From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: Don’t Be That Random Ebay Guy

If I could convey only one concept to someone who was about to start selling on Ebay, it would be this: no one has ever purchased anything on Ebay with this in mind--"I think I'll buy something on Ebay from some random guy and pay more than I would at the store down the street."

No one has ever said that. Not once. That is why Ebay sellers who appear to be "that random guy" always fail miserably. It's not enough to simply be professional and responsible. You have to make an active effort to appear professional and responsible.

To begin with, you must actually have a good deal. There are dozens of liquidators and wholesale outlets. If you do your research, you should have no problem finding good prices on anything you want to sell. I list a number of the best ones in my book.

Once you have something good to sell and a good source to buy it from, you have to decide how you are going to present it.

At this point, you are giving your customers a good deal --which is important--but if you don't present it as a good deal, they will have no way of knowing.

One way you can do this is by setting yourself apart from the pack with a unique selling proposition: tell potential customers exactly why they should shop at your store over other Ebay sellers' stores.

For instance, if you know that the sellers in your category who undersell you can only do it because they are selling damaged or refurbished products, then tell that to your customers. Let them know that your products may cost a few more dollars. . .but if they buy it somewhere else for less on Ebay, it is probably broken.

You will also want to add extra services and guarantees to your product that no one else offers. For example, you could give free support or free shipping. Or you could guarantee to ship everything within 24 business hours of purchase. Or you could bundle your product with other products. Whatever you do, your goal should be to gain a competitive edge over big sellers by adding an unquantifiable amount of value to your item.

. . .but even this is not enough to make you appear professional and responsible.

You must frame your products in a template that looks professionally-designed. You will need to either learn HTML or purchase a template from Ebay or elsewhere. In the end, you need to ask yourself this: "if I stumbled over this auction, would I think it was professional--or would I immediately move on?"

It is also a good idea to ask another person what they would do, since it is often hard to judge your own work.

In addition to this, you will want to operate like a real business would. You should email your customers with shipping confirmation numbers. You should be polite to customers and use a systematic process to conduct all transactions and customer interactions.

Everything I mentioned in this lesson is relatively simple. Most of it can be accomplished in a matter of hours; however, the vast majority of Ebay sellers neglect to do it. If you put everything in this lesson into practice, you will immediately put yourself light-years ahead of all stores that look like "that random Ebay guy."