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But, at the same time, many would be sellers are listing their pieces for sale onauctions and getting no bids, concluding that eBay just doesn't work.
Here are some tips from James Dillehay, craft artist, eBay seller and author of thenew book, "Sell Your Crafts on eBay" (Warm Snow Publishers), on how to profitablysell your wares online:
1. Anyone who can type and has access to the Internet can sell on eBay. But thecreative person has an advantage on eBay when she turns that creativity towardresearching overlooked opportunities.
For example, during the months before Christmas, more than 3,000 Christmas items aresold every 24 hours on eBay. Research methods outlined in Sell Your Crafts on eBayshowed that between February 12 and March 12 of this year, 4,107 auctions with'Christmas ornament' in the title completed successfully at an average price of$17.34. Imagine how much more money a smart crafter can make all year long knowinghow to ferret out this kind of information from eBay sales.
2. A word's spelling impacts an item's profitability. For example, the word'handmade,' spelled as one word, was part of 2,233 auction titles with an averageclosing price of $16.29. However, auction titles that included 'hand made' as twowords were found in 1,358 listings, but with an average auction closing pricehigher, at $27.81, or $11.52 more profit per item.
3. Go to eBay.com and find the search box. Type in the word or phrase that describesyour art or craft item. Then scroll down the links on the left side of the page andclick on the link for "completed items." Here, you'll be able to see the demand forthis type of product. Do searches for your items every two to three weeks to chartbuying patterns.
4. Find out how much people are willing to pay for your wares. Click on the linkthat says "highest price." This will give you a list of completed auctions fromhighest priced items to lowest priced ones. You want to know what people are willingto pay for items like yours. If you can't make and sell your product for a profit,eBay might not be your marketplace.
5. Determine how much money you'll make on your product. To determine yourprofitability, use the cost of your materials plus the cost of your labor plus thecost of your selling price, which should be the minimum price to recover yourexpenses. If it takes you eight hours to make a piece of jewelry and the highestpriced similar item sells on eBay for $26, you won't make a profit.
6. Look at the elements of successful sellers of products that are similar to yours.Examine their winning auction titles. Observe how much detail they use to describetheir item. See if the seller used any of eBay's special features such as galleryphotos or a bold, featured listing. Evaluate the starting price, starting day of theweek, and duration of winning auctions.
For more tips on how to sell your craft items on eBay, consult a resource book like"Sell Your Crafts on eBay," by James Dillehay. It offers-more than 200 easy-to-learntactics and tips that help sell art, craft and theme-related items for a profit oneBay and on other online auction Web sites.
