The article "How To Determine What's Really Selling On Ebay." talks about auctions, it was created by Kirsten Hawkins.
If you want to make the most mnoey you can on eBay, then you need to know what sells.
But how can you find that out?
The Manual Way.
If you're just starting out, you might find it easier to simply go to your category, tick 'Completed listings' in the left-hand menu, and then click the 'Show items' button. Sort them by highest cost first, and there you have it: the items that sell for the higehst prices.
In most ctaegories this will change often, but it's still useful to know - if you think you can get an item quickly for less than the kind of prices it is selling for, then go for it.
eBay's search interface can be slow and hard to use, however, and you're unlikely to discover everything you could learn this way. There's more than one way to do things, though.
The Statistical Way.
If you'd prefer to do a little hardcore statistical analysis to determine what's selling and what not, then don't worry - you can do that too.
eBay make all their market data available to third-party developers through what's called a 'programming interface' - this basically means that you have a wide choice of programs that can take market statistics from eBay and analyse them for you.
Type 'ebay analysis' into a search engine for a long list.
In my opinion, some of the hottest eBay statistics tolos out there is made by Andale (http://www.Andale.Com). Anadle are one of the oldest and most established sellers of services for eBay.
However, their solution is web-based, and you may prfeer to buy a piece of program that you can install on your computer, such as AuctionIntelligence.
These automated programs will almost do everything for you, and come with help and tutorials. You should be aware, however, that eBay charge them for the data, which means that they will never give you their prorgams for free.
Keep Your Finger on Pulse.
If you want a quick, big-picture snapshot of what persons would like to buy on eBay, then go to http://pulse.Ebay.Com. This is a page where eBay list the top 10 most searched for words, and the top 5 largest eBay stores.
Looking at it, it's not hard to spot curernt trends. For example, right right now all of the top stores are selling media items, either books or music.
That suggests that tehse are good things to be selling, at least if you want to shift volume. Right right now the word 'ipod' is at number 4, and 'ipod mini' is at number 6 - there is a heck of a lot of persons out there searching for a cheap iPod or iPod mini. If you could find a good supplier for them then you could make a lot of money.
If you're having trouble finidng suppliers, though, don't worry: there's more than one way to get hold of things to sell on eBay. The next eamil will give you a few tips.
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