Jewish World Review August 7, 2003 / 9 Menachem-Av, 5763


Getting help selling items on eBay from eBay eLves

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | (KRT) eBay, like Amazon and Yahoo, is a name recognized by techies and non-techies alike.

Nearly everyone knows that it's a place to buy and sell pretty much anything. There are other Internet auction sites, but none come close to eBay for brand-name power. And for good reason: eBay is the largest online auction site. Buyers come to eBay for the best chance of finding the particular thing they want. Sellers come for the largest pool of buyers, which they hope means the best chance of selling at the highest possible price.

Buying things on eBay is pretty simple. Go to www.eBay.com, register for free (if you haven't before), then use the Find It line, or click through the categories, or click on some of the specials to get to the stuff you want. Soon you'll see the current asking price and a little button where you can place your own bid. Enter a price, occasionally come back to see if someone has bid higher than you - and if you want to top the new bid - and wait for the end of the auction period. If your bid is highest, you win the chance to arrange payment method and shipping with the seller.

Maybe you didn't know about that last part. eBay is only in the business of putting buyers and sellers together (for a small fee from the seller). It doesn't handle the actual payment or shipping of goods. In other words, it isn't a big department store, a consignment shop, or a warehouse. eBay never holds the items to sell, the items sold, or the money from buyers. It's the owner of a flea market, and you'll do your actual deals with the individual sellers in their virtual stalls at the market.

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Sure, there's more to being an adept eBay buyer, including knowing when to trust sellers, how a proxy bid can save you from going online every half-hour to up your bid, which utility help programs are worthwhile, how to use escrow to guarantee goods, and watching out for selling tricks such as fake bids pushing up prices. The more often you buy on eBay, and the more you spend, the more you ought to learn. But generally, buying on eBay is the easier part of a transaction.

Selling is a little tougher. For a start you have to figure out how to categorize your item, what to ask for as a minimum bid, and what to say about the item. You're becoming a copywriter, salesperson, marketer, and even a photographer all at the same time. That's because you'll want to take and upload a digital photo that does the item justice. Then you become a negotiator as you monitor the auction. And finally you'll become a shipping and receiving department as well as an accounts receivable and credit department when you haggle over accepting payment and providing shipping.

Practice will improve your eBay selling technique, bringing you higher returns. But what if you don't want to practice? What if you're not looking to add "eBay expert" to your resume? What if you just want to sell one or two things now, and aren't sure when or if you'll be selling again? Or what if you have sold something small like CDs or albums for a few bucks, but now hope to receive thousands for that antique armoire, celebrity autograph or first-edition book?

You could turn to an eBay Trading Assistant. These experienced pros will handle your sale for a commission percentage or a fixed fee that ranges from around 10 percent up to as much as 40 percent. Some also charge additional service fees - each assistant sets his or her own rates because they're independent contractors not officially part of or working for eBay. You contact them, ask if they're interested in selling what you've got, negotiate the terms, then set an appointment for photos and pickups.

Your local paper may have classified ads for assistants. Or maybe you'll see a business card for one on a neighborhood bulletin board. eBay has its own Assistant page for officially registered helpers: http://pages.ebay.com/tradingassistants.html. Here you can search for an assistant in your area and inspect their specialties and reputation (the feedback other eBay users have given about this person's integrity and ability). Some Assistant's will help you a little; some will take over the entire process, including the writing, photography, payment, and shipping. Some Assistants even have their own storefronts, perhaps in combination with a small retail business.

Those storefronts may have inspired another eBay-assistance option: Retail Assistance Companies. The first I've seen is AuctionDrop.com. They call it "retail" eBay help. So far AuctionDrop has stores in San Carlos and Los Altos, Calif., with plans for San Rafael, Calif. Whatever you want to sell, you just bring it to them and drop it off. They handle every step of the online auction and send you a check, minus their commission of 38 percent down to 20 percent (the bigger the price on the item, the lower the percentage cut). AuctionDrop has recently added a $10 to $20 up-front charge for anything more than a minimum eBay listing. And you'll probably want to opt for at least the $10 extra to make sure your sale brings the price it deserves. If the item sells, the upfront amount is credited towards the commission. Probably they added this new charge to avoid people dropping off lots of unsalable, small-ticket stuff.

Is assistance worth the costs? On a small item, probably not. Losing 40 percent or more is worthwhile only if the thing you're selling is of no value to you at all and you don't have any time or patience for doing eBay yourself. On a large item, it may well be worth the freight. An expert could well sell that antique for $5,000 when you might only reap $3,000, easily profiting you more than the 20 percent or so commission, not to mention the trouble of packing, shipping, and properly ensuring real payment.

What about eBay "buying" assistance? Help with finding the right thing and paying the least? I haven't seen anything about such services. I guess the official Trading Assistants could buy as well as sell, but it just doesn't come up. I wonder if there's a business in helping other people save money through eBay? For now you're pretty much stuck doing it yourself or calling upon a tech-savvy, eBay-friendly buddy.

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Worm/MiMail

Another day, another worm/virus/hack. Again, if you stay away from Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer (sometimes called Internet Exploder by the cynical) you're safe. Never open attachments and you're even safer.

Worm/MiMail arrives as an email message with a subject like "Your Account (account info)" and a warning that your "email account is about to expire". Nasty criminals: getting you to open this Pandora's box by faking a serious issue. If you do double-click on the "message.zip" attachment of the email, the worm wakes up and looks through your files for email addresses, sending itself out to them.

All of this happens for two reasons: the Worm/MiMail creators are creeps and the Microsoft programmers are asleep.

Good thing some of our latest Homeland Security work and eGovernment tools are being created with Microsoft wares.

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