Shipping dilemmas

Continuing with my series of posts about selling on eBay, let’s look at shipping the items that you sell. This post is a little out of order in the series, but I am getting a lot of questions about shipping, and I’ve promised to make a post about it ASAP. I had really wanted to go in chronological order with my posts, kind of a step by step process, and shipping is one of the last steps in selling on eBay, but I hear my readers, and they want to hear about shipping!

Keep in mind that I live in the Philippines, and I like selling things to people in America, so my shipping variables are a little unique. A lot of my readers also either live in the Philippines, or want to move here and consider eBay as one of their options for earning money while living here. So, if you live in the same country where you are planning to ship to, many parts of this particular post won’t really apply to you.

At the time that I was really active in selling on eBay, eBay Philippines did not exist, or was just getting started at the end of my selling days. Because of this (and for other reasons that I will cover in a later post) I was selling on the American eBay site, and primarily shipping goods to people in the USA. Of course, eBay is a worldwide site for buyers and sellers to meet, but the USA was my primary target for buyers of my goods. So, the first thing that I had to figure out was about shipping goods half way around the world to my customers. As a matter of fact, at first, I decided not to even sell on eBay because of the shipping problem. But, my wife convinced me to give it a try, and I’m glad that she did!

Yes, shipping from half way around the world is expensive! But, the thing to keep in mind is that the buyer pays shipping charges. You list the item for sale, include information about how much the shipping will cost, and let the buyer decide if he is willing to pay that amount. It’s that simple. If he won’t pay that amount for shipping, he won’t buy. If he buys the item that means that he agrees to pay the shipping charge, and you have nothing to worry about.

The only problem with this is that when the buyer sees the high shipping charge, often times he won’t buy from you. Some people will, though. The problem is that the high shipping charge will make your pool of potential customers smaller, which in turn will mean that fewer people will be bidding on your auction. Fewer people bidding will inevitably mean a lower final price for your item. Even so, you can still earn money! This is just a fact of life, and you must accept it. Since you will still earn a profit, even if it’s a bit smaller than people in the USA or wherever, there is still good reason to pursue the business, right? Keep another thing in mind - being in the Philippines gives you a chance to find items that may be unique on eBay. If you have an item that is not available from other sellers, and it’s an item that buyers want, you can get away with a higher shipping price, since there is nobody else that the buyer can get it from.

I do know a little trick when it comes to shipping price that you may want to consider. Remember that you don’t have to charge the same amount for shipping as what you are paying. Just as an example, let’s say that you’ve found an item that you can buy for $1.00 here in the Philippines (converted from Pesos). Let’s say that the item can bring $20 when you sell it on eBay. Let’s say that it will cost $5 to ship the item. If you were just going to go straightforward, you could offer the item for $17.99 or so, with $5 shipping charge. Well, instead, you could offer the item for a little more on the price, but less for shipping. Let’s say you offered it for $21.99 with shipping of $3, in that case you’d make even more, while offering a low shipping charge. You have to pay more for shipping than you are charging, but you are making a killing on the item itself!

Another strategy you could employ is selling things that you don’t have to physically ship. For example, let’s say that you are a real expert on something. You could write up reports, or an e-book about the subject that you are an expert on. When people buy that e-book, you just e-mail it to them, or they can download it from your website. Shipping doesn’t cost you a centavo, you don’t have to charge any shipping, etc. The whole hassle of shipping is gone from the equation. In addition to reports or e-books, I have known people who have sold things like recipes for Filipino foods and such on eBay and delivered them by e-mail. You won’t make a ton of money selling things like recipes, but you can make a little side income with such items, and you don’t have to worry about shipping anything at all.

For most common items, I generally used the post office for my shipping needs. PhilPost offers a service called EMS shipping, which is a trackable method of shipping. It is more expensive, but the tracking makes it worthwhile. Being able to give your customer a tracking number that he can check on the web gives you credibility, and also makes for less hassle for you. Instead of your customer e-mailing you all the time asking where his package is, all he has to do is to go to the Internet site, look up his package and he will have all the information that he needs.

For larger and more valuable items, consider using a courier company like FedEx, UPS, DHL or another such company. It is more expensive to use, but for an item of high value your customer will be willing to pay a premium shipping price if the item is better handled that what you’d get from the postal service.

So, these are all options that you can consider when selling on eBay and shipping worldwide. Shipping from the Philippines is more costly, and there are some hassles involved, but it doesn’t need to stop you from making a good living selling on eBay.

eBay: How do I find stuff to sell?

OK, so we have been talking about eBay lately, right? The question has already come up in the comments, and also through e-mails that I have received: “How do I find stuff to sell?” Actually, it isn’t that difficult to find items to sell, but you have to sort of get into the “eBay mode” before you will notice.

What is the “eBay mode?” Well, its a word that I just made up as I typed this! But, it is an accurate name for a “state of mind” that I find myself going into when I am really into eBay selling. Basically, when I am in the eBay mode, no matter where I go or what I am doing, I am constantly on the lookout (subconsciously even) for items that I can make a profit on by selling on eBay. When I am here in the Philippines, that usually means that I am watching for things that are priced much lower than what they would bring in the USA. It also means that the item is light in weight, to make shipping feasible. It also means that I can buy a lot of the item over time.   My final criteria would be an item that is not available in my target market.

OK, let’s look at each of my criteria that I listed:

• Item low in price: Let’s face it, here in the Philippines many things are available at very low prices, much lower than the same item in the USA. Often times, I can find an item for sale here (even at the regular price) that is very cheap compared to American price for the same item. A lot of times, I find that I can buy the item at full retail here, sell it at a nice profit, and my selling price is still lower than the retail price in the USA. If I find items available that meet this criteria, it’s a natural to sell on eBay.
• Item is light in weight, and easy to ship: OK, if you are selling from the Philippines and sending the item to the USA, shipping is a major concern (and I’ll talk about that in a future post). Let’s face it, you can get a great deal on furniture here, but it will cost an arm and a leg to ship it overseas! Something like that is not feasible. But, if you can find items that are light in weight, they are ideal. Another thing to be considered, is the item too fragile to make the trip? If you are buying some item that is in a glass bottle, for instance, the odds are that no matter how well you pack it, a fair percentage of the bottles are going to be broken during shipping. You need to avoid this, because it will eat into your profit margin significantly.
• Ability to purchase multiple quantities of the item over time: This is very important, in my opinion. There are lots of items that are unique and you can only get one, or maybe a few of them. These generally do not make good items to start selling on eBay in most cases. Why? Because in order to do really well on eBay, the thing you really need is to be able to sell the same item over and over again. If you get an item like that, you can keep listing the same auction one after another and never have to re-write the auction. It takes a lot of time to set up an auction - you need to take photos of the item you want to sell, you need to write up the auction listing text, you need to shop to find the item to sell, etc. All of these things are greatly reduced if you can do them once, and keep selling the item one after another for years on end. Because of this, I almost exclusively sell items that I can purchase time and again. The exception is that if you find unique items that you can make a big profit on (not in terms of percentage -in terms of actual dollars). For example, if you can make $100 on a single item, it is probably worth writing up a new auction, etc. That is my cutoff point, if I can’t make $100 on an item, I don’t go for it, unless it is an item I can do repeat business on over time.
• Item not available in my target market:  This particular point can be a big profit center!  My target market would generally be customers in the USA.  If I can find an item here in the Philippines that is not available (or availability is very limited) in the USA, and that I feel Americans would like to have, I have found a gold mine!  There are two different categories that I watch for:  1.  New items that have not yet made it to the States, and 2.  Items that used to be available in the States, but are not being sold there anymore.  I can assure you, a lot of “trend” items start in Asia, so I can often see things that I feel will catch on in the USA.  And, being just a small retailer, I can move more quickly than a big company.  It may be that the manufacturer plans to release the item in the USA, but it takes a big company time to maneuver.  A small retailer can start selling the item today, and take advantage of the market before the “big boys” are able to do it.  The other category was items that used to be available in the USA.  I found one product that was available in the USA around 30 years ago, but was no longer sold there.  It was still being manufactured and available on retail shelves here in the Philippines.  Because many people in the USA remembered the product and there was a sort of nostalgia for it there, I was able to sell it to US customers at around 30 times the price I could get it for here in the Philippines.  I have found a number of products that are still available here, but were long discontinued in the USA.  It is an important market to look for, and a highly profitable one.

When you put your mind into eBay mode, you will see items everywhere you go! If you are at the grocery store you will find items to sell. At the mall, wherever. Always be on the lookout!

When I was in the eBay business, I generally set aside one day, or maybe just one morning per week to go out and actively shop for items to re-sell on eBay. There are places that are like gold mines for this kind of stuff. Any kind of liquidation store is a prime target. These are places that obtain distressed (non salable) merchandise from retail stores. The retailer was not able to sell the item, so he gives it away for pennies on the dollar to a liquidator. The liquidator then sells it at a greatly reduced price to customers. These places are gold mines, as I said! Go there with a pile of money (if possible) and negotiate on every item you want to buy. My strategy when I go to a place like this is to negotiate great prices on bulk purchases. If I see something that I know will sell on eBay, I negotiate a deal for me to buy every piece that they have. I once bought something like 500 Santa Claus Coffee Mugs at a liquidator. The mugs were marked at $2.99 each. I got them for less than $1. It was July, and Santa Claus was not a hot item at the time, so I stored them in my garage until the end of October. I then listed them on eBay and sold them for around $10 each. Let’s see…. a $9 profit each on 500 mugs? That single item made me almost $5,000 in just a month. And, I had many other auctions going at the same time too. See how that works?

Remember how I said that you should make bulk purchases? I said that I bought like 500 coffee mugs? Well, my recommendation is that you don’t do that until you get a feel for eBay. If you are a beginner, buy just one or two and test it. See if there is demand before you go out and commit a bit chunk of money on a single item. In time, though, you will get to where you have a really good feel of what will sell and what won’t. When you have that down, that is when you can start making deals on bulk.

For those of you here in the Philippines, you may be wondering where you can shop for items to sell? The same thing applies. Liquidation centers! Surplus stores! These kind of places can be found here too. Recently, my wife and I found a place in Davao that is a Surplus shop, selling surplus items from the USA. We went there and it turned out to be a treasure chest of eBay sell able items! The key is that you must go out and start looking actively for these places. When you find places, put them on your “route” for follow up once per week, or whatever schedule you can set. You will find that it indeed pays off for you.

So, the items you are looking for are available! You see a lot of them everyday, but because your mind is not in the eBay mode, you don’t recognize them when you see them! Start shifting your thinking today, and soon you’ll be making money!

You want to sell on eBay? What should you do first?

OK, from comments left on the last post I made, and comments I’ve heard personally from people, it seems like a lot of you would like to sell on eBay to make a little extra income.  So, what should you do first?

Buy on eBay.

That’s right, the first thing you need to do if you want to learn how to sell on eBay is to buy on eBay.  It seems a little silly, but it’s true.  Start out by purchasing through eBay, so that you can learn how others are doing it.  Buy from a variety of buyers.  Buy from beginners who just started selling.  Buy from veterans who have been selling on eBay for years.  Buy from Power Sellers (people who sell a lot of volume on eBay), and buy from low volume sellers.  As you buy from these folks, watch how they handle the transactions.  Decide what you like about doing business with sellers, and what you don’t like.  Write down your impressions so you won’t forget.  After a while, when you are getting ready to start selling, you need to look at these notes and take action.

What kind of action do you need to take?  Well, firstly, look at the things that you enjoyed about transactions.  Try to copy those things, and operate your business in a way that people will enjoy dealing with you!  Next, look at your list of things that you didn’t like during transactions, and do your very best to avoid those things when you deal with customers.  You want to make a good impression with your buyers, and make them want to come back for more!

So, to reiterate, your first step is to start buying, and tracking the transactions so you can learn from every purchase.  You will be surprised at how many little tricks you will learn when you do this.  Don’t worry, you won’t need to spend a lot of money on this.  Buy inexpensive things.  Buy things that you would have bought anyway, or that you can get a good use of.  If you buy things that you don’t need, you can also re-sell them later.  Even if you don’t make a profit, at least you can recover your money by re-selling.  What you are looking for is an education from people who are already selling on eBay, like what you want to do.

If you are like me, you won’t be buying for long.  I bought maybe half a dozen items on eBay before I started selling.  With a little hard work and smarts, you will be able to do that too!