He Sells Tools On The Internet

He Sells Tools On The Internet FARM SHOP Miscellaneous 28-3-9 Ken Scharabok of Waverly, Tenn., recently emailed FARM SHOW to tell us about the shop tools he sells on the internet. "I have a small business on eBay.com that specializes in making and selling what I call æpoor boy' blacksmithing tools. These tools are made out of mild steel, or they're tools that I converted for use in blacksmithing. They're intended as a cheaper alternative for beginning or part-time blacksmiths," says Scharabok. According to Scharabok, eBay offers a great model for doing business. "It lets you sell to anyone in the world who also has internet access. Once you are registered, you list an item or items using a standardized, fill-in-the-blanks type form, which remembers some of your individual settings. Listings can run three, five, seven, or ten days. Most buyers find items through key word searches, which can be the auction title only or both the item and description. If anyone is interested in your merchandise they then bid up to the level they want, just as if they were at a regular auction. The highest bidder wins and pays shipping charges. "Probably the biggest factors influencing sales are a well-worded title and description using appropriate key words, good photographs, a reasonable opening bid price, and a good performance record. "To collect payment, I use PayPal, which is an on-line payment service owned by eBay. A buyer who registers with them simply tells them to take money out of an account, such as a credit card or checking account, and deposit it in the seller's account. "eBay charges about 7 percent of the sales value and PayPal takes about another 3 percent, so figure a total of about 10 percent. However, I don't think that's bad considering you're paying for a worldwide sales outlet without the paper work, catalogs and outdated information, etc., of a mail-order business. In effect, it's an electronic mail order opportunity. "If your state has a state sales tax, you have to charge it to buyers who live within your state. These funds then have to be turned over to the state. "I've sold more than 1,500 items on eBay with only a handful of non-paying bidders. I list what I want to, when I want to. For example, if I have a vacation planned, I simply don't have any auction close just prior to or during that period. On occasion, I've dropped some items out of my offerings because they didn't sell high enough to justify the cost and effort involved with them. "Overall, I'm well pleased with the services offered by both eBay and PayPal and consider the fees to be extremely reasonable, considering the exposure and ease of buyer payment offered." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Farm Shop, Ken Scharabok, 1645 W. Blue Creek Rd., Waverly, Tenn. 37185 (ph 931 296-3793; email: scharabo@aol.com; website: www.ebay.com and do a seller search on scharabo).

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