The Spotlight's On:
plans2911
by Robin
eBay Staff Member

This month's Member Spotlight is on plans2911 , who's been selling on eBay since January 2002. She first recognized the power of eBay when one of her friends acquired items in a clearance sale and sold them for a profit on eBay. Soon afterwards, plans2911 began listing items on eBay herself. Today, over two years later, she describes how eBay changed her life: “eBay is a vehicle for cleaning up my house and making money while doing it. The potential eBay offers for financial success is enormous!”

Like so many other eBay members, plans2911 discovered the sheer unpredictable joy of listing seemingly mundane items on eBay, only to find that their real value far exceeded expectations. “I found an old Bible at home. It was a New American Standard Bible, an expanded edition about eighteen years old. When I listed it on eBay, I thought I'd get about five dollars for it, tops. When the auction ended, I had 21 bids, and it sold for 75 dollars! That's what makes selling on eBay so awesome! Unpredictability!”

Scouring her house to find items to sell on eBay has worked well for plans2911. But she's also had great success finding and buying items on eBay and then selling the same items on eBay again – for a higher price.

plans2911's eBay success is all the more amazing when you consider that not only does she have a full-time job, she's also the homemaker for a family of five. One of the ways she's able to juggle multiple priorities is by making full use of automation tools and techniques that help her use eBay more efficiently. She explains that the little tips and tricks all add up to improve efficiency. For instance, her Internet Explorer browser is set to display her listings at start up. This is a useful time-saver, considering that she typically goes on and off her computer to check her listings at least ten times a day.

plans2911 finds it convenient to create listing templates and save them to Microsoft Works ®. She then adds the information pertaining to a specific listing when she is ready to list her item. After that, she copies and pastes the information to the item description field in the Sell Your Item (SYI) form. Any changes she makes are saved to Microsoft Works ®, and then copied to eBay until she is satisfied with the results.

Another tip plans2911 shared with us is that before listing an item, she uses the "completed listings" search option to do some research. She looks at similar items listed by other sellers to get an idea of the item's value on eBay. She explains why: “This way, I know if my item has the potential to sell or not. I also take note of how many bidders bid on similar items. If there are several bidders, I know that supply doesn't meet demand in the marketplace, which means the probability of my item selling is high. On the other hand, if there is only one bidder, and the auction wasn't a Buy It Now, I know the item is not highly sought after.”

We asked her if she had any advice for buyers. She cautions buyers not to wait until the last minute to place their bids, saying, “Be careful, because other buyers that are also waiting may beat you to it. Timing is everything!”

plans2911 firmly believes in the value of feedback as an indicator of a seller's reliability and trustworthiness. She urges buyers to consider the seller's feedback before buying an item from that seller. She elaborates, “For me, feedback is a trust measurement tool. I want to know that the seller is established, and won't run with my money. But it's not just positive feedback alone that counts. I also check the monetary value of the items a seller has sold in the past. If a seller has 50 positive feedbacks by selling $2 items, I would be cautious in suddenly purchasing a big lot of DVDs from him for $600.”

We would like to thank plans2911 for sharing her thoughts and comments with us! If you would like to be considered for the Community Spotlight Program check out our Community Profile page and follow the instructions near the bottom of that page.