Top eBay Business Tips

Dealing with non-payers/late-payers

Unfortunately there are a minority of eBay users that win auctions and then do not pay. You should allow an acceptable amount of time for winning bidders to send payment (normally 8-12 days); if no payment arrives you should email to remind them and warn you will leave negative feedback if they do not contact you. If after another 7 or so days you are not contacted about the payment you should use the feedback system to leave a “non paying bidder” comment. If you wish, you can state on the auction that payment must be made within a set number of days.

Beware of low feedback bidders

When selling items, you need to beware of bidders with low feedback. Although many of these are honest and genuine, they are more risky bidders as they have less experience with the system. You should always be careful of bidders with a negative feedback ratings, as this means other sellers or buyers have had difficulty with them. (e.g. they may have not received payment or their goods may have been badly described.)

You should always check the details of a feedback score, as a positive score may not mean completely trouble free transactions. A score of +20 could still have a huge number of negative scores alongside it. I.e.: It could be 100 positive scores and 80 negative ones.

Feedback Flaws

You need to beware of potential flaws in eBay’s feedback system. One of the main flaws w ith the system is that some unscrupulous sellers and buyers will use it dishonestly. Even if you pay for an item on time, they will not give you feedback; instead they wait to see what feedback you give them. If you give negative feedback because of a poor product or service they will automatically give you negative feedback, even though you did nothing wrong.

Be Sensible

When a bidder has won an item you are selling, always wait until payment has cleared before sending the item. It is a sadly common occurrence for people to send items when a cheque arrives, only for it to then bounce; a few reports have also appeared of fraudsters sending cheques they know will bounce to get items for free.

Research

Researching the items that you put into auction is a good way of keeping ahead of other sellers.

- Check prices of items

Keep yourself up to date with the prices that products you sell are going for, both on eBay and in retail stores. This will help you to set pricing and reserve prices better; as well as providing a better estimate of how profitable your sales will be.

- Check what items are selling

Make sure that you are aware what products are selling well in your marketplace. This will help you avoid buying products that are losing value, or will be difficult to sell.

- Check where there are gaps

One of the best ways to sell items profitably on eBay is to look for gaps in the market, or new products that are not easily available. If you are the only person auctioning a product, you will get all of the bids. A good example is the recent release of two new handheld games consoles in Japan; massive demand for the machines meant that quick thinking eBay sellers were able to make more than double the actual price of the products.

Local or International?

You need to consider whether the products you are selling will sell in the UK or other countries. It is possible to make items available for worldwide bidding, but in many cases the huge cost of delivery will make these items unattractively expensive to send abroad.

- Is it popular overseas?

If the product you sell is extremely popular or hard to get overseas, the high cost of delivery may become less of a factor; and could drive up your bid numbers.

Pictures sell items

A proven fact of online auctions is that pictures and images sell products. A product with a picture is more eye-catching and much more likely to be looked at, and therefore much more likely to be bid on. A picture allows potential bidders to see the item and its condition, which helps make them more confident that the item will be as described; especially if they have not bought from you before.

Package items securely

Although most items sent through the post arrive in good condition, a small number do not! If the products you send get damaged in transit, you could end up with a difficult argument, or have to send a replacement. You should offer postal insurance in your postage costs, which is a cheap way to help solve any potential problems; but the easiest way to protect your products is to package them securely.

Items should be wrapped using well sealed boxes or packaging, and can be made much more shock proof with the use of bubble wrap or other protective wrapping. Thinner items that need protecting from bending (e.g. Vinyl Records) can be protected by placing some hard cardboard backing next to the item.