Need a little help from seasoned ebayers...

Aaarrrgghhh...

Just got struck in the face with a big fat dose of reality and it stings a bit. I recently restructured a loan to get it paid off quicker and I knew that I was going to have to buckle down and reign in my loose spending habits. Well, knowing it and really knowing it enough to actually do it are two separate things. I've been spending free and easy as ever and my bank statement just slugged me hard in the gut. Gotta go back to Home Depot tomorrow and return all those cool tools I bought to start carving tikis (I will be back one day soon though!). And that bums the shiznit out of me...

Anyway, to the point, I'm a long long time ebay buyer. I'd be scared to know how much I've spent on ebay. But I've never sold a single thing. It's time. I need a little eating and drinking money. I'm not selling any tiki stuff, just some of the other tons of flotsam and jetsam I've accumulated over the years. Do any of you experienced ebay sellers have any tips for making my selling experience go smoother? Like picture hosting services that might be better than ebay's? Like where's a good place to get shipping boxes? Like who's best to ship with, UPS or USPS? How can I save a buck or two? I'm reading the ebay tutorial for selling and I'm going to do a google search but I'd appreciate any tips or insight you fine folks might have. The bank statement says we're on DEFCON 5 and the selling's gonna start tomorrow. Mahalo.

Oh yeah, one more question...

If I only accept PayPal as payment will that drive a lot of bidders away?? (I want that moolah fast if ya can't already tell)

One word of advice is to add good pictures. If you can edit the lot into one big picture, you can do it through Ebay. But you can still get free web hosting through angelfire to put your pictures on.

Heaven forfend I speak for anyone else, but I think midnite and tikifish would tell you "write your own copy!". These two write some of the most alluring descriptions ebay has ever known, and therefore are plagiarized quite often. Study their styles and try to come up with something as tantalizing as they do. Just don't use their exact words! :D

A few basics off the top of my head (from an ebay seller with 1700+ positive feedbacks):

--be as honest and descriptive as possible - NEVER try to put one over on your customers, it will always come back and kick your ass!

--if you have the time, be creative with your ad - I've sold plenty of crap on just the ad alone (and I'm sure Midnite and Sabu have sold plenty that way as well...) For some great examples, go to "whowouldbuythat.com" and see what creative copy has done for some folks!

--realize that people will buy ANYTHING, especially if it's not readily available in their part of the world. When in doubt, list it anyhow. Again, check out "whouwouldbuythat.com"...

--ALWAYS put in pictures! I use 'Andale' for my picture hosting (and I think Sabu does too); $5.00/month gets me enough to run about 130-150 auctions, w/pix, every month. There may be better/cheaper/free hosting, but I've never had any problems with these guys...)

--I use USPS - in more than 4 years of selling and over 2000 shipments, they've never lost, damaged or returned a SINGLE package I've sent!

--Free packing boxes are available everywhere! Sabu and I have no problem dumpster-diving for boxes and packing material. USPS will give you free 'Priority' mail boxes just for the asking. Not using Priority? Wrap the box in a paper-bag/butcher paper or turn it inside out.

--I always run my auctions for 10 days. I know that most of the bidding is done in the last few minutes/seconds anyhow, but the longer your ad is out there, the more people will see it. Oh, and I always list in the eBay "Gallery" as well = the more exposure, the better.

--find an 'online group' with a certain "interest". Join it just to post your ebay ads. The 'veteran' members will probably harass you out of town for your 'spam', but hey, it's free advertising directly to your target buyers! (OK, I don't REALLY know anybody that's actually done this, nor do I REALLY recommended it, but...)

--always answer your customers questions quickly and politely, no matter how dumb they (the questions or the customers) are. Customer service is what gets repeat business.

--I prefer PayPal (quick $$$), but I also take money orders and cash. Believe it or not, many customers like the convenience of reaching into their wallets, sticking the $$ in an envelope and sending it off, rather than trusting an online service with their financial info. Plus - it's cash!! I've NEVER had a cash payment 'disappear' en route either...

Well, that's some basic tips; I'm sure other sellers do things differently, so take it for what it's worth and use whatever works best.

I'm a teacher, and as most already know, teachers don't get paid shit, so I've augmented my income with eBay. It has become like a seciond job, but I really enjoy it and have done pretty well at it. In fact, my mug collection, everything in the Castaway Lounge and all of my traveling has been funded soley on eBay sales!

Good luck and have fun!

I don't sell myself, but re: photos, I just started using Fotki for hosting my personal photo albums:

http://www.fotki.com/

The basic free service has limits, but for only $30/year (!), you have unlimited space, and can link to photos from forums (like this one!), or from eBay listings -- as a matter of fact, they specifically list eBay auction photos as one of the uses of their service. I've only been using it for a couple of weeks, but I'm incredibly happy with how easy it is to use.

Thanks everyone! I knew I'd get more solid useful info here than searching the web. Humuhumu...I just signed up for the Fotki 2 week trial membership (I wanted to type "Fototiki") and I'll see how that goes for linking to the auctions. The thing I like about Fotki is that I can use it to post photos here and elsewhere as well. Cool.

Dr Z...do you use any of Ansdale's other features. They've got a confusing morass of available services. Some of them I haven't figured out fully but others look pretty interesting. Thanks for all the other great tips as well. Dumpster here I come...

Thanks purple jade and Swanky. Who knows, maybe this will turn out to be more than an act of desperation and I'll actually get into it long term. The thing that's kept me from selling before is the whole box it up and take it to the Post Office part. Because of the hours I work I'll only be able to go to the PO twice a week.

[ Edited by: Kono on 2003-10-24 21:09 ]

This is great! I've been procrastinating on the sell thing forever. I set up the "about me" page and that was as far as I got. Finally figured out how to change the entire background on it and the text font/color/size.
Glad you brought up the subject.
Thanks!

I hate to be the bad info of this post, but the description is the easy part. The part you will despise is the shipping. If you decide to ship more than 5 things, designate a little part of the house for shipping supplies, buy the shipping surplus in bulk, and pretend you are sending Christmas presents to your family year round to break up the craziness. You will learn what is the best time of the day to beat the crowds at the post office, and you will hope your shipment will arrive safely, and arrive at ALL!
Ebay is a winner, but shipping simply SUCKS!!!!!

A Tiki Cheers To You!

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2003-10-24 22:06 ]

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2003-10-25 10:20 ]

Like the good Dr. Z, i too have 1700+ positive feedbacks on Ebay and have been selling for years.

Here are a couple of other things I can add.

---I'm not sure of the size of the items you are selling, but another place to get free boxes is your local cd store. Ask them for some 30 count boxes. They are pretty strong and good for medium sized stuff.

---I too use USPS and have only had 5 itmes lost over 5 years.

---If you're gonna sell a lot of things and the size isn't too big, it's good to invest in a digital scale. I have found that the scales at the USPS don't get calibrated often enough. It's a good way to keep the post office honest.

---Finally, the best piece of advice I can offer is to sell your goods internationally. I would say that approx. 50% of my customers are international. The only difference in the shipping is the customs form, which takes about 30 seconds to fill out. Not everyone wants to sell worldwide, so if you do, you can attract more customers.

Feel free to drop me an email if you want any more advice.

TikiPug

[ Edited by: TikiPug on 2003-10-24 23:13 ]

I've purchased about 50 things on E-bay. For the most part every transaction has worked out fine. I Have learned a few lessons and as a buyer and I will not bid unless certain conditions are met. The seller has to make it very simple for me. Here are some things you might not have thought about. I don't know if others have rules but, here are mine:

1. I wont bid if paypal isn't offered. Twice I've had people loose payment and once a guy mistook my payment for another transaction. That's two checks and a money order. Now it's electronic or nothing.

2. Shipping prices need to be listed on the auction. Twice sellers have wanted more money to ship than I paid for the auction. I think that is unfair.

3. I wont bid if there is a reserve. I know others see this a "salesmanship", but, I wont bid. If you want $50.00, start the auction at $50.00

4.Good feedback, the feed back system is far from perfect, but, I wont bid if the feedback is bad

5. It needs to have a picture

6. The auction info has to be correct. Once a guy posted an auction of a Steve Crane mug. He wrote in his desription that it was the same Steve Crane who wrote "The red Badge of Courage". It's not like I'm mad about sellers making things up. My faith in their ability to send me something thru the mail is tested if they are not honest in the first place.

I hate to be critical of E-bay sellers and things have always worked out for me. E-bayers (for the most part)are not professionals and these rules make it simple and quick for me and them.

Mahalo,
Al

I look for similar things when I bid.

1. Always check the feedback. But in light of recent ID thefts that is not always on the up and up so still be alert.
   It's okay to have a few negs and neuts if the explanation is okay. More odd when they don't have even one especially on the high #s.

2. The attitude of the seller in the description. It's fishy to me when they say they refuse to reveal the reserve so don't ask.
   The amount of hoops they make the buyer jump through to bid. Sometimes this is such a turnoff I leave before reading their entire spiel.

3. Shipping amount is much better listed up front than to make me email and ask what it is. When it isn't listed I'm leery it's HUGE so tend to skip a last minute auction if it's not specified. Also nice to know upfront if the seller is willing to combine auctions to save shipping. When I know that they will combine, I tend to bid on other items that they have and even spend a little more on those items because I know the shipping will make the difference.

4. Good communication - don't underestimate it's power.

5. Good pics are a must!

6. Typos are a turnoff. Use spellcheck!

7. Be upfront about the defects. I will notice them as soon as I open the box. I would prefer to know about them before I bid and pay for shipping.

[ Edited by: SES on 2003-10-25 01:19 ]

This is an nteresting topic whoever I don't agree about starting the auction without a reserve or even stating what the reserve is to a "ask a seller a question". I've been an eBayer member since 1997 and a seller for 3 years. I've tried auctions both ways, with and without a reserve, but I can tell you that if I have a high ticket item I always put a reserve.

Why? Because people LOVE to bid. It doesn't matter if they've hit the reserve, they love to see their name up on the top. The high bidder gets outbid, they bid again and again until they become the high bidder and eventually meet the reserve. 98% of the time on auctions it works.

On the flip side if you have something worth $8k and you open it at that, you scare potential bidders away. Yeah, it seems fair that if you know what you want for it and open it at that, but it doesn't always work that way. People LOVE to get in bidding frenzys and we've all seen the "snipers" at the end.

As far as giving my reserves to people who email me, nope I won't do it! I personally don't think it's fair to the other bidders if someone just emails me and asks for the reserve. Doing this method also causes the bidder to go in at the last moment and only put in the dollar amount of the reserve. Well, what's the point in that? If 2 people go in at the same time with the same dollar amount of the reserve the first bidder will win. Bidders will also email you and ask what the reserve of your item is just to find out the value of your/their item with no intentions of bidding.

Trust me, I've had plenty of buyers email me and ask for reserves and I politely tell them I don't disclose this and I've received nasty emails back. Some mad that they can't "help" me by me not disclosing my reserves and potential other bidders. Please, if you want to bid, bid. I don't need "help" pulling up the bidder numbers!

These are just my selling observations however I highly recommend putting your name on your pictures, especially if it's a high ticket item. If the pictures are good, people will "lift" them. It may seem like a compliment but it's real frustrating when you take the time and effort and someone else just takes them. It's against ebay's policy for others to take others pictures and or text so just protect yourself by putting your name across the picture.

Good luck! It really is fun to sell on ebay. You just have to get a system down. If you can only ship twice a week, than state that in your fine print of the auction. There's no problem with that and the info is stated up front.

[ Edited by: tikichic on 2003-10-25 10:12 ]

Tiki Chic,
I can fully understand your reasoning for a reserve. It certainly makes sense. I didn't explain my reasons for not bidding on reserve auctions, so I thought I'd list them.
Ebay changes thing and how they do reserves may be different today. A long time ago I found a Don the Beachcomber Head Mug in a search thru "Head Vases" (Tiki Mugs end up there). I was going out of town so I write the woman and ask for the reserve. She gives it to me. She wanted $50.00 for the mug. I bid $75.00, this pushes the auction up to $2.00. I did not want to tip the womans hand on the resrve price so I did not bid again. When I get home from my trip, the auction's over and I'm the only bidder, still at two dollars. I write the woman and tell her I will pay her the reserve price and I never heard back from her. Similar things have happened on more than one occasion. Sometimes I watch the auction closely, sometimes I put in my high bid and forget about it. Sellers want the highest price, buyers want the lowest price. Reserve helps you get the highest price, but, my experiences in the past taught me it's too much of a hassle. Also I don't get caught up in the competition of an auction. I don't have the win at all cost mentality people have. I'm just buying some thing, period. So I don't bid on reserve items. I also want to point out that had that woman not given me the reserve, I wouldn't have bid as high, so it's hard to say what the best course of action is on reserve auctions
Mahalo,
Al

Wow that's strange! I always thought that if you met the reserve with the bid it would jump in and show at the reserve level amount.
Because in my head you are bidding against the reserve as well as other people.

I don't have a problem with people setting reserves. I understand the logic to use them to avoid scarying bidders and the annoying appraisal inquiries. But I don't see what the problem is if someone is serious on bidding (you can check their feedback first before releasing the info!) and wants to know how much so they don't have to put in a zillion #s. When sellers list that they NEVER tell so don't bother to ask, it makes me wonder if are serious about selling the piece and that maybe they are just fishing to find the value themselves. The sellers that have the nasty attitudes in their descriptions are the ones that I avoid. My logic being if they are like that trying to attract people what are they going to be like afterwards if there is a potential problem? No thanks!
:D

Oh forgot... would love to see the ebay names in people's profiles. I thought if they want to share their ebay name that they could list them in the interests section since there isn't a special line for it.

Hi Kono,
I have been selling on ebay for 4 years and have over 2500 feedbacks and I am a powerseller (which by the way doesn't mean jack, LOL), and I am still learning everyday. But anyways I use Vendio which was Auction Watch. They host my pics, totally set up my auctions and have some other neat features. It is Cheap and so easy !!!!!!! I also order all my boxes from USPS, they will give you free boxes, tape and labels (even deliver it to your house FREE), which you will find is such a huge help, especailly the tape that ads up when buying!! I take Paypal and just about everything else, alot of new ebayers are not signed up with Paypal and it will hurt you if you do not take other forms of payment. I think ? And do a ME page alot of bidders like to get to know ya alittle. I Hope this helps you alittle !!!! Once you do it a few times you will get the hang of it really quick !!!

[ Edited by: heto-tiki on 2003-10-25 20:33 ]

Can someone explain why some sellers are specifying paypal but only if it's off the bank account or paypal funds in existence and not with a CC card? Are they getting burned by the CC companies via paypal?
and...
curious on this one...
If you have an auction and set a high start bid and it doesn't get bids does it cost the seller when it doesn't sell or can you just relist it?
thanks!

On 2003-10-26 01:58, purple jade wrote:

I tried to pay for an item I'd won with a paypal credit card payment, which the auction said the buyer accepted, but they really only accepted bank account transfers. When I asked, the seller said they would accept a credit card but they would hold off shipping for ten days until it cleared because some people pay with a credit card and then cancel the credit card and don't pay up. This sounded really asinine to me. Why would I cancel my credit card to get out of paying for a $7.00 auction?

Welcome to the world of Ebay Assholes(Which we have to take the slack for).

I tried to pay for an item I'd won with a paypal credit card payment, which the auction said the buyer accepted, but they really only accepted bank account transfers. When I asked, the seller said they would accept a credit card but they would hold off shipping for ten days until it cleared because some people pay with a credit card and then cancel the credit card and don't pay up. This sounded really asinine to me. Why would I cancel my credit card to get out of paying for a $7.00 auction?

Hey Ses!

Regardless if your eBay item sells or not, eBay charges you listing fees. Then, if the auction sells, you have final value fees added on to your bill also. If the item does not sell, you can relist however you are charged again for the relist fees. If the item sells the 2nd go around, then you are credited back the 2nd set of relist fees but you of course still have the final value fees. Either way, eBay has you coming or going.

As far as PayPal account, there are 2 types of PayPal accounts. There is the regular PayPal account and an upgraded version. With the regular PayPal account there is NO charge to accept payments however you can not accept credit card payments. If you have the "upgraded account" you can accept ALL payments, including credit cards, however the seller is charged for EACH transaction! That really blows because you are already getting charged eBay fees and now you have PayPal fees even if it's a $10 item... That's why many auctions state to pay additional fees if paying via Paypal (which is against eBays rules). I personally like to keep my money, so I don't "upgrade" my PayPal account to accept credit cards. :wink:

Since I've been selling for a few years with no negative feedback, here's my 3 cents worth (2 cents US):

1. It's nice to offer to ship internationally, and it gets you more bidders. they may not always win (due to highter shipping costs) but they will drive up the price of your item. And their badly translated emails are hilarious.

2. Take PayPal payments if nothing else. I won't buy anything if the seller doesn't take paypal. I've seen the same item listed the exact same way go for 4 times as much just becuase one seller took PayPal and the other refused to.

3. Don't charge 'shipping and handling' fees. It turns people off. I find all my bubble wrap, boxes and envelopes in the office recycling bin, so my 'handling' costs are nothing. I charge exact shipping, and usually LESS than shipping cost because I have to compete with US sellers shipping prices (not a problem for you though).

4. Have fun writing your auctions. A happy seller is a successful seller. I go for comedic descriptions, you might try another angle. Use lots of key words. Don't use key words of things that ARE NOT in your auction however. (i.e. 'I wish this was a STEVE CRANE mug but alas it is just a LEILANI'). Other angles that don't work are 'I need money for my operation/grandma/child support'. I can't belive how many of those I have seen.

5. Always list all flaws up front. NEVER try to hide a flaw. It will bite you in the ass every time.

6. Start the bidding as low as you can without losing money on your item. Starting the bidding high scares away most of the bidders you would have had if you started it low. Even if the item ends up at 75 bucks, no one wants to bid on something that STARTS at 75 bucks. I start all my auctions at cost (and often less than cost, but I wouldn't advise that until you get the hang of what sells well and what doesn't).

7. Put a little extra in the packaging. Sometimes I add stickers, drawings, vintage magazine clippings, etc, to the outside of the package. It only takes a moment and it makes your buyers happy!

That's all I can think of for now...

oh yeah - when people email and complain that their item hasn't arrived 3 days after they pay for it, as much as you want to say 'WOW, MY TELEPORTATION DEVICE MUST BE BROKEN' you just have to smile, grit your teeth, and patiently explain how the postal system works.

Wheeeee!

Thanks for explaining the details, it helps bigtime! I had no idea about the different levels of paypal. I thought that they always charged some sort of fee to sellers.

I've always considered that "this is NOT" phrase as a bait and switch tactic to drive people to the auctions. Wastes my time and annoys me in the end enough that I won't bid on auctions that use it even when I would like the item.

I don't mind someone charging a small handling fee as long as they are upfront about it in the auction listing.

Actually Eaby has a rule against the 'THIS IS NOT' tactic - they catch you doing it 3 times, and you're out. However this is so hard for them to police, that people get away with it all the time.