Power Seller Status does it mean anything?

I have finally reached Bronze Power Seller status, which I am really please about considering I have only been buying stock in to sell since the end of October 2011 so it has taken just 3 months. 
I have had a few ups and downs and for one of those months my account was below standard status which made my listings hardly visible, This was because I was using a drop shipper and suffered some low DSR scores, more on that issue in my previous post.  However, I changed my tactics slightly and still managed to sell a reasonable amount during my period of being in the dog house and I was soon out and now I am a Power Seller, Yay!!! 

However, I did question myself does being a Power Seller actually mean anything?  EBay no longer allows sellers to use the power seller logo on your listings or to mention it in the text of your ad so my buyers are unaware of this great achievement. The emphasis now is to become Top Rated because that is when the added bonus of FVF (Final Value Fee) discount applies giving me more profit on my sales.  So being a Power Seller does not change much straight away and I can't shout about it on EBay but it means I am another step closer to being Top Rated.

Being a successful EBay seller involves doing your home work and lots of research to get the right stock at the right price. There is no magic formula and you don't need to waste your money on buying other people books or magic formula because it is not that hard once you get the right products, I will post again soon with some tips on finding stock and making sure you can sell it for a profit very soon, but in the meantime keep raiding those cupboards and the loft and get selling anything that is not nailed down.  Set your self a target to list 10 things a week to start with, Some people moan that it's time consuming but that is nothing if your serious about being an EBay seller, you should be able to manage this easily and your feedback will soon build up.
If you would like to visit my store go to http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Vanessas-Bargain-Store and you will see the great bargains I have for sale.

Do Not Drop Ship!!! Big Mistake

A short time ago I started to look for ways to earn some extra cash. I had sold a few things of my own on eBay so that was my first idea but I did not really have any money to buy stock. I had previously heard about drop shipping so I started to look for suppliers. I quickly found lots of sites promising easy money with little effort and I was soon lured in. This was the first mistake I made thinking that I could run an online business without spending any time or effort.

I signed up for a company called dropshipland. It looks like a genuine site but believe me it is a waste of your money don’t dot. I really can’t stress this enough. However the site is really convincing so I paid my money. My second mistake was not researching them further before handing over my cash. It did not take long before the penny dropped and I searched dropshipland scams and I soon found it is a scam I could have taken seconds to do this earlier and saved myself some money, so please don’t be like me avoid this site and any others like it.

Around the same time I found a site called wholesaledeals.co.uk they are promising to give you hundreds of contacts for suppliers for drop shipping so again I paid my cash and signed up. Now this website is not like dropshipland and I have read reports that they do provide a pretty good service. However they did mislead me by suggesting I would find lots of suppliers ready and waiting to drop ship for me. I paid for one month’s membership and scoured the site but did not easily find any suppliers who are genuine drop shippers and are not in it just for the high membership fees they charge.

I then looked on eBay itself for drop shippers and wholesale contacts. I found a seller who was advertising a “Genuine business opportunity,” the seller was offering a service to drop ship products at a 30% discount from the RRP There was a fee to pay but as there was a face and a real person in the UK doing this It seemed a good option so I paid the joining fee and started listing my items. After spending hours and hours I had around 300 live listings but each month I had very little sales. I gave it few months and some sales started to pick up around Christmas but not enough to make any profit and it was actually costing me money in listing fees. I was willing to swallow this because the few sales I was getting were helping to add to my feedback ratings. At least I thought it would. Then some problems started to occur. The big problem with drop shipping is that you are not in control of your business, and when the supplier runs out of stock or despatch is delayed for any reason it can affect your DSRs which are very important. I received a couple of low scores due to dispatch time.

During October I had some sales come in and when I put the orders to my supplier the items were out of stock, some items were delayed by a few days, but one item took over four weeks to come in. I tried to keep the customer informed and they were willing to wait for a while but after few weeks I refunded them the money when the buyer got annoyed and would no longer wait, I would not have let it go on for so long but my supplier did string me along a bit and I felt awful about it, unsurprisingly I got my first negative feedback. At the same time as this I had been selling some of my own items and I was very close to being power seller but a few days before my evaluation I received another low score putting my account below standard. Because of this my listings that were high up in best match search were almost on the bottom page. All my sales were affected and I went from around 40 sales a day to nothing. Because I had been using a drop shipper and I had given up control of my business I had suffered damaged to my Drafting and my account had become below standard making my listings almost invisible.

 I will not make this mistake again and I hope anyone reading this realises the risks and does not make the same mistake as me. I was lucky to have saved some money I could invest in products and I have managed to find stock that sells and I have lots of sales coming in, and I dispatch everything within1 working day. I have regained control of the business and my ratings are back up to above standard, and I hope they stay there.

Ebay Diary No1

I will be posting here weekly about the ups and downs of ebay life.  Feedback is now at 432 not bad as I only had 124 in the summer when I started my shop, however sales have slowed right down at the moment but hoping they pick soon.  So  Mr D who is my buyer is spending lots of hours looking for new products while I am taking care of the sales what a team! 

If you want to visit my store please go to, http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Vanessas-Bargain-Store