Tips to starting and running a eBay Business.

 

First of all you must to have more passion and dedication for this than any other job you have had or will ever will have. It is hard and nerve raking to say the least.We have all seen the commercials. Work from the comfort of your own home and make millions. This and I hate to tell you this. Will not happen.Below is a list that I have started to help you on your way.

 

• A comfortable chair. This is a must. You will be sitting here a lot and I am talking 10 to 12 hours a day. I start around seven in the morning until 12 or 1 .I do take breaks and make trips to the post office ect.
  
   
• Get a Business license. You cannot do this without one. You will have no deductions and you will lose your ass come tax time. All of the income you report is taxable. You need to reduce that as much as you can. You can deduct .42 a mile every mile for the entire year. Also postage, shipping supplies. If you set aside a room in your house/apt that does not have a bed in it. You can deduct a percentage of your mortgage or rent as well. Then you can add electric , phone ,internet. Anything that is a cost for you to do business is a deduction. Find a good tax expert. I have a lady that helps me and offers good advice for free. She also does my taxes every year. You have to do this, it is not a option. Find one and pick his or her brain.
   

1. Research. Before you sell or list any auction. Research it first-I am assuming you already have a EBay account. Don't just look to see if the same item is listed. Do a completed item search. What I do is .First search the item in question. Then look to the left hand side of the page. Go down about half way. Check the completed box then it search. This is where you can tell if and for how much if any you will get for an item.
   
   
2. Fees. Know what you fees are before you list. You need to know how much an item will cost before and after the listing has or not. I found a great site that will calculate the cost for you. It even includes cost to acquire. You can click here to check it out.
   
   
3. Photobucket Get a photobucket account. It's free and reliable. Go to photobucket.com and sign up.
   
4. Tagbot This is a free program. Why it is free I don't know. This guy is genius . This small footprint of a program will save you tons of time and give you professional looking auctions. It doesn't take long to master and it saves information / details that you would entire for each auction. All you have to do is. Set it up once and list like hell. This will not upload your item to eBay. It just writes the HTML. He has a bunch of free stuff to help you on your way.If you search google you can find the site.
   
   
5. Listing Program This is up to you. Turbo lister is free, but does has its limitations. I like Blackthrone Pro. I can set my own presets and revise all listing with that preset. If there is a price change or I want to raise or lower a price. I just change the preset and revise all listing that uses that one.
   
   
6. Scale Get a scale for your shipping. Shipping can kill you. Not knowing what an item ways and how much it will cost to ship is suicide. This one purchase will pay for its self in the first week alone. Buying a scale was the single best investment I have made this year! I bought one at Walmart for $23.88. You will lose all your profit if you guess at your shipping cost. You can also print shipping labels through PayPal, if you know the weight of your item. Then just drop them off at the post office. This will say you loads of time.