Find Product to Sell Online

I have been watching a World of Good another eBay owned company evolve. Within the last year they have increased in popularity and items they carry.

I am in awe! The items you find here are hand made by true artisans. You can see bits of the personality, culture and pride taken to create each piece.

The beauty of traveling is to bring back with you a piece of the culture. World of Good has taken this and expanded on it. They have enabled consumers to connect with artisans around the world. These artisans are now able to make money using today’s technology. Providing them a new stream of income outside tourism.

You can adorn your home with these gorgeous items, sell them in your store or online. Even though, eBay owns it and has the media support that comes with eBay, not everyone knows of this company.

The possibilities are endless. Here is an example of some of the items you will find:

Here is their story:

Our Founding Story

“Two strangers were on parallel paths, working to connect marginalized artisans in developing countries with shoppers in America. This is the story of how their paths crossed to create WorldofGood.com.

Not long ago, in a country far, far away….
It’s the Summer of 2003, Robert Chatwani and Priya Haji, two San Francisco Bay Area-based thirty-somethings, perfect strangers at the time, and future proud founders of WorldofGood.com, are walking similar paths at two different open-air markets—just miles away from one another in Western India.

Each is striking up conversations with the local artisans, and each is hearing the same story over and over: We need more shoppers like you; greater access to markets. We would be able to create so much more opportunity for ourselves, our families, our communities, if we just had more people buying.

And the entrepreneurial wheels in both of their heads began to turn.

They both knew there had to be a way to link these talented artisans—and thousands more like them—with the millions of shoppers back home that buy $55 billion worth of mass-produced, factory- and sweatshop-made stuff every year. Didn’t there?

Aaaaand…action!
Back home, our two wily do-gooders began to craft their plans of attack.

Robert, a young rising executive at eBay, took his idea straight to the top of the food chain, securing the support of founder Pierre Omidyar, then-CEO Meg Whitman, and other key players in the company’s innovative, forward-thinking leadership team.

Priya, a seasoned entrepreneur with two social enterprises under her belt, convinced a couple of her newly minted MBA buddies to quit their jobs to start their own company, a fair trade wholesale business they called World of Good, Inc.

It wasn’t until two years later that Robert and Priya would realize they needed each other to complete the task at hand.

Full circle
Fast forward to Fall 2005. An introduction from a mutual friend, one serendipitous (and very, very long) phone call later, and the idea for the WorldofGood.com marketplace was born.

It was a no-brainer, and a perfect match.

Robert had, in eBay, a platform where $60 billion worth of stuff is sold every year—more and more of which was being spent on “good” products by an increasingly engaged buyer base. Distribution and global marketing reach? Check!

Priya had, in two years at the helm of World of Good, Inc., built the relationships and knowledge to authentically understand and navigate the inner workings of the global fair trade market. Supply chain know-how and industry credibility? Check!

It was only a matter of time before they had recruited a mighty team of do-gooders, and rallied hundreds of like-minded organizations together—all for the first time—around one simple, but pretty groundbreaking idea: one online destination where people could go to shop for products that make a positive impact on the world.

Now, five years later, those same artisans from those same open air markets in Western India—as well as thousands like them from all over the world—can sell their wares to millions of shoppers browsing the WorldofGood.com website.

One idea, two crafty minds, and a windfall of support from kindred spirits all over the world—and we are well on our way to figuring out how to reach the Big Lofty Goal: a steady job, healthy happy families, and a positive, promising future for millions.”

Make Money Online with Craigslist

Using Craigslist is a great way to find rare and great items for you to keep or resell on auction format.

Sellers on Craigslist want to get rid of it quick and not deal with shipping and paying fees. This of course is the beauty of selling on an online Free Classifieds as Craigslist.

Searching

I would recommend that you search your local area. This way you save on shipping and gas. A great idea would be, if you live in let’s say Los Angeles and you have found items you can resell online with the potential of making you a lot more return in Orange County, it would be worth a trip for you preferably the weekend. All varies on the items you are interested in.

You can search by name of item and location.

Cross Search

Now, that you think to have found Money Making Item check out auction sites. See what it sells for or sold for in the past. Checking on eBay is simple:

Current: Simply type in the item number or description on the main search bar

Ended/sold: Next to the search bar à click on ADVANCE Search à type name of item à scroll down à Check off COMPLETED listings only à then HIT your ENTER button. Presto, this will display what its sold for in the past. Print for listing the item later. This will help you with keywords and pricing.

Run a search on Froogle, search the Manufacturer. Simply running a search online will give you an understanding on the potential of the item.

Shipping

Check rates or use the standard shipping fees calculator provided by eBay and other auction sites. Add to it the cost of packaging materials etc… Keep in mind the Post Office, FedEx and UPS do provide standard boxes to ship with Free of Charge. Make sure to insure the item. You can find Shipping information for ground, freight and how to handle claims here under Shipping category.

Finding a bargain

Do not be afraid to make an offer to the seller. Chances are they will consider it, unless the item is really popular. Then, they may hold on to it. Craigslist can carry a listing for up to 45 days. This varies from your location. The more popular cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, New York etc….. only allow 7 day listings. Run a search on Craigslist going back about 3 weeks. Contact the buyer and ask if they are interested in selling it to you for X,Y or Z…..

Picking up

Unless you are picking up at a retail location, I would highly recommend that you have a shopping buddy with you and/or meet in a public neutral place. If you are picking up furniture or any large item at their home, definitely be safe and take someone with you or let your friends and family know where you are.

All Sales are Final

Get this in writing. Or make sure that you fully inspect what you are about to purchase. You will be responsible to your Buyer in the event the item(s) is faulty, defective or not an Authentic Prada, Burberry etc….. Taking pictures on site would be a good idea.

Listing the Item

Now that you have your hands on the item go back to your notes and list. Re-inspect the item, refer to the manufacturer for description (if needed), provide accurate measurements and take plenty of pictures. You can even relist the item on Craigslist or at another Free Classifieds if you do not want to list on auction site. Don’t forget the Traditional Garage/Yard Sale.

Tip

What are the hot items? Exercise equipment at this time. DVD’s and any electronics. With Christmas just over, many are parting with items you can resell. You may want to do the same, resell locally or donate.

How do you drive traffic to your site?

Get your store items listed on eBay noticed by the search engines. If you have an eBay store keep in mind first 3 Categories in your store are searchable by the search engines.

What this means to you… Take full advantage of those 3 spots. Place your keyword items. Do not categorize them in alphabetical order. Do so by traffic.

We welcome all your suggestions and tricks to generate traffic. How do you drive traffic to your online auctions or webstore?

Always Good For A Laugh

This always makes me laugh! Sharing this…why???…….. I have not heard this in Years..  :)


eBay Song
Uploaded by bender_1991

Getting Feedback Withdrawn

On the week of October 20th, eBay announced to allow the Mutual Withdraw of feedbacks. I recently visited eBay to see where one would find the link to make a request for mutual withdraw. Well, there is none. You can contact eBay for assistance for any violation of feedback.

What change did eBay make?

eBay added a service called NetNeutrals they are a mediator and will get involved in a case to assist you with the withdraw of the Negative Feedback. This is similar to the use of Square Trade; with some upgrades.

The catch here is that you must pay $100.00 to have your case opened and you can pay using PayPal. The initiating party is to pay the fee (which of course we know this would be the seller).

 

 

 

 If you are new to eBay; you may not have heard about Square Trade . Square Trade for years offered the service of Dispute Resolution and Feedback Withdraw if requested. They also offered a Membership. The membership was around $29.99 or $10.00 per case. Not sure how much this was; since I last used them back on the early years of 2001. They have had their share of bad press due to the lack of coverage the original had claim to offer a buyer.

Now, Square Trade offers you an option to purchase Warranties for items purchased on eBay.

To pay anyone $100.00 to assist in the removal of feedback is outrageous. This can add up to thousands for sellers. You best bet is to offer the Best Customer Service out there. eBay is a business and a business must make money which is what they are doing here too.

I personally would rather salvage my relationship with my customer and offer them the $100.00 directly, (Of course each sale is unique) a gift certificate and offer them to contact me directly for an additional discount.

Well, there you have it. Hope you find this information useful.

J

 

 

 

Emotional eBay Live

This video was just emailed to me. I am not suprised to hear such passion from the Angry Seller. He makes a point (or several) and of course eBay’s Agent is speachless. To say the least.

Now if that seller could focus that passion into something positive……… :)

I am posting this because I am sure many of you will be able to relate and to thank Renee for the email.

The sellers voiced his opinion and let it all out. Here is hoping that he is over it and found that he can sell anywhere he wants online and find success!  :)   Never place all your Eggs in one basket.

eBay’s Dirty Laundry

eBay’s dirty laundry…I think it would benefit you to know a bit more about eBay and Craigslist.org . I like Craigslist for many reasons. FREE listings and great way to generate immediate traffic to your listings or postings.

On April 22nd Craigslist released the following statement:

Ebay has filed suit against craigslist and its board of directors:

http://news.ebay.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=305980

We are surprised and disappointed by Ebay’s unfounded allegations, which came to us out of the blue, without any attempt to engage in a dialogue with us.

Coming from a shareholder that views craigslist as a prime competitor, filing suit without so much as mentioning these assertions beforehand seems unethical, and hints at ulterior motives.

Ensuring the future well-being of craigslist and the craigslist community is admittedly very important to us. But Ebay has absolutely no reason to feel threatened here — unless of course they’re contemplating a hostile takeover of craigslist, or the sale of Ebay’s stake in craigslist to an unfriendly party. (In which case, they’re out of luck.

For our part, we have always treated Ebay very fairly as a minority shareholder, and plan to continue doing so, despite this unfortunate development.

Addendum in response to commenter question – To be perfectly clear, Ebay’s stake in craigslist has not been “unfairly diluted” as they have claimed.”

Ebay claims to be safeguarding their investment. For all of us following Craigslist and eBay, it is no secret that eBay has been trying to gain popularity on their Free Classifieds in Kijiji.com

While eBay’s attempt to bring down Craigslist has been unsuccessful ; eBay has not resorted to the lawsuit. Here is a link to the coverage by MSNBC

How did eBay acquire the stock? Former employee sold it to eBay. Craigslist had no Clause at that time regarding stock being offered to the company first.

Craigslist followed up the story on 4/30/2008 with the following statement:

“The public version of Ebay’s claims is now available.

We will file our formal response in the next few weeks, and until then will do our best to abide by protocol in not responding to specific assertions made in Ebay’s complaint.

As those who know us best will recognize, every measure we have taken has been for the sake of protecting the long term well-being of the craigslist community.

Sadly, we have an uncomfortably conflicted shareholder in our midst, one that is obsessed with dominating online classifieds for the purpose of maximizing its own profits.

It’s a conflict of interest worth keeping in mind if you decide to give this filing a read.”

On 5/13/2008 Craigslist announced to have filed the following:

“We filed a complaint in California today, charging eBay with unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.

We respectfully ask the Superior Court in San Francisco to enjoin this conduct and order eBay to (1) make full restitution to craigslist, (2) disgorge their related profits (3) restore to craigslist all shares of the company acquired by means of, or for the purpose of unfair competition, and (4) pay punitive damages for their malicious behavior.

Full text of complaint is available in PDF or HTML

The claim also outlines how eBay was running Ads using Craigslist.org as a headline to benefit and drive traffic to their site Kijiji.com

So why did I post this story now? Well, I check on the Paypal’s site regularly for updates and changes that may affect sellers or the industry. I noticed something strange; Paypal’s footer has a link to Craigslist.

This sparked my curiosity and I checked on Craigslist’s Blog and no mention of changes in ownership or changes in control.

Of course, eBay owns 25% of Craigslist stock and perhaps that explain all the changes Craigslist has made to their sites. Such as:

1. Mandatory Registration

2. Mandatory phone verification

3. Divide categories

I have not found any updates on the case. I will certainly post updates as they unfold.

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