eBay Talk

Have you ever grown your business only to find you didn't have the accessible capital? Cash drives business. Cash flow is one of the most important indicators of a business's financial health, and it's definitely the key to the success of a business.

However, what do you do when your business is short of cash? Fund it, of course. I came across this wonderful company the other day, by the name of "Premier General Finance, Inc."(PGF). One of the funding options offered by PGF that really caught my eyes is "Merchant Account Cash Advance". What's so special about this funding option? Merchant Account Cash Advance can assist you in acquiring cash based on your future credit card sales. You can get up to 150% of your monthly credit card processing amount, for example, if you process $10,000 a month in credit card transactions, you can get a cash advance as much as $15,000. Imagine what you can do for your business with this additional $15,000 cash.

There are many other funding options available as well, pay them a visit today. It's worth visiting and knowing them, rest assured. Click here and visit them now.

A better cash flow management will definitely help you create and grow a healthy and strong business. Happy business'ing.

I came across this wonderful post "Risk Management Made Easy…". Don't panic. It’s about ACCOUNTABILITY. I would like share with all of you ‘cause I think it’s very useful, you can definitely apply it to your eBay selling business.

Define accountability. Accountability is all about:
1. Assuming full responsibility for the consequences of one's behavior
2. Following through on commitments to buyers
3. Demonstrating reliability and dependability
4. Keeping the service promise
5. Admitting mistakes and taking responsibility for correcting

In other words, accountability simply means responsibility. Read the great write-up by N2Growth. Apply accountability to your eBay selling, automatically you will build up the trust, the positive ratings, the name and most importantly the sales.

Do you speak eBay’s language? Or, do you speak like an eBayer? There are eBay jargons that many people don’t understand still. Here I include a simple list of them. These buzzwords or acronyms can be useful to help draw in a potential buyer but remember to only use them if they are relevant. Many people on eBay are not experienced buyers and you will lose them if your listing is full of jargons, thus, avoid using it unless you really need to (for example, when you run out of space in an item’s title).

It’s good to be able to understand others’ jargon, so let’s learn.

The Buzzwords
Bid- offer an amount of money for something at an auction
Dutch- an auction where more than one of an item is available
Feedback- comments in the form of opinions about and reactions to other users on eBay
Mint- in perfect condition
Non-paying bidder- a bidder who wins an auction but does not then go on to buy the item
Reserve- the lowest price the seller will accept for the item
Shill bid- a fake bid placed a seller trying to drive up their auction's price
Snail mail- the postal mail, as distinct from the faster email
Sniping- bidding at the last second to win the item before anyone else can outbid you

The Acronyms
BIN- Buy It Now. A fixed price at which you can buy the auction
BNIB- Brand New In Box and never opened
BNWOT- Brand New WithOut Tags. An item that has never been used without its original tags
BNWT- Brand New With Tags. An item that has never been used and still has its original tags
BW- Black and White. Used for films, photos etc
CONUS- Continental United States (for sellers who don't want to ship items to Alaska/Hawaii)

FC- First Class. Type of postage
HTF- Hard To Find
LTD- Limited Edition
MIB- Mint In Box
NBW- Never Been Worn
NPB- Non-Paying Bidder
NR- No Reserve
OB- Original Box
OOP- Out Of Print
PM- Priority Mail
PP- Parcel Post
SH- Shipping and Handling
VGC- Very Good Condition. Not mint, but close
VHTF- Very Hard To Find

If you think the list isn't enough, and that you wanna learn more, you may refer to eBay Acronyms or eBay Glossary for detailed breakdown.

eBay is raising the fees again. That's the first bad news of year 2007. eBay's President, Bill Cobb, announced the fees hike on January 03, 2007.

The new fee structure will go into effect on January 30, 2007 and the fee adjustments are as follows:

1) a five-cent increase in Insertion Fee to forty cents

2) Final Value Fee for the $25.01 to $1,000.00 level will be increased to 3.25% from 3%

On the other hand, eBay Motors is also seeing fee hikes. The Transaction Service Fee (TSF) for motorcycles and powersports will increase from $30 to $40, and from $40 to $50 for cars, trucks and trailers. The Motors Reserve Fee (MRF) will also increase to 0.1% of the reserve price ($5 minimum, $10 maximum) from a flat $5 charge.

Sellers are definitely going to switch over to other alternatives (some are already doing so), if eBay continues to raise the fees. Let's wait and see how eBay is going to retain its market share.

A starting price generally depends on how valuable the item is and how much of a demand it currently has. It is advisable to set your starting price or Buy-It-Now price in the neighborhood of what you expect your item is worth, raise it a little for high-demand or scarce items; or just take a few dollars off if you want to move your item fast.

$0.99 is the best starting price, as it draws people in to bid who otherwise wouldn’t, and items will almost never finish at such a low price. In a brief survey, auctions with the lowest starting prices generate the most interest. Therefore, setting a low starting price not only encourages healthy bidding, it also raises the perceived value and the final closing price.

DO NOT make your starting price lower than you are willing to sell you item for, unless you have a reserve for a higher amount. Most likely at least half the time, you will be selling items for the initial starting price. A reserve is your best bet if you believe that too high a starting bid will prevent you from having any sales, but it can also be a turn-off for some buyers. However, do set a minimum price for the item that you will be willing to accept, and which is realistic.

Since you have learnt how to do research and find out the average selling price in my previous post, you won’t have to worry about your item selling for too little, you should have no problem getting what you want for it. If you haven’t, refer to my previous post, “Research before you list”. Anyway, don’t worry too much about setting a starting price, if the bids are way too low, you can always withdraw the listing before the auction ends, but the listing fee is still chargeable. This method isn’t a good practice to repeat many times, thus, only use it as a last resort. However, there are bids placed in the last few minutes, why not hold on to it if your listing received plenty of interest?

Reminder: People always don’t pay attention to the listing fees when they set the starting price. They either totally forget about it, or perhaps they think the fees don’t matter. This is totally wrong. You better change that if you used to be like that. Let me show you why we should pay attention to the listing fees involved. For example, if you start your item out at $50.00 instead of $49.99, you unintentionally incur an additional $1.20 fee. This amount may seem tiny, but what if you list 10 items a day? It costs you $12 additional. This can definitely be prevented by lowering the price one cent, thus, study the eBay fees schedule regularly and be more alert to fee changes.

I just came back from the countdown celebration, that was tiring. I'm going to pop into my bed and have a long nice sleep.

Anyway, Happy New Year 2007!!! May you have a wonderful and prosperous 2007.
Have fun! Cheers!