Just set up a seller's account on eBay- Any tips?

Dead of Knight

Dead of Knight

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I just set up an account to sell junk on eBay- I've already bought several things on the site (though my feedback is only 14 with 100% so far). At first I'm going to be selling the manga that NO ONE HAS BOUGHT IN MY THREAD :wink: but I will probably sell games and stuff too. Do any cheap-ass sellers have any tips for a newbie?
 
:D Most people on Ebay are honest so don't let the few knuckleheads that are on there ruin it for you. Good luck!
 
I would do what Bignick said as well if you do take check tell in the shipping description the checks take 16 days to clear. and if you are going to take money order and check what till the leave feedback first. I would start out paypal only but now that I have been selling longer I like money orders the most. remeber as well ebay charges you a insert fee and takes a final % of the sale price.as does paypal.
 
[quote name='BigNick']Add about $1.50 to shipping charges to cover fees.[/quote]

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You should be ashamed of yourself. Doesn't eBay frown on sellers trying to pass the buck on fees?
 
Ebay doesn't have a problem with it as long as you don't flat out say that you are overcharging on shipping to compensate for Ebay and Paypal fees. That being said, if you see an auction with a buy it now of 1 cent and shipping of $29.99, that is against EBay rules. You are allowed to charge "reasonable" shipping rates.


To answer the original post

1. Use delivery confirmation on EVERY item, all it takes is for a buyer to say they never got the item and if you didn't use delivery confirmation, the buyer will get their money back if they used Paypal.

2. Only shipped to confirmed addresses. If you ship to an unconfirmed address, even if you use delivery confirmation, you get no seller protection at all. And since no overseas addresses can be confirmed, you are taking a chance on chargebacks if you ship overseas.

3. Considering accepting Money Orders. Even though most people pay with Paypal, many don't use the service and like to pay with money orders. I would say that 7% - 10% of my buyers pay with money orders and the advantage to accept them as a seller is there is no risk of a chargeback and you don't have to pay Paypal fees.
 
start your auctions at a low price to attract more bidders. Say you have a game you want to get at least $40 for. Starting it at $40.00, you will likely not sell it. Start it at $.99 and put a reserve of $40.00 on it and you will garner more bids on it, and likely get what you want for it. Accept paypal and money orders, no personal checks. Don't charge outraeous prices for shipping, Asking $10.00 to ship a game will turn many people off. State that payment must be made no later than 2 weeks after auctions end otherwise negative feedback will be left and the item will be relisted. Always post pictures of the item you are selling that are of the actual item in your possesion, not a stock photo or generic photo. List it in several categories to inrease the people who will see it. 5 Day auctions are a good length. any longer and you're just wasting time. Most of the bids come during the last few hours anyway. That's all I can think of. Be honest and communication is the key to a smooth transaction.
 
[quote name='PsyClerk'][quote name='BigNick']Add about $1.50 to shipping charges to cover fees.[/quote]

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You should be ashamed of yourself. Doesn't eBay frown on sellers trying to pass the buck on fees?[/quote]

I dont think Ebay cares in anyway about the people who add 1.50 when their are people who get away with adding 5.00
 
Also if people have like 0 feedback tell them to email you, so you don't get any deadbeats. Also i list up most of my auctions during the night and have them end of the weekends which makes you usually the most money. Hope this helps
 
Here's some seller's tip for bad bidders:

1. Send email within a day after the auction ends.
2. Use eBay reminder after 3 days if they don't respond.
3. After 7 days, send a warning through eBay even if they already sent payment (but you haven't received it).
4. After 10 days after the initial warning, you can ask for a refund of the final fees if they don't pay. Note: It means that the item in question will be in limbo for at least 17 days (most likely, about 3 weeks) if the bidders don't respond or even tells you flat out that he/she doesn't want it. The reason is that eBay will send an email during this period and you are supposed to negotiate a settlement.

Insertion fees is $0.35 for under $10.
Final fees is 5% for the first $25.
Paypal + eBay fees are about 10% of item value on average, so make it up with shipping and handling charges.
 
I guess that's true. I see $7+ shipping on single games in a lot of auctions.

I suppose I just find it personally...distasteful. Unless it's an awesome deal or great find, I won't bid on game auctions where the shipping is more than $4.
 
here's what i do:

-say in the description how long they have to pay you

-accept money orders so those who don't use paypal can still bid.

-offer to ship internationally (although it is possible that you could get burned, it's likely that all that will really happen is the cost will be driven up, making you more money)

-if you do ship offer to internationally, make sure you say that international bidders should contact you first about additional shipping fees, that way you won't get some lame-os who back out if they think shipping is too high.

-the way i see it, don't make the starting bid lower than what you would be willing to sell it for. i won't bid on reserve price auctions, and personally i think they are a waste of time. whatever you make the starting bid, just be prepared to give it away for that much, however unlikely it may be.

-as previously stated, always use delivery confirmation. factor that into shipping costs if need be.

-use your own photos (not stock photos) whenever possible (unless you have a case that's a little junked up or something).

i really think it's important to try and include as many people as possible in your auctions. the more people that may bid the better.
 
My one tip would be to not start out by selling anything too expensive. The amount of money bid on an item tends to be directly related to your feedback rating. Until you get 100 or so positive feedback, you're going to get less than the average going rate for most items that you sell (in other words, if the item is selling for $20 on average, expect to get $15-18.) This is because buying from a new seller is risky, and so a lot of people aren't going to bid, and the more expensive the item that you're selling, the less people who are going to bid on it. To sum up, until you get a higher feedback rating, focus on selling a bunch of cheap stuff and save the expensive stuff for when you have a higher rating.
 
I would agree, avoid using reserve auctions, I know I hate bidding on them.

My only other non-mentioned tip is to try the list the items so that the auctions end during higher peak times, like mid-evening. You don't want them ending at like 4 A.M. as it might slip under the radar and go for a ridiculously low price
 
Wow so many posts and so little advice.

1. Start an auction on a Saturday or Sunday and use 7 days or a Monday or Tuesday and use 5 days. Start at around 5pm Central or Mountain time to get the best time for the whole US. Know that only the first 12 hours or so and the last 30 minutes are when you are going to get bids. The remaining time is for people to watch your auction and hopefully remember to bid at the end.

2. The reason so many prices end at $X.99 is that Ebay charges per $10. So an auction that ends at $9.99 you have to pay Ebay $.65 while an auction that ends at $10.00 you have to pay $.90 (or something like that, point is that it's more). Also start your auction with a $X.99.

3. Selling things for less than $50 to make money is hard. Unless you get a good deal sell it on a forum. I think it's up to $50 but maybe $40 Ebay takes 11%. That's not counting Paypal fees, only starting and final value fees. That's the bare minimum. Something starting and selling for $10 will be around 18%.

4. Starting an auction low on a common but in high demand item is a good way to save money (Gauntlet for the GC comes to mind). If the item is rare and in low demand you are better off starting at a high price because someone will bid on it (within reason) and you might only get that one bid.

5. Include free shipping. If people see that in your title they are much more likely to click it and check it out. They know you aren't trying to scam them on shipping. Just figure it into your desired ending price.

6. Buy It Now is great. People don't like to be hassled with waiting and maybe being outbid. It's only 5 cents and usually works for me. Just estimate a price that is reasonable but higher than normal. Figure in shipping. Make sure to have it be something like $29.99 rather than $30.

Hope this helps. People on Ebay are suckers so don't be afraid to ask for more than you would on a forum and the most random shit sells. Take pretty pictures and be honest.

Edit:

7. Use HTML and your own web hosting to post pics. That way you can post as many as you want and not pay for them. Use the stock photos as well.

8. Don't ship internationally unless they are willing to pay rediculous shipping fees. This isn't to rip them off but to protect you. I once paid $40 to ship a Sega Saturn to Canada as compactly as I could and I only got $60 for it (which seemed reasonable at the time). Because of that I had to charge a guy $40 shipping for a guitar pedal to Israel that wound up being almost as much as the pedal itself. I make sure international bidders contact me first to give them shipping cost estimates. And good luck to you if you accept bids from Thailand and Hong Kong because a lot of those Paypal accounts are stolen.

9. Ship out by the next day after you receive payment (2 at the most). People are very appreciative if you do that. Also it saves me from having to respond to every person and tell them 5 days after the auction that I finally got their item shipped out.

10. Only sell things you know about. I've tried clothes and computer parts before and my descriptions were weak and I wasn't able to answer emails as well.

Basically I think there's a lot of bad advice in this thread and it would be understandable for you to be hesitant to believe me as well as the others so here's my impeccable Ebay feedback.

http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=drhezz&ssPageName=STRK:ME:UFS
 
go to USPS.com and download the shipping assistant. You can get delivery confirmation for .13 on 1st class and parcel post packages. Use USPS click n ship to get free delivery confirmation on priority mailings. For international shipping, use teh USPS Glopal Priority flat rate envelopes. $4 for small $9 for large. You can gram a lot into the large.
 
I would try to steer away from money orders since recently there has been a rash of counterfiet money orders, and if you deposit them in your bank, and already sent out the item, you're going to get the bum's rush.

Also avoid use of clichés, like "rare", "L@@K", and all of the others. It really turns off some bidders, and makes you look schiesty.

Make sure your listing suits the item, and try to refrain from using stock images, especially if you've got low feedback as a seller, they can carry the implication that you don't have the actual item.
 
[quote name='thatstoobad'][quote name='dhrez']Basically I think there's a lot of bad advice in this thread and it would be understandable for you to be hesitant to believe me as well as the others so here's my impeccable Ebay feedback.

http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=drhezz&ssPageName=STRK:ME:UFS[/quote]

i'm kind of surprised that you didn't include "don't do things on ebay when you're drunk" as part of your advice.[/quote]

No cuz that's when the surprises happen. Gotta spice it up a bit. I was also drunk when I posted that huge post so go figure.
 
Wow, even more replies! Apparently this is a great resource for more than just me, as THE DARK KNIGHT posted, so try to add in more tips/keep it bumped for other new sellers.
 
You also have to be careful with paypal. Check out:

www.paypalsucks.org.

Paypal froze my account that has $1,500 without any apparent reason (I have the picture of it). I did everything they told me, but still it will take 180 days to release my account.
 
[quote name='btantra']You also have to be careful with paypal. Check out:

www.paypalsucks.org.

Paypal froze my account that has $1,500 without any apparent reason (I have the picture of it). I did everything they told me, but still it will take 180 days to release my account.[/quote]

WTF are you doing leaving that money in paypal? You gotta transfer that shit out daily.
 
Yeah, the second I get money in my Paypal account and I see money is there, the money is withdrawn to my bank account. I sometime withdraw funds 2 or more times a day. I already did it twice today so far.
 
You should always make up elaborate and funny stories to go along with your auction. They always attract a lot of attention and will generally get you a lot more money than a regular auction.
 
If you get a money order from the post office,the chance it is fake are extremly low, their more of a chance u can get burned by paypal. Paypal can be overly buyer friendly sometimes. Like others said make sure you get del con,don't take checks. I don't think u should put sold as is on all the stuff you sell,if it works fine,it will scary away ppl. I heard read on another board how paypal took the money out of someone bank account,pay pal should be safe. If you want to be extra catious,you can open up a checking account at a bank just for paypal,and keep a small amt in it. Also with pp,it better if your verited.

avoid taking paypal or cc realted payments from thiland,or indodesia especially as cc fraud is high in those places.
 
[quote name='tc49821']If you get a money order from the post office,the chance it is fake are extremly low, their more of a chance u can get burned by paypal. Paypal can be overly buyer friendly sometimes. Like others said make sure you get del con,don't take checks. I don't think u should put sold as is on all the stuff you sell,if it works fine,it will scary away ppl. I heard read on another board how paypal took the money out of someone bank account,pay pal should be safe. If you want to be extra catious,you can open up a checking account at a bank just for paypal,and keep a small amt in it. Also with pp,it better if your verited.

avoid taking paypal or cc realted payments from thiland,or indodesia especially as cc fraud is high in those places.[/quote]

as-is is the only way to go. I sell a lot of stuff, and people try to take advantage of me all the time. I sold an amp that wasnt working, and said, AMP DOES NOT POWER ON. The buyer gets it and complains. I said read the auction, as-is no returns. It is the best problem solver ever.
 
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