My First eBay Sale!
Pretty lame post title I know, but I did get that all important first sale back in December. I have had an account with eBay.com since August 2006 and made a few purchases over a two year period. Late last year I decided to give online marketing another go (for the third time – I’m an ‘old newbie’ if you like) and eBay was my chosen platform. I wasn’t overly bothered by making a profit first time out, I was more interested in the learning experience and getting positive feedback. I decided on buying a used ladies watch to sell in a ‘no brainer’ auction; $1.00 no reserve starting bid with free worldwide shipping. Sure enough I got sixteen bids with the winner residing in Australia. You can view the archived auction page here.
Although I lost money on the transaction, I felt it was worth it to gain experience in setting up the description / sales wording, fielding any buyer questions, packing and shipping in a timely manner and leaving feedback as a seller. I did get positive feedback, which was encouraging. What was not encouraging was that I did not get any bids from the USA. Placing the auction just before Christmas was probably poor timing, but I did expect some interest from the States bearing in mind it was on eBay.com and the auction terms were very buyer friendly. This again raised the fear I have about trying to establish an online marketing presence when you live in a ‘problematic’ region as I do; rightly or wrongly, maybe potential buyers are put off when they see where you live. I think I may address this paticular subject in a future post, but for now I can say that I did get that first eBay sale under my belt.
Keep trying with eBay! We take it pretty much for granted today as it seems its always been around but it is an amazingly powerful marketing tool, there is nothing else which can get your products so much potential traffic for such a small fee. Every time you make a sale on eBay, you get your customers email address so, you can use this to promote your blog and, ultimately, the products you are going to be developing as a result of the Masterclass. In this way, its worth selling a high volume of low priced items just to generate potential subscribers. I know that this is the reason John operates his eBay store, and I have just started doing it also and guess what?…….I GOT MY FIRST SUBSCRIBER TODAY!! What a sad thing to get excited about, but it seemed like a kind of semi-momentous moment! Good luck with the blog and the course
Hi Steven
Thanks for commenting on my post. I will definitely keep going with eBay – I agree with everything you say about its potential. Well done on getting your first subscriber and, likewise, I wish you all the best with your blog and the Masterclass course.
Keith
Hi, Keith good looking blog my own has lots of eBay related posts; my area of eBay is in the health and beauty market where I have power seller status. I also sell other items from a separate identity. Just stating to do the round robin of other blogs to see the ones that most closely match mine and make a post on each. Please feel free to drop by and have a look and maybe make a comment.
Cheers
Rob
Hi Rob
Thanks for commenting on this post. It sounds like you are making a success of selling on eBay – well done! I need to get some more items up for sale myself, but am a little busy with the course and setting other things up right now. I will take a look at your blog today!
Keith
Hi Keith, loved the aircraft landing video. On Ebay, I have similar reservations in that in NZ the biggest auction site (as far as I know) is TradeMe- which is restricted to NZ citizens only I think. So I have backed off from Ebay USA because of freight costs. I need to look at the Australian market I think.
Anyway, enjoy your day, I know an NZ expat working in Dubai, I keep thinking sand and oil, but lots of coastline.
cheers John
Hi John
Glad you liked the video and thanks for leaving a comment.
Unfortunately I don’t think there is a reasonably sized market in the Middle East so I’m just going to have to keep probing everywhere else. It’s a worry but there’s no point me moaning about it! Anyway I hope to relocate back to the UK (maybe – possibly go somewhere else) in a couple of years or so and that should help.
Dubai has plenty of sand and coastline, but actually not much oil now, and has been dependent, like other emirates, on Abu Dhabi’s generosity. This is the main reason for the development boom at the moment – to encourage alternative industries.
All the best – Keith
being an ebay powerseller could give you lots of passive income..`;