How To Sell Items On Ebay

EBay and Customer Service

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.'

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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
Your Customer

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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

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 Courses - Are They Worth It?

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?

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
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
Defrauded

eBay is a relatively safe marketplace. Unfortunately,
like most online marketplaces, it is vulnerable to
scams. eBay tries to keep ins

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

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

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

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 Sell Expensive Items on eBay

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
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