Auction Autopilot Blog

Skip McGrath made a post on his blog recently, recommending a couple of free eBay and PayPal fee calculators.  I thought I would pass them along to you and make one more recommendation.

Sometimes figuring out how much your eBay and PayPal auction fees will cost can be a little confusing.  Knowing the fees in advance is important, since it can help you decide the best (i.e. most profitable) price and format to list an item on eBay.

There are a number of free online auction fee calculators available, but many are out of date and don’t give you all the information you need.  One of the best ones available is the New Life Auctions free eBay and PayPal fee calculator.  The New Life Auctions tool will not only calculate your fees, but it will also show you how much profit you can expect to make on an item.  This handy fee calculator Includes the following features.

• Listing Format
• Auction Type
• Listing Upgrades
• eBay Picture Services
• PayPal
• Power Seller Discount

Michael Repzynski’s free eBay / PayPal Fee Calculator is another good tool.    It is a little faster than the New Life Auctions tool, but not quite as robust in its features.  However, it is still an excellent choice, if you are looking for something simple.

Doug Boudreau’s free eBay Fee Calculator is another good option.  There is also a free PayPal Fee Calculator you can use to calculate your PayPal fees.  When you check out Doug’s site, you will see that he also offers similar tools for Half.com and Amazon.com.

All of these tools have been updated to include eBay’s 2008 fee schedule.  No matter which tool you decide is best for your own needs, they can all help you get more control over your eBay and PayPal fees, ensuring you maximize your profitability.

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New eBay sellers often neglect to put enough effort into creating exciting and informative eBay listings.  They think all they need to do is throw up any old auction and visitors will not only come, but bid.  This is just not the case.  The look and feel of your eBay auctions has nearly as much to do with the amount of bids you get, as the item itself.

Even though most eBay sellers begin as eBay buyers, many forget what it is that attracts them to one auction more than another.  Just think about the last item you bought something on eBay.  Were you able to choose between several of the same item?  If so, think about what it was that persuaded you to bid on a particular auction.  Here are some of the most important elements that influence most eBay bidders.

• Title - This should be a mini description of the item up for auction.  It should include as much pertinent information as possible.
• Description - Make sure you provide as much detail as you can.  The more information you can provide, the better your auction will perform… brand name, model, size, color, condition, year, etc.  Make sure your visitors have all the information they need to make an immediate decision.
• Photos - The more photos you can provide the better your auction will perform.  eBay bidders want details and nothing a story better than pictures.  Even a darker, off center, somewhat out of focus photo is better than no photo at all.
• Guarantee - Can you provide some sort of guarantee to the winning bidder?  If so, do it.  You will definitely get more people bidding, which will likely result in a significantly higher price.  And, as long as you have been completely truthful in your description, the likelihood that someone will return the item is very low.
• HTML - This will allow you to perform basic text formatting, like bolding titles, separating paragraphs and inserting blank lines.  Even if you only use a little bit of HTML, it can make a big difference in the look and feel of your auctions.  There are a number of basic HTML tutorials online, which you can find by doing a search.

The bottom line is that the appearance of your eBay auctions and the text you include can have a big impact on the amount of money you will make.  Remember, your eBay auctions will often be competing against several other online auctions, selling nearly the exact same item.  Spending a little extra time to make sure you include all of the elements above, will pay big dividends.

Today, I am going to tell you about a technique you can use to accomplish three objectives, which are critical to “squeezing” the most money possible out of your online auctions.  I am going to show you a simple strategy you can use to:

1. Figure out the highest price your item is likely to get
2. Double the number of hits your auction receives
3. Instantly get “warm” buyers to view your auctions

Let me give you an example of how I use what I call the “Instant Page Views” strategy to accomplish these objectives.  Once you see how I do it, you will easily be able to incorporate this simple strategy into your own online auctions and make more money on eBay.

Recently, I ran an auction for a “Deni Scoop-Factory Soft Serve Automatic Ice Cream Maker + FREE Extra Speedee-Freeze Canister.”

This was a great little homemade ice cream maker.  You can check out the online auction by clicking on the link below or copying it into  your browser.

http://www.auctionautopilot.com/ebay-auctions/0303-deni-scoop.htm

I “relisted” this item because I put it up for auction once before, without selling it.  The first time I ran the online auction, I started it out with an opening bid of $0.99.  I like to start my auctions with a low opening bid to get the maximum number of people looking at them, as soon as the listings go live.  This particular online auction got a lot of attention.  By the time it was over, my counter indicated I had received 143 hits… pretty good visibility!

Before I listed the item the first time, I did some research to find out what a soft serve ice cream maker might go for.  This helped me decide to place a reserve price of $49.99 on the auction.  Whether you use a reserve, or not, you should always use a research tool to help you determine how to price your items.  HammerTap is one of the best tools available for market research.

The online auction ended with a high bid of $42.00, so my reserve price wasn’t met and I did not sell the item.  This didn’t make me particularly unhappy, since one of my goals is always to get as many hits as possible, even if I don’t sell an item the first time around.  The more hits I get, the more people are likely to see my “About Me” page, which will lead them to my website.  I’ll talk more about making money from a website in a future post.

PREVIEW:  You don’t even need to have your own website to make a ton of money with this strategy…. more later.

Since the auction didn’t end in a sale, I have relisted the item.  Now, here’s the tricky part.  Remember, I mentioned the last time I listed this item, it received 143 hits.  Well, of all the people that looked at the auction, 4 people bid on it a total of 23 times… must have been a mini bidding war going on!  Do you think any of these people might want a second chance at this item?  Of course they would.  So, being the conscientious eBayer that I am, I decided to tell each of the previous four bidders the item was available again.  Here’s the exact message I sent them:

————————– Message Start ————————

Hi,

A couple of weeks ago, you placed a bid on one of the items I was selling on Ebay.  The title was “DENI SCOOP FACTORY SOFT SERVE ICE CREAM MAKER.”  The item never sold because the reserve price was not met.  I decided to relist the item, without a reserve this time.  I thought you might be interested in bidding again, since the opening bid is more than $50.00 less than the retail price. You can check it out, along with my other auctions by clicking on the following link, or copying the link and pasting it into your browser.

http://www.auctionautopilot.com/ebay-auctions/0303-deni-scoop.htm

Please let me know if you have any questions.  Good luck bidding.

All the best,

Scott Memmott

http://www.AuctionAutopilot.com

————————– Message End ————————–

Can you see the method to my madness?  First, by listing the auction with a reserve, I ensured that the item would not sell for less than I initially thought was a fair price.  Second, since my “fair price” was higher than the market would bear, I relisted the item, with an opening bid ($39.00) close to the high bid of the previous auction ($42.00).  Third, I contacted the previous bidders to let them know the item was up for auction again, ensuring “warm” buyers would help kick off the auction with a bang.  The more interest you can generate for your online auctions right off the bat, the more success you will have.

To summarize the “Instant Page Views” strategy:

Step 1 - Do your research using a tool like HammerTap.

Step 2 - Use a low opening bid with a reserve price you deem appropriate, based on your research.

Step 3 - If your item doesn’t sell, relist it.

Step 4 - Contact everyone that placed a bid on the previous online auction for the item.

Step 4 is really the heart of the strategy.  If you do this one extra step, you will place yourself ahead of 99% of all the other eBay sellers.  It only takes a couple of minutes to send a quick “courtesy email” to your previous bidders, but it can pay big dividends.  You will instantly have “warm” buyers looking at your online auctions and they will already be primed to pay a high price.  Give it a try for yourself.

Today, I’m going to tell you about a strategy that can double or triple your eBay income.  This technique is so easy.  However,  very few eBay sellers use it, even though it takes so little  effort.  What is it?

Backend Sales!

Let me give you an example of something I did.  I  noticed there were several eBay sellers who were selling huge  lots of greeting cards.  In fact, when I first checked it out, there was a lot  of 1,000 cards available, with only two days left in the auction.  Guess what the high bid was?

$1.00!?

Can you believe it?  The final bid went a bit higher, but  not by much.  In the end, the bidder ended up with 1,000 greeting cards for less than a  penny a piece.

There are several eBay sellers that regularly sell lots of 25  greeting cards for $5.00 or more.  What kind of a profit could  you make if you bought 1,000 cards for $1.00 and then turned  around and sold them all for $5.00 per set of 25 cards?  $200.00,  which is a 20,000% return on your money!  Not bad.

By the way, there are deals like this all the time on eBay.  You  can find a lot of them by using a great power tool called  HammerTap.

But, this post is not about finding low priced items on eBay  and reselling them for a profit.  That will be the subject of a  future post.  So now, back to backend sales (no pun intended). 

These huge lots of greeting cards come up on eBay all the time.  So, I decided to use them as a backend sale item.  Here’s what I  did.

I bought a large lot of cards for about $0.02 a piece.  I then  made up an order form to sell the cards for $0.20 a piece (you can always raise the price later).  Each time I shipped something that I  sold on eBay, I simply included a sample card & envelope with an order form.

When my buyer (winning bidder) received their purchase, they were surprised and pleased to find that I had enclosed a free greeting card that they could use (nice little bonus).  And, they saw that they could order more high-quality greeting cards, for only $0.20 a piece, in lots of 25.  Since most greeting cards  retail for $2.00 to $3.00 each, that represented a savings of more than  90%.  That’s a pretty attractive offer.

The beauty of this strategy is that anyone who ever buys anything  from me can become a life-time customer.  They may buy greeting  cards from me for years.  My first “one-time” sale to them can turn into a lifetime income stream, as they reorder cards again and again.

You can do the exact same thing.  All you need to do is identify  a consumable item that people buy, use up and buy again.  Buy it on Ebay for pennies on the dollar, or through one of the great  wholesale sources I will tell you about in a future post.  Set  up an order form you can enclose with your Ebay sales.  And, sit  back and let the money roll in.  Very cool!

HammerTap can save you hours looking for consumable items you can resell as backend products.  Remember, it doesn’t have to be  greeting cards.  That is just an example of something I happened to notice.  You may find other great consumable products that are a better fit for the type of items you normally sell on eBay.  HammerTap can make it easy to find products that people will buy over and over again.

To summarize, backend sales is basically the process of selling  more merchandise to customers who recently bought something from you.  The best time to approach a potential customer is when they  are already happy with a recent purchase and they are in the ”buying mood.”

Remember, the ideal backend product should be consumable.  Once  you capture a new customer, you want to offer him something that he will need to reorder from you each time he uses up his supply.  This will create lifetime customers that can be the source of a never ending income stream for you.

HammerTap can be a tremendous help in finding the hottest high-profit consumable items to use as backend sales products.  Take HammerTap for a free 10 day “test drive” and find out what it can do for you.

I ran across a post on Phil Dunn’s eBay Marketing Blog that got me thinking again about the importance of having reliable sources for products that will allow you to turn a nice profit on your eBay auctions.  It is not easy to find a steady supply of top notch products you can aquire at low cost, but sell for a decent profit.  Phil recommends a service called SaleHoo and I heartily endorse his recommendation.

SaleHoo allows you to get unlimited access to more than 5,000 wholesale product suppliers that are pre-screened, peer-reviewed and willing to work with home-based eBay sellers.  More than 50,000 people already use this amazing wholesale product supplier resource, so you know it has to be good.  And, I’m not just talking about eBay sellers.  Retail stores also use SaleHoo to find the best wholesale sources for products that sell like hot cakes.

Check out some of the amazing testimonials of regular people who are making consistent and sometimes very serous money, using SaleHoo.  These people come from all over the world, which goes to show again that it doesn’t matter where you live.  The internet is the great equalizer, when it comes to making money on eBay.  Check out the story of 17 year old Tom Ainge-Roy, from New Zealand, who consistently turns a profit of up to 400% on every item he sells.  And, there are many more, equally impressive.

When you check out the list of SaleHoo Suppliers, you will see that the database covers an amazing amount of products.  Wholesale suppliers include:

• Dropshippers
• Wholesalers
• Liquidators
• Manufacturers

SaleHoo also offers a number of excellent learning and training resources.  Their advice is easy to follow and jargon-free.  Some of the areas covered include:

• Finding & Sourcing
• Importing & Shipping
• Scam Prevention
• Business Setup
• eBay Selling
• Top Tools 

If you are unsure if SaleHoo is for you, I recommend you take the short video tour.  It will walk you through the main features and show you exactly how it can help you grow your eBay business.

I recently ran across David White’s website eBay & Beyond, Basics to Business.  David has been selling on eBay for many years and has also taught at eBay University.  David provides insightful eBay advice via a weekly podcast, which you can download for free.  He interviews other eBay insiders, reviews helpful online auction tools and discusses a variety of topics important to anyone seeking to make a full time income on eBay.  Some of the most recent podcast episodes include:

eBay & Beyond Podcast (0)

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Check it out.  You may be able to pick up a few useful tips to help you make more money on eBay.