Business Opportunities Weblog

March 21, 2008 by Dane Carlson | 11 Comments

Special correspondent Lisa Di Clemente recently spoke with Janieruth, a successful eBay entrepreneur of 10 years. Janieruth’s store on eBay is gorgeous and filled with stunning antique goodies. Many readers would like to learn how to successfully run an eBay store, and as it turned out, Janieruth had some excellent tips and pointers. Enjoy this interview!

Does everyone call you Janieruth, or do you ever go by JR?

I am a child of the south as you know. Girl children in the south are often called by first and middle names. My actual middle name is Elizabeth, but for some unknown reason my friend and Pastor nicknamed me Janieruth over 25 years ago and now a lot of my closest friends call me that. You can actually call me just about anything, I’ll answer! I like the ring and sass of the name Janieruth, even if it is an alias. When I first signed on to eBay, I just naturally used that name. It makes me think of my Pastor and also other friends who have moved away from Montgomery and nostalgia is what it’s all about in my store.

I am amazed at your tenacity, 10 years on eBay is quite a record! (Personally I didn’t even know eBay had been around for 10 years!) The obvious question is, how did you get started?

I first got hooked on eBay as a Buyer, I think that is what got a lot of eBayers started in the early years. I was already selling Antiques and Collectibles in a booth at an Antique Mall here in Montgomery so attended a lot of estate and yard sales to find things to sell. I had many items that had caught my eye that I knew wouldn’t sell for the amounts in Alabama that they would in say, California or New York.

The first thing I ever sold on eBay was one of the first six Dept. 56 Snow Village houses. I found this item at an Atlanta estate sale for $10.00. I realized that I had a pretty good find, but not how really wonderful it was until I researched it and saw that in the Dept. 56 green book it was valued at around $450.00. I knew that I would never get even half of that in my booth, so I decided to list the item on eBay.

I didn’t even have a digital camera and really didn’t understand how one worked – so I listed this one time without a photo, which was a pretty common practice in those days. I mentioned in my description that the item could be found on page so and so in the Dept. 56 green book if the buyer wanted a photo. This little house sold for over $350.00, so needless to say, I was sold on selling on eBay from the first!

I bought my first digital camera with the proceeds from that sale and began auctioning on eBay as a part time hobby seller. Over the years I have had several more great finds, paying small amounts for items and realizing anywhere from 10 to 50 times the amount in the sale. Most items are not like that, but that is what kept me hooked. If an item did not sell on eBay, I moved it into my booth at the antique mall.

So, what is your secret? How would you explain your 10-year success on eBay?

I attribute my success on eBay to several things. Most of my friends say that I have “the eye”. That is antique speak for being able to spot a real bargain or obscure item. I attribute that to study, study and more study. I think that antique guide books are my favorite reading. I own dozens of these books and love to browse the new titles at the book stores around town. I never sell an item that I haven’t researched.

I also run a completed item search on eBay for items like the ones I am thinking of listing. That is the best way to determine what key words to put in the title and also to see what worked and didn’t work for other sellers. I have learned over the years that a good title is the most important element of an eBay listing.

The last thing that I want to mention is perseverance, keeping on keeping on even when my items are not selling. This is one thing that I love about having a store. If my item doesn’t sell the second time I list it, I raise the price and stick it into my store inventory. It can sit there for 30 days at a time for only a few pennies a month. eBay is like any business in a brick and mortar store. There are slow times and high times. You have to learn in retail to stick it out and ride out the slow times. I study, listen to webinars and podcasts and network with other sellers, the OSI Rock Stars group is the backbone of my education. I am always striving to improve my customer service and my business overall.

What made you decide to open an eBay store?

I first decided to open a store after hearing Janelle Elms at the eBay Stores 101 class at eBay live. She told us how a lot of people were making 6 figure incomes on eBay through stores. She explained how stores should be set up so that our stores were in the top 1% on eBay. She is a dynamic speaker with a sparkling personality and really opened my eyes as to what eBay Stores was all about.

I came home from Boston’s eBay live and immediately started my store. I found a designer through eBay Store Designs – Jennifer at Sitting Boo Productions and she incorporated my style into my storefront. I really love what she did for me.

I am still in the growth part of eBay stores, and want to increase the inventory to at least 1000 items. I was also struck by an interview Janelle did with the Queen of eBay, Lynn Dralle on OSI Rock Stars. Lynn said that she keeps 10,000 items in her store and by doing so sells approximately $10,000.00 per month. WOW! I would love to grow my store to that level. So far, I am seeing good traffic in the store. Now instead of moving an unsold auction item into my booth at the Antique Mall, I move it into my store on eBay.

What is the criteria for being a PowerSeller? I’m sure it has its advantages, but how does one get to that point?

PowerSellers are eBay top sellers who have sustained a consistent high volume of monthly sales and who have a high level of Feedback (98% positive or better). The minimum sales requirement is $1,000.00 per month. This used to be figured on a 3 month basis ($3,000.00 over 90 days). eBay has recently changed the dollar requirement to stretch over a 12 month period. This is wonderful for me as some months are not a good as others and my business depends on what I have found at Estate and Flea Market sales. I think that this change will bring a lot of new PowerSellers on board.

Another exciting announcement from eBay is that PowerSellers will now be eligible for rebates of 5% or 15% of their Final Value Fees. You might have noticed that eBay began the Detailed Seller Ratings a few months back. This is the star designation that further describes a buyers experience with the seller in the feedback section. Now, eBay has announced that they will reward their top sellers who have a minimum 4.6 rating or better within the past 30 day period. I am very excited about this and am making changes in several areas of customer service to ensure that I will be rated in the top percentage of eBay sellers.

A wonderful thing about the eBay Marketplace is the emphasis placed on Trust and Safety. The PowerSeller program and Detailed Seller Ratings are part of what makes eBay a safe and friendly place to shop. I think that eBay will experience a lot of growth when the changes go into effect. People love eBay and eBay loves to give its customers the best place to shop on the internet.

I occasionally sell items on eBay myself, and I have heard the pros and cons of being an eBay store owner. What is your take on this?

I really only see pros to opening an eBay store if you follow Janelle Elms advice and do it the “right way”. This involves a lot of work, but the rewards are sweet. Janelle’s web site OSI Rock Stars is a great help to me. There are new classes several times a week on Search Engine Optimization and Key Words. I have completely changed the way I write my titles since meeting Janelle and now have a better sell through with my auctions. Right now, I have items that show up on the first page of Google when I do a search. I never had that happen before joining OSI Rock Stars.

When Janelle first began the site, last October, I was invited to be a Rock Star Promoter on the site. This has added to my knowledge base about eBay and online selling. If she hadn’t tapped me to be a promoter, I would probably not keep up to date the way I have.

What are some of the biggest changes you have seen on eBay over the years?

I would say that the biggest change that I see on eBay since 1997, is that there are more categories than I ever thought possible, more items listed than I can imagine and more global reach. I sell a lot of items to Japan where they just seem to love our old Pyrex and Fire King, not to mention quilting fabrics from old feed sacks from the 30s and 40s.

The introduction of PayPal made selling on eBay safer and payments from buyers a lot faster. I love PayPal. They introduced their debit card a few years ago and now, when a customer pays me via PayPal, I can access that money instantly with my debit card. Also, PayPal has a shipping tool that fills my shipping labels and prints them. I used to have to pack my items, type out a label and trek to the Post Office with several boxes in tow. Now, with the new PayPal multi order shipping, I print my labels and can contact the Post Office to pick my packages up at my door the next morning. How easy is that? I can’t believe the time it has saved me.

Your home page on Janieruth.com is beautiful. It really makes me want to enter your site and see what you have! Who designed this for you?

I am glad you asked! Jennifer at SittingBoo Productions did the website. I couldn’t have asked for a better person than Jennifer to do my design. I told her that I liked the colors of pink and green (they were to HOT colors during the 50s) and chippy paint and she took off from there. It was amazing to see the way she pulled things together. I asked her to use some personal photos from one of my family treasure boxes and we pulled out my mother, who is the little girl in the bowl haircut, my grandmother, the Edwardian lady in the lovely white handmade dress and a cute photo of my mother-in-law posing on the hood of a 1940s sedan in her swimsuit. On another of my pages, she used a photo of me at about age 3 dressed in my Dale Evans outfit. The china you see in the banner is from a set I actually sold on eBay, other elements, Jennifer discovered and I just love the way the colors and her designs blend and complement each other. I am so glad I found Jennifer, her own web site design is what sold me on her, it is also terrific and by the way, she is a member at OSI Rock Stars also.

Can you give our future eBay store owners a little advice on how to get started? It seemed to help you to have a mentor, maybe you can pass on some words of wisdom?

I personally think that it helps to have auctioned on eBay for a few months before opening your store, but some folks just jump in and take off. There are classes in most major cities taught by Education Specialists trained by eBay on Beginning Selling and also Stores. That is very helpful for most beginners. In the classes, not only are you taught by professional trainers, you also make friends with other sellers and can encourage each other as you go along. Most of the trainers stay in touch with their students and some have even formed groups in their hometowns that meet from time to time to pick each other’s brains. I, myself have just completed my own training and am looking forward to teaching other people how to sell on eBay. eBay has a special section, called eBay University, where you can go to find out about classes in your area. Of course, I also encourage everyone I meet to join OSI Rock Stars. You can’t get a better education anywhere on the internet on web based selling.

By Lisa Di Clemente for the Business Opportunities Weblog.

In Profiles | 11 Comments
Tags: Ebay & Online Auctions, Women