Take a look at the new eBay Selling Inspiration House.  It may surprise you to find out how much some of that extra stuff in your house is worth. Explore virtual rooms and click on the items to see what they are selling for on eBay.

There are other resources on eBay to help you determine what your items are worth.  Take a look at the Fashion Selling Guide and the Tech Selling Guide.

Start listing those items and make some extra cash today!  You can still list for free on eBay, you only pay if your item sells.

Actually they have a few apps, but today I am going to tell you a little about eBay for iPhone.  It’s great for sellers, you can quickly look up items and determine their value.  When you find an item at a consignment shop, or garage sale you could evaluate the possible income that could be made from it.  You can also use it with the iPhone’s barcode scanner to list new items quickly.  You can also use the barcode scanner to look up listing prices.

Buyers can use the eBay app to help them get that last minute bid in, and keep a close watch on those great eBay finds.  The app also allows access to My eBay and advanced search functions.

Recent updates to the eBay app will make selling easier.
The most recent updates to the eBay Mobile app for iPhone include some great seller enhancements! The updates now allow you to:

• Show your vacation settings to buyers
• In the shipping section you can select countries to exclude
• Get extra support for calculated shipping

If you have an iPhone or even an iPad download the app today!

Check out the eBay About Me course.  Learn what an About Me page is and how to utilize it better to help you with your sales on eBay.  This course even includes free templates to use on your eBay About Me page.

Click on the link to buy the course directly, or join Boutique Bargains today and get instant access to this course and many other great resources.

I asked her a few questions about herself and her eBay selling business.  The questions are in bold and her answers in italics.  Read on to see what she had to say.

Tell us a little about you and your family. How many kids do you have and what are their ages?
I am a retired manager from a large national phone company currently working as a elementary school secretary. I have three children ages 28, 22 and 10 (yep you read right lol). I also have a wonderful supportive husband and 2 beautiful granddaughters ages 5 and 3.

When did you first start to build a business around eBay?
I started selling on eBay in the summer of 2006 it was amazing to me to see how much I could get for my daughter’s clothes.

Who has been an inspiration to you to continue selling on eBay?
That is an easy one, Jenn Cangelosi. I was a dedicated follower of her website and it taught me so much. I am still very good friends with her today and still ask for advice now and then.

What sort of person do you think would be a good fit for eBay?
eBay does take time so a person has to have the time and willingness to want to do it. Also with all the new seller rules, it must be a person who wishes to give excellent customer service too.

What first three steps would you recommend someone take to dig deeper into the opportunity?
1. Decide what you want to sell.
2. Determine profit availability for selling that item.
3. Get as much advise and learn your item inside and out – become an expert in that field.

Thanks Deb!!!

Would you like to be a Featured Seller on Boutique Bargains? You do not have to be an experienced Seller, you do not have to be a member of Boutique Bargains. Just shoot me an email with responses to the questions above at jenn@boutiquebargains.com

A great FREE feature that is included with all eBay memberships is Want It Now. Whether you are selling or buying, it can be helpful to utilize the Want It Now feature on eBay.

What is Want It Now?
From the eBay site – “Want It Now lets buyers post requests for hard-to-find items and allows sellers to respond to those requests with eBay listings.”

If your primary goal on eBay as a seller is to find a deal and turn it around to make some money, you can use Want It Now as a resource by creating posts seeking out inventory.

Want It Now provides eBay buyers an opportunity to ask for the items that they want or are unable to find. As a seller, you can respond to those requests with your eBay listings. This can be a great way to help boost sales during the slow times. You can look for potential buyers of the items you already have with a simple search.

IMPORTANT: Please only respond to posts if the item you have is exactly the same as that described in the post. It will be considered SPAM if you respond to a post with an item that is not an exact match – and you can be reported.

Try doing a search on the Want It Now boards every once in a while. Maybe a few times each season, when you feel that your sales are slowing down, or whenever you have a surplus of inventory. When you search posts go back about a week. It will take a little time, but is worth the extra sales. It can also give you an idea of what to keep an eye out for as you acquire your seasonal inventory.

Check out eBay’s Want It Now feature today.

If you already know the types of things that your family and friends like, then start with eBay’s categories to get ideas. With just a few clicks you will be shopping, and at great bargain prices.

Shopping on eBay allows you a neat way to come up with gift ideas. Consider an item that the person you are shopping for has recently bought for themselves. Type that item description into the search box on eBay and find out what category it is in, then just click on that category link and take a look at everything there. You instantly have a large list of things that the person would doubtless like to have. If you know the person well, it shouldn’t be too hard to sort through the results and find a truly special and unique gift for them.

Check Out Their History

When the people you are gift shopping for are also eBay users, you another tool available for helping you determine what to get them. To do this you will need to know their eBay usernames, then you can take a look at what they have bought recently on eBay. This should help you in figuring out what kinds of things they are interested in or may want.

You can use this approach by clicking on Advanced Search from eBay’s main page, then select Find A Member on the left-hand menu to view that eBay user’s history. Just type in their username and you will get their user page, which will have a list of item numbers of all the items they have bought. Pick an item number, copy and paste it into the eBay search box to find out what that item was. You now have an almost foolproof list of ideal gifts for that person.

Don’t Be a Last-Minute Shopper

To avoid disappointments and upsets, don’t use eBay for your last-minute holiday shopping. Prices tend to be high and you have the added risk of not receiving your gifts in time.

It seems that every year there is some must have toy that every child wants and the stores inevitably sell out of. Then suddenly that toy appears on eBay – for a premium price. Holiday shoppers end up paying many times the gift’s original value, and may still not have it in time for the big day. Try not to get caught in this snare.

It ‘Tis The Season

Holiday shopping time is a peak time for eBay sellers, because millions of people are shopping on there. A large percentage of these shoppers are inexperienced with eBay, and they tend to drive up prices above the norm. Avoid the temptation to overpay for an item just because it is the last one you could possibly receive in time, or because just because others are bidding high. Know when to cut your losses, stop bidding, and just head to a local store to buy something else.

Keep Jolly

eBay is best not taken too seriously. Approach it as you would a game, and try not to get too disappointed if you lose. It can begin to feel a bit like gambling, but when that really rare gift for someone special shows up on your doorstep just in time for Christmas, it can be well worth it.

eBay Popular Searches
1. android tablet
2. ipad
3. ipod
4. hp touchpad
5. shoes
6. iphone 4 unlocked
7. iphone 4
8. coach handbags
9. hello kitty
10. kindle

Popular Toys for 2011
1. Sesame Street Let’s Rock Elmo
2. Xia-Xia Hermit Crabs
3. LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet
4. Hot Wheel Wall Tracks Starter Set
5. Angry Birds Knock on Wood Game
6. Silly Hair Jewel Sparkles Doll
7. Nerf Vortex
8. I Am T-Pain Mic
9. Poppin’ Park Elefun Busy Ball Poppers
10. Lite Sprites
11. Alien Conquest (LEGO)
12. Bogo
13. Air Hogs Hyper Actives
14. Fijit Friends Interactive Toy
15. My Keepon

So why snipe? The main reason I am writing about this is to give you some tips on how to ‘auction flip’ by taking advantage of misspellings. This is a great strategy for purchasing items for very little and then resell them to make a profit! It can also be a great way to acquire inventory. It is also a superb way to obtain name brand clothing items for your own kids and then sell them later.

I suggest using a program such as typohound.com or fatfingers.com, there are many others also. Think of commonly misspelled words. For example you can check out: Hanna Anderson, Oilily, Gymboree, Baby Lulu – all of these are highly sought after brands. I like to look for my favorite brands, items that I know sell well, and even items that I prefer buying for my kids!

Make sure you do your research before you purchase ANYTHING, unless you already know from experience that it’s an item that sells well for you. I like Terapeak for eBay researching, but there are other programs that you can use also. Sometimes you can get enough information to make a decision about reselling or not, by using the eBay completed listings search. Once you have the search listings in front of you, sort by ‘ending soonest’ so that your turn around time is shorter.

Do not bid on anything just yet – doing so will only help to drive up the ending price. I suggest using a sniping program such as Gixel.com – unless you know you will be able to physically be at your computer to bid at the last minute. If you plan on bidding on numerous items, then you may want to use a sniping program to ensure you don’t miss out on any last minute bidding.

I’ve tried using SMS to my phone and proxy bidding, but it is much easier to use a program that does it all for you! Enter a price that you are comfortable paying and you’re done! Good luck and share any successes you have.

It is easy to be drawn in by the many that are completely free or those that offer a free trial, allowing you to determine which apps are the right fit for your business.

These 3 apps offer to help boost your Marketing and Merchandising efforts:

Canvasee:

- Allows you to create your own Application with your logo and even promote it to your online friends and collegues.
- Promote this application on various social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook
- Canvasee also has a statistical reporting module that you can use to discover emerging fashion trends or even gauge shoppers’ buying preferences
- There is an option to link your goods to Canvasee’s search system and increase your sales
- Sell more or get more clicks and you can get affiliate commission from eBay

Terapeak Keywords:
Provided FREE with each Terapeak Keywords search:

- 20 suggested keywords related to your search
- A self-refreching suggestions list as you are selecting additional keywords
- All data is based on 100 recently-closed eBay listings
- Average, maximum and minimum prices for each suggested keyword
- The ability to build your title until you use up the alloted 55 characters

Ad Supported Shipping:

- There is no subscription or usage fee
- Simple and easy to use interface design especially designed for eBay users
- Make money on each item you ship to buyers

Check out all the Applications available to you – http://applications.ebay.com/selling?EAppsHome

Leave a comment on the Apps that are your favorite!