Ebay Australia - By Alastair Harris
What has made each succeeding civilization, 'civilized', is not so much the great monuments they build, empires they conquered but rather how they provided goods and services to improve the daily lifes of their citizens. Whereas previously the merchantial class was often limited to an elite thanks to the internet anyone and I mean anyone with a computer and an internet link can start their own online business.
One of the shining beacons of this new world of online commerce is ebay. Despite is being existence for a number of years and being used by millions of people the surprizing thing is the number of people who have still not given it a go. Until this year I had yet to ebay. Now its at least a weekly if not daily addiction. Why?
Firstly ebay has a number of advantages. Its a worldwide marketplace with ebay in most countries around the world. The shear number of items for sale is massive - on ebay Australia alone at any given time there are at least two millions items for sale (this doesnt' even include multiple lots). Thus the variety available is massive. If you want it, its probably for sale on ebay. Cars, collectables, clothes, gadgets, you name it. One of the few things they don't sell is animals, livestock, something I argue they should.
Another advantage is most items you can pick up at a substantial discount to the retail price. Half price and even bargins at 10% or less of the going rate. How can people make a profit selling at these rates. Well, they don't have retail overheads, no rental, storage, staff, etc and in the case of second hand stuff, they really are not too fused on the price so long as they get something. This makes ebay a great place for buyers.
Some people would think that it is then not worthwhile to sell on ebay, nothing could be further from the truth. 95% of all people on ebay are buyers, that is a great ratio. Also your only cost is the ebay listing fee and the % they take from the sale. This mean so long as you can source your product cheaply you don't need the 100%-1000% mark up the retail stores require for a profit. There are average people who have become millionaires by selling on ebay alone. Many others are making $100,000 a year. All that is required is an in demand product that you can acquire at a price that still allows a profit on ebay. Although pick up is an option on ebay, most successful items are sold via the post so have to be lighter enough and small enough to go through the post. Thats why items like mobile phones, computer games and clothes are such hot sellers.
In your own house ebay estimates you have $2000 worth of products that you no longer use and are likely to throw out. I know this is true because my wife and I sold $2500 of stuff around the house that would have been thrown out - old computer games, old baby clothes, etc. So long as you have looked after them there is no reason someone else won't get good use from them. Got unwanted gifts - convert them into cash.
I will admit that it takes a little while to learn how to list on ebay and even longer to learn all the tricks but anyone of average intellegience can do this with ease. I reccommend going in through an established banner link so that you go to the real ebay site (yes success always breeds counterfeits and frauds) see the link below and you will find an ebay banner which goes to ebay, then go the country link at the ebay site to go to your own countries site.
Why ebay rather than the many other trading sites on the net. Well firstly its size. It is currently the biggest. Secondally with paypal you have the option of a security net to protect the buyer and seller. Another advantage to ebay is that it is an established company and is not going anywhere soon. With some of the smaller trade sites thats not such sureity. Ebay also has a well defined set of rules to deal with problems. My only criticism is as a seller that you have to wait a couple of weeks to get your listing fee back from non-buyers, but I find if you ban anyone who has less than a 10 feedback this gets rid of anyone who's not a serious buyer. The feedback rating is another good ebay benefit. You can go back through a person history to determine if they are someone you want to ebay with. Not every person is suited to ebay - if you can't wait a week for the product to come in the mail, then don't ebay, if you prefer to bragg about how expensive something you brought was, then don't ebay, if you don't like searching for a bargin, then don't ebay.
posted by Arthur Wang at Tuesday, August 22, 2006
