Selling on Ebay - How to get started in India ?

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Selling on Ebay - How to get started in India ?

By Arnab February 8, 2007 filed in Miscellaneous, Internet Marketing, Newsletter, eBay

I recently received a mail from Rohit Sinha which mentioned that he had been having a tough time making money from eBay trying to sell various things from home. He agrees that multiple small retail shop owners who already had an inventory were using eBay as an additional channel to sell successfully, but for someone who had to stock up at home selling Electronic Goods & Consumer Durables seemed like a tall order.

Let me tell you up front that my experience in selling goods on eBay is close to Nix/Zero/Zilch ! But that doesn’t stop me from doing research, specially when I am intrigued by something. And here are a few things that I discovered.

1 - eBay has a concept called “Trading Assistant”. eBay defines it as: “Trading Assistants are experienced eBay sellers who will sell your items for you on eBay for a fee. By hiring a Trading Assistant, you can take advantage of their selling expertise, save time and effort, and still reap the rewards of selling your item on eBay.” So, if you are new and are trying to figure out how to sell from home, you might want to get a Trading Assistant to help you. On the eBay website, you will also find how to locate a Trading Assistant close to you.

2 - I located a Trading Assistant from Mumbai ( P Sanket ) and talked to him about how to make money from eBay. He mentioned that a fair share of Indians making money from eBay at the moment (earning from home), were doing so with eBooks or eBrochures. Sure enough, when I looked around on eBay India, apart from the familiar Cameras and iPods, I also saw these selling…

** How to convert any word file into PDF Adobe eBook
** How to Start Your Own Picture Framing Business
** How to start a Candle Making Business
** How to do Tax Planning in India
** How to make a killing in the Stock Market
** eBook - Stock Market Basics

Also, if you searched for the term “Ayurveda”, you would find an eBook entitled How To live a Healthy life with Ayurveda. You would find a DVD on How to use you Digital Camera effectively if you searched for the term “Digital Camera.” Some of these books and DVDs are about making money but many of them are not. They are written by people have become experts at something and want to sell the knowledge to hobbyists and to those wanting to learn new skills. Since it is safe to assume that we are all experts at something, it might be a good idea to think about what to write that others would have a need for, create a PDF or Video DVD on it, and then try and get going on eBay. The best part about this model is, there is no inventory, and no heavy initial investment required.

3 - Finally, I came across a very interesting website that claims to teach you how to make some real money from eBay India. They have a Free starter kit that they are willing to send out. Two things stood out in this product:

(a) For once I found a product focused on eBay India
(b) This one is absolutely FREE !

When I applied for it, they did charge me Rs. 86/- for shipping and handling and said that it would reach me in 3-4 days, but that’s a fairly small investment to make for something meaningful I could learn. Take a look at the website, maybe you would like to try it too.

FREE STARTER KIT HERE !

And here is an open invitation to all members on this list. If any of you have any experience whatsoever with eBay, please add a comment to this post for all to learn from it. If you have good experience as a seller in India, please send me a detailed mail and I shall send it out to all members in the list with Full Credits to you. eBay has been happening in India for some time now - but, the best is yet to come !