Craft Marketer Newsletter

Craft Business Ideas

Issue Number 31, June 11, 2004

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Part 2 of a 3-part series on
Selling Your Art and Crafts Items on eBay

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Part 2: What to Sell on eBay?

The statistics cited in the last newsletter came from
studying successful eBay auctions, one by one, after doing
a search using terms to describe an art or craft item, like
"wood sculpture".

You will accomplish much more, much faster by using software
or services which are specifically built to analyze eBay
sales and deliver reports in seconds.

eBay offers several research tools at it's Seller Central
area. For identifying hot selling items in various categories,
see eBay's "What's Hot"

Outside of eBay, there are highly effective research tools
like Andale.com. Andale gives you a menu of tools to choose
from, each for which they charge a small monthly fee.

An Andale.com module called "How to Price" lets you analyze
sales of items like yours by price. For instance, if you type
in 'wood sculpture', you'll quickly learn how many auctions
with 'wood sculpture' in the title completed successfully,
the price range of the listings, and the average closing
price. Cost to access "How to Price" is around $4 per month
for unlimited use.

Andale's "How to Sell" module tells you the statistically
best category to list your item under, the best starting time
and day of the week, how long to run the auction, which add-on
features to use, and the price range of closing auctions.

Statistics help you put up auctions based on analyzing other
auctions already completed. But you also need to use a little
common sense. For instance, set your auction to complete at
a time of day when people can easily watch and bid, like 7pm
to 10pm.

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How to Find Sources
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Profitability from eBay auctions will come from consistent
application of the principle, "buy low and sell high".

Find sources of products at the lowest possible prices and
then sell those items at top dollar.

Art and craft items you make yourself are usually cheaper
to produce than buying already made items. But don't hesitate
to do the research steps outlined in these articles to learn if
you can increase your profits selling other items in addition
to those you make yourself.

Regardless of your craft media, there is more than one supplier
for your raw materials. The new book, SELL YOUR CRAFTS
ON EBAY describes 12 ways to locate sources of art and craft
items at wholesale or bargain prices. Here are 4 of those methods:

1) One of eBay's categories is "Wholesale" where one can browse through products in mixed lots. Mixed lots may be offered by eBay sellers who have located a low-cost, bulk purchasing deal, manufacturers and distributors with large excess inventory, and individuals just looking to clear out their excess stuff.

Pay scrupulous attention to mixed lot auction descriptions. Make sure you know exactly the items on which you are bidding. Many mixed lot offers will not break down into profitable single item sales.

2) Smart eBay sellers scour auction listings that are poorly
designed and have few or zero bids. They pick up real bargains this way, and then, put up a more enticing listing and sell the items for profit.

3) Andale.com provides a Suppliers listing where you can list
items you are seeking and get matched to wholesale suppliers
for those items. To use, go to Andale.com and click on the link
for Suppliers. Select by category. The Suppliers module is free
to list on, but costs $3.95 per month for unlimited contacts.

4) Buy direct from manufacturers if you are willing to purchase
in larger lots. You can always sell the excess on eBay. Search
for manufacturers of any materials by browsing the Thomas
Register, online at www.thomasregister.com, or usually available in your public library's resource section.

The above article is excerpted from "SELL YOUR CRAFTS ON EBAY", the new ebook providing more than 200 tactics, tips and tricks to sell your art and craft related items to eBay's millions of buyers daily. For more details, click here.

Have a great week!

James Dillehay

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