Advice for 1st time Ebay lister......

[OldSchoolGamer]

I have bought many times off Ebay, thinking soon to start selling. I am completely new at this, I would greatly appreciate any advice or tips to help make the process go well. Many sellers here who have experienced all the up's and downs and I would be so greatful for your wisdom, Thanks all in advance!!!!!



FYI I live in Kelowna, BC CANADA.

[kevin_psx]

Use key words in the title. Name of the game. PS2. DVD. New. Sealed.

Start at 0.99. That's the cheapest possible listing fee. Bidders will bid it up to the game's true value.

S&H should cover all your expenses. Charge $4-5.00
0.60 ebay listing fee
0.55 final value fee
0.75 paypal fees for typical $10 item
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$1.90 HANDLING

1.50 Postage
0.25 Box or envelope
0.25 Gasoline
0.60 Delivery Confirmation
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$2.60 SHIPPING

[ryborg]

More generic tips, in no order:

Don't be afraid of Listing Upgrades if you have a rare/valuable/unique item. Don't want to pay for it? Raise S&H a bit. I personally use gallery on almost all of my items, and I'm no stranger to subtitle and bold.

If a (0) feedback bidder is bidding on an expensive item or many of your items, do some research. If they've bid on 30 items in the last two weeks and still don't have any feedback, it's likely they're just some kid playing around.

Sell to anywhere in the world. It's stupid to cut off serious potential profit for no valid reason. I've been selling practically full time since '98, and I've only had 2 bad international transactions. However, you need to be smart about it. Verify people's addresses, especially if it includes foreign characters or more than 4 lines of text. I once had an address from Japan that was 9 lines long.

Take good, high-res photos of EVERYTHING and get a free photohost. If you have a good item, serious buyers like seeing the details. Having good photos allows for a relatively bare-bones item description, too. People don't like reading 10 paragraphs of 15-line block text.

Post your shipping policies in the item description. If you are willing to go to the post office every applicable day, say so. If you only ship via UPS or USPS, say so. If you don't want to be bothered by near-constant "WHERE IS MY ITEM IT'S BEEN THREE DAYS!!!???!!!" emails (which you will get a ton of, especially from new users), institute a policy of not responding to status emails for 14 days after payment clears.
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LAMBORGHINI V8 SPECIFICATIONS

[Mayhem]

One other thing: if you worried about zero feedback bidders, or you don't want to ship outside of the US, then there are rules you can set when listing the auction to cover these criteria. Personally though, you will get more attention and possible revenue through shipping worldwide. I'd still block 0 bidders though

[ryborg]

if you worried about zero feedback bidders, or you don't want to ship outside of the US, then there are rules you can set when listing the auction to cover these criteria.

Right. I forgot to mention this. I personally auto-block all users who received two unpaid item strikes in the last month and anyone (-2) or below. I wouldn't simply block ALL (0) users, because many are legit, especially if you're selling video game systems. I've had several new users who bought only an NES system from me, only to never use the account again.
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LENDERS MORTGAGE INSURANCE FORUMS

[Kitsune Sniper]

Offer shipping discounts, or charge depending on the weight of the items.

For instance, you can charge, say, $5 to ship an item and then charge $2 for any other items you sell to the same guy. Or, you can weigh all items in a package and calculate shipping (plus handling charges) and send them that quote.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Much appreciated...............

[Porksta]

Also, don't put the word "rare" in your title unless the game is made by Rare.

[Cmosfm]

Also, don't put the word "rare" in your title unless the game is made by Rare.

Or unless it is, indeed, a rare game.