Just go to the holiday hot list under seller central. You can find the top 25 list as well as all the top sellers for the holiday season.
Now change all your products descriptions to fit the time of year. You can also add this information into a sub-title. Call them gifts or say they will be suitable for a great gift for so and so. Say something like, will make a great gift for dads, moms, sons, or daughters. This may sound silly, but it really works. Think about it, most people are shopping for family. Hint to them, that this particular gift would be perfect for a member of their family. By you telling the customers it is a great gift for family, they are more open to buy from you for some reason. Maybe it's subliminal. It definitely works, I have tested this little strategy.
There are little gift icons that you can use in the gallery. Use these icons or anything that may cause the customer, to believe it will make a better gift. Offer gift box or gift wrapping services. Tell the customer you will wrap the gift and send it to the recipient if they would like. Sometimes the customer will want to give the gift to someone far away. So offering that you will send the parcel to the gift recipient, can be a great selling point. Make sure you offer some kind of service to promote the season sales.
I usually send a card thanking the customers after December 1st. Make sure you give the customer something to thank them. Buy a cheap box of Christmas cards for a few dollars or make some up on your printer. Either way, the customers really do appreciate the extra effort. You may get a return customer or 2 for your efforts. Also reassure you can get the gift there in time for Christmas. I do not recommend drop shipping for the season. If you do drop ship, make sure you find out your distributors cut off date. Having gifts delivered on time during the rush is very important.
List gifts you want to give for free for each purchase in your auction or website. Offer them free shipping or a free gift is another sure way to bring customers in. Anything you can do more of, that the other sellers are not doing, can be a great boost in sales. From today's date thru Christmas will be very busy and you have to pay close attention to detail. If something is lost, you may not find out until after Christmas. Make sure you offer your customers tracking numbers so they can track their shipment. This way, if anything happens, you can have enough time to fix it for them.
Just remember to be nice and bend over backwards this time of year. There are so many sales that the competition will be tight. Offer more and you will get more. Don't just sell an item this time of year. Offer the customer a warm thank you, when you deliver their Christmas present.
What are the really hot, profitable niches selling on eBay? At this writing, the most popular products include the usual items that are always hot sellers: the latest models of cell phones, the newest video game systems and video games, designer brand clothing and accessories. These are profitable products and often appear in the Top Ten of eBay Pulse. Many eBay Sellers profit handsomely by selling in these lucrative eBay niches.
There are other profitable products that don't show up in any eBay Pulse list but are, nevertheless, profitable products that make tons of money for some eBay Sellers. One of these top-selling product niches is gift cards. The average rate of sales on eBay is 33%. In other words, one in three items listed on eBay results in a sale. Gift cards sell at a rate of 75%, making it a very profitable niche. Although gift cards don't show up on any Pulse list or the Hot Items List, they are very profitable products to sell on eBay.
Many other hot, profitable products selling on eBay do not appear on a Pulse list or Hot Items list. Therefore, smart eBay Sellers depend on other ways to determine what to sell on eBay other than the well-known Top-Ten Pulse Lists.
The best way to stay on top of the most hot, profitable products on eBay is to do research yourself, hire someone else to do the research, or purchase products from those who have performed the time-consuming task of searching and finding the most lucrative products and niches.
Hi, my name is Walt. I'm an auctioneer with 25 years of experience in the auction business and licensed in the state of MA. I own Quick Auction Service, a company that specializes in building and running custom auctions, I'm also the webmaster of my own site and have been on eBay for 8 years. Besides eBay, the types of auctions I run most frequently are antiques and on-site estate auctions, although I've run everything from business overstock auctions to charity & special event auctions.
I enjoy sharing my knowledge and stories of the auction business. My goal for article is to help folks get the absolute most out of their auction experience.
Whether your fresh out of the package or a seasoned dealer I think I can offer something in this article to help you with your auciton adventures.
There may be as many reasons to attend auctions as there are types of auctions to attend. Maybe you want to attend an auction to buy items for re-sale on eBay, or some other market. Maybe you want to furnish your home with wonderful antiques, or you want to furnish your home as inexpensively without sacrificing quality.Some folks are just looking for a fun night out. With a little perseverance all these things are possible.
There are antiques and estate auctions, auto auctions, overstock auctions, absolute and no reserve auctions, real estate auctions, specialty auctions where only one genre of items are sold, tailgate auctions, live auctions, online auctions, sealed bid auctions, silent auctions, charity and fund raising auctions and many more.
Can you really buy for pennies on the dollar at an auction? You bet! Many times I've seen folks buy and re-sell at the same auction on the same night for a good profit, although be advised, this should only be done after the auction is over.
There are a lot of ways to find an auction, but here are some tips on how to find and attend the best ones.
Visit the genre of shops in the area that apply to the type of auction you want to attend. IE: If your looking for a good antique auction to attend, stop in the local antiques shops and ask for what there are for good auctions in the area. Sounds obvious right? But listen to what they don't say as well as what they do say. Oftentimes when a dealer speaks poorly about an auction he or she attends, it may be likely that they are trying to keep a good thing secret. Think for a moment, why would a dealer keep attending a lousy auction?
Newspaper ads: I personally like to find ads in the classified ad section rather than flashy display ads. Flashy ads are usually indicative of an auction that will be high priced, may have reserves, (a set price on an item), and usually an enormous crowd. While any auction can be profitable to attend, it is usually best to steer clear of the glitzy ones, at least for the beginner.
Here's the minimum you want to find out before you go. If there is a phone number in the ad, call and ask for the terms of the sale. What forms of payment do they accept? Is it an absolute auction? An absolute auction is one that has no minimum or reserve bids on items. These are the best auctions to attend! Is there a buyers premium? A buyers premium is like a tax that everyone who makes purchases at that auction must pay above the winning bid price. Most auctions these days do charge a buyers premium, 10% is not unreasonable but I feel much more than that is greedy, and the auctioneer that charges over 10% is counting on most bidders not doing the extra math as the bids quicken in pace.
A fair auction will have ample time to inspect the merchandise, usually at least 2 or 3 hours. Find out when inspection starts and make sure to attend! Never attend an auction if you can't make the inspection, not unless your prepared to gamble. Most auctioneers sell at a rate of about 100 items per hour, which is why they sell "as is". They simply don't have the time to give a detailed description of all the items. Since almost all items at auction are sold AS IS, there are sure to be some damaged, refinished, fake and incomplete items at any given auction. Beware of any auctions that offer very little or no inspection time.
Good auctions will usually have 150 to 400 lots. A lot may be one item or a group of items. The exception to this are specialty auctions, auto auctions, real estate auctions etc.
When you attend your first sale, take note of the 1/2 dozen or so dealers that buy the most often. See if you can find out about other area auctions they attend.
When you do find an excellent auction, attend it as often as possible. By frequenting good sales, you help increase the bottom line of that business. It's difficult for many auctioneers to keep the quality of merchandise consistent, so good attendance certainly helps. And when an auctioneer gets to know you as a buyer, he/she will go out of the way to accommodate you, to keep you coming back.
Attend an auction this week, it's one of the only market places where you can set the price.
Thanks for reading and have fun.