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"How to ‘Use’ eBay for Profit and Keep All of Your Takings"

© Avril Harper, Chartered MCIPD, Dip PM

We all know that auctioning products on eBay can be extremely profitable, and usually much less expensive than selling items in other auction marketplaces.  So, for example, if you auction something successfully on eBay, you’ll usually forfeit ten per cent of your sale price to eBay.

Sell in an offline auction saleroom and that ten per cent will be closer to seventeen or twenty per cent, sometimes more.  So believe me when I say, based on having sold in hundreds of different auction salerooms over the years, eBay is a very inexpensive place to auction your goods.

Nonetheless, ten per cent is ten per cent, and on really high finishing prices that can represent a huge chunk of your profits.  So what if there was a way to sell on eBay and keep all of the takings to yourself?  That would interest you I’m sure.

How does it work?

Well this idea doesn’t actually involve selling ON eBay, as much as USING eBay to locate first time buyers for your products, then later marketing to those people outside of eBay, from your own website, for example, or by mail order and direct mail.

This idea is something I've written about many times and I know many of my readers are already using eBay to generate first time sales with a view to following up those sales like this:

-  When people buy from you on eBay, ask them to sign up to your mailing list for a promise of discounts on similar products in future.  Everyone loves a bargain and most people will join your list for lower priced products in future.  But this only works where your product needs constant replenishment or there are other goods people might buy as add-ons or complementary products.  

The idea rarely works well for unique items, such as a specific antique or a wedding dress, where hopefully the antique is rare and the marriage is forever, making it unlikely your buyers will purchase similar items in future.  But for products needing replenishment, such as wrinkle creams (buy them once, like them, and buy them forever), or craftwork accessories (they love your crochet cottons so customers buy all the new colours you source), that’s the best reason for growing a mailing list. 

Promote your list by email to buyers, immediately after their PayPal order comes through, for example, or by including a compliments slip mentioning your discount offers in product delivery packaging.

-  Sell similar products from eBay and on your own website and when people contact you for information about your products on eBay, tell them your website offers similar products at lower prices.  BUT DO NOT DO THIS from inside your eBay account or your account will be quickly closed down.  Do it from your outside eBay email box instead, the one linked to your eBay account and which receives duplicates of all incoming eBay communications but does not allow eBay access to replies or follow up emails. 

That will work, but there’s one thing missing from those two ideas which can cut your marketing costs and escalate your end products.  That ‘thing’ is to use eBay to sell really low price items, meaning low listing fees and low final selling costs, both allowing you to grow a mailing list for pennies per sign up, compared to selling high price items that can cut your profits by ten or more pounds on every sale.

So sell low price items like sewing threads, gift wrapping paper, low cost collecting accessories on eBay, then email your buyers about much higher priced products from your own website.  For those sewing threads costing pennies apiece, mail them later with weekend craftwork courses; for the gift wrapping paper include a compliments slip revealing unique gifts available from your website or blog; for albums and hinges used to house their stamp collection get them to sign up to receive regular catalogues for your very own postal stamp auction, and so on.

It’s easy, as you see, and just one person paying pennies for your product on eBay can ultimately generate hundreds or even thousands of pounds pure profits later - without eBay ever getting a share!