2008 1% for Good charities announced

Thanks for all the nominations. We selected 6 charities to benefit from our customer's purchases this year:

Capital Area Humane Society - local Columbus OH shelter that housed our two hounds before we adopted them
UNICEF Children's Fund
Nature Conservancy
4 Paws 4 Amelia - nonprofit organized to provide a trained mixed breed dog for local Ohio girl with autism
Mid-Ohio Food Bank
School for Young Children scholarship fund - nationally accredited preschool in Columbus OH

Some of these charities will benefit from eBay Giving Works auctions listed in our eBay store. Bid and you can get some fantastic green gear while benefiting great charities. We will start more auctions on Thursday of this week.

Last Day to Nominate a Charity!

Readers, there are 10 hours left until we choose our charity recipients for this year! Please contribute your ideas to our previous thread where our 1% for Good program is detailed.

We are busily working on writing up listings for auctions to benefit these charities. We will make them live on Monday the 24th ending Monday December 1st.

Nominate your Favorite Charity for 1% for Good

We are accepting nominations for charities to benefit from our annual donation program. All you have to do is Email Rachel or leave a comment below for nominations with your suggestion by November 21!

Because this year we will be using eBay Giving Works, your nomination must be on this list of MissionFish eligible nonprofits. If your favorite charity isn't listed, ask them to register.

Splitting off the helmet upgrades

Our (tiny) web venture began with the resale of military surplus helmets. Our most successful product in this vein are our in-house (and by that I mean, in our actual basement) made upgrade kits of a chinstrap and new padding to replace the uncomfortable military issue suspension.

We decided last fall to stop selling the upgrade kits through our current webstore because mixing surplus and new products in two different categories didn't make sense to our customers, and may have even turned people away.

We continued selling the surplus items and kits through our ebay store.

Ebay is now charging upwards of 12% to sell in their stores and they made changes in feedback that took away our ability to honestly leave feedback. This doesn't match with our financial or business philosophy.

We have enough of a reputation that we hope to drive customers to a new site instead where we have better profits, better deals, and more transparency to our customers. This morning I registered www.helmetupgrades.com and will have a site up in a few days. I'm publishing new business cards with the new address too - maybe Alex can be president of this spin off. ;)

Holiday Retail Season

This is the first holiday retail season that we are actively trying to grab hold of the holiday buying spirit. How?

We just sent our first newsletter to all past customers. We placed our second order with SIGG and expect new designs listed in the store around December 1. We are listing auctions on Ebay four days a week for the next two weeks to coincide with the biggest shopping days of the year. Will it work?

Follow along for the ride!

Final post in our series on ebay selling:

Participate in the Feedback system

1. Include a note or business card with each package requesting feedback.
2. We issue positive feedback for each order after payment is received and the item is shipped. This does leave us vulnerable to retaliatory or unwarranted feedback, but we place trust in others that they will be honest.
3. Carefully consider when and if to leave negative feedback. We only leave negative feedback after we have tried to communicate with the buyer in all other ways.

Tell us your experiences with selling!

Next tips in the series:

Ship Quickly

1. Print the PayPal payment notice for an easy and complete order slip.
2. Use USPS provided packaging whenever possible.
3. Order from U-Line or another major supplier for cheapest packaging.
4. Order free shipping labels from FedEx. These work with any service and only require that you sign up for a free account. Call 1-800-257-0109 and order free self-stick laser labels (part number 146525).
5. Print labels directly from USPS for a discount.
6. Schedule USPS carrier pickups. They are free and save you the effort of going to the post office.

Yes, sounds like we are getting kickbacks from USPS or something. In actuality, we have tried all the other major shippers and for domestic shipping (and even most international shipping) US Postal Service is the cheapest and easiest.

We were out of town for a week, so two topics of Tips for Selling on Ebay today:

Communicate Well

1. Track items for sale in MyEbay.
2. Answer questions as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

Accept Payment

1. Accept as many payment forms as possible.
2. Spend the effort to be verified with PayPal.
3. Send an invoice through eBay as soon as the auction ends. In the notes section, thank the customer and repeat how you would like to be paid.
   
4. Watch your bank account and be sure money order and personal checks clear before you ship.

Next update in the Selling on eBay series: Write a Solid Listing

1. If you find a good eBay listing for the same or similar item you are selling, use the 'sell similar' option. Add details pertinent to your item and your information. There is nothing wrong with copying a good idea!
   
2. Use all letters available in the title – tell as many pertinent details as you can.
3. Skip the subtitle unless you are selling something available from many other sellers and you can highlight a special feature of your item.
4. Clearly describe the item in as much detail as possible. Include measurements, sizes, and description of wear. Visit this page for an extensive list of acronyms common on eBay.
   
5. Repeat your contact information and payment, shipping, and return preferences in the listing. These will be listed elsewhere by eBay, but buyers sometimes need to see the details twice.
   
6. Include at least one picture, or more than one to show details.
7. Choose the Gallery option. Buyers want to see a picture in your listing.
8. Skip the bold/border/upgraded and other listing features. If you write a detailed listing, there is no need for this extra cost.
9. Schedule longer length listings (5 – 7 days) if you have the time to attract more bids.
10. Schedule auctions to end at a time when you can be available for the previous two hours for last minute questions.
11. eBay buyers seem to be less active on Fridays and Saturdays, so avoid these for auction end times.
12. If your item has international appeal, offer international shipping. The learning curve for getting international shipments sent is a bit steep, but there are many international users on ebay and you do not want to lose their bids. (We always include a few lines obligating the buyer to know and follow import restrictions in their country.)
    
13. Rather than setting a reserve price, which costs extra and is not attractive to buyers, set your starting price at the lowest price you are willing to accept.
14. Look at fees and set your price just below the fee change if you can. (i.e. If fees are raised at $10, set your price at $9.99)

Here is one of our most detailed store listings to give you ideas.

Our initial business model was to use eBay to sell our wares. Advantages: Ebay takes care of all the marketing, it is really easy to use, and the audience is worldwide. Disadvantages: eBay has lots of rules about content you can include, negative feedback from jerks is inevitable but still disappointing, and the fees take about 8% of our profit.

On the first day of our second year we opened a Yahoo store as another venue to sell our wares. Yahoo store Advantages: Includes some marketing, is relatively easy to use, fees less than eBay, and the content is virtually unmonitored. Yahoo store Disadvantages: Still has fees, not all that easy to customize.

Traffic to our yahoo store has been steady but most people still purchase through ebay. To entice our customers to the yahoo store, we recently reduced all prices by 5% on the yahoo store only. The next step will be to use advertising to directly pull traffic into the yahoo store.

Want to sell on eBay? We are Powersellers with our own ebay store. We have learned plenty of lessons about how to make the most profit with least headache. We will publish tips and tricks once a week. Here is the first small but important set:

Research your Item(s) for Sale

1. Use ebay to watch items similar to yours. Look for selling price as a guideline for what you can expect to earn.
2. Use collector’s guides or retail stores to determine details about the item specifics.
3. Measure all applicable parts including dimensions and weight.
   

Stay tuned for next week's tips to Write a Solid Listing