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Welcome to Internet profits. The Internet has been around since 1996 (commercially) - but this is the age where you start making money online, with the tips and guides in this guide. I assume that since you have purchased this, you have some stuff to sell, and the desire to make money doing it. |
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There are four giant companies online, and all have ways for you to sell through them. They are in competition with each other, and each is vying to be the most profitable, most frequented shopping destination. Can you guess what the four are? 1. 2. 3. 4. Here is the answer: 
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| Before you get started selling online, I'm going to recommend you do a few things first. It will make your online experience safer. |
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I recommend you get set up with a private mailbox, at a pack and ship/mail place like the UPS store. It has a number of advantages: 1. You get to use the street address of the store, rather than a PO box number. If the store is located at 123 Main, your address could read 123 Main #204 - this looks a lot more legitimate than a PO Box address. Some people do not trust PO Box businesses. 2. It is a commercially zoned address, so you don't have to worry about the zoning or any HOA restrictions where you live. 3. You've got someone there to recieve packages, and typically you have 24 hour access to your box. 4. Most government forms and many private ones do not allow a PO Box address, they want you to enter a street address. 5. It gives you security. There are strange people in the world, it probably isn't a good idea to have your home address on everything. |
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I'd also recommend you get a separate phone number for you to give out, again for security reasons, and because the Internet never sleeps. People might be looking at your listing at 3 in the morning and decide to call. My recommendation is you go with Google Voice. It is free, and you can have the number they give you ring to your cellphone, your homephone, or any phone you wish. You can also set the hours you want it to ring - otherwise it will go to free voicemail. Google will even email you a transcript of the voicemail message. |
| You should open up a word processing document, and create a little profile sheet for yourself. It would include your contact information, as well as usernames and passwords for the various sites you'll be signing up with. You can copy and paste from this document, and not have to worry about remembering which password you used on which site - or worse, using the same on each. It will a;so make signing up easier if all you have to do is copy and paste into the sign up form. |
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Most of the places you'll be selling online have Paypal as a method of payment, so you should get yourself set up with that. When someone pays you, the money will go in to your Paypal account. You can then choose to have it transferred into your regular bank account, or let it accumulate in Paypal. Paypal will even issue a debit card that you can use against the balance. You should open either a Premier or a Business account on Paypal. The only difference really is that you can do things under your business name, display your business logo on the Paypal documents, etc. There is no additional charge. I would recommend that you set up a separate account at a credit union for your online business. That way your personal and business funds are not commingled, and if somehow a scoundrel gets access to your online business account info, your personal account is not at risk. I recommend a credit union, as their fees are usually much less than a banks. |
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You generally will want to include at least one picture with anything you try to sell. You don't need to be a professional photographer or buy an expensive 'light box' to do this. Just take a dark cloth if your item is mostly light in color, and a white cloth if mostly dark in color. Drape it all around behind your product to cut down on distracting background detail. Set an ordinary lamp on each side but far enough away to not be in the picture. You want the product well lit but not glaring. Thats it! |
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When somebody orders something from you, in most cases you'll be sending it to them. The timeliness of the delivery and the care taken in making sure the order arrives in good condition are a big part in customer satisfaction. On some sites like ebay this can bring good feedback scores, on all sites it means a happy customer and one who may buy from you again and again. |
Everything I send out I send out by Flat Rate Priority Mail whenever possible. I like it for a number of reasons:
If something is very fragile or hard to pack, my recommendation is to take it to a place that specializes in shipping (like the UPS store). They are expensive, but they'll pack it so it arrives intact. The customer may have insurance for the shipment, but they are going to be unhappy if it arrives broken. Get a quote on what the store would charge you for both packaging and shipping to farthest point in the US from you. Add a dollar or two for your trouble and time in taking it in, and make the total your shipping and handling charge. Yes, it is expensive, but a broken item will require a refund -- better to spend more to get it there safe. In most cases the buyer pays shipping anyway. If there is something that is very large or heavy (like a car or sofa) it is perfectly fine to specify 'local pickup only' or 'buyer to arrange own shipping'. |
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Whenever you send out a package, send along a free 'goodie' in the package. It doesn't have to be anything very special. I order a lot of blank CDs for my business - I prefer to buy from one particular company. Their prices are comparable to others, but every shipment I get a few bags of M&M candies or bags of other candy in the package. People are tickled when they get something for free - and they'll consider you a great seller. It could be candy, or you can find wholesale lots of cheap merchandise on the auctions sites. For example, on Ebay as I write this, I can buy 210 Tibetan Silver Elephant charms for 12.95 - that's about 6 cents apiece. You could enclose one in each shipment and make someone's day! |
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Whenever someone gets a package from you, they should of course get the item ordered, and the goodie, but they also get some literature in the package. Ideally that is information that will drive them to your website, where they can make another purchase. |
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Obviously, you want to make some money. You also likely want to clear away some stuff to give yourself more room and make life more pleasant. Still, you don't want to sell a priceless antique for a buck, just because you had no idea what it was worth. Pricing is a very important part of selling online, and probably the one where it is easiest to make a mistake. |
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In reality, the price something is worth is determined by the marketplace. If someone is willing to pay you a thousand times what you paid for it, it is worth a thosand times as much - at least to that buyer. This is really the idea that is at the heart of an auction, whether online or otherwise. A starting price is named, but then buyers (the marketplace) bid it up until it reaches the highest value one is willing to pay. Then it is going, going, gone.... |
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For almost any type of collectible, there are printed "Pricing Guides" that will give you fair market value for your item, depending on model and condition. If you are planning to sell a number of the same type of item, these can be extremely valuable investments. You'll be able not only to see the going prices for different items, but see what is important to collectors. For example, with Beanie Babies having the original tag is critical. A Beanie without its swing and/or tush tag is essentially worthless unless the Beanie is extremely rare. Resellers and investors generally agree that a Beanie loses 50% or more of its inherent value when the swing tag is missing. Do a search on Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Price+Guide |
| You can of course take your item to a dealer in that type of merchandise - most offer a free appraisal. This is the whole idea behind the wildly popular Antique Roadshow TV series. Realize that in most cases, the dealer may offer to buy your item, and will quote a price that will allow them to resell it at a profit. |
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One of the best ways to see what someone is willing to pay online today is to see what people paid online yesterday. Many sites allow you to search through sold listings. On Ebay, go to the "advanced" link to the right of the search button. There you'll see a form wth many options. You'll find checkboxes, where you can limit your search to those auctions that were successful in the past (Sold Listings). Put a check in that box, and now the results will show those auctions where the item actually sold and at what price. The listings are available on eBay going back 90 days (15 days for ebay Motors) but there are sites like Terapeak that track for longer, depending on how much you are willing to pay for a subscription. By the way, have any comic books hanging around in your stuff? A comic book sold on August24, 2014 for 3.2 MILLION dollars! Obviously, this is extraordinary. It was an Action Comics #1 issue, starring Superman. This one was special, CGC graded at a close-to-perfect 9.0 and dating to June 1938. As the seller in the auction breathlessly explained: ""This is THE comic book that started it all. This comic features not only the first appearance of Superman, Clark Kent and Lois Lane, but this comic began the entire superhero genre that has followed during the 76 years since. It is referred to as the Holy Grail of comics...the nicest that has ever been graded, with an ASTONISHING grade of CGC 9.0." Here are sold listing for comic books on ebay:  And the listing on Terapeaks that shows that Superman comic:  Another benefit of searching the sold listings is that you can find people selling items similar to yours, and then model your listing after theirs. They were successful, after all! |
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Online Price Guides http://collectibles.about.com/od/priceguidesonline/Collectible_and_Antique_Price_Guides_Online.htm |
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If you go on most sites, you'll find quite a few things selling for a dollar, and it might have cost them a dollar to make or buy it. Where is the sense in that? If I sell you a cat toy for one dollar, what do I know about you? You are probably a cat lover - and even though it costs me a dollar for the cat toy, I'm happy. When you get that package with the dollar cat toy, you'll also find out about my website where you can buy all sorts of cat products. In essence, I've gained a free lead to a qualified prospect. |
You don't want to sell a $5000 antique for $5, just because nobody else is bidding though. Because you have no control of who will see your item while it is on bid, you must be able to limit your risk of doing that. There are multiple ways of doing that, depending on the site and how you want to go:
There are many variations of these. For example, Ebay has a 'Buy It Now' price that is like a fixed price - if someone doesn't want to wait till the end of the auction they can just buy it at that fixed price. If nobody does before the bidding reaches a certain point, the Buy It Now option disappears and it becomes a regular auction format. Buy It Now |
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Most of us have stuff. Too much stuff. I like George Carlin's routine on stuff: Actually, this is just a place for my stuff, ya know? That's all; a little place for my stuff. That's all I want, that's all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? I can see it on your table, everybody's got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there.
- George Carlin
If you find that you are selling your stuff well, you'll want to know how to get more good stuff to sell!
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It may seem like you have enough stuff to last forever, selling a little bit at a time. What often happens though is that you have great success selling a certain type of item, and want to get more of that type. One way of course, is to get it from your friends and family. Almost everyone you know has extra stuff. Most everyone thinks they should be selling it online, but few will actually get around to doing it. You may find this can turn into a business itself, selling things online for those you know. Ebay has actually set this up as a formal program, called Ebay Trading Assistant. Typically the commission is 40% plus whatever Ebay fees apply. It is like consignment. You take the pictures, you do the shipping, take your cut and give them the rest. It is sold in your account, and you'll end up with a great feedback score so are better able to sell at a good price. |
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Some people get inventory for selling online by scarfing up yard sales. Typically they'll show up early so they can scout out anything that they know they can make money selling. They'll also come by just before the yard sale ends, offering something like $20 for everything that is left. The owner is likely to grab the 20 out of the hand, saying 'its all yours!'. They don't want to haul it down to Goodwill themselves, or haul it back into the garage. You can come up with a lot of good merchandise very cheaply by doing this, and you can do it every weekend in most places. |
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I'm a thrift store junkie and a flea market junkie. I enjoy browsing through, seeking out interesting things I can sell. I'm not alone. You'll often see the 'pros' in the thrift stores, quickly going through things like they are on a mission. You'll see them scanning bar codes in the book section, looking for valuable books. I'm afraid that is one of the reasons why thrift store prices have gone up quite a bit in the last few years. The great thing about thrift store shopping is the 'treasure hunt' aspect of it all. You never know what might turn up. I've turned a $2.98 book purchase into over $100. Another find was a Russian Navy hat worth over $40, picked up for $2. |
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As mentioned before, there are categories on most sites for items being sold as a wholesale lot. For instance, you can find 100 watches being sold as a lot. You can buy them as a lot, and then turn around and sell them individually. At the time of this writing, there are 490,016 results for 'wholesale' on ebay. |
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You can also contact manufacturers and get set up as a wholesale account. You can then resell the items you buy online. It's not hard to do - go to the library and ask the reference librarian to see the Thomas Register of Manufacturers. Its an encyclopedia sized set of green books, and lists who makes anything in North America by category. It includes the contact information. If you have developed a type of product that you specialize in, another great way of contacting suppliers is to attend a trade show in the field. There is a website http://tsnn.com that lists all the major tradeshows around the world. Remember that they are always held in really terrible locations - and the travel there would be tax deductible if the intent is to help you make a profit. |
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If you buy something in most stores, you can return it if you change your mind. As long as you have the receipt, you get your money back. You might have already tried it on, you might have damaged the packaging, you may have lost the manual. You still get your refund. Stores also frequently pull merchandise from the shelves that isn't selling well, or is being replaced with a newer model. In either case, what happens to that merchandise. It goes to the liquidator. The liquidator then bundles items together and offers them at pennies on the dollar to businesses that will buy and resell them. On a large scale, that is what Big Lots does, but there are thousands of others who do it at flea markets, discount malls, and online. A resource for surplus, closeout, liquidation, and overstock merchandise.Includes online wholesale auctions and offers a free email alert subscription to receive buyer alerts about special deals and company information. http://www.closeoutservices.com/ Closeout Services: An online wholesale warehouse store. Also offers articles and resources on wholesale closeouts, closeout merchandise, liquidation merchandise, manufacturer closeouts, overstocks closeouts, and other related articles and resources.
A resource for closeout, surplus, overstock,liquidation, salvage, imports, exports, and below wholesale products and services. Is a member of the Internet Marketing Community (IMC) and the Internet Marketing Association of Surplus Dealers (IMASD). http://www.aaaonlineauctions.com
Offers online auctions for closeouts, liquidation, overstock, surplus, clearance closeout, salvage merchandise and bargain wholesale products. Also has a newsletter for subscribers to receive updates on new product listing and specials.
http://www.dollardays.com
An online supplier of general merchandises, wholesale and closeout products. Includes a special closeout corner where it o>ffers a wide selection of wholesale closeout merchandise. http://www.fleamarketguide.comA wholeseller listings for flea market items and swap meet dealers. Offers popular products, closeouts, surplus, and factory overstock at wholesale prices. http://www.jdcloseouts.com/A website for pallets, lots,closeouts and surplus merchandise. Offers closeouts liquidation surplus and salvage store returns with direct point-to-point shipping for your transportation and logistics needs. http://www.liquidationoverstock.comA source for overstock, closeouts, liquidation, surplus and excess inventory. Offers a mailing list for subscribers to receive specials on liquidation overstock merchandise. http://www.liquidxs.com/A marketplace for buying excess inventory and a wholesale source for brand-name closeouts. Also offers a blog where customers may read the most recent news about LiquidXS and post comments.
http://www.palletsmart.com Pallets Mart A primary salvage source for other salvage suppliers and closeouts distributors throughout the U.S.A. Offers wholesale pallets of closeout, salvage merchandise, and overstock listings on general merchandise surplus items. Customers may join a mailing list to receive updated prices. http://www.rhinomart.comRhino Mart: A distributor and wholesale dealer of wholesale closeouts, liquidations, overstocks, salvage, and department store returns. Has been supplying closeout merchandise to vendors since 1994.Customers may keep informed of latest inventory through a mailing list. http://www.salvagecloseouts.comSalvage Closeouts: A source for wholesale, closeouts, overstock, liquidation, and surplus merchandise.Includes Department Store Merchandise, department stores closeouts, department store returns and salvage truckloads from department stores all over America. http://www.sav-on-closeouts.comSave On Closeouts: A wholesale company that has been in business since 1986. Offers weekly e-mail notifications of new products, special sales, first chance at liquidated items, and coupon codes for discounts off customer's next order.
http://www.tdwcloseouts.comTDW Closeouts: It is a closeout overstock worldwide distributor and export of department store returns and closeout merchandise, offering wholesale closeouts, liquidation merchandise, salvage and surplus from their Florida headquarters/warehouse. Find out about new closeouts by subscribing to their mailing
http://www.viatrading.comVia Trading Corporation: Offers department store returns, overstocks, surplus goods, closeout merchandise and liquidation items. Its warehouse is located in Los Angeles, California. http://www.wholesale411.com Wholesale411: A directory of wholesale companies on the Internet. Also has a forum, Wholesale4um, with over 8000 registered users where you may exchange and post your concerns about wholesale. http://www.wholesalecentral.com Wholesale Central: A wholesale directory and marketplace for wholesalers, importers, manufacturers and liquidators. Offers a product locator service where you may post requests and get answers online from other members. http://www.wholesalegopher.com/WholesaleGopher: A wholesale website portal. Offers auctions, free classifieds, wholesale blog, newsletter, community forums, and wholesalers directory. http://www.wholesaleu.com/">Wholesale University: A wholesale product/supplier directory. Offers a Wholesale U Forum, with over 3300 registered users, where you may exchange and post your concerns. http://djhinc.com/D.J.H. Inc. D.J.H. Inc. is a Miami, Florida based wholesaler of name brand closeout merchandise, founded in 1993. Has a list of permanent showrooms offering products from America?s top Closeout wholesalers. http://wholesaledir.com/Wholesale Directory: An online wholesale merchandise directory for companies and products. Categories include:Closeouts, General Merchandise, Liquidators, Overstock, and Wholesale. Offers a wholesale newsletter announcing special offers. http://www.1abccloseouts.com/1 ABC Closeouts: A worldwide distributor and exporter of department store returns and wholesale closeouts merchandise.Has a special section on closeout specials. http://www.1liquidators.com/1 Liquidators Inc.: Liquidators of closeouts & clearance wholesale merchandise.You may receive updates on current specials by joining their mailing list. http://www.1stchoicesurplusmerchandise.com/1st Choice Surplus Merchandise: Specializes in liquidation sales of quality surplus merchandise, closeout items in bulk, and liquidation sales of pallets and truckloads of department store, office supply, or hardware store merchandise.Has a chat room and message boards where members may exchange opinions. http://www.abcwholesaleproducts.com/ABC Wholesale Products: A wholesale distributor and exporter of clearance and wholesale merchandise.Their inventory includes wholesale clothing overstock shoes, Liquidation hard goods, Closeout electronics, Overstock furniture, Clearance toys, Surplus baby goods, Closeout domestics, Surplus house wares, Clearance home improvement items, Overstock jewelry, and any other item that is sold by department stores. http://www.allianceproduct.com/Alliance Products Inc. Centrally located in Melrose Park. Provides up to the moment inventories and availabilities on the closeouts and liquidations suited to your buying needs. Receive latest products and promotions by joining their mailing list. http://www.amlinc.com/American Merchandise Liquidators: Wholesale liquidators of over stock, closeouts and salvage merchandise. They specialize in general consumer merchandise, such as hard goods, furniture, clothing and accessories.
http://www.bilcoonline.com/Bilco and Associates: A wholesale website offering quality closeouts and premium products.Also has a mailing list to keep customers informed of novelties. http://www.buyxout.com/BuyXOut.com: Contains free directories and ads for wholesale, closeout and surplus merchandise suppliers. The free ads section is particularly useful in getting in touch with wholesale, closeout and surplus suppliers. http://www.closeouts-central.com/Closeouts Central A closeout and liquidation company located in Florida. http://www.closeoutcentral.com/Closeout Central Provides fast access to the latest closeouts and liquidations from the nation's leading suppliers. The Seller Directory helps you locate manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers.
http://www.closeoutstrading.com/Closeouts Trading A supplier and distributor of wholesale, salvage, surplus, discontinued or distressed merchandise, brand names, department store shelf pulls and returns, closeouts, liquidation, overstock, stock lots, lot goods factory overruns, buybacks, seconds and irregulars.
http://www.greatdiscounters.com/Great Discounters: Specializes in the purchasing of excess inventories, liquidations and bankruptcy merchandise.You may sign up to receive their inventory list once a month.
http://www.highendcloseouts.com/High End Closeouts: An online source for wholesale overstock and closeout merchandise.Offers daily updates of their closeout inventory, and specials, via email. http://www.iawholesale.com/Inter American Wholesale Liquidators: A merchandise wholesaler and distributor specializing in buying and selling branded and well- known close-out and promotional merchandise.You will find closeouts, specials, promotional merchandise, liquidation items, as well as surplus. http://www.liquidationcloseouts.com/Liquidation Closeouts: An Online wholesaler of brand name, overstock and closeouts. http://www.liquidationworld.com/Liquidation World: They purchase inventories from closeouts, packaging changes, discontinued products, excess inventories and shelf pulls. http://www.merchandiseusa.com/Merchandise USA, Inc. A wholesale closeout company located in Chicago, Illinois. Buys and sells closeout inventory. http://www.rodenimports.com/Roden Surplus Imports: Has an online store where you may buy wholesale closeout merchandise. http://www.rstrading.com/RS Trading Company A source for wholesale closeout merchandise, offering you closeouts, overstock, customer return merchandise, surplus and liquidation merchandise. http://www.salvagemerchandise.com/Salvage Merchandise Offers hundreds of wholesale, salvage, closeout, overstock, liquidation, surplus and clearance items. Wholesale marketplace for surplus, closeouts, and liquidation merchandise. Thousands of Name Brand products listed in over fifty categories.http://www.thecloseoutnews.com/Closeout News: A publication for wholesalers, liquidators, suppliers, overstock and discount sources and wholesale centers. Offers a free ?I want Ad? section where you may post online and communicate your merchandise needs. http://www.tmicloseouts.com/Triangle Marketing, Inc. A wholesale organization trading in closeout merchandise, located in Mount Prospect,Illinois. http://www.topwholesalesuppliers.com/Top Wholesale Suppliers A wholesale directory online for buyers and sellers, offering a distributor and supplier search engine. Among the categories you will find: Clearance Deals, Wholesale Auctions, Dept Store Returns, Liquidation and Closeout. http://www.usaoverstock.com/USA Overstock: Offers closeouts, liquidation, surplus products and wholesale merchandise.In the About section you can get Acquainted with the Overstock, Closeouts and Wholesale business terminology, where the meaning of these terms are explained.
http://www.vsmerchandise.com/ValueSupply Offers wholesale closeouts, overstocks and discontinued products.Also has a Supplier's Message section where you can submit A listing of your current overstocks. http://www.wholesale5.com/Wholesale5.com A wholesale directory providing wholesale information, antiques, collectibles, apparel, computer,construction, electronics, entertainment and more. http://www.wholesalehub.com/Wholesale Hub A Wholesale Products Directory, search engine and portal. Among the category listings, you will find the following:Auctions, Liquidators, Liquidation, OffPrice, Overstock and Surplus. http://www.wwliquidators.com/wwliquidators.com An online store for Worldwide Liquidators, L.L.C., located in St. Louis, MO. Offers liquidation, bargain prices, closeouts, deals and sales on name-brand merchandise. http://www.toptenwholesale.comTop Ten Wholesale Closeouts, Wholesale Products and Wholesale Companies Directory. Find wholesalers, manufacturers and importers at Top Ten Wholesale. |
| If you are a creative person, you don't buy the things you sell, you make them. Crafts, art, and handmade items are great sellers online. The more interconnected and Internet driven the world becomes, the more people want homemade, handmade items. |
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You can make a lot of money selling your crafts online, and there are a number of sites that specialize just in that field. The largest of these is Etsy, but there are many others. In fact, here is a list of 250 online sites: http://www.artsyshark.com/125-places-to-sell/ Try to come up with a theme that unites all of your creations, because it gives people a 'handle' on what type of items you might have if they seek you out on a site. You also want to be thinking in terms of creating a series of products rather than a one-off. Americans will collect anything if you tell us there is a collection. |
| You don't necessarily even need to be the artist There is an idiom in English 'starving artist,' that in just a couple words conveys how hard it is to make a living as an artist or craftsperson. Having the talent for creation is one half of the equation for success ,having business sense is the other half. You can be the one that approaches local artisans and artists and sells their work online. A 40 or 50 % commission is reasonable. A gallery usually will charge 50% of the sale, and expose the work to a few hundred people. Online, it could be a few thousand an hour. The work you sell could be paintings, it could be ceramics or woodworking or just about any type of art/craft. |
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One of the more interesting niches for selling crafted items is the custom craft. A great example would be custom dog collars. The buyer purchases a 'commission', gives you the name of their four-legged best friend, and you stamp that name and a design into a dog collar for them. People love to buy custom items, because it is so much more personal and special. Custom items are also more meaningful to give as gifts, as it shows you were thinking of the recipient far in advance of the actual giving. Anytime you are doing custom work, always get the payment up front, and make clear that this is non-refundable due to the custom nature of the work. If you don't get paid, the work is wasted, along with the material and time. It would be hard to try to resell a dog collar with a particular dog name in it - you'd have to chance on another dog owner using the same name for the same size dog. |
| There are some suprising places online sellers tend to go for great inventory. |
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If the police nab a burglar, they'll raid that burglar's house. Usually they'll find a stockpile of items that they are sure are stolen, but the police have no theft reports on the items and no way of knowing who the rightful owner is. By law in most jurisdictions, they hold on to the items for a period of time (often a year) and if nobody comes forward to claim the item it is auctioned off. For instance, our local sherriff may hold an auction every month on the third Saturday. You can contact the local law enforcement branches and ask to be put on their auction list, or ask how to find out about the next auction. The great thing about police auctions is you are bidding on things that people - sometimes knowledgable 'professionals' - thought was good enough to risk prison time stealing. You'll find a lot of jewelry, electronics, power tools, bicycles, and designer clothing/shoes. One site that provides information on some of these law enforcement auctions is http://www.policeauctions.com/ though it appears the main part of the site is selling other items. I recommend you contact law enforcment directly. |
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The popularity of the TV 'reality' show Storage Wars means that it is no longer a secret that you can find some great things in what people stop paying storage rent on. Typically these are auctioned off sight unseen (on the show they get to look in from the outside before bidding begins). You are likely to see quite a few more people at these auctions than you used to before the show, so there is at times fierce competition. Still, how many storage facilities are there? How many lockers in each? There are literally millions around the country, in small towns and large. You may be surprised when you show up for an action that there may be only a few bidders, and you may be the only serious one there. People pay money to store their items, if for some reason that storage rental goes unpaid, the facility must hold it for a period and then auction it off to the highest bidder. Contact storage facilities directly and ask to be put on their auction notifications list. |
| It used to be the best place to go was government surplus auctions. They still are great fun if you find live ones, but many government agencies now are auctioning through online sites like http://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm and http://www.publicsurplus.com, http://www.govliquidation.com/, http://www.go-dove.com/en/ and the granddaddy of them all, http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/gsaauctions/ |
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Watch late night informercials, and you'll see people telling you how to get rich with classified ads, how to buy houses with no money down, or how to invest in gold futures. These people are not getting rich by buying houses with no money down, but by selling you information. Write out a how-to and you have a product you can sell. It can be in video form, on a CD, in print, or in one of several e-book formats. We seem to have an insatiable appetite for how-to type information. A great advantage is that you write it once, you have a product you can sell over and over and over again. This could be information you know, or can research, or even information that is in the public domain that you package and sell. http://bizshop.com/description.php/MINFO |
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To look at eBay today you'd never guess that it sprang from a modest, even comical beginning. Lacking is the glamour of the hotshot enterpreneurial firm and high-voltage venture capital so commonly seen in other companies that are babies of the dot-com bubble. Instead, eBay can be traced back to a home page and a broken laser pointer. The first real popular product category was Pez dispensers. Sometime before September, 1995, 28-year-old software developer Pierre Omidyar, who had previously worked with Claris developing software for Apple computers, sat down to write the code that would eventually evolve into what we know as eBay today. Originally called AuctionWeb and hosted on the same server as Pierre's page about the ebola virus (yes, it was a worrying thing way back then), the site began with the listing of a single broken laser pointer. Though Pierre had intended the listing to be a test more than a serious offer to sell at auction, he was shocked when the item sold for $14.83. Pierre knew that he'd created something big as soon as he contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the pointer was broken. "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers," came the reply. AuctionWeb soon took over Pierre's entire domain, www.ebay.com, short for Echo Bay, which was the name of his consulting firm at the time. By 1996 the company was large enough to require the skills of a Stanford MBA in Jeffrey Skoll, who came aboard an already profitable ship. Meg Whitman, a Harvard graduate, soon followed as president and CEO, along with a strong business team under whose leadership eBay grew rapidly, branching out from collectibles into nearly every type of market. eBay's vision for success transitioned from one of commerce—buying and selling things—to one of connecting people around the world together. With exponential growth and strong branding, eBay thrived, eclipsing many of the other upstart auction sites that dotted the dot-com bubble. By the time eBay had gone public in 1998, both Omidyar and Skoll were billionaires. The rest, as they say, is history. Source: Aron Hsiao, in http://ebay.about.com/od/ebaylifestyle/a/el_history.htm |
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The biggest advantage of eBay is the size of the active user base. That simply translates into a much larger market for whatever it is you might want to sell. It is about 40 times as big as its nearest competitor. ebaY was not the first auction site, but the genius behind it was the feedback score. This allows people to deal with others in confidence, even if they know absolutely nothing about the actual person they are dealing with. |
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The major disadvantages of ebaY are: 1. The huge scale - there is an awful lot of competition and distraction, and it is a huge site. While the navigation is pretty straightforward, it is easy for buyers and sellers to get overwhelmed and 'lost'. 2. Among the highest fees on the Internet, and the fees are assessed on total purchase (which includes shipping & handling). 3. A fairly long list of items that cannot be sold at all on ebaY or that have restrictions. |
As of November 1, 2014:
Select categories eligible for 100 free-insertion-fee auction-style listings per month ($0.30 insertion fee for fixed price listings):
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Auctions sites take the original ebay model and run with it. Buyers can browse for items, and enter bids until the auction ends. The highest bidder wins. There often is also an option for a fixed price sale. |
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http://www.ebid.net' Offers a free Seller Membership, a Seller + Membership for various terms (Lifetime Seller+ is normally $99, currently $49 if done within 48 hours of registering on site)
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Fees for Using CQout Auctions - Last updated 14
User Verification Fee
The fee is a charged to the credit/debit card lodged at first registration and is non-refundable. Buyer's Premium Listing Fee Basic listings are free. A seller may choose to pay optional fees to feature and enhance their (<#Featured_fees">See Optional Feature & Enhancement Fees) Final bid Fee
VAT current rate is 20% Note (Inc VAT) column shows the commission fees inclusive of VAT These fees are charged to the seller for A "normal" auctions and to the buyer if it is a "wanted" auction. In effect the person who places the auction pays the fees. Commission fees are charged to your account immediately a listing closes successfully and are not refundable. If a Buyer fails to make payment for an item (or Seller fails to supply the goods in case of a Wanted listing), a commission fee refund is made only when the http://www.cqout.com/faq.asp?c=40">Procedures for non-paying bidders (NPB) has been followed and completed. |
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http://www.webstore.com/index.php A bit unpolished in look, but totally free. Supported by advertising and donations. |
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http://www.atomicmall.com/index.php An interesting buyer-friendly feature is that they say bidding is sniper-proof ;-) Sniping is the technique of putting no bids in on an item till the very last seconds, in the hopes of avoiding a bidding war and getting an item for less. |
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 Online Auction may have only about 100,000 auctions, but they have a very interesting fee model. http://www.onlineauction.com |
| I differentiate Marketplaces as those sites that do not have the bidding process, but where products are offered at a fixed price. |
 Bonanza is a major competitor in the marketplace, with about 4 million listings. "While everybody is welcome to sell on Bonanza, our most successful sellers are those that have items that aren't new, shiny, and mass-produced. Why? Because we believe Amazon already does a darned good job at helping people find new DVDs, CDs, electronics, computers, and books. We specialize in helping you buy and sell everything else. " http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/getting_started_section/what_is_bonanzle "Our emphasis is on stuff that doesn't have a barcode on it: home & garden, jewelry, health & beauty, fashion, collectibles," Harding says. "Items where taste matters." Taste matters to consumers, but fees and ease of listing matter to merchants. Bonanza charges lower fees, Harding says, which merchants typically pass on to shoppers in the form of lower prices. Bonanaza has also launched a one-page listing form, which Harding thinks spurred eBay to simplify its own listing process.
Bonanza Fee Table Free to list. See above for a definition of FOV.
Minimum fee: $0.50 cents. |
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eCrater. Free to create your own store. Free to sell. If eCRATER brings you a sale through the main marketplace, they will collect 2.9% marketplace cost. This marketplace cost will not be imposed on shipping and tax or fully refunded/reversed, cancelled or unpaid orders and will only occur for buyers coming from the marketplace. Buyers you send to your store directly incur no fee at all. You can import listings from eBay. |
 BlueJay is a cross between a traditional marketplace/ecommerce site and a classified ad site. Supported by advertising. As of 1 November 2014, it has over 1 million listings. http://www.blujay.com No fees. |
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Final Value Fees (FVF) - Effective April 16th 2010
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Facebook has a number of options for selling
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 Google Shopping Like Ebay is the giant in the online auction world, Google totally dominates the search world. If you do a search for a product online, the top of the page or the top right has a section called Google Shopping. Those obviously have a great chance of being purchased, as they show up when someone is actively looking for that type of thing. To get your products into there, you'll need an active website. Then, The products in google shopping must be submitted in a data feed to Google by the merchant. First step, you open a Google merchant account by going here: http://www.google.com/merchants/ Then check out the support pages for getting started information. http://www.google.com/support/merchants/ |
Amazon Marketplace http://www.amazonservices.com Personal: Sell your product through Amazon - Per order basis fee fee of $0.99 for less than 40 orders per month, plus referral fee of average 15% Professional: $39.99 monthly subscription fee plus a selling fee when an item sells (referral fee varies by category, most about 15%). Fees and PricingWhen your item sells, Amazon Payments collects the amount paid by the buyer (including the item price and any shipping, gift wrap, or other charges). Amazon Payments deducts the greater of the applicable referral fee percentage or applicable per-item minimum referral fee calculated on (i) the item price, and (ii) any gift wrap charges, in each case excluding any taxes collected through Amazon tax collection services, plus a variable closing fee. Sellers who do not pay a monthly subscription fee also pay a per item fee for each item sold. Amazon platform shipping rates apply to all items sold. Only Professional sellers can offer gift wrap. See Shipping Rates and Services for a table of shipping credits. Here's how it works: Item price Referral Fees Sellers pay a referral fee on each item sold. Items in several categories have a per-item minimum referral fee as listed below (i.e., sellers pay the greater of the referral fee percentage or the per-item minimum referral fee). The table below describes the referral fees and variable closing fees by category.
*Certain cell phone devices may require approval. Please click here to learn more. 1 Prior to May 16, 2014, the $1.00 per item minimum referral fee for Electronics Accessories products only applied to sellers on the Professional selling plan. Effective May 16, 2014, the $1.00 per item minimum referral fee for Electronics Accessories products will also apply to sellers on the Individual selling plan. 2 Effective October 23, 2014, the Tools & Home Improvement category will have a referral fee of 15% (with a per-item minimum referral fee of $1.00), except for base equipment power tools, which will remain at 12% (with a per-item minimum referral fee of $1.00). To see a list of base equipment power tool products, please see Selling Tools and Home Improvement Products. 3 The $1.00 per item minimum referral fee does not apply to Collectible Cards products in the Toys & Games category. 4 Effective January 16, 2014, until January 15, 2015, the Watches category will have the following referral fee structure: See examples below: 5 The Everything Else category is available to sellers for products that do not clearly fit within existing categories. Do not list items in the Everything Else category that appropriately fall within another category. Variable Closing Fees Media products (per item):
Other products (per item plus per weight):
Every 14 days, Amazon Payments initiates a transfer of available funds to your bank account. See Getting Paid for details. For information about fees for other programs, use the links below.
PricingIndividual sellers may not list items at a price in excess of $10,000 (US Dollars). Individual sellers approved to list in the Collectible Books category are not subject to this limitation. You may list items at any price you feel is fair, regardless of the Amazon.com price or list price, within the limits set by Amazon, and so long as your price adheres to our General Pricing rule. However, only items priced at or above the list price (MSRP) or $10, whichever is greater, are eligible for listing as Collectible music or other media products. Collectible books may be listed at any price. Music and other media items priced below $10 or list price may not be listed as Collectible. General Pricing Rule: By our General Pricing rule, you must always ensure that the item price and total price of an item you list on Amazon.com are at or below the item price and total price at which you offer and/or sell the item via any other online sales channel. Our pricing terms are defined below: The item price is the amount payable by a customer, excluding shipping and handling, as it appears when you list an item. The total price is the amount payable by a customer as well as all terms of offer/sale. This includes all of the following:
The total price does not include discounts, sales, rebates, or other promotional offers you attempt to make available through Amazon Marketplace but which we do not honor or support. One very attractive feature to selling on Amazon is their fulfillment service. You don't have to store or ship your items, they'll do that for you (for a fee). http://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/pricing.htm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Etsy is the largest competitor to Ebay, and allows three categories of merchandise:
http://etsy.com Joining and setting up a shop on Etsy is free. Each item listing on Etsy costs $0.20 USD when the listing is published. A listing lasts for four months or until the item is sold. Once a sale occurs, we assess a 3.5% transaction fee on the item's sale price. Etsy has also spanned a number of competing websites, just like ebay has. |
 Artfire is for handmade items,and runs $20 per month. http://artfire.com |
 Ruby Lane stresses high end quality, and limits their site to: Antiques Vintage Collectibles Dolls Fine Art Furniture & Lighting Glass Jewelry Porcelain & Pottery Silver Vintage Fashion http;//rubylane.com
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Aftcra is a popular site for American made products. The name aftcra is an anagram for "a craft", the skill in making things by hand. http://www.aftcra.com American made and hand crafted only. Must be priced over $10. No listing fees, 7% selling fee. It is completely free to set up your own shop and to list products. All products are listed for 4 months. Once your product sells there will be a 7% transaction fee on the back-end. How easy is that? |
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http://www.backpage.com - similar to CL http://krrb.com/ http://www.oodle.com - local based, dating, sales, just about anything http://www.sell.com - similar to traditional classified ads - pay $1 or so per listing Tools: http://www.searchalljunk.com - search engine for CL,classified papers http://searchsk.com - search all CL http://zoomthelist.com/ - another… |
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The ultimate way to sell your stuff online is your own website. Yourcompany.com gives you a legitimacy you cannot find on the other places. |
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You have total control on your own site. Other sites can change their rules, merge, go away - your website is yours and can be the rock of permanence. You absolutely need a website. This will be a small expense for you. While there are places where you can design your own site for free, it is smart to have a professional design it. Knowing what Google wants in a design can make a huge difference in your ranking, and you want someone that also understands usability. To have a professional design your site should run between 250 and 1000 dollars, but that is a one time expense and tax deductible. You'll then pay a hosting fee of between 10 and 30 dollars per month. |
| There are multiple revenue streams from having your own website: |
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Product/Service Sales This is the way that most people think they're going to make money with their retail internet site. In fact, it IS a very powerful medium for making direct sales to both consumers and businesses. Let's say I invent a new bicycle seat that makes cycling for long periods easier. How am I going to market my new product? If I buy advertising in the general newspaper, I might as well flush money down the drain. Beside being very expensive, most readers of the daily paper have no interest in tour cycling. I could buy an ad in a cycling magazine, but advertising is extremely expensive. A full page ad can run tens of thousands of dollars, even a tiny ad can run hundreds. I could go through the expense and long term effort of approaching retailers and getting them to carry the product - and probably should anyway - ,but I need money soon, not two years from now. I could try to build word of mouth advertising by giving away samples to bicycle clubs, and that is a good idea, but again can take an awful long time. |
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Drop Shipping or Commissioned Sales If you are selling custom bicycle seats on your website, people are going to find you because they did a search for bicycle seats, or ran across one of your messages in a bicycling newsgroup, or heard about you from another bicyclist. Since they are looking at your expensive bicycle seats, this tells you that they are likely avid bicyclists, who are devoted to their two wheeled steeds. You also know that they are going to be needing all sorts of other bicycle products and services, and they have the means and inclination to buy them. This could include bicycle accessories, lightweight travel food, cycling attire, insurance for their bike, and any number of other items. Now, when you are in the making bicycle seats, you probably shouldn't become an insurance agency to insure the bikes, nor should you turn into a dehydrated food manufacturer. What you should do is approach such providers, and see if you can't work out a deal. The best situation is when you can place a page on your website selling their product or service, and people place the order with you. You can then keep 40% as your commission, and forward the remaining 60% to the manufacturer along with the customer's name and address. The manufacturer can then ship to the customer. The same thing applies to services. Now you can make a tidy profit without the hassle and expense of shipping and storage. In the mail order business, this is quite common and is known as drop shipping. In the service business, it usually is known as a referral fee. For example, Realtors® and insurance agents have long paid commissions to those who bring them the business. The 40%-60% ratio is a typical example of the split, but is not set in stone anywhere. It is entirely up to you and the other party to negotiate something that you can both live with. If the provider of the product isn't willing to do drop shipping, then try for a consignment setup. In this case, you'll actually take possession of the merchandise, but will pay for it as it sells. The discount is normally 40% or so, but again that is negotiable. This is not as desirable, since you have to store and protect the merchandise and do the shipping, but it still allows you to have the products available without the large cost of buying them in advance. If you must buy the merchandise for resale, at least try to ensure that you have the right of return of any unsold merchandise for a refund. Get it for as long a period as you can, so that you have a good chance to sell it, but not so long that the product will be out of style. It's much better to have a rotating variety of merchandise. |
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How many website do you visit that you don't see an ad on there somewhere? Advertising is all over the Internet for one reason - the site owner makes money from them. You can do this on your own, or through advertising networks like Google Adwords. |
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Associate/Affiliate Programs How about "money for nothing and your clicks for free?" There are hundreds of associate (also known as affiliate) programs out there that will pay you a commission on any sales made on their site for which you are responsible. This is similar in concept to the commissioned product sales idea mentioned before, but in this case all you do is send the customer to the associate program's website. If the customer buys, you get a commission. The rate is far less than what we mentioned for commissioned products - typically 15% or less, but you have to do no real work. You sign up with the company who has the associate program, and they give you the code for a link or graphic to put on your page. Once somebody clicks on this, all that is left for you to do is wait for the report on whether or not the customer bought, and cash the commission check. Not bad! Two great competing sites to find out about associate programs are associateprograms.com (of course!) and refer-it.com |
 Bookoo is an online place for real world yard selling. No shipping, you browse, buy and pick up locally. http://www.bookoo.com/ Over 1 million listings. |
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Audiogon is for high-end audio equipment Seller fees are the various costs and charges incurred in listing an item on Audiogon. There are two types of fees a seller may be expected to pay. |
| You don't need a factory to produce items for sale. The Internet and advancements in technology have given rise to what is called 'virtual factories' - companies that will make what you want in small quantities for a small fee. |
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It used to be that you had to order thousands of books - now you can order one at a time, for very reasonable cost. Two sites to check out for this are http://lulu.com and http://createspace.com ' |
| http://cafepress.com Upload a photograph or graphic design, they produce and sell merchandise from coffee mugs to shirts to bumper stickers. Per order pricing |
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Similarly http://shutterfly.com Upload ypur photo, they will produce calendars, posters, postcards, other photo goods. |
| If you are a musician or produce information products, you can get inexpensive CD or DVD duplication - including printing on the disk - from http://kunaki.com They do not require that you buy large numbers, one at a time will work. |
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It is amazing what modern technology can do. I had a gentleman in my class recently who was scheduled for knee replacement surgery the week after the class - and they are going to 3-D print his new knee. A 3-D printing rig can cost thousands of dollars, but a company called http://ponoko.com can handle almost any of your 3-D printing or laser cutting projects. |
| http://payhip.com - 5% selling fee http://lulu.com - Can sell into B&N Nook and I-book markets, free https://kdp.amazon.com - Amazon Kindle market - 30% selling fee http://smashword.com- Publishing your eBook on Smashwords means it’ll be able to reach the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony Reader Store, Kobo, the Diesel eBook Store, Baker & Taylor’s Blio and Axis360 and more. By registering, you’re entitled to free ISBNs and eBook conversion to 9 formats, 15% selling fee http://www.kobobooks.com/kobowritinglife - free worldwide marketplace http://www.nookpress.com - 35% commission http://www.ejunkie.com - min $5 monthly http://www.scribd.com - 20% + 25 ¢ commission http://Clickbank.com - affiliate sales strength $50 activation, 7.5% commission, $2.50 payment period fee |
| /home/bizshop/cd/Sellyourstuffonline/SellYourStuffOnline.html | 2014-11-01 | vym 2.3.20 |
Adult Only category Must be in 
