HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY
WITH LESS EFFORT
AT ON-LINE AUCTION SELLING

The whole point of working with and selling through on line auction houses such as e-bay is to make money and hopefully to have a little fun at the same time. There are always better, faster, cheaper, and less painful ways to do things and I'm always on the look out for them.

After about 3,000 transactions in over 2 years, I've made more than a few ah-ha! type observations about ways to improve my percentage of sales versus non sales, getting more money for any item, and boosting my net profits while reducing the amount of time and effort involved.

I've traded notes and ideas with lots of people on and off line over the years and look forward to working with you too.

Here are a few tips that I found useful. Hopefully, one of these might benefit you too - whether you're a beginner or an expert.

You don't need a tremendous amount of space to do auction sales on line, but you do need to keep your goods organized and free from damage or pilfering by the rest of the household, visitors and/or pets. There are several main tasks and areas you need to consider. Let's start with the major areas - - -

At the very least separate your goods into two or three separate and identifiable piles or locations. Any less is probably asking for disaster.

It's a very sanity-keeping idea to keep all your stuff that is currently up for auction or already sold in one place and make it off limits to the rest of the family or staff. Maintain a separate location to put all items that (a) will eventually be listed and keep them apart from those that (2) have already been listed and those that (3) are already sold/won but not yet shipped. The areas can be rooms, closets, boxes, shelves, corners - anything as long as you maintain them.

These three areas are off limits to everyone else but you. The spouse and the children should know not to touch anything in spots (b) and (c) and to ask before taking anything out of (a). While you might be talked out of an item from location (a), everyone else should be trained not to touch anything in location (b) or (c). The last thing you want is for the money to arrive and the object you sold to be missing or damaged. Talk about a major headache and due cause for negative feedback!

Depending on the quantity of supplies you keep on hand, this can really consume space. I keep a moderate supply near my packing area and stash the rest in the garage and attic.

I am fortunate to have my own computer and workspace at home. Although I allow the family to use it when I'm out, they are under edict not to move my paperwork, files, or supplies. I have a system and work flow pattern that works for me and woe betide the person who disturbs it.

You'll be using your e-mail a great deal to complete transactions. Have a separate email folder for -

1. In Box for items not yet handled
2. Folder for active on-line business emails and
3. Folder for archived on-line business emails with folders separated by site name.

Keep all this correspondence separate from other e-mail activity. Clean out your email folders at least every 4 months and delete most stuff that is over 6 months old with the exception of account statements from your on-line sites.

I also recommend signing up for a free or second email account to use during emergencies when your regular email service is down.

Have a separate email account from others in the family and train them to leave yours strictly alone.

Set up a small work area to conduct your wrapping and shipping. Keep supplies there that are not to be removed/borrowed by the rest of the household: scissors, tape, labels, pens, and boxes of cardboard, plastic sheeting, bubble wrap, and packing peanuts. A dedicated space to take photographs is very nice but not an essential. You can photograph virtually anywhere. But it is nice to have a dedicated spot with good lighting.

Nearby you should have a vertical file folder holder for your working files. Have a least one file for each site you list or sell on.

At a more remote location, have a number of boxes for your archived files. You'd be surprised at the number of times a sale from two months ago will come back to haunt you.

Clean out your files every three months and toss anything over 6 months old.

 (To be continued - drop by again as I continue to add more articles!)