ebay, Andale, Vendio and others

[alsoran]

I'm a first-time seller at ebay (http://www.ebay.com/), so I suppose I've to begin with auctions before I can start my store.

I've been sniffing around and came across sites like Andale (http://www.andale.com/), Vendio (http://www.vendio.com/), AuctionWatch (http://www.auctionwatch.com/) and others. All these seem connected with ebay and also look very popular. Alas, I'm pretty confused as to how I can get a better deal with any of them and not directly with ebay.

So my ardent appeal to ebay-experts, please throw some light..! May be I too can make a humble beginning during frenzied X-mas shopping..!

[carbonize]

there is a plethora of dropshippers out there. Here is a list I compiled earlier this year. I can't promise how many of these are still going.

http://www.medicalnutrientsinc.com/dropship.html
http://www.astro-logix.com/affiliates.html
http://www.pcdj.com
http://www.dropshipper.co.uk
http://www.wantedbyall.com
http://www.pekoproducts.com/DropShipping.html
http://www.midnitemadness.com/Business_opp.htm
http://www.macrodistribution.com/becomeadealer.html
http://cwrelectronics.com/dealerapplication.php
http://www.crystalflorida.com/how.html
http://www.totallyice.com
http://www.jdwholesale.com
http://www.cjhotdealz.com
http://www.dropshippedtools.com
http://boniesgiftshop.com
http://www.wholesaleknives.co.uk
http://www.delacad.co.uk
http://www.artinternationalwholesale.co.uk
http://www.naughtyshop.co.uk
http://www.magicshop.co.uk
http://www.ostrichesonline.co.uk
http://www.qualitybooks.com/dropshippers.htm
http://www.insanediscounts.com/
http://www.crazydiscounts.com/
http://vistawholesale.zoovy.com/
http://sunrisewholesalemerchandise.com/
http://www.jewelrysprite.com/wholesale.cfm
http://www.wholesale.newageuk.co.uk/
http://www.wholesale-dropshipping.com/
http://www.ckbproducts.com/

[carbonize]

Forgot about http://wholesale-from-me-2u.com/ which I have personally used.

[alsoran]

Carbonize:

I am not sure how drop-ship sources might help me to start at ebay. And secondly, I was looking for more information about Andale, Vendio, etc. with respect to ebay.

Hope I could make myself clear. Any help is heartily welcome.

[carbonize]

yeah sorry, the lists are useful for anybody running an ebay business. I looked at how andale will tell you what price a type of item is going for but in my experience the best bet is to look around the net, not just ebay. A lot of what is sold on ebay is what we call tat, cheap junk.

To decide a price for an item just look at what you paid for it, add the shipping costs, add your ebay fees, then add a resonable markup. Ebay is not going to make you rich unless you either sell a lot of items daily or if you sell something that is hard ot obtain. The best way for a business to use ebay is for stock clearance and to advertise themselves.

[luvdavy]

I'm a first-time seller at ebay (http://www.ebay.com/), so I suppose I've to begin with auctions before I can start my store.

I've been sniffing around and came across sites like Andale (http://www.andale.com/), Vendio (http://www.vendio.com/), AuctionWatch (http://www.auctionwatch.com/) and others. All these seem connected with ebay and also look very popular. Alas, I'm pretty confused as to how I can get a better deal with any of them and not directly with ebay.

So my ardent appeal to ebay-experts, please throw some light..! May be I too can make a humble beginning during frenzied X-mas shopping..!

Hi, Ezy,
I actually do Ebay for a living...or to be more specific, I set up and I troubleshoot for a pawn shop that is now selling a million a year on it.

We have looked at all these programs, and have yet to find one that will integrate into our business as well as make the listings easier, but let me say this....Unless you are going to start out selling 200 items a week, you don't NEED to spend money on an auction program. Ebay has things set up right now so simple that anybody anywhere could sell a fair amount without any trouble at all. The only ones who need these management programs are people who sell huge amounts, and can't keep up with the emails and the paperwork that really does pile up very quickly. So if you are starting out even slightly slowly, don't waste your money!

Even though we list and sell about 500 items a week, we've still found it easier to hire employees to answer the emails, mark the auctions paid or file for non-payers, collect the payments and ship the stuff. These programs cannot do all of that for you, unfortunately, and you will still have to have someone that works on it a good many hours a day if you do list in volume.

Without using a program, you will need to set up some folders in outlook and some rules to make the emails go to those folders to help weed through the payments versus the mulitudes of dumb questions... not to mention the "Where do I send payment and how much is shipping?" questions. We have found that there is NO WAY you can convince people to read...you can put things in big red letters, have multicolor flashing banners that scream at them, or just have regular black print. They are still going to email you. That is where the bulk of the work is going to be, and that is basically what the auction programs cannot do for you. Listing is a breeze...Ebay even has a free listing program as well as a better paid one that takes care of that.

UPS will set up with you online for shipping, and even better if you don't mind driving to the post office...we've found a little service called www.stamps.com that is wonderful for shipping with media mail.

With the auction programs, the one I did like the best of all was Auction Watch...but it still didn't have the functions that would really help us.

If you'd like to talk about it, you can email me at
luvdavy at sccoast.net and I'll even help you over the phone if I can. I don't mind a bit helping out.

Jan

[alsoran]

Oh thanks Jan, for your inputs. I surely like to get in touch with you. Thanks to Carbonize too for helping out.

As I could follow, to manage heavy selling on ebay, other resources like dropshipping and agencies like andale, vendio, etc. are helpful. For limited selling, especially for starters like me, these may not be necessary. Also helpful is the fact that ebay has made listings fairly easy.

I plan to sell both tangible items (like small craft products), as well as intangibles (like an ebook). I'd have loved to offer them in separate ebay stores. But since I do not have the requisite "pedigree" (meaning ID verified or equivalent), I've to first start with auctions. As I could understand, the technique in either case is essentially same. Isn't so?

If I provide link from ebay listing to my website, I'm hopeful of getting more traffic to my website. But in that case, one doesn't know if the buyers will buy from my ebay auction listing or from my website. Small small confusions persist...

[theoneandonlym2k2003]

http://www.felicenovelties.com