Customer Reviews

Secrets of eBay: Strategies and Tips Used by the Most Successful eBay Sellers

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I was reading the "reviews" and couldn't help but notice something troublesome. Just look at the review from Tammy (Coral Gables FL) Then click the "read all my reviews" tag. Notice how "Tammy" has reviewed all of the authors books - and only this authors books? Notice how "Tammy" gave all of this authors books a 5 star rating? Gee, I wonder who "Tammy" really is????

Please Donny Lowy - don't assume we are all too stupid to figure out who "Tammy" really is!

You can read this at the iuniverse.com website. I did, and couldn't believe how useless the information was. After all the great reviews, I thought it would be at least decent. If you notice though, most of the other reviews are by "a reader". Just a hunch, could the reviews be doctored?

Anyway, I went through about 8 chapters before I just couldn't read it anymore. It drones on and on basically saying buy your socks wholesale and sell them for a profit.

I read all the 5-star reviews of this book and was convinced it must be a winner, but it is hands-down the most poorly written book I have ever read. It doesn't help that there is no table of contents and no index for quick reference, making it impossible to skim. Most of the information, when you finally reach it, is based on common sense, and I found no "secrets" nor "strategies" whatsoever. If you are a struggling ebayer like me, don't waste your $19.95. Buy something useful instead, like groceries.

Did no one edit this book before it was published? This book is completley riddled with spelling and grammar errors on nearly every page! Do his eBay auctions have this many errors? Very unprofessionally written book. No one is perfect, including myself, but geez, if you are publishing a book, have someone read it and correct your errors first!
The information in this book is nothing earth shattering, either. eBay newbies may find it somewhat useful, but the same information can easily be found in ebay's tutorials, or better yet, on their community forums-for free. Save your money!!!

This is a good book for those who already understand how to buy and sell on eBay. I would have given it five stars, but I would have liked more basic advice.
You will probably get the most out of it if you are already selling on eBay.

I read over the one negative review and I think I understand where he is coming from. Some people expect a book to be able to help them instantly make money on eBay. If you read his review you will see that he is not even an eBay seller, and did not even read past the 8th chapter, which is on page 40, out of close to 200 pages.

An honest review of this book should include the fact that this book does not make any extravagant promises. What it does is offer a very direct and easy to follow method for selling on eBay. The author, is an eBay seller, and an entrepreneur involved in the closeout business, and you can see from reading Secrets of eBay that he knows what he is talking about.

I would give this book a 9 out of 10, only because I would have liked more detailed sources on finding certain types of merchandise such as antiques.

Boring examination of well known information for almost anyone
who has ever sold anything on eBay.

The three stars are for the content. I haven't finished reading the book and at the end, I may give it 5 stars for content. I'm new to selling on eBay so I have yet to see how the application of Lowy's strategies plays out for me. I suspect that he is giving me good, sound advice and I know I'm getting lots of exciting ideas from reading what he has to say. But the way he says it! I have to say -- and I'm sorry to say it -- that this is the most poorly written book I have ever laid eyes on. There are so many grammatical errors, misspelled words, incomplete sentences, poorly organized thoughts that I find it hard to believe this book found a publisher. Obviously, there was not an editor involved. If I try to imagine that someone recorded what Mr. Lowy had to say and just transcribed it verbatim , it becomes slightly more tolerable. I have to think though, given the sad state of the writing here, that some of these "reviewers" have a very close relationship with Mr. Lowy. I'd like to auction MY editing skills to this guy! That's an idea I got from his chapter on auctioning services. Now that's a terrific idea that makes slogging through the prose worthwhile!

I strongly believe that if eBay made this required reading as part of the registration process for sellers, you would see allot more successful sellers than there are. Many of the shortfalls eBay sellers have is not because of a lack of ability but because of a lack of information. Secrets of eBay reads like a course written for eBay sellers who are struggling due to a lack of knowledge concerning access to products, how to effectively buy and sell, and how to maintain long term customer relationships.
This is not to say that there are not other important factors that come into play. But the factors that are in the control of the eBay seller are addressed here. If you are an eBay seller, or are considering selling on eBay, you would benefit from learning all of the different shipping methods and how to get heavily discounted shipping rates, how to get free packing supplies, and how to develop a customer database to increase your auction sales and to increase your average bid.

Overall this is an important book no different than a course a real estate agent would take to learn how to effectively sell more real estate.

I read over my copy over the weekend and started using some of what I learned. While I have not striked it rich yet, my auction results are improving and I should be able to increase my overall results by sticking to what I have been learning from Secrets of eBay.