Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Today in the Life of eBay

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Everyone knows about eBay who has the internet and those who know about eBay have some kind of idea about how it works.

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However, as everyone also knows, things change and what you may think will work for you a year ago, may not work today.

There have been several different changes made to eBay since it's start back in 1995.  Most people don't even know that it's been almost 20 years since the empire of Auctions started out.  So what's different?

Two words, "The Rules".

That's right, the rules have changed on eBay about every little thing you can imagine.  It's not as easy anymore to just sign up for an account and post your item.  You must make sure to follow the rules or you could end up with a banned account within your first try!!

Don't let this discourage you though, there are plenty of ways to go about selling your item without looking at every little scrap of paper eBay pushes at you...

So lets go through the basics and I assure you, you'll be selling items like a pro in no time.


Photobucket 1.  Is your item tangible?


What does tangible mean?  It means, is your item able to be physically touched, like a car, or a toy, or even a sweater.  Non-tangible items are things like downloadable goods, an unlock code for a cell phone, or a redeemable code.

This makes a huge difference in safety to you.  As a seller, you'll have to put up with a lot of risks.  Every dollar that can be earned is a dollar that can be scammed from you.

There are a lot of honest people on eBay, but there are a fair few who are not.  They will buy from you and be oh so polite, but whenever they get the item, they'll jump into a dispute.  They'll claim they never received their item, or it wasn't as described and here comes the bad news... there is no seller protection for Non-tangible goods.  Therefore if they want their money back, they can get it.  You can tell eBay and Paypal, until you're blue in the face, that you gave them what they asked for and what you promised, they'll tell you the same thing.  That they're giving the money back to the buyer.
If they claim they didn't receive the item and you have a tracking ID for the package, then they MIGHT listen to you and declare the dispute closed, but this is still tricky.

At least you have chance if your item is tangible.


Photobucket 2. Learn to Cut your losses


How do you avoid the bad buyers?  The simple answer is, you can't.  There's just no way to tell who's a bad buyer.  If you're trying to sell something really expensive on eBay, such as a computer or PlayStation, I'd avoid selling it on eBay as much as you can because these items, should the buyer be a bad one, you probably won't get it back.

That's the sad truth about eBay, it's all for the buyer, not the seller. If you try and call into customer service, you won't get very good service either.  In my personal experience, along with many other seller experience's it's been announced the customer service is rude and very unhelpful.  After a long dispute with a buyer, you may choose to just give up and give them their money back, as soon as you contact eBay for help in this department, you'll be greeted with the ear piercing, "Why didn't you do it in the first place?"

Best thing to do is just grint your teeth and take your losses because that's how it's going to be in the end anyway.

This is one of the biggest parts of being an eBay seller, you need to learn to cut your losses.  If you can't do that, then don't sell on eBay.


Photobucket 3. Categorization is KEY


The first thing the eBay asks you to do when listing an item is to select your categories.  You need to list your item in the best possible position or it'll never be seen.

Best way to do this is to put yourself in the buyer's shoes.  If you were going to look for this item, what would you do to find it?  Would you go through the list of eBay's categories or would you type in the search bar for it?

If you want to do a search for your item, don't be too specific.  If someone was looking for a black scarf, they most likely wouldn't be looking for a specific brand, they'd just be looking for a 'black scarf'.  Try doing a search yourself and see what you come up with.  Afterwards, click on the item that's closet to your own and look above it and see what it's categorized as.  This is where you want to put your item at.


Photobucket 4. FREE SHIPPING!!


End of story.  If you don't list your item as 'free shipping' no one's going to buy it.  That's the biggest advantage on the web now, people are including the 'shipping fee' in their original price of the item.  Most people don't notice it though, they just notice the 'free shipping' and get excited and are more likely to buy it like that because then there's no 'hidden' fees.

Put yourself in their position, if you found your item at your price but there was an extra 'shipping' cost, would you still buy it?  You might but it'd be unlikely... even be department stores that have gone online, like Wal-Mart and K-Mart offer free shipping to their local stores and people are more willing to take it and drive to the store to pick it up then have it delivered to their home.


Photobucket 5. Paypal is absolutely needed


You might have a credit card option on your item and that's great, but try your best to include Paypal.  People feel more secure about using PayPal and although you have the risk of step 2... it's still in your best interest to include it because people won't be inclined to buy without the option of Paypal as a payment method.



Those are the basics to eBay selling.  You don't need to have a business to sell things on eBay, just things lying around the house.  If you'd like, try to sell it in a garage sale first, and whatever you don't sell, list on eBay.  Just be sure to check that your items aren't damaged and are in good condition.  If they're not, make sure you list it that way.  Be as honest as you can, that's the best advice of all I can give.

Photobucket Good luck on your selling.

If you'd like to know about how to become a true eBay business, make sure you check out my other blogs here for more information about how to get started.

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