Selling through eBay or Yahoo! offers many benefits. Selling through either allows you to directly reach customers that you may not have the opportunity to otherwise. EBay and Yahoo! allow you to sell and/or present your products in worldwide venues.

Each has gained a tremendous business following. Some entrepreneurs only use eBay or Yahoo! to sell their products, eschewing the brick-and-mortar store. Some even have million dollar results. Using them allow you to accept a wide variety of payment methods such as PayPal, various debit and credit cards, checks, money orders and personal checks.

At this point of the article we’re going to break up the two and define them specifically, giving you an idea of what each are capable of and the kind of services they provide.

Yahoo! Auctions is relatively new, compared to eBay. In order to sell or buy in Yahoo! Auctions you must first register for an account and you are required to verify your credit card or debit card by signing up with Yahoo! Wallet in order to be a seller. There are no fees involved the credit card is simply used for verification of your identity and age. In fact, Yahoo! Auctions claim there are no fees at all involved with using their services.

Yahoo! Auctions provides a directory to aid in looking for the category that best suits the product you are selling. They allow you to upload a photo (up to 3), or you can use HTML links to connect to additional photos located online. Enter a simple title (it needs to be simple or risks being removed by Yahoo!), a description with facts and details about the item, its condition, and where it came from. Yahoo! also allows you to define your sales and shipping policies, and payment methods, along with specifying the quantity of items you have in that particular category. In order to be able to use “Dutch Auctions,” which are auctions with a quantity of more than one of identical items, you are required to have a rating of 10 or more.

Yahoo! Auctions allow you to keep your auctions open for anywhere between two to ten days. You may also customize by specifying certain features such as: minimum bidder rating, auto-extension, reserve price, allow early closing, sell price, closing time, auto-resubmission and start time.

You are able to monitor all of your auction activity through the My Auctions section. Yahoo! also offers Yahoo! Seller’s Manager that is designed to help you manage your auctions. This manager allows you to submit multiple auctions at once, a great tool for someone who has made a full time business of selling through Yahoo! Auctions.

Selling on eBay also requires registration for an account.
It is also advisable to use a non-anonymous email address like yourname@yourcompany.com or that of your ISP provider, rather than Yahoo! or Hotmail. If you use Yahoo! or Hotmail you are required to provide a valid credit card number to verify your identity.

In order to sell on eBay, you must create a Seller’s Account; you will need to provide a credit or debit card and possibly your checking account information. If you don’t have a debit or credit card or do not want to use it, eBay gives you the opportunity to use ID Verify to prove your identity, at a cost of $5.

You will also be required to select how you will pay your seller fees. The choices are PayPal, direct pay from your checking account, credit card and check, or money order.

When you’ve decided it’s time to start selling you have several choices. The thing to keep in mind is that with each selling plan there are sometimes fees associated with them.

After you’ve registered and signed in, it’s time to list your item—simply click on the sell link and start the process.

First you define the item and its category; you will have the option of listing your item in up to two categories, but beware that you will be charged double all fees, except the scheduled listing, home page feature, and final value fees. Then you’ll be asked to write a title and description for your item. Depending upon the category there may be specifics to define within the description. You will have the option of uploading one photo for free with your listing. Each additional photo will be $0.15 each. There are several other photo options costing up to $1.00.

To finish your listing there are additional options to make your listing stand out and attract the attention of potential buyers. Some selections include Gallery, which shows your photo in the gallery view of eBay, listing designer, item subtitle, bold, scheduled listing, 10-day duration, gift services, border, highlight, featured plus!, gallery featured, pro pack, and home page featured—each having a fee associated with it, anywhere from $0.10 to $39.95.

If your sale item comes in a quantity of more than one, eBay shows a fee total of $79.95 (for example) for quantities of two or more. With eBay you can also allow your customers to use a Buy Now option, which enables you to specify a set price that you will accept without the need for bidding. You may choose both options of allowing bids and allowing Buy Now. However, if someone makes a bid without using the Buy Now option, it then cancels out the Buy Now option for the remainder of the auction.

You also have a Reserve Price option, which is simply setting the minimal price that you’ll except for the item. Bidding will proceed as normal, but if the auction never reaches the Reserve Price your item does not sell. There are also fees associated with the Reserve Price option.

Finally, in dealing with single auctions once your item is sold eBay will access a final value fee and an insertion fee. As of this writing, insertion fees range from $0.25 to $4.80. Final value fees depend upon the final selling price of your item. If it does not sell no final value fee is charged. Up to a sale price of $25.00, a 5.25% fee is assessed; after that they charge the 5.25%, plus an additional 2.75%, of the remaining value over $25.00. If your item sells for over $1000.01 you are then charged an additional 1.50%.

The greatest feature of eBay that attracts millions of business owners, is the eBay store. This allows business owners to create an attractive online store without the need for a website. Items you list within your store are for a fixed price, Buy Now option. You choose what you sell the item for, with no bidding.

A subscription fee is required for your store. Basic store format has a fee of $15.95 per month. Featured store is $49.95 per month and Anchor store format is $499.95 per month.

Insertion fees of $0.02 are per listing rather than per item, which covers any quantity of items within a single listing, no matter how many of one specific category you list—it will still cost you only $0.02 for the whole listing. The fees are based upon duration of the listing, not quantity. If you choose to list for more than 30 days you are assessed another $0.02 surcharge per 30 days, over the first 30 days you list; unless you choose Good ‘Til Cancelled option, then there is no surcharge, simply $0.02 per 30 days.

You are also charged a final value fee, which is 8.00% of items sold up to $25.00; after $25.00 an additional 5.00%; after $1000.01 an addition 3.00% is charged. Stores also have fees associated with picture services and listing upgrades. These are in general, the same as individual listings.

The benefit of having an online store with eBay is you control what happens, you have your own URL or web address, and they offer help in promoting your store.  Additionally, eBay gives you a search engine, allowing buyers to search your store to find exactly what they want.

An eBay store is available on a trial basis for 30 days, risk free. Choosing this option allows you to try a store for one month without monthly subscription fees, to see if this is the right business move for you.

Remember, both eBay and Yahoo! are world famous and reach many millions of YOUR potential customers daily, from around the world.

Note: Fees listed above for ebay and yahoo may have changed.
Please refer to their websites to confirm any fees.