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MAKING MONEY ON eBAY What to do with Unsold Product
By Bob Hamilton
One of the
challenges that we all face as we grow our eBay business is what to
do with products
eBay is a great marketplace. We have found that almost anything and everything will sell. If an item doesn’t sell, examine the basics first. These include picture quality, the auction title, the description, pricing. Double check to see if you missed something about competing products.
If all of the above have been competed, then there are some decisions to make. Do you want to re-list the item after correcting anything you found? Auction costs add up, irregardless of whether you make a sale or not. If re-listing is the right step, go ahead and move forward. If you have an eBay store, should you move the product to your store? Should the product be bundled with other products and sold together?
Making money on eBay will occasionally drive a seller to take a gamble and try to sell an item that wasn’t adequately investigated. Possibly it was a buying opportunity that required an immediate decision. Maybe the product that didn’t sell was part of a bigger lot of merchandise. No matter what the reason, action needs to be taken. Carrying merchandise in your inventory costs money, it takes space, and no-sale auctions are expensive.
In our case, we periodically receive merchandise that does not meet our quality standards. While we could go ahead and make money on eBay by selling these items, we don’t feel they would meet with complete buyer approval. Since we value our customers, we prefer to use other methods to dispose of them.
We decided to find another way to sell this merchandise without compromising the quality of what we sell on eBay. We made contact with a few businesses in our local area. These were all deep discount and/or closeout retailers who look for low-cost products. One of those contacts has resulted in a business agreement where a retailer. The retailer has agreed to accept 100% of the sub-standard products that we send to them. They are responsible for transportation, and we are responsible for boxing and palletizing the products.
This relationship has resulted in thousands of poorer quality items being sold. In all cases, we did actually sell for slightly less than we paid. On the other end of the transaction, we maintained our happy customers, high eBay feedback ratings, and higher average eBay sales price for those items that we did sell. Basically, everyone wins. The retailer has low-cost products that would not otherwise be available to them. Our customers only get the best of the products. We receive a higher overall price for the products.
There are other ways to dispose of products that you either do not wish to sell, or that will not sell.
· Donate to charity · Create larger lots and sell by the lot on eBay · Create larger lots and sell on other auction sites · Create larger lots and sell via other means (Craigslist is one example) · Trade with other vendors for products that you can sell · Sell ‘As Is’ with full disclosure on eBay · For smaller quantities, consider making gifts of the items
Making money on eBay at times requires creativity. While no-one likes to mention the product that did not sell, it does happen. If the problem isn’t associated with the auction listing itself, then it is likely the product. Rather than losing money with multiple listings, consider other creative methods for removing the product from your inventory.
Bob Hamilton is an author, writer, consultant and trainer. www.onlineauctionsmadesimple.net www.marketingsuccesscenter.com
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