How to determine what s really selling on ebay

If you want to make the most money you can on eBay, then you need to know what sells. But how can you find that out?

The Manual Way.

If you’re just starting out, you might find it easier to simply go to your category, tick ‘Completed listings’ in the left-hand menu, and then click the ‘Show items’ button. Sort them by highest price first, and there you have it: the items that sell for the highest prices. In most categories this will change often, but it’s still useful to know – if you think you can get an item quickly for less than the kind of prices it is selling for, then go for it.

eBay's search interface can be slow and hard to use, however, and you’re unlikely to discover everything you could learn this way. There’s more than one way to do things, though.

The Statistical Way.

If you’d prefer to do a little hardcore statistical analysis to determine what’s selling and what not, then don’t worry – you can do that too.

eBay make all their market data available to third-party developers through what’s called a ‘programming interface’ – this basically means that you have a wide choice of programs that can take market statistics from eBay and analyse them for you. Type ‘ebay analysis’ into a search engine for a long list.

In my opinion, some of the best eBay statistics tools out there are made by Andale ( andale. com). Andale are one of the oldest and most established sellers of services for eBay. However, their solution is web-based, and you may prefer to buy a piece of software that you can install on your computer, such as AuctionIntelligence.

These automated programs will almost do everything for you, and come with help and tutorials. You should be aware, however, that eBay charge them for the data, which means that they will never give you their programs for free.

Keep Your Finger on Pulse.

If you want a quick, big-picture snapshot of what people are looking to buy on eBay, then go to pulse. ebay. com. This is a page where eBay list the top 10 most searched for words, and the top 5 largest eBay stores.

Looking at it, it’s easy to spot current trends. For example, right now all of the top stores are selling media items, either books or music. That suggests that these are good things to be selling, at least if you want to shift volume. Right now the word ‘ipod’ is at number 4, and ‘ipod mini’ is at number 6 – there are a heck of a lot of people out there looking for a cheap iPod or iPod mini. If you could find a good supplier for them then you could make a lot of money.

If you’re having trouble finding suppliers, though, don’t worry: there’s more than one way to get hold of things to sell on eBay. The next email will give you a few tips.

How to detect an ebay scam

If this is the case, then it's time for the buyer's warning signal to go red alert because if things on E-bay seemed to good to be true, it probably is and may not even be worth the buyer's time and money.

There are lots of frauds and scams going on in the Internet today and E-bay is not excused. So, it's important for buyers to detect early signs of fraudulent activities before it gets them. Here are some important points to take note :

1. Buyers should always check the seller? s feedback rating. If a seller has many negative feedbacks or no feedback, do your due diligence and stay away from this auction. There is a chance it is a scam or fraud.

2. Another big issue ebay users need to take note of is phishing emails. Do not enter your ebay account details for any emails that tell you to do so. Some of these emails claims to be from ebay when they are not. It's already anomalous in the first place because E-bay does not send emails. Plus, E-bay would definitely not certify a seller even if he or she has a remarkable selling history.

3. Buyer should be aware of sellers that insist on wire transfers like Western Union as mode of payment. In fact, E-bay does not recommend their buyers to use wire transfer services. If the seller insists on it, then, no doubt it's a scam. If you are planning to buy expensive items on ebay, use escrow services.

4. Buyer should also be aware of "too-good-to-be-true" prices. Chances are items that are priced way below their real prices are signs of imminent fraudulent activities. One good example is DVDs and I have noticed recently many bootleg or illegal copies of DVDs being sold on ebay.

5. Online shoppers should be weary of institutions claiming they are escrow but ask payments be made to a person instead of a corporation. This is a clear case of scam.

6. Buyers should also be aware of sellers that let them pay the bid amount to wire transfers directly from the buyer's checking account. Worst, the seller contends that the given bank account is Escrow's.

The above tips are important to keep in mind when you are using ebay. After all, it's better to play safe than dumb.