Top 10 Free Ebay Tips
jon w turner asked:
The following are my Top 10 Free Ebay Tips, given in no particular order. They might just save and make you some money. Enjoy.
Tip #1
Never list an item and set the minimum bid as $10. You will save ten to twenty cents each listing if you make it $9.99.
Tip #2
When you leave feedback, as a bidder or as a seller, always mention specifically what item was exchanged (not the item number, something like “…the great Lady Diana magazine”). That way, people viewing feedback will see what item you just acquired that they might like to own. And if you have sold an item, maybe they will think you have one more that they can purchase. And while the link to the item expires after some 30 days, your mention of the item will remain forever.
Tip #3
Make an “About Me” Ebay page and set a link to your auctions and your webpage. It’s like free advertising, because Ebay users are curious, and they will check out your stuff.
Tip #4
Sellers - specialize! Devote most of your activity to one or two categories. After a while, you will have expert knowledge of your field(s). Who gets the most repeat customers? Those who specialize.
Tip #5
When typing the item description, use numerals instead of spelling out numbers; for instance, type “16″ instead of “sixteen.” Many potential bidders do searches for single items from a set, like card 16 from a set of 250 trading cards. People looking up items having nothing to do with what you’re selling might have their eye caught, just because they have numerals in common. The idea is to get as many eyeballs on your listing as possible.
Tip #6
Keywords (the words you put in your item description) are everything. I list a lot of celebrity items; here’s how I work in keywords for a Frank Sinatra item: “The pride of Hoboken, New Jersey, Frank Sinatra became a big . . .” See how I squeezed in his hometown and state, both words that might be searched for by collectors.
Tip #7
Buy in lots (more than one item per auction, say, 25 baseball cards at once) and sell individually (one card/item at a time). My experience is that I get more money that way.
Tip #8
Cutting down on the number of items returned to you is easy. You need only be thoroughly descriptive in your item descriptions, pointing out every little ding and imperfection. Reading a longer description is much better than a bidder having to repackage the item you sent and send it back to you.
Tip #9
Sign up with Paypal and state in your auction listing how the winning bidder saves the price of a stamp each time she uses Paypal.
Tip #10
Accrue free money as an Ebay affiliate. It can really add up over a year’s time!
The following are my Top 10 Free Ebay Tips, given in no particular order. They might just save and make you some money. Enjoy.
Tip #1
Never list an item and set the minimum bid as $10. You will save ten to twenty cents each listing if you make it $9.99.
Tip #2
When you leave feedback, as a bidder or as a seller, always mention specifically what item was exchanged (not the item number, something like “…the great Lady Diana magazine”). That way, people viewing feedback will see what item you just acquired that they might like to own. And if you have sold an item, maybe they will think you have one more that they can purchase. And while the link to the item expires after some 30 days, your mention of the item will remain forever.
Tip #3
Make an “About Me” Ebay page and set a link to your auctions and your webpage. It’s like free advertising, because Ebay users are curious, and they will check out your stuff.
Tip #4
Sellers - specialize! Devote most of your activity to one or two categories. After a while, you will have expert knowledge of your field(s). Who gets the most repeat customers? Those who specialize.
Tip #5
When typing the item description, use numerals instead of spelling out numbers; for instance, type “16″ instead of “sixteen.” Many potential bidders do searches for single items from a set, like card 16 from a set of 250 trading cards. People looking up items having nothing to do with what you’re selling might have their eye caught, just because they have numerals in common. The idea is to get as many eyeballs on your listing as possible.
Tip #6
Keywords (the words you put in your item description) are everything. I list a lot of celebrity items; here’s how I work in keywords for a Frank Sinatra item: “The pride of Hoboken, New Jersey, Frank Sinatra became a big . . .” See how I squeezed in his hometown and state, both words that might be searched for by collectors.
Tip #7
Buy in lots (more than one item per auction, say, 25 baseball cards at once) and sell individually (one card/item at a time). My experience is that I get more money that way.
Tip #8
Cutting down on the number of items returned to you is easy. You need only be thoroughly descriptive in your item descriptions, pointing out every little ding and imperfection. Reading a longer description is much better than a bidder having to repackage the item you sent and send it back to you.
Tip #9
Sign up with Paypal and state in your auction listing how the winning bidder saves the price of a stamp each time she uses Paypal.
Tip #10
Accrue free money as an Ebay affiliate. It can really add up over a year’s time!
See my favorite Ebay searches
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Ebay Seller Tips About Shipping With The United States Postal Service
Bob B Hamilton asked:
When you decide to become a seller on eBay or to open an eBay store, you may be concerned about the shipping of your items to your customers. There is no need to worry as eBay combined with the United States Postal Service makes it easy to ship to anywhere in the world you wish. Easy shipping with eBay is a requirement for every successful eBay business. In this article I present eBay seller tips about shipping with the United States Postal Service.
Let’s start our eBay seller tips by noting the handiest tool on eBay might well be the shipping calculator. All you need to do is input your package dimensions, shipping weight and your zip code and this handy tool will figure out shipping costs depending on your customer’s location. When your customer pays for the item, the shipping costs will automatically be figured for you, leaving you stress free. EBay is proud of the ease in which sellers can ship to their customers. You can even set it up to figure out over night, two day or ground shipping on packages and envelopes of all sizes.
By using the United States Postal Service, you can print your shipping labels directly from eBay. You do not need to take a trip and then have the package weighed at the post office. Just purchase a shipping scale to makes it easy to ship from your home. You can get a shipping scale from any local post office or even online at eBay. With this type of ease of service, the United States Postal Service is one of the best shipping methods on eBay in most cases.
Here’s another of the eBay seller tips to remember. When you generate your postage label through eBay, your customers will be sent a message letting them know that you have begun the shipping process. You and your customers can then track the item online. You will know exactly when your customers receive their packages. This will also keep your customers up to date with their package arrival and they will leave positive feed back about you on eBay. Of course positive feedback is critical to every seller’s success at selling.
Another of the eBay seller tips - you can order shipping supplies from eBay. They can be delivered directly to your door. These include, shipping labels, boxes and envelopes. By using the standard United States Postal Service boxes and envelopes you make it even easier to ship your packages to your customers.
Once you have your package ready to go you can print and pay for your shipping directly from eBay to the United States Postal Service. Again, this means no leaving your home to go to the post office to pay for the actual shipping. This is the most convenient way to ship.
And finally, our last of the eBay seller tips - the United States Postal Service allows you to set up a scheduled pick up from your home. Once you get all your packages together with shipping labels and payment made to the United States Postal Service, you simply go online and order a scheduled pick up or you can call your local post office and request the same service.
To Your eBay Success!
When you decide to become a seller on eBay or to open an eBay store, you may be concerned about the shipping of your items to your customers. There is no need to worry as eBay combined with the United States Postal Service makes it easy to ship to anywhere in the world you wish. Easy shipping with eBay is a requirement for every successful eBay business. In this article I present eBay seller tips about shipping with the United States Postal Service.
Let’s start our eBay seller tips by noting the handiest tool on eBay might well be the shipping calculator. All you need to do is input your package dimensions, shipping weight and your zip code and this handy tool will figure out shipping costs depending on your customer’s location. When your customer pays for the item, the shipping costs will automatically be figured for you, leaving you stress free. EBay is proud of the ease in which sellers can ship to their customers. You can even set it up to figure out over night, two day or ground shipping on packages and envelopes of all sizes.
By using the United States Postal Service, you can print your shipping labels directly from eBay. You do not need to take a trip and then have the package weighed at the post office. Just purchase a shipping scale to makes it easy to ship from your home. You can get a shipping scale from any local post office or even online at eBay. With this type of ease of service, the United States Postal Service is one of the best shipping methods on eBay in most cases.
Here’s another of the eBay seller tips to remember. When you generate your postage label through eBay, your customers will be sent a message letting them know that you have begun the shipping process. You and your customers can then track the item online. You will know exactly when your customers receive their packages. This will also keep your customers up to date with their package arrival and they will leave positive feed back about you on eBay. Of course positive feedback is critical to every seller’s success at selling.
Another of the eBay seller tips - you can order shipping supplies from eBay. They can be delivered directly to your door. These include, shipping labels, boxes and envelopes. By using the standard United States Postal Service boxes and envelopes you make it even easier to ship your packages to your customers.
Once you have your package ready to go you can print and pay for your shipping directly from eBay to the United States Postal Service. Again, this means no leaving your home to go to the post office to pay for the actual shipping. This is the most convenient way to ship.
And finally, our last of the eBay seller tips - the United States Postal Service allows you to set up a scheduled pick up from your home. Once you get all your packages together with shipping labels and payment made to the United States Postal Service, you simply go online and order a scheduled pick up or you can call your local post office and request the same service.
To Your eBay Success!
10 Ebay Survival Tips: 5 Plus 5 = Survive?
Liang Zhang asked:
Best Buy often doesn’t give you the best buys, but eBay might. But eBay can be dangerous if you don’t know your way around. Here’s a quick guide to what to expect including 5 tips on how to buy on eBay and 5 tips on how to sell.
EBay is an online auction service open to everybody. That means many legitimate sellers and buyers and a handful of scammers. These tips will help you avoid the scammers and get good prices on both the buying side and selling side.
Buying tips
1. Read the listing very carefully – don’t be afraid to ask the seller questions. This is especially important for something like a laptop (see our Laptop Buying Guide).
2. Any listing that tells you to directly e-mail questions to a seller’s e-mail address, or tell you to offer a buying price directly to the seller is a scam – plain and simple. EBay provides a secure system for seller/buyer interactions and it works fine.
3. Beware of buying from someone with 0 or negative feedback – read some of the feedback comments and ratings. I’ve been burned before buying from someone with 0 feedbacks and do not ever do it anymore.
4. 90% positive feedback is NOT good by eBay standards. Typically, for large volume sellers (ones with a lot of ratings), 95% or 97% and up is pretty good. Many of them have over 99% positive feedback. See this article for more in-depth info (link).
5. Use an auction sniper. Do not bid on an item a long time before the auction ends. There’s no reason to bid except in the few seconds right before an auction ends if you want the best price. Here’s an explanation of this principle, validated by research. There are online software applications that do this for you automatically – just enter in the item # (copy and paste from eBay listing page) and max price you would bid. Some of these services charge a fee, but Gixen is free (I use it) and doesn’t require any kind of registration.
Selling tips
1. List your item accurately and make your shipping/returns terms explicitly clear – this will help you avoid potential hassles later on.
2. Make it clear that you ship ONLY to the United States, NO exceptions. This will help you avoid most scammers (who will ask you to ship to Nigeria or UK or somewhere else).
3. Accept PayPal, and I suggest, only PayPal, to protect against buyer fraud. Other payment methods lack the security that PayPal transfers give you.
4. Be strategic in listing your item, so that the auction ends on a Saturday or Sunday evening. Typically more people bid on weekends and ending the auction at that time has a better chance to land you a higher selling price.
5. Ship promptly and communicate with your buyer – getting a higher feedback score will give future buyers more confidence to bid on your items, and thus will get you higher sales prices (generally more buyers bidding drives up the sales price).
Why eBay?
From an economic perspective, eBay is a market with imperfect information and imperfect competition. In other words, if you’re patient and know some of the tricks of the trade, you can get really good deals. Here are a few examples of good deals I found on eBay just by following the tips I provided above, both on the buying and selling side. I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad x60 off eBay, at a price $800 less than it would have costed on lenovo.com, used it for 3 months, and sold it on eBay for $75 more than I paid for it. I bought a music CD brand new off eBay for $3.36 that costs $13.99 from Amazon. I also bought the current laptop I own, a Lenovo ThinkPad T60, for $780 shipped from eBay, warranty included, that retailed for $1470 from Newegg at the time I bought it.
Many electronics and other goods can be bought from eBay cheaper than most retail stores. You can also get a better selling price on eBay on many items than through other means (like campus classifieds). It doesn’t take a genius to use eBay to your benefit - I use it on average only once every month or two - just apply the above tips and use your street smarts and common sense.
Best Buy often doesn’t give you the best buys, but eBay might. But eBay can be dangerous if you don’t know your way around. Here’s a quick guide to what to expect including 5 tips on how to buy on eBay and 5 tips on how to sell.
EBay is an online auction service open to everybody. That means many legitimate sellers and buyers and a handful of scammers. These tips will help you avoid the scammers and get good prices on both the buying side and selling side.
Buying tips
1. Read the listing very carefully – don’t be afraid to ask the seller questions. This is especially important for something like a laptop (see our Laptop Buying Guide).
2. Any listing that tells you to directly e-mail questions to a seller’s e-mail address, or tell you to offer a buying price directly to the seller is a scam – plain and simple. EBay provides a secure system for seller/buyer interactions and it works fine.
3. Beware of buying from someone with 0 or negative feedback – read some of the feedback comments and ratings. I’ve been burned before buying from someone with 0 feedbacks and do not ever do it anymore.
4. 90% positive feedback is NOT good by eBay standards. Typically, for large volume sellers (ones with a lot of ratings), 95% or 97% and up is pretty good. Many of them have over 99% positive feedback. See this article for more in-depth info (link).
5. Use an auction sniper. Do not bid on an item a long time before the auction ends. There’s no reason to bid except in the few seconds right before an auction ends if you want the best price. Here’s an explanation of this principle, validated by research. There are online software applications that do this for you automatically – just enter in the item # (copy and paste from eBay listing page) and max price you would bid. Some of these services charge a fee, but Gixen is free (I use it) and doesn’t require any kind of registration.
Selling tips
1. List your item accurately and make your shipping/returns terms explicitly clear – this will help you avoid potential hassles later on.
2. Make it clear that you ship ONLY to the United States, NO exceptions. This will help you avoid most scammers (who will ask you to ship to Nigeria or UK or somewhere else).
3. Accept PayPal, and I suggest, only PayPal, to protect against buyer fraud. Other payment methods lack the security that PayPal transfers give you.
4. Be strategic in listing your item, so that the auction ends on a Saturday or Sunday evening. Typically more people bid on weekends and ending the auction at that time has a better chance to land you a higher selling price.
5. Ship promptly and communicate with your buyer – getting a higher feedback score will give future buyers more confidence to bid on your items, and thus will get you higher sales prices (generally more buyers bidding drives up the sales price).
Why eBay?
From an economic perspective, eBay is a market with imperfect information and imperfect competition. In other words, if you’re patient and know some of the tricks of the trade, you can get really good deals. Here are a few examples of good deals I found on eBay just by following the tips I provided above, both on the buying and selling side. I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad x60 off eBay, at a price $800 less than it would have costed on lenovo.com, used it for 3 months, and sold it on eBay for $75 more than I paid for it. I bought a music CD brand new off eBay for $3.36 that costs $13.99 from Amazon. I also bought the current laptop I own, a Lenovo ThinkPad T60, for $780 shipped from eBay, warranty included, that retailed for $1470 from Newegg at the time I bought it.
Many electronics and other goods can be bought from eBay cheaper than most retail stores. You can also get a better selling price on eBay on many items than through other means (like campus classifieds). It doesn’t take a genius to use eBay to your benefit - I use it on average only once every month or two - just apply the above tips and use your street smarts and common sense.
Ebay Seller Tips for Getting the Most Out of Turbo Lister
Bob B Hamilton asked:
If you’re looking to get the most out of eBay’s Turbo Lister program, then the following tips will definitely help. Turbo Lister allows you to create items quickly, import and export your listings in CSV format, and embed your own self-hosted photos. In this article I present eBay seller tips for getting the most out of Turbo Lister.
The benefits of using Turbo Lister are in a savings of both time and money. Creating a Turbo Lister listing quickly is easy if you use the “Duplicate” and “Duplicate As” feature. If you simply want to create an exact copy of your existing listing, you can create copies of your listing that are saving in the “Item Inventory”. All you need to do is select the listing or listings that you need a copy of and click on the “Duplicate” button on the toolbar. You will then be able to enter the number of copies that you want and it’s created for you.
One of the most important eBay seller tips is if you want to make changes and duplicate your existing listing, use the “Duplicate As” feature. Simply select the listing you want to change, click on the “Duplicate As” button, then make the format changes on the listing that you select. After you finish editing the details, it’s ready to go. If you have a lot of listings in Turbo Lister and you want to export them to an Excel or CSV file, it’s simply with Turbo Lister.
You can backup your listings, make a copy to move to another computer or import it into another program like Selling Manager Pro or Blackthorne. When you use the CSV import/export feature, you can create an Excel rendition of your listings quickly and easily.
Simply select the listing you’d like to back up or move by going to the File > Export Selected Items > To CSV. You will be asked for a name to save your file output to, and a CSV file will be created from the listings you selected. Importing them back into Turbo Lister is just as easy. Simply select File > Import Items > From CSV. Locate your previously saved file and Import. The listings will be labeled “Imported from CSV” and you’re ready to go. You should backup your listings if something unthinkable happens like Turbo Lister crashes and loses all your work. In this way, it’s just a simple re-import from a backup file.
Another of the important eBay seller tips is after installing Turbo Lister; you’ll find that the default photo hosting preference is set to eBay Picture Services. You are not tied to this selection. If you want to self-host your photos, you can switch to your photo hosting preference in “Step 2 of 3 - Design Your Own Listing”, where it says “Change photo hosting”. You can select “Your own web hosting” and change your preference then.
After that you can embed more than the one free photo into your listing making it more attractive and sale-worthy. Pictures are worth more than 1000 words, but sometimes you might not be able to afford the fees that eBay charges. When using your own web hosting or an image hosting service, you can make your listing with lots of photos throughout to increase sales and attract more visitors.
There are many other eBay seller tips that make Turbo Lister a great piece of software to use in order to sell your stuff on eBay. By starting with these three tips, you now know how to create your listings quickly, duplicate and make new listings in a flash, backup and restore your Turbo Lister files, transport them to another computer or use in another software application and how to save on fees for photos when listing your products on eBay. With all of this knowledge, there’s no reason why you can’t go out and get started immediately using Turbo Lister. Happy selling!
To Your eBay Success!
If you’re looking to get the most out of eBay’s Turbo Lister program, then the following tips will definitely help. Turbo Lister allows you to create items quickly, import and export your listings in CSV format, and embed your own self-hosted photos. In this article I present eBay seller tips for getting the most out of Turbo Lister.
The benefits of using Turbo Lister are in a savings of both time and money. Creating a Turbo Lister listing quickly is easy if you use the “Duplicate” and “Duplicate As” feature. If you simply want to create an exact copy of your existing listing, you can create copies of your listing that are saving in the “Item Inventory”. All you need to do is select the listing or listings that you need a copy of and click on the “Duplicate” button on the toolbar. You will then be able to enter the number of copies that you want and it’s created for you.
One of the most important eBay seller tips is if you want to make changes and duplicate your existing listing, use the “Duplicate As” feature. Simply select the listing you want to change, click on the “Duplicate As” button, then make the format changes on the listing that you select. After you finish editing the details, it’s ready to go. If you have a lot of listings in Turbo Lister and you want to export them to an Excel or CSV file, it’s simply with Turbo Lister.
You can backup your listings, make a copy to move to another computer or import it into another program like Selling Manager Pro or Blackthorne. When you use the CSV import/export feature, you can create an Excel rendition of your listings quickly and easily.
Simply select the listing you’d like to back up or move by going to the File > Export Selected Items > To CSV. You will be asked for a name to save your file output to, and a CSV file will be created from the listings you selected. Importing them back into Turbo Lister is just as easy. Simply select File > Import Items > From CSV. Locate your previously saved file and Import. The listings will be labeled “Imported from CSV” and you’re ready to go. You should backup your listings if something unthinkable happens like Turbo Lister crashes and loses all your work. In this way, it’s just a simple re-import from a backup file.
Another of the important eBay seller tips is after installing Turbo Lister; you’ll find that the default photo hosting preference is set to eBay Picture Services. You are not tied to this selection. If you want to self-host your photos, you can switch to your photo hosting preference in “Step 2 of 3 - Design Your Own Listing”, where it says “Change photo hosting”. You can select “Your own web hosting” and change your preference then.
After that you can embed more than the one free photo into your listing making it more attractive and sale-worthy. Pictures are worth more than 1000 words, but sometimes you might not be able to afford the fees that eBay charges. When using your own web hosting or an image hosting service, you can make your listing with lots of photos throughout to increase sales and attract more visitors.
There are many other eBay seller tips that make Turbo Lister a great piece of software to use in order to sell your stuff on eBay. By starting with these three tips, you now know how to create your listings quickly, duplicate and make new listings in a flash, backup and restore your Turbo Lister files, transport them to another computer or use in another software application and how to save on fees for photos when listing your products on eBay. With all of this knowledge, there’s no reason why you can’t go out and get started immediately using Turbo Lister. Happy selling!
To Your eBay Success!