eBay.com.my Roadshow @ 1 Utama

Carol Fung giving a short 20 mins workshop

There is a eBay roadshow happening at 1 Utama this week. Naturally I dropped by to visit. At every eBay event that I have ever visited, I am sure I will see Carol Fung at the heart of the event. She is the most helpful eBay seller that I have known. She probably spends more time helping new eBay sellers than she spends selling on eBay. She is Malaysia's eBay ambassador if you asked me!

Location: One Utama Shopping Mall, Promenade, 1st floor, next to Baskin-Robbins
Date: 17 Nov 2007 (Saturday) – 25 Nov 2007 (Sunday)
Time: 10.00am – 10.00pm

Drop by the roadshow to sign up or to claim some goodies. I believe there is also a lucky draw for new members, as well as existing members. Go win yourself some goodies!! GOOD LUCK


PS: Anybody seen Chris? She wasn't there when I dropped by wor?

Withdrawing Paypal Funds via Credit Card

Withdrawing to Credit Card, Debit Card or Prepaid Card
The funds that I withdrew to my Visa credit card came through. I withdrew on the 17 Nov and the funds came in yesterday. About 5 days in between. The rates that the local bank had converted for me is at about 2.9934 (RM to 1 AUD) which is a very decent rate. The rate is almost the market rate, as stated as x-rates.com. Overall, it it was a painless process and would be recommended for people withdrawing minimal funds from Paypal.

Advantage

• Ease of withdrawal as all Malaysian Paypal members would have a card with the system
  
• Quick and painless. Straight to your credit card. Able to withdraw Cash via ATM or offset your CC bills!
  

Disadvantage

• Max withdrawal limit per day of $500 USD
• Flat fee of $5 USD, which is 1%

Conclusion

With the ability to withdraw your Paypal funds to your credit card, anyone can now sell internationally on eBay. Perfect for those starting out. A little troublesome if you have huge funds coming in, or if you are selling high priced items.

Application Checklist for Selling on eBay

I am sorry if you find my more recent posts a little more advance than the usual. Originally I planned to write about all the basic stuff on how to setup Paypal or eBay accounts, product selection, selling and packaging.
Due to the shortage of time, I have decided not to follow such a structured plan, but instead write articles that I am currently exercising at work. This way, I would NOT lose any details. Imagine coming back to write this same article in 3 months time, I am sure many details would be lost.

Today I will be migrating one of my working PC to a newer one. I would be migrating some data from Turbo Lister as well as other data. I will create a checklist and a process flow which would make the migrating an easy task. I would also have a todo checklist to ensure that all future migration would also be a walk in the park.


Applications Required for Selling on eBay

• Web Browser - Mozilla Firefox* or Microsoft Internet Explorer
• eBay Listing Application - Turbo Lister*
• Photo Editing Software - Google's Picasa* and/or Photoscape*
• Web Page Editor - Microsoft Frontpage or its equivalent
  
• Spreadsheets - Microsoft Excel or its equivalent
  
• Word Processor - Microsoft Word or its equivalent

* Essential items. Free applications. Highly recommended.


To be more prepared, please have the following items ready on CDs (or External Hard Drive), in the event you need your system to be up and running fast!

• CD-RW with the following applications downloaded
  
• Mozilla Firefox
• Turbo Lister
  
• Picasa
• Photoscape
• Openoffice - Microsoft Office's free equivalent
  
• Data Files backed up from Turbo Lister (weekly)
• Photographs used for eBay backed up (weekly)
• Emails backed up (weekly)
  
• Microsfoft Office CD
• Microsoft Operating System CD (XP or Vista)
  

Withdrawing from Paypal - The Issues!

This is probably one of the biggest issues Malaysian have when selling Internationally. Since anyone can setup a Paypal account, just by registering with an email address, but for the most of us, it would be difficult to withdraw the Paypal funds.
The sad thing is that we in Malaysia would not be able to withdraw the money directly into our local banks. If you were staying in Thailand or Singapore, you would, but not for us poor Malaysians.

You can buy many ebooks from online teaching you how to withdraw money from Paypal or ebooks teaching you how to set up an US bank account. I have personally bought all the books and read every single one. I'll tell you now, save your money and just follow my free advise.


Methods to withdraw from Paypal

• Withdrawing to one of the overseas banks in US, UK, Australia, Singapore or one of the listed countries. And from that overseas bank, you could TT back to Malaysia, or just use the bank's ATM card to withdraw in Malaysia. You can check the list of Countries that Paypal supports via this link.
• Withdrawing to your local Malaysian Credit, Debit or Prepaid Card.
• Selling your Paypal funds to other Malaysians who are able to withdraw their money.

Withdrawing to an Overseas Bank
I personally have an Australian bank account while I was residing in Australia. I have also applied for an US bank account through an agent while in Malaysia. I would say that applying for an Oversea Bank account would be the best option for long term trading.

Option 1:
I would like to say that, there are many ebooks out there that promises you the ability to apply for an US Bank account. You could try and apply for it after reading those ebooks at Etrade.
I had opted for the safer approach and went through an agent. I would say that "Don't risk it and get it done right, the very first time." Sure enough, I got my account approved within 3 weeks of application. It was worth every penny I paid for, as there would be a phone interview from Etrade. Of course, my agent had already armed me with all the possible questions and recommended answers.

Option 2:
Alternatively you could apply for a Hwang DBS account in Singapore. I was told that you don't need to be a Singapore resident and you wouldn't need a Singapore address to apply.

If you have noticed, both the options stated above, you are actually apply for a online trading account. Yes it is probably the only way they would grant you an bank account. All online trading accounts would need to be linked to a Bank account. Naturally when you apply for a Online Trading account, you receive both the trading account and a bank account linked to it!


Withdrawing to your local Malaysian Credit, Debit or Prepaid Card
Until like a month ago, we at Malaysia had no way of withdrawing our Paypal funds. Only recently they had introduce the ability withdraw to your Credit, Debit or Prepaid Cards. To withdraw via this method, there would be a $5USD fee involved and a maximum of $500USD withdrawal limit per day.
I would recommend this method when you are starting off on selling Internationally. If you are only starting off this is the most convenient method available. Only the you have huge amount of Paypal funds, you may consider applying for an overseas Bank account.
I have tried withdrawing via this method and will write more about it in another post.
Full withdraw instructions available from the following eBay link.

Selling your Paypal funds
This is probably the most unsafe method there is. At times desperate people would do desperate things. How it works is that, you offer to sell your Paypal funds to another Malaysian. They would normally transfer the agreed amount to your Malaysian bank account, while you send the agreed Paypal funds to their account. It may not be the best method, as you would not get the best exchange rates and you may not sell all your Paypal funds in one transaction. Trading your funds itself is another ball game... Is it safe?
You can view these trades at the following link.

Conclusion
I would recommend withdrawing your money into your registered Credit, Debit or Prepaid Card that you had registered with eBay. This is probably the most convenient method for the most of us, specially when you are just starting off selling on eBay.
When you have consistent sales, I would like to trade long term, you should apply for one of those Overseas Bank account.

Checklist - Selling Internationally with eBay

Checklist for Selling Internationally on eBay

• Credit, Debit or Prepaid Card
  
• An email address used for registration on eBay
• An email address used for registration on Paypal (may be the same as the above email)
  

That is it!!

Previously we would also need to apply for an US, UK, Australia or Singapore bank account to withdraw money from Paypal. Currently you will be able to transfer money into your Credit Card, or Debit Card straight from Paypal.


Credit, Debit or Prepaid Card
This is the most important thing that you'll need to start selling on eBay. My recommendation is to use a Prepaid Card. You'll have 2 choices for Prepaid Cards here in Malaysia. Both are readily available. The easiest is to rock up to 7-11 and purchase one.

Your options for Prepaid Cards

• AmBank NextG Mastercard
• Eon Bank MOL FREEDOM Mastercard

A few good points for using a prepaid card is for security reasons. In any event that there is any issues, or stolen CC numbers, the max they can ever withdraw is the amount you load into your card. In regardless, you should always practice safe security measures!!

Email Accounts
My recommendation is to used of those free email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo Mail or Hotmail. My personal recommendation is to use Gmail. A few key points that I have chosen Gmail over the rest are as follows

• IMAP support
  
• All your email will be centrally stored on the server. You are merely syncing your local mail client (eg. Outlook) with the master copy on the server, unlike POP services which downloads the mail. All your mails will be synced across all the mail client you use, whether it is your home computer, laptop or any other computer. It is perfect if there are more than one person running the eBay business. Even all the sent mail will be synced across all the mail client. Isn't that just cool!!
• All sent mail are stored
  
• In the event that you choose not to use the IMAP service and decide to go with the POP service, it would be good to know that, all your sent mail will be stored on the Gmail server. This is perfect when you are on the move, and would need to quickly check your mail using a web base client. "Hey, didn't I send the mail from my Outlook the other day..... damn the sent mail would not be shown on the web base client..." WRONG!! All mails sent via your gmail account would be stored.

I would personally recommend that you use 2 different email address to apply for your eBay and Paypal account. It is good to know that, you'll have all your day to day eBay emails going to one of the account, while the 2nd one would be use solely for Paypal. Please use two different password for both email accounts. This is for security purposes!!

How it all started...

Now that I have finished explaining about selling in local Malaysian sites, I'll move on to the more interesting topics. Today we shall take a trip down memory lane before heading to the more advance parts, Selling Internationally.

How it all started...
It all started, by chance about 3 years back. I wanted to buy this CF to IDE convertor. After searching the web and eBay, I realized that sellers on eBay are selling me the item at cut throat prices. I decided instead purchase it from a wholesaler from China. In order to get a very good price, I had to have a minimum purchase of $250 USD.
Come to think of it... what was I thinking? I wanted to get a $10 USD item, and ended up with lots more than I needed. To fill my $250USD order, I order all the stuff that the wholesaler carried, like the 2.5" HDD external casing, memory card readers and many more computer accessories.
At that time, I had NEVER bought a single item from online before. Not to mention, hearing horror stories of Chinese from the mainland sending you boxes filled with rocks!! Anyway, my package arrived soon after via DHL. They made a killing from postage too!!!
The joy of receiving the goods soon turned into fear. I had boxes filled with computer accessories that I didn't need. It was pretty expensive, and the total with shipping came to over a thousand Ringgit. What would you do if you were in my shoes?
I started by disposing the items online. I have never sold anything online before. I had no idea and nobody to help me. It was a lot of trial and error at the start. I started by posting the items I had at the lelong.net as well as ebay.com.my. Any sites, that was free, I tried selling my stuff there. Soon after, I was doing pretty well selling the computer accessories at lowyat.net. I made some profit and some enemies as well. My aim was to dispose of the items quickly, so I sold the items at very low prices. In the process, I killed the market...

Friends or Foes?
I made many enemies at the early days at lowyat.net. I remember selling these Sony VAIO 2.5" external casing at the forum for like $20RM. My competitor at the forum was selling at about $28RM. I remember it as it was yesterday, when the competitor PMed (personal message) me. He told me, not to sell the items at such a low price, as I was killing the market value of the goods. Being me, and arrogant at that time, I replied and told him that I was making a profit and screw his opinions. At that time, I only had 20 of these VAIO casing to sell. The next replied came, still in a calm tone, he said that he was willing to buy off all the casing off me. He told me that he had like 200 units and with the crazy low price that I had set, it was in his best interest to retain a better market value by buying me out. Soon after I realized that I was in the middle of a real business. There was money to be made. A huge margin too!! After a few days, we became really good friends. He made me an offer and allowed me to continue to selling the VAIO casing while he stopped selling it, with the condition that I purchase the VAIO casings off him, instead of importing from China.
There was no turning back from that day. I was doing very well, and sold many things at the forum. The partnership was formed and I continue to purchase stocks from my new local supplier. No doubt the items cost a little bit more, but I did not need to bare the risk of importing them directly from China as well as I could purchase the things in small quantity. WIN WIN if you asked me.

Selling Internationally...
Not long after doing very well at the forum, I became very ambitious. I tried selling on ebay.com.my. The sales at the Malaysia eBay were horrible. The reason why I sold there was because it was FREE. Soon after that, I tried selling at a international level. I posted my goods at Australian eBay. Fees were very expensive, at about $1.09 AUD for each item. People from China were selling items at ridiculously low price. Way below my cost. I continued to sell, but soon realized that I could not compete with the Chinese.
One of my friends, asked me to help her disposed of her T-shirts online. She had some from her previous business venture. After selling a few T-shirts internationally, I realized that I was making profits from the sales. Not like those breakeven deals on the computer accessories. Soon after, I slowly changed my inventory from computer accessories to T-shirts. Today I sell mainly clothing and have exited the computer accessories market for more than 2 years.

Experience….
I must admit it wasn’t an easy journey selling at the internationally level. There were the ups and downs, as well as many obstacles I had to overcome to be where I am today. I have created a system and made many tools over the years to help me run my eBay business. I have read and tried every trick and tools there is. Every day is still a new learning experience for me. I still learn new tricks. I still find ways to optimize and simplify my business. I decided to start this blog, to help my fellow friends get off the ground and profit from Selling Internationally. Hope it will help my fellow Malaysian friends….

GOOD LUCK and Happy Bidding!

Forum or Auction Site? (Part 2)

I am sorry if the reader of my articles find it a little boring. I am trying to run through the basics of selling locally, before heading over to the more interesting parts; Selling Internationally and making some serious money!!

Following up from the previous article I would now like to discuss the pros and cons of each site. By understanding the different type of sellers available, we would be able to understand why they chose to sell at those sites.

Forum Site
People normally sell on the forum sites because of the following few key reasons. Forum sites are always free and very informal. People normally start by selling or trading their old and unwanted items. Others would try to do a bulk service at a forum based site. Since you do NOT actually have the item, you are making an offer to purchase the goods as a group. A forum would be the ideal place for the bulk service. People could discuss about the product, while waiting and hopefully get enough people to purchase the item in bulk. Check out lowyat.net.

Auction Site
When the word auction site is mentioned, everybody would think of eBay. Naturally everybody would think of eBay as it is the worlds largest and most successful online auction site. In todays post, I would only be discussing about our local ebay.com.my and not the international site ebay.com.
In an auction site, selling is normally very formal. Everybody who visits an auction site, are either a buyer or a seller. Unlike the forum, people don't chill out and discuss stuff (talk about NOTHING) the whole day. Most auction site would have fees involved too. This would be the main reasons why people don't sell at an Auction site. While fees may be an issue, the higher barrier of entry will also cause less competition. Check out lelong.com.my and ebay.com.my.

Conclusion
As you can see, depending on what you are selling, or the reason for selling, you'll be able to chose the best site to sell your items. Selling bulk would only work at a forum based site as it may takes months before getting enough people. The serious sellers who make a living from the net would generally use an Auction site. The auction site would have more buyers. There would be special tools too, to help you with faciliting your sales.
Generally people start by selling or trading their old items. Some start by doing bulk services. After selling a while, they would realise that it may be easier to sell on Auction site, rather than a forum as there are so many more potential buyers and also more seller tools.

An Auction site is made for selling and buying while a forum is made for discussion between the members.

Forum or Auction Site? (Part 1)

Continuing from my previous post, I would to discuss about the difference between selling on a forum site or a paid auction site in Malaysia. I have personally sold on all 3 sites. Each site has its own pros and cons.

Who sells on these Sites?
Before we discuss about the difference between a forum or an Auction site, I would like to discuss about the different types people who sells here and why they choose those sites.

• Businesses or individual selling new items for income
• Individual disposing or trading their used items
• Individuals who bulk items in hope to purchase certain items at better than market prices
  

Selling for income
In this category, both business owners or individual sell things for income. They either purchase items from locally supplier or import directly from overseas. Business owner generally sell their items to promote their retail shop whether it is an online shop or a physical shop. Individuals normally sell items for a fraction of the market value, as they have little or no overhead working from home. Their aim is once again for income, normally as extra to supplement their full time job.

Selling/Trading used items
This is very common on why people start to sell or trade things online. Being a techie and gadgets person, we are constantly upgrading our "big boys toys" whether it is our computer, the mobile phone, consoles, cars or any other expensive hobbies that us guys may have. In purchasing a new item, we wish to dispose of our older items while it still have some value. A great example is the mobile phone. Nokia just released a new phone.... if I could sell my old phone, I could get the new one!!! :)

Bulk Selling
Generally asians are very kiasu and would always try to purchase things at a bargain or heavily discounted. Come on, who wouldn't want to buy an item at 70% discount? But not always we are able to purchase things that we need or want at a bargain. At times like these, we would need to create the opportunity to buy at a good price.
Let's say you wish to buy the new Sony 42" LCD TV. First you locate for the local supplier/importer. He tells you that you would need to buy 10 units to get it at a special price. You would offer 9 other people the opportunity to purchase it at this special price. When you do manage to locate 9 other people who are interested at the same item, you would then purchase the items at the wholesale price. This is what we call a bulk service. We would be buying at the best possible price (wholesale pricing) assuming that the seller is NOT making a profit. Sometimes a bulk services may take weeks or months before they are able to locate enough interested parties. Everybody saves from this method, but at times the minimum quantity for the bulk services could be quite hard to achieve.

Selling in Malaysia

To some, selling in Malaysia may be a better alternative to selling internationally. I'll run through the advantages of selling locally and name a few local sites that you could try selling at.

Advantages to Consider

• Little or no cost required
• Little competition
• No logistical and packing issues
  
• Payment is via local bank services
• Start by selling locally before proceeding to selling internationally
  

Local Selling Site

• lowyat.net (forum based selling)
  
• lelong.com.my (fee based auction site)
• ebay.com.my (free auction site)

I'll run through the difference between selling on an auction site or a forum in my next post.

Selling Locally or Internationally?

I am sorry for not updating the blog earlier as I have been flat out with work.

To most people, when they hear about selling online, their perception is about selling locally.

Don't get me wrong, selling locally have its advantages too. So does selling internationally! I have made a simple table for comparison below

	Selling Locally	Selling Internationally
Advantages	Competition is low. Able to monopolize the market.	Higher profit due to Foreign Exchange. Bigger volume due to bigger market.
Common Issues	Local market is small. Depends on what items you selling.	Very steep competition at the international level causing certain margins to be thin. Shipping times long.
Competition	Low. Not many local players.	Very high. Competition with people throughout the world, specially the up and rising chinese from the China
Profit Margin	Low to Medium. Depends on products and competition.	Low to High. High margin are due to the exchange rate, able to profit from the Foreign Exchange. Low margin comes from super steep competition and saturated market, but makes up with the huge volume.
Volume	Low. Able to offset by having more items.	Medium to High. Medium volume comes from less saturated where, the profit margin is normally higher. High volume comes from saturated market and steep competition, but a lower margin
Shipping Cost	Low	High
Shipping Times	Quick. 2-4 days	Long. Up to 2 weeks to Australia & Europe. Up to 3 weeks to United States
Success Stories	Selling computer parts imported from China. Able to compete with retail shops where items are generally more expensive. Target market of computer users who are comfortable with purchasing online. Asians are always looking for bargains!	Selling decorative ribbons which cost about $3RM for about £1 at international levels. Huge volume. Internationally buyers feels at £1, the items are at a bargain.

Why do people sell online?

Whoever: So Eric, what do you do for a living?
Eric: I sell stuff online...
Whoever: Online? Serious arr? Don't play la....

Those are the exact type of comments that I constantly get from people that I meet. People wonder whether would it be possible to make a living out off net.....

There is more than just selling for money. Many people do it for other reasons.

Most common reasons for selling online:

• As a main or secondary income source
  
• Most common reason. MONEY!! Who wants more money?! No arguments on that right?
  
• To supplement their hobby
• A comic collector may have to sell some of his comics to make more room for his growing collection as well as supplement his very expensive hobby.
• To remove unwanted or used items
• Many people sell their used technological items like computer parts, mobile phones or PDA as they upgrade to the latest toys. Who wants a 2 year mobile phone? Nobody right? Sell it while it still have some value.
• As an excuse to buy more stuff
• Many people believe that, by clearing their wardrobe, they are allowed to buy more clothes, the perfect excuse for someone who already have got 80 pairs of shoes :p