Beginners guide to buying and selling on eBay

Are you a person who just figured out about eBay and their large internet market place? Do you want to get in on the action that is happening on eBay, but just don't know where to start? If your that person or anyone who wants to know the in and outs of eBay, go no further. Millions of people pass by this site every day, which means you can make yourself a living off of selling items on eBay if your that commited. 

If your a serious buyer or seller on the internet and DONT have a PayPal account, you will most likely need one if you want to transfer any money on eBay. Most sellers request you pay with PayPal, rather than a credit card. Having a PayPal account on eBay will get you organized with the money you will be making and the money you will be spending. So all you do is go onto the PayPal website, follow the directions in the signup page, and you are off to eBay to be making or spending your money.

eBay is a warehouse of bargins. There are thousands upon thousands of items up for grabs every day on eBay. You see new, factory sealed BluRay discs selling for 5 or even 10 dollars cheaper than retail price and top name brand companies selling for 25% off! You can save a huge amount of money if you start buying smart off of eBay! So with buying, you have to be a expert buyer in order to get the item you want. The auction listings are sometimes brutal when you have 4 or more people bidding on something all of them would die for. You have you maintain some type of edge over those people in order to win the item. There are many tricks and strategies you will want to know for you to have that edge over your other bidders. First off, you want to enter in the maximum bid you are willing to pay for that particular item. What that does is if you are bidding on something that is $5.00 and this item is valuble to you in some way and you want it badly, you can enter in 5.04 for the bid and lets say $15 for the maximum bid. Now if someone eles were to come into the auction and bid $7.50, your maximum bid will take into effect and auto bid $7.54 or higher because you plugged in $15. Now if someone eles came into the auction and bidded $25 for the item, your maximum bid is wiped out and it will no longer auto bid for you because the item is at a higher cost than you are willing to pay. You can replace your maximum bid even higher if you want to too.

Now here is a special tactic that I hate when its used against me. Its called Snipe Bidding. This is ONLY used in the last minute of the auction, or it is not properly executed. Its when someone is counting down the minutes/ seconds of a auction and then places his/her bid at the final seconds of the auction. If its 2 days into a auction and someone places a higher bid than me, I can counter that bid with a even higher bid. Now with snipe bidding, that counter (most of the time) is no longer useful. The other bidder will enter in a amount that is most likely high to prevent other snipes to take it out. If you have two people snipe bidding, someone can place a small amount higher than the auction is asking for at the last 20 seconds but then the final guy could come in at the last 10 seconds and put in a large amount, preventing the first person to react and bid.

There is even software you can download to snipe bid for you, but I don't use it.

When selling a item on eBay, you have to take into account the popularity and sales of the item you are about to sell. If you are planing on selling a swatch made in Swizterland, I doubt you will be getting many views and bids on your item or even by selling a ebook on how to brush your teeth will not get many bids. The market changes just like the stock market, one month, vintage doll dresses will be selling for $30 a set and be hot, then the next month, you will see 3 auctions for these vintage doll dresses selling for $5. If you want to make serious money on eBay you will want to download some software on your computer that gives you the inside scoop on what is making money and what is in demand. But for people who just want to make a couple bucks here and there, selling unusual stuff that no one knows about may end up being a hit success! My friends neighbor started to sell old water guns and old board games on eBay and made a fortune! Because he experimented with different, unusual items, he made some good money on things you wouldn't expected to sell at all! In some cases, different pays off a lot!

Next thing I want to point out to you is garage sales are your best friend if you are looking to make some money here and there. You find so many bargins at garage sales you start to think to yourself, is this real! Now here this, some stuff people sell at garage sales are crap items like half broken chairs, but then other stuff, like 25 cent stamps can sell for several dollars on eBay if you hit the right audience for your items! Also, when you go to garage sales, you want to visit several of the in one day to be productive, then when you get back, research your items and put those bad boys up on eBay!

Another way to make money on eBay is offering to sell someone's item for them. This doesnt pay too much if your selling a small amount item but you can make some good money selling big items on eBay for someone eles. How this works is you get your client whoever that is, and they tell you what they want you to sell. Take that information and research to gain knowledge on your item that you will be selling. Once you have looked up how many items of this similar type you are selling, sold, and for how much, you can then put that item that your client gave you up on eBay. I receive 35% of the total earnings from the item I sold, and give the rest to the previous owner of that item. I helped someone sell their camera for 450$ and I received just under $160 for it. So if you get big enough items like that, you can make a lot of money off of offering services fro you to sell an item for someone.

If it seems hard to start up a service like that, start small with asking around your neighborhood for things people would want to get rid off. Then maybe resort in passing out flyers or even put a ad in your local newspaper. That will definitely get some peoples attention.