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 Buying and Selling Tips for Ebay
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By Mitz
Not only I am obsessed with computers, the internet and components, now I absolutely love Ebay as well.
Ebay. Who would have ever
thought it would grow to these astronomical proportions!
Once you’ve completed a few transactions without being
burned, it becomes a comfortable place to both buy and
sell products. So simple but so attractive.
Most people start off as a browser, and then become a
user, and finally they join the addiction or love club.
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Here are some of my tips for buying and selling on Ebay.
Ebay Buying Tips
-
Check the seller’s
feedback
and other items that they may be selling. Talk to your friends. People that
have had good or bad experiences are always happy to share and spread the
word.
-
Always be sure of postage
costs or
any added postal insurance before you bid. Some people sell items for .99cents
but the postage may be $35.00.
-
Pay with Paypal
because if the
transaction does not work out it is covered by insurance. They will refund
your money and then recoup the funds from the seller.
-
Read the item description
thoroughly.
If there is information missing, ask the seller a question to find out more.
Do not presume you know or guess an answer to a question, make sure you
actually ask the seller. If you are a last minute buyer, do not expect the
seller to reply to your questions when there is only minutes left before the
ending time.
-
What condition is the item
in? Some
tricks in the naming of the item may mislead you. For example the words
antique or rustic may not mean the item is old. Or an ad for wholesale plasmas
could just be a wholesale list. Buyers beware.
Ebay Selling Tips
- Start
selling items you do not need
around the house until you get to know what you are doing. It’s all about trial
and error. I started selling music cd’s I wasn’t using anymore. Also old
software, books, toys, and clothes are good to start with.
- I
recommend a Paypal
account because the buyer can pay instantly, which makes the transaction run
fast and smooth. They also provide insurance of up to $3,000.00 on certain items
and even more when buying a car. I hate having to pay by direct deposit. This
sounds silly, but you have to go to your banks site and sign in, copy all their
details in, and then the money doesn’t go in immediately anyway. It takes 24 to
48 hours to clear.
- Offer
a refund if
the goods you have supplied become damaged, are faulty, or are not as described.
If you do not, why bother being a seller. You will not last long on Ebay.
- Offer
warranty or a guarantee.
This will improve the customer’s confidence in you. Again, you do not want to
sell dodgy products so making a guarantee should not affect you.
- Sell
items at the right time and day.
For example I like ending my auction on Saturday or Sunday, later in the day,
because some people sleep in on weekends. Or on a weekday, between 5pm and 9pm
when people are home from work. Wednesday night is a great time also. If you
have a shop, Ebay has a traffic report located in the area called “manage my
store”. This is where I found out that Wednesday sometimes attracts three times
the visitors Saturday and Sunday have. Trial and error and research will show
you the best times for your auctions.
- Use
keywords in your item title
with the correct spelling. For example to sell an ipod, some keywords would be:
ipod, mp3 player, 512mb(size), and the brand. If the auction didn’t go well try
changing your title next time. What would you type in to search to find this
item? This is an example of what I put for a title:
Dell Desktop Computer 2.8ghz/1024mb/120gbSATA
Pentium 4. I
try to fit as many keywords as possible into the space allowed. Desktop,
computer, Pentium, etc…
- Be
honest with your description
of the item you are selling.
This will limit the amount of complaints you get because buyers will know what
they are actually getting. They cannot complain about your item if you describe
every little scratch or dent.
- Learn
how to write great ads
by looking at other successful sellers ads. A well organised, well written sales
pitch makes a huge difference. But do not go overboard! Everyone hates the
obvious sales person that will not let up.
- You
must include a picture in your add.
People want to see what they
are bidding on. A gallery picture would be even better. This attracts more
potential bidders. This is proof that the item actually exists.
-
Overcharging on postage costs kills bids!!!
If something is going to cost a
bit to ship, explain why in detail. Offer local pick up, unless you have
something to hide. I have built a great business outside of Ebay from word of
mouth around my local area. People come and see me in person and I look after
them, then they tell everyone…
- Build
a good feedback rating.
Beware of leaving bad feedback because the other person will do the same. Try
sorting it out first. For example I made a mistake with my listing saying a
particular motherboard took sd ram when it didn’t. Therefore a customer
complained that their ram they had didn’t go with the motherboard they had
purchased from me. Instead of offering a refund (which would cost me return
postage etc) I sent the customer a bonus stick of ram that did match. It cost me
about $20 but I got great feedback. If I hadn’t sorted it out and got bad
feedback it would have cost me a lot more, over and over.
- When
you get paid for an item send it ASAP.
Don't let a good buyer wait. If you don’t like posting items then don’t sell on
Ebay.
-
Multiple user ID’s.
According to Ebay, as long as all your user id names refer to the same e-mail
address, you can have more than one. The benefits of this are that you can have
a seller id and a buyer id. This seems a bit sneaky, but I am sure you can see
the benefits.
- Do a
search in Ebay
for similar items you are about to list. When the results come up, go to the
left column and choose completed. This will show
you how much that item recently sold for….Pretty handy trick. You can also
compare the ads and see how to write your listing to gain the best selling
price. Why does one seller get up to $100 more than the other? Well now you can
see. You will be amazed when you see the results for a certain seller. Here you
were thinking that they are raking in the bucks. Well I don’t think so. A lot of
things do not even sell. The unsold items show up red and the sold show up
green. At the moment I am selling 100% of the items I list on Ebay. (It will
vary, but will still be a very high percentage) Which is almost unheard of. Go
and check other peoples completed listings and see how much they are selling.
- For the
serious sellers there are more tips are available at
.
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Helpful
links from Ebay
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About the Author
Mitz wrote this article and others for
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