eBay Fees Decrease..or Increase? Which is it?

29 March 2008

Hello Friend,

I’ve got good news and some bad news.

*** Lets start with the GOOD NEWS!

Most of you know by now that eBay cut CD and DVD sellers
a break in February. They have significantly cut the insertion
fees for sellers listing Books, Music, DVDs, and
Video Games.

If you are listing your items with a starting bid of 99 cents, then
you will see your insertion fees cut in half.

Read more about the cut at this link.
Click Here to Read More…

*** Now there is the BAD NEWS!

eBay increased the Final Value Fee. So now it cost you more
to sell an item than ever before.

For most of us, the amount we save on insertion fees, will
be used to pay the higher FVF. From what I have seen
so far, this new fee structure has been revenue neutral for me.

Read more about the cut at this link.
Click Here to Read More…

*** Now don’t forget about the BEST NEWS!

eBay no longer charges for a gallery image. This is huge news!
I’ve tested adding gallery images to my dvd auctions and they
do provide a significant increase in sales. The problem before was
the extra 35 cents per auction more than offset the increase in
sales.

Now that gallery images are free, most of us should see an
increase of 15 - 20% in our sell through rate.

So by all means, start using the free gallery images. My testing
shows they will only help you.

Read more about the cut at this link.
Click Here to Read More…

Good Luck with your business,

Brent Crouch
http://www.JillianEntertainment.com

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post a comment

How to Handle Negative and Neutral Feedback from eBay Buyers

17 October 2007

With eBay’s new enforcement of it’s Seller Non-Performance Policy, negative and neutral feedback are a big deal. Being content with a feedback rating of 98% plus is a thing of the past. Now that eBay has started factoring neutral feedback into it’s non-performance algorithm, you have to address every negative and neutral feedback you get.
Continue Reading

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post a comment

5 Tips to Avoid an Ebay Seller Suspension for Seller Non-performance

29 September 2007

Ebay has created a new policy known as seller non-performance that is causing lot of good sellers to be suspended. If you haven’t read about this new policy, click on this link and do so right away.

Here are five things you should be doing to make sure you are not one of the good sellers that gets suspended due to this new policy.
Continue Reading

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

1 comment

How do you deal with Non-paying bidders?

15 September 2007

Question: How do you handle people who seem to blitz your site, who buy and do not pay. This has happened to us a number of times. They take a buy it now item remove it from my listing but do not pay. It’s rather annoying. Do you have any solutions for this?

As long as I have been on eBay, I’ve dealt with non-paying bidders. There isn’t a good solution for this problem, but there are a few things that may help.
Continue Reading

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post a comment

Jillian Entertainment - 1000s of eBay Sellers Suspended

15 September 2007

***SELLER WITH OVER 1.3 MILLION FEEDBACK***

Can you guess who this CD seller is? They have over 1.3
million positive feedback. Click the Link Below.

Guess Who?

***SELLER BEWARE!***

I’m in no way an eBay basher. I started my business on eBay
several years ago and am grateful for the opportunity they
provided me. But unfortunately, eBay has grown into a huge
bureaucracy and doesn’t always do things the way reasonable
people would expect.

About 6 months ago, eBay decided to rid the site of “bad sellers”.
I think this is a great idea. It creates more business for those of
us who are good sellers.
Continue Reading

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post a comment

Do you use the gallery function in all your auctions?

10 September 2007

A few years ago, I ran several tests on how effective the gallery image is in creating sales. The results showed a gallery image did provide a better sell through rate, but it wasn’t enough of an increase to warrant paying an extra 35 cents for each listing.

I now use an automated program that makes the research a lot easier. I expected to find similar results. What I found, has me reconsidering using the gallery image for my own auctions.

In the month of August 2007, there were a total of 1,405,555 dvd auctions ran without the gallery image. These items had an average sell through rate of 20.58%.

During this same period, there were 443,195 dvd auctions ran with the gallery image. These items produced an average sell through rate of 48.82%. This is more than twice the sell rate of dvd auctions that didn’t use a gallery image.

Lets look at these numbers a little closer.

If you were to run 1,000 dvd auctions, it would cost you an extra $350.00 to add the gallery image to each one. On average, you could expect to sell an extra 282 dvds for purchasing this option.

So should you purchase the gallery image for your dvds? It all depends on how much you profit per dvd. If you only averaged a profit of $1per dvd, you’d be spending $350.00 for gallery images to make an extra $282.00 giving you a loss of $68.00. However, if you are averaging a profit of $2 per dvd, then the gallery option would have made you an extra $214.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to test your auctions and determine if this feature makes sense for you.

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post a comment

Do I need to price my dvd titles at 1 Cent to compete with large ebay sellers?

12 August 2007

In browsing eBay recently, I see there are huge DVD sellers opertaing there who sell their DVD’s for a penny. They’re charging 3.95 for shipping, and I know the Media Mail cost for shipping 1 DVD is 2.65 these days. So obviously the only place they’re making a profit is from the shipping charge. They can scarcely be making 1.00 profit by the time one allows for ebay and PayPal fees, to say nothing of their own packaging costs. I had hoped to make at least 1.50 each on any DVDs I sell.

My question is this: In order to really compete w/ these “big league” players, won’t I need to price my movies at a penny just as they do, and then have to settle for a buck or less in profits per title sold? Otherwise, it seems there would be no inducement for eBay buyers to buy from me instead of my competition. Am I overlooking something - or will it be necessary for me to accept such meager profits in order to compete?

If you want a lesson on how to compete with the big boys, look no further than Moviemarz. You can read the details in this post. Becoming the top Ebay DVD Seller

Everyone has heard the old saying, “If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck”. Well unfortunately, this isn’t always the case on ebay. A lot of sellers on ebay are selling bootleg titles and trying to pass them off as legitimate. You can’t compete with these sellers on price, but at the end of the day, buyers know the difference. Take a look at any of the auctions closed successfully by Moviemarz. I guarantee you can find 1,000 other auctions for the “same” dvd that sold for far less, but for some reason that buyer chose to pay more and buy from a legitimate seller.

Now there are some legitimate sellers offering 1 cent CDs and DVDs. Jayandmarie are a good example of this. But keep in mind, in most cases they are not offering new product. Most of the product they sell is used and bids up well past the starting fee of 1 cents.

Here is the strategy I use to price my dvds.

Pricing my dvd to sell

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post a comment

Should I sell my products on ebay, amazon, or half.com?

11 August 2007

Question: One of the questions I wanted to ask considering the most two popular auction & Marketplace are Ebay & Amazon, Which one is better marketplace to sell DVD or any Hot items in terms of profitablity/Cost(Amazon’s Commission is higher than Ebay’s combined fees including paypal), probablity of an item selling, ease of listing(Amazon does not offer product page creation for normal seller account) etc.? Also which marketplace would you choose to create a STORE if you have to? Any other differentiating attributes you can think of? What is your experience?

When I started my business, I sold exclusively on Ebay. A dvd is sold on ebay every 3 seconds. Consumers spend an average of 11 million dollars a month on single dvds sold on ebay. It isn’t an accident that the top ebay sellers offer dvds.

A couple of years ago, I was invited by Amazon to list my products on their site. I was very reluctant. I had already wasted a lot of time trying to sell on Yahoo Auctions, Overstock.com, and a few others. These ventures turned out to be a waste of time. There was no other site able to provide the number of buyers I was getting from ebay.

After a few phone calls from Amazon, I finally agreed and took the time to list a few items. I was surprised a few days later to notice they actually sold! I listed more items with the same success. Amazon proved to be well worth my time. This year, I will do six figure revenue from Amazon.

I like Amazon because I don’t have to pay a listing fee. I pay a flat 15% of the sales price plus shipping and handling. This is a great benefit when you get stuck with titles that just won’t sell.

If I were starting my business all over, I’d have my products on ebay and amazon. I’ve talked to a few sellers that have had good results from half.com. Personally, I don’t have any experience with that site.

Why limit yourself to just an ebay or just an amazon store? Why not open a store on both sites once your inventory level is large enough to support both venues.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post a comment

Are dvds in the USA the same format as dvds sold in the UK?

10 August 2007

Question: Could you please tell me if the DVDs from the USA are the same format as the UK so they will play on UK dvd players as it will be the uk Market that I will be selling to.

There are 8 region codes used by dvd manufacturers. In the United States, our dvd players are configured to play dvds sold as region 1. In the UK, the dvd players sold are configured for region 2 dvds. You can’t play a region 1 dvd in a dvd player configured for anything other than region 1. So basically, you can’t order dvds from a region 1 dvd wholesaler, and plan to sell them to customers with region 2 dvd players.

My list contains a handful of UK suppliers in addition to the top supplier for the UK market. You can get more info at the following link. UK Dvd Supplier

I also found a very good article on dvd coding. It is worth reading and can be found at the link below. DVD Region Coding

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post a comment

One of your dvd wholesale suppliers requested a copy of my credit card?

10 August 2007

Question: I explained a few days ago that I have been approved by ***EDITED*** to purchase videos.

I received a call yesterday from one of their reps about methods of payment. It seems that credit cards, or a debit card are the cheapest ways to pay… however, they asked for a copy of my debit card. I feel this to be a very unusual request. I’ve had my account compromised in the past with unauthorized use.

I’ve never been asked for a copy of any credit card before.

You state that you’ve had experience with this company. Is this a common request from ***EDITED***, or any other supplier you deal with? I would like your opinion on this.

I’ll hold off on sending the copy until I hear from you…

I’m not going to recommend you give your card to anyone if you don’t feel comfortable. I don’t have a credit card on file with this company. I pay for my orders using COD as they arrive at my business. This may be an option for you to discuss with your rep.

Personally, if I decided to use a credit card for payment, I wouldn’t have any problem sending a copy to ***EDITED***. They are the second largest dvd wholesaler in the country. I don’t know if there is much difference in giving a supplier your credit card number and sending them a copy, other than a copy allows them to verify you actually have the card in your possession. It is most likely a safeguard for them to prevent unauthorized card use.

Another option you can consider is giving them a credit card versus a debit card. If someone makes an unauthorized charge on your debit card, the money is immediately withdrawn from your bank account. It can take months to get this money replaced. You can completely avoid this problem by using a credit card.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

Want to make a living Online? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post a comment
« Previous PageNext Page »


Wholesale Dvds | Sitemap