List and they will come.

Well as they say in the film and the book……………………………………… Built it and they will come, well it is really true in the e-commerce world. Spend the time listing and your buyers will come.

This is true for eBay, Amazon , Bonanzle, Etsy and the list goes on and on. If you spend the time sourcing for new products (by new I do mean new as from wholesalers, but also new stock, spend time asking friends, family, going around yard sales, car boots, thrift shops, and charity shops and build up your stock.

But the important thing is, once you have bought your stock, go home and list it. If the pictures need taking do it, but list, list and list some more. Then once you have listed it all, go buy some more and list and list.

Now a very strange thing happens as you list your lookers will come and out of the lookers your buyers will buy.

This weekend a friend from Church told me he had bought over 500 books mainly Christian study books from our local Christian book shop. His idea was to sell these at car boots to raise some money for a Charity he supported.

Now he had a problem, the books were very niche, they were study books, he went to a few car boots paid his money to sell ( here in the UK it is around £5.00 each time), and he was asking for donations. He did sell a few, but for the time it took etc it was not really worth it.

I suggested he sold on Amazon to start with then eBay, he did not seem keen as he did not know what he was doing and at the time did not want to spend time learning, I did offer my services as an Education Specialist.

So I put my other hat on as a Trading Assistant and offered to sell them for him. Now I have sold books in the past and as most people know they can be hit and miss.  As I was listing on Amazon I knew all that would be wasted was some time on a Sunday Afternoon listing if it all failed.

I got him to bring two boxes to start with for me to see what was what and start the listing, well after 185 books only one was not found on Amazon and it was found under the title, and most were well over a £1.00, so I was happy

******** Now the important thing here is I did not pay for stock, so would not be out of pocket, but and a big but I found he had only paid 0.10p for each book, so it will be good profits all round and a good profit for the charity he is raising money for *******

Another lesson here is at 0.10p per item (it is items as there were a few cd’s and dvd’s in the boxes you can make large profits if they are sold at just a £1.00 but if you can get 1/2 of the RRP you will make very good profits.

I am writing this just under 20 hours from I listed the books and 12 have already sold and half those have already paid, so I think my friend will do OK.

Happy Selling and I hope this lesson not only helps you with eBay but all e-commerce platforms.

Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires

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