Once you have more than 5-10 auction listings online, you will need to develop an effective system for keeping track of them all. Simply listing the items and sending a confirmation email to the winners is not enough.

For example, if a customer purchases one of your products and asks whether you received payment yet or not, you need to track down the item number and see if you have received his check. Other customers may want to know when the item was shipped or have other questions pertaining to auctions they won in the past.

If you list less than 5-10 auctions at a time, you can probably keep track of them with the old pen-and paper method, or with a very simple spreadsheet. If you choolse this method, follow these steps for keeping track of the auctions:

Use a seperate sheet of paper for each auction you list.

Write down the item number, URL, listing date, listing price, and category, along with any other comments or pertinent information.

When the auction ends, write down the ending date, the sell price (if any) and the buyer’s contact information.

Index the auctions by auction number for quick reference in a file.

Again, this method works ok for fewer than 10 auctions online each week and is fine for the person who views eBay as a hobby. However, if you want to make a Profitable business out of eBay, then you will have 50 to 100 or more auctions running at all times. In that case you will need a database system of some kind to track your auctions.

Selling the merchandise is only half the battle - you MUST keep track of your sales or you will quickly find yourself lost and confused. Particularly on April 15th!

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