OK, I just signed up to sell stuff on E-Bay

[Trailrider1951]

Tell me all you know about the subject!

:bounce:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

1. Photos help sell things

if they're good photos.

[Kashka-Kat]

3. I'd like to buy your ant eater --- or what the heck is that thing?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. I'd like one too!

We need one during ant-season!

[Courtesy Flush]

2. I'm selling for a friend

I never understood the selling-for-a-friend thing. Why can't people sell their own shit?

But a friend of mine asked me to list stuff for him because 1. he doesn't have time (I don't either, if you want to know the truth)
and

2. he doesn't have a feedback rating, and wants credibility (my "30" rating looked really good to him).

He's an honest guy with good stuff, and I'm making a few bucks at 10% commission. Not a ton of money, but more than I made selling my own shit. Now he's referring me to a friend. Maybe the way to make money is to sell other people's stuff.

[graywarrior]

4. I just had 2 really bad experiences buying on ebay.

Most people will be leery of buying from someone new with low numbers of sales. I bought a Canon camera after being highest bidder. I received the camera wrapped in one piece of newspaper, none of the things that was supposed to come with it and the seller is threatening me to not bother her.

I am contacting the attorney generals office in my state and hers to get my money back. I am so pissed about it I can't even think about it too long. Today, Mr. Gray got a pair of Eddie Bauer boots that are tagged as size 12 medium, but are actually size 11. Looks like another fight with a seller.

I won't buy another thing from ebay....EVER.

[Whoa_Nelly]

6. Hope you went to ebay's Safe Harbor

By following the rules set up there, you may not get your money back, but you can get this person 86'd from eBay.

Hope you post about how things turn out re: AGs in your state and hers.

Good luck, graywarrior! :hug:

[graywarrior]

8. Thanks. I'm really gonna go after her.

You should see the emails she sent. Nasty little bee-yotch.

[Whoa_Nelly]

11. Has she already left you feedback?

Did you leave feedback already for her?

My lesson learned when I had a "no pay" buyer, who finally wrote back that she was just "window shopping" and had changed her mind...

I left a Sellers Beware! Refusal to Pay! feedback. She left me the ONLY negative feedback I've ever had. Had I waited until day 30 at the last few minutes of that 30 days since auction end time, she would not have been able to post any feedback.

[graywarrior]

12. Yes, she got a bad grade from me.

She's claiming it's not her fault the camera got damaged in shipping. But I still have the crap box she mailed it in and the one piece of Illinois newspaper it came wrapped in. She's in big trouble.

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. Go to the ebay tutorials and do some reading

and the community group chats can be helpful. I think there's one for newbies.

Set up how you will receive payment (PayPal, check, personal check...wil you hold shipment until a check clears...things like that)

Either set a shipping amount or state you will provide shipping at end of auction. Or, after setting up your auction and pics, package the item, weigh it, and Post-It note it with item name and weight...there will always be someone who srites and askes for shipping cost (if not a set price...I weigh packaged item, use Bangor, Maine as set shipping point, and set a definite price for shipping.)

Decide if you will only ship w/in US, or will ship to Canada or Internationally (I ship only US and Canada, and add a couple of bucks for shipping to Canada)

Take decent pics, resize them, and DO use the click to enlarge feature. No real need to use a lot of the extras re: features, but I do like using a counter to see if I'm getting hits. The counter is a freebie choice when you set your auction page. You can change your listing if no one has bid up until the last 12 hours of auction.

ANSWER ALL EMAILS from potential bidders :-) eBay now has a feature for after the auction to send a boiler plate "You've won" email the the winner. I like having one of my own to use, and keep my eBay emails in a separate email folder with sub-folders such as PayPal rec'v'd, PayPal Sent, Winner Notification sent, Item Questions, My listed Items sold, Listed Items not sold, etc.

Good luck, take your time...and if you set up all you want to sell, all your auctions will end approximately at the smae time..that's a lot of emails, moeny delaing, and getting shipped all at once. I usually set it up to have just a few, with about 24 hours in between each group of auction postings, and state I ship on Wednesdays and Fridays...my choice just to make it easier to take all the packages into the post office. You can use other shipping such as UPS...check it all out on the eBay seller tutorials. :hi:

[derby378]

9. PayPal!!

If you've got a PayPal account, it'll dramatically increase your business on eBay.

[Gold Metal Flake]

10. Pictures are important.

A good description is also important. Adding "keywords", words that will be pickup up on in searches helps get eyeballs on your auction. But, don't just post a bunch of words, use them in the text so that they are relevent and not just keyword spamming.

Host your own pix. Use Geocities or other free website hosting just for the pix. Ebay will host a single pix for free, good for those things that a single pix is good for. But for multiple pix, use free hosting. I don't use gallery pictures unless the item is a high demand thing. Basically, I try to make my up-front fees small. You will have to use a little HTML code to put your pictures in the body of your auction text.

There will be problems. But, I have completed maybe a thousand transactions and have had few problems.

Keep in contact with your auction customers. Let them know when you got the funds, when you shipped, tracking numbers and such. You may need to gently needle folks for feedback, but you need to build feedback so do it. I am careful with feedback, but I generally give it to everyone. I like to get mine first.

On your first auction, go ahead and say that it's your first auction. Say it's the second, third etc. so folks can see why you don't have feedback yet. Let folks get a sense that you are a regular person and not a scammer with a fresh account.

PayPal does help, but if someone wants what you have, not having PayPal will not stop them from bidding. On high-dollar items I do not use PayPal because I don't want to give away that much in fees. But I do take personal checks. I prefer USPS money orders.

I sell internationally. The Post Office ships everywhere. Airmail Parcel Post is oretty cheap for things like audio vacuum tubes, so I have no problems selling into Hong Kong or Japan or Australia. Very good luck with that.