Make Money on eBay - Learn to Make Money on eBay!

eBay: Story of The First 14 Years

2009-06-21T22:44:00.001-07:00

Yes, you read that correctly: 14 years of eBaying! eBay was created in September 1995, by a man called Pierre Omidyar, who was living in San Jose. He wanted his site - then called 'AuctionWeb' - to be an online marketplace, and wrote the first code for it in one weekend. It was one of the first websites of its kind in the world. The name 'eBay' comes from the domain Omidyar used for his site. His company's name was Echo Bay, and the 'eBay AuctionWeb' was originally just one part of Echo Bay's website at ebay.com. The first thing ever sold on the site was Omidyar's broken laser pointer, which he got $14 for.

The site quickly became massively popular, as sellers came to list all sorts of odd things and buyers actually bought them. Relying on trust seemed to work remarkably well, and meant that the site could almost be left alone to run itself. The site had been designed from the start to collect a small fee on each sale, and it was this money that Omidyar used to pay for AuctionWeb's expansion. The fees quickly added up to more than his current salary, and so he decided to quit his job and work on the site full-time. It was at this point, in 1996, that he added the feedback facilities, to let buyers and sellers rate each other and make buying and selling safer.

In 1997, Omidyar changed AuctionWeb's - and his company's - name to 'eBay', which is what people had been calling the site for a long time. He began to spend a lot of money on advertising, and had the eBay logo designed. It was in this year that the one-millionth item was sold (it was a toy version of Big Bird from Sesame Street).

Then, in 1998 - the peak of the dotcom boom - eBay became big business, and the investment in Internet businesses at the time allowed it to bring in senior managers and business strategists, who took in public on the stock market. It started to encourage people to sell more than just collectibles, and quickly became a massive site where you could sell anything, large or small. Unlike other sites, though, eBay survived the end of the boom, and is still going strong today.

1999 saw eBay go worldwide, launching sites in the UK, Australia and Germany. eBay bought half.com, an Amazon-like online retailer, in the year 2000 - the same year it introduced Buy it Now - and bought PayPal, an online payment service, in 2002.

Pierre Omidyar has now earned an estimated $3 billion from eBay, and still serves as Chairman of the Board. Oddly enough, he keeps a personal weblog at http://pierre.typepad.com. There are now literally millions of items bought and sold every day on eBay, all over the world. For every $100 spent online worldwide, it is estimated that $14 is spent on eBay - that's a lot of laser pointers.

Now that you know the history of eBay, perhaps you'd like to know how it could work for you? Our next email will give you an idea of the possibilities.

eBay offers Limitless Income Possibilities!

2009-06-20T09:09:00.001-07:00

If you've ever read an article about making money on eBay, you will have seen the kinds of incomes people make - it isn't unusual to hear of people making thousands of dollars per month on eBay.

Next time you're on eBay, take a look at how many PowerSellers there are: you'll find quite a few. Now consider that every single one of one of them must be making at least $1,000 per month, as that's eBay's requirement for becoming a PowerSeller. Silver PowerSellers make at least $3,000 each month, while Gold PowerSellers make more than $10,000, and the Platinum level is $25,000. The top ranking is Titanium PowerSeller, and to qualify you must make at least $150,000 in sales every month!

The fact that these people exist gives you come idea of the income possibilities here. Most of them never set out to even set up a business on eBay - they simply started selling a few things, and then kept going. There are plenty of people whose full-time job is selling things on eBay, and some of them have been doing it for years now. Can you imagine that? Once they've bought the stock, everything else is pretty much pure profit for these people - they don't need to pay for any business premises, staff, or anything else. There are multi-million pound businesses making less in actual profit than eBay PowerSellers do.

Even if you don't want to quit your job and really go for it, you can still use eBay to make a significant second income. You can pack up orders during the week and take them down to the post office for delivery each Saturday. There are few other things you could be doing with your spare time that have anywhere near that kind of earning potential.

What's more, eBay doesn't care who you are, where you live, or what you look like: some PowerSellers are very old, or very young. Some live out in the middle of nowhere where selling on eBay is one of the few alternatives to farming or being very poor. eBay tears down the barriers to earning that the real world constantly puts up. There's no job interview and no commuting involved - if you can post things, you can do it.

Put it this way: if you know where to get something reasonably cheaply that you could sell, then you can sell it on eBay - and since you can always get discounts for bulk at wholesale, that's not exactly difficult. Buy a job lot of something in-demand cheaply, sell it on eBay, and you're making money already, with no set-up costs.

If you want to dip your toe in the water before you commit to actually buying anything, then you can just sell things that you've got lying around in the house. Search through that cupboard of stuff you never use, and you'll probably find you've got a few hundred dollars' worth of stuff lying around in there! This is the power of eBay: there is always someone who wants what you're selling, whatever it might be, and since they've come looking for you, you don't even need to do anything to get them to buy it.

So you want to get started on eBay? Well, that's great! There are only a few little things you need to learn to get started. Our next email will give you the lowdown.

What You Need to Know BEFORE You Start making money on eBay.

2009-06-19T08:44:00.001-07:00

So you've decided that you want to get started making money on eBay. There are a few things that you really need to know before you go and throw yourself in at the deep end.

What to Sell.

First off, you need to know what it is you're going to sell: what's your speciality? You'll do far better on eBay if you become a great source for certain kind of products, as people who are interested in those products will come back to you again and again. You won't get any loyalty or real reputation if you just sell rubbish at random.

When you think about what to sell, there are a few things to consider. The most important of these is to always sell what you know. If you try to sell something that you just don't know anything about then you'll never write a good description and sell it for a good price.

You might think you're not especially interested in anything, but if you think about what kind of things you usually buy and which websites you go to most often, I'm sure you'll discover some kind of interest. If all else fails mention it to your friends and family: they'll almost certainly say "Oh, well why don't you sell???", and you'll slap your forehead.

Out of the things you know enough about, you should then consider which things you could actually get for a good enough price to resell, and how suitable they would be for posting. If you can think of something of that you're knowledgeable about and it's small and light enough for postage to be relatively cheap, then that's great!

Don't worry if you think the thing you're selling is too obscure - it isn't. There's a market for almost everything on eBay, even things that wouldn't sell once in a year if you stocked them in a shop. You'll probably do even better if you fill a niche than if you sell something common.

Tax and Legal Matters.

If you earn enough money, you should be aware that you're going to have to start paying tax - this won't be done for you. If you decide to sell on eBay on a full-time basis, you should probably register as a business.

Prepare Yourself.

There are going to be ups and downs when you sell on eBay. Don't pack it in if something goes a little wrong in your first few sales: the sellers who are successful on eBay are the ones who enjoy it, and stick at it whatever happens.

Anyone can sell on eBay, if they believe in themselves - and if you do decide it's not for you, then the start-up costs are so low that you won't really have lost anything.

If you're ready to start selling, then the next thing you need to know is the different auction types, so you can decide which ones you will use to sell your items. Our next email will give you a guide.

An Easy Beginners Guide to the Different eBay Auction Types.

2009-06-18T06:44:00.001-07:00

Over the years, eBay auction has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay.

For every seller who doesn't like the idea that their item might sell for a far lower price than they intend, there's another who wants to shift hundreds of the same item quickly. eBay tries to cater to all tastes. This email gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and their advantages for you.

Normal Auctions.

These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, and the winner gets the item. Simple.

Reserve Auctions.

Reserve auctions are for sellers who don't want their items to sell for less than a certain price - a concept you'll know about if you're familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that the buyer will be told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set, and they'll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled, and you keep the item.

Fixed Price ('Buy it Now') Auctions.

Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. This lets you avoid all the complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how much you want them to sell for.

Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the 'best offer'. This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a good way to get sell some extra stock at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these formats. In general, it is more worth using reserve auctions for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced ones - but remember that you can combine the two formats.

Multiple Item ('Dutch') Auctions.

These are auctions where you can sell more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then don't worry - everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.

What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that you can just say how many of the item you they have, and offer them at a fixed price per unit. Buyers can enter how many they want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.

Now that you know about the different types of auctions, you should make sure that the items you plan to sell don't violate eBay's listing policies. The next email will let you know what's allowed and what is a big no-no.

Attention: Staying Out of Trouble with eBay's Listing Policies.

2009-06-17T02:54:00.001-07:00

While you can sell almost any things on eBay, quite a few things are banned. If you try to sell any of these things then eBay will remove your auction and all bids will be void.

Here is eBay's full list of prohibited or questionable items:

Academic Software
Airline and Transit Related Items
Alcohol (also see Wine)
Animals and Wildlife Products
Anti-circumvention Policy
Artifacts
Authenticity Disclaimers
Autographed Items
Batteries
Beta Software
Bootleg Recordings
Brand Name Misuse
Catalog Sales
Catalytic Converters and Test Pipes
Celebrity Material
Charity or Fundraising Listings
Comparison Policy
Compilation and Informational Media
Contracts and Tickets
Counterfeit Currency and Stamps
Counterfeit Items
Credit Cards
Downloadable Media
Drugs & Drug Paraphernalia
Electronics Equipment
Embargoed Goods and Prohibited Countries
Encouraging Infringement Policy
Event Tickets
Faces, Names and Signatures
Firearms, Ammunition, Replicas, and Militaria
Fireworks
Food
Freon and Other Refrigerants
Gift Cards
Government IDs and Licenses
Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Items
Human Parts and Remains
Importation of Goods into the United States
International Trading - Buyers
International Trading - Sellers
Lockpicking Devices
Lottery Tickets
Mailing Lists and Personal Information
Manufacturers' Coupons
Mature Audiences
Medical Devices
Misleading Titles
Mod Chips, Game Enhancers, and Boot Discs
Movie Prints
Multi-level Marketing, Pyramid and Matrix Programs
OEM Software
Offensive Material
Pesticides
Plants and Seeds
Police-Related Items
Political Memorabilia
Postage Meters
Pre-Sale Listings
Prescription Drugs and Devices
Promotional Items
Real Estate
Recalled Items
Recordable Media
Replica and Counterfeit Items
Surveillance Equipment
Tobacco
Satellite and Cable TV Descramblers
Slot Machines
Stocks and Other Securities
Stolen Property
Travel
Unauthorized Copies
Warranties
Used Clothing
Weapons & Knives
Wine (also see Alcohol)

Most of this is very obvious - of course you can't sell illegal things like drugs, pyramid schemes or stolen goods. Almost everything that is on the list is there because there is law against selling it. Some of the reasons, though, are a little strange.

The 'autographed items' entry, for example, doesn't mean that you can't sell anything that's been autographed - it just means that you can only sell it if it comes with a certificate of authenticity. The 'artifacts' entry prohibits you from selling Native American graves; 'celebrity material' means you can't sell unauthorised pictures of celebrities; 'embargoed goods' means that you can't sell anything that comes from Cuba??? on and on it goes, and most of it you never need to know.

If your chosen kind of item seems to be on the list, though, and you're concerned that you might not be able to sell it, then check the full list at http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/items-ov.html to see whether the item is banned entirely or there are just a few restrictions.

eBay says it will remove any items that it believes violate copyright law, but in reality they don't have that many people to monitor the site. You will generally only find that your auction gets removed if someone decides to report you - and even then, they might not get around to it.

Really, buying and selling on eBay can sometimes feel more complicated than it really is, thanks to all the rules surrounding it - not to mention the jargon. Our next email is a 'jargon buster', to help you learn the language of eBay.

Learning the Basics of eBay

2009-06-15T23:28:00.001-07:00

Do you have trouble sometimes understanding when people talk about making money on eBay? Don't worry, some of the jargon is really obscure, and you can't be expected to understand it until someone's told you what it means. Here's a little list of some of the most useful lingo to know, but you don't need to memorise it - even the most common jargon is only used relatively rarely.

Words.

Bid: telling eBay's system the maximum price you are prepared to pay for an item.
Dutch: an auction where more than one of an item is available.
Feedback: positive or negative comments left about other users on eBay.
Mint: in perfect condition.
Non-paying bidder: a bidder who wins an auction but does not then go on to buy the item.
PayPal: an electronic payment method accepted by most sellers.
Rare: used and abused on eBay, now entirely meaningless.
Reserve: the minimum price the seller will accept for the item.
Shill bid: a fake bid placed by a seller trying to drive up their auction's price.
Snail Mail: the post, which is obviously very slow compared to email.
Sniping: bidding at the last second to win the item before anyone else can outbid you.

Abbreviations.

AUD: Australian Dollar. Currency.
BIN: Buy it Now. A fixed price auction.
BNWT: Brand New With Tags. An item that has never been used and still has its original tags.
BW: Black and White. Used for films, photos etc.
CONUS: Continental United States. Generally used by sellers who don't want to post things to Alaska or Hawaii.
EUR: Euro. Currency.
FC: First Class. Type of postage.
GBP: Great British Pounds. Currency.
HTF: Hard To Find. Not quite as abused as 'rare', but getting there.
NIB: New in Box. Never opened, still in its original box.
NR: No Reserve. An item where the seller has not set a reserve price.
OB: Original Box. An item that has its original box (but might have been opened).
PM: Priority Mail.
PP: Parcel Post.
SH: Shipping and Handling. The fees the buyer will pay you for postage.
USD: United States Dollars. Currency.
VGC: Very Good Condition. Not mint, but close.

The chances are that you'll find more specific jargon related to whatever you're selling, but it'd be an impossible task to cover it all here. If you can't figure one out from your knowledge of the subject, then type the term into a search engine, followed by the word 'ebay'. The chances are that someone, somewhere will have seen fit to explain it.

While it's good to be able to understand others' jargon, avoid using it unless you really need to (for example, if you run out of space in an item's title). Many people on eBay are not experienced buyers and you will lose them if you write a load of gobbledegook all over your auction.

By now, you're well prepared for eBay life, and you're probably ready to get started with that first auction. In the next email, we'll show you how to dive in and get started.

Five Simple Steps to Posting Your First eBay Auction.

2009-06-14T21:18:00.001-07:00

It's surprisingly simple to get started posting your very first auction on eBay and starting making money. Here's what you need to do.

Step 1: Open an eBay seller's account.

If you've bought things on eBay, then you already have an account - just log in with it and click 'Sell' in the toolbar at the top of the page, then click 'Create a seller's account'. If you've never used eBay before, then you'll need to open an account first using the 'register' link underneath the toolbar, and then click 'Sell' and 'Create a seller's account'. The eBay site will then guide you through the process. For security, this may involve giving card details and bank information.

Step 2: Decide what to sell.

For your first little experiment with eBay, it doesn't really matter what you sell. Take a look around the room you're in - I'm sure there's something in there that you're not all that attached to and could put in the post. Small books and CDs are ideal first items.

Step 3: Submit your item.

Click 'Sell', and you're on your way to listing your item.

The first thing you need to do is choose a category - it's best to just type in what the item is and let eBay choose for you. Next, write a title and description. Include key words you think people will search for in the title box, and all the information you have about the item in the description box.

Now set a starting price. $0.01 is the best starting price, as it draws people in to bid who otherwise wouldn't, and items will almost never finish at such a low price. The next thing to set is the duration of the auction: 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. This is up to you: longer sales will usually get more bids, but will also seem to drag on forever. If you've taken a picture, add it now - items with pictures always sell for more. Finally, tick the payment methods you will accept (just PayPal is best for now), and where you will post to (limit yourself to your own country to begin with). Submit and you're done!

Step 4: Wait for it to sell.

This is just a matter of sitting back and letting eBay do its thing - buyers will find your item and leave bids on it. Some bidders might email you with questions about the item, and you should do your best to answer these questions as quickly as you can.

Remember that if your item doesn't sell then you can list it again for free.

Step 5: Collect payment and post it.

eBay will sent your buyer emails guiding them through the process of sending you payment for the item. Make sure you have the money before you send anything.

Once you've got the payment, all you need to do is pack the item for posting (make sure to use some bubble wrap), take the buyer's address from the confirmation email eBay sent you, and write it on the parcel. Put some stamps on, post it, and you're done!

I hope you enjoyed selling your first item. Now that you're starting to get into it, the next email will give you a checklist of things you need to do to be a successful seller.

An eBay Seller's Todo List

2009-06-12T22:03:00.001-07:00

Being a seller on eBay is a lot of responsibility, and sometimes you might feel like you're not doing everything you should be. This simple checklist will help you keep on top of things.

Have you found out everything you possibly could about your items? Try typing their names into a search engine - you might find out something you didn't know. If someone else is selling the same thing as you, then always try to provide more information about it than they do.

Do you monitor the competition? Always keep an eye on how much other items the same as or similar to yours are selling, and what prices they're being offered at. There's usually little point in starting a fixed price auction for $100 when someone else is selling the item for $90.

Have you got pictures of the items? It's worth taking the time to photograph your items, especially if you have a digital camera. If you get serious about eBay but don't have a camera, then you will probably want to invest in one at some point.

Are you emailing your sellers? It's worth sending a brief email when transactions go through: something like a simple "Thank you for buying my item, please let me know when you have sent the payment". Follow this up with "Thanks for your payment, I have posted your [item name] today". You will be surprised how many problems you will avoid just by communicating this way.

Also, are you checking your emails? Remember that potential buyers can send you email about anything at any time, and not answering these emails will just make them go somewhere else instead of buying from you.

Do your item description pages have everything that buyers need to know? If you're planning to offer international delivery, then it's good to make a list of the charges to different counties and display it on each auction. If you have any special terms and conditions (for example, if you will give a refund on any item as long as it hasn't been opened), then you should make sure these are displayed too.

Have you been wrapping your items correctly? Your wrapping should be professional for the best impression: use appropriately sized envelopes or parcels, wrap the item in bubble wrap to stop it from getting damaged, and print labels instead of hand-writing addresses. Oh, and always use first class post - don't be cheap.

Do you follow up? It is worth sending out an email a few days after you post an item, saying "Is everything alright with your purchase? I hope you received it and it was as you expected." This might sound like giving the customer an opportunity to complain, but you should be trying to help your customers, not take their money and run.

Being a really good eBay seller, more than anything else, is about providing genuinely good and honest customer service. That's the only foolproof way to protect your reputation. Of course, you might be wondering by now whether it's really worth all the hassle to get a good reputation on eBay. Won't people buy from you anyway, and couldn't you just open a new account if it really comes down to that? Our next email will set you straight.

Find out What's Your eBay Reputation Really Worth?

2009-06-11T23:13:00.001-07:00

Your eBay auction reputation is everything you are on eBay - without it, you're nothing. Your reputation is worth as much as every sale you will ever make.

If you've ever bought anything on eBay (and the chances are you have), then think about your own behaviour. Buying from a seller with a low feedback rating makes you feel a little nervous and insecure, while buying from a PowerSeller with their reputation in the thousands doesn't require any thought or fear - it feels just like buying from a shop.

A Bad Reputation Will Lose You Sales.

In fact, a bad reputation will lose you almost all your sales. If someone leaves you negative feedback, you will feel the pain straight away, as that rating will go right at the top of your user page for everyone to see. Who's going to want to do business with you when they've just read that you "took a month to deliver the item", or that you had "bad communication and sent a damaged item"? The answer is no-one.

Your next few items will need to be very cheap things, just to push that negative down the page. You might have to spend days or even weeks selling cheap stuff to get enough positive feedback to make anyone deal with you again.

It's even worse if you consistently let buyers leave negative feedback - once you get below 90% positive ratings, you might as well be invisible.

You Can't Just Open a New Account.

Besides eBay's rules about only having one account, there are far more downsides than that to getting a new account. You literally have to start all over again from scratch.

You won't be able to use all the different eBay features. Your existing customers won't be able to find you any more. Your auctions will finish at a lower price because of your low feedback rating. Opening a new account is like moving to a new town to get away from a few people who are spreading rumours about you: it's throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

A Good Reputation Will Get You Sales.

When a PowerSeller tells me something, I tend to believe them. They can be selling a pretty unlikely item, but if they guarantee it is what they say it is, then I trust them - they're not going to risk their reputation, after all. This is the power of a reputation: people know you want to keep it, and they know you'll go to almost any lengths to do so.

This is true even to the point that I would sooner buy something for $20 from a seller I know I can trust than for $15 from someone with average feedback. It's worth the extra money to feel like the seller knows what they're doing, has all their systems in place and will get me the item quickly and efficiently.

You really will find selling on eBay so much easier, and there's only way to get a good reputation: make sure you please your customers every time. But some customers can be, well, just a little difficult to please. In the next email, we ask: is the eBay customer always right?

Is the eBay Customer Always Right?

2009-06-10T22:03:00.001-07:00

I can answer this question for you right now: the answer is 'yes'. In fact, the answer is 'YES!' - the biggest yes you've ever heard. Of the course the customer is always right. If you want to be a successful eBay seller, you should go miles out of your way to make sure every single one of your customers is 100% satisfied, however much time or money it might cost you.

A dissatisfied customer will leave negative feedback, and negative feedback is to be avoided at all costs. That one piece of negative feedback will always cost you more than it would have to deal with the complaint, whatever the value of the items you sell. You should consider any positive feedback percentage under 100% to be an absolute disaster, and a personal failure on your part.

But What If???

But nothing! There is no situation where you, as a seller, should get into any dispute with a buyer. Here are a few common situations and how to handle them.

They say the item never arrived: Politely ask the buyer to wait a few more days to see if it turns up, and then email you again if it still hasn't arrived. If it still hasn't arrived, you should assume it was lost in the post somehow and offer to send a replacement if you have one, or give them a full refund otherwise. No, I don't care what that costs you. Are you serious about selling on eBay or not?

The item has been damaged in the post: You must offer to replace it or take it back for a refund without hesitation.

They say the item doesn't match the description: Resist the urge to email back with "yes it does, you just didn't read the description properly". Take the item back for a refund, and edit your description if you need to, to make any confusing points extra clear.

I'm sure you're spotting a pattern by now. Offering a refund will make almost any problem go away, and it really will cost you less in the long run. Remember, one piece of negative feedback will stay with you forever, while having a 100% positive rating is like owning a bar of solid gold.

You should always handle customers' complaints before they complain to eBay - in fact, you should email them pre-emptively to ask if they have any. Going through the dispute process is time consuming, reflects badly on you and is downright unnecessary.

Are you still not convinced? Think this would only work with cheap items? Well, you see, the higher the price of the items you sell, the more your reputation is worth to you. Let's say you were selling $10,000 worth of items each week, for example, and making a $1,000 profit per week overall. You might think that refunding one customer's $1,000 purchase would be a tragedy, losing you your whole week's profit. It's far better to look at it this way: if you don't give that refund, then not only will you lose the next week's profit, but you'll probably lose a few weeks' profit after that too. Now which option looks better?

I absolutely can't emphasise enough the importance of really believing that the customer is always right. But trying to make excuses for complaints isn't the only thing you need to avoid. There are a lot of pitfalls that you need to avoid if you don't want to kill your business before it's even started properly - and I'll show you in the next email what they are.

10 Sure-fire Ways to Kill Your eBay Business Fast!

2009-06-10T00:43:00.001-07:00

It's surprisingly easy to kill all your eBay business and efforts, if you're not careful - sure, you can start over from scratch without it costing you anything, but do you really want to? Still, if you want your business to end up dead in the water, here are some simple ways to do it.

Lie about an item: Say it works fine when it sometimes doesn't work. Say it's in perfect condition when it has a scratch. Your customers will hate you!

Post whenever you feel like it: Make sure to leave your customers hanging around, wondering when their item is going to turn up. This makes sure they buy from someone else next time.

Let items end anytime: Few people will be around to care about your auction if it ends in the middle of the night. Why go to the trouble of working out whether auctions will end at a good time?

Don't bother with email: Customers are just timewasters anyway. eBay businesses are supposed to run themselves! Never give informed responses to questions about your item.

Sell rubbish: Really, it's just eBay. You can just sell any old tat from the market for a 200% profit. Let quality be someone else's concern - I mean, really, what do they expect for that price?

Refuse to give discounts: You know what your items cost, you know what your profit margin is going to be, and you're not going to negotiate. Remember that giving customers special deals might make them feel good and come back to you again.

Make your listings ugly: As many colours, flashing lights and animations as possible will really give those customers a headache. Write as much in CAPITALS!!!! as you can. Preferably big, red capitals. Be sure to use the fonts Impact and Comic Sans. For an extra special touch, see if you can figure out a way to add some music.

Don't take photos: It's such trouble, after all. If buyers are picky enough to actually want to see items before they bid on them, then screw 'em, that's what I say.

Write short descriptions: Be as brief as possible, and use lots of mysterious abbreviations. This obviously makes you look very cool. You can even just write the title again in the description box. Think of the effort you'll save!

Use reserve auctions: Now, this is a fairly controversial final choice, but it really is one of the best ways to scare away your customers. They'll see 'reserve not yet met', and click that 'back' button before you know it. Luckily, they can always bid in a normal auction for the item somewhere else.

Now that you know the ten ways to kill your eBay business, how about we explore what to do if you want to do the opposite, and make a success of it? The next email will give you ten steps to successful selling on eBay.

Ten Steps to Successful Selling and Making Money on eBay.

2009-06-08T22:18:00.001-07:00

So you want to be a successful seller and make money on eBay with your own eBay business, do you? Here's a simple, ten-step path to eBay enlightenment.

Step 1: Identify your market. Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn't out of the items you're interested in. Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You'll probably see the 'sweet spots' quite quickly - those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.

Step 2: Watch the competition. Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are. Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them at their own game.

Step 3: Find a product: Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are - don't be afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the eBay prices you've seen are higher than the supplier's, then you're set.

Step 4: Start small: Don't throw thousands at your idea straight away - get started slowly, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as you go. Remember that it's very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay, and who knows, they might just work!

Step 5: Test and repeat. Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it, again and again. The chances are that you've just found a good niche.

Step 6: Work out a business plan: A business plan doesn't need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for anyone else.

Step 7: Invest and expand: This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy inventory, and start spending more time on your business. Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.

Step 8: Make it official: Once you've made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don't worry, it's not expensive or hard to do - a lawyer is the best person to help you through the process.

Step 9: Automate: You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.

Step 10: Never give up: Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop trying until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you'll almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.

Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up eBay selling part time. But it's not always as easy as that - there are all sorts of factors that you need to consider. The next email will weigh up the case for and against taking up eBay full-time.

eBay - Making Money Part Time or Full? How to Decide.

2009-06-07T23:13:00.001-07:00

Going full-time as an eBay seller is living the dream: making a real income on eBay, working from home, being your own boss and all the rest of it. It's the promise of a million scams, and it's finally come true - at least for some.

What they don't tell you in the success stories, though, is that becoming a full-time eBay seller is by no means for everyone. You really, really ought to try it part-time before you even consider taking it up full-time, and even then, caution is advisable. Before you burn your suit, here's a list of questions you should ask yourself.

How Much Do I Earn From eBay Now?

Work out how many hours a week you spend doing eBay-related things (be honest here), and divide it by the average amount of profit you make in a week. If you were doing full-time hours, would you earn as much as you earn now?

Do I Have a Good Job?

Think about what you might lose if you give up your job to focus on eBay. If you're in a well-paid job with good promotion prospects then it's well worth reconsidering: you might get a few years down the line and wish you'd stayed in your traditional job, as you'd probably be the CEO by now.

Would I Really Make Much More Money?

Unless you're selling a large quantity of small goods, most of what you do on eBay will be waiting for auctions to end - and you can wait at work just as easily as you can at home. This is why whether you would make more money on eBay really depends on what kinds of items you're selling - for low value items, going full-time could be a good move. For high-value ones, the chances are you'll hit the limits of how much money you have to invest in inventory long before you hit the limits on your time.

Is my Home a Good Place to Work?

Quite apart from anything else, you might find that the dream of home working is more of a nightmare in reality. People can start to depend on you to get things done that need to be done during the day. If you have a wife and children then they can resent the fact that you're in the house but refuse to have anything to do with them for large parts of the day. Giving in to any of these things and stopping work for a while will cause your profits to fall.

Can I Survive if it All Goes Wrong?

In the end, would you be able to get by if you had a month or two where you sold literally nothing? Or would you be desperately looking around for a job and cursing the day you ever discovered eBay? That's the real test.

If you made it through all these questions, then I guess you're cut out for the eBay life - and even if you didn't, you'd be surprised just how far you can get part-time. In our next email, we'll show you how to think like the eBay elite: the PowerSellers.

How to Think Like a Real eBay PowerSeller.

2009-06-05T19:22:00.001-07:00

So what's an eBay PowerSeller? PowerSellers are the people on eBay who've made it, recognisable by the little 'PowerSeller' badge next to their name. You've probably seen these people around - and to succeed on eBay, you want to think the way they do.

How to People Get the Right to Call Themselves PowerSellers?

eBay gets to decide who can be a PowerSeller and who can't, and they have strict requirements. To get in at the minimum PowerSeller level, you must have a feedback rating of at least 100 (minimum 98% positive) and sell at least $1,000 worth of items every month for three months in a row. There are different levels of PowerSeller membership as you sell items of greater value: $1,000 total is bronze, $3,000 is silver, $10,000 is gold, $25,000 is platinum and $125,000 is titanium.

If PowerSellers ever fail to meet the required amount of sales, or their feedback falls below 98% positive, then they lose their PowerSeller status. In short, the only people who get to be PowerSellers on eBay are the people who have been successful for a good while, and are on track to stay that way.

The Shop and the Marketplace.

This is the most important part of understanding how PowerSellers think. They don't see what they're doing as being some random bazaar, or a hobby - instead, they see themselves as a business.

Put it like this. If you run a stall in a marketplace, the chances are that you have a general area of business, but you mostly just sell whatever you can get your hands on that week. If your dodgy buddy got his hands of a job lot of something at a discount, then that's what you'll be selling. This might be fun - and when you have a good week, you'll have a really good week - but it's no way to run a real business in the long-term.

PowerSellers think far more like shops. They sell the same things again and again, every week - regular stock for regular customers. They do 'boring' business things like keep inventories and budgets. They know what they're going to be selling, how much they buy it for and how much they expect to sell for. Just like a real shop, there can be hard times sometimes, but their income is stable and their business can grow slowly.

The best advice I can give you on thinking like a PowerSeller is this: don't take long-term risks for short-term gain. Look after your reputation, manage your selling properly, provide good customer service and the rewards will come to you in due course. And you'll get a little badge next to your name that makes people trust you more!

One possibility that you might have realised so far is what eBay can do for any other businesses you might have. Remember, millions of people visit eBay every day - why keep everything separate when you're starting to tap into that kind of power? The next email will show you a few ways you can use eBay to grow your other businesses.

How to Use eBay Auctions to Grow Your Other Businesses.

2009-06-04T22:32:00.001-07:00

Most of the people who make money from eBay don't actually make all of that money on eBay. There are all sorts of ways you can use eBay to give your existing businesses a helping hand.

The Supply Side.

If you have any leftover stock or used items from another business you run, then why not sell them on eBay? You can make this a regular thing, using it to get rid of things that won't sell for the premium you ask for in a shop, or items that are no longer in demand in the town or city where your business is based.

You can really make a lot of money this way, if you know what you're doing. You will, of course, already be an expert in the items you're selling, as you use them in your business, and you'll know that the items are of high enough quality to be sellable. This is a whole new market for your old inventory!

Not only that, of course, but remember that your good eBay reputation will make you a great buyer! If there's ever anything you want to get for your business, the chances are you'll be able to get it on eBay for a discount.

The Sales Side.

Here, though, is where the true power of eBay lies. eBay give you an 'About Me' page, where you can write anything you like and link anywhere you like. This means that you can get traffic to your business' website by linking to your website from your About Me page and linking to your About Me page from each auction.

To create an About Me page, just click on 'Community' on the toolbar, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'Create an About Me page'. You then get the option to either enter your own HTML or let eBay guide you through the process. All you need to do is write a little about your website, link to it, and you're done - you'll notice that more people start to come to your site straight away.

There are thousands of people who swear by this technique to drive traffic from eBay to their website - with a little persuasive sales copy on your site, they say, you can sell directly to buyers, cutting out the eBay middleman. What's more, all the traffic you'll get will be targeted - because the people who click through were interested in your auction to begin with.

This can be a really powerful technique, especially if you've already got an e-commerce site. Even if you haven't, you might find it worth your time to set up a website that does nothing but list your eBay inventory with a few dollars off each item, with a PayPal 'Buy Now' button for each item. Then simply make the link to your About Me page read 'Visit my website for even more bargains!', and you're done.

Now that you've seen how to drive visitors to your website, maybe you'd like a little help getting your auction in front of buyers. That's why our next email will show you the secrets of taming the eBay search engine.

Learn to Tame the eBay Search Engine.

2009-06-04T03:17:00.001-07:00

If you know what you're doing, you can really quickly find what you're looking for on eBay - and the more you know about how buyers find you, the easier you'll find it to be found. Here are a few golden searching rules.

Be specific: If you're searching for the first edition of the original Harry Potter book, you'll get further searching for 'harry potter rowling philosopher's stone first edition' than you will searching for 'harry potter'. You'll get fewer results, but the ones you do get will be far more relevant.

Spell wrongly: It's a sad fact that many of the sellers on eBay just can't spell. Whatever you're looking for, try thinking of a few common misspellings - you might find a few items here that have slipped through the cracks.

Get a thesaurus: You should try to search for all the different words that someone might use to describe an item, for example searching for both 'TV' and 'television', or for 'phone', 'mobile' and 'cellphone'. Where you can, though, leave off the type of item altogether and search by things like brand and model.

Use the categories: Whenever you search, you'll notice a list of categories at the side of your search results. If you just searched for the name of a CD, you should click the 'CDs' category to look at results in that category only. Why bother looking through a load of results that you don't care about?

Don't be afraid to browse: Once you've found the category that items you like seem to be in, why not click 'Browse' and take a look through the whole category? You might be surprised by what you find.

Few people realise just how powerful eBay's search engine is - a few symbols here and there and it'll work wonders for you.

Wildcard searches: You can put an asterisk (*) into a search phrase when you want to say 'anything can go here'. For example, if you wanted to search for a 1950s car, you could search for 'car 195*'. 195* will show results from any year in the 1950s.

In this order: If you put words in quotes ("") then the only results shown will be ones that have all of the words between the quote marks. For example, searching for "Lord of the Rings" won't give you any results that say, for example "Lord Robert Rings".

Exclude words: Put a minus, and then put any words in brackets that you don't want to appear in your search results. For example: "Pulp Fiction" -(poster,photo) will find items related to Pulp Fiction but not posters or photos.

Either/or: If you want to search for lots of words at once, just put them in brackets: the TV example from earlier could become '(TV,television)', which would find items with either word.

Don't get too tied up learning the ways of the search engine, though: a surprising number of eBay users don't search at all, preferring to look through eBay's category system and save their favourites in their browser. The next email will show you how to make sure these people can find you too.

Learn to Choose the Right eBay Product Category

2009-06-03T00:42:00.001-07:00

Some people think it's easy to choose the right eBay category, and often it is. Sometimes, though, it might not be quite clear exactly what to go for.

Why is it Even Important?

Plenty of people use the category system to find items, when they're not looking for something specific. If your item is listed in the wrong category - or you've just given up and listed it in 'Everything Else' - then these people aren't going to find your auction.

Also, listing items in the wrong categories is against eBay's rules, and eBay say they will remove any auctions that are wrongly categorised. They don't often actually do this, but it's not worth the risk - especially since breaking any rules can cause them to penalise your account, including losing PowerSeller status if you have it.

So What Can You Do?

eBay will suggest categories for you when you sell your item, if you type in a few words to describe the item on the category selection page and click 'search'. You can make the best of this feature by typing in exactly what your item is, with brand name and model number (if any), so that eBay can find the best category for you.

If that doesn't work for you, then search yourself for items like yours, and pay attention to which category most of them seem to be in (you can see this near the top of each item's description page). Try different words and see which ones come back with the most results. You can also browse through all the available categories from eBay's front page.

Remember that the more specific the category is, the better - use as many subcategories as are appropriate. Don't just list your HP laptop in the 'Computers' category, for example - list it in 'Computers > Laptops > HP'. Don't worry: your item will still appear in the 'Computers' category, as well as 'Computers > Laptops', because items listed in subcategories are always listed in every category above.

Take some time to look through all the categories and get familiar with the way eBay as a whole is laid out. After all, that's better than getting a few months down the line and finding that you still think of eBay's category system like it's some kind of scary jungle.

What if More Than One Category Fits?

Don't worry, eBay have you covered. For a small extra fee, you can list your item in an extra category, to increase the number of potential buyers who will see it. This isn't always worth it, though - some items only really fit properly in one category, and listing them in extra categories is just a waste.

Once you know where to list your item, the next step is to write your auction's title. The title is the most important thing about your auction - the difference between a good title and a bad title can be the difference between $10 and $100. That's why I'll take you through the dos and don'ts in the next email.

A Few eBay Title Writing Tips.

2009-06-01T22:37:00.001-07:00

Trying to be help your buyers find your auctions can be a truly daunting task. Most people only search eBay by title, not by description, and that means that you only have those 55 characters of the title to cover all the possible search terms. That's not easy. In this email, I'll give you a few pointers.

Don't bother with eBay clich???s: There are plenty of eBay auction titles that say things like "Super rare camera wow look low price". These are stupid things to put in your title, as no-one is going to search for them.

Think like a buyer: If you were looking for your item, then what exactly would you type into that box? If you think it'd help, try searching yourself to find someone else selling your item. What were the first things you thought of typing?

Think like other sellers: Keep an eye on which sellers are doing best with items like yours, and try to copy their title styles - if it works for them, it can work for you.

Be specific: You should be sure to write the item's brand and specific model number in the title, as people will often search only for this information. Make sure that you also say exactly what the item is.

A Few Examples.

Here are a few examples of good titles. They're real, and they're on eBay right now, making their sellers money. So what makes them good?

"Dell Latitude Laptop P3 500mhz Notebook PC Computer"

If you know about computers, you'll know instantly what this auction is selling. It has manufacturer (Dell) and product line (Latitude), followed by a few technical specifications (P3 500mhz is the processor speed). Notice also that the title includes the four words 'laptop', 'notebook', 'PC' and 'computer', as the seller wants people looking for any of those words to see his auction.

"OASIS Don't Believe the Truth CD Album (New)"

This auction for a CD is well formatted: it gives the artist name in capital letters, followed by the album name. It then manages to include the two key words 'CD' and 'album', as well as the word 'new' - that means that anyone searching for 'new oasis cd', 'oasis new album' and so on will find this auction.

"1840 Penny Black stamp, certificate, four margins"

Here's a slightly more obscure one, from the exciting world of stamp collecting. A penny black is one of the oldest and most famous stamps. It uses a few key words that collectors will consider important: 'four margins' indicates that the stamp has been cut out with some margins around it and so isn't damaged, and 'certificate' tells you that the item has a certificate of authenticity - it's a real penny black. Remember to use every bit of space to squeeze in as much important information as you can in the title.

So now that you've written a winning title, you need to start on a great description. The next email will show you how.

Important eBay Description Writing Tips.

2009-05-31T23:27:00.001-07:00

Once you've drawn the buyers in with your attractive title, the next thing to do is to tell them all about your item with the description. But just what should you write in your description?

At its heart, your item description is an ad. Without making it too obvious, you should be writing sales copy. You're trying to get buyers excited about your products, and that's usually hard - but on eBay, if you have the right thing to sell and give enough details, the buyers almost excite themselves.

Some Technical Details...

Include every technical detail you know, including the item's manufacturer, its condition, how big it is, where and when it was made, its history, and anything else special about it. Don't be too boring, though: the best descriptions are written in friendly, conversational language, and show a real knowledge of the item. Whatever you do, make sure you tell the truth!

Remember that most of the people who'll be buying your item will be just as knowledgeable about it as you are, if not more - this is their hobby, and they're experts. Don't feel like you need to explain the basics of the item: just go into as much technical detail as you can. As a rule, don't write anything in the description if you don't know what it means, as the chances are someone will, and if you've got it slightly wrong then you'll look like you don't know what you're talking about.

Interesting Details.

You might find that you enjoy writing a few things about how you got the item, why you're selling it, and who you think might like it. This isn't strictly necessary, but it gives your auctions some character and a personal touch, and can make people more likely to trust you. People might wonder what you're doing selling 500 CDs all at once, and if you tell them the reason, then they'll feel reassured that nothing dodgy is going on. If you're selling them because you're having a baby and you need the space, just say so.

Write as Much as You Can.

Leave nothing out of your description, even if that seems to you like it makes it cumbersomely long. There is no way you can be too thorough: someone, somewhere will appreciate that you took the time to write the extra information.

Don't assume that anyone who wants extra information will email you to ask a question: many buyers are shy and won't do it. Think of questions that buyers might have and add the answers to your description, as people generally tend to ask the same questions over and over again.

Each time a buyer does email you with a question, you should both answer their question and update your description so that it will include the answer next time. If people ask questions that are answered in the description, try putting these parts of the auction on a line alone, or in bold, to make them easier to notice.

In the next email, we'll focus on increasing the number of buyers who respond to your auctions.

Ten Tips for Increasing Your eBay Response Fast

2009-05-30T14:12:00.001-07:00

Ready to make money on eBay? So you've got the buyer in front of your auction, and they've read the description. They're must be interested, or they wouldn't be looking??? but just how can you push them over that line and make them leave a bid? Read on for some tips.

Improve your picture: In all that description writing, you might have missed the vital importance of your item's picture. A picture with bad lighting or an intrusive background looks amateurish and won't make anyone want to buy from you.

Add an About Me page: You'll be surprised how much you can reassure bidders just by creating an About Me page and putting a little bit about yourself on your business on there. You can also have a few special offers there for people who bother to look at the page, and let people subscribe to your mailing list so that you can email them updates.

Use SquareTrade: Signing up at SquareTrade and displaying their logo on your auctions shows that you are committed to have them resolve any disputes that arise. You always see this on PowerSellers auctions - it makes you look more professional.

Write terms and conditions: Have the 'small print' clearly visible on all your auctions, giving details of things like shipping times and prices, your refund policy, and any other business practices you might have. This helps build confidence with buyers.

Show off your feedback: Copy and paste a selection of the feedback comments you're most proud of to each item's description page, instead of making bidders go and look for it. If you have 100% positive feedback, be sure to write that on every auction too.

Add NR to your titles: If you have extra space in a title, put 'NR' (no reserve) on the end. Bidders prefer auctions that don't have a reserve price, and doing this lets them see that yours don't.

Benefits not features: Make sure your description focuses on the benefits that your item can give to the customer, not just its features. This is a classic sales technique. If you have trouble with this, remember: 'cheap' is a feature, 'save money' is a benefit.

List more items: If you want more people to respond to your items, then list more items! You might find you have better like listing items at the same time, instead of one-by-one. There's no need to use a Dutch auction - you can just keep two or three auctions going at once for an item you have more than one of in stock.

Accept unusual payment methods: To reach those last few buyers, accept payment methods that many sellers don't, like cheques.

Buy some upgrades: The best upgrade is the most expensive one, which makes your item appear first in search results. In crowded categories, you might find that this is worth the money.

Once you've got some buyers, you want to keep them coming back to you. The next email will show you how to turn one-time buyers into long-term customers.

An Easy Introduction to Bidding and Buying on eBay.

2009-05-29T16:51:00.001-07:00

Have you noticed that whenever you watch the TV,open a newspaper or have a conversation, people seem to be talking about eBay? If you've never used it and you've no idea what it's all about, then the chances are that you're starting to feel a little left out. But don't worry! This email contains everything you need to know about the basics of bidding and buying on eBay.

So What is eBay?

eBay is an online auction website - and not just any auction site, but the biggest one in the world. If you know how an auction works, then you already know how roughly eBay works. Someone adds something they want to sell to the site, and then buyers come along and place bids on it. The highest bid wins the item! It's that simple.

eBay being an online auction makes a big difference, though. Buying and selling are not reserved for any elite. eBay accept almost any item, no matter how small, and will then advertise it on their sites all over the world. It's a powerful combination of an auction and a slightly chaotic marketplace.

What is Bidding?

Bidding is when you say how much you will pay for an item in an auction. Bidding on eBay, however, doesn't work in exactly the same way as a normal auction, at least in theory. On eBay, you tell the site what the maximum you are willing to pay for each item is, and then eBay places the bids on your behalf. That means you could say you were willing to pay up to $100 for something and only have to pay $50, if that was the highest maximum bid anyone else placed.

It's not as complicated as it sounds - the best way to get used to it is to give it a try. First, the best thing to do is to go to the eBay website designed for your country. If you don't know the address for it, just go to www.ebay.com and it will tell you there. Now, on the front page you should see a big box marked 'search': just type in anything that you'd like to buy there.

Wasn't that easy? Now you should have a list of items for sale in front of you, along with how much people are currently bidding for them and the time when bidding ends for each item. If you click one of these, you can read the description, and then - if you're happy with the item and happy to pay more than the current highest bidder is - you can bid!

How Do I Bid?

Go ahead and scroll down to the bottom of an item's description page, and type the maximum you are willing to pay (your maximum bid) into the box. Then simply press the 'place bid' button - you will need to sign in once you press the button, or go through a quick registration process if you don't have an eBay username).

If someone else's maximum bid on that item is higher than yours, then eBay will tell you and give you the opportunity to bid again. Otherwise, you're now the new highest bidder! All you need to do now is wait until the end of the auction - if someone else outbids you, then eBay will email you and you can bid again.

All sounds great, doesn't it? But by now you might be wondering whether a site as chaotic as eBay can really be all that safe to buy from. That's why the next email in this series will be about your rights when you buy from eBay.

Your Human Rights as an eBay Buyer.

2009-05-28T17:56:00.001-07:00

When you buy things on eBay auction, you pay the seller before they send you anything. This means that you, as a buyer, are vulnerable to all sorts of problems. You might not get the items you have paid for, or they might be damaged or faulty. Luckily, you have two very important rights when you buy on eBay.

The Right to Receive Your Item.

Maybe the seller never sent the item, or maybe it got lost in the post. Whatever happened, you paid for the item. If it doesn't arrive in the post as described, you have the right to a replacement or a refund, whether it's the seller's fault or not.

The fact that you bought something on eBay doesn't mean that you don't have the exact same rights that you would have if you bought it in a shop (these rights are pretty much the same all over the world). Plus, under eBay's rules, the seller isn't allowed to change their mind about selling you the item: once the auction ends, it becomes a contract - you must buy and they must sell, or face eBay's penalties.

The Right for Your Item to Be as Described in the Auction.

Sometimes sellers don't wrap items properly, and so they get broken. Occasionally they write descriptions that are misleading or just plain wrong to begin with, leaving out vital details that would have caused you to change your mind about buying. If this happens to you, you again have the right to a replacement or a refund.

So How Do I Use My Rights?

First, you should take it up with the seller - most will be responsive, as do not want to have their reputation damaged when an upset buyer leaves negative feedback for all their future buyers to see. If that doesn't work, report them to eBay.

While eBay don't have many people handling complaints, they do have a relatively effective set of automatic process to handle common problems buyers and sellers have with one another.

Finally, if that doesn't work, then you should seek advice from consumer groups in your country, and as a last resort from the police. You should never have to get this far, though: problems on eBay that can't be resolved easily are extremely rare.

Don't Be Too Quick.

Remember not to get too annoyed and be unfair to the seller: nice sellers have agreed to give me refunds for undelivered items, only for me to find out a few weeks later that they were being held for me at the post office! Always try your best to communicate and think of everything that might have gone wrong: eBay works best when buyers and sellers sort out their problems together, instead of reporting each other to the authorities straight away.

More often that not receiving what they paid for, buyers have an altogether different problem: they knew what they were paying for, but didn't realise that what they were paying for was overpriced, low quality or a scam. The next email will give you a list of tips on how to avoid being ripped off on eBay.

Is your Buyer's reputation really important?

2009-05-27T13:51:00.001-07:00

Your reputation as a buyer (also called 'feedback rating') is the most important thing people see when they deal with you on eBay. It is on the basis of this little number that they will decide whether they can trust you or not.

Each time you buy or sell something on eBay, people can leave feedback for you, and you can leave feedback for them. This feedback can be positive, negative, or neutral, along with a comment. Your feedback rating, then, is worked out using a very simple sum: the number of positive feedback comments people have left for you, minus the number of negative ones. This means that someone with a feedback rating of 28, for example, might have 30 positive ratings and 2 negative ones.

If you are a considerate buyer, then you should find that positive feedback will just appear next to your username, without you needing to do anything. If you want to help it along, though, there are a few things you can do.

Always leave feedback for others: People will feel an obligation to leave feedback for you if you leave it for them (eBay will send you an email after each transaction to offer you the opportunity). Take the time to write a positive comment about sellers who do what they should and the chances are they'll do the same for you.

Pay promptly: Sellers love nothing more than to be paid promptly - paying as soon as the auction ends saves the seller all sorts of worry, especially if you pay by credit card or another electronic method. You will often find that your positive feedback appears within a few minutes of you paying if you pay as soon as the auction ends.

Don't be a difficult customer: Understand that your seller might take a day or so to respond to you, and perhaps a few days to send your item - harassing them is nasty and unnecessary, and won't get you good feedback.

Build relationships: If a seller sells a lot of a certain kind of thing you like, buy from them a few more times. They will be very happy to find a regular customer, and will go out of their way to leave positive feedback like 'a joy to deal with as ever'. Also, they might offer you a few special deals!

Sellers won't generally be reluctant to sell to buyers without much of a reputation, simply because it is the buyer who takes most of the risk in a transaction. It is worth remembering, however, that transactions where you are the seller and where you are the buyer are counted towards the same feedback total - so if you ever want to start selling, being a good buyer is especially worthwhile.

On eBay, people pay far more attention to sellers' ratings than they do to buyers' - most sellers can't be bothered to check their buyers' feedback, while bad feedback on a seller can (and should) be a dealbreaker. When you are buying, then, you need to worry more about the seller's reputation than you do about your own, and that's why the next email will be all about sellers' feedback ratings.

Learn How to Check an eBay Seller's Reputation (and Why You Should Do It).

2009-05-26T15:41:00.001-07:00

When you buy something from an eBay seller, you are giving them your hard earned money and hoping that you will get something in return. However many guarantees of safety eBay might make to you, nothing is certain: if you just give your money to scammers all the time without doing any checks then the chances are you won't get all of that money back.

That's why you should always check the seller's reputation, or 'feedback rating'. This is a quick and easy-to-read summary of their history as an eBay seller, which gives you some idea of whether or not you should trust them with your money. Buying anything is a calculated risk: you want to minimise that risk.

How to Check Feedback Ratings.

On each item's description page, there is a box in the top-right hand corner about the seller, with the title 'Seller information'. This contains the seller's name, their feedback score, and their positive feedback percentage, as well as any stars they have earned.

Different coloured stars are given to eBay sellers depending on their rating, in this sequence: yellow, blue, turquoise, purple, red, green, shooting yellow, shooting turquoise, shooting purple, shooting red. Anyone with a 'shooting' star is an experienced eBay member who you should be able to trust.

If you click on the seller's name, you can get to a more detailed view of their reputation - their 'member profile' page. This page shows the total number of people who gave them a positive or negative rating, as well as a breakdown by time. You can also see a complete history of all the comments that have ever been left about them, with the most recent first.

What to Look For.

You might assume that anyone with a very high number can be trusted, but that isn't always true. It is more important to look at their positive feedback percentage - and you should really consider anything below 99% to be a red flag and investigate further.

Take a look through the first visible page with the most recent transactions: are there any negative comments? What do they say? Take others' experiences into account, as they could happen to you if you deal with this person. Be careful not to punish sellers unfairly, however, if they did bad things in their past on eBay but have improved since. You should look at the breakdown by time and ignore any negative feedback that was left a long time ago. Equally, though, you should sit up and pay attention if a seller seems to have been left an out-of-character amount of bad feedback in the last month or so.

Now that you know who to trust, it is worth learning a little more about how the different kinds of auctions work, so that you don't accidentally slip up and make yourself and your feedback page look bad. Our next email will be about the different kinds of auctions you can expect to encounter during your time on eBay.

Understanding the Different eBay Auction Types.

2009-05-25T18:31:00.001-07:00

Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay. There are many people who don't like the idea that their item might sell for a far lower price than they intend. Equally, there are people who have hundreds of the same item and don't want to sell them individually. This email gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and how to spot them.

Starting from the most common Normal Auctions...

These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: you bid, others outbid you, you outbid them, and the winner gets the item. Simple.

Reserve Auctions.

Reserve auctions are for sellers who don't want their items to sell for less than a certain price - a concept you'll know about if you're familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that you will be told if your bid has not met the reserve price set by the seller. If no-one is willing to meet this price, then the auction is cancelled, and the seller keeps the item.

You can spot these auctions by looking out for 'Reserve not met' or 'Reserve met' written next to the current bid on an item's description page.

Fixed Price ('Buy it Now') Auctions.

Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. A seller might add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that you can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the 'best offer'. This means that you can negotiate a price to someone who offers their items using Buy it Now, which could be a great way to get a bargain on things that don't seem to be selling.

Fixed price auctions are easy to spot, as they have a little 'Buy it Now' logo either next to or instead of the current number of bids on the search listings page.

Multiple Item ('Dutch') Auctions.

These are auctions where a seller is selling more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then don't worry - everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.

What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that they say how many they have, and offer them at a fixed price. You can enter how many you want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.

After all this, you might find yourself facing a dilemma: when you have the option, should you bid, or should you just use Buy it Now and save yourself the hassle? That's what the next email will be about.

When should you Bid on eBay?

2009-05-24T21:31:00.001-07:00

You will often find yourself facing the choice of whether to pay a fixed price or keep on bidding. This choice might be presented to you in a single auction, or you might be choosing between different auctions of the different types. So should you use that 'Buy it Now' button or keep on trying to outbid everyone else? It's all a question of weighing up the advantages and disadvantages.

Buy it Now.

- The Advantages.

When you use Buy it Now, you know the asking price and you can take some time to decide whether to pay it or not - you can even negotiate. You don't need to keeping your eye on the auction, or get caught up in the last-minute bidding frenzy that is now inevitable on any popular item. Not only that, but the seller will be happy to get a fixed price for their item, and they're likely to nicer to you than usual. Some sellers can be a little resentful when they feel that you got a little too much of a bargain on their item.

- The Disadvantages.

You will almost certainly pay more for the item, especially with more expensive items. Also, it takes some of the fun out of eBay. Aren't you there for an auction, after all? If you want to pay a fixed price then there are thousands of online stores you could be visiting. It's like pressing 'collect' instead of 'gamble' on a fruit machine: it's the boring option. But then, maybe that's what you want.

These rules are relatively constant: there are few times when using Buy it Now would allow you to get something cheaper, or when bidding would be an easier way to do it. In the end, as with so many things in life, it's a simple question of price vs. convenience, and it's up to you.

There are those times, though, when the strategic use of the Buy it Now button can be a useful tool to help you outwit your competition. If the current bid is almost as high as the Buy it Now price, then why bid higher and keep the contest going? Clicking that button is a no-brainer. The same goes for times when a seller has, for some reason, set the Buy it Now price only slightly higher than their starting price for bids. Why bother to go through all the hassle of bidding?

You might also find that there are times when you should leave the Buy it Now button as a last resort: it can be a useful way of ending last-minute contests with a decisive 'this is mine' gesture.

In fact, there are all sorts of tricks you can use on eBay, if you want to get ahead of the game. Remember that most buyers on eBay are casual, and don't know what they're doing: a little knowledge can go a long way in getting you an advantage. Our next email will have a few tips and tricks for you.

Some Sucecssfull eBay Auction Buyers Tips and Tricks.

2009-05-22T18:41:00.001-07:00

eBay isn't just an auction and a marketplace. You can make money on eBay, that makes it different. Often it can feel quite a lot like a game. Like any game, you can get ahead if you think strategically, using your head to outwit the other buyers and get the best price. Here are a few things you can try.

Shop in the Summer.

This is simple, but effective. Summer is the quiet season on eBay - almost everything sells for less. While everyone else is out enjoying the sun, invest a little time to find some real bargains.

Beat Them by a Few Cents.

Outbid people by a few cents instead of a few dollars - if they don't check back before the auction ends, then you will be the winner. To avoid people using this tactic on you, though, always bid strange, hard-to-guess amounts instead of round numbers.

Play Dirty.

If you know when the auction ends, you can get in there at the very last second and outbid your rivals. The chances are that they won't have the time to sit in front of the auction waiting for it to end - as a rule, he who stays wins. If someone else does retaliate at the end of the auction, though, try not to get carried away in those last few seconds and end up paying too much!

Take Risks.

This is a strategy for the braver eBay buyer. All of the advice you will see for eBay beginners tells you to buy items that have good pictures, clear descriptions, trustworthy sellers and all the rest. If you're brave, why not take a risk and do the exact opposite?

Many buyers won't want that item from the seller with a feedback rating of 5, no picture and a one-line description. If you take a calculated risk and bid anyway, you might be able to make a tiny bid and win by default. There are people on eBay who make their living from winning auctions like these, taking good pictures of the item, writing a good description and then reselling it at a huge profit. Be careful, though: do this for long enough, and you will inevitably lose your money at some point. It's especially unwise to try it with very high-value items.

Avoid Bidding Wars.

There are few things on eBay that are so rare that you'll only see them once and never again. There are usually quite a few sellers who have an item. What's more, they will generally have more than one to sell, even if they haven't listed them all at once. Always check your seller's history to see whether they sell your item all the time - and if they do, then wait for the next one instead of bidding to the skies.

Now, there may come a time in your eBay life when you realise that you've screwed up your bid, and you wish there was an 'undo' button. Here's the good news for you: there is! The next email will be all about withdrawing your eBay bids.

When and How to Withdraw Your eBay Bid (and Why You Might Not Want To).

2009-05-21T22:31:00.001-07:00

eBay are strict about letting you withdraw your bid. They call it a 'bid retraction', and have a stringent set of conditions that you must meet before you are allowed to do it. Here are eBay's three acceptable reasons for withdrawing a bid.

You made a typographical error: This means that you accidentally typed the wrong amount into the bid box, bidding a far higher price than you meant to. This can be scary: imagine bidding $100 and accidentally adding an extra '0'! You are entirely allowed to withdraw your bid in this situation, and bid again if you want to.

The item's description changed: If you bid on something and then the seller updates the description, you have the right to withdraw your bid. It wouldn't be fair, after all, to force you to take something that you now realise you don't want.

The seller is uncontactable: If emails to the seller bounce and they don't answer their phone, then the auction obviously can't continue, and you can cancel it.

So How Do I Retract My Bid?

eBay hide away the bid retraction form a bit, because they don't like people using it. You can find it by going here: http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?RetractBidShow.

Now all you need is the item number from your auction: this can be found on the item description page's top right corner. If you can't see it on the page, look in your browser's title bar, and in any emails eBay have sent you about your bid on the item. Choose one of the three allowed reasons, click 'retract bid', and you're done.

Are There Any Consequences?

Well yes, there are. The more unethical among you might have considered that you could just cancel bids anytime you feel like it by saying that you accidentally entered the wrong amount. eBay are one step ahead of you. Each time you retract a bid, it is counted on your feedback page for all to see - and anyone with a lot of retracted bids looks more than a little dodgy. eBay also say that abusing the bid retraction feature could get you banned.

So is there a way to retract your bid without facing a penalty? There is if your seller is nice, and most are. Sellers can cancel bids on their auctions at any time, and if you email them with a half-decent excuse then most will be more than happy to do this for you. After all, it's not in their interest for their item to go to someone who won't like it, as you might leave negative feedback.

Of course, retracting your bid should still be a rare thing: you won't win auctions that way! If you've followed us this far, the chances are you've won an auction by now, or you're close - but you might be a little puzzled about what to do next. Our next email will give you a few pointers.

So You Won that eBay Auction! Now What Do You Do?

2009-05-20T20:50:00.001-07:00

It's a heady feeling when you win your first eBay auction: a mixture of happiness and perhaps just a little fear. After all, there seems to be so much to do before you can actually get your item. What do you do next?

The simple answer is: you send payment to the seller, as quickly as possible. The quicker you pay, the more your seller will like you, and the sooner your item will arrive. But how you go about it? That all depends on how you plan to pay.

PayPal.

PayPal is one of the most popular options for paying on eBay, to the point where eBay decided to buy the company. It allows instant electronic payment across the Internet. Money goes instantly from your credit or debit card to the seller's PayPal account, where they can either use it for Internet purchases or transfer it out to their bank.

eBay offer incentives for using PayPal, and almost all sellers now accept it. Its instant nature makes sellers very happy, and means that they can have your item packed and sent and leave you some positive feedback within a few hours of the auction ending. When paying by PayPal, you will be covered by PayPal's own insurances and guarantees, as well as any that your card might have.

Cheques and Money Orders.

This is payment the old-fashioned way, and will lead to a long wait to your item. You need to post the cheque or money order, then the seller has to take it to the bank and get it cleared, and only then do they send the item. The only reason to use this method is if either you or the seller distrusts electronic payment methods. If you're willing to go to the trouble with these sellers, though, you might get an item very cheaply, as most buyers just can't be bothered.

When you pay by cheque or money order, make sure to print the eBay order confirmation page (it will be emailed to you) and put it in the envelope with your payment. Underline or circle key information like your mailing address and the item number. Finally, remember to be patient: keep in contact with the seller, as it really can take a month or two before everything falls into place and your item turns up.

Money Transfers and Bank Deposits.

Some sellers may ask you to pay them using a wire service like Western Union, or simply give you a bank account number and ask you to pay money into it. Unless you really trust the seller, this is generally a bad idea - these methods are hard to trace and you're unlikely to get any money back if anything goes wrong. Paying in cash, it hardly needs to be said, is an even worse idea.

It's all a lot to take in, isn't it? I'm sure by now you've got a few questions, which is why the next email will be a little eBay buyer's FAQ. Let's hope we can solve any problems you might have.

The eBay Buyer's FAQ.

2009-05-19T23:35:00.001-07:00

So you have a question? Has something gone very wrong and you don't know what to do? Well, fair enough. Here are the questions that I hear all the time from buyers.

Does eBay have a Customer Service Department I Can Phone?

eBay are notoriously hard to contact, should you ever need to - it sometimes seems like they expect the site to run itself. You can email them, as long as you don't have your heart set on a coherent response: go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/index.html. You might have better luck in a 'live help' webchat here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/n-livehelp.html.

Only eBay Power Sellers (sellers with a very high feedback rating) get to phone customer service. If you really want to try your luck, type 'ebay [your country] phone number' into a search engine and you'll probably find something. Unfortunately, the chances are you'll have gone to all that trouble for the privilege of leaving an answerphone message.

It might seem cruel, but imagine the number of people who would call eBay every day with the silliest questions if they gave out their phone number everywhere. Its Wild West nature is, in a way, part of its charm.

eBay Sent Me an Email Saying They're Going to Close My Account. What Should I Do?

This email asks for your password, right? It's a scam, an attempt to frighten you, make you give up your details and then steal your account. eBay will never ask for your password or any other account details by email. eBay say that you should only ever enter your password on pages that whose addresses start with http://signin.ebay.com/. They even offer a special 'Account Guard' as part of their toolbar, which lets you check that you're not giving your password to a dodgy fake site. You can read more here: http://pages.ebay.com/toolbar/accountguard_1.html.

It Seems Too Good to be True. How Does eBay Make Money?

For you, the buyer, eBay is free. Sellers, though, pay all sorts of fees: a listing fee for each item they list, a final value fee (a percentage of what the item sold for). They can they pay optional fees for extra services, including Buy it Now, extra pictures, reserve prices, highlighting the auction, putting it in bold, listing it first in search results or even putting it on the front page. You can see a full list of fees at http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html.

It's obviously worth it to the sellers, though, or they wouldn't carry on using eBay. The system is quite efficient, and basically forces both eBay and the sellers to keep their profit margins as low as possible - otherwise prices will simply go too high and the buyers will stop buying.

How Safe is eBay?

Well, as it happens, that's the subject of our next email! All of eBay's safety services for buyers and sellers are in one place, called 'SafeHarbor'. SafeHarbor handles fraud prevention and investigation, helps with dispute resolution and keeps rule-breakers in check. Read all about it next time, and be safe.

SafeHarbor; eBay's Own Scotland Yard.

2009-05-19T00:50:00.001-07:00

SafeHarbor are the eBay police department. If you break the rules, commit fraud or try to buy something you're not supposed to, they'll be after you.

When You Don't Pay.

This is the most common rule buyers break - it's all too easy to just change your mind and try to get out of the auction. eBay regards every auction as a contract, and will punish you if you don't go through with your end of the deal. If you decide not to pay then expect to get a few nasty warning emails from eBay threatening you with banning if you do it again. Not to mention, of course, that you'll get a big negative 'DID NOT PAY' feedback comment from the seller.

So There Are Things You Can't Buy on eBay?

Yes, there are: more things than you'd expect. It makes sense that you can't buy firearms, for example, but you also can't buy fireworks - eBay are worried about the risks of sending them in the post. Laws in many countries mean that you can't buy alcohol or tobacco. You can't buy illegal or prescription drugs, stocks and shares, or lottery tickets. No underwear, either. You can't buy any little pet puppies or kittens, as animals are banned. If items infringe on copyright, like pirate CDs or software, then they're not allowed either.

eBay's policy is controversial, not least because it is somewhat random in its enforcement - and there have been accusations that they're more responsive to the copyright concerns of big businesses than to auctions for items that might actually be dangerous. If they do decide to go after you or the seller, though, they will cancel the auction and may also suspend your accounts.

Fraud.

eBay runs remarkably well considering how unregulated it is, but there are still fraudsters. If you are a victim of fraud - for example, you pay for an item that never turns up - then SafeHarbor will investigate for you. eBay's standard purchase protection will give you up to $200 back if your claim is successful. Be aware, though, that this can take a few months.

In addition, if you paid by PayPal, then they can usually reverse the transaction relatively easily and get you more (if not all) of your money back. This is another reason why many buyers prefer to use PayPal. Some sellers are a little scared of the effectiveness of the refund system, as they can send out items in good faith only to find that their buyer was fraudulent and the transaction has been reversed. If you're worried about fraud, as a buyer, you should always use PayPal.

What's that? You don't know how to use PayPal? Well, luckily for you, the next article is all about using PayPal to improve your eBay life.

Using PayPal on eBay.

2009-05-17T22:30:00.001-07:00

PayPal and eBay were made for each other - and now that eBay own PayPal, using them together is getting even easier.

What is PayPal?

People with PayPal accounts can send money to each other securely online. You can deposit money in a PayPal account from a bank account or a credit card, and withdraw money to your bank account. It is the most common way of paying on eBay, as well as being in widespread use on the rest of the Internet.

Opening a PayPal Account.

It's very easy to get a PayPal account. Just go to www.paypal.com and click the 'Sign Up' link. As a buyer, you should get a Personal account - you can always upgrade later if you decide to start selling. Then all you need to do is enter your address, phone number and email address, and create a password, and two secret questions. You'll be emailed a confirmation, and then you're done!

If you want to deposit money into the account now, then you need to register a credit or debit card or your bank details, and if you want to withdraw money then you need to register your bank details. There's no need to do anything like that just yet, though.

Paying with PayPal.

Paying with PayPal is very simple. When you win an auction and click 'Pay Now', you'll be given a list of payment methods the seller accepts. You should always check what the seller accepts before you bid, as there are still some sellers who won't take PayPal. If the seller does accept PayPal, it will already be chosen for you on the payment page.

Now you just need to press 'Next', type in your PayPal username and password and confirm the amount you want to pay. The first time you pay with PayPal you will need to enter the details of your card or bank account, but after that it will remember for you.

Becoming Verified.

You might have noticed that there is a limit to how much money you can send or withdraw using PayPal before you need to be verified. Verification has two steps. First, PayPal deposit some very small amounts of money in your bank account and you need to tell them how much they deposited. Second, they need to phone you to confirm your address and phone number. Once you've done that, all the limits on your account will be lifted. Log in at paypal.com and click on 'Get Verified' for more information.

While you've been paying for your items, what you might not have realised is that eBay occasionally offers money off coupons. But where do you get them? The next email tells you all about it.

How to Get eBay Coupons.

2009-05-16T14:20:00.001-07:00

You have to be very lucky to be one of the chosen few who receive an eBay coupon by email. These coupons are just like cash that you can use towards anything you buy on eBay - the only conditions being that you pay using PayPal, and that you are using eBay in the USA, Canada or the UK.

There are two ways to get eBay coupons.

Wait for that Email.

Of course, if you just wait, you'll be waiting for a long time. You have to do something to make yourself look like the kind of person eBay would want to tempt back with a coupon. If you open an account, buy a few medium-value things and then suddenly stop, the chances are you'll find yourself with some kind of special offer - but still, not always.

Go Searching.

The better way, of course, is to go and find the coupons that are out there on the web. This is quite hit-and-miss, as eBay don't always have an offer on, but when there's a valid code you can guarantee that it'll be everywhere within a few hours. Just type 'ebay coupon codes' into your favourite search engine, but be prepared to pick through some rubbish. You might find you have better luck if you use a more obscure search engine, where people haven't taken the trouble to game the results.

If going through search engines is too much for you, then just keep an eye out at any community forums you frequent, where someone might just post one. You probably have the best chances if you make a few friends on eBay's own forums at http://hub.ebay.com/community. It can be fun and educational to chat to the regulars there too, so you really have nothing to lose.

How do You Redeem Coupons?

A coupon is basically a code, with some being quite long. All you need to do is pay with PayPal as usual for the item you want to use the coupon towards. After you choose PayPal as your payment method, you will notice a heading that says 'Coupons, Gift Certificates and eBay Anything Points'. Type the coupon code in here: they can be long, so you should use copy-and-paste to make sure you get it right. Just click 'Redeem', and it's good to go.

Don't worry about causing problems for sellers by doing this, by the way - they have no way of even telling that you used a coupon, as eBay just pay them for the item as usual. Coupons are good for sellers as they attract more buyers to eBay, meaning that they get more bids on their auctions. After all, why would they object to getting more money without you actually having to pay it?

Since you're interested in making your eBay shopping more affordable, you might be interested to know that you can now buy eBay items on credit. Our next email will tell you all the details of eBay's new 'Buyer's Credit' program.

Introducing the New eBay

2009-05-15T11:05:00.001-07:00

In an effort to compete with more 'traditional' shops, eBay has started to offer finance agreements though PayPal for expensive items. This means that, if the seller decides to offer it, you can now spread the cost of an item into affordable monthly payments.

This is good for buyers, good for sellers, and good for eBay. Buyers can get the kind of credit agreements they're used to in shops. Sellers can make their items more attractive to buyers who might not have all the money then and there, but eBay still pays the sellers upfront - they don't have to wait to be paid each month or anything like that. Buyers make their monthly payments to PayPal's credit provider instead.

The APR of the Buyer's Credit program is currently 12.9%. You can pay back $999 or more over 12 months, or $1,999 or more over 24 months. There are also interest-free options for purchases of $199 or more over 3, 6 or 12 months.

The reason why some of these credit offers sound better than others is that it is up to the seller to decide how good the credit offer should be and pay extra to PayPal to offer it. To give their buyer the best promotion, for example, of no interest for twelve months, the seller must pay 3.75% of the item's cost to PayPal.

Basically, this means that sellers pay less when the buyers pay interest, and sellers pay the cost of the interest on the interest-free offers. PayPal makes its interest either way, buyers are happy to get credit, and sellers are happy to sell more.

Can I Get This Credit?

On items over $199, Buyer's Credit is now being automatically offered to buyers in the USA only. Just click the link when you buy something for more than $199 and you will be taken through the application process, which includes a 30-second check on your credit history. Then you just go through the buying process as normal, and you get your item before you've paid a penny.

Why are eBay Offering This?

eBay say they want to "level the playing field", to allow eBay businesses to compete with the big chain stores, and they also want to promote PayPal as a payment method. Relatively few buyers can afford the more expensive items on eBay all at once, and so the introduction of Buyer's Credit seems likely to significantly increase prices and sales at the higher end of the market.

It is worth noting that you can use Buyer's Credit anywhere PayPal is accepted, not just on eBay. PayPal say it's "like a credit card - minus the card!" You don't get a card number - you can pay with credit with just your email address and password.

The only thing left to do now, then, is find the best deal for that really special item - the expensive thing you've been wanting for ages but could never afford. But how can you be sure you're getting the best price? Try our tips and tricks for eBay searching, in the next email.

Tips and Tricks for Using eBay Search.

2009-05-14T15:35:00.001-07:00

If you know what you're doing, you can quickly find what you're looking for on eBay. Here are a few golden rules.

Be specific: If you're searching for the first edition of the original Harry Potter book, you'll get further searching for 'harry potter rowling philosopher's stone first edition' than you will searching for 'harry potter'. You'll get fewer results, but the ones you do get will be far more relevant.

Spell wrongly: It's a sad fact that many of the sellers on eBay just can't spell. Whatever you're looking for, try thinking of a few common misspellings - the chances are that fewer people will find these items, and so they will be cheaper.

Get a thesaurus: You should try to search for all the different words that someone might use to describe your item, for example searching for both 'TV' and 'television', or for 'phone', 'mobile' and 'cellphone'. Where you can, though, leave off the type of item altogether and search by things like brand and model.

Use the categories: Whenever you search, you'll notice a list of categories at the side of your search results. If you just searched for the name of a CD because you want to buy that CD, you should click the 'CDs' category to just look at results in that category. Why bother looking through a load of results that you don't care about?

Don't be afraid to browse: Once you've found the category that items you like seem to be in, why not click 'Browse' and take a look through the whole category? You might be surprised by what you find.

Few people realise just how powerful eBay's search engine is - a few symbols here and there and it'll work wonders for you.

Wildcard searches: You can put an asterisk (*) into a search phrase when you want to say 'anything can go here'. For example, if you wanted to search for a 1950s car, you could search for 'car 195*'. 195* will show results from any year in the 1950s.

In this order: If you put words in quotes ("") then the only results shown will be ones that have all of the words between the quote marks. For example, searching for "Lord of the Rings" won't give you any results that say, for example "Lord Robert Rings".

Exclude words: Put a minus, and then put any words in brackets that you don't want to appear in your search results. For example: "Pulp Fiction" -(poster,photo) will find items related to Pulp Fiction but not posters or photos.

Either/or: If you want to search for lots of words at once, just put them in brackets: the TV example from earlier could become '(TV,television)', which would find items with either word.

So once you've found your bargain item, bid for it and won it, what if it all goes wrong? Don't worry - eBay has a thorough dispute resolution procedure, and we'll cover it in some depth in the next article, so you'll be prepared if the worst happens.

When Things Go Wrong: How to Resolve eBay Disputes.

2009-05-13T20:40:00.001-07:00

eBay has quite an intricate and long-winded dispute resolution procedure. In this email, I'll try to break each step down for you, so you can see what's involved and how long it takes.

As an example, let's go through what you would do if you paid for an item but didn't receive it from the seller.

Before you open a dispute: Give the seller a chance to send the item before you get ahead of yourself and open a dispute. If you're concerned about how long the item is taking to arrive, the first thing you should do is send a polite email to the seller saying that you haven't received it and asking whether they have posted it. You should also check your own email address in eBay's options, to make sure that the seller can reply to you. As a last resort before opening a dispute, you should try to call the seller on the number eBay has for them. You might have to pay long-distance charges for the call, but that's better than dragging the auction through mediation for months.

Step 1 - You open an Item Not Received dispute: You can do this here: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?InrCreateDispute.

All you need to do is enter the item number and say that you did not receive the item.

Step 2 - eBay contacts the seller: eBay sends the seller an email that tells them that you've said you didn't receive the item. Then can then choose to tell you one of three things: that your payment hasn't cleared yet, that the item is in the post, or that they'll give you your money back. The seller can also tell eBay that they would like to send you a message.

Step 3 - You talk to the seller: You try to work out what's happened directly with the seller, sending messages back and forward. Hopefully they'll agree to give you a refund for the sake of their feedback, or your item will turn up in the post during this time.

Step 4 - Closing the dispute: After 30 days (or 10 days if the seller didn't respond), you have two options to close the dispute: either you were satisfied or you weren't. If you weren't satisfied, then you can claim under eBay's purchase protection program for up to $200.

Independent Dispute Mediation.

If you don't want to go through eBay's own process, and especially if the auction was for a high-value item, then you can use a third-party mediator. eBay recommend SquareTrade, at www.squaretrade.com, who provide mediation to many websites where there are buyers and sellers. They will contact the seller on your behalf and then mediate as you negotiate what to do from there.

Sellers who are committed to going through SquareTrade's mediation for any disputes can sign up to display the 'SquareTrade seal' on their auctions. This gives their buyers $250 fraud protection, and shows that their identity has been independently verified so they are who they say they are.

When your sellers aren't in such good standing, though, you need to be careful to avoid being a victim of fraud. There are a few scams that you especially need to look out for - we'll cover them in the next email.

Watch Out for eBay Automobile and Computer Scams.

2009-05-12T19:10:00.001-07:00

There aren't that many scammers on eBay - but the ones there are tend to be greedy. This means that they will always try to pull their scams on high-value items like cars and computers, so that they can make a lot of money quickly. Since buyers generally buy these items very rarely, they may not know about the various scams out there.

Automobile Scams.

With cars, you will generally find that scammers try to get you to send them money in advance, for whatever reason. For some reason, some people aren't all that reluctant to pay 50% or 25% of the money before delivery using a relatively insecure payment method, especially on a car. They reason that the seller will obviously deliver it, as they'll want the other half of the money.

But there never was a car! Pictures of cars aren't hard to find, and the experienced scammers will have a whole library of pictures of different cars. The seller just got your $5,000 for nothing, and you can leave them all the negative feedback you like. They'll just go and open another eBay account and find their next sucker.

While it's not an outright scam, what you might find is that the car does turn up, but simply doesn't live up to the description - it has been oversold, in the tradition of used car dealers through the ages. If this happens to you then you should open an eBay dispute and say your item was not as described - you might get a partial refund.

Computer Scams.

If you bid in a computer auction but don't win, the seller might email you to ask whether you would like to buy a computer the same as the one they just sold through their own website.

This is a bad idea! You have no guarantee that the item will ever arrive, and you haven't just given them your money - you've given them your credit card details too.

There are sellers with nothing but positive feedback who use this scam often - and since you won't be able to leave them any feedback on the transaction, their reputation will stay that way. If you complain to eBay that you bought an item outside the site and got scammed, they will tell you to get lost and not do it again.

How to Beat the Scams.

There are lots of ways to beat the scams. First, whenever you buy anything expensive, be sure to check your seller's reputation thoroughly. Make sure they have sold items of a similar high value before, and haven't just sold a string of $10 items to get their feedback rating artificially high. If you want to be even more cautious, insist that the money is placed in an escrow service (eBay recommend escrow.com - don't use any other service unless you're sure of it).

To be honest, it's generally quite a bad idea to use eBay to buy things like cars and computers to begin with - you can get them anywhere, and the discounts aren't that big any more. It's better to use eBay for those rare, special things that you can't find anywhere else. The next email will give you some tips for buying collectibles.

Tips for Buying Collectibles on eBay.

2009-05-11T22:20:00.001-07:00

Buying collectibles is one of the most enjoyable things to do on eBay, simply because you can find so many things that you just can't get anywhere else. Here are a few tips to help you on your way.

Find your Category.

You'll probably find that all the items you're after are listed in a single category. Add this category to your browser's Favorites, and keep coming back.

Look for Mistakes.

If you collect something, the chances are you know a lot about it. This can be your opportunity to make a mint from a seller's mistake. They might not realise that they have a rare version of an item, or they might have left off the key information that makes it valuable. If you're willing to email the seller and ask them a few questions about the item to confirm that it is what you think it is, then you should be able to buy items like these. You can then resell them at a big profit, if that's what you want to do.

Don't Always Believe Descriptions.

If you find something you haven't heard of, and the description calls it 'rare', don't assume that it actually is. Far too many sellers just put 'rare' into all of their descriptions - the chances are that the item is common and has just been described wrongly. Don't bid unless you know what you're buying.

Stalk Other Users.

When you collect something, you'll probably notice that there are four or five sellers who seem to come up with consistently good items - and the same buyers buying them. Add their user pages to your Favorites, and check back often to see what they've got - or what they're bidding on - that you might be interested in.

Don't Get Too Attached to an Auction.

There are millions of items being listed every day on eBay - whatever you want, it'll come around again, and if you don't get it there are plenty more things to buy. This is similar to the golden rule of negotiating: always be prepared to walk away. If you can't walk away, then expect to pay over the odds. There are few things so rare that another seller won't have one to sell. Go and bid in a lower-priced auction, instead of getting into a bidding war in one that is already expensive.

Beware of the Postage.

If you collect lots of small things with a relatively low value, you might end up paying as much for postage as you do for each item. You should take these costs into consideration when you make your bid. Another good strategy is to always buy a few things at once from the same buyer, as they will almost always offer you a discount on the postage.

When you're bidding, you might notice that some auctions go more slowly than others, going days at a time without any new bids. The next email tells you how to take advantage of these 'slow' auctions.

Taking Advantage of

2009-05-10T21:50:00.001-07:00

Some auctions get hundreds of bids, but some go much more slowly, getting only a few bids or even none at all for days. Auctions are generally much slower during the summer months than they are in the winter - and sales on eBay are slowing each year, as more sellers than buyers sign up, hoping to get rich quick. There are a number of ways that you can take advantage of slower auctions to get the best price.

Wait to Bid.

If you bid, then everyone can see you're interested - and that might make them interested too. Leaving the item alone for as long as you can bear will make it look less popular, and keep the price down so you can come in at the last minute and get a bargain.

Make an Offer.

If the seller is selling an item using 'Buy it Now' and it still hasn't sold when the auction is about to end, use eBay's 'Best Offer' service to make them an offer on it. The chances are they've listed the item two or three times before, and they'll be so annoyed at the prospect of re-listing it yet again that they'll accept your offer just to get rid of the thing.

Conspire with Other Buyers.

You might not have thought of this, but if there are two auctions for the same item and only you and one other buyer are bidding, why not get together and work out a 'you take this one and I'll take that one' deal? This avoids you raising the price on both auctions just to get one each. If you make a few friends, you can even work together on auctions long-term, taking it in turns to bid.

Be Snobbish.

Send the seller emails asking questions about the condition of the item, and making it very clear that you are a discerning buyer and will only accept things of the highest quality. This will make them feel better about selling you their item for less.

Don't Feel Guilty.

There really are too many sellers on eBay now, to the point where you can get common items at very low prices. Long-term, this will probably force those sellers out of business, but that's the way a market works - it's supply and demand.

Buy in Bulk.

When auctions are slow, many sellers will have had the same stock for a long time. If you offer to take ten things off their hands all at once then you can almost name your price - the chances are that they'll fall over themselves to give you a good deal. If you come back again and buy another ten items then they'll love you even more.

The longer you spend on eBay, the more experienced you'll become - and the greater the chances are that you'll stumble across an auction for something very odd, and quite unexpected. In the next email, you'll hear all about the strangest eBay items ever sold.

Benefits of Buying on eBay

2009-05-08T23:40:00.001-07:00

Are you one of the millions of Americans who prefers to shop online? Shopping online is popular because it is quick, easy, and convenient. It is also popular because, when shopping online, you have a number of different options, as there are a number of different retailers that you can choose to shop online with. One of those is eBay. If you aren???t already shopping on eBay, you may want to look into it, as there are a number of benefits to doing so.

Perhaps, the greatest benefit of shopping on eBay is all of the products that you have to choose from. eBay isn???t like a traditional retailer. They are actually an online auction website. eBay has other internet users sell products that they have to consumers, just like you. With this type of set up, eBay has an unlimited number of products to choose from. For instance, you can buy real estate, cars, clothing, toys, pet supplies, home d???cor, entertainment items, and much more on eBay. Basically, anything you are looking for, within reason of course, you should be able to find on eBay.

Another one of the many benefits to shopping on eBay is that you have a number of sellers to do business with. As it was previously mentioned, eBay allows all internet users to sell items that they no longer need or want to own. Over the past few years, the popularity of eBay has reached an all time high. This is what has lead to an unlimited number of eBay sellers. Since many sellers are selling the same products or similar products, you should have the option to choose who you want to do business with. When buying a product online, particularly one that is offered for sale by a number of different sellers, you are advised to examine product costs, shipping and handling costs, as well as each seller???s feedback. Doing so will make shopping on eBay a positive experience for you.

It is also important to note that eBay is easy to use. In fact, ease of use is one of the many other reasons why eBay has become so popular in recent years. As an eBay buyer, you need to create a free eBay account. That account will allow you to buy on eBay. Once you are a registered eBay member, you can easily start searching for products that you are looking for. For instance, if you are looking for a particular music CD, you can just type the artist name and album name into eBay???s search box and you should be presented with a number of auctions which have your CD available for sale. If you are only looking to spend a certain amount of money or purchase a CD that is located in the United States, you can perform an advanced search. An advanced search makes it easier to find what you need.

The above mentioned benefits, to doing your online shopping through eBay, are just a few of the many that exist. In fact, even if you are unsure as to whether or not you want to start shopping on eBay, you are advised to at least examine it. eBay guests can navigate the site to get a taste of what items can commonly be found for sale on eBay. With a large selection of products, a number of sellers to choose from, and ease of use, there is a good chance that you may find yourself doing the bulk of your online shopping on eBay. And, if you end up doing so, you will definitely not be alone.

Buying On eBay: The Importance of Checking Feedback

2009-05-07T22:35:00.001-07:00

Are you interested in using eBay to shop online? If you are, you are definitely not alone, as eBay is one of the most popular online marketplaces. As you likely already know, eBay is an online auction website; an online auction website that allows internet users to post items that they have in their possession, but not longer want or need, for sale. While this tends to give you a large number of products to choose from, it can make getting scammed on eBay relatively easy; however, there is a way that you cannot fall victim to some of the most common eBay scams. That way involves checking feedback.

If this is your first time using eBay, you may not necessarily know that buyers and sellers are able to leave each other feedback; in fact, they are encouraged to do so. Now, if another eBay buyer, just like you, were to have a positive experience, like they got their item in a timely matter and it was what they expected, they would be likely to leave a positive feedback. Positive feedbacks are marked with green circles with plus signs in them. On the other hand, if an eBay buyer has a negative experience, like they never received their item or it was in poor condition, a negative comment may be left. Negative comments are market by red circles with negative signs in them. In addition to positive or negative comments, eBay buyers are also able to leave neutral comments, which are commonly used when a problem arose, but the seller in question fixed it in a timely matter. Also, next to the positive, negative, or neutral markings, eBay buyers can also leave comments.

Although you might not necessarily think about it, the feedback that an eBay seller has can give you insight into the type of service that you may receive. As a way, this feedback serves as reputation for an eBay seller. When shopping at a traditional retail store, there is a good chance that you wouldn???t shop at a store that is known for selling poor quality products or a store that has poor customer service. The same thinking should be applied when using eBay. You don???t want to business with an eBay seller that has a number of poor feedback ratings, as it is a sign of what may come.

If you are interested in examining the feedback of an eBay seller, you can easily do so. When visiting an online auction listing page, say a listing for a new set of hair clippers, in the right hand corner there should be a ???Meet the Seller,??? section. That section has information on the seller???s eBay feedback, as well as a link that you can click to see each individual feedback rating. You are urged to click that link. When examining an eBay seller???s feedback, you need to remember that it is not uncommon for a seller to deal with disgruntled customers; customers that may leave negative feedback for no reason at all. That is why it is not uncommon to see a few negative feedback ratings; however, be on the lookout for any eBay seller who has an excessive number of them or a new eBay seller that has a large number of negative feedback ratings, as they are someone you should try and avoid.

In short, examining the feedback ratings or comments of an eBay seller will only take a few minutes of your time, but it may end up saving you a considerable amount of money. When shopping on eBay, it is advised that you use your best judgment. A number of negative feedback ratings may be a sure sign that an eBay seller may be out to scam you, in one way or another.

Common eBay Scams to be on the Lookout For

2009-05-06T22:15:00.001-07:00

Are you looking to start buying on eBay? If you have never used eBay before, you may not necessarily know that it is relatively easy to fall victim to an eBay scam. While eBay is considered a safe place to shop online, there are a number of eBay scams that you should be on the lookout for. Knowing what these scams are, before you start shopping on eBay, will help to reduce or completely eliminate your chances of becoming a victim.

Before we start to examine some of the most common eBay scams that you should be on the lookout for, it is important to mention why those scams exist. eBay is considered an online market place or an online auction website. Just about anyone with an internet connection and an eBay account can start eBay sale auctions. This is what makes it possible for scammers to trap innocent shoppers like you. While eBay does work to combat these scams and eliminate the individuals behind them, there are some people who slip through the cracks. That is why you will always want to be on the lookout for eBay scams.

Speaking of common scams to be on the lookout for, one of the most common scams involves selling a product that the seller actually doesn???t have. This type of scam is sometimes difficult to spot, but there are signs that you should look for. When posting an eBay auction, an eBay seller should have pictures of the item or items that they are selling or at least accurate descriptions. With some items, such as books, CDs, or movies, eBay sellers are given the option of using a stock photo; one that is provided by eBay. All other items should have a genuine photo, taken by the seller. If not, you may want to refrain from making the purchase, as it may mean that the seller isn???t even in possession of the item or items that they are trying to sell you.

In addition to selling items that they don???t even have available, another common eBay scam involves lying about the items that they do have. For instance, there are some eBay sellers, although a small number of them, who claim that they have an item, like a car radio, which is in brand new condition, but it isn???t always. It is not uncommon for some eBay seller to outright lie or strength the truth a little bit. Unless you have a watchful eye, you may not find out until it is too late. That is why it is advised that you not only purchase items from eBay that are accompanied by pictures, but that you also examine those pictures. You will want to try and see if something really does look new or if it is in ???like new,??? condition.

Another common eBay scam that you will want to look for involves those who want your personal information. This type of scam is implemented in two different ways. First, there are a small number of sellers who tell you that they need your credit card information, but they shouldn???t. Whether you pay by PayPal, personal check, or money order, you shouldn???t give out any personal information to any eBay sellers, even if you are buying an item from them. If you are not using PayPal, just send a check or money order to the address given to you, nothing else needs to be done.

The second eBay scam that involves trying to get your personal information is phishing. Phishing scams are increasing in popularity, making it easier to fall victim to one. With phishing scams, a scammer sends out an email that looks like it is from eBay. The email is often accompanied with a message stating that something is wrong with your account and that you need to click on the attached link, sign in and fix it. This is a scam. What they are trying to do is get your eBay account information. Once that has been done, they may have access to stored personal account numbers, as well as the ability to use your eBay account to make fraudulent purchases.

The above mentioned eBay scams are just a few of the most common ones that you may run across. Although there are those on eBay who are trying to scam or take advantage of you, the chances of falling victim to a scam on eBay are actually quite low, as long as you proceed with caution.

Common Items Found for Sale on eBay

2009-05-05T20:34:00.001-07:00

Are you interested in doing your online shopping through eBay? If you are, you are one of millions of Americans who are. What is nice about eBay is that you can find just about anything on there, within reason of course. If you are interested in shopping eBay, but you never have before, you may be wondering what type of items can be found on eBay. If you would like to learn more, you are urged to continue reading on.

When it comes to eBay, as previously mentioned, you can buy just about anything, within reason. What that in mind, there are some popular items that can be found on eBay. One of those items is entertainment items. When speaking of entertainment items, you will find that the word ???entertainment,??? encompasses a handful of different items. For instance, there is entertainment memorabilia that be found online. These memorabilia pieces commonly include movie posters, signed merchandise, and so on. Entertainment also includes items such as DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs, television sets, DVD players, VHS players, radios, gaming consoles, as well as video games. Basically anything that you can use to entertain yourself can be associated with entertainment.

In addition to entertainment items, one of the next most commonly purchased items on eBay includes clothing. In today???s society it seems as if clothing keeps on rising in costs. Even traditional discount department stores are starting to charge more for their clothing. With clothing on eBay, it is nice because you can find a wide variety of different clothing pieces, for all different types of people. For instance, you can find casual clothing, elegant clothing, or school or work uniforms, all for men, women, children, babies, and toddlers. In fact, eBay is also well-known for their large selection of plus size clothing. Many of the most popular clothing pieces found on eBay are name brands being sold in new and used conditions at discounted prices.

Home and garden items are also commonly sold on eBay. As with entertainment items, home and garden encompasses a number of different items. With the home part, it is not uncommon to find home d???cor pieces, such as pottery or wall art, available for sale. Also, furniture, bedding, bathroom supplies, and kitchen supplies, can commonly be found for sale on eBay. As for the garden part, a wide range of gardening supplies and accessories can be found for sale on eBay. For instance, you can purchase gardening tools, gardening books, garden statues, and other landscaping d???cor pieces.

Toys are another popular item type that is regularly bought and sold on eBay. What is nice about toys is that many come in new and used conditions. If you are interested in buying toys for your children and you are like most parents, you don???t have a problem buying used, as the toys will start to show wear from your own children soon enough anyways. That is why toys are some of the most popular items sold on eBay. As with clothing, it is common to find a large selection of name brand toys available for sale.

One thing that you may not realize that you can buy on eBay is real estate. Yes; real estate can be listed for sale on eBay.com. A large number of for sale by owner home sellers use eBay to quickly sell their properties when they think that they are reaching a dead-end or when they need money in hurry. As with purchasing any item on eBay, when buying real estate, you are advised to do the proper amount of research and use your best judgment. Another big item that can regularly be found for sale on eBay is that of vehicles. A large number of vehicle owners are turning to eBay to sell their vehicles; many of which are in excellent condition and others to be used for parts only.

As you can see, there are an unlimited number of items that can be found for sale, at any given moment, on eBay. What is amazing is that the above mentioned items are just a few of the many that can be found. Even if you have yet to register an eBay account, you can start examining the many products that you can buy.

eBay and Customer Service

2009-05-05T00:54:00.001-07:00

If you are running an eBay business, you may not
realize that the need for great customer service still
exists ??? even for online auctions. When a buyer
receives quality customer service from you, they
will potentially do one of two things ??? or both. They
will give you great feedback, and they may look for
more of your auctions in the future. If you hope to
make a living from eBay, you have to stop thinking
of it as an ???auction??? and start running it like a
???business.???

If you owned a brick and mortar business, how
would you treat your customer while they were
standing at your counter, waiting for you to finish
ringing up their order? You would be helpful and
respectful of course! You would do everything that
you could to guarantee that customers return to
your establishment in the future. You would bend
over backwards to make sure that their buying
experience with you was both satisfactory and
enjoyable. Why would you do any less at the
close of one of your eBay auctions?

First, act quickly at the close of your auctions.
Contact the winner, and congratulate them. Describe
the item they have won and how the item will be
shipped ??? even if this information is already part of
the description for the auction. Remind them of their
winning bid amount, and give them payment options
and instructions. Let them know when the item will
be shipped.

Close your email by thanking them for participating
in your auction. You might even take this opportunity
to tell them about other open auctions that you have
as well. Think of this contact with the winner as a
conversation that you are having with a customer
who is standing at your counter in that imaginary
brick and mortar store.

Once the payment and shipping details have been
taken care of, contact your buyer again. Let them
know when the item was shipped ??? the exact date
and time ??? and when it is expected to arrive on their
end. During this contact, let them know that if they
have any problems or questions, that they should
contact you through the eBay site. If they do
contact you in the future, make sure that you
answer promptly, and that you do all that you can
to make them happy with their purchase ??? even if
it means issuing a refund.

Yes. You should be open to issuing refunds,
depending on what the item is. Furthermore, you
should issue refunds promptly. Of course, it is
reasonable to expect the buyer to return the item to
you, at your expense, before the refund is issued ???
but once you receive the item, issue the refund
promptly. This is just good business!

eBay and Drop shipping ??? Getting the Product to

2009-05-03T23:29:00.001-07:00

Your Customer

If you hope to own an eBay business, and make a
full time living at it, you can easily make that dream
come true ??? even if you don???t have a product of your
own to sell. eBay provides many people who want to
quit their corporate nine-to-five jobs with a way to
make a good living, without having to put up a lot of
start up capital. This is made possible with the help
of drop shippers. Drop shippers send merchandise to
the customers of business owners. If you have an
eBay business, you are a business owner. This will
allow you to offer a wide variety of stock in your
eBay store, without having the need to warehouse
all of those products!

All you have to do is set up your auction, and sell
the product. You then pass the customer???s
information on to the drop shipping company. The
drop shipper does the rest, and they will even use
your company information, as well as your company
logo if you have provided it to them. When the product
arrives at your customer???s home, they will have no idea
that your company didn???t send it. The drop shipper
will package, label, and ship the products that you
sell, allowing you more time to set up even more
auctions, for greater profits.

You must establish a relationship with several drop
shipping companies in order to become successful.
In the beginning, most companies will require you to
pay for the items that your customers order before
they are shipped. You need to fill orders in a
timely manner, so you should pay for the items with
a credit card for speedy service. Eventually, you will
be able to have the drop shipper fill your orders, and
then bill you for them later.

When you set up your eBay auctions, make sure
that your reserve price is set higher than the price
that the drop shipper will be charging you for the
item. The idea, of course, is to earn a profit!
Depending on the item you are selling, a markup
of about 10% should be about right, but you should
do some research to see if the item is selling for a
lower price in another eBay auction, or through
other online sources.

By starting an eBay business using the drop
shipping method, there is essentially no financial risk
involved. The product will be sold before you pay the
drop shipper for the item. This is one of the few
businesses where you can actually turn a profit
before you have expenditures!

eBay Business Solutions

2009-05-02T02:34:00.001-07:00

If starting an eBay business is your goal, as
opposed to just auctioning a few items off for some
extra cash, you need to use the eBay business
solutions that are available to you. Because eBay???s
success depends on the success of its sellers,
they strive to help you at every turn. eBay Business
Solutions is the key to starting an eBay business.

eBay Stores is one of the better solutions for eBay
business owners. An eBay store will allow you to
list multiple quantities of the same item, and allow
you to keep them listed for longer time periods.
eBay Store owners also enjoy lower auction fees,
and have access to advanced merchandising tools.
Eventually, you should consider upgrading to an
eBay Pro Store, which will allow you to customize
your storefront with your own brand and web
address.

There are many other eBay Business Solutions,
such as seller tools, the eBay solutions directory,
and the merchant solution center, but you should
definitely start with your very own eBay store,
followed by an eBay Pro Store.

eBay Buyers: eBay Safety Tips You Should Know

2009-05-01T00:39:00.001-07:00

Are you interested in shopping on eBay? If you are, you are definitely not alone. Over the past few years, the popularity of eBay has literally skyrocketed. Since eBay is considered an online auction website, one that allows internet users to post their belongings for sale, it generates a huge marketplace with millions of items for sale, at any given time. Although eBay is a great place to do your shopping online, it can be unsafe; however, there are a number of ways that you can protect you and your finances when using eBay to do your online shopping.

One of the most important things that you need to remember when using eBay is that you created a sign in name or a screen name for yourself. That screen name is used so that you do not have to provide other eBay users with your real name. Yes, if you were to make a purchase online, you would need to give the eBay seller your real name and address, but that is the only time that you should do so. You should never give an eBay seller information about yourself, unless you have won an item from them on the eBay website.

In connection with giving out personal information about yourself, you also do not want to give out any other personal information about your finances. eBay uses a secure checkout program, which enables you to make payment arrangements on your own. The most secure way to make purchases online is through PayPal, but many other sellers accept personal checks or money orders. With PayPal, the eBay seller you are doing business with actually doesn???t get your credit card information, as all funds are transferred electronically. For that reason, there is no reason to give an eBay seller your bank account information or your credit or debit card information, even if you are buying an item from them.

When buying an item on eBay, you may place most of your focus on the price that the item is listed at, if it is a buy it now auction. If it is in a traditional auction listing, you may be focusing on the current highest bid. While this is important to do, you will also want to place a focus on the total cost of shipping. It is not uncommon for eBay sellers to sell their items for a low price, but charge a high amount in shipping. Also, be cautious of a seller who doesn???t provide you with shipping information upfront. Often times, you will find this is a front for a scam. After winning the auction, you are responsible for paying for the product, as well as the shipping costs, which often turn out to be high.

To prevent you from doing business with a shady eBay seller, one who may be out to take your money, you will want to examine the feedback of each eBay seller that you are interested in doing business with. While a few negative feedback ratings are not uncommon, you will want to be cautious of new eBay sellers with even just one or two negative ratings. Basically, when shopping on eBay, you need to use your best judgment. If something looks suspicious, there is a good chance that it is. To prevent yourself from being scammed or losing money, you will just want to make sure that you use your head, as it is often the best sign of trouble to come.

It is also important to mention phishing scams. These types of scams are taking place off of the eBay website, but they are, in a way, related to eBay. There are a number of scammers, who are creating fake eBay emails, as well as fake eBay sign in screens. These emails are prompting you to sign into your eBay account. Once you do so, the scammer will have access to your eBay account, as well as some of your personal information. Do not fall victim to these scams. All eBay messages should appear in your eBay account, which can be accessed once you log in directly from eBay.com.

eBay is a great place to buy and sell on the internet. You shouldn???t let the possibility of getting scammed prevent you from shopping online. As long as you keep the above mentioned points in mind, you should be able to do your online shopping on eBay, without having any problems.

eBay Courses ??? Are They Worth It?

2009-04-29T21:19:00.001-07:00

There are numerous eBay courses that are available
on the Internet today. These books and courses are
designed to help you become more successful on
eBay. Unfortunately, not all of these courses are
worth the money that you will pay for them. Some of
them are full of what used to be good information ???
when it was relevant ??? and others are simply junk
information, written by someone trying to make a
quick buck.

Before you purchase any eBay course, find out when
the course was written. If it was written in 2004, for
instance, you don???t want it. Even though that hasn???t
been very long ago, eBay changes so fast that much
of the information will not be relevant. However, if the
original issue of the course was written several years
ago, but the course is updated each year, this will
probably be a good course for you.

Again, use care when purchasing eBay courses.
They can be quite helpful and enlightening, but only
if the information in them is still good. Talk to other
eBay sellers ??? preferably successful ones ??? to find
out what courses are recommended.

eBay Data and Research ??? How Important Is It?

2009-04-29T00:44:00.001-07:00

eBay is a business anyway you look at it. Sure, it is
a great deal of fun for both the buyers and sellers,
but when you look at it from another view point, you
will see that it is a business from the seller???s point
of view, the buyer???s point of view, and eBay???s point
of view. 40 million dollars a day travels through eBay.
Selling items on eBay successfully is an art, and
eBay offers many different forms of Data and
Research to ensure that you are selling the right
items, to the right people, in the right way.

Some of the data and research is not free, but much
of it is. The available resources include hot items by
category, eBay Pulse, merchandising calendar,
sales reports, marketplace research, buyer
behavioral report, and the eBay solutions directory.
These tools are quite easy to use, and the
information that can be gleaned from them is
extremely valuable.

The Data and Research tools are all accessible
through your seller???s account, by clicking on the
???Advance Selling??? link. Learn to use those tools, and
get your piece of that $40 million eBay revenue each
day.

eBay Gift Certificates ??? The Gift Solution Suitable for

2009-04-27T23:54:00.001-07:00

Everyone

We all know one. There is at least one in every
family, and one in every circle of friends. There is
even one in every office! There is always that one
person that you know who is absolutely impossible
to buy a gift for! These people either have everything,
or want nothing. They don???t drop hints at all, and
when asked, they simply say that they don???t know,
they don???t care, or they don???t want anything.

Well, now you can buy a gift for that person. The
solution lies in an eBay gift certificate! This will allow
your loved one to essentially buy anything that they
want, in a very exciting way. eBay gift certificates
can easily be purchased through paypal, in varying
amounts.

There are things that you should point out to the gift
recipient, however. For instance, eBay gift
certificates do expire. eBay gift certificates will not
be accepted for all auctions either ??? they can only
be redeemed for those auctions that accept Paypal
as a form of payment. Other than that, your loved
one should not have any problems redeeming their
eBay gift certificate!

eBay Scams ??? Steps to Take if You Have Been

2009-04-26T21:43:00.001-07:00

Defrauded

eBay is a relatively safe marketplace. Unfortunately,
like most online marketplaces, it is vulnerable to
scams. eBay tries to keep instances of scams
occurring, but with more than 100 million members,
and approximately $40 million moving through the
site on a daily basis, this can be a little difficult.
Sometimes, scams occur.

If you have been scammed, there are certain steps
you need to follow to report the incident, and to try
to come to a resolution. If you paid for the item
through Paypal, the first step is to login to your
Paypal account and open up a dispute for the
payment. If you did not pay through Paypal, contact
your credit card company. In most cases, if you have
used one of these two cases, you will recover your
money.

The next step is to use eBay???s dispute process to
report the seller. This is specifically for items that
were not received, or items that were significantly
different than what was described in the auction.
eBay also has a purchase protection program to
further protect buyers. If a settlement cannot be
reached with the buyer, the next step is to make
an eBay buyer purchase protection claim.

eBay Sellers: How Photo Sharing Sites Can Save You Money

2009-04-25T18:48:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay seller? If you are, you likely already know the importance of having pictures in your eBay listings. There are a many eBay buyers who will not buy an item on eBay if they haven???t seen a picture. In fact, many eBay buyers like to see more than one picture. The only problem with this is that posting a number of pictures on eBay can get expensive, especially overtime. However, there is a way that you can give your potential customers what they want, more pictures, without having to go broke while doing so.

If you are looking for a way to have multiple pictures appear in your eBay auction listings, but you are urged to examine websites that are known as photo sharing sites, if you haven???t already done so. Photo sharing websites are sites that allow you to post digital photographs online and sometimes even videos. There are a large number of internet users who use photo sharing sites to upload and share pictures with friends and family members over the internet, but many internet users are also starting to use photo sharing websites to help combat their eBay seller fees, particularly the fees associated with having multiple pictures in an eBay auction.

If you are interested in giving photo sharing websites a try, to help you save money when selling on eBay, you will need to find a photo sharing website to use. To find a number of photo sharing websites, you may want to perform a standard internet search. Your standard internet search results will likely include PhotoBucket, which is a free, well-known photo sharing website. Of course, you can use just about any photo sharing website you want, but you are advised to look into PhotoBucket, as it is free and easy to use.

Speaking of using PhotoBucket and many other online photo sharing websites, you will need to create an account. You should be required to fill out a small form, which may request a little bit of information about yourself, like your full name or your email address. You will also need to create login information for yourself, including a screen name and a safe password. Once you have that finished, you should be able to use the photo sharing website in question, whether it be PhotoBucket or not, to help you start saving money.

When using a photo sharing site, you will see that different sites have different instructions that need to be followed, but the first step will be taking pictures of your eBay items. Then you will need to upload them to your computer and then follow the photo sharing website???s instructions on how to upload your photos to their site. In most cases, this is a relatively simple process, which tends to involve selecting a few pictures from your computer???s hard drive and then hitting an upload button.

Once your pictures have been uploaded, you should see thumbnails or smaller versions of them. With PhotoBucket there are little boxes underneath each thumbnail that can be used to select the picture or pictures of you choice. You will want to select all of the pictures that you want listed in a particular eBay listing. Then, you should be able to find a link that allows you to generate an HTML code. This will lead you to another page with a lot of information on it, particularly HTML links. Many photo sharing websites outright tell you which HTML code links you should use for eBay. Copy the code and paste it in the description of your eBay auction listings and you are good to go; your pictures should appear.

Using a photo sharing site is optional, but it is definitely something to look into. As an eBay seller, you want to profit as much as you can and this also involves eliminating unnecessary expenses.

eBay Sellers: How to Deal with Difficult Customers

2009-04-24T21:13:00.001-07:00

If you are an eBay seller, you will have to do business with eBay buyers. As traditional retailers do, you may also have a problem with some customers. While the majority of eBay buyers are more than pleasant to deal with, there are some who can ???ruffle your feathers.??? While your first thought may be to give a difficult eBay buyer a piece of your mind, you may want to refrain from doing so, especially if you rely on eBay to generate income for yourself and your family.

When it comes to dealing with difficult eBay buyers, one problem that commonly arises is with your current auction listings. It is not uncommon to get an eBay message from a buyer requesting that you lower your price on one of your listed items. In fact, it is not uncommon for an eBay buyer to mention that other eBay sellers have the same items listed for less. If and when this ever happens to you, you will want to keep your cool. You should simply state that you are unable to lower your asking price. Kindly suggest to the eBay buyer in question that if they are looking for more affordable prices, they should consider doing business with an eBay seller who offers more affordable merchandise. The decision as to whether or not you want to lower your eBay prices is yours to make, but you should never feel pressured into doing so.

Another situation that commonly arises on eBay, concerning difficult eBay buyers, is the payment process. There are many eBay buyers who make the mistake of assuming that all eBay sellers accept the same methods of payments, but not all do. One of the most common methods of payment accepted is PayPal. If you currently do not have a PayPal account, you may want to look into doing so. Regardless of what methods of payments you do accept, you are urged to outline them in your auction listings. Yes, eBay has a section for that, but, unfortunately, not all sellers make their way down to that section. Should you have a buyer that wants to make alternative arrangements, you need to use your best judgment. If you cannot reach an agreement, eBay should be notified.

One of the other common problems that arise on eBay, with difficult eBay buyers, is those who refuse to pay. With eBay, if you bid on an auction and win it, you are responsible for making payment; however, that doesn???t mean that everyone does. When trying to request payment from a non-paying eBay buyer, you will want to stay professional when doing so. By simply sending a few reminder notices you should still be able to keep your positive image. If you haven???t heard anything from your non-paying eBay buyer, you may want to contact eBay after about a week. eBay has a process that allows you to get your fees back, as well as a process that will gives non-paying eBay buyers a negative feedback rating.

It is also not uncommon for an eBay buyer to be unhappy with the item that they purchased and received from you. If this happens, you need to also use your best judgment. To prevent a problem from occurring, you will want to make sure that you provide a detailed description of whatever you are selling, as well as numerous pictures. It is also advised that you outline a return policy, whether or not you actually have one. Should you have intentionally or unintentionally mislead an eBay buyer, you should make the situation right; however, stand your ground if you are being scammed or ???taken for a ride.???

The above mentioned situations are just a few of the many that you may come across as an eBay seller. No matter what situation arises, you are advised to use your best judgment and also keep your cool. In the end, you will be glad that you did.

eBay Sellers: How to Market Your Auctions

2009-04-23T20:08:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay seller? If you are, your goal is likely to make as much money as you can by selling products that you no longer need or want on eBay. Unfortunately, there are now thousands, if not millions, of individuals who are interested in doing the same thing. For you, this often means a steady increase in competition. However, even with competition, you should still be able to make a profit when using eBay, but you may need a little bit of help. That help could from marketing.

When many of us think of internet marketing, we often automatically think of online retail stores or online websites. Although you are not running your own online retail store, you are trying to make a profit online; therefore, you are, in a way, like a retailer. Just having your for sale items listed on eBay is enough to get your eBay items exposure, but you may want to think about taking it a step farther. There are a number of different ways that you can go about marketing your for sale eBay items, without having to spend a dime.

Perhaps, one of the best ways to go about marketing your eBay items is by joining the eBay community, otherwise known as the online message boards. When you talk with other eBay community members your screen name used is also your eBay name. In the eBay community forum, every time that you start a new message or respond to an existing one your name is left, with a link to your main eBay webpage. That is the age that outlines all of the items that you currently have available for sale. Many eBay community members click other member???s pages just out of curiosity, but it not uncommon for someone to find something that catches their eye. Simply starting a few conversations with other eBay community members, even just occasionally, may help to up your eBay exposure.

Another relatively easy way that you can market your eBay auction listings to the general public is by posting on a number of message boards, besides eBay. There are a number of message boards that allow internet users, just like you, to post information on items that they have available for sale, both on and off of eBay. Providing a link, as well as short description of some of the items that you are looking to sell is a great way to increase your eBay exposure and up your chances of making a sale. When taking this internet marketing approach, it is important that you only advertise your eBay listings in areas designated for doing so. Spamming is not permitted on many online message boards and it may actually get you a bad reputation.

Speaking of using online message boards, there are a number of online message boards or forums that allow members to have signatures. Signatures are where many people leave their name or a favorite quote of theirs, but some message boards allow members to use it as space to promote their products or businesses. Before posting a link to your eBay auctions, you are advised to examine the online message board???s policy concerning signature advertising. Should it be allowed, you are advised to take advantage of this free internet marketing. You will want to post a link to your eBay sales page, but be sure to mention that eBay is where all clickers will be going.

Another easy that you can promote your eBay items, particularly if you have multiple items for sale, is by putting a ???please checkout my other eBay auctions,??? message at the end of each of your eBay listings. As with all of the other above mentioned internet marketing tactics, this is easy and free to do.

eBay Sellers: How You Can Use Completed Searches to Your Advantage

2009-04-22T20:58:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay seller? If so, are you successful at what you do? Perhaps, the better question to ask yourself is if you are making a profit selling on eBay? If you aren???t, there are a number of steps that you can take to increase your chances of making a sale.

When it comes to improving your chances of making a sale on eBay, your first impulse may to be change the way that your eBay items are listed for sale. For instance, it is often suggested that you upload detailed pictures of your items, provide detailed descriptions and such. While you will want to try doing so, you will also want to focus on the items that you are trying to sell. Your problem, with making a profit on eBay, might be the items that you have listed. If you have a poor quality item, you may not be able to sell it, but you would still be responsible for paying your eBay fees. In this case, you will not only be unable to make a profit, but you may also end up losing money.

When it comes to knowing which items you can profit from selling on eBay, there are many sellers who think that it is impossible to do. While it may seem impossible, it isn???t. Before actually trying to list a particular item for sale online, like an old music CD, you can check to see if that item has been sold on eBay before. If that particular item was sold before, you can also figure out exactly how much money it sold for! This will give you a good idea as to whether or not it would be worth it for you to spend the time creating your auction listings and paying eBay???s fees. Although the decision as to whether or not you still want to post your item for sale is yours to make, it may give you inside information; inside information that you will want to take into consideration when making your decision.

To perform a search of completed auctions, you will want to perform an advanced search. The link to the advanced search form can be found by eBay???s traditional search box. The only thing that you will to do differently is check the box labeled ???Completed Listings Only.??? Your results will include auctions that meet your searching criteria, but that have already been completed. If an item sold, its price will be outlined in green print. If an item did not sell, the asking price will be outlined, but in red print. As previously stated, performing an eBay completed search gives you the ability to tell whether or not you have a good seller on your hands.

In fact, you can not only use a completed listing search to determine if an item you already have is worth money, but you can also use this eBay tool to help you make money. If you are like many eBay sellers, there is a good chance that you are always on the lookout for great deals, bargains, or antiques. Familiarizing yourself with popular eBay items, ones that can be considered ???hot sellers,??? is a great way to make yourself a profit on eBay. Should you have the ability to do so, you may want to have a partner at home looking up eBay completed listings, while you are out shopping for items to sell at yard sales, flea markets, or thrift stores.

Performing an eBay completed listing search will only take a few minutes of your time. Despite only taking a few minutes of your time, eBay completed searches can help you make money as an eBay seller, not lose it.

eBay Sellers: Should You Open an eBay Store?

2009-04-21T21:48:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay seller? If you are, there is a good chance that you have heard of an eBay store before. In fact, you may even have your own eBay store. eBay stores are increasing in popularity. For that reason, if you currently don???t have an eBay store, you may be wondering whether or not you should open one. To determine whether or not you should open an eBay store, you may want to examine the advantages and disadvantages of having one.

Before examining the advantages and disadvantages of having an eBay store, you may be wondering exactly what one is. In a way, having your own eBay store can be compared to having your own retail store. By paying a small monthly fee, you are able to create your own customized ???storefront.??? This storefront is what customers will see when they visit your eBay store. For instance, you can make your own logo, create your own eBay store, and do much more. As previously mentioned, you must pay a small monthly fee to have an eBay store; however, you must also pay traditional final value and insertion fees. Despite having to pay traditional eBay fees, they are much lower than normal, if you have an eBay store.

Perhaps, a decrease in eBay fees is one of the biggest benefits to opening up your own eBay store. If you only sell a few items a month on eBay, it might not necessarily be worth it for you to open up an eBay store, but if you are a medium or high volume seller, you could save a considerable amount of money by opening up your own eBay store. It is also important to mention easy of use. Creating your own eBay storefront page is easy to do, as well as creating your own eBay listing. Despite being listed in your eBay store, you create all of your eBay listings the same way as you did before, with eBay???s step-by-step guide.

Although there are a number of advantages to having an eBay store, there are also a number of disadvantages or downsides to doing so as well. One of those downsides is marketing. Unlike many traditional auction listings and ???Buy It Now,??? listings, which show up in eBay searches, items inside eBay stores do not. Essentially, this means that it is your responsibility to get traffic to your eBay store. Without traffic, your eBay store items will not be able to sell. While there are easy ways to get traffic to your eBay store, like using traditional auction style listings, which will appear in eBay searches, and then place a link to your eBay store, and such, it can be time consuming to do. How you will make money is definitely something to consider before opening up an eBay store.

As you can see, there are a number of advantages and disadvantages to opening up an eBay store. The decision as to whether or not you want to open up an eBay store is yours to make, but you are advised to at least look into to doing so. Thoroughly researching and examining eBay stores is a great way to learn more about them, as well as gain insight into whether or not you can profit from having one. While having an eBay store isn???t for everyone, there are a number of eBay sellers who have noticed an increase in profit since opening their own eBay stores.

eBay Sellers: The Importance of Communication

2009-04-20T23:23:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay seller? If you just recently became an eBay seller, you may still be learning the ins and outs of eBay, particularly how to make a profit. While there are an unlimited number of tips that could help increase your chances of making a profit on eBay, like detailed product descriptions and such, there is one way that is relatively simple; having an open line of communication with all of your eBay buyers. Although you may not necessarily think about it at the time, communication goes a long way when it comes to online business transactions, particularly on eBay.

When it comes to keeping an open line of communication with your customers or potential customers, there are three main situations that you should take advantage of. First, if you are selling a popular item, you may have a number of bids or even a number of questions. If your product description wasn???t very detailed, it shouldn???t come as a surprise to you to have messages from other eBay members seeking more information. While some of these questions may be good, valid ones, others may seem a little bit out in left field. In fact, some eBay member questions may leave you wondering if they even looked at your auction listing. Still, it is advised that you answer all user questions in a polite and timely matter. Doing so will increase the chances of your item or items being sold.

Once an eBay buyer has agreed to buy an item from you, whether it be through a traditional auction listing or a ???Buy It Now,??? sale, you will want to send your customer an invoice, showing the total amount of money that they owe you. After you have received payment, there is a good chance that you will box up the items sold and head to the post office. A great way to make a good impression is to send your customers an update email; an email that can let them know that their items were just shipped. Many eBay buyers like this because it gives them an estimated arrival time frame. Should you have purchased a package tracking number, you will want supply your customers with that information.

It is also advised that you follow through, within a few days or a week, to see if your customers received their items. You may also want to send a personal note asking them how they liked the items and such. One thing that you definitely want to include in a follow-up message is a thank you note. You will want to thank each of your eBay customers for doing business with you. You should also state that you hope to do business with them again. In today???s society, many consumers are not thanked for their business anymore, although many wish that they still were. Sending a thank you follow-up note will only take a few minutes of your time, but it is something that your customers will likely remember for sometime to come.

As it was stated above, having an open line of communication may increase your eBay profits. Why you may ask? Well, you need to think of it from a consumer standpoint. If you could shop at two different retail stores, which both had the same products available for the same prices, which store would you choose? If you are like most consumers, you would respond with the store with the best customer service. eBay is no different. With competition increasing each day, you need to be able to set yourself apart from other eBay sellers. The best way to do this is to go the extra mile for your customers.

Keeping an open line of communication before, during, and after each sale will help give you a good, positive reputation among many eBay buyers. It will also likely result in return customers; customers who can help to increase your eBay profits.

eBay Sellers: The Importance of Paying Your eBay Fees on Time

2009-04-19T21:53:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay seller? If you are, have you been selling on eBay for long? If you haven???t been, you may still be trying to figure out the ins and outs of eBay. If that is the case, you may be looking for a little bit of assistance or advice. One of the important things to remember, when selling on eBay, is the importance of paying your eBay fees on time.

When it comes to paying your eBay fees on time, there are a large number of sellers who wonder exactly why it is so important. While this may not seem like something that you would ask yourself, it is actually asked quite often. Yes, eBay, like many other businesses, gives you a grace period, which is a few extra days to make your payment; you don???t want to go past that period. If so, there will be consequences. As an eBay seller, those consequences may be costly to you.

One of the most common consequences of not paying your eBay fees on time involves having your eBay seller account suspended. For you, this means that you will not be able to sell anymore items on eBay, at least until you pay your fees. Depending on the situation at hand, if you have any auctions running at the current time, those auctions may be canceled, possibly incurring additional fees for you. That is why it is extremely important that you pay your eBay fees on time.

Another reason why you should pay your eBay fees on time is because it is easy to do. When paying your eBay fees, all you really need to do is log into your account, go to the link labeled ???eBay fees,??? and follow the instructions from there. When it comes time to pay your eBay fees, eBay should send you an invoice, but you don???t have to wait until you receive that invoice. If you want to make sure that you stay on top of paying your fees, to prevent your seller account from being suspended, you may want to think about occasionally paying your fees, whenever you have the money to do so.

eBay can also offer you assistance, when it comes to paying your eBay fees. When you first setup your eBay account, you have the option of having your fees deducted right from your credit card, which you may have used to help setup your free eBay account. If you used a credit card to help setup your account, but you don???t want to have your fees deducted from your card, you can also make alternative arrangements. Those arrangements may include having your fees deducted from something else, like another credit card or your checking account. Or, you could stick paying your fees on your own, whenever they are due.

As you can see from above, there are a number of different ways that you can go about paying your eBay seller fees. If you are an active eBay seller or one who relies on eBay for income, you will want to definitely make sure that you pay your fees on time. Since you have a number of different ways to go about doing so, there isn???t any reason why you can???t pay your eBay fees and in a somewhat timely matter.

eBay Sellers: Tips to Help Your eBay Items Sell

2009-04-18T00:07:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay seller? If you have been looking for a relatively easy way to make money, there is a good chance that you are. Different individuals use eBay, but many use eBay to make a little bit of extra money or even to financially support themselves and their families. If you are an eBay seller, how is everything currently going? Are you making as much money as you had hoped to? If not, you will want to continue reading on; as some tips are outlined below on how you can help to make sure that your eBay items sell.

When it comes to buying items on eBay, there are many eBay buyers who are the lookout for eBay scams. Before purchasing an item, one of the first things that an eBay buyer does is check the feedback of the seller. Doing business with a highly rated and recommended eBay seller reduces or completely eliminates the chances of getting scammed on eBay. Feedback helps to give you a good reputation, but there is something else that can help you get a good reputation too, an ???About Me,??? page. This is a page where you are able to introduce yourself and give a little bit of background information about yourself or your eBay business. ???About Me,??? pages are optional, but there are a number of benefits to having one.

Once an eBay buyer has learned that a seller who has an item that they want for sale is a reputable one, they will then continue to examine the product being sold. This is where your biggest chance of making a sale comes in. First, you will want to make sure that your products are being sold at a fair price. Keep in mind, when making your auction listings that you want to make a profit, but you don???t want to scare off any potential buyers with high prices. Just making sure that your prices are reasonable is enough to increase your chances of making a sale.

Secondly, you will want to make sure that you accurately describe all of your items that are being sold. For instance, if you are selling a lot or a group of children???s toys, you may want to take the time to list the names of each toy being sold. Outline the condition that each toy is in as well. If you are selling toys that require batteries, you may want to state whether or not the batteries are included. Providing a detailed, accurate description of all of your items will definitely increase the chances of them selling.

In addition to a detailed description, it is also important that you have pictures of your items. eBay allows you to post one free picture, but more can be posted for additional fees. Don???t let these additional fees deter you from posting additional pictures, as they are likely to increase the chances of making a sale. In fact, you may want to look into free photo sharing websites, such as PhotoBucket, as they allow you to post additional eBay pictures for free. When taking pictures of your eBay items, you will want to make sure that you take a number of close-up pictures. Also, make sure that the pictures are easy to see and that the lighting is good. Having poor pictures or no pictures at all is one of the many reasons why many eBay items go unsold.

The methods of payment that you accept may also have an important impact on how well your eBay items sell. One of the most common forms of payments used, to pay for eBay purchases, is PayPal. The reason why PayPal is so popular is because it enables shoppers to buy items from you, without having to disclose their account numbers. If you aren???t already accepting PayPal, you will want to look into doing so. Although most eBay buyers use PayPal, you will also want to remember that not everyone does. For that reason, you may also want to accept other methods of payment, including money orders or personal checks. The only thing with personal checks is that you may want to wait until the check clears before shipping the buyer their merchandise, especially with large purchases.

By implementing the above mentioned eBay seller tips, you may start seeing an increase in your eBay sales, even right away. In all honesty, you need to think of it from a seller perspective. Look at your auction listings; would you buy what you were selling?

eBay Sellers: Why You Should Accept PayPal

2009-04-16T21:12:00.001-07:00

Are you looking to become an eBay seller? If you are interested in making money online, possibly even enough to support yourself, you just may be. Over the past few years, eBay has revealed itself as an online market place where just about anyone, including you, can make money.

Although it is relatively easy to make money on eBay, as an eBay seller, there are a number of important factors that come into play. For instance, you will want to have good, quality items to sell, detailed descriptions of those items, as well as easy to see pictures. Perhaps, those are some of the most important components of becoming a successful eBay seller, but there is something else that can be just as important, your accepted methods of payment. For the best chance of success on eBay, you will want to accept a wide range of payments, including personal checks, money orders, and PayPal.

Speaking of PayPal, PayPal is one of the most common methods of payment accepted on eBay. Despite being one of the most preferred ways to shop on eBay, there are still a number of sellers who don???t accept PayPal as a form of payment. If you have yet to setup your eBay seller account, you will also want to take the time to set up a PayPal account. Of course, you can still make money on eBay without accepting PayPal as a method of payment, but your chances for success are higher when you do. That is why it is extremely important that you at least look into getting a PayPal account.

When it comes to getting a PayPal account, you will find that you can have a personal account or a business account. If you want to make the most out of PayPal and eBay, you will want to get a business account, as it enables to you accept credits cards as a method of payment. The only difference between a business PayPal account and a personal PayPal account is the fees. The fees that you are charged will vary, but you will be charged a small fee each time someone, namely an eBay buyer, sends you a payment.

Although the PayPal fees may be a turnoff for you, you should let them be. By accepting PayPal, you are more likely to have more sales, as well as higher priced product sales, as more eBay buyers rely on PayPal to shop online. This will essentially make the fees seem minimal, as they easily pay for themselves overtime and you are still able to make a profit. In fact, your PayPal fees, from a business standpoint, can even be tax deductible.

One of the many reasons why eBay buyers like to use PayPal is because it gives them a sense of security. When using PayPal to buy items on eBay, buyers do not have to actually provide you with their bank account information or their credit or debit card numbers. This information is automatically stored in PayPal???s secure system. eBay buyers simply have to follow the instructions on the invoice that you send them, enter in their PayPal sign in information, click a few confirmation buttons and they are good to go; no important information has to exchange hands.

If you aren???t already accepting PayPal, you will want to think about the many benefits to doing so, some of which were outlined above. For more information on PayPal, you are urged to visit PayPal???s online website, which can be found at PayPal.com.

eBay Sellers: Why You Should Have an ???About Me,??? Page

2009-04-15T23:12:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay seller? If you are looking for ways to make money from home, there is a good chance that you may be. When it comes to working from home or making money from home, one of the first places that people turn to is eBay. The only problem is that to make money on eBay, you must be a successful seller. There are a number of steps that you can take to become a successful eBay seller. One of those steps involves creating an ???About Me,??? page.

If you are relatively new to selling on eBay, you may not know what an ???About Me,??? page is. An ???About Me,??? page is a webpage that allows you to write anything that you want about you, the items that you sell, or type of services that you offer. Due to the possibility of being scammed on eBay, a large number of eBay buyers want to do business with someone that they feel they can trust. One of the best, yet easiest ways, to go about creating trust is by creating an ???About Me,??? page. Although it may seem simple to you, it actually means a lot in the eyes of many eBay buyers. And, to be a successful eBay seller, public perception is everything.

As it was previously stated, if you are interested in creating an ???About Me,??? page, there is a section where you can write whatever you want to write. If you want to be a successful eBay seller, you will want to give information that you feel could be useful to you. For instance, if you are selling on eBay because you are a stay at home mom or dad, you may want to write that, but in a professional matter. Explaining your purpose for being an eBay seller is a great way to get an eBay buyer to see you as a person, just like themselves.

If you consider yourself to be a fulltime eBay seller or if you specialize in a certain type of product, like kids clothing, you may want to mention that in your personalized ???About Me,??? section. In addition to the samples outlined above, you will also want to add in anything else that you may find useful or something that you think will grab the attention or trust of potential buyers. When making your own personalized ???About Me,??? page section, it is important that you use your best judgment. Look at it from the perspective of an eBay buyer; what would you like to see on your own page?

In addition to your own personalized section, there are some sections that eBay automatically includes on a seller???s ???About Me,??? page. One of those items is a summary of current items available for sale. For instance, if you have a number of auctions currently going, those auctions will be summarized on your ???About Me,??? page, for everyone to see. All visitors are provided with a link to the auction listing, the current highest bidding price, as well as a short description of what is currently available for sale. In a way, having an ???About Me,??? page may also increase your chances of getting a sale, since a visitor to your page may see something that catches their eye.

eBay ???About Me,??? pages also commonly include information on feedback. If you are an established eBay seller, particularly one that has a good feedback rating, this may work out to your advantage, as visitor will be able to see that you are reputable eBay seller. If you have a number of feedback ratings, only a certain number, most commonly the recent ones, will be shown. This includes positive, negative, and neutral feedback ratings from your past eBay transactions.

Having an ???About Me,??? eBay page is completely optional, but, as outlined above, there are a number of benefits to having one. With an eBay ???About Me,??? page only taking a few minutes to make, you are advised to at least give it a try. After all, you may be surprised with the results.

Real eBay Success - How to Price Your Items

2009-04-14T23:32:00.001-07:00

Many new sellers don???t realize how important pricing
is when it comes to eBay auctions. Many don???t even
realize that ???pricing??? needs to be done. eBay is an
auction site after all! But eBay auctions are not quite
the same as the auctions you attend in the offline
world. In fact, quite a bit of work goes into
determining and setting prices.

Essentially, there are only three prices that can be
set for an eBay auction: the ???buy it now??? price, the
reserve price, and the starting bid price. Of these
three, the starting bid price is the only one that is
required for an eBay auction. The reserve price and
the ???buy it now??? price are optional. The starting bid
price is fairly simple ??? never set it higher than $50 or
so ??? no matter what your item is really worth. This
low opening price will get bidders to your auction.

Setting low starting bid prices creates the need for a
reserve price. A reserve price is the absolute lowest
price that you want to get for your item. You may sell
the item below the reserve price, but you will not be
required to. In other words, if you set your reserve
price at $100, and your highest bid is only $50, you
do not have to sell the item to the highest bidder.
You can close the auction without any negative
feedback or repercussions. Set your reserve price
at the absolute lowest price you are willing to sell
your item for. Keep what the item is worth, as well
as what it cost you in mind.

The ???buy it now??? option will allow you to set a price,
and buyers can buy the item immediately, without
bidding, for that set price. This option can be used
for any type of item, and it should be set to match
your reserve, give or take a few dollars. This option
is great if you have multiple identical items to sell.

Shipping has a price, and potential buyers take this
into consideration when they are looking at an
auction. If you can see your way clear to offer free
shipping, you will find that people are placing more
bids. Make sure that your potential buyers realize
that you are offering free shipping!

Before setting any prices, you need to determine
what the item is really worth. The value of the item in
different markets might be quite high. However, you
are selling on eBay, and it is a different world
altogether! Find out the price that similar items sold
for on eBay before setting any prices. If it is a
collectable, or a high ticket item, have the item
evaluated to ensure that you aren???t going to lose
money!

eBay University ??? What Is It All About?

2009-04-13T22:47:00.001-07:00

eBay University is the learning program that eBay
established to help people become successful eBay
merchants. For convenience, eBay classes are held
in many locations throughout the United States, and
classes may also be completed from home, using
your computer.

You should note that all of the information you will
learn through eBay University can be found on the
website ??? for free. However, understanding that free
information isn???t always easy. eBay University will
teach you how to open a seller???s account, how to
conduct research and create listings, how to improve
listings for greater success, how to integrate Paypal
with eBay, how to monitor your auctions, and how to
complete transactions.

Once you???ve finished the Selling Basics course, you
are ready for the ???Beyond the Basics??? course. This
advanced course will teach you how to start and
grow an eBay business, how to choose and create
listing formats that sell, how to use all of the eBay
resources, how to market your business, how to
pack and ship your items, and much more. Both
courses are reasonably priced, and well worth the
short amount of time that it takes to complete
each course.

eBay Users: The Importance of Knowing and Following All eBay Rules

2009-04-12T22:32:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay member? If so, do you consider yourself to be a relatively new eBay member? If you have just recently started buying or selling on eBay within the past few months you may be. As time passes, you will likely become more aware of how eBay works. For instance, if you are an eBay seller, you may find new ways to improve your eBay listings or if you are an eBay buyer, you may find new ways to get great deals. One thing that you will likely do, overtime, is learn more about eBay???s rules.

As you likely already know, eBay is considered one of the world???s most popular online marketplaces. eBay gives internet users, like you, the option to buy and sell online. While giving all internet users the ability to buy and sell is nice, it can make for some problems, particularly concerning security or inappropriate content. That is why eBay, like all other online marketplaces, has developed a set of rules or guidelines that you must follow, whether you are an eBay buyer or an eBay seller. You should not only familiarize yourself with those rules, if you haven???t already done so, but you also need to follow them.

If you are an eBay seller, one of the most important eBay rules that you need to abide by is prohibited items. Although just about anything can be sold on eBay, there are a few restrictions. For instance, alcohol, drugs, pornography, and stolen merchandise are just a few of the many items that all eBay sellers, including you, are prohibited from selling. Another eBay rule that you must follow, as an eBay seller, is to pay all of your eBay fees on time. eBay has a set pay schedule, which you will be notified of in advance. To be able to keep on making a profit selling merchandise on eBay, you will want to make sure that you pay your eBay fees on time.

If you are an eBay buyer, instead of an eBay seller, you will also have to know and abide by all eBay rules. One of those rules is bidding only on items that you intend to buy. If you place a bid on an eBay auction or if you agree to buy an item listed in a ???Buy It Now,??? listing format, you must do so. That rule is stated in eBay???s guidelines. If you do not feel that you can pay for the items that you bid on or agreed to pay for, it is best if you stay away from eBay for the time being. Another eBay rule that you must follow is being honest with your purchases. If you don???t receive an eBay purchase, it is fine to report that, but give it a few extra days for your item to arrive. Although eBay scams are often associated with sellers, many buyers are beginning to stir up trouble. This involves reporting that they had not received an item, when they actually did; thus resulting in a refund, as well as the purchased item.

In most cases, you will find that it is relatively easy to get caught breaking eBay???s rules. That is why it is advised that you not only know all of eBay???s rules, but that you also abide by them. Should you not, you may end up suffering the consequences. One of those consequences involves having your eBay account temporarily suspended or even permanently suspended. In rare, but serious cases, the authorities may be contacted or legal action may be taken against you. In all honesty, the action taken depends on the parties involved.
Despite the varied consequences for breaking eBay???s rules, it is extremely important that you take the time to examine all of eBay, including the sites rules, restrictions, and guidelines, before you get yourself into trouble that is difficult to get out of. For more information on eBay???s rules, visit their help center, speak to an experienced eBay user, or try and contact eBay???s customer service department.

eBay Users: All You Need to Know About Phishing Scams

2009-04-11T01:11:00.000-07:00

Are you an eBay user? Whether you use eBay to do your online shopping or if you use eBay to generate extra income for yourself, as an eBay seller, there is something that you need to be aware of. As an eBay user, whether you are a seller or a buyer, you need to be on the lookout for phishing scams. Phishing scams are rapidly increasing in popularity and many are using eBay as a front. To protect your identity, as well as you finances, you need to be on the lookout for them.

If you are relatively new to eBay or online shopping in general, you may not know exactly what phishing scams are. Do you? If not, you should know that phishing scams are actually complex online scams. A shady individual or a scammer makes a fake website that is similar to eBay or at least a fake eBay sign in page. You are then sent an email that appears as if it was from eBay. The only thing is that it wasn???t. The goal of a phishing scam is to get you to visit the fake page and enter in your eBay sign in information, including your eBay screen name and your eBay password. Once a scammer has your information, they get access to you personal information stored on eBay, as well as free use of your eBay account.

One of the reasons why phishing scams are so easy to fall victim to is because they give you the impression that is something is wrong with you eBay account or that you did something wrong yourself. For instance, many phishing scams contain a message asking why you didn???t pay for an item that you ordered or outline the fact that your eBay account has been suspended. The goal is to get you so worried that you will automatically click on the link to get the problem solved; however, as previously mentioned, the link takes you to a site that looks just like eBay, but it isn???t. There is where the trouble comes in.

If you get an eBay phishing scam email, you will want to do a little bit of detective work, before actually clicking on the link. In fact, you shouldn???t even click on the link. The first thing that you will want to do is look at your name, as most eBay phishing emails start with ???Dear eBay Member,??? or something along those lines. Real eBay messages will refer to you by your eBay screen name or even your real name. You can also roll your mouse over the link provided to you and see where it will actually take you. In most cases, you will find that you are being directed to another site, not eBay.com. All eBay messages should appear in your ???My eBay,??? message box. To see if eBay really sent you an email, you can log into your eBay account, from a brand new window that you open up, and check your messages, if you even have any at all.

If you do receive an eBay phishing scam email, you are advised to contact eBay or examine eBay???s help center. There you will find instructions on how to report the email or send a copy of it to eBay. Although your first thought may be to delete the eBay phishing scam email, you will actually want to follow eBay???s reporting instructions. You may know that you are being scammed, but other may not. Reporting an eBay phishing scam to eBay allows them to take care of the problem; thus likely reducing the number of eBay users who fall victim to similar scams.

Now that you know exactly what eBay phishing scams are, you are urged to be on the lookout for them. Keeping an open eye is your best line of defensive against eBay phishing scams or any phishing scams for that matter.

eBay???s Turbo Lister Program: Should You Use It?

2009-04-10T05:11:00.001-07:00

Are you an eBay seller? If you are, are you familiar with eBay???s Turbo Lister program? If you are not, you may want to take the time to familiarize yourself with it, as using eBay???s Turbo Lister program can make selling on eBay as easy as can be.

eBay???s Turbo Lister program is a program that is available for download, free of charge on eBay???s website. What is nice about eBay???s Turbo Lister program is that it is easy to install and use. In fact, like eBay???s traditional way of listing items for sale, you are given step-by-step instructions. Even if you have minimal computer knowledge, you should still be able to use eBay???s Turbo Lister program, without any problems.

Now that you know exactly how you can get eBay???s Turbo Lister program, you may be wondering exactly what it is or how it can help you. See, when you download eBay???s Turbo Lister program to your computer, you can access it at anytime, even if you are not connected to the internet. eBay markets its Turbo Lister program to those who are high or medium volume eBay sellers, but it is also great for those who have dialup internet. Listing a large number of eBay auctions can tie up your phone lines, but with eBay???s Turbo Lister program you don???t even have to be online!

The eBay Turbo Lister program sets up all eBay auction listings or ???Buy It Now,??? listings the same way as it is done online, through their website. For instance, when using eBay???s Turbo Lister, you need to assign your item to a category, make a headline for your auction, write a detailed description of the item that you are selling, upload pictures if you have any, mention how your item will be shipped, as well as outline what methods of payment you will accept. As stated above, this process is easy, as everything is explained to you step-by-step. With eBay???s Turbo Listing program, listing on eBay is still as easy as it was before, if not easier with the ability to do so while not connected to the internet.

Speaking of not being connected to the internet, you may be wondering how your eBay items can be listed on eBay???s website if you are not connected to the internet. This is where the internet connection comes in. eBay???s Turbo Lister program enables you develop as many eBay auctions as you want, even thousands of them, without being connected to the internet. When doing so, you have the ability to save your listings for a later date; a time when you can sign online. Once you are connected to the internet, a simple click of the mouse and your eBay listings will automatically be uploaded to the eBay site. In addition to giving you the ability to work offline, you also have the ability to time your auctions, like if you want them to start or end at a certain time.

As mentioned above, if you are interested in downloading eBay???s Turbo Lister program, you can do so through their online website. Since downloading and using eBay???s Turbo Lister program is free, you are urged to at least give it a try. Should you not like the way that the program works, you could always return to listing your eBay items the traditional way, though the eBay website.

Getting Started on eBay

2009-04-09T06:41:00.001-07:00

You???ve probably heard about how much money can
be made on eBay. With dreams of quick riches and
easy money, you are probably ready to jump in with
both feet ??? right now! The best thing you can do if
you are serious about making money with eBay,
however, is to slow down. In fact, just stop for a
minute. Don???t rush straight in. Take your time, and
do it right.

eBay has over 100 million members. Think about
that number for just a minute or two. When you get
your eBay business set up, that is how big your
customer base will be ??? instantly. 100 million people
- 100 million people who are just waiting for you to
get set up and running so that they can throw money
at you! Well, not quite. It is true that there are over
100 million members, but at this point, they don???t
know that you exist. In fact, no matter how well you
do on eBay, most of them will never know that you
exist. 100 million is a very large number.

The most successful eBay sellers started out as
buyers ??? and you should too. This will give you a
sense of how everything works. It will also show you
how things are from the buyer???s side of the fence.
Let???s call this period of time ???consumer research.???
You are literally studying how eBay works, from a
customer???s point of view. You may not realize this,
but this eBay buyer experience will
actually make you a much better seller ??? right from
the very start.

Really pay attention to the customer service you
receive from the buyer. Think about how you want to
be treated as a buyer, and take notes. Take your
time during this process. Interact with the sellers.
Get involved in hot auctions to see what they are
like. In your spare time, start making notes about
the hot items that you see. These notes will come
in handy later.

eBay works just like any other business. You have
to determine what people want to buy before you can
hope to be successful. There are very specific items
that sell really well on eBay ??? you just have to figure
out what those items are. There are many
resources for finding out this information. Start with
the lessons that eBay offers to their sellers.
Strongly consider attending the eBay University as
well. This is the next step in the process. After you
have had the eBay buyer experience, it is time to
learn how to be an eBay seller.

Read all of the information eBay provides for you at
the site. The information is free and you will learn a
great deal from it. Take full advantage of this ??? before
you start setting up your first auction or your eBay
store! By reading through all of the resources, you
will avoid making numerous mistakes that so many
before you have made. This is another step towards
building a successful eBay business. Once you???ve
made it through the learning process, you should
know everything you need to know to get started
with a money making eBay business of your very
own.

Hot Selling Items for eBay Auctions

2009-04-08T05:06:00.001-07:00

Many people who are trying to start an eBay
business spend a great deal of time trying to figure
out which items sell the best on eBay. Many of these
people have elaborate systems for determining this
information, and many others purchase expensive
courses that teach them how to find this information
as well. None of that is necessary. Everything you
need to know is right in front of you ??? on the eBay
website!

Take a look at any category, and you will see the
word ???hot??? beside some items. These items are not
marked as hot sellers randomly ??? there is a method
to the madness! Items only get marked as hot when
there have been more than thirty bids placed on
the item. All you have to do is wonder around the eBay
website for a while to find an item that will do well.

However, most power sellers will agree that there is
more to figuring out which items sell best than this.
In fact, they claim that it is a science. A great way
to start your search for items that will result in a
successful auction in the future is to do research on
the auctions that were successful in the past. You
can view old listings that have completed at:
http://listings.ebay.com .

A new way to determine what items sell best on
eBay is ???eBay Marketplace Research.??? Marketplace
Research will allow you to view important statistical
information on the buying trends at eBay. This
product contains all of the data one could possibly
ever need to determine how well ??? or how poorly ???
an item will do in an eBay auction. There is a small
fee for using the eBay Marketplace Research tools,
however.

Another tool that will be very useful in your quest for
finding hot selling items for your eBay auctions is the
listing of popular eBay search terms that is found on
the site. This list can be found at:
http://popular.ebay.com/ . This list is divided into
categories, which will make it easier to determine
how popular your potential item may be.

Don???t make the mistake of thinking that an item will
do poorly, or that it will do well without doing your
homework on the item first. Some of the strangest
things sell for the highest prices, while items that
would sell quickly in any other environment just sit
there. Almost any eBay Power Seller will tell you
that the key to a successful auction rests in the
amount of research you put into the items you
hope to sell.

How to Avoid eBay Scams and Fraud

2009-04-07T02:36:00.001-07:00

Countless people have been scammed and
defrauded on eBay. eBay is a fun place to bid on
items and to sell items ??? but you must know how to
recognize a scam, and how to avoid them, them or
you quickly join the ranks of those who have lost
their money to eBay scams. Of course, if you are
scammed, there are some actions you can take the
correct the situation ??? but in many cases, the
scammer does indeed get away! The best option is
to avoid being scammed.

You can easily avoid many scams with the payment
method that you use ??? whether you are a buyer or a
seller. eBay owns Paypal, and in most cases,
Paypal is the payment method you should use. First,
as a buyer, if you are scammed or less than
satisfied with the item when it arrives, you can
dispute the charge easily, and demand a refund. The
seller must reply and show proof that the item was
shipped, and that it arrived in the condition that you
expected, or Paypal will return your funds to your
account.

As a seller, you can protect yourself by only
accepting Paypal. This will eliminate the chances of
receiving a bad check or having the buyer dispute a
credit card charge. Instead, they must dispute the
charge through paypal, and you of course will be able
to prove that you shipped the product. You cannot,
however, prove that the product arrived in the
condition that was expected. In this case, you should
demand that the product be returned to you before the
refund is issued.

Another common scam that buyers use is the
bidding scam. This type of scam is run either with
two separate eBay accounts ??? with one person in
control of both of them, or with two friends with
separate eBay accounts. A very small bid is placed
on your item, using one account. This is followed by
a very high bid, from the other eBay account. Right
before the bidding ends, the high bid is cancelled or
withdrawn, leaving the low bid as the winning bid.
This bid can only be avoided by setting a reserve price
??? the lowest bid that can be placed is the same as the
reserve price that you set.

If you are an eBay seller, you can further protect
your auctions by placing a notice on your auctions
page, declaring that you have the right to back out
of the sale if you suspect potential fraud. As both a
buyer and a seller, also beware of spoofed emails.
These emails appear to be from eBay. The email
may claim that you need to verify your information,
and ask you to login to your eBay account, using
the link provided. If you follow that link, the site looks
exactly like eBay, but it is actually a scam to get
your eBay login details, as well as your credit card
details! eBay will never ask you to do this. If you
suspect a spoofed email, report it to eBay
immediately!

Don???t let scammers ruin your eBay fun! Just use
good common sense, and a reasonable amount of
caution, and everything should run smoothly. Report
suspicious activity to eBay, and if a deal doesn???t feel
right, simply back away from it and move on to the
next auction.

How to Avoid Failure on Your eBay Auctions

2009-04-05T22:26:00.001-07:00

Many first time sellers have one thing in common ???
they fail. Many of them fail time and time again,
never understanding what is going wrong. They do
hours of research looking for the perfect item to sell,
get the auction set up, and wait for the bidding to
begin. Hours go by and no bids are placed. Days go
by, and there are still no bids ??? or there are very low
bids. Finally the auction ends, and it turns out to be
a total failure. Considering the huge number of sellers
who run eBay auctions, there are specific things you
must do, and specific things you must not do if you
are to be successful.

There are many reasons why auctions fail. The most
common reason is that the item is not in high
demand. This problem can be avoided by doing the
necessary research to determine which items sell
well, and which items should be avoided. This
research takes a great deal of time ??? but in the end,
you will find that it is time well spent.

Another reason for eBay failure is pricing. No matter
what your reserve price is, your opening bid price
should never be more than $50 or so. This is how you
will attract potential bidders to your auction. If you
set that opening bid too high, most people won???t
even click the link to read the description for your
item. Another pricing problem is lack of research.
Before you set your reserve price, you must
determine what the item is really worth, and the price
similar items have sold for in past eBay auctions.

Poorly written descriptions are another cause of
failed auctions. Poor grammar and misspelled words
drive people away. Failing to post a picture of the
item will also keep people from visiting your auction
page. Make sure that your description is well written.
This is essentially your ???sales copy.???

Shipping prices scare people away from auctions if
they are too high. Find the lowest shipping prices
that you can find, and consider paying for the
shipping yourself if it won???t cut into your profits too
much. Do not charge handling fees.

Offer great ???customer service??? for all of your auctions,
and ask your buyers to give you feedback. If the
items that you sell are everything that you said they
would be, and you offer great customer service, you
can expect wonderful feedback ??? and this
feedback will help a great deal in your future auctions.

How to Avoid Losing to eBay Snipers

2009-04-04T03:51:00.001-07:00

Sniping occurs when a bid is about to end. Some
yahoo rushes in and bids a little higher than the
highest bid as the clock runs out of time ??? winning
the bid. Sniping is against the rules at eBay, but it
doesn???t slow the snipers down! In most cases, even
if you report it, the sniper will get away with it, and
you will have lost the item that you wanted to win
so badly. Unfortunately, in order to avoid losing the
items you want to snipers at eBay, you have to
take on the sniper mentality. You also need to
snipe in a way that will not violate eBay???s rules.

Snipping can be done in one of two ways. The first
way is the safest, but not necessarily the easiest.
Simply keep up with the item you are bidding on.
Make a note of the date and time that the auction
will end, and make sure that you are in front of your
computer and logged into the auction well before that
specific time. The objective is to either bid higher than
the highest bid during the last few seconds ??? which is
what snipers do - or to simply make sure that you are
not outbid by a sniper.

Remember that sniping is against the rules, so you
should log in about thirty or forty five minutes before
the bidding ends, and get your bid up until it is the
highest bid. At that point, all you need to do is to
keep an eye out to make sure that nobody else
raises the bid. If you???ve been logged in for a while,
this cannot be considered sniping.

Using this method, you must be aware of automatic
bidders. It is very hard to bid against people who use
bidding software. That software has been designed for
the purpose of snipping, and your chances of
outbidding the software manually are very slim ???
which leads us to the second method of snipping
??? Snipping services.

Snipping services are very easy to find online, and
they are relatively inexpensive. You can also
purchase your own snipping software. If you want to
become a sniper, purchasing your own software is
usually the best way to go if you bid on a lot of items.
You just set up the software, tell it which auction to
watch and what the highest price you are willing to
bid is, and let it do the work - just remember that it
is against the rules, and while eBay seldom enforces
this rule, you will be running the risk of getting
banned from eBay.

Sniping is bad if someone does it to you, but if you
use it yourself to win bids, it can be a wonderful thing.
On the other hand, it may not be very ethical.
Outbidding someone is one thing, sniping is
something altogether different!

How to Find Great Deals at eBay

2009-04-02T23:06:00.001-07:00

Everyone loves a great deal! Many people spend
quite a bit of time searching for good deals on the
items that they want and need ??? and when they find
those deals, they experience a certain amount of
satisfaction. These people typically haunt garage
sales, stores that are holding sales, wholesale
warehouses, flea markets, and especially online
and offline auctions. With the incredible number of
auctions that are constantly going on at eBay, it
can be difficult to find the items you want, at the
price you want to pay. But it isn???t impossible to find
great deals!

There are steps you can take to ensure that you are
getting a great deal on the items you purchase
through eBay. In fact, these same steps will also
help to protect you against fraud. Participating in
online auctions is a great deal of fun, but you must
use caution as well. This caution entails doing your
research before you place any bids.

Start with the auction in question. Make sure that
you read every word of the description and the
auction details. You can never have too much
information ??? especially if that information is
about an individual that you may be doing business
with. Pay special attention to what the description
and auction details do not say. For instance, is a
guarantee mentioned? Is the item new? Is it
authentic? Is there proof of authenticity? Look for
auctions that provide the right information ??? and
the right amount of information. Avoid those that
do not.

Who will pay the shipping and handling costs? Often,
the buyer pays these costs, and sometimes, the
seller tries to charge more than the actual shipping
and handling costs are. Beware of high shipping
costs, especially for items that will be auctioned
off at a very low price. Also note when the item is
supposed to ship after the bidding has ended.
Depending on what you are trying to purchase the
item for, it may not arrive in time.

Don???t make the mistake of bidding on an item simply
because it is a ???good deal.??? It is only a good deal for
you if the item is something that you really want or
need. Many people simply bid for the sake of
bidding ??? or winning ??? without having any real need
or desire for the item in question. Before bidding on
items that you do want or need, check prices
around the Internet and the prices available from
offline sources as well. Just because it is on eBay
does not guarantee that it is the cheapest price
available!

Finally, learn more about the seller. Can you trust
them? What is their rating? Read their feedback
page! Failure to learn more about the seller can be
costly. Not everyone is as honest as you are ??? and
the seller may be trying to take advantage of people
that simply don???t know enough to find out more
about them. Sometimes scammers make their
auctions sound like really great deals. Beware of
prices that seem extremely low!

How to Get Started on eBay

2009-04-02T02:25:00.001-07:00

Are you interested in using eBay to buy the products that you need or even sell items that you no longer want? If you are, you will need to create an eBay account, if you haven???t already done so. Although many automatically assume that getting started with eBay is a complicated task, it doesn???t have to be. All you really need to do is follow a few simple steps and you should be good to go.

The first thing that you will want to do is visit eBay???s website, which is located at eBay.com. Once you are at eBay???s website, you can then click on the link that allows you to register a new account. At that stage, you will be brought to a signup form. That signup form will ask you a series of questions. For instance, you will need to enter in your full name, your address, your telephone number, as well as an e-mail address. You will also be required to come up with an eBay screen name or sign in name, as well as an eBay password, which will be used to access your eBay account. Once you have correctly filled out the form, you will be sent a verification email from eBay.

Once you have received eBay???s verification email and followed all of the instructions, which will help you validate your eBay account, you will be able to start using eBay right away. When you first get started, you may need to sign in to your eBay account. As previously stated, you will need to use your eBay sign in name or screen name and password to do so. For that reason, you may want to write down your sign in information and keep it in a safe place. Once you have signed in to your eBay account, you can then do whatever you want; buy or sell.

If you are interested in using eBay to shop online, to buy, you will want to start searching for items to buy. This can be done a number of different ways. eBay allows you to browse through their large selection of items, by detailed categories. You can also perform a standard eBay search or an advanced one. Searches are more likely to give you accurate, tailored results. When browsing or searching for something in particular, you should be able to see a large number of auction listing all on one page. The information that you will be presented with at this time is the standard, bare minimum. If you would like more information on the item in question, such as how much shipping costs or too see additional pictures, you will want to click on the link to view the detailed sales page. Should you like what you see, follow the instructions to buy and you will have made your first purchase on eBay!

As it was previously stated, if you are interested in selling on eBay, to make a little bit of extra money, you can also do so. The only difference is that you are required to pay small fees to become an eBay seller, unlike eBay buyers who have completely free accounts. The amount of money that you are charged will all depend on your auctions, particularly how much you list each item for, as well as how well each item sells. To get started with selling, you will want to click on the ???sell,??? link at the top of the eBay webpage. What is nice about listing items for sale on eBay it is relatively easy to do. For instance, you need to choose a category for your item, make a headline for your auction listing, write a description of your product, upload pictures of what you are selling, outline shipping costs, as well as accepted forms of payments, but everything is outlined for you, in a step-by-step matter.

Whether you are interested in becoming an eBay buyer or an eBay seller, you can do both, in as little as a few minutes. eBay, as previously mentioned, is considered one the most shopped at online marketplaces. For you, this means that if you are looking to make money on eBay, you should be able to do so and if you are interested in buying on eBay, you should be able to find millions of products to choose from.

How to Sell Expensive Items on eBay

2009-04-01T00:20:00.001-07:00

Selling expensive items on eBay is really no different
than selling low cost items. Essentially, no matter
what you are selling, it all comes down to how you
market the item. This doesn???t mean you have to
surf around the Internet placing ads here and there ???
when it comes to eBay auctions, the marketing is
all done at the eBay website. Basically, when you
set up your auction, you are setting up an
automated marketing campaign.

First, you must determine what the value of your
item is, in three different ways. This will help you
determine what your reserve price is. On eBay, the
reserve price is the lowest price that you are willing
to accept for your item. First, have your high priced
item evaluated to determine what the actual market
value is. Next, research similar items from past
auctions at eBay to see what price those items sold
for. Finally, determine what the value of the item is to
you. With this information, you should be able to
determine the lowest amount you are willing to sell
the item for.

Set your reserve price, and then set your opening bid
price lower than $50 ??? no matter how high your
reserve price is. This is a marketing tactic. It will be
hard to attract potential buyers to an auction for an
item selling for hundreds or thousands of dollars ???
but getting them to an auction where the opening
bid is only $50 is quite simple. Remember, you don???t
have to sell the item to anyone who bids less than
your reserve price ??? unless you choose to do so at
the close of the auction. This method of price setting
resembles marketing gimmicks used by offline
businesses that are simply designed to ???get customers
in the door.???

Work hard on the description for your listing. Use
words that really describe your item well. Provide as
many details as possible, including details that prove
the authenticity of collectible items. Include pictures
of the item as well. Do not try to deceive potential
buyers! If the item has marks or scratches, simply
be honest about it, and make sure that the pictures
convey this as well. State how the item will be
packed and shipped. Also let potential buyers know
that shipping insurance must be purchased as well
??? in case the item is damaged once it leaves your
possession.

For higher priced items, most eBay buyers feel more
comfortable using an escrow service. Offer this as
an option in your auction, with the understanding that
the buyer must pay for the service. This protects both
parties from fraud, and it makes many buyers more
open to spending the money to obtain the item.
eBay has partnered with an escrow service that is
commonly used for high ticket items.

How to Start Buying On eBay

2009-03-30T21:20:00.001-07:00

Are you interested in doing your online shopping on eBay? If you are and if this is your first time using eBay, you may be a little bit nervous, as many first time eBay buyers are. The good news, however, is that buying what you want on eBay is a relatively easy process. To get you started on that process, you will want to read on.

The first thing that you will want to do is register for a free eBay account. Although you do not need an eBay account to view all of the items that are currently available for sale, you do need an eBay account to bid on items listed for sale on eBay. When it comes setting up a free eBay account all you need to do is provide personal information about yourself. This information includes your address, your phone number, and your email address. You will also have to create an eBay sign in name and a password for yourself. These items will be used to login to your eBay account. Once your account has been verified by email, you should be able to start buying right away.

Speaking of buying your items; one of the reasons why eBay is so popular is because it is one of the largest online marketplaces. Internet users are not only able to shop on eBay, but they are also able to sell on eBay. That is what has led to millions of items available for sale on eBay, at any given time. While having a large selection of items to choose from is nice, it can make finding what you want hard; however, there are ways that you can easily navigate the eBay website, to find exactly what you were looking for, in a relatively quick way.

Perhaps, the easiest way to find exactly what you are looking for on eBay is to perform an eBay search. Towards the top of eBay???s webpage, you should see a search box. This is where you will want to key in what you are looking for. The more descriptive you can be, the more accurate your results will be. For instance, if you are interested in purchasing a ladies shirt, you will want to search with ???ladies M shirt.??? Incorporating the size or even a brand into your search is likely to eliminate purchases that aren???t want you want or need. You should also be able to perform an advanced eBay search, which will let you enter in price ranges or only show items that are from a specific seller.

Whether you perform a standard eBay search or an advanced one, you should be presented with a number of auction listings. In most cases, those listing are listed in order based on the time that is left. For example, online auction listings that are ending soon will likely be listed first; therefore, if you see something that you like at the top of your screen, you may want to act fast. You can also, easily, choose to have all auction listings listed in order based on the time each auction was started, current location of the item, as well as by price, including highest to lowest and visa versa.

When you see the auction listings outlined from your eBay search, no matter which order you have them showing in, you should be able to see the current asking price, the cost of shipping, the amount of time that is left in the auction, a short description of the product being sold, and possibly even a picture. You can also tell what type of auction listing it is. For instance, most eBay sellers use the traditional auction listing format, where you and other buyers bid on their products, but some use ???Buy It Now,??? formats, which is where you can buy an item right away, without having to bid on it. To learn more about an item appearing on your screen, simply click on the short product description link. That link will take you to a detailed sales page, which should have product descriptions, pictures, information on shipping, information accepted methods of payment, as well as instructions on how to buy the item or items in question.

As you can see, getting started on eBay is a relatively simple process. To start taking advantage of the millions of items listed on eBay, register for your free eBay account today.

How to Use eBay Escrow Services

2009-03-29T21:50:00.001-07:00

If you buy or sell big ticket items on eBay, you need
to know about the available escrow services. An
escrow service is designed to protect buyers and
sellers from being ripped off. The funds for the sale
go to the escrow service, and then the seller ships
the item to the buyer. Once the item has been
received, the funds are released from the escrow
service to the seller.

In some instances, both the item and the funds go
through the escrow service, and the service makes
sure that the buyer gets the item, and the seller
gets the money. There is a small fee for the service,
and it is usually a fixed percentage of the sale price.
It is up to the buyer and seller to decide who will
pay the fees. Often, the fees are split between the
buyer and seller.

If you want to use an escrow service, there is only
one service that eBay recommends, and they back
that service up. This service is Escrow.com. Over
the years, there have been many ???look-alike???
escrow services, using variations of the escrow.com
domain name, but they have shown to be less than
reputable companies. Make sure you use the
services of escrow.com for the greatest protection.

How to Use the Promotional Tools on eBay

2009-03-27T20:45:00.001-07:00

eBay wants you to be successful. Essentially, if
their sellers are not making any money, eBay is
not making any money ??? or not enough money.
eBay does have one other very small source of
revenue, which comes from the sellers. This revenue
is realized from the promotional tools that actually
help you, as a seller, have more successful auctions.

The promotional tools on eBay are very inexpensive.
For instance, you can have a bold listing for just a
few cents. Highlighted listings are equally inexpensive.
These two tools could easily raise your final price by
as much as 25%! Not all promotional tools cost money.
Many of them are free. The available promotional tools
found on eBay are product finder, gallery, bold,
highlight, border, gift services listings, subtitles, featured
home page, featured plus, featured gallery, keywords,
co-op advertising, and optimized listings.

If you are serious about making money from your eBay
auctions, or if you are selling just one high ticket item,
you should definitely take advantage of the eBay
promotional tools that are available to you. These can
easily be found through your sellers account.

Increase Your eBay Profits Without Relying on

2009-03-26T22:10:00.001-07:00

eBay!

While it is possible to earn a full time living on eBay,
it is a mistake to depend solely on eBay for your
income. You could be using your eBay auctions to
generate a huge amount of business for other
products and services! Many people, however,
fail to fully utilize eBay???s resources to this end.

eBay has over 100 million members, and they
gained those members by continually running major
marketing campaigns. Essentially, they do your
marketing for you. But you have to help yourself as
well. The key is to drive people to your auction page,
which in turn can be used to drive traffic to your
website.

You can sell many different items on your website,
including items that are up for auction at eBay! This
is a fabulous way to earn income that does not rely
on eBay auctions. You can easily accept website
payments with a Paypal account, so there is no
need for an expensive merchant account!

You are not allowed to include the website address
of an outside website on your auctions ??? you are,
however, perfectly welcome to place a link to your
website on your eBay ???About Me??? page. Invite your
bidders and potential bidders to view your about me
page, and watch the website traffic roll in!

Pros and Cons of Selling on eBay

2009-03-25T23:30:00.001-07:00

Are you interested in becoming an eBay seller? If you are, you are definitely not alone, as eBay has become a relatively quick and easy way to make money online. Each day, a large number of individuals use eBay to make extra money from home and a few lucky ones are even able to make enough money to support themselves or their families. Before you jump on the eBay selling bandwagon, you are advised to take a few minutes and examine the pros and cons of selling on eBay.

One of the many pros, or plus sides, to selling on eBay is the fact that is it is relatively easy to do. Once you create an eBay account, you can start listing items that you have in your possession for sale right away. When doing so, it is also easy to do. eBay has a step-by-step process for listing items for sale, in traditional auction formats or buy it now formats. In fact, eBay also has a program that lets you compile your auctions, with pictures and descriptions, when you aren???t even connected to the internet. As soon as you connect to the internet, you can begin to upload your listings and have them start right away.

Another one of the many pros to selling on eBay is that just about anyone can do it. You don???t have to have big fancy, expensive items to sell on eBay. In fact, a large number of those selling on eBay are just selling items that are taking up space in their homes; items they don???t want anymore. If you are interesting in becoming an eBay seller, but you aren???t sure as to how much you can depend on eBay for income, you may want to think about testing the waters. You can do this by listing the items have you have around your home for sale. Items that tend to sell relatively well are lots, or groups, of toys and infant clothing.

While there are a number of pros, or plus sides, to selling on eBay, there are also a number of cons, or downsides, to doing so as well. One of the biggest cons or downsides to selling on eBay is the competition. As it was previously mentioned, a large number of internet users have started using eBay to make extra money or even make a living. This is what leads to multiple auction listings for the exact same items. While this is nice for the eBay buyers, it can hurt you as a seller. When the supplier is higher than the demand, you may not make as much money off of your items as you had originally hoped to, if they even sell at all.

Another downside to selling on eBay is the fees associated with doing so. In recent years, eBay has redone their fee structure, often to raise their fees. Although these fees are still considered relatively low, they could put a damper on your profits, which alone are sometimes hard to come by. Of course, there are ways that you can the most out of eBay fees. For instance, if you have a ???hot seller,??? you could start your auction out at a low price, as the fees are less for doing so; however, you are taking a gamble, as you never have any guarantees as for how much your items will sell for. Perhaps, the unknown is one of the biggest downsides to selling on eBay; you never really know if you are going to make money or even if you will end up losing money.

As you likely already know, the decision as to whether or not you want to become an eBay seller is yours to make, but, when making your decision, you are advised to keep the above mentioned points in mind. With a relatively equal amount of pros and cons, you may be wondering what your best option is. For more accurate information, you may want to think about testing the eBay seller waters, as you are able to sell whenever you want, with no minimum auction requirements.

Pros and Cons of Shopping on eBay

2009-03-25T01:04:00.001-07:00

Are you a relatively new fan of online shopping? If you are, you may have not yet had the chance to examine eBay. Even if you have never shopped on eBay, there is a good chance that you already know exactly what it is. eBay is an online auction website that allows internet users to sell items that they own, but not longer need or want to have. This is what makes eBay the largest online market place, as just about anyone can buy or sell there. However, with just about anything else you find online, shopping on eBay has its pros and it cons.

One of the biggest pros to shopping on eBay is the large selection of products that you will have to choose from. You can find just about anything on eBay, within reason of course. It is not uncommon to find cars for sale, baby toys, clothing, home d???cor items, computers, gaming consoles, and much more. Items found on eBay can be purchased in either new or used conditions. It is also important to note that many eBay sellers end up selling the same or similar items. For you, this also enables you to compare prices; to get the best deals.

Another pro to shopping on eBay is that it is relatively easy to do. Once you have registered for a free account with eBay, you are able to start shopping on eBay. When shopping on eBay, you can easily find what you are looking for. In fact, that is another pro of shopping on eBay; the ease of finding what you want. With a simple eBay search or even an advanced search, you could find a number of products that fit the description as to what you are looking for. By viewing those items, you can then decide if you want to purchase them or not.

Speaking of making purchases on eBay, you will also find that it is easy to do. As stated above, eBay allows internet users to post items for sale that they no longer need or want. While still following eBay???s rules, these sellers have a little bit of flexibility, such as how much money they want to charge for their products, as well as what methods of payment they accept. Although some eBay sellers are limited on the methods of payment that they accept, you will find that most are fairly flexible. For instance, common forms of accepted payments of eBay include PayPal, money orders, and personal checks; making it easy and safe to buy on eBay.

Although there are a number of pros to shopping on eBay, it is also important to mention the cons, as there are some of those as well. One of the biggest cons or downsides to shopping on eBay is that eBay is home to a number of scammers. While eBay works hard to eliminate these scams and shield buyers, like you, from them, there are some that get past security. With that in mind, if you proceed with caution, you should be able to safely shop eBay, without any problems. The few eBay scams that you will want to be on the lookout for involves sellers that advertise they have products that they don???t really have, sellers who claim products are in excellent condition when they are not, and others along those lines.

In connection with eBay scams, another downside to eBay is that just about anyone can become an eBay seller. This means that someone who has every intention of taking your money, but not delivering a product can register for an account with eBay and start selling. Of course, eBay catches onto these sellers pretty quickly and, most of the time, their accounts are disabled. With keeping that in mind, you just need to watch who you do business with. Be on the lookout for any sellers with a large number of negative feedback ratings or sellers who are new to eBay.

As you can see, there are a number of pros and cons to doing your shopping with eBay. For the most part, most eBay buyers have a positive experience with eBay. If you watch what you are doing, namely what you choose to buy and from whom, you should also be able to have a positive experience on eBay; one that will likely bring you back for more shopping.

Shipping eBay Items to Customers

2009-03-24T02:19:00.001-07:00

If you stock the products that you sell on eBay, as
opposed to drop shipping, you probably spend a
great deal of time and money shipping items to your
customers. If you are a big success on eBay, this
could quickly become a problem. Organize your
shipping practices before they get out of control!

Keep stamps, packing materials, and boxes on
hand. You can have these items delivered to you,
which will save you a lot of time. Use large padded
envelopes instead of boxes whenever possible. These
envelopes are easier to handle, and usually cheaper to
purchase. Furthermore, they often weigh just a little
less than cardboard boxes do, which will save a bit of
money on the postage. Purchase stamps and packing
materials online. Not only will you save time, you will
save money as well.

If you ship a lot of packages, purchasing your own
set of postage scales will increase your efficiency ???
the expense will more than pay for itself. Other items
you should invest in include a rubber stamp, label
printing software, a good printer, and labels. Either
use a stamp for the return label, or keep a large
stock of pre-printed return labels. All you need is a
plan and a little bit of organization to successfully
ship your eBay items.

The eBay Item Listing Rules

2009-03-22T21:49:00.001-07:00

Because eBay is such a huge marketplace, with
members from all walks of life, in almost every single
country around the world, it is no wonder that there
are many scammers lurking about. In order to better
protect the buyers, eBay has specific rules
concerning the items that can be auctioned off on
the site. These rules must be followed, or the
person posting the item for auction can be banned
from the site.

Even though there are numerous categories, items
that are put up for auction really only fall into one of
four categories at eBay: Prohibited, Questionable,
Potentially Infringing, and Approved. Approved is the
simplest category to define and understand. An
approved item is any item that does not fall into one
of the other three categories. That is fairly simple,
right?

After the ???approved??? category, however, it starts to
get a little harder to understand ??? with the exception
of prohibited items. A prohibited item may not be
auctioned on eBay for any reason, under any
circumstances. Prohibited items include alcohol,
drugs, animals, tobacco, human remains or body
parts of any type, lottery tickets, and
governmental property. There is quite a bit more
on the list, and that list can be viewed at the
eBay website.

Questionable items are those that are not prohibited,
but are not necessarily infringing. Adult material falls
under the ???questionable??? category. Tickets of any
type may also be questionable. Law enforcement
related equipment, as well as guns, knives, and
other weapons are questionable items. Artifacts,
food items, batteries, all hazardous chemicals
and materials are also on the list of
questionable items. You can auction questionable
items at eBay, as long as those items meet certain
conditions.

Potentially Infringing items are those that violate
copyrights, trademarks, and other legal rights. These
items are almost always some type of media, such
as software, DVDs, and CDs, but the list contains
other items as well, such as counterfeit items and
illegal recordings. You can find out more about
???potentially infringing??? items at the eBay website
as well.

If you are unsure as to which category your item falls
into, you should contact eBay with this question
before setting up the auction. As a buyer, you
should carefully consider the consequences of
purchasing items that fall under one of the three
categories above. In some cases, it may be very
illegal to have some of those items in your
possession ??? no matter how they were obtained.
Before making such a purchase, or bidding on such
an item, you should find out more details about the
item in question, and then get some legal advice.

The eBay Shipping Center

2009-03-21T18:39:00.001-07:00

eBay wants to help sellers with every aspect of their
eBay business. The eBay shipping center was
created to help ensure that you get your items to
your customers in a timely manner, in the most
efficient and economical way possible.

The eBay shipping center will help you print shipping
labels, help you figure shipping costs, and even help
you with International shipping. Shipping information
for all of the major shipping companies, including the
USPS can be found through the shipping center. You
can even purchase insurance for packages that will
be shipped by the USPS directly through the shipping
center.

One of the greatest features of the eBay Shipping
Center is the ability to order free co-branded shipping
boxes for USPS shipments. These boxes are
delivered to you, at no cost! This will cut a great deal
of your shipping expenses because you won???t have to
purchase your own boxes! There is also a great video
that will teach you how to save time and money on
your shipping, and whether you are a buyer or a
seller, you can easily track your packages through
the eBay shipping center as well.

The eBay Trading Assistants Program

2009-03-20T14:29:00.001-07:00

If you excel at eBay auctions, you might want to
consider an additional source of revenue as well. The
eBay Trading Assistant Program will allow you to
sell items for other eBay members on consignment.
Being successful at your own auctions is the key
to becoming a successful trading assistant for other
people.

Often, newcomers simply don???t know how to make
their items sell. Many people who are auctioning off
a one time big ticket item, such as cars or real
estate, will often employ the services of an eBay
Trading Assistant. Items such as these can add
up to very big commissions for serious trading
assistants! Usually, trading assistants are
responsible for every aspect of the auction,
including shipping the product to the customer and
collecting payment. For high ticket items, the person
who hires

Trading Assistants get access to trading assistant
marketing materials which are quite helpful. In order
to become an approved trading assistant, you must
have sold at least ten items in the last ninety days,
have a feedback score of at least 100 with 97%
positive feedback or higher, and your eBay account
must be in good standing.

Tips on Making Money on eBay, Not Losing It

2009-03-19T18:24:00.001-07:00

Are you interested in becoming an eBay seller or are you a relatively new eBay seller? If so, you may still be learning the ins and outs of eBay. Selling on eBay is a great way to make money on the side or even enough to support yourself, but you have to be successful at what you do. Unfortunately, it can take time to fully learn the ins and outs of eBay, particularly how to become a profitable eBay seller, until now. Below some helpful tips are outlined; tips that you won???t necessarily find explained on eBay.

eBay sellers are all required to pay fees to list their items for sale on eBay. You are charged two separate fees, a listing fee or insertion fee and a final value fee. For the final value fee, you are charged a percentage of the price that your item sold for. The insertion fee or listing fee is figured out a little bit differently. Instead of being charged a percentage, you are charged a set amount. For instance, at the current moment, it costs .20 to list an item up to .99 cents and .40 to list an item for sale between $1.00 and $9.99, and the fee scale continues up in a similar fashion. Please remember that this is just a sample. eBay regularly changes their fees; therefore, you are urged not to rely on the aforementioned fee samples.

Although eBay sellers must pay the eBay fees mentioned above, many do not take the time to thoroughly understand those fees. You are advised against doing that, as it may end up costing you money. For instance, many of the price ranges for eBay???s insertion fee scale ends at .99 cents. For you, this is a great opportunity to save money, but you must know how to do so. As stated above, if you list one of your items at $9.99, the sample insertion fee would be only .40 cents. Did you know that if you listed your item for $10.00, your insertion fee could jump up to around .60 cents! An extra .20 cents just for a penny is pretty expensive, especially if you list a number of eBay auctions that way. Before listing items for sale on eBay again, examine eBay insertion fee sale and see how you can easily save money, sometimes by just shaving a few cents off your asking price.

It has often been said that to be a successful eBay seller, you need to have good product descriptions and clear digital pictures of the item or items that you are selling. Of course, having a number of pictures in your eBay listings is a great way to increase your chances of making a sale, but it can be expensive doing so. eBay allows sellers to post one picture for free. Additional pictures can be purchased for a small fee, but that small fee can add up overtime. For that reason, many eBay sellers limit the number of pictures they put in their auctions; however, you do not want to do this. Instead, you will want to examine photo sharing sites. Photo sharing websites, like PhotoBucket are a nice, fee way to add more pictures to your eBay auctions. Register with a photo sharing site, like PhotoBucket, follow the instructions and you should be saving money in no time at all.

The above mentioned ways are just a few of the many ways that you can save money on eBay, not lose it. In all honesty, you should do a little bit of research first. Using the internet is a great way to research selling on eBay, as many other eBay users will share their money making secrets with you, free of charge.

Using the eBay Security and Resolution Center

2009-03-18T17:54:00.001-07:00

Whether you are an eBay buyer or a seller, problems
may arise at some point. That is why the eBay
Security and Resolution Center was created. Even
if you have never had a problem on eBay, and you
don???t expect to, a visit to this eBay resource can be
very enlightening, and it may even help you to
protect yourself in all of your online activities.

If you do not receive an item that you bought from
eBay, this is where it is reported. The same is true
if you sold and shipped an item and did not receive
payment for it. But there are many other ways to
use the security center as well. You can learn how
to protect yourself from identity theft, how to protect
your eBay account and the eBay guidelines that
are designed to make everyone???s buying and selling
experience safe and enjoyable.

If you are an eBay seller, you will learn how to
become a trusted seller, which will ultimately bring
you more profits. There is something for everyone at
the eBay Security and Resolution Center ??? even if
you have never had a security problem at eBay.

Why You Should at Least Explore eBay

2009-03-17T14:14:00.001-07:00

Are you interested in doing more of your shopping online? In the past, a large number of consumers were worried about doing so; however, as online security continues to improve, more consumers are finding themselves shopping online. If you are interested in becoming one of those individuals, you will want to examine eBay.

When it comes to shopping on eBay, there are a number of first time eBay users who are worried about security, among other things. Of course, there are always internet scams that can be found on eBay, but, for the most part, you should be able shop on eBay without any concerns. If you are still wondering whether or not eBay is right for you, you may want to think about at least exploring the site.

When it comes to exploring the eBay site, you will want to examine it as a whole. For instance, if you are wondering about eBay???s security, you may want to visit eBay???s help center. There you can find information for first time eBay users, just like you. You can review eBay???s policies, as well as information on how they handle eBay scams, should you end up falling victim to one. eBay, like many other online websites, has a customer service department. Should you have any questions that you can???t find answers to on the eBay website, you may want to think about contacting their customer service department.

In addition to safety and security, there are a number of potential eBay users who wonder about what they can buy on eBay. The good news is that you can easily find out what is for sale on eBay, without even having to create an eBay account. If you are looking for something in particular, you can perform an eBay search with the item of your interest. If you are just looking to explore the site, you can also browse through the unlimited number of eBay selling categories. Just a few of these categories include home and garden, baby, clothing, entertainment, and much more.

Another question commonly asked, by new eBay users, is the methods of accepted payments. As you likely already know, eBay is actually an online auction website. This online auction website allows other internet users to post items that they have for sale. For this reason, you will find that different methods of payment are accepted. In all honesty, it depends on the seller and their own personal preference. Despite a possible variance among many eBay sellers, PayPal, personal checks, and money orders are often acceptable forms of payment. To get an idea of the payments available, you are urged to click on active auctions. Towards the bottom of the auction listing page, you should see the accepted forms of payment outlined, from that particularly seller.

As it was previously mentioned, you can easily explore eBay without having to register for an account. If you like what you see and if you want to start shopping on eBay, you will need to register an account with them. As a buyer, your account is free. Within a few minutes at the most, you could be bidding on the products that you want to own. You may even be able to find listings that are known as ???Buy It Now,??? listings. These listings enable to you to make your purchase right at that moment, without competition from other eBay buyers. To get started today, visit eBay.com.

Why You Should Become an eBay Seller

2009-03-16T16:48:00.001-07:00

Are you currently looking for ways to make money online? If you are, you may have come across eBay. eBay is known as an online auction website. What is nice about eBay is that just about anyone can become an eBay seller, including you. What does this mean for you? Essentially, it means that if you have items to sell, you can do so on eBay; while making money at the same time. So, if you are currently looking for ways to make money online, you are urged to examine becoming an eBay seller, as there are a number of reasons as to why you should.

Perhaps, the greatest reason as to why you should become an eBay seller is because there are no minimum auction requirements. For you, this means that you could just test the waters if you wanted to. If you were unsure as to whether or not you should rely on eBay to make money, you may want to sell a few items that you no longer need and see how it goes. Should you like the eBay selling experience, you could continue on. However, if you were not satisfied with the results, you could stop selling on eBay right away. eBay is flexible to all sellers, particularly those just getting started.

Another reason why you should become an eBay seller is because it is easy to do. eBay has a relatively easy learning curve. When listing an auction or selling an item on eBay, you are given step-by-step instructions on how you list your items and get your auctions up and running. As long as you follow the instructions provided to you by eBay, you could have your items listed online in a matter of minutes. It has been said that those with minimal computer experience are also able to sell on eBay, without any problems.

Speaking of the items that you want to sell on eBay, you will find that you can sell just about anything on eBay, within reason. There are only a few restrictions, which include inappropriate content and such. For a detailed list of prohibited eBay items, you will want to visit eBay???s help center. Despite a few restrictions, there are a large number of items that can be sold on eBay. These items include real estate, vehicles, clothing, toys, movies, books, gaming consoles, computers, beauty items, and much more. Whether you are looking to sell something that you have in your home, something you bought from a yard sale or a thrift store, or something that can be dropped shipped from another company, you should be able to do so online with eBay.

The ability to make a profit is another one of the many reasons as to why you should become an eBay seller. What is nice about eBay is that they let you set your own price for your auctions. In fact, if you would rather outright sell your products, instead of selling them in a bidding auction, you can do so with ???Buy It Now,??? listings. The ability to set your own prices is one the many reasons why you should check out eBay. Having the ability to set your own prices increases your chances of being able to make a profit on eBay.

If you would like to become an eBay seller, and as previously mentioned there are a number of reasons as to why you should, you will want to register for a free eBay account. Although your eBay account is free, it will cost a small amount of money to sell items on eBay. Your eBay selling fees will all depend on how much you list your items for, as well as how much they sell for. Despite having to pay small fees, eBay is more than worth your time. The least that you should do is give it a shot. As previously mentioned, if your eBay selling experience doesn???t go as well as you had originally hoped for, you can stop and look for other online money making opportunities.

You Can Sell Anything on eBay ??? Or Can You?

2009-03-16T16:47:00.001-07:00

Over 100 million people are members of eBay.
Through eBay, you can buy items in almost any
category that you can imagine ??? at great prices.
You can also sell almost anything you can
imagine on eBay ??? people often sell items that have
absolutely no real value for very high prices. There
are limits, however, to what can be bought and sold.

eBay does not allow certain items to be auctioned
through their website. Services are one type of ???item???
that cannot be auctioned ??? simply because it is not
an item. Some seller???s blatantly ignore this however.
The sell of other items is illegal, even if it isn???t being
sold through eBay. eBay restricts the sale of any
type of item that is considered ???illegal for sale??? in any
other selling format. Illegal items such as satellite
descramblers are forbidden as well.

Anything that is copyrighted - such as copies of
DVDs, CDs, or software - may not be sold through
eBay auctions. You can, however, sell a DVD, CD,
or any software that you bought legitimately???as
long as you are not just selling a copy that you
made of these types of items. eBay does not allow
the sale of ???replicas.??? A replica is a knockoff version
of designer items, such as purses, dresses, shoes,
or sunglasses that look identical to those that have
designer labels.

Items that are regulated by the state or federal
government are forbidden on eBay. These items
include alcoholic beverages, weapons and firearms,
all tobacco products, and both prescription and
illegal drugs. There are small exceptions to this rule,
however. If you have a collectable, such as a tin that
contains tobacco, you may sell that item if the
package has never been opened, and if you state the
contents of the package are not meant for
consumption. There are other conditions that must be
met as well when selling these types of collectables.

Any type or breed of animal or reptile may not be
sold through an eBay auction. This includes animals
that were once living, and are now stuffed and
mounted. This rule may also apply to items that are
taken from endangered species, such as Ivory. When
it comes to these types of items, when in doubt,
don???t.

Tickets may be sold, but it is illegal to sell tickets
for a higher price than you originally paid for them.
This is called ticket scalping, and it is illegal.
Lottery tickets are also banned from eBay
auctions, as well as raffle tickets. Again, if you are
not sure if your item is eligible for an eBay auction,
either don???t put it up for auction, or contact eBay to
get an answer one way or the other. Don???t risk
breaking the law!