7 Tips To Help You Successfully Auction On Ebay

Tip #1 Another secret source of collectibles is eBay itself and other auction sites. Yes, the power of leveraging eBay is in fact a secret of many eBay sellers. Many items for sale on auction sites can be purchased and then resold on the same or another site. This is actually a common practice. The main difference in your auction is that you will target it to a specific audience. For example, you might find post cards featuring scenes of San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood for sale on Yahoo Groups. You purchase the cards and then put them up for sale individually on eBay. One other thing to be aware of is that many people sell good stuff that they know is good but are not concerned with making a huge profit. If you make such folks a decent offer, you can come away with items you can profit handsomely from on eBay.

Tip #2 One often neglected key to eBay success is understanding your buyer. After your auction closes but before you send the product to the buyer, take the time to find out a little about them especially if you’re selling a high-ticket item that you can’t afford to lose. Even if the buyer has paid, the PayPal transaction could still be reversed leaving you at a loss. So how do you figure out if you can trust your buyer? Look at their feedback for others. Go to their feedback page and click ‘Left for Others’. If they leave a lot of negatives for their sellers, then you should try to get away from them as fast as you can – if you do deal with them, make sure not to leave your feedback first. You should consider a negative someone has left to be just as bad as a negative left for them. Look at feedback from sellers. Click ‘From Sellers’. You might find that they have more complaints from sellers than from buyers – or, on the other hand, it might be the other way around. Some people really are just better at selling than buying, or vice versa.

Tip #3 Be nice to new buyers. Genuine new buyers will probably have a name ending in a number and a feedback score of zero. Don’t make the mistake of always thinking these people are fraudsters. Somewhat counter-intuitively, people trying to commit fraud will almost never do it when they have a feedback score of zero as they will think it’s too obvious. New buyers often have problems with being inexperienced on eBay, and you might have to guide them through things like opening a PayPal account. If you want to get to know your eBay buyer, why not have a little chat with them via email about the item, what they plan to do with it. Tell them you know they’re going to love it and ask if there’s anything else you can do for them. Very few buyers who seem chatty and nice will turn on you if you give back positive, good communication.

Tip #4 When a seller writes an original description of an item or takes an original picture, they own the copyright on their work. This happens without any requirement for them to register or even to want the copyright – that’s just the way copyright works. What that means is that it’s actually illegal to copy another sellers description or pictures. EBay refers to the practice of copying another seller’s listing and using it in your own auction as ‘description theft’. It is against their listing policies, and ignorance of the rules is no defense. If your ‘theft’ is discovered, then your listing will be ended and all bids will be cancelled. Do it more than once and your account could get suspended, and you’re subject to the usual eBay punishments: you could lose Power Seller privileges, or your auctions could be ended, leaving you with a stack of eBay fees.

Tip #5 The description you write for your item is essential to your auction. It really is worth taking the time to write your own descriptions, as many people will be listing items using the pre-filled information. Remember that if you sell the same things often then you can re-use your own descriptions as many times as you want. You can keep your own database, re-using the ones that get high prices and re-writing the ones that don’t. Writing descriptions is the biggest way that you have control over your auctions. Be sure you write your own descriptions and never “borrow” or plagiarize descriptions from other auctions. This is a serious eBay offense, and you could lose your seller status.

Tip #6 It’s simply not worth having a Buy it Now button on every one of your auctions if nobody ever touches the thing: it’s just sitting there, costing you money for each listing. When it comes down to it, Buy it Now is expensive, and you should only use it in auctions where you really think it will help the item to sell. This takes some understanding to learn when and how to use this. As you get more experienced on eBay, you might be tempted to use fixed price auctions, just so you can budget better. It’s often more reassuring to know that either you will make a small profit on an item instead of having to wait and see whether it makes a big profit or a big loss. However, you should also be aware that there are some times when you really do not want to use ‘Buy it Now’.

Tip #7 EBay search can be a valuable tool for both buyers and sellers. Be specific: If you’re searching for the first edition of the original copy of Alice in Wonderland, you’ll get further searching for ‘alice in wonderland first edition’ than you will searching for ‘alice in wonderland’. 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.

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