Ebay hints and tips

[Fickle-Friend]

Thought I'd jump on the ebay bandwagon and sell a few things. Anyone have any hints and tips on selling? Anyone actually make a fortune from it? Oh and hey some people have nice listings. Some kind of template thing me finks? How does one do that? Thanks so much for the info!

 

[ricardo diaz]

*listens in because I'm als new to eBay*

 

[pne]

well are you considering selling as a small business on the side, such as opening an ebay store? or do you just have some things lying around the house that you want to get rid of? basically those templates are ebay options you can select, you have to pay for them. they will get your page more attention and you will have more visitors, but if you do a lot of fancy images/templates the cost to list the item will go up. Ebay also has tips in their help section such as what words to use in your title, etc. I find you should get the preview picture at minimum. You do not have to upload your pictures to ebays slideshow option though, you can save a few bucks by uploading them to a free picture host and inserting them into your description using the <img src="url of picture"> html command.

 

[Gigabomber]

first, I should mention that listing things in ebay is ridiculously easy now that they have a new configuration. Second, it is important not to select many options to draw attention to your item unless it has the potential to sell for a ton of cash.

[storytime]
So my first listing on ebay was a pair of new Ultrasone Prolines right when they came out. I decided to sell them as ebay said it had promotional free listings. So I nearly maxed out the options after a couple of days as I wanted to resell them for near max (400 at the time). The bill ebay gave me after they sold was for over 100 bucks.
Why you ask? well if you list the item under a second category it automatically doubles all of your bonus choices, so beware of that, and the fine print in the agreement was for listing only, which costs less than a buck anyway (i think).
So don't go overboard with the options as some cost a lot and may serously cut into your profits. I got dinked for about 35 when I sold all of my nintendo stuff for a pretty penny and that was not so bad.
Lesson learned.

Also, you should communicate heavily with your buyer as it will pay off if things do not go too smoothly. I accidentily left a nearly new game out of the bundle and, because I communicated the information about the mixup he didn't even ask for a full refund though I offered to pay him 50 bucks so he could get it asap. You act like a professional and respect your customers and they will respect you.

 

[terrymx]

i do not know how to make profit on ebay but i've sold there quite alot.

if you are new to ebay with few feedbacks, not many will buy from you. you should first buy cheap stuff to build up your feedback so they know you are realiable. second, as an ebay user, its a good idea to get a paypal account if you havent. its the main way ebay users use to transfer moneys.

selling:
you can choose how long your auction last, 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, days.
-your title is important, because the words in it is what people will search for. so dont say: monster #457, instead say "monster speakers cable model # 457.
-post alot of coherent/organized details. post specifications. the use condition of what you're selling etc. this is if you want to be truthful ofcourse. you can also state opinions, no laws against that, if i sell a Cardas cable, i would say how much it own Monster cables.
-be specific about what type of payment you accept, where will you ship, how much will shipping cost.
-answer all questions they ask. when you answer the question from your ebay website instead of your email, you have an option to choose to display your answers on your auction so everyone can see.
-photos: this is a very persausive way to get buyers. if you have a good camere, post detailed high resolution pictures of your item. they are more liekly to buy it if they see the actual item instead of a retail picture. with Photobucket.com you can have the option to produce html code you can copy and paste to have all your high res picture thumbnailed, very usual.
-optionally you can make your page look all nice and professional so they think you are a professional seller.
-if you are unsure how much to sell your item for, search for it on ebay and check the option "completed listing" on the menu on teh left. you will find how much those item were sold for in the past.
-you might get unlucky wanting to sell an item for $400, but put your starting price at $5 and someone won it for $5. in this case you can put a"reserve" where you wont sell it unless the bid get to that reserve price.

-the higher the starting price you make for your item, the higher the fee.
-find your own image host, like photobucket or imageshack, if you use ebay's you have to pay fee.
-the higher the you sell your item for the more fee you get also, i think.

 

[ken36]

Whatever you do, work very hard to maintain 100% positive feedback.

 

[dj_mocok]

I usually put off by "reserve prices", that's why I never put one on when I am selling my stuff.
But of course, if it's expensive stuff and it's not very popular item, maybe you might wanna put reserve price just in case only 1 person was interested and he/she got it at the 1st bid.

Basically, if you are confident with your item, don't have to make a reserve price. And for starting bid, again, don't put a high ones, since it will make its way up there by itself if it's popular enough.

I always put my item starting at $1 on most occassions, just to stimulate some initial bids.

Putting pictures and other features of course will make it more appealing but watch it since most of them are not free.
Make sure you see how much the total cost to list the item before submitting it. You don't wanna pay $10 or so for listing an item that cost you like 30 bucks.

What else... yeah, and eBay takes commission out of your final sale price, so have that in mind as well. And just charge delivery fees as it is, don't try to make money out of delivery fee, you'll get an unhappy buyer.

Forgot one more thing, if you are only planning to sell it within your own country, try make the listing end on a good time. (eg. evening or weekend afternoon), not some 3 AM in the morning when nobody really awake.
Because really, most of the bids are happening around last minutes, so you'll want a right timing (busy traffic time) for the bid to end.

 

[Fickle-Friend]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I just went out and bought a Canon Digital Rebel XT to make sure the pictures are good.

I want to start a small business selling hand made chinese paintings. That stuff about templates sounds good. Its a big improvement over the standard ebay layout.

I think I shall put the bare essentials with respect to features. Just check the gallery option and thats it. I dont like the idea of ebay making all the profit ya know? Then ontop Paypal their lovechild makes more on top. Just as in a Casino, seems the house is the winner! (not that I gamble, mind!)

 

[AlanY]

One tip I have: you will get higher prices for the items that you sell if you are willing to ship internationally. It's not just because the potential audience is bigger, so there are more bidders (though that's a big part of it). International bidders tend to have lower disposable incomes and are forced to pay higher local taxes on new gear, so they value used, older gear more highly. This is particularly true if you're selling gear that goes obsolete quickly, like AV receivers, or gear that's out of style, like stereo preamps. International bidders will still pay decent money for that kind of stuff. International bidders will also help drive up prices by participating in bidding wars near the end.

The trouble is, there are a lot of international fraudsters too, so you need to be careful. If you're selling something that's highly priced or fairly new, you may not want to ship internationally, or only do so to someone with a solid amount of feedback who emails you first. Do not accept checks from international buyers.

 

[braillediver]

Clear photos so the buyer sees what they are getting.

Multiple payment options- PayPal that accepts a credit card minimum.

Clear concise descriptions.

A good item clearly described will attract buyers. Templates are nice but a clean concise description is what counts.

There’s an eBay page describing the HTML tags to use in making your auction listing. Use these to create your own template. Once you work out the general text (terms of sale) and position the pictures it’s as easy as fill in the blanks.

eBay has free listing tools to make it easier to list multiple items.

eBay charges for everything and it’s not easy to decipher the fees to find out what the final cost is so be careful adding lots of features.

Clear shipping fees listed- either a shipping calculator or a fixed price. This way I can pay immediately after winning the auction. Be up front on all costs, no surprises.


Charge actual shipping costs and try to verify the cost because it can get expensive shipping items. The last item I sold on eBay sold for $4.95 I charged $9.95 shipping- actual shipping was $13.83- so after fees I might have broken even.

For me if the seller is gouging on shipping fees I just bypass the auction.

Take packing seriously- the shippers are viscous and unless you take proper precautions to ensure your items arrive safely you’ll be tied up with insurance claims and unhappy buyers.

In the shipping charge include insurance and a tracking number. Some buyers won’t buy insurance regardless of the cost and then will demand refund if it doesn’t arrive or is broken in shipping. This way you have proof of delivery and have insurance in case of lose or damage.

If using PayPal use a safe bank account for the PayPal transactions. No overdraft protection and don’t use it for regular bills and normal money. Too many horror stories of PayPal freezing accounts \ funds or of reclaiming funds and messing up peoples banking.

Good communication with the buyer. Tell them when it ships and give them the tracking number. Verify the Tracking Number before giving it to the buyer. I try to contact the buyer with a bill, when I’ve received payment and when it ships giving them the tracking number and asking for them to let me know when it arrives safely.

Lots of buyers will just pay the bill and never respond to the seller but it’s still important for the seller to be proactive.

Leave feedback only after the buyer leaves feedback. Your obligations to the sale go far beyond just taking the buyers money so when the buyer leaves feedback it establishes they are satisfied with the transaction and you obligations have been completed.

Almost half of the buyers don’t leave feedback regardless of whether you leave it first or not.

I like to try to wrap up transactions promptly- ship within a week etc.

You’ll never make everyone happy so a negative feedback is inevitable. Don’t sweet it- be as honest and helpful as possible and if you receive a negative just explain the issue with a response and don’t post retaliatory feedback just clear and sound rational.

Watch your listings for dead beat \ non-paying or belligerent bidders and don’t be afraid to boot them \ cancel their bids and bid block them. If a bidder asks to many stupid questions or is a pest during an auction it can be an indication of problems after the sale and it might be wise to cancel their bid and block them.


I’ve met some great people and had some excellent transactions on eBay but I’ve also dealt with some mental cases. Figure 1 or 2 lunatics per 100 transactions.

Good Luck

Mitch

 

[Jahn]

If you are not out to make a profit, but just want to sell stuff and not get burned, I recommend actually narrowing down your options-

filter out everyone with less than +1 feedback.
filter out all other payment options other than Paypal.
filter out everyone who doesn't live domestically from you.

with that done, be a good seller like this -

post a flat rate shipping. you're shipping domestically so you should know how much it is really going to cost. folks appreciate honesty, especially in S&H.

always give an option for insurance. and toss in tracking too as mandatory.

everything above is the nitty gritty to protect yourself against nasty bidders. do what you can and there WILL be a buyer out there for the price you want. i'm not a big believer in buy it now or reserve prices - that stuff cost extra to use anyhow. just set it at no reserve, and put the initial bid at the minimum you'd be happy to walk away with. nothing worse than starting a $100 item at $1 and seeing it go for $2. What's worse is if you try to withdraw because you think it will go too low- that's the slippery slope to negative feedback and bad rep.

 

[MusicJunkie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braillediver Leave feedback only after the buyer leaves feedback. Your obligations to the sale go far beyond just taking the buyers money so when the buyer leaves feedback it establishes they are satisfied with the transaction and you obligations have been completed.Mitch

What do the seller's obligations have to do with the buyer's feedback? If the buyer has paid then his obligations are met. At that point the seller should leave him feedback. The only reason not to do this is to be able to leave retaliatory feedback.

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MusicJunkie What do the seller's obligations have to do with the buyer's feedback? If the buyer has paid then his obligations are met. At that point the seller should leave him feedback. The only reason not to do this is to be able to leave retaliatory feedback.

Yep, the second the buyer pays, I leave feedback. it even encourages quicker feedback once your item arrives there.

 

[braillediver]

Have your auctions close around 10 pm eastern standard time. This is 7 pm pacific. Most people will be available around that time.

Carefully work the description. A lot of people only key word search, others search categories. Carefully working the description so it gets the most exposure. 5751WA and 5751 are different to the search function.


“If the buyer has paid then his obligations are met. At that point the seller should leave him feedback. The only reason not to do this is to be able to leave retaliatory feedback.”

That’s complete B.S. Ever have an unreasonable buyer who makes unreasonable demands after the sale? If not then you’ve never sold on eBay.


Mitch

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braillediver That’s complete B.S. Ever have an unreasonable buyer who makes unreasonable demands after the sale? If not then you’ve never sold on eBay. Mitch

I've run across a few loonies that tried to break into my auctions this way but got filtered out, and send me questions via ebay PM - mostly I just shrug and think "there's a reason why i filtered these guys out and didn't take their money - too much hassle."