Todd Alexander - The New ebay The Official Guide to Buying, Selling, Running a Profitable Business

First published in 2013 by Wrightbooks

an imprint of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd

42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064

Office also in Melbourne

Typeset in ITC Berkeley Oldstyle Std Book 11/13.5

Todd Alexander

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Author:Alexander, Todd

Title:The New eBay: the official guide to buying; selling; running a profitable business/Todd Alexander.

ISBN:9781118588536 (pbk.)

Notes:Includes index.

Subjects: eBay (Firm)

Internet auctions Australia.

Finance, Personal Australia.

Electronic commerce Australia.

Dewey Number:381.177

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Cover design by Paul McCarthy

Printed in Singapore by C.O.S. Printers Pte Ltd

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Disclaimers

Todd Alexander is an employee of eBay but wrote this book independently of his employment. While recognising this as an official guide, eBay takes no responsibility for the advice and opinions expressed, and readers are advised that following the recommendations in the book will not guarantee them success in buying and selling on eBay. The contents of this book reflect the views of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of eBay.

Yates screenshots published with permission. Yates is a registered trade mark of DuluxGroup (Australia) Pty Ltd and all copyright in the images of Yates products and branding belongs to Yates Australia, a division of DuluxGroup (Australia) Pty Ltd.

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.

About the author

Todd Alexander has been working in retail and eCommerce for over 20 years. He is currently the Director of Onsite Search at eBay, where he has worked for the past 11 years. During his time at eBay Todd has helped thousands of Australians to buy and sell successfully on the site. This is his third eBay book. The previous titles, How to Use eBay and How to Make Money on eBay , between them have sold more than 40 000 copies.

Photograph by Andrew Lasky

Todd is also the author of the internet titles Why Pay Retail , Get Your Business Online Now and Everyday Internet at Any Age . Most of his books have become national bestsellers. He is also the author of the novel Pictures of Us .

A regular contributor to online magazines, blogs and webcasts, Todd is widely regarded as Australias leading eBay expert. He also has degrees in literature and law from Macquarie University.

In what spare time he can find, Todd runs a vineyard, olive grove and accommodation business in the Hunter Valley wine region of NSW, operates a successful eBay business selling garden supplies and continues to write fiction.

Follow Todd on Twitter: @Todd_Alexander

Like Todds Facebook page: Todd Alexander author

Visit Todds website: www.toddalexander.net.au .

Acknowledgements

As I celebrate the eleventh anniversary of my employment with eBay, I think about a handful of people who were instrumental in getting me to where my career has taken me today. Some of them have never worked at eBay but without their support (and generally this meant they took a gamble on me) I would not have wound up at eBay, and this book would not exist. So Id especially like to thank:

Peter Alexander for showing me the ropes of the family business and teaching me an invaluable amount; Im still learning from you today

John Shields for allowing my foot in the retail door

Pauline Donald for letting me step into the elevator and for never losing faith

Scot Hayman for putting the eBay ad on my desk

Stephen Knowles for allowing my foot in the virtual door

Lee McCabe for suggesting I should write a book

Deborah Sharkey for everything else

At Wiley, Ive been overwhelmed by the support of the entire team. Lucy Raymond answered an unexpected knock on her door and has provided invaluable guidance, support and commitment ever since. Elizabeth Whiley and Jem Bates, you make a formidable editing team thank you.

Thanks also to my unofficial team of ongoing mentors, professional and otherwise: Cheryl Akle, Melanie Dudgeon, Jeff Ross, Kirsti Wright, Andrew Marlton and Judy Alexander. Gavin Schwarcz is one of the most knowledgeable men in the publishing industry and I owe him for encouraging me to open my eyes to the obvious. Suz Mitchell thanks for your expertise.

Last and most certainly not least, thank you to every eBay buyer and seller Ive encountered. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be a member of this community.

Introduction

Towards the end of 2001 I decided to take my career in a daring new, untested direction. Id been working for a large, family-owned national book retailer whose future success, it felt at the time, was practically guaranteed. None of my colleagues or friends could believe I would turn my back on a sure-fire industry such as retail to dive headfirst into the uncharted world of eCommerce. I hadnt even heard of eBay when a colleague showed me the job advertisement, but it sounded like an interesting opportunity, and if things didnt work out I could always return to the safety and security of the retail industry.

Who could have predicted that a virtually unknown US online company would become one of Australias most recognised brands, a rare internet success story and phenomenon, and a way of life for hundreds of thousands of Australians? A year or so into my employment with the company I remember how exciting it was to celebrate the milestone of the first million Australian members. We threw a huge party, web-company style, and couldnt believe the momentum we were experiencing. Today, around ten years later, eBay attracts 7 million Australians every single month that means roughly one in every two adult Australians visits the site.

eBay has evolved astronomically over the past decade. When I first started working for the company it was known only as that auction website, although there were other websites in Australia offering the same kind of experience. Today eBay remains the most popular place to sell second-hand items, but few people are aware of the fact that in Australia more than 80 per cent of the items sold on the site are new, and most of these are sold at fixed price (not auction) by medium to large businesses.