eBay Sellers: How to Market Your Auctions

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.

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eBay Sellers: Why You Should Accept PayPal

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.

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eBay Sellers: Should You Open an eBay Store?

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.

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eBay Sellers: Tips to Help Your eBay Items Sell

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?

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

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.

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eBay Sellers: The Importance of Communication

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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eBay Sellers: How Photo Sharing Sites Can Save You Money

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.

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eBay Sellers: How to Deal with Difficult Customers

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.

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

When you buy something from an eBay seller, you are giving them your 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.

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An eBay Seller's Checklist.

Being a seller 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.

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