Posted on: 10 March, 2003
Author: Rob Noble
"The Ebay ... secrets to save you from the 3 P's"1100 words. ... to 60 ... You may publish this article free of charge in your ezine, web site, ebook or print ... so lo "The Ebay "Powerseller" secrets to save you from the 3 P's"1100 words. Formatted to 60 characters. You may publish this article free of charge in your ezine, web site, ebook or print publication so long as thecopyright notice and the resource paragraph (at the end ofthe article) are included.Rob NobleEmail: [email protected] Article Begins Below This Line ----------THE EBAY "POWERSELLER" SECRETS TO SAVE YOU FROM THE 3 P'sCopyright 2003 Rob NobleI'm just amazed that more people don't realise it! Ebay hasa secret that makes it THE best market in the world offline or online! In fact it's THE best market EVER. Do Isound enthusiastic about Ebay?! I do! good - I love it.Let me give you an example of why I love Ebay.Years ago I set up my very first business to help me pay myway through college. It was a stall selling antiques (wellmore like rubbish!) in Camden market in London (yes, sorryI'm a Brit!).When I started I didn't have a clue. I went through all thejunk I'd collected over the years and put that as "stock".Then I went to a number of auctions, rooted about in boxesand bought some that looked "promising".Then I rented my stall (5.30am to get a spare table) set upmy "stuff" and waited. 9 hours later, after watching personafter person perform the 3 P's (Pick up, Put down and P***off! - apologies for the language but it IS the officialterm amongst UK dealers) I began realising that my itemsonly appeared promising to ME!During this time of sitting stiffly, trying to disappearinto my jacket both to keep warm and from sheerembarrassment, I noticed that certain dealers seemed to actlike magnets. People didn't simply go to them to perform therites of the 3 P's, they actually lingered, discussed and,joy of joys - reached into their wallets and bought!Over the weeks I ventured over to these stalls and hoveredwhile I watched the magnificent spectacle of customersparting with cash! Eventually even I couldn't help noticethat certain items seemed to be selling more regularly thanothers, and, as some of the dealers took pity on an earnestyoung man (I developed a helpless sort of pitiful look thatworked a treat!) I began to learn the business of buyingitems that people actually WANT to buy. And miracle ofmiracles came the day when I actually made more profit thanI was paying in rent for the stall!The absolute, sheer, magnificent beauty of Ebay is you don'thave to go through all that. I don't think there can be anymarket, of any kind, where so much information is availableto the public. Because Ebay allows you to SEARCH COMPLETEDAUCTIONS for free! And that is an advantage no other marketallows. Everything you could possibly need to know is there,available to you just for the time required to root it out.Now imagine, if back then, at Camden market I had beenallowed the same advantage.Firstly, before going anywhere near an auction, I could havehad a good look at WHAT KIND OF THINGS WERE IN DEMAND. Thedealers attracting all those people at the market had learntover the years what kind of items were ready sellers andwhat was likely to sit there for months tying up valuablespace and capital. With Ebay you can search the completedauctions looking at the relative "SELL THRU RATES"(percentage of sales to total number of auctions) andcondense those years of trial and error to a few days orweeks of evening study.Next, I could have saved myself a very large amount ofmoney. The other thing those dealers had learnt was that"PROFITS ARE MADE WHEN YOU BUY"! If you pay too much foryour item, even though it's in demand, you lose! Again Ebaycompleted auctions help you condense years of hard knocksinto a few evenings research into discovering your items"ASP" (Average Selling Price).Are you beginning to realise the extraordinary advantage ofEbay?How about this - what if while I was sitting there, inCamden market (believe me, I had lots of time to spare!) Icould have had a crystal ball that let me see the details ofevery one of the sales that were going on around me. Notjust what KIND of things were selling or at what averageprice, but what brands sold most, what colors, years ofmanufacture, sizes etc. and what prices encouraged moresales than others. Advantages that not just allow me tomatch what the other sellers were doing but to take the bestknowledge from each and merge it. Just imagine!I wouldn't have had to perfect my "take pity on me" look!With a window into every detail of the most successfuldealers sales - even before I paid my first weeks rent moneyor paid for my first auction purchase - I could have beenking! I could have set up my stall on that first, earlymorning, knowing without a doubt that I had the items thatbuyers were looking for at prices they were willing to pay.My goodness, what I would have paid at that time for thatkind of advantage!This, of course is just the tip of the iceberg - there is awhole list of vital business information that can be learntfrom the Ebay completed auctions. For a fuller listing youcan see most of them at ProfitFacts for Ebay Auctionshttp://www.profitfacts.com.I estimated that, given my eventual earnings on that Camdenstall - after I had served my enforced apprenticeship Thiskind of vital market research would have saved me close to$12,000.But the real value of this amazing Ebay data isn't reservedfor antiques. There is an even greater potential for dealersin new items. Product that can be easily bought in bulk fora market known to exist, at a price known to sell.So what is it going to be for you? suffer the 3 P's or takethe opportunity Ebay offers, and condense what would takeyears of experience to learn in any other market. Rob Noblehttp://www.profitfacts.comRob Noble has had a varied business career including dealingin antiques, owning a printing company, Venture capitalistfor a private investment consortium, trading index futuresand for the past two years - full time businesses on the web. He is now CEO of ProfitFacts for Ebay a brand new service which "tracks who's making big money on Ebay, how much they'remaking and how they make it".------------------ End of Article ------------------ Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com