I read an article on Makeuseof.com about a different way to search for items on eBay. It’s basically like a live search for items on eBay. I thought some of you might like to give it a try.

EbaySpy offers an alternative way to find deals on eBay. The application shows you a real-time feed of ending eBay auctions that continuously auto-updates itself. You will be quiet amused to see how many items end up with no bids at all.

eBaySpy - Watch eBay Auctions Live & Find Deals.

Hint – check out the user name – no wonder he got negative feedback.

As always on eBay – caveat emptor

 

Found on MakeUseOf - Geeky Fun

Looks like common sense has won out in the eBay drama we discussed at our last meeting. Alternate payment methods like Bank Deposit and COD will still be allowed on eBay Australia. Every auction must include PayPal but can include the other methods too.

This makes sense to me. PayPal is a useful and convenient way to buy stuff all over the internet. A lot of stores allow or even encourage PayPal. And using PayPal on eBay gives you some level of buyer protection too. I just think that it shouldn’t be restricted to PayPal only. What if I find something locally I want to buy and go round to pick it up - I want to pay cash not have to do it all online.

The outcome achieved here is the best for buyers and sellers alike. Sellers can still nominate PayPal as their only allowed payment method if they want to and buyers can use PayPal to pay if they choose to. But there is no monopolisation of the process to feed eBay revenues.

I don’t believe for a moment that eBay changed their mind '”to end confusion” or because of the complaints of users. They were prepared to bully buyers and sellers however they want. It was the ACCC forcing their hand that sorted it out.

So strike up a win for our tax dollars at work – you don’t say that every day do you!

eBay Australia ditches controversial payment policy.

Giving in to unrelenting pressure from sellers and the competition regulator, eBay Australia has officially called off its effort to force members to use its PayPal subsidiary for transactions on its e-commerce site.

The announcement came a week after eBay said it would postpone enacting the policy until the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had its final say.

"eBay has withdrawn its notification to the [ACCC] about removing other payment methods. Instead eBay will continue to allow all existing payment methods on eBay.com.au," the statement reads. "We have decided to withdraw the notification to stop any further confusion and disruption among the eBay Community."

eBay said it will continue to look for ways to foster a safer online environment for its users, but will do that "while still offering a variety of payment choices."

Sellers on eBay.com.au are still required to offer PayPal as at least one payment option, a requirement that took effect in May. Associated changes to PayPal Seller Protection and increased PayPal Buyer Protection remain in place.

Auctiva Article link

As promised last week here is a link to download the article I compiled on eBay

Click here to download the file

It includes

• General details on eBay and it’s origin
• General details on PayPal
• A description of how they both work
• A schedule of fees and charges from eBay and PayPal
• Articles discussing the current ‘discussions’ between eBay and the ACCC over eBay’s intention to limit the method for auction payments to only be through PayPal
• Tips for buyers using eBay including discussion of bidding strategies and a link to an Auction Sniping tool, and
• Tips for sellers including details on using Auctiva to create and promote your sales on eBay

Some of this is my own work and opinions but some is from other sites – please refer to the links for more information and details of the original authors

I plan to expand on the buying and selling tips again in future and will post this as a separate item here on the blog. So look out for updated details sometime soon.

But for now I hope you find this useful

As usual it's "buyer beware" on eBay. Hey Ross - have you checked out the full capacity of that 32GB drive you have? :)

China is a genius factory, don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. The latest tech gimmick to flood the market are some naughty USB keys containing a hacked controller and only half as much physical flash memory as they claim.
A lot of these cheap keys find their way to Ebay, advertised with a large capacity – usually between 1 and 8GB. When you plug it in, your OS will report the full capacity, however half of that doesn’t exist. Filling the key more than halfway writes to its imaginary memory and throws that data into a black hole. During normal use, the hack is a bugger to detect and will no doubt turn your day into a bed-wetting nightmare when crucial files are lost in the void.
While a similar trick has been around before, where 16MB was being exaggerated to multiple gigabytes, the problem this time is quantity: hundreds of these things get sold a day to Australians alone. eBay is so saturated with these things and you have to search hard to find the genuine article.

The hack works by tricking the controller into believing it has a larger memory chip attached than it actually does. If you open up a key, you will find two main chips soldered on: the flash memory (the large rectangular IC) and the controller (the smaller square IC). This exploit seems to be isolated to keys with an iCreate controller. However, without disassembling the key, there is no way to know what you will get. Pictured is a dicey iCreatei5127-lg based stick, but there may be others out there.

For now there are some simple ways to test if you‘ve been duped. The quick way is to get your hands on a copy of HD-Tach (the trial version is fine), and run a benchmark on your key. If there is a sudden spike or dip , like the one in the image below, you might have purchased from wallet-rape central. If it stays flat you’re probably in the clear

The more thorough test involves filling your key and seeing if anything falls into the void. We suggest taking as many mp3s or similar as you can fit on the key and splitting them up into a few folders (8 is a good number; try and have folders of equal size). Copy them all to the key and unplug when done. At least a minute after unplugging the key, insert it into a different computer and test a few files from each of your folders. On a bad key, about half of these will be corrupted.
If you’re one of the poor sods who have one of these dodgy drives, all is not lost. First you should try and raise a dispute through the appropriate channels. Ebay in particular has facilities for this.
If you’re stuck with it, however, you can cut your losses and reformat it to the correct size. iCreate provide a tool called iFormat. We had a little trouble with this version, but there is an older (more stable) version available, which will correctly detect how much flash you have and repartition. As your drive shrinks, the pangs of buyers’ remorse may kick in, however the danger of losing files is now gone.

If you’re about to buy flash storage from Ebay, be very careful – and remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The example is just one that we’ve noticed -- there are probably many others out there. If you are key hunting on Ebay, remember to use everything at your disposal. There are some good fraud-detection guides out there, and it always helps to double check seller feedback and use PayPal. Sudden up-crops of negative or neutral feedback in the last month are big warning signs. Spend the time to find out what those bad ones were about. Make sure you do your research and don’t buy impulsively if you’re in a hurry or you’re looking at a sale that ends soon – just like Dell specials, there will be another similar sale almost immediately afterwards. Good Huntin’.

This article can be seen at http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?SCID=20&CIID=105823

Over the last 8 years I have been buying and selling items on eBay for myself and more recently, small businesses. In that time I���ve learned a few tricks to help get you maximum profit for your items with just a few tweaks during the listing process. Here is a checklist to go through when listing your items.

• List the item on Sunday
• Know the item you are listing
• Research what similar items have sold for
• Be honest with your description
• Be realistic with what you expect to get for it
• Avoid most eBay add-ons
• Get a good starting bid, avoid reserves, use Buy It Now
• List the item for maximum visibility
• Be as descriptive as possible
• Use quality photographs
• Explain any flaws
• Spell check
• Explain shipping & handling fees up front
• Create a disclaimer
• Reply to all questions in a timely manner
• Ship fast
• Use PayPal
• Promote your auction

List the item on Sunday. It is a proven fact that listing a standard seven day auction late Sunday afternoon into early evening will give you the best chance of a great auction selling price. More people are likely to be home and you will get the exposure of the remaining part of that day and the entire following Saturday. If you live on the east coast of the US, list it somewhere between 6 and 9pm, this will give people on the west coast ample time to see it. Ideally, you want as many people to see it in the last few hours as possible, which is when most people make the decision to buy.

Know the item you are listing. Sounds silly, but many people don���t know exactly what it is they are selling. Say for example you are selling a toy you bought for your toddler but they hate it. You threw out the box when you gave it to him, so you lost a lot of the information about it, what age group it was for, etc. Without that information, you cannot make a solid, descriptive auction. The information should be available on the manufacturer website, so search for that. Likewise, if you are selling something like a handmade wood bowl that your grandfather gave you, list that it is a handmade item and that it is one of a kind (if it truly is).

Research what similar items have sold for. You���ll need to login to your eBay account to do this then go to the advanced search options. Search for already completed auctions to get an idea of what recently ending items have sold for and how much of a bidding war too place. With this information you should be able to properly gauge what your item is worth and start the auction accordingly.

Be honest with your description. Sounds easy enough, but the number of sellers who don���t give any information or very little about an items real condition can often not get as much money from their sale or have to deal with numerous questions during the auctions. If you are trying to sell a set of bookshelf speakers for example and you know that on the left side of one of them is a small mark, take a photo and make sure you note it in the description. By being honest you will not only save the aggravation of dealing with an unhappy buyer after the fact, you will be more likely to come off as a real person selling the item. Buyers like to know that they are getting something from an honest seller. If you embellish your listing you are only selling yourself short. Likewise, be sure that you mention other details that some may care about. Often times when selling used clothing it is a good idea to mention that your home is smoke free and pet free, only do this if it is indeed true.

Be realistic with what you want to get for the item. After you���ve done your research on what similar items have sold for, be realistic with the condition of the item you are selling and how much you can get for it. Sometimes people shoot for the stars and end up not selling the item; by not selling it you waste money in listing fees. If you are not comfortable with the price at which recent auctions have ended, don���t list your item. There is a chance the market for that particular item will have an upswing, just as likely as it could have a downswing though.

Avoid most eBay add-ons. There are dozens of options when listing your auction, you can see all the sellers fees here. Most of them will not get you more money in the end, such as fancy templates, making the title line bold and putting a funny little outline around your listing in search engines. Unless you have something really rare, I���d avoid these.

Get a good starting bid, avoid reserves and use Buy It Now. Low starting prices attract buyers, reserves scare them away, and so I���d avoid using them unless you really need to get a certain amount for the item. Listing your item at $1.00 with no reserve will more then likely draw attention but be aware that it might only sell for $1.00. Over the years, the Buy It Now option has become more popular; I personally prefer to buy auctions with them. There is a small fee associated with it, but auctions that list with the BIN add-on usually sell faster.

List the item for maximum visibility. eBay offers several add-on features for a fee to get your item to stand out better in the search results, some of these are worth looking into some are not. The only one I���d ever really consider is the thumbnail view of your item to the left of the text link. What you can do for free is use all the space available for your auction title. Currently eBay gives 24 (I think) characters, use all of them. Additionally, use the underscore to separate words instead of a blank space. Why you ask? The modern type is dynamic to each letter; the lower case letter l takes up less horizontal space then the lowercase letter w. By using the underscore instead of spaces you will essentially widen the auction title and possibly get it to spill onto a second line for free. An example can be seen here:

New Playstation 3 Core System With 2 Controllers
New_Playstation_3_Core_System_With_2_Controllers

Not only is the wider one easier to read, it will attract more viewers. There is also an add-on when listing your auction called Gallery, it is a $0.35 add on feature. While I am against most of these add-ons because they can really cut into your profits, this is one that is worth it. Why? Because it will show the buyer what your item looks like from the search results field. This can be very handy for many different types of auctions, in addition to drawing more attention to the listing.

Be as descriptive as possible. If the item is of electronic nature, say a home stereo, see if the manufacturer still has the specs listed on their site and either link to it or copy over the important ones. In addition, list your personal experience with the item, how it works, functions, etc. You���ll want to make a point of listing everything positive you can about the item. In some cases, I���ve also listed why I���m selling some items, depending on what it is. Recently I sold a piece of luggage that I purchased in California on vacation that was needed to haul home all the stuff I bought. It was used once as a carry on and was in as new condition. This information was listed in the auction. Also take the time to list the environment the items lived in. If for example you were selling clothing, even new with tags on it, list in the auction that the item is new with tags and if applicable, that it comes from a smoke free, animal free home, kept in a cool, dry closet. Don���t lie here!
Explain any flaws. Take photos of scratches, dents, scuffs, wear, etc. No matter how small it is, disclose the information in both photographs and pictures. This lets the seller know how are trying to be honest and up front about the item. You don���t have to go into full detail about how everything happened, just be sure to list them.

Use quality photographs. If it is something small, get a piece of white poster board from a local Wal-Mart type store and place it on your kitchen table. Put the item on it and turn on all the lights in that room. Take a few pictures of it making sure nothing else is being shown but the item and the white background. If the item is fairly small, look for a macro setting on your camera and use that. For any given item, 3-6 quality photographs will go a long way. Resize them down to be used on the web; an easy way to do this is with the freeware program Irfanview (Windows only, Mac users can use iPhoto). Once open, go to Image > Resize / Resample and click the 800×600 option, then OK. Save these to a new location. Since eBay only gives you one photo for free, use a free web photo hosting solution for the other images to be listed in your auction. Some of these sites are:

• xs.to
• PhotoBucket
• ImageShack

They all provide code to place them into eBay auctions and are free to use. I���ve been using xs.to for sometime and never had a problem. Simple and straight forward.

Spell check. Take two minutes and reread what you wrote, make sure it makes sense and there are no spelling errors. Not only will this make the auction more valid for your potential buyer, it is the right thing to do.

Explain shipping & handling fees up front. When listing your auction, eBay has the boxes you can use for shipping, flat rate, by weight, etc. I think it is also worth listing in the auction itself what the shipping & handling fees are, where you will and won���t ship to, what the insurance options are, etc. My experience is that buyers prefer flat rate shipping, so you will need to determine what your item weighs packed up and what the rate is from who you will use as a shipper (UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc.). I usually add $1-4 to that to cover my costs of the box, packing material and gas to drive to where I���m mailing it from. Insurance is an option in the listing process, you the seller decide if you want to make it required, optional or not available. I usually use the optional portion, 50% of the time the buyer will want it, and the other half they won���t.

Create a disclaimer. At the bottom of all my auctions I use something similar to the following:

I have listed this item to the best of my ability. If you have any questions, please contact me with at least 24 hours prior to the auction ending so I may reply to them. Payment is expected within three days of the auction ending, PayPal is the preferred method. The item will be shipped within one business day after payment has been received. Insurance is optional, however it is recommended. Please leave positive feedback for me when the item arrives, I will do the same for after you have left feedback for me. If for some reason there is an issue with the item when it arrives, please contact me ASAP to address it.

Reply to all questions in a timely manner. Common sense here folks. Don���t list an item and go on vacation. Do check your email and eBay account at least twice a day to look for questions. Reply to them in a timely manner and address each question to the best of your ability.

Ship fast. If you can, ship an item the day of payment or the following day. This will help build a positive feedback rating for you as a fast shipper, something a lot of buyers look for. No one wants to pay for something on Monday to find out it hasn���t shipped out till Friday. Take this into consideration when listing your item.

Use PayPal. PayPal allows instant payment and the ability for you the seller to receive credit card payments. By doing so, you have now enabled someone who may not have the cash to purchase your item to do so by putting it on their credit card. Additionally, it allows you to track payments and create shipping labels for both USPS and UPS. Using the built in option for shipping labels will also send notification to the buyer that the item has shipped and what the tracking number is, one less thing you need to do. There are too many instances where checks and money orders bounce, get lost in the mail, etc. to make them worthwhile. Additionally, it adds time until the buyer receives their item.

Promote your auction. On any given day there are millions of items listed. Just having a clever title isn���t good enough anymore. You need to tell people you have an auction. Get on the social network of your choice, like MySpace and make a blog or bulletin post announcing your auctions. Don���t go around spamming people, but once when you list the auction and another the day before the auction ends can help drive extra traffic to your auctions.

Lastly, build relationships. Use the feedback options on all auctions, making sure to emphasize what the buyer has done right, using terms like fast payment or painless transaction. This will make you seem much more human and more buyers will want to deal with you. Should have an issue, do everything in your power to resolve it as fast as possible.

Randomn3ss » How to list an eBay auction for maximum profit

Information supplied via our local ACC - Thanks Lyn :)
The courses are in Wollongong but if you are interested in free training as a seller on eBay it might be worth the drive

The NSW Department of State & Regional Development is holding two free seminars in Wollongong on using eBay:

Using eBay to Create and Grow an Online Business – 17 September – 2.30-4.30pm – covers:

Key eBay business principles

Leveraging eBay’s selling tools and stores

Extending your online business with PayPal and Shopping.com

The Basics of Selling on eBay – 27 September, 8.30-10.30am – covers:

Setting up an account

Researching the eBay marketplace for your products and services

Creating eBay listings and what makes a good one

Monitoring your listings

What to do when a listing has sold

Payment and sending options

How to avoid common mistakes

For information and to book your seat on line, go to www.smallbusinessmonth.nsw.gov.au or contact me for a registration form.

Kind regards

Lyn Eckersley
Small Business Field Officer
Shoalhaven Area Consultative Committee Inc.
Email: lyn@sacc.com.au www.sacc.com.au/sba