Visibility w/o under-placement

[onesirian]

Hi all. Total newbie here.
Jumped headlong into Ebay sales=mistake #1
Now doing research and learning how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Quick question, need to increase visiblity without always going the .01 start bid route--I'm getting my butt bitten like that.
Main inventory=used books(own a ton) and vintage LPs(fewer, but plenty to sell).
All recommendations welcome.

--Lawrence

[Gary Hendrickson]

Lawrence,

Based upon what you say you're selling (used books and vintage LPs) it's very possible the problem isn't lack of visibility as much as it is lack of demand.

"Used books" can be broken down into a lot of smaller categories - the two largest being fiction and non-fiction.

In general, if most of your books fall into the modern fiction (published within the last 50-60 years) category you are going to have a hard time profitably selling them individually unless they are hardcover, dust jacketed, 1st editions of the first one or two books from a collectible author. There just isn't much demand for them and the market is flooded.

If they are fiction, and don't fit the above guidelines, I'd suggest you separate them into two groups - hardcover and paperback. Start with the hardcovers and if you can make up a lot of 6-8 or more titles by well known best selling authors group these together and sell them as lots by each author. ie - 10 books by Janet Evanovich or 7 different Tom Clancy books. This will work for almost any widely read author - even Danielle Steele if you can put together a lot of 20 or more of her books.

To get an idea of what authors will sell this way, go to eBay's books>fiction>closed sales category and do a search for the word "lot"; sort them highest price first; and make a list of the authors that appear on the first 10 to 15 pages or as deep as you find selling prices you are comfortable with.

Once you've done that go through whats left and separate them by genre - science fiction, mystery, romance, western, etc. You should be able to sell decent sized lots of each genre without too much trouble on eBay also. Try to have at least 25 books in each lot. Lots of 50-100 books usually sell the best. Get much over 100 books in a lot and your sales will probably fall off in most cases.

Next go through the paperbacks and follow the same process.

You won't get a lot of money per book this way but you will but you will sell a lot of books that you wouldn't otherwise sell as long as you keep your shipping charge at a realistic figure. You will increase your final selling price if you take the time to list each individual title & author in your description.

Once you've done that you can either donate what's left over to a local thrift shop or, if there's a used book store nearby, see if they will take them in return for credit. Then use that credit to buy books by the authors or in the genres that sold best for you.

If most of them are non-fiction. it's likely nearly all of them are mass market books and you're faced with the same problem. Even if they are targeted at a specific audience there probably isn't a real demand for most of them. For example, there have been thousands of books written about how to make money in the stock market. Only one out of every 300-400 is worth any money.

The best way to move these is the same method as described above for fiction. The major difference is that with non-fiction there is a much smaller list of authors whose books will sell in small lots. If you come across a book that, for some reason you think may some value, go to Amazon.com and type in the ISBN number and look at what they are selling for there. If there are more than 25 copies available or if the first page is filled with prices of .01 to a dollar or two, put them in a lot. Unless the lowest price on Amazon is $20 or more, it's probably not worth trying to sell it individually on eBay in most cases.

As far as the LPs are concerned, I'm assuming when you say vintage you mean albums from the late fifties to date. If that's the case, you are looking at pretty much the same problem - lack of demand. Worse yet, LPs are harder to sell in lots than books are.

The market for LPs on eBay, or anywhere else, is made up almost entirely of collectors. The trouble with collectors is that most of them have been collecting for some time, and if you do have a good LP most, or all, of them already have it. All this equates to little or no demand.

The truth is that even with highly collectible artists such as The Beatles, Elvis, or Buddy Holly there are more records available than there are collectors. eBay just makes it worse because a lot of those records show up in one place at the same time, stressing just how available they really are. There are thousand of LPs scattered around record shops and antique shops across the country priced between $100 and $300 that regularly can't get an opening bid of $3 or $4 on eBay.

Unless you have either an early pressing of a first song by a very collectible artist, or an hard to find LP within certain genres (very early jazz or blues for example) most LPs are going to be even harder to sell for any kind of a profitable price on eBay.

You might try selling these in lots by artist if you have a few by the same artist or group. If you feel some may have value run a similar search as for the books but do it by album title, artist, and album number. If all the results are for only a couple of dollars or no sales at all it's probably not worth listing. If the selling prices vary widely chances are the higher priced example may be a sought after pressing or variation. Check the specifics such as label color, letter color, album nr. variations (addition of a letter for example), any engraving in the dead wax (area of the record between the outer edges and where the grooves start & where the grooves end and the label), variations to design, color, printing, etc. on the jacket. If yours matches what they have described it's probably worth listing individually.

Hope this helps some. It's not my intention to discourage you, but rather to give you some ideas about how to get the best return without spending a lot of money of listing fees for things that don't have much chance of selling.

Good Luck,

[onesirian]

Far from discouraging Gary, that was quite an informative assessment. People pay for advice like that. I see deep research is in order, and so...I begin. Thanks again.

Lawrence

[onesirian]

BTW Gary,

I've been reading over your site/blog all night long (graveyard shift)--just exceptional. Honestly giving me an entirely different perspective of what Ebay is/can be and the terrible road I was going down in order to achieve some measure of success. To read over a few months' archives and see step-by-step what someone is actually doing is enlightening indeed, particularly after reading your advice regarding selling my books and then seeing that you DO sell books right NOW. I think it was in the April archive that I read an article that made me realize I have NO plan--none whatsoever. Just putting things on the auction site and hoping for the best--what sane businessperson would just buy a storefront and just put products in there with no plan? I feel like I've been hypnotized by the get-rich tricksters. So many phonies on Ebay---oh well, I've just gotta change my mindset---totally going at it the wrong way. I actually feel like pulling a couple of auctions down I have up now...
{grasshopper humbly bows} This is the beginning.

--Lawrence

[Jim Wilson]

Hey Lawrence,

I once did an experiment with a friend of mine on eBay. He told me that he was so confident in his ads that he could literally sell anything. And we made a bet on it. I got to choose what he would sell. I selected a Pepsi can from which I had already consumed the soda.

His ad was amazing. He used some incredible verbage and basically made it seem as though it was MUCH more than just an empty soda can. The starting bid was $0.01. The can sold for just under $1 and the consumer paid shipping. Incredible but true...

It is all in the ad my friend.

My suggestions:


Be sure to look at the ads of people selling things that are similar. Learn from their successful ads.
Be sure to read some of the advertising and sales ebooks out there that tell how to write a good ad.
Be sure to use lots of photos. A picture is worth 1000 words!
Whatever you do, DO NOT GIVE UP!


That's all there is to it actually. It is indeed ALL about the ad and its content.

I hope that this helps. Good luck!!!
Jim Wilson

[onesirian]

OK,
Respecting the wisdom that passes through this board, I'm asking for a review of the following listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ray-Conniff-MEGASALE-10LPs-4-LP-box-set-WHOLESALE-LOT_W0QQitemZ110050168778QQihZ001QQcategoryZ306QQs sPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Don't worry about hurting feelings--this is business. I'm starting slow and am interested in hearing what's good about this particular auction so I know to repeat it and certainly what's bad about this auction so I know to never do it again. All respectful straightforward critiques are welcome.

Lawrence

[onesirian]

300+ views and no response--I'm guessing I broke some rule in listing my listing? Moderator: let me know something. In the meantime, I have a new one.

After I finish selling some more electronics (phones, cd players,etc.) that I got from a government auction, I'd like to pursue jewelry sales. I came across (blessed!) a wholesale jewelry store that is permitted from advertising as they sell to stores. My wife, marketing agent and buyer, said it's the type of fake jewelry women love some really sparkly cubic zirconia and a B word I forget--butolite or something like that. Two questions:

1. In testing pictures at home, I couldn't get a good capture of some jewelry we have that showed the detail AND got that glitter--need some advice there.
2. I see good action in completed listing, but I also read this area is as oversaturated as the ipod nano seller market--any ideas?

This post is safe to respond to...

[onesirian]

Well, I guess I'll reply to my own post. Turns out as far as the closeup pictures I asked about, my camera has neither the pixels nor the macro lens/function needed to get good detail on earrings at six inches away. I asked around to some coworkers who are photography nuts. They don't seem so nutty these days...

I ended up placing the earrings on a scanner and just scanning them until I got a decent shot. Still not perfect, but better. Ultimately, you just HAVE to get a quality digital camera which will cost a few dollars. So, that's my next immediate goal-I can tell how well it makes a difference. Here's how the current listing looks with the scanner method. It's current as of 11am CST 11/30.
http://cgi.ebay.com/BEAUTIFUL-dangle-earrings-FREE-SHIPPING-AVAILABLE_W0QQitemZ110060526566QQihZ001QQcategoryZ 110526QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

As I continue to sell, I'm continually learning so many things on Ebay.

1. The average seller is just losing money hand over fist. They HAVE to be unless they're stealing the goods they sell. The winning bids are just too low to make a profit once you figure listing fees, upgrade promotion fees, final value fees, paypal fees, ebay store fees, then did you DRIVE to get your item? that's gas plus packing material if you purchaed that as well. I'm not trying to sound like that tinja guy who sells soluble swimsuits with the billion:1 ratio crap. But he does have a point in that the average Joe who jumps on Ebay to make a few dollars is just making Ebay rich.
2. On a recent listing, the BEST picture I ever had was hosted for free. I had four pictures total and I just took them outside on a bright SUPER sunny day with my digital, uploaded it to the desktop, then uploaded it to my 100% FREE geocities accout. You guys know geocities, it's the yahoo webpage deal. Well I'm not working on a yahoo webpage, I'm just using the free space. Then yesterday (11/29) I just tried something to see if it would work. Yahoo MY photos appears to allocate more memory than Yahoo geocities. So I upload some pictures on Photos, then I right click and highlight properties and lo and behold, there's the http for my picture. I know you guys are all HTML experts, but for me that was a MAJOR revelation. I just left-clicked, highlighted and copied the web address, went back to ebay and instead of using the self-hosting option, I just <img src= the deal right into my listing. It looked FABULOUS! The pictures were FLOATING in my listing. I've gotta do that again--it just took so much TIME though... Here's one that's current as of 11:11AM CST 11/30 where I used html to place the picture where I wanted it instead of using the ebay picture service:
http://cgi.ebay.com/J-EDGAR-HOOVER-SPEAKS-ON-COMMUNISM-RARE-TITLE_W0QQitemZ110062180930QQihZ001QQcategoryZ378Q QtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
3. Ebay is running a free border and subtitle promotion right now for sellers who offer free shipping. SO I'm thinking, why would they do such a thing? Ah, then it came to me in a flash--actually after my first listing where I used it. Their finance guys have already figured that in order for sellers to recoup(sp?) sufficient costs while offering free shipping, they will (including me) bump up their listing start price which in turn only increases how much money Ebay will make. I'm not mad at them. Those guys are marketing BANDITS!
4. Whoohoo mystery guy and the EZads guy are both blowing my mind with their mystery/weird auctions. A box of cereal for 6 grand?! Then, give the money back with bonuses on top?~! Just to generate traffic?! And the killer is, it's working! My hats off to those guys. Seriously, if you haven't seem them, just check the pulse periodically. I recently saw an ad from one of them for a single Certs in a box and it was like a freakin' commercial with audio and video and the whole nine...
5. I love school auctions! The items I purchased from my first ever auction experience ALL turned profit - I feel like calling the whole state just to see when different districts have theirs - I'm dead serious, that worked out great and will allow me to have a decent Christmas for my 2 kids, wife, parents, and sister.
6. ONE QUESTION: I'D LOVE SOMEONE TO TELL ME HOW TO GET BUYERS TO LEAVE FEEDBACK - I'VE GOT LIKE A HALF DOZEN BUYERS WHO I SEE GOT THEIR ITEM FROM DELIVERY CONFIRMATON BUT DESPITE MY EMAILS, NO FEEDBACK! UGGH! I COULD BE OVER 100 ALREADY.
7. It is fun and quite theraputic to purge every now and then.
--Lawrence
--Dog Star General
So, here's how the store looks now: http://stores.ebay.com/dogstargeneral

[atomic-book-store]

I do what they do on the home shopping networks.
They use a black background that is textured and shine a bright light on it.
As long as the light isn't shinning directly into the lense, it won't cause that blinding feedback dealy.
Also get a tripod. You may think you are holding still but when you are that close any type breath or what-have-you will cause a blur or disharpen (is that a word?) the image.