Book Review: Starting an eBay Business for DUMMIES By Frank Fortunato
March 7, 2008
Book Review: Starting an eBay Business for DUMMIES 3rd Edition Marsha Collier John Wiley Publishing, 2007 362 pages, index.
The author Marsha Collier is a one-person eBay conglomerate. She began selling on the site in 1996 to help fund her daughter's education. Soon eBay selling grew into a full-time venture, she became one of their first Power Sellers and instructors at eBay University, the traveling tutorial, and the annual eBay Live! events. We are told that thousands subscribe to her monthly newsletter, "Cool eBay Tools," emphasizing changes on the site, and she hosted the PBS special "Making Your Fortune Online." In addition, she manages a large eBay store, "Marsha Collier's Fabulous Finds" and her own Web site.
Then there are her books — eBay For Dummies, eBay Business All-in-one Desk Reference For Dummies, and Starting an eBay Business For Dummies —which combined, have over one million copies in print. Here we are reviewing her latest book offering, the 3rd updated edition of Starting An eBay Business for DUMMIES.
In general, those who are new to the auction site will find this tome worth the price, as it provides lots of tips for getting started and managing a successful e-business. And, while veteran sellers will find a lot of the information to be fairly basic, it's still a worthwhile reference.
With plenty of folksy, first-person anecdotes — both hers and from other sellers — tips and warnings (all indicated by icons in the text), the book breaks down into six parts in 19 chapters, designed to be read on a stand-alone basis wherein you can skip chapters, read the book backward or forward, or as the spirit or necessity moves you.
Covering the Basics of eBay In Part I, the simple requirements for using this book are laid out: have an Internet connected computer, the desire to start a small business, to work when you feel like it, dress as you like and a solid familiarity with how eBay works. Immediately Collier seems to contradict herself by starting her 362-page tutorial from scratch. After notifying us in the intro that this book is for those who have participated in at least 100 eBay auctions, she goes on to give instructions on how to select an eBay User ID, a process that must be completed when joining the site. This seems contradictory, but she goes on to caution sellers away from negative sounding user IDs such as "ISellJunk," "trash for sale," "mystuffisgarbage," which, we suppose, is good if common-sense advice, at least for the densest of "dummies."
The book is sprinkled with hundreds of tips, hints and warnings, which often seem to oscillate between simplistic and savvy. For instance, she tells of a friend who received no bids when she counter-intuitively listed a black lace bra in the adults only 'Mature Audiences' category; Collier had her move the sale to 'Apparel, Lingerie' where she received five bids. "I guess it wasn't sexy enough for the adult crowd," the seller inanely comments.
On the other, savvy side, she relates how her daughter put up "Pirates of the Caribbean" posters for $9.99 each and could not get more than the starting bid for them — until she changed Caribbean to its more popular misspelled 'Caribean' and sold the posters for up to $30 each. She then bought 10 more on the misspelled page for $5 each which she sold for between $15-$27 each. For years buyers have trolled eBay for misspelled brand names, successfully landing bargains; this remains solid advice.
The mix between elementary and savvy advice continues throughout the book. In Part II, which covers 'Finding Merchandise,' the advice is germane, if elementary, for anyone who is starting from the ground up. "Buy off season, sell on-season" Collier cues us, for instance Christmas decorations are available for a song in January, as are cashmere sweaters in June, summer sporting goods in November, and so on.
Product Sources for Profits She then moves on to sources for cheap, viable eBay merchandise:
99-cent or Dollar Stores. Ubiquitous across America at this point, these stores often offer closeouts or discontinued items at 10 cents to the dollar and some of it will work on eBay .It's important to buy while you can as stock moves quickly here, and Collier advises cultivating the store manager who may tell you when items that interest you are coming in. It's noted that the '99-cent Only' stores on the West Coast have a Bargain Wholesale unit that will sell to retailers, distributors and exporters.
Big Lots, Odd Lots. Look for stores that sell for over a dollar but at deep discounts. Better yet, with a state seller's permit, you can participate at Big Lots Wholesale website at www.biglots.com. Minimum orders are $500 but prices are rock bottom.
Tuesday Morning, a 500-store chain, sells quality designer close-out merchandise at discounts ranging from 50 to 80 percent.
Discount Club Stores. Sam's Club run online wholesale auctions at www.auctions.samsclub.com .
The Usual Suspects. Look for liquidation auctions, estate sales and garage sales. Regarding garage sales Collier recommends we stick to affluent neighborhoods as wealthy people's junk can be eBay treasures, and to seek out "early bird specials" in estate sales.
Nuts and Bolts of an eBay Biz In Part III, Collier deals in detail with the nuts and bolts of running an eBay business from setting up images for FTP upload, automating inventory management, sale scheduling, end of auction e-mail, feedback etc., with a limited cost comparison chart of various auction management services and software. Eleven services and software sites are mentioned here, four being from eBay, which leaves notable absences such as Andale, one of the largest. Since there are at least two dozen such management and software sites, it's advisable to check further as a much more inclusive compilation can be found with a Google search.
Apparently a picture is worth a thousand words to Collier. There is a weak half-page of generic tips on writing descriptive copy, apparently only for those who sell garments, with the dubious advice to imitate Home Shopping Channel's unctuous enthusiasm. Whereas there are 16 or so in-depth pages on photographing and editing images with digital camera and scanner, and comprehensive detail on 'posing' items, HTML and image storage sites.
Repeatedly we find potentially useful tips scattered throughout the copy, here are a few:
Collier mentions a seller who haunts police impound auto auctions just to buy wrecks for next to nothing which he strips for parts to sell in eBay's red hot auto parts categories.
When selling an auto on eBay, it's polite and good business to buy a CarFax vehicle history report and provide a free link to a PDF version in the description, thus saving the prospective bidder the $8 charge, and creating good will from the onset.
A useful hint is to cross-list a book outside of the book listing categories if appropriate. An example: a fashion designer's book from the 1960s which failed to sell in 'Non-Fiction' books but sold well above the minimum when listed in "Clothing" and the appropriate sub categories.
People buy Ferraris, yachts, islands and homes on eBay. Due to variances in state laws, real estate sales on eBay are not legally binding to either party, but given the tough home-selling market it might pay to 'advertise' your home before a world-wide market on eBay. Who knows, with a strong Euro, a party in Sweden might want a house in Florida. Listing prices start at $50 for a 30-day "auction" and $150 for a 30-day "classified ad."
A relatively new feature on eBay allows sellers to transport their sale to an outside site using JavaScript code. The code is available at www.ebaytogo.com and allows sellers to promote their listings on any Web page on the internet.
Under "Customer Service and Relations," Collier provides a good deal of common-sense advice beginning with limiting the number of auction rules to the bare minimum. Beyond negative feedback, little turns a prospective buyer off more than a long litany of rules and regulations, particularly when delivered in a harsh or combative tone.
Show shipping costs on the sale page, and keep them reasonable. Buyers resent nasty surprises after a sale in the form of gouging shipping and handling fees. This is particularly important on items that are in plentiful supply on eBay. A low, flat-rate shipping charge may reel in an undecided buyer.
Good communication begins with a clear, honest item description and continues through e-mail inquiries. Collier states that 50 percent of her inquiries to sellers on eBay go unanswered or draw a terse response, and that she never buys from such sellers. And we'll bet she's not alone in this. Polite, prompt and detailed responses go along way in reassuring buyers who are dealing with strangers in a cold, two-dimensional medium such as the Internet.
Regarding feedback, Collier cites the bedrock rule: NEVER leave feedback before you are sure the buyer has received the item and is satisfied. And, specifically, you shouldn't act until after they have left feedback for you. This seller occasionally receives requests for feedback before an item is shipped and received, to which I reply, "As the buyer you have to be satisfied; I will immediately reciprocate feedback when left." Jumping the gun on feedback, as in after you've received payment, is a recipe for trouble.
Taxes and Inspiration In Part IV and V Collier devotes nearly 70 pages to basic tax, license and incorporation info, but with the suggestion that the reader consult a professional regarding the thornier issues. She goes on to building an "eBay backoffice," and 10 eBay success story bios for inspirational purposes.
Then, in a bit of heresy for someone so closely aligned with the site, she suggests off-eBay (and offline) venues for selling merchandise, that are pretty widely known, such as flea markets. One interesting tip, however, was her idea to resell to other eBayers, even to your competition if they do better with a particular item than you do. She says to use the words "liquidation," "wholesale" or "resale" in your title and place the lot — of at least a dozen —in one of eBay's wholesale categories.
The remainder of the book is devoted to a glossary of terms and acronyms and a 16-page index, showing the length and breadth of this effort.
Not surprisingly given her close association with the site, Collier's views are quite eBay friendly, perhaps to a fault. The tone is consistently upbeat and optimistic and there's little mention of the pitfalls that all sellers face in today's super-competitive eBay market.
That said, Collier does cover virtually every other aspect of eBay selling here. The sheer volume of the material and diversity of the topics is impressive. The simplicity and redundancy of many of the ideas may turn off some people, however, the book is probably best suited to those who have bought on the site but are completely new to the concept of selling, whether on eBay or other venues.
Frank Fortunato is a seasoned eBay seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com.
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