Healthcare

Healthcare
In the first edition of this book I said, “It’s not clear that eBay can get a
good start in this category. The only two subcategories are X-ray
Equipment and Stethoscopes, an odd selection.” Boy, was I wrong.
Today (four years later, summer 2003) there are almost 8,000 items for
auction in many different subsections. This is not exactly setting the
world on fire, but it’s well on its way.
Restaurant
In my first edition, I said, “Restaurateurs are entrepreneurial. This
could turn into a really robust B2B auction.” Hey, I was right about
something. The Restaurant section is going crazy and has blossomed
into a smorgasbord of equipment, so to speak.

A restaurant supply company in Atlanta decided to start selling used equipment on eBay.

A restaurant supply company in Atlanta decided to start selling used
equipment on eBay. They couldn’t make their efforts profitable. But
they learned how to use eBay. Then they tried selling new restaurant
equipment via eBay. Bingo! They developed a vigorous business selling
expensive equipment to consumers with a large number of their
orders coming from California. Finally they started experimenting
again selling used equipment, this time with some success. While this
change in their business was going on, they shut their doors—no more
walk-in traffic—and stayed nearby their computers. They were doing
most of their business on eBay or over the phone.
Construction
I was talking with the owner of a metal fabrication company in
Huntsville, Alabama, who told me he bought his metalworking
machines on eBay. He was in the process of building a 3,000 square
foot metal building to expand his business. Naturally he looked to
eBay to find construction materials. He purchased his drywall via
eBay in a city a few hundred miles away because it was cheaper than
buying the drywall in Huntsville, even after the shipping cost. He

Warmed-Over eBay

indicated that all together he saved about $30,000 by buying construction
materials on eBay.
Warmed-Over eBay
Although included in the Business Marketplace, Office Products which
includes computers and other office equipment, is not specifically
Business Marketplace stuff. This is simply a subset of the normal eBay
auctions and not unique to the Business Marketplace.
Future B2B Auctions
What does the future hold for the eBay Business Marketplace? It’s
hard to tell. Clearly, eBay has captured the consumer-to-consumer
market and the small business-to-consumer market. Its hold on these
markets will be tough to break.
The B2B market, however, is fragmented and specialized with plenty
of competition. It may never be dominated by one Web auction the
way eBay dominates the consumer markets. Nonetheless, eBay’s B2B
effort has enjoyed reasonable success and has tremendous potential for
growing and for providing a useful outlet for used goods and equipment,
for excess inventory, and even for new goods and equipment.
eBay is smart to focus on small business. Big business will continue to
develop its own B2B transaction hubs and processes. Small business
will look to eBay and eBay’s competitors to establish smoothly functioning
auctions to accommodate small business B2B needs.
Summary
eBay has established a solid foundation for its Business Marketplace.
It’s business will increase, although in smaller numbers than consumer
activities. If eBay had strong local auctions, the B2B market
would be better served (low-cost delivery for large or heavy items). But
eBay hasn’t quite figured out local auctions yet, and the B2B market450
EBAY THE SMART WAY
place doesn’t have the dramatic high volume enjoyed by the consumer
auctions.

Buyers’ Benefits

Buyers’ Benefits
Now, we’re not talking about selling everything as eBay does.
Half.com limits its offerings to books (printed), music (CDs), movies
(VHS, DVDs), and games (electronic). These are called intellectual
property, although Half.com also sells computers, software, and other
electronic equipment. The nice thing about some intellectual property

is that once you’ve used it, you usually don’t want to use it again,

is that once you’ve used it, you usually don’t want to use it again (e.g.,
once you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you don’t want to do it a
second time). Yet the benefits are the same for the next person who
uses it (e.g., the next person who reads the book or sees the movie). For
digital intellectual property (e.g., CDs and games), the experience is
just as high quality for the second user as the first. Half.com provides a
mechanism that enables anyone to sell such goods at low fixed prices
in an efficient and smoothly operating national and international market.
Books
Think of Half.com as a used bookstore online, one that offers hundreds
of thousands of titles.
Buying Books
Here’s what I bought on my first try (see Table 27.1). I’ve been meaning
to buy and read these books for a while.
The savings provided me with an incentive to buy. My savings were
$42.82, that is, 64 percent off list. A shipping and handling charge of
$6.85 was added to my order. Keep in mind, these are not impulse
purchases that I happened to see on a table as I walked to the checkout
counter of a bookstore and will never read. I actually read the first and
the third books and will read the second just as soon as I can break my
indentured servitude to my publisher.
Table 27.1 Books and Savings
Title Purchase
Price
List Price
Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meaning (Raban) $6.37 $26.50
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John
Adams (Ellis)
$6.47 $15.95
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New
York (Caro)
$10.79 $24.00

And If It’s Not in Stock

Alas, I could not find the eighth and final volume of Page Smith’s People’s
History of the United States. But Half.com has over 8 million items
for sale, and it turned up later.
Since my initial purchase, I have purchased an additional few dozen
books. Now, before I buy books I don’t need immediately, I always
check with Half.com first.
And If It’s Not in Stock
If you need a book immediately and it’s out of stock, Half.com will
display several online bookstores, where you can purchase the book
new, and show the prices. This enables you to go to the online bookstore
with the lowest price and purchase the book new for immediate
delivery.
Out of Stock
For Half.com, “out of stock” means that no seller has submitted the
book for sale. The catalog database for Half.com is huge, but
Half.com cannot possibly have all titles in the catalog. Half.com
depends on its sellers to provide the inventory. As soon as a seller
provides a book, it is in stock and available for purchase. Half.com
has millions of books in stock.
Music
Right from the beginning Half.com offered plenty of popular music.
Today it offers all. Even J.S. Bach, who was invisible when I first tried
Half.com, has 13 webpages of titles today. This is a great source of
music CDs.
Movies
I found the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet, a favorite of mine,
listed (along with nine other versions) as well as Chariots of Fire, about
the 1924 Olympics, a wonderful movie. This is undoubtedly the larg

Games

est selection of movies in the universe. I don’t know that for a fact, but
if it isn’t, it’s certainly close.
Games
Because I don’t play computer games, I don’t have much to report
here. Keep in mind, however, that the digital game industry is larger
than Hollywood in dollar sales. We’re talking big money. Any website
that can save a kid a few bucks, or parents a few hundred, is a welcome
relief to purchasing full retail.
Searches
The search engine at Half.com at one time didn’t work very well. You
could only do a definitive search with an ISBN number. However, it is
now much improved. But when all else fails, go to Amazon.com and
search. Come back to Half.com with the ISBN or UPC numbers.
Numbers
The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) and the UPC
(Universal Product Code) are standard industry inventory numbers,
often expressed as bar codes, found on products in the Half.com
catalog.
The Half.com database is independent of inventory. Therefore, you
will find books that are “out of stock.” This makes a very complete
database possible, enabling you to order books that are not in stock. As
soon as someone offers such books for sale, your purchase will automatically
take place, and you will get the book. Or, rather than purchase
automatically, you can elect to be notified when a book you want
comes into Half.com’s inventory. (Searches work similarly for other
items.)

Reputation

Reputation
The feedback system works a little differently on Half.com. Only sellers
get feedback. After all, the buyer buys for a fixed price immediately
with a credit card. Therefore, why rate buyers? Consult the Half.com
rating guide to learn how to rate sellers.
The feedback is based on how quickly the seller confirms the order,
how quickly the seller ships, how well the seller classifies the condition
of merchandise, and how well the item is packaged for shipping.
Selling on the Half
As a seller, you have to be on your toes to remain successful. Just as in
eBay auctions, good customer service is a must.
When you are just a casual seller, you may not worry too much about
your reputation. Nonetheless, the system requires that you give good
customer service. In the spirit of eBay and Half.com, you need to
make an effort to take care of details and ship promptly. Most merchandise
is shipped by the US Postal Service media rate, which is slow.
Any delays you add to the inherently slow shipping will be agonizing
to many customers.
Selling Procedures
It’s easy to offer an item for sale. You just enter the ISBN number (for
books) or the UPC number (for other items), the price, the condition,
and comments. You can also offer shipping by Priority Mail (faster
than Media Rate). Your item goes into the vast Half.com catalog; that
is, the item appears in stock.
It’s your responsibility to ship the item adequately packaged. When
someone buys your item, you are notified via email by Half.com and
must confirm within 48 hours that you have the item and will ship it.
You must then ship within 24 hours after confirmation. If you do not
follow this procedure, the order may be canceled, subjecting you to a
low feedback rating. If you’re slow, you may not get a top rating.

HALF.COM AND LIVE AUCTIONS

Generally, you need to set your prices realistically. I recommend the
following price structure (percentage of list retail price new - based on
my observations, not a scientific study) for used books:
Like new 60%
Very good 45%
Good 35%
Acceptable 25%
Remainders, which are new books that did not sell in the bookstores,
might be sold for more than 60 percent. In practice, however, remainders
sell for lower percentages. Many books sell for below the suggested
percentages. For each item, Half.com does list a selection of
retail prices at certain online retailers (e.g., Buy.com) that are generated
automatically.
Shipping
Unless you offer Priority Mail and the buyer elects it, you can ship the
item any way you want. The media rate for books is the least expensive
and is what will be expected by buyers. Half.com will reimburse you
for shipping according to Table 27.2. The reimbursement is the same
regardless of what the actual shipping costs are.
Table 27.2 Reimbursement for Shipping
Special Rate Priority
Hardcover
First item $2.33 $4.70
Subsequent items $0.90 $2.75
All Other Items
First item $1.89-1.94 $4.70
Subsequent items $0.65-69 $1.50

Half.com takes a 15 percent fee on sales.

You need to send the bottom half of your order confirmation with the
merchandise. You can also send a receipt. You are not permitted to
send anything else (e.g., promotional materials) with the merchandise
without Half.com’s permission.
Fee
Half.com takes a 15 percent fee on sales. The fee is graduated with
more expensive items over $50 being a lower percentage. Half.com
provides the Web catalog, completes the sales transaction, and collects
the purchase price on all sales (via credit card). Sellers merely list the
merchandise and ship it. Seems like a reasonable arrangement.
Half.com takes no listing fee; listing is free.
Business?
Can you make a business out of selling on Half.com? Sure. In the
publishing industry, books that don’t sell in the bookstores are said to
be remainders. Since books are sold on consignment (a practice started
during the Great Depression), the bookstores return unsold books to
distributors, which in turn return them to publishers. You may be able
to get remainders from bookstores, distributors, or publishers at very
low prices. Sell them on Half.com. Likewise, you can find sources of
excess inventory for textbooks, music CDs, movie VHS tapes and
DVDs, video games, computers, software, and electronics.
Live Auctions
eBay bought the old San Francisco auction house of Butterfields to
acquire the expertise to auction valuable fine art and artifacts online.
eBay Premier for offline auction houses and art dealers was the result.
That didn’t seem to work. Then eBay made a deal with Sotheby’s.
That didn’t last either. Today eBay continues the experimentation
with its Live Auctions. These auctions are primarily for high class art
objects that require lots of paperwork such as authentication docuCHAPTER
27 HALF.COM AND LIVE AUCTIONS 459
ments. And they are held live online. Included in these auctions are
collectors’ books, antiques, fine arts, manuscripts, art, and the like.
It was bound to happen sooner or later on eBay, a live auction via the
Web. And eBay Live Auctions makes a great place to experiment with
live auctions. Fine art auctions handle the expensive items that make it
worthwhile to go to the expense of broadcasting such auctions live on
the Web. You can hear the auction via RealMedia (audio) and participate
in the bidding via a form in the webpage. Although live auctions
are not necessarily meant to be experimental, you should certainly
view them that way. Jump in and experiment. Live auctions via the
Web will have their place apparently.
Consult the Live Auctions section of eBay for specific instructions on
participating and bidding. You must sign up ahead of time to bid in
live auctions, and of course you must be an eBay registered and verified
user. This provides you with an opportunity to participate in
something a little different on eBay, even if you don’t bid.
Summary
Half.com is not an auction, but it complements eBay nicely with
fixed-price inventory for a few types of standard merchandise (and
more). Soon it will be incorporated completely into eBay. It’s a special
type of sales because it uses catalog databases for books, textbooks,
music, movies, and video games. If you buy such merchandise, give it
a try. Or, if you want to sell what you’ve got, give it a try.
Live Auctions have their place, but it’s not a huge place. The items are
limited to art, art objects, and similar things. It’s more like going to
Sotheby’s to bid than it is like going to eBay to bid. eBay continues to
pursue this venue, and perhaps someday it will accommodate a
broader range of items.

Talk about marketing your services on eBay,

Talk about marketing your services on eBay, well here we are. Elance!
The service has been affiliated with eBay for so long that I reported in
the second edition that eBay had purchased it. Don’t know where I
read that, but it’s not true. The name stood for electronic freelancing.
Today it is a successful, but not wildly successful, marketplace that
offers certain professional services via eBay. That is, the sellers sell professional
services, and the buyers buy and use such services. But
Elance has a twist to it. The sellers do the bidding, so to speak.

Professional Services

How does this work? The buyer posts a project requiring services, and
sellers bid to do the work. Theoretically, the low bidder gets the
project. It’s pretty straightforward, but it has a few wrinkles that make
it work well.
Professional Services
Although eBay features the name Elance for this marketplace, it
uses the words “professional services” in the home page link leading
to Elance.
Professional Services
First, this marketplace does not accommodate all professional services.
Your service needs to be on the list before you can make this work for
you. Second, this is really advertising and marketing for your skilled
services, and as such it doesn’t come free or even at a nominal cost. It
will cost you real money to participate. Third, Elance doesn’t guarantee
your success. The low bidder isn’t necessarily the winner.
Who Can Play This Game?
Occasionally eBay adds or subtracts a category, but at the time this
book went to press your skilled services had to fall into one of the following
categories to enable you to participate:
1. Accounting and Finance
2. Administrative Support
3. Business Strategy
4. Graphic Design & Multimedia
5. Legal
6. Personal
7. Software and technology
CHAPTER 28 ELANCE 463
8. Training & Development
9. Web Design and Development
10. Writing & Translation
In Four Months
In the four months since I last reviewed the Elance offering of services
in 2003, the category of Engineering and Design disappeared
and the Personal category appeared.
To give you an idea of the depth of the categories, Administrative Support
provides the following services:
• Data entry
• Event planning
• Presentations
• Printing
• Transcription
• Travel planning
• Word processing
You don’t have to sift through these categories. You can use the Elance
search to find Elance services too.
Appendage
eBay has appended to Elance a small listing of services categories
(auctions) available on eBay itself. And one can use the regular
eBay search to find services auctions on eBay. There are no category
restrictions on such auctions. See Chapter 20 for more discussion
about marketing services on eBay.

EBAY THE SMART WAY As you can see,

As you can see, Elance continues to attempt to identify categories that
will work. But the categories are anything but open ended. Of all the
services and consulting available, the Elance categories represent but a
small percentage.
You might also wonder what the term “professional services” means.
To eBay it means whatever they can fit into Elance. A more descriptive
term might be “white collar” services. Clearly, Elance does not include
“blue collar” services.
Seller’s Cost
You are skilled and want to provide services working from home or in
an office with a small staff. You understand that to keep busy you have
to spend half your time marketing your services. Is there any other
way?
I doubt that Elance will solve your marketing dilemma. There just
isn’t enough work available on Elance to keep most freelancers busy.
But if you can pick up some work with a minimum amount of marketing
activity, you’re further ahead. Elance can help you get that
additional work.
Elance Fees
Elance fees aren’t cheap. To be listed as a professional services provider,
the listing costs about $75-$250 per month or $360-$1,200 per
year. In addition, there is a transaction fee of 8.75 percent of the project
amount.
On the other hand, if a listing on Elance is repeatedly successful, the
Elance fees start to look like smart inexpensive marketing.
Overhead
The Elance fees are not the only cost. For Elance, you must be ready
to bid on projects quickly, accurately, and efficiently. This means you

What Buyers Do

must be well organized, and you must be organized digitally. It takes
time and energy to pursue a strategy of constant bidding on Elance.
How It Works
The buyer defines the work project. The sellers bid to do the work on
it in a reverse auction (low bid presumably wins).
What Buyers Do
The buyer has a work project. He puts it in writing. To use Elance he
can take two approaches. He can review the resumes of appropriate
service providers and choose a few to send his project to for bidding.
Or, he can post it on Elance to open it to all for bidding.
What Sellers Do
Sellers put their best face forward and bid a price for a project. There
is no obligation, however, to bid on anything.
A Buyer’s Opportunity
Elance claimed $75 million in posted projects and 300,000 free-lancers
ready to go to work, as the book went to press. That averages about
$250 worth of services per freelancer. This clearly shows that this is a
buyer’s market.
Sellers
As a seller, if you want to make something out of Elance, you’ll have to
hustle. There are far more people ready to work than there is work to
go around. It’s unlikely that you can rely upon Elance as your primary
source of business. The real question is, Is it a worthwhile source of
business?
To get business, you’ll not only have to pay Elance but you’ll have to
get organized to efficiently work the Elance system. Only experimentation
and hard work will reveal whether Elance will work for you.

Working at Home

Buyers
As a buyer, Elance provides you with an great opportunity to get high
quality work done on the cheap. Let’s take a look on how that works.
Working at Home
First, the market is unbalanced. There are more sellers than buyers.
Second, one reason for the imbalance is the slow economy. Nonetheless,
even in a strong economy, the imbalance will remain for most categories.
Third, many freelancers work out of their home with minimal
overhead and can do the work less expensively for you than people
working in an office. Fourth, most freelancers don’t charge enough.
They establish fees based on what they need to make to get by and seldom
cover the benefits they would get on a normal job. Such benefits
typically add 10 to 40 percent to an employee’s salary.
The bottom line is that you can purchase needed services at bargain
rates. The question then becomes, How can I use these services?
Keep in mind that a considerable percentage of white collar workers
work at home today. The Census Bureau shows Colorado with 4.9
percent home workers while some communities have as high as 6.4
percent home workers according to the Rocky Mountain News, June 5,
2002. These are freelancers. These figures, however, don’t take into
account employees who work at home for employers, so called “telecommuters.”
The Maryland Department of Transportation did a survey that indicated
12 percent of the employees in the Washington metro area telecommuted
in 1998 (for at least part of their work week).
What do these figures mean? Simply that a significant percentage of
the national work force works at home. With inexpensive telephone
service, fax, cheap computers, and the Internet, one can work at home,
do productive work for a business, and fit right in at the office from
afar. In fact, my wife telecommutes one day a week for her employer (a

If you have a business and haven’t tried using a freelance teleworker,

major corporation) and gets several days’ work done in one day with
no meetings and few telephone calls to distract her.
If you have a business and haven’t tried using a freelance teleworker,
Elance may provide a money-saving opportunity for you to experiment
with out-of-the-office workers; that is, you can “outsource” the
work. If you have an eBay business, you will need some kind of white
collar work occasionally, if not regularly, and Elance may provide just
what you need.
Hiring
Your first reaction might be that it’s hard to hire people in distant
places. You can’t meet them. You won’t have any local references for
them. And they can’t come into the office to do part of their work.
That’s all true and perhaps will prevent you from hiring some freelancers
for some tasks. Nonetheless, for many tasks or projects, such
considerations will not be a barrier.
First, although you can’t meet them, you can have an extensive telephone
conservation with them, perhaps more conveniently than meeting
them. Second, you can review a freelancer’s track record on
Elance. It’s perhaps easier to do via Elance than it is to do for a local
freelancer. Third, email and the capability to attach a file to an email
message greatly improves business communication. It means that you
can expect to pass back and forth with a freelancer almost any type of
information required for productive work. In addition, there are dozens
of ways for workers to collaborate via the Internet. In fact, working
with people you’ve never met and never see face to face has become
commonplace.
Habit Breaking
What do you do when you want to make 10,000 entries in your database
from electronic documents and your staff is too thin to handle it?
Do you ask around to find out if anyone knows someone? Do you run
468 EBAY THE SMART WAY
a classified ad? Do you call a temporary employment service? Do you
post a Help Wanted ad at the local supermarket? It seems like using
Elance might be the easiest way to get this task done.
It’s not easy, however, to break old habits. You have to try something
new and be successful. Elance provides you with a chance to try something
new conveniently, get the job done, save money, and perhaps get
even higher quality services than you might otherwise.
On the front end, your eBay business is a virtual business. It exists primarily
on a computer connected to a network (i.e., the Internet).
Elance gives you the opportunity to make your back office operations
virtual too. And the intensive use of computers and communications
in business means greater efficiency and lower labor costs.
Give Elance a good look soon. You may find something there that you
can use in your business, even for small tasks and projects.
eBay Services
eBay has indicated that it is trying to develop effective ways to sell services
on eBay itself. In the future, look for eBay to try some new
schemes in its normal auctions to enhance the sale of services.
Conclusion
The jury is still out on whether Elance will be successful. If it isn’t, all
is not lost. Normal eBay auctions have potential for marketing professional
services. And if you’re a buyer of services, both Elance and the
normal eBay auctions offer you real opportunities to get your project
done at a reasonable cost.

eBay International

469
29
eBay International
eBay provides a smorgasbord of international buying opportunities.
eBay operates auctions in over 27 foreign countries:
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
470 EBAY THE SMART WAY
China
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Korea
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Singapore
Spain
South America
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
United Kingdom
You can find the links to these auctions on eBay’s home page.
This represents the results of an amazing expansion, which continues.
Don’t overlook the fact that PayPal continues to expand internationally
too. Consequently, you can go shopping in many faraway places.
As a seller, a quick way to expand your market for your merchandise is
to sell internationally (i.e., to foreign bidders) via eBay in the US.

Buying Far Away

Buying Far Away
With all those foreign auctions available, you can find something you
want if you can navigate the auctions. Or, you can find something to
import for sale in your retail business.
You might be able to find some interesting, even exotic, merchandise
on eBay’s foreign auctions. They present a unique opportunity to
shop abroad without ever leaving your home. You have five serious
considerations, however, that might make foreign shopping difficult.
Language
First, you must be able to search and find items. Then you must be
able to pick out items in which you are interested. Finally, you must be
able to read the auction ad. If you can’t speak German, this is going to
be almost impossible to do on eBay’s auction in Germany.
Communication
Once you want to bid, or are a winning bidder, you will have to communicate
with the seller. Unlike most foreign buyers who buy on eBay
US, you cannot count on the foreign sellers speaking English. You will
most often have to speak the local language.
Currency
The eBay auctions in other countries use the local currency. You will
have to make arrangements to pay for the items you purchase in the
currency of the auction. Some sellers may agree to take payment in US
dollars, but it’s not something you can count on. Some sellers may
accept US credit cards. Some may accept PayPal, which has a built-in
currency exchanger you can use. But it’s up to you to find a practical
means of paying that is acceptable to the seller.

Shipping,Taxes,What to Do?

Shipping
Shipping becomes a problem for purchasing in many foreign countries
because distances are so long. You have to make a financial judgment
as to whether the shipping costs preclude purchasing the specific
item you want to purchase abroad.
Taxes
You need to learn about taxation in the country in which you want to
make a purchase. US citizens are used to considering the sales tax
(paid to states). Similar taxation in foreign countries may seem abusive
and financially unacceptable. Indeed, the local taxation may be
complex or have multiple layers compared to the simple sales tax collected
in the US. Probably, you will be exempt from such taxation, but
that is something you need to determine.
Then there is the import tax (tariff). When you import something to
the US, you may have to pay an import duty. There are certain exemptions,
but the law is not simple, and you might get surprised. Some
things are even banned for import.
What to Do?
If you are serious about buying in foreign countries on eBay, it will
require some research on your part to be successful. Nonetheless, eBay
will permit you to bid on its auctions abroad without obtaining special
memberships, and foreign buying on eBay opens opportunities to you
not easily available by other means.
If you’re a seller on eBay, the capability to buy on foreign eBays presents
a wonderful new opportunity. There is a huge amount of merchandise
sold abroad that is not available in the US but that will sell
well in the US. In buying such merchandise abroad for resale in the
US, eBay gives you a cost-effective import opportunity unimagined
before the Web. Although you probably can’t buy enough merchandise

eBay foreign auction to sell in volume,

at an eBay foreign auction to sell in volume, you can make contacts
with foreign people who will help you import in larger quantities.
Selling Internationally
This is a no-brainer. If you’re willing to collect payment and ship
abroad, you can expand your sales significantly.
For Aggressive Sellers
One reason sellers on eBay have been able to sell so well to people in
other countries is that certain US merchandise is popular but unavailable
or much more expensive.
Selling Via eBay US
Your job is to find out what merchandise sells well abroad. It is only a
percentage of all US merchandise. What it happens to be in any particular
country depends on local tastes, taxation, commercial customs,
competing goods, and a variety of other considerations. It’s your job to
find out and meet the market by auctioning specific goods on eBay
US.
Books about Computers and Software
Computer books sell in Europe for about three times the cost in the
US. Why? That’s a tough question to answer, but they do. That presents
an opportunity for someone like me to sell computer books in
Europe at a profit but also at a price considerably below the local
market. Many high-tech personnel in Europe can read English,
making the computer book market in Europe an attractive opportunity
for US authors and publishers even for books in English.
But you don’t necessarily have to find out anything to make foreign
sales on a haphazard basis. Foreign buyers will come to you when you
sell something they need or want. Indeed, such buyers are a constant

Presence in many categories of auctions,

presence in many categories of auctions, particularly auctions for consumer
items.
Selling Via Foreign Auctions
It’s one thing to sell to people abroad via an eBay US auction. It’s
another to actually offer merchandise for sale on eBay auctions in foreign
countries. If you do so, you will have many of the same problems
as buyers, so read the earlier section Buying Far Away. You will have to
consider language, communication, currency, shipping, and taxes in
addition to discovering merchandise that will sell well. Keep in mind
that foreign countries have cultural differences far greater than the differences
between the states in the US. Generally, what sells well in
Nebraska can be expected to sell well in North Carolina. What sells
well in France may not sell at all in Germany.
Specific Opportunities
For occasional selling on eBay’s foreign auctions, the effort is more
trouble than it’s worth. The real opportunity is becoming a specialist
in one country and making it a business.
With a little determination, you can learn to speak, read, and write a
foreign language. That’s perhaps the toughest part. Learning the commercial
byways and the taxation aspects is almost certainly easier.
Finding products that make sense to export is a matter of endless
experimentation.
Certain US merchandise is popular abroad. If you can sell it on a foreign
eBay auction profitably but at a lower cost than it is available
locally, you have a cost-effective business opportunity not imagined
before the Web. Go for it!
Get a Partner
Want to short-circuit the learning curve? Instead of learning the foreign
language and byways, find a US resident (immigrant from the

target country) who knows them already,

target country) who knows them already. Form a partnership and
start an import/export business using eBay.
An alternative and perhaps a long shot is to find someone in the
target country to be your partner, that is, find him or her via the
Internet (e.g., via eBay). It’s difficult enough to form workable partnerships
with direct personal contact. It’s clearly a long shot to
arrange a partnership with someone you don’t know via the Internet.
But it’s been done successfully.
The important thing to remember here is that most people will not do
what is suggested here. The effort is simply too much. The entry to the
import/export business is said to have a high threshold that will keep
most people out. After all, how many people will learn French in order
to sell American merchandise in France? If you’re willing to cross that
threshold, you may find it profitable.
The Threshold Is Lower
The threshold to enter the import/export business remains high
because of language barriers. But due to the Web, the capital
requirements have dropped. Formerly, to enter the import-export
business took significant capital for travel and communication as
well as the personal effort to master the language learning curve.
Today, due to the Web (specifically eBay) and Internet communications,
the capital required to start an import/export business is
potentially much lower even though the learning curve remains as
high.
Who’s the Competition?
If capital requirements are lower today, where is your competition? An
immigrant to the US who speaks English and already knows the language
and byways of the target country, is not only a potential partner
but a potential competitor. By learning English and living in the US,

immigrants potentially understand the two cultures,

immigrants potentially understand the two cultures well enough to
make the import/export business work on eBay.
You need to be cautious about what you export. There are certain
highly competitive export businesses that almost certainly will not be
good opportunities for you. But these are usually major industries that
do not represent the niche opportunities in which you are more likely
to be involved. There are also some products banned from export. You
don’t want to get into trouble with the feds by exporting the wrong
things.
Professional Export
If you want to be more than an aggressive seller, you can use eBay both
at home and abroad to get yourself into the export business and still
use eBay as your marketplace. To do so, however, means taking the
business more seriously. And that means learning the export regulations,
getting export licenses, using customs brokers both in the US
and abroad, and doing a dozen other things to make your exporting
successful.
Resources
A good source of import/export information that wants to cater to eBay
members is TamTam (http://www.tamtam.com). Visit their website to
see what they have to offer. A solid source of information, publications,
and Web services is World Trade Press (http://www.worldtradepress.
com). They provide everything from books to up-to-date specialized
trade services via the Web that will keep you informed. If you
need a customs broker, A&A Contract Customs Brokers, Ltd. (http://
www.aacb.com), is looking for eBay business. For information on
import/export with Canada try Canada Post BorderFree (http://borderfree.
com).

Don’t Forget PayPal

Don’t Forget PayPal
In the first six months after eBay bought PayPal, it expand it to 38 foreign
countries and now exchanges money in five currencies. When
you learn more about the import/export business, you will realize
what a fabulous service this is. Suffice to say, it makes taking payment
much safer, something that many experienced eBay members can
appreciate. PayPal is a big story on the international scene. Think of
PayPal as an international bank that facilitates both sides of the transaction
easily, quickly, and inexpensively. If you do so, you suddenly
wake up to the fact that PayPal is going to take over the world, literally.
It makes small business import/export so easy that it’s a nobrainer for
anyone doing business on eBay. You can substantially expand your
markets for your goods with a minimum of bureaucratic hassle.
Summary
The genius of eBay is that it creates a huge national market for goods
and even services. But some goods sell well in the international markets
as well. As the eBay foreign auctions grow and as foreign people
bid in the US auctions, eBay will come to encompass a greater variety
of goods and services and provide new markets. This evolution provides
new opportunities for eBay members.
eBay’s foreign auctions deliver the eBay magic to new markets. Such
auctions also open opportunities for all eBay members as eBay takes
on more of an international character. Although part of the eBay market
has always been international, the new foreign eBay auctions, and
PayPal as well, will rapidly expand between nations the type of peopleto-
people and retail-to-consumer trade that eBay auctions support.

The top 10 tips for success on eBay,

The top 10 tips for success on eBay for both buyers and sellers follow,
not necessarily in order of priority:
1. Play by the Rules. The eBay rules were set to make sure that people
deal with each other fairly. If you don’t play by the rules, you may
be unfair to others and undermine eBay. You may even break laws or
incur legal liability.
2. Take eBay Seriously. eBay is not a game. It’s a new international
marketplace where valuable business is transacted.

3. Protect Yourself,

3. Protect Yourself. Don’t be paranoid, but don’t be foolish either.
Follow standard protective practices that make sense, just as you do
offline.
4. Give Feedback. The core of eBay is trust. Feedback determines an
eBay member’s reputation. You want to make sure that the eBay members
with whom you deal get the reputations they deserve so that eBay
patrons will know who to trust.
5. Pay Attention to Detail. This means know eBay rules and procedures
and follow them carefully. Provide plenty of detail on the items
that you auction and on your sale requirements. For items on which
you bid, review carefully the seller’s auction and sales requirements.
Whether seller or winning bidder, follow through diligently after the
auction.
6. Research Market Value. Whether you’re a buyer or seller, your best
technique is to know the value of the item auctioned. With an accurate
value, you can make smart decisions.
7. Keep a Cheerful Attitude. Buying and selling can be fun. No one
likes to do business with a sourpuss, whether it’s at a retail store or on
eBay. Being pleasant can go a long way toward solving a lot of difficult
problems.
8. Treat eBay as a Lifelong Asset. It’s already eight years old, and it
will be around for a long time. You will be able to use it profitably for
longer than you think. Some pundits have said it’s only a passing fad.
Don’t believe them.
9. Contribute to the eBay Community. A dynamic and successful
marketplace is always a community. Sooner or later you will have
opportunities to make a contribution to eBay or to other eBay members.
Answer those opportunities.
10. Develop Your Own Approach. Only experience will lead you to
auction practices with which you will be comfortable and successful. A

Book can be helpful,

book can be helpful, but what works for an author may not work for
you. Invent a new eBay technique.
———
This top 10 list is not loaded with specific details that will make you an
eBay wizard immediately. Nonetheless, it points out some things for
you to consider in developing successful eBay practices.
Although this list does not provide the details you need for success on
eBay, this book does. Read it through once. When you have a question
later, use the book as a reference. Most authors, including me, write
books they would like to use as references. When I buy and sell on
eBay, I use this book as a reference for details that I have forgotten.

The top 9 tips for successfully auctioning items on eBay follow,

The top 9 tips for successfully auctioning items on eBay follow, not
necessarily in order of priority:
1. Research the Market Value. This is the first and most important
step in listing something for sale. If you set your minimum bid or
reserve too high, no one will bid. If you set it too low, you will shortchange
yourself.
2. Pile It On. Put as much information about the item as you can
gather in your auction ad—information, not hype. The Web is an
informational medium, and there is no practical space limitation.

Always Include a Photograph,

Lack of adequate information is almost certain to bring lower winning
bids and in many cases no bids at all.
3. Always Include a Photograph. Pictures sell. Good pictures sell
even better. There are a very small percentage of items that don’t need
a photograph. The rest do. Provide multiple photographs for expensive
items (e.g., at least five or six sharp photographs for a vehicle).
Sellers Beware
I know of a woman in Sonoma County, California, who has an
interesting eBay strategy. She buys items on eBay from auction listings
that include poor photographs. She then takes good photographs
of the items, relists them on eBay, and sells them for a profit.
Great moneymaker.
4. State Your Requirements. Clearly state your requirements for sales
to inform bidders of what to expect. Be sure to include everything that
will cost winning bidders money.
Tell Them Before
If you intend not to sell to bidders with undesirable feedback, state
that in your sales requirements. Then check the feedback on the
leading bidders. If one is undesirable, email him or her before the
auction ends to state that you will not accept the bid and ask him
or her to retract it.
5. Remember the Search. Craft your auction title to include keywords
for buyer searches and to be readable.
6. Answer Inquiries Immediately. Always answer bidder email
inquiries immediately. If you wait, you may lose a bidder. A robust
auction ad will help reduce bidder inquiries.

7. Follow Through,

7. Follow Through. Most winning bidders will expect you to take the
initiative to complete the transaction after the auction ends. Contact
winning bidders by email within a half-day (a half-hour is better) after
the auction ends and restate the details of your sales requirements.
Keep a record of all documents, including the auction ad and all
emails, for reference. Provide the buyer with a receipt. After the transaction
is complete, don’t forget to submit feedback on the winning
bidder.
eBay Retailers
If you sell regularly on eBay, you will need to develop a system for
handling auctions that will keep you well organized and responsive
to buyers. It doesn’t take more than two or three auctions at the
same time to completely confuse you if you aren’t organized to
handle the action.
8. Use an Auction Management Service. If you sell routinely, use an
online auction management service to manage your eBay business.
The benefits far outweigh the cost.
9. Provide Good Customer Service. You are the seller, and the winning
bidder is your customer. The customer is always right. Put customer
service first. Keep a cheerful attitude. It’s your responsibility to
set a cheerful tone for the follow-through process. On eBay, customer
service is the name of the game.
———
This top 9 list will help you focus on what’s important for success in
auctioning your items on eBay. Always keep in mind that excellent
customer service has come to be expected online, and eBay is no
exception.

The top 8 tips for successful bidding on eBay follow,

The top 8 tips for successful bidding on eBay follow, not necessarily
in order of priority:
1. Research the Market Value. There will always be alternative places
to acquire at market value any item on which you bid. By researching
market value, you know when you are getting a bargain and can move
aggressively. You also know when there is no bargain to be had, and
you can look elsewhere to obtain the item. Knowing the market value
of the item is the single most important technique for successful bidding
on eBay.

Save Your Insanity for Unique Items,

2. Save Your Insanity for Unique Items. Don’t get carried away bidding
on a Sony camcorder. There will be dozens more exactly like it
available on eBay soon. However, when you bid on a unique item
(e.g., an antique eight-color painted steel sign advertising the Monongahela
Bakery), the market value of the item may be of less concern to
you than the amount you are willing to spend to get the item.
3. Check the Seller’s Feedback. Once you check the seller’s feedback,
you will either develop confidence in dealing with the seller, or you’ll
avoid the auction.
4. Consider the Details. Review carefully the auction offering and the
seller’s requirements. Also consider the bidder overhead expenses
(e.g., shipping costs). Factor these into your bid.
5. Look for Unsavvy Sellers. Look for auctions where the seller has
not followed good eBay practices. The bids will be fewer, and the winning
bids will be lower. You might find a bargain. Serious seller listing
mistakes include a misspelling in the auction title, no photograph, too
little information, and the like.
6. Contact the Seller. Email the seller to get any additional necessary
details you don’t have to make a well-informed decision regarding
whether to bid and what maximum amount to bid.
7. Develop a Repertoire of Bidding Techniques. No one bidding
technique works best for all auctions. Learn and experiment with a
variety of techniques and use them when appropriate.
8. Follow Through. Follow through in a timely manner after the auction.
If the seller doesn’t contact you within a reasonable time, take the
initiative to contact him or her. Keep a record of all the auction documents;
save the auction ad and all emails for reference. After the transaction
is complete, don’t forget to submit feedback on the seller.

A browser eliminates redundant spaces between characters,

A browser eliminates redundant spaces between characters or between
text blocks. In other words, a browser allows only one space between
characters and only one blank line between text blocks. This particular
markup establishes a space that will not be eliminated by a browser
(see Figure A4.12).
Charlie Craft

Occupation: Wilderness Trekker
Figure A4.12 Use to extend spaces.

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