Ebay Trader

Ebay Trader

EBay Inc. (http://www.ebay.com), the world’s largest online auction site for all kinds of goods and collectibles, boasts 135million registered users and sells $1,000 worth of merchandise every second in 32 international markets. So how do you profit from the website? By listing up as an eBay trader. All you need is a computer, internet access, and a good digital camera(so buyers can see what you’re selling) to sell your wares online, and then you simply register with eBay.com to gain access to international buyers and eBay.ph to reach the local market. At eBay, you trade anonymously and use only handles or “nicks” for names.

            Trader Brum200 came across eBay.ph, eBay’s Philippine site, in 2004 and decide to try selling a miniature replica of the Philippine jeepney, and item being made by a family-owned business and that also produces mini-instruments. He sold the product to an Ausralia buyer within seven days, and soon Brum2000 added gadgets, e-Book, I.D. tags, cellular phones, laptaps, and laptap accessories to his wares. Today, brum2000 sells $1,000 worth of merchandise a month but invests only three to seven hours a day (between 7 p.m and 12 midnight) answering email from buyers. He also sells at eBay.com, which charges minimal fees to list products and put photos and a final value fee on the item being sold.

            The advantage of registering on eBay.com is that the world is your audience: you get more chances to sell your products. (eBay.ph’s services are still free, but it limits your audience and the products it lists don’t appear at eBays.com.) and paying is simply, eBay.com sellers open an account with paypal, an online payment service owned by eBay, so buyers can pay by credit card or by debiting their purchases in their checking account. And once payment is made, the item is shipped to the buyer. (paypal is not yet available in the Philippines, so sellers usually ask winning bidders to wire their payment or have it deposited to their account so the sold product may be shipped.)

            Brum2000 says an eBay trader’s most precisous commodity is the feedback he gets from other sellers. Like retail traders, online traders must keep a good reputation to get repeat business and gain more clients, and eBay has a feedback forum that allows sellers to leave their comments after each transaction: it lets other member know how reliable and trustworthy a buyer has been in his dealings. (On the other hand, many buyers won’t deal with a seller who has to many negative feedback posting in the forum or has less than the specified number of positive comments there.)

            eBay.ph is still in its infancy, but it already holds much promise considering that 30,000 items are being listed on the site and nay given day. According to specialists, the online market will grow even faster as internet access and reliable courier services become cheaper and more readily available.