country of 90 Million people who also want to get it.

So, using these two advantages, I should be able to do nicely on eBay or other venues on the net.

There are implications, though.

Yes, there are things to keep in mind, if you plan to sell cross-border.  Somebody asked me in an earlier comment about customs taxes and such.  OK, let’s look at that.

I used to sell extensively on eBay from the Philippines, almost exclusively to American customers, so I have a lot of experience when it comes to customs.

There are basically two things you need to do if you are selling across borders:

1. For every package you ship containing merchandise, if you are shipping it across borders, you will need to fill out a customs declaration form.  Don’t be scared by this.  It is actually very easy to do.  For Philippine Customs, we just have a small green piece of paper to fill out.  The only thing you have to do is list the contents of the package.  Nothing complicated, just one or two words describing what is in the box.  Be truthful, don’t try to hide something, it will only lead to trouble for you.  If  a buyer asks you to under-declare the value of the item, don’t do that.
2. When you write up the item description for your listing on eBay (or wherever you are selling) explain that you are shipping from the Philippines (or whatever country you are shipping from), and that the buyer is responsible for all customs fees.  Fact is that when you ship the items, you don’t have any idea how much customs will be (that is charged on the buyer’s end, not yours), or even if customs  duties will even be charged.  Truth is that I have shipped thousands of items to the USA from the Philippines, and I am only aware of two times when customs was charged on the deliveries.  So, honestly, it is not a big concern.

If you are shipping big commercial quantities of items, that is when the customs people will start tagging on a percentage.  If you are shipping small quantities for personal use, it is rare that any duties are charged at all.

Cross border selling can be rewarding, and also add a new dimension to your business.  It is something that I recommend highly.

I guess you could call this a sort of “blog warming” gift.  Bob and I have known each other for some time, met in person several times and have worked together on a small project or two.  I was writing a regular column for one of Bob’s online properties and recently quit that because, I have so little time for writing!

So why would I be guesting here on Bob’s new make money blog which focuses on and leverages his real world experience with eBay, the largest online marketplace in the world?

Well I felt this little story would be worthwhile to those folks who find their way here hoping to learn something about how to make money from eBay.  I used eBay to make money for some time in a way most of you may never have thought of, so I figured this might be a worthwhile ‘adjunct’ to your normal eBay skills.

When most people talk about buying and selling on eBay their mind only runs in the area of  selling items they already own, or can acquire, for a price higher than they paid for the item … the difference, of course, less fees and other overheads is profit.

What if I told you there’s a darn good potential in using eBay to acquire items relatively cheap and selling them in ways that have nothing to do with eBay itself, or even the whole spectrum of online commerce?

Here’s how eBay worked for me.

My wife and I were running a small brick and mortar business when we lived in the US.  We sold and serviced relatively high-end GPS tracking systems to commercial truck fleet operators.  Our clients loved saving money and making better use of their employees and assets once they know where those assets were at any given time.

Part of what had to be sold to every client was a software program called Microsoft MapPoint.  It serves up great maps of the US and allows a lot of business-oriented drawings, time and distance calculations and so on.

MapPoint isn’t particularly cheap, though.  It listed as high as $500 USD during times we were selling, and although Microsoft has a program for discounts to “authorized resellers”, after becoming an “authorized reseller” I found that the discounts were miserable… $25 or $30 off list.

This meant I still had to charge my clients like $500 for someone else’s software, and at a mark-up of only $30, I wasn’t making much money off MapPoint for sure.

Every now and then a client would mention to me that they had seen MapPoint for sale on Amazon, for much less than list.  “Go ahead and buy it, then.” I would respond.

But it wasn’t a good choice for me . Not only did I lose out on my small profit, but I’d be waiting around for days for my client to get his software and install it so I cold start training him on how to use his new system.  Horribly inefficient.

I went on eBay one day, and my whole business changed.

Just go to eBay right now. You’ll see licensed, in the box MapPoint brand new for as little as $40 or $50.  I started ordering from eBay, for delivery to my business office, and keeping a few products in stock.

Instead of asking my clients to pay $400 or $500 for a piece of software which I made almost nothing from, I’d charge them $250 for the software, 40% or 50% off list, make $200 profit on the sale, and put my business back on schedule!

When we decided to close up our business and move to the Philippines, I was already getting queries from other dealers around the country, asking me to get them my fabulous $50 or$80 MapPoint boxes.  If I stayed in that market I could have easily made a sideline reselling this software to my colleagues/competitors.

Couldn’t have those other dealers gone and bought from eBay just as I did? Sure they could.  Couldn’t my end user clients have gone and bought the product for themselves?  Absolutely.  But there is something that you have to remember.

People basically are lazy. People generally won’t use a non-traditional method for finding a product.  All you have to do to make a little business, or build a niche in a going business, is tell yourself that there is a way, and then go find it.  People pay for the service of finding things for them, guaranteed.

While writing that last article, though, something was bothering me in the back of my mind.  Before I finished writing that article, it hit me.  I have several products in mind that I will be selling on eBay, and on eBay.ph.   However, one of my main items that I have plans to sell is not a consumable!

Selling Jewelry on eBay

Well, that’s OK, I don’t have to limit my sales to consumable items only, but since I was writing about consumables, I felt kind of funny that one of my top items that I will sell was not a consumable.  But, as I thought about it, I decided that one of the things that I intend to do actually makes the product a consumable!

You see, the item I am talking about is jewelry.  In the Philippines, there is a huge quantity of high quality, high fashion jewelry items available at a very low price.  So, I have plans to sell much of this stuff on eBay to customers in the USA.  Now, jewelry is not a consumable, right?  Wrong!  The way I am planning to sell it, it is indeed a consumable.

Did you know that on eBay, they have a special category where you can sell “Wholesale Lots” of merchandise?  When you do that, generally, other eBay sellers will buy the product from you, and they will sell it at retail prices to their eBay customers!  So, let’s say that I sold a lot of 500 pieces of jewelry as a wholesale lot, and an eBay seller buys it, then splits it up into 500 different auctions.  Well, when that merchandise is gone, he will need to come back and buy more!  So, indeed, the jewelry, in this case has just become a consumable!

The whole key here is to sell stuff that people will need to buy from you over and over again.  If they need to come back to you when supply is gone, then indeed, the item is a consumable!

Happy selling, and have an enjoyable and profitable business!

That’s the beauty of consumables.  If you treat your customer right, and you sell them a quality product that they like, then they will be back for more time and time again.  If possible, consumables are certainly the way to go when selling on eBay or anywhere else.

I have decided that I want to really focus in on consumables for my online auction business.  I want things that people will buy over and over and over again!

Coke, the ultimate consumable!

When you do this, though, there are two keys to keep in mind.

1. Super Customer Service
2. Super Quality Goods

Don’t take me wrong, I am not suggesting that you sell Coke on eBay.  I certainly won’t be doing that.  But, Coke is an example of something that is truly a consumable item.

Why Super Customer Service?

Well, I believe that especially when selling consumable items, customer service is a huge key to success.  This is because when you are selling a consumable, you are counting on your customer to come back again and again for more of the same product.  If you don’t treat your customer right, then they won’t be coming back!

I like to think that when it comes to customer service, I am as good as they come.  I mean, you can never say that you are the best, because there are always others who are good.  But, I don’t know that there are any people better than me at handling customers.  If there is anything at all wrong with something I sell, I go out of my way to make it right.  Did you know that sometimes, when you do something wrong, it is a perfect opportunity to make a good impression on the customer?  It’s true.  When people get a defective item, or a broken item, they automatically assume that it is going to be a hassle dealing with the person who sold it to them.  For me, no questions asked, I will do whatever it takes to take care of the customer.  When that happens, it makes such a favorable impression on the customer that they will remember you, and they will be back.  When you are selling consumables, and you need repeat business, this is very, very important.

Why Quality Products?

Again, if you sell quality merchandise, it will favorably impress the customer, and they will remember you when it is time for that “next can of coke” or whatever product you are selling.

So, good products, and treating your customer right.  If you combine these two things with the right consumable items, it is nearly impossible to go wrong.

Again, though, I think that selling a consumable item is really a big key to success!

Next time, I am going to tell you how to make something that really isn’t a consumable into a consumable item.  It’s true!  I’ll show you how next time.

What do I mean by a “two pronged approach?”  Let me explain a bit, and after a few paragraphs you should have an idea what I am talking about.

You see, when I first started selling on eBay, in 1998, I lived in the USA.  I had lived in the US all of my life, except for a short 2 year stint in South Africa when I was a young child.  But, my mindset and my business practices were decidedly American.

From 1998 until 2000, I was a regular fixture on eBay, selling all kinds of goods, and making some nice money doing it.  In 2000, I relocated to the Philippines, and began a new life here.  In 2002, I decided, at the urging of my wife, to get back into online auction selling to make some extra money.  We were still fairly new in the Philippines, and needed to learn how to make a decent living here.

2 Prongs!

Naturally, my mind instantly went to selling things on eBay.  For me, that meant selling things to people in the USA.  Being in the Philippines, I could see a number of items that I could buy cheaply here in the Philippines which would also be in demand in the USA, so I could see that there was money to be made.  I got started, and I did really, really well on eBay from here in the Philippines.

eBay Philippines got started sometime around 2004 or so, as I recall.  I’m sorry, I don’t remember exactly when their Philippine site went live.  However, when eBay Philippines came on the scene, I had little interest in it.  It was my feeling that there was little value in selling on eBay Philippines.  At first, I think my thoughts were correct.  But, after some time, eBay Philippines began to take off.  Of course, eBay Philippines is not as mature as eBay is, but it is moving ahead.

Now, with eBay Philippines becoming a better marketplace, and also with me having lived in the Philippines for an appreciable amount of time, I see opportunities that I didn’t see before.  I can see opportunities to source items from the Philippines and sell them to American customers via eBay, and I can also see opportunities to source items from the USA to sell to Filipino customers on eBay.PH.  There is a market, and I intend to tap that market.

One of the advantages for me is that having lived in both places, I know what is available in each place, and I also know what is in demand in each place.

So, my approach will be two-pronged.  Get it now?  What I mean is that I will source products in the USA to sell in the Philippines on eBay.PH, and I will source products in the Philippines to sell on eBay.

I believe that with my knowledge, and my ability to source the right products, this is a winning strategy.  I will soon find out.