eBay is not the road to easy money. People who sell things on eBay WORK for their money. It can be a good job though, if you have the ability to organize well, find a product that sells, and value your reputation as an honest trader.

This booklet is simply a guidebook to getting started. If you want to sell a few items here and there, it may be all you ever need. If you want to build an eBay business, then you'll need more comprehensive instructions that include speeding up the process, finding wholesale sources, saving on fees, etc. I recommend the book HERE.

Successful sellers know things that unsuccessful ones do not. Here is an overview of selling tips.

1. Know the value of your product. This is very important. It does not mean you know the street value, but that you know the current selling price from eBay. Many sellers fail to sell their items because they overprice them, and expect to get too much. Research ahead of time by doing searches on Completed Items for average prices. Look carefully at the item descriptions and figure out why the higher selling ones went for more.

2. Higher bidded items are usually higher for a reason, but sometimes it is just how much competition there is when the item ends. High bid reasons will be explained in the handbook. Sometimes though, it is just due to moment to moment market fluxuations which you may not be able to explain away.

3. Know as much about your product as you can. Learn about which things make it worth more, and which things undercut the value. Test an item if you can, and don't list it as untested unless it really is.

4. Be clear and comprehensive in your item description. You need to cover the following points:

• Condition: Be thorough, and precise.
• Model or approximate age: This tells people more exactly what they are getting.
• Whether it is guaranteed or not: If AS-IS, say so clearly.
• Exact items that are included. If there is more than one part, describe each one.
• Specs or Variables: If details about the item that ought to be included are not, people assume you do not know what you are talking about, and they will not bid as much.
• No DOA is a common eBay warranty. It means that the item will not be Dead On Arrival.

5. Include Complete Shipping Info. Specify how shipping will be charged up front. State if there are limits to it. Common examples are:

• $-- for insured Priority Mail shipping within the Continental United States.
• Buyer Pays Actual Shipping plus $-- handling fee.
• Alaska, Hawaii, and International Bidders email for quote before bidding.
• Free shipping in the U.S. if you use Buy It Now. (Be sure and add that to your Buy It Now cost)

6. State whether insurance is included in shipping or not. Usually it only pays to insure items worth more than $10, or which cannot be easily replaced.

7. Use HTML in your description. Create a web page in an HTML or Web design program. Select the area that you want to copy into the eBay ad. Change the page view so you can see the code for the part you selected. It should still be selected. Choose Copy. Paste that code into the eBay Sell Item form where you would normally write the description.

You can make a border, put in a nice logo, and write standard descriptions and policies which only need a change or two in order to be used for any item. Use this template each time you sell something, just change the description, photo, and shipping price.

It is not essential to do this to be a successful seller, but it does help. It also helps you to be able to cover routine details about policies if you have a template of this type.

8. Take a photo. Even a bad photo is better than none. You can use a digital camera, or a digital video cam to take stills. The following tips help get better results from photos.

• Don't take a picture too close. If it goes grainy, it will be misleading.
• If a picture is grainy, use an image editing program, and scale it to 50% or 25%.
• Crop your picture so that only the object you are selling is shown, unless you have put it in a setting that will help it sell better.
• Keep your pictures to snapshot size on screen, or even smaller. Too big and they take too long to download and your visitors may not wait.
• Take the picture in a clean and neat setting.
• If an item is too small to get a good photo of, try scanning it! Lay the item on the scanner bed, and scan it at 75 DPI. Scale or crop it as needed. Be careful not to put items on the scanner bed that can scratch the glass.
• Stick to one or two photos. Take another angle if you need, or get a detailed picture if you have multiple items, but using too many pictures gets too slow for the visitor.
• You can use a URL in your HTML code to reference a picture if you can upload it to a server on the web. You do not need to use eBay's picture services if you do this, you can put as many pictures in as you need with no additional charge. You have to have web space somewhere else though to do this (try Freeservers.com).

9. State your qualifications and experience if you are handling delicate or technical items. Once you get a higher feedback rating, refer your visitors to the feedback rating.

10. Protect your feedback rating. Buyers DO look at it, and if you get too many negatives, eBay will cancel you.

12. Set up a system for tracking the state of auctions. Here are two methods:

• When an item sells, mark it in your email program, or put the sale notification into a special folder marked Sold. When a bidder tells you they will mail payment, move info for that auction into a different folder marked Mailed. If a buyer pays you electronically, print out two copies of the payment notification. Put one in the box with the item that is being shipped. Put the other into your file cabinet as a record of the sale. If payment is mailed, print out copies of the auction notification for your records and to enclose in the box. Ship the item quickly when payment is made.
• Box items for shipment as you list them for sale. Set up a file cabinet or a shelf system where you can move the boxed items, or printouts of the email records to track progress. Remember, you need two basic status tracks...for those who pay electronically, and for those who mail payments.
• Using the printout of payment notification, or of auction end is the simplest way to put a record of the sale into the box with the item, and to keep a receipt of sorts for your financial records.

13. Use Auction Tools to help you if you do a large number of auctions. eBay, AuctionWatch, and other companies offer auction assistant tools to help file batches of auctions. I like the Poster Toaster software, because I can use it on my computer without being connected to the internet to build multiple listings (it lets me use a standard template, duplicate auctions, and use boilerplate text for standard policies, and it automatically uploads my images), and then I only need to connect while it automatically submits the auctions for me - no dawdling through eBay's listing pages!

14. Wait for the check to clear! Whether it is a paper check, or an e-check, wait for it to clear before you ship. This is standard procedure, people expect it.

15. Get an account with an online payment system. BillPoint and PayPal are the most common, with PayPal being in the lead. PayPal has free auction tools that will insert automatic notices for you, mail out an email to winning bidders, and more. Over half of our auctions get paid by PayPal, and they also handle international payments from some countries. They have less restrictive transaction limits than other payment services. You need to have a verified account to receive payments, so be sure to set this up at least two weeks before you expect to need it.

16. Establish a feedback rating by making purchases. People will look to see if you have sold anything, but if you have 10 points or more from buying, you are more likely to get bids on items during your first sales.

17. Not everyone files feedback. People for certain types of products file feedback more frequently than those in other categories. If you target home users who are purchasers, not sellers, in the gift markets, housewares, etc, you may not get much feedback, even if you make good sales. If you sell in a category that attracts more professional purchasers, such as antiques, computers, and other items that have a thriving used market, then you will be more likely to get feedback from your buyers. Always file feedback, or state a feedback policy - many sellers state in their auctions that they will only file feedback for those who have filed it for them. We recommend you not do this unless you have a compelling reason.

18. If a problem develops with an item you sold, make good on it as best you can. Keep your reputation clean, it will break you if you do not.

19. You will get non-paying bidders. It happens. You can go through the process to report them to eBay, but it is rather a pain, or you can email them, try to contact them, and if an unusually long time has passed and you have not heard from them, you can file negative feedback.

20. Operate your auctions like a business. Professionals usually get higher bids because they state information clearly, sound professional, and look experienced. This can make a terrific difference on first items.

21. Don't lose the personal touch. Two pages of conditions on an auction are a deterent to good bids. Stick to the standards in the industry, keep it simple, and allow as much flexibility as you can. If you do need to put in conditions, make them clear and logical.

22. Set the length of the auction according to your item, and your needs. I use this to control the day of the week that the auction ends on. I do not want any to end on Sunday. I use a short auction time with popular items that are in demand. I use a longer time on items that take a little time to be discovered, and I only use a 10 day auction if I have a rare or one of a kind item, and want as many people as possible to know it is there.

23. Always reply promptly to your emails, and watch your email closely during the last hours of an important auction. People sometimes email at the last minute, and if you can answer them, it makes you look very reliable. Be polite and completely answer any question they ask (even if it is on the web page). Use proper capitalization and punctuation, and spell check your email before sending. Good writers who are polite, personal, and professional get better results than those who are impatient sounding, use poor writing, or do not fully answer a question.

24. If you have auctions running almost all the time, use an eBay Store. It makes you look more committed, and gives you an all in one place for your customers to see your auctions and some additional company info. You can list additional store items without a listing fee. The store will cost you a little each month, so it only pays for people who are listing things regularly enough to justify the cost.

Pricing Tips

Much of your success or failure depends on pricing. There are several factors, and no single solution that will work for everybody. There are general rules that will allow you to choose the best pricing strategy for each item. Remember, these are choices, not rules for everything.

Price it low. Start at a buck. This keeps listing fees low, and attracts a lot of interest. It is a scary thing to do, but works well for things that are in high demand. Research your item. If every single one that is listed well is selling for a price you can live with, try this strategy. Do not combine this with a high Buy It Now price though, some newbie will come along and bid on the item first, hoping to get it for a buck...yeah right! A waste of your Buy It Now nickle.

Price it at what you want for it. This equates to pricing it high, or at market value. There is little justification for this strategy, as it discourages bids until the last minute, and even then people are hesitant to bid, feeling that maybe if nobody else bid that there is something wrong that they are missing.

Use a Reserve Price. Reserve prices can be a deterant to bids, but do protect you from having a good item sell for a pitance. Reserve pricing costs extra, but does have one major advantage for high priced items. It keeps the Buy It Now price active for longer. If you use a Reserve price, make sure it is researched also so it is reasonable given the current market, then post the reserve price somewhere in your auction. A known reserve price gets more bids, more quickly, than one with a hidden reserve price. Exception: If your reserve price is too high, you will not get bids at all.

Use a Buy It Now price. Some people think this option is where you indulge your wildest dreams! They put down an exorbitant price, which they never get. A good rule of thumb is to research the average selling price, then raise it just a tiny bit. If the average selling price is $69 or $72, you can easily get a Buy It Now price of $75. General rule, not more than 10% above average selling price. If you really want the item to go fast, set this at the average, or a tiny bit below. Buy It Now costs you a small amount, so you do not want to use it unless you are going to make the price reasonable, otherwise why waste your nickle? When NOT to use a Buy It Now? When you have an item that you do not know the value of, or when you have a rare or one of a kind item. You then want to just see what the market thinks of it, because they may want it badly enough to pay more than you might have set it at. Be sure that if you have a Buy It Now price, that you also accept electronic payments. People who click that Buy It Now button usually want or need it in a hurry, and want to pay as quickly as possible. Let them!

Usually pricing is a combination of choices. I will price an item at the lowest amount I am prepared to take for it (which is NOT necessarily what I WANT for it), put in a reasonable Buy It Now, and most of my items sell. Over half sell with the Buy It Now.

If I have an item that I feel is potentially worth more than I might know, I set the price on the low side of what I think it is worth, then let the auction run. I only use a Reserve price if I have a special reason for doing so, for example, if I am selling an item for someone else.

Shipping Tips

How you ship goods makes a difference in how satisfied your customers will be. Determining the amount to charge for shipping also takes practice, unless you choose to use the automatic calculator.

1. Do not pad the handling charges! Set your handling charges at a reasonable amount, to cover such things as packing materials. If you have a high handling charge, people won't buy, because they DO consider shipping charges. $1-3 is reasonable, depending on the size and type of item.

2. You can choose to use an automatic shipping calculator. If you do, you will have less control over some aspects, but you won't get stung when someone needs you to ship to Alaska. The down side is that you have to have a shipping weight on the item, and it needs to include the cost of shipping materials.

3. You can set a flat shipping rate, usually that means anywhere in the contiguous US, or other specified shipping area. You need to know about what the item will cost to ship, and you need to add on your handling fee. A good rule of thumb is $1 per pound, plus $1 for items which can be shipped in an envelope, $1 per pound plus $3 for boxed items up to about 10 lbs, and $1 per pound up to about 20 lbs. Over 20 lbs can go down to about $.75 per pound. Shipping rates may need to be calculated more exactly for items that are low in value but high in weight.

4. Always make insurance available. You may not wish to make insurance mandatory on low value items. I certainly require it on higher value items though. If you don't feel it is necessary on low value items, then still make it optional, because then you have legally given the responsibility to the customer.

5. Use Delivery Confirmation, or Tracking. Delivery Confirmation is NOT the same as Tracking! It just means that the item is scanned when it is shipped, and then when it is delivered. WHERE it is delivered is not recorded! But it DOES protect you in an dispute, because you can verify that the item was shipped, and whether or not it was delivered. Tracking is better, but the post office does not offer a basic tracking option to date. UPS does though, where the item is scanned at all handling points. Delivery Confirmation is not available on Media Mail. This means that for some shipments, you'll have to ship them by first class if you want to protect yourself in a dispute. For me, it is a matter of how much difference it would make. One package was $3.60 to ship Media Mail, and almost $8 to ship First Class. The item only had a value of $9, so I chose to ship it Media Mail without the Delivery Confirmation and take my chances. On items of a value of over $10 though, I always use Delivery Confirmation.

6. Make sure you pack it right. For some specialty items, antiques, computers, or delicate items, you'll want to make sure you pack them professionally. If you don't know how to do it properly, then take it to Mail Boxes Etc, and have them do it. Watch how they do it, and then you can do the next one at home for cheaper! There are some packing tips though that you MUST observe.

• NEVER pack an item with packing peanuts if the peanuts can get inside the item! We have received laptops, computers, and even a treadmill with packing peanuts or pieces of them worked so far down inside that we could not get them all out without disassembly! BAD BUSINESS! If you use packing peanuts with such items, either contain the peanuts in a garbage bag, or pack the item in a plastic bag.
• Make sure the box you use is sturdy, and that it has enough room for cushioning around the item you are packing.
• Use anti-static bags for computer components. ALWAYS observe this rule, if you don't your customers will think you are too careless to be trusted again, and may file poor feedback.
• Use anti-static packing materials for electronic components.
• Keep your boxes and packing materials in good condition. Reusing items is FINE, as long as they don't look very battered and worn. You want to maintain a professional appearance, and this is one way that matters for eBay. They EXPECT you to reuse boxes, but not if they are crumpled or torn, or marked up badly. They expect you to reuse packing materials, but not if most of the bubbles in your bubble wrap are popped, etc. You can pack using newspaper if you must, but professional packing materials are always better.
• Do not pack an item in an envelope unless it cannot be crushed in shipping, or unless the crush risk is low and you packed it in a padded envelope.

Seller's Checklist

Listing

• 1. Complete Item Description including Model, spec, wear, damage, limitations, special details, history, or other details.
• 2. Warranty Info
• 3. Shipping Info
• 4. Insurance Info
• 5. International Info
• 6. Payment Options and Policies
• 7. Company contact info and logo if applicable
• 8. Photo of item
• 9. Your qualifications or experience.

After the Auction.

• 1. Notify the buyer after the auction and request payment method. Give info on how they can pay. PayPal may do this for you automatically if you set it in your Seller's Preferences.
• 2. Verify payment when received. If you receive a notice from PayPal or BillPoint, get online and into your account to verify it before you send an acknowledgement letter to the buyer (do not trust an email that is sent to you, they are easily forged...verify on the payment service website in your account). If paid by check, wait for it to clear.
• 3. Notify the buyer that payment was received, whether electronic or mailed.
• 4. File feedback when payment is certain.
• 5. Package item, put auction info in box.
• 6. Ship item - always use Delivery Confirmation or Tracking.
• 7. Notify buyer it was shipped.
• 8. Deal with any problems.