eBay Guide Series 1 – Introduction to eBay- Part 2: Why eBay?

eBay Guide from Addy Kho

eBay Guide Series 1 – Introduction to eBay

Part 2 – Why eBay?

Before I go ahead with Part 2- Why eBay?, I would like to share something with you. I received an email from Darrell in Brunei yesterday regarding selling on eBay: Can I make money online with eBay.co.uk, eBay.com.au or even eBay.com from Brunei? Malaysia? Singapore or the States?
Answer: Yes, you can make money with any international eBay sites as long as you can register an account with the international sites. But in order to register an account with the eBay sites outside your country of resident, you will need to have a (1) bank account , (2) local phone no and (3) resident address in that particular country. For example, my wife can register an account with eBay Australia because she has a postal address, bank account and also phone no in Australia, even though she resides in Malaysia. Another way to do that is to pay extra for your listing to appear on international site. Example if I am listing my item on eBay.co.uk, I can always pay another 10 pence to have my item appearing in eBay.com and eBay.ca.




If you have any question on selling or buying on eBay, feel free to email me any time. If your question is interesting, I will share here on my blog- http://addykho.com


SO.. Why eBay? It is hard to imaging the internet without eBay now. Just like Google, eBay has managed to make a nonsense name familiar worldwide. I always believe that eBay made its name for having funny, weird or controversial items listed on its site. eBay has changed the horizon of how people buy and sell online since the invention of online shopping and credit card. It basically offers the followings:

• Online car-boot sale: You can find not only the 2nd hand items, but also antiques worth million of dollars. If you want to clear your garage, this is a perfect platform for you to raise extra pocket money.
• Online store: A lot of people or businesses setting their online stores with eBay in order to increase their sales or to get rid of old stocks. eBay provides you free traffic even if you already have a website for your business. Linking your website with your eBay listing is always a clever move.

Car Boot Sales

Do you know that there are 6.4 mil of new listings being added EVERY DAY !??! eBay was originally set up purely for auction. But over the years, more and more people are putting their items up for sale under the Buy It Now. 34% of goods are now sold at fixed price under But It Now.

The Fun

It does not matter if you want to buy or have no intention to buy, it is always fun to browse the eBay. Try to search for any thing on eBay, type in any keyword in the search box and see what comes out in the search results. Remember there was a British working in Australia trying to sell off his ‘life’, inclusive of his house & job on eBay? An US fighter jet was also made its appearance on eBay few years back and was sold for around $1 mil. There were also people trying to sell ‘ghost in a jar’ or Britney Spear fart on eBay. In more surprising testament to the possibilities of eBay, some people even sell the naming of their baby, the place of birth and even virginity on eBay.

Ghost in a jar on eBay

Every now and then, we heard people making hundred of thousands or millions from eBay selling some weird stuffs and that has actually created hike among many wanna be net millionaires to try out their luck on eBay. Before you embark on eBay, please bear in mind that more than 50% of the item listed on eBay did not sell. So do not expect everything you posted online to sell. My personal record is only 35%.
eBay is Not Perfect

Not everyone selling on eBay is honest. There are always bad eggs. Some people are trying to con your money and run away. Therefore if you are buying from eBay, make sure you pay to the seller PayPal account instead of bank transfer. The advantage of making payment using PayPal is that you are protected by PayPal in case anything goes wrong with the product or order not arriving.
As more and more people or even businesses putting up their items on eBay under Buy It Now instead of Auction, the prices of items on eBay are getting more expensive. Therefore my advice to you is to check the price of the same item online, e.g. Amazon or other e-commerce sites for price comparison. Of course you can still find the real bargains on eBay from time to time.

Another thing that the regular seller should watch out is the changing of rules on eBay. eBay is a forward thinking company and it moves fast to adapt to the culture and social change. For example, eBay changed its policy few years back and do not show UK listing on US site. If one wants to have their items shown on US site, he will have to pay extra for that. eBay argued that it wants the listing to be more relevant to the search results and customers. But for me it is a business decision- to make more money. Of course the policy change have upset a lot of UK sellers.
eBay No1

It is not hard to see why so many people choose eBay over other action sites such as Yahoo!Auction, Amazon Auction, Sell.com, eBid.com and many other sites shown in my previous post- Make More Money Leverage Online. Of course when eBay first started, there were some competitions. But eBay managed to out-muscle every other name. If you ever went to other sites, you should be able to tell that other sites are like mini market as compared to eBay, which is like hypermall for many of us. You can basically find anything you want on eBay.
Chinese New Year Banner and Fortune Cookies on eBay

But eBay is out performed by Amazon when come to selling books, CDs and DVDs. This is because Amazon only allow products with ISBN, SKU numbers etc to be listed there. Funny items or obscure items are not allowed to be listed on Amazon. It is FREE to list on Amazon. You only have to pay the fee when your item is sold. On top of that, you can post your item on Amazon for months or years as compared to 30 Days the most on eBay.
To finish Series 1- Introduction to eBay, I present herewith some facts and figures about eBay for your reference:

$18 Bil – Revenue from eBay Motor (year 2008)

49% – Amount of revenue pulled from America alone

39% - Amount of goods sold at a fixed price (Buy it Now)

5 Bil – Feedbacks left by both sellers and buyers

1 women’s dress is sold every 18 seconds

1 mobile phone is sold every 6 seconds

eBay has localised websites in 30 countries now

13,000 product categories found on eBay -you can buy basically anything

6.4 mil – new listing being added every day

$2000 – spent on eBay every second

So Why eBay? – You can sell anything you want, and you can find anything unimaginable you want too, inclusive sex enhancement products! But NO plan tickets, alcohol, franking machines, fireworks, human parts and used cosmetic! eBay behaves like a Good Boy sometimes too.
eBay Guide Series 2 – Tools to get started… coming soon!