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These Ebay tips will make your pockets jingle, jangle, jingle -- enjoy !
#1: Keywords you put in your item description are the key to your Ebay success. Put in any word or phrase that legitimately pertains to your item, a word or phrase a potential bidder might type as his search word or phrase. For example, I list a lot of celebrity items--mostly magazines, sports cards, photos--& often, I begin my description by saying, for instance, "The pride of Hoboken, New Jersey, Frank Sinatra became a big . . ." -- see how I squeezed in his name & state, both words that might be searched for by local collectors. Your choice of keywords is limited only by your imagination.
It pays to take an extra 10 minutes to do a thorough description of your item. Don't settle for doing a paragraph. Many times, when I see an item with a paragraph description, I just laugh & bid on it, knowing that I can do a better job of listing it than the seller did.

#2: Do this today. This is the best thing an Ebayer can do! Ready to get free Ebay advertising & get more traffic to your auctions? Here's how:
Go to ebay.com and click on "Site Map" near the top of the page. Then, under the "Services" heading, click "About Me." Go through the 1, 2, 3 steps to create your own "About Me" page (it's fast & easy). Once your "About Me" page is up and running, you need to start being at least an occasional message poster on the various Ebay message boards. These are found by going to ebay.com, clicking on "Community" at the top of the page, and scrolling down to "Discussion, Help, & Chat," links to the message boards.
You can either add a comment to an on-going discussion or start a new discussion of your own. And any time someone reads any of your comments, an icon link to your "About Me" page will be available to them. Ebay users are curious creatures, and they will be curious about you . . . and your auctions, so they will click on your "About Me" link and be presented with all your auctions.
These message boards perform like neon-lit billboards for your auctions; but be careful, because they are quite addictive!

#3: Sellers--specialize! Devote most of your activity to 1 or 2 areas, such as sports cards or whatever. When you specialize, you slowly gain knowledge of your field, & if you do it long enough, you acquire expert knowledge, & you will have, as a bidder or as a garage sale browswer, a good idea of what an item is worth & whether or not you might auction it for a profit.
Specialization has other benefits. You get more repeat customers, & people spread the word about how "So-and-so" (you!) might have this or that item, & that So-and-so is trustworthy. (I've even had a couple regulars tell me that one of the first things they do each day is check my auctions because I list what they bid on.)
Customer service, always crucial, is even more crucial to a specialist, because you want the good word spread about you, not the bad. Tend to these customer service details by wrapping items securely, double-checking every address you write, shipping promptly, & refusing to gouge anyone on postage.

#4: Sellers, be seasonal. If there's a holiday coming up, mention it in your item description; and if you are able to couple that holiday with some hot item, even one having nothing to do with the item you're listing, include that, too; for instance, at Christmastime, I close my listings with: "Have a Harry Potter Christmas." This will bring Christmas browsers & Harry Potter browsers to your item.
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#5: When typing the item description for your listing, try to type numerals instead of spelling out numbers; for instance, type "16" instead of "sixteen." This is because a lot of 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 by your listing, just because they have numerals in common. And the idea is to get as many eyeballs on your listing as you can.
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#6: (This could also be called Ebay 101, but many don't realize it.) Don't list an item and set the minimum bid as $10. Because of the way Ebay's fee schedule is set up, if you list it as $9.99 instead, you will save money. Nor should you list anything with a minimum bid of $25, $50, or $200; always shave a penny off these figures, and you will save each time!
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#7: If you aren't already signed up with an online payment service (such as Paypal), join one now. Here's why. Every time you purchase an Ebay item through one of these services, you save the price of postage to send payment. And as a lister, in each of your listings, you can point out how using a service will save potential customers the price of a stamp to mail their payment; that might be just the incentive to turn a potential bidder into a satisfied customer. Those stamps will add up to dollars in a hurry.
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#8: In your contact email you send out to your winning bidders, always close by saying that a blank email from them will let you know that they got your email all right. Then add, in parentheses, that if they put the letter "K" in the subject line of their blank email to you, you will occasionally (maybe once a month) send them an email telling them when you have up for bid items similar to the one on which they bid. You will be surprised at how much extra traffic this can bring your way.
Save the "sent" contact message and use it later for other winning bidders, changing only the things that change with each auction: the auction item number, the winning bidder's email address, the total of his bid plus postage, etc. It will save you time.
If your email system has such a feature, familiarize yourself with the "signature": a brief statement that automatically adds itself to the end of your outgoing emails. Make your email signature a link to your auctions! If your email system doesn't have the signature feature, find one that does. You might wish to try hotmail.com or yahoo.com.
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#9: ( Two basic tips counted as one): (14a.) Use a spell checker of some sort to check all the words used in your item description. Whenever an Ebay user clicks the box beneath the search box, the box saying "Search in title & description," that turns every word in your description into a keyword (words used by people doing searches for items), instead of only the keywords in your title. A misspelled keyword is a squandered opportunity. (14b.) Learn a little HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) to jazz up your listings. It's not that difficult, and it's fun.
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#10: Do searches for items similar to the ones you put up for auction. You can learn plenty from your competition. What do the listings of these other sellers have that yours don't? Can you improve on something they do?
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#11: Buy in lots (more than one item per auction, say, 25 baseball cards at once) and sell individually (one card/item at a time). You just get more money that way; trust me.
Search suggestions:baseball lotfootball lots(Notice the use of singular and plural.)
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#12: When you sell items in lots, be sure to mention in your listing how much the buyer will save on postage buying in lots instead of individual items; do the math & show the actual savings.
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#13: Put something friendly at the end of your auction listings. It can be anything from "Thanks for looking" to "Please email me about any questions you might have about this item." This builds confidence and a sense of goodwill--repeat customers.
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#14: At any hour of the day, go to Ebay and do a search for old. The variety of items this search brings up is unlimited, and you can add variety to your inventory by snagging something no one else has even spotted yet. It's always fun to find things to resell that you had never even considered before. Further . . . search for old (my favorite search word). Study the search results returned. Often you can find items that haven't been listed very wisely. Let me give you an outrageous example. Suppose you did a search for old, and in the results was an item listed as Old Book. You notice there are no bids, and there are only two minutes left in the auction. You click on the link and discover it is a signed 1st edition of Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath"! You get it for practically nothing. Now wouldn't you be able to list it on Ebay yourself and sell it for a nice profit by choosing your keywords carefully? You could use Signed John Steinbeck book or any combination of more descriptive and specific keywords. My sister uses this trick to buy EVERYTHING she sells on Ebay. She says it's a lot of fun for her because she gets to be creative in seeking out these items and once again while relisting them.
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#15: When composing your item title, whenever you can, include the words old, vintage, and sexy. These are traffic builders and some of the more popular search words other than proper nouns. Think up some others!
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#16: Hang it on the wall! If you will be selling what you consider to be a quality item, consider using the gallery feature eBay offers. It's only $0.25, and you would be surprised at how many bidders use--and use exclusively!--the "Gallery Items Only" search feature. This way these "Gallery Items Only" eBay searchers will be a part of your pool of potential bidders, and your item won't be passed over by them because it's not featured in the gallery. So, hang it on the wall! (But not for items you are listing for a quarter.)
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#17: I skip bidding on a lot of auctions because of excessive postage. Don't gouge and alienate your customers by charging excessive postage. Charge only what it costs to mail plus enough to cover the true cost of your package, & no more. The lower your postage, the more bidders you will have, thus more money in your pocket.
Give bidders an option to buy insurance; that can save everyone headaches if something goes amiss; and when that inevitable something does go wrong, you, as seller, will be able to ask: "Was the item you bid on insured?" That will put you in a position of bargaining strength when something is lost in the mail. (Personally, I gave up offering insurance because too many bidders were wanting to insure $2 items, & the insurance form you have to fill out on a claim is so long; just being honest here.)
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#18: Your eBay search has led you to what you think might be the bargain of the century. You were looking for something you might buy on the cheap and sell for a nifty profit--but will you be able to?
For me, a good rule of thumb is that an item is worth (in pure cash only, sentimental value isn't considered in this example) as much as it goes for on eBay. In taking my own advice, I always check what an item I'm considering bidding on might actually return. Here's how:
Say the item I'm considering is a 1963 Topps Roger Maris baseball card. I do a search for:
1963 Topps Roger Maris
Then eBay returns my results, a list of links for that item. Now comes the trick. Down the left column of the page it says "Completed Items." Click that, and it will take you to a list of links for completed auctions of that Roger Maris card, giving you a firm idea of what you might expect to be able to sell the card for if you were to bid on one and try to resell it.
You could accomplish the same thing by bookmarking a current auction and waiting for it to end--up to 10 days!--but why do that when the info is right at your fingertips, and you need to know how much to bid right now?
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#19: Always have an image of your item for potential bidders to view. Many people pass on bidding for an item they don't get to see first. This also helps limit the number of items you have returned to you because you failed to describe them accurately enough to please those tough customers out there, saving you return postage in the process. Also, an item with an accompanying image just naturally gets more "hits" because many people search only gallery listings. A scanner can pay for itself very quickly. If you just can't afford one and are auctioning a relatively valuable item, let a copy company make a scan for you. If you don't show images, you are losing bidders/money. If you have a scanner, more people are bidding on your items.
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#20: Cutting down on the number of items returned to you is easy. You need only be thoroughly descriptive in your item descriptions (showing an image of the item always helps too). Leave nothing out. If there is a tiny crease in the item, say so. To omit mentioning these things frustrates customers and gives you an air of not being trustworthy, and those customers will avoid your future listings like they were Typhoid Mary. Reading a longer description is much better than a bidder having to repackage the item you sent and send it back to you.
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#21: If you are searching on eBay to bid on a particular item, wouldn't it make good sense to find it misspelled in its listing? After all, since it's misspelled, that means less people will find it--thus less bidders, less competition for the item. That saves you money! Here's how to do it:
Say you were looking for a 1964 Topps Roberto Clemente baseball card. Here's what you can type to find all the misspelled listings of items for 1964 Topps Roberto Clemente:
1964 Topps Roberto Cle* -Clemente
A person might run into trouble spelling "Clemente" once he reached the first "e," so you put a "wild card" (that little star symbol above "8" on your keyboard) right there. The reason for the "-Clemente" is that you are looking for misspellings, and this "-Clemente" gets rid of all the correctly spelled listings.
You might get no results at all. You might wind up with a bunch of results for Roberto Alomar. To get rid of those unwanted results, after "-Clemente" you would need only skip a space and type:
-Alomar
You get the idea.
Here's what you would type to find misspelled Hank Aaron items (all items, not just a specific year and brand):
Hank Aa* -Aaron
Again you will get some unwanted results, but if you weed through them, you might just find an Aaron item no one else has discovered yet and pick it up for a song!
Play around with that "wild card" (*); it will match any character or group of characters from where you place it in a word all the way to the end of that word.
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#22: If you find yourself unable to sleep during the wee hours, say, 3:00 in the morning, do yourself a favor and cruise eBay for a while in search of bargains listed (foolishly!) to close at this time. When everyone else is asleep, that is the time to snag a bargain. Go to ebay.com. Search for the item you want, maybe 1972 Topps. A list of items will be returned to you. Click one of those links, maybe the one that says 1972 Topps 50 different cards. Right beneath the item title and number is a link to that broader category to which the item belongs. Click on it. You get another list of links. Find near the top of the page where it says "Going, Going, Gone." Click that and be taken to a list of items that are ending relatively soon. Why not place a bid? After all, everyone else is sleeping. Final bid prices are automatically lower because of a lack of bidder competition, and that can mean tremendous savings for you.
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#23: Do a search for auction items that are to be listed for three days only. Your searches might be:
3-day3 dayThree dayThree-day
You might want to add an "s" to them. Then you can refer to my tip #18 and see what you might expect to resell the item for. Then, if you feel you can reauction it for a nice profit, list it for 10 days and see what it goes for. If you got it for a bargain after 3 days, you might auction it for a killing if you let your auction run for 10 days.
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#24: Unless you can't help doing otherwise, list your items in Prime Time (9-11pm Eastern, 6-8pm Pacific). To list at any other time is costing you bids. The closing moments of your auction is when your item listing "bubbles up" to the top of more eBay searches, even searches not directly related to the item you have up for bid, so try not to have your auctions end (they end exactly 3, 5, 7, or 10 days after you list, right down to the second) while the majority of your potential customers are sleeping or are at work. Don't rely on that one poor sap shopping at 2:00 AM to find your item, because if he does, it will just be a bargain for him.
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#25: In your item listings, use simple words that everyone knows.
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#26: Feedback is important. But don't let someone's having a negative or two keep you from bidding on one of their items. All sellers run into that customer who is impossible to please no matter how far they bend over for him. And someone may have given them a vengeance feedback, one that had nothing at all to do with the actual transaction.
So unless someone has a disproportionate amount of negative feedback, you might consider giving him or her the chance to please you as a customer. It's up to you. They just may have the bargain of the century for you. And they will be eager to rehabilitate their "tarnished" image of having negative feedback. However, do be wary, and show good sense in all your transactions.
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#27: 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. It gives feedback viewers a chance to see what kind of merchandise you bid on or sell. This trick can make all your customers' and sellers' feedback act as a more active link to your items than some static feedback that says nothing but "Great deal. A+++." And while the link to the item expires after some 30 days, your mention of the item will remain till Doomsday. This is a "red-letter" bonus because most Ebayers aren't doing it . . . yet! (Just check anyone's feedback & see.)
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#28: Pocket $10 or 10 cents at a time as an Ebay affiliate.It can really add up over a year's time!

Prohibited items
eBay in its earliest days was essentially unregulated, but as eBay grew, it found it necessary to restrict or forbid auctions for various items. Note that some of the restrictions relate to eBay.com (the US site), while other restrictions apply to specific European sites (such as Nazi paraphernalia). Regional laws and regulations may apply to the seller or the buyer. Among the hundred or so banned or restricted categories:
Tobacco (tobacco-related items and collectibles are allowed)
Alcohol (alcohol-related collectibles, including sealed containers, as well as wine sales by licensed sellers are allowed)
Drugs and drug paraphernalia
Nazi paraphernalia
Bootleg recordings
Firearms and ammunition
Used underwear and dirty used clothing
Teacher's editions of textbooks including homeschool teacher's editions.
Human parts and remains
Live animals (with certain exceptions
Certain copyrighted works or trademarked items.
Lottery tickets, sweepstakes tickets, or any other gambling items.
Military hardware such as working weapons or explosives.
Virtual items from massively multiplayer online games.
Many other items are either wholly prohibited or restricted in some manner.

Unusual sale items
In June 2005, the wife of Tim Shaw, a British radio DJ on Kerrang! 105.2, sold Tim's Lotus Esprit sports car with a Buy It Now price of 50 pence after she heard him flirting with model Jodie Marsh on air. The car was sold within 5 minutes, and it was requested that the buyer pick it up the same day.
In May 2005, a Volkswagen Golf that had previously been registered to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who had been elected Pope Benedict XVI) was sold on eBay's German site for €188,938.88. The winning bid was made by the GoldenPalace.com online casino, known for their outrageous eBay purchases.
In September 2004, the owner of MagicGoat.com sold the contents of his trash can to a middle school language arts teacher, who intended to have her students write essays about the trash before it was cleared away by a well-meaning janitor.
Water that was said to have been left in a cup Elvis Presley once drank from was sold for $455. The few tablespoons came from a plastic cup Presley sipped at a concert in North Carolina in 1977.
A Coventry University student got £1.20 for a single cornflake.
A man from Brisbane, Australia attempted to sell New Zealand at a starting price of $.01AUD. The price had risen to $3,000 before eBay closed the auction.
One of the tunnel boring machines involved in the construction of the Channel Tunnel was auctioned on eBay in 2004.
A man from Arizona sold an air guitar on eBay for $5.50.
A group of four men from Australia auctioned themselves to spend the weekend with the promise of "beers, snags, good conversation and a hell of a lot of laughs" for AU$1,300
Disney sold a retired Monorail Red (Mark IV Monorail) for $20,000
The German Language Association sold the German language to call attention for the growing influence of Pidgin-English in modern German
In late November 2005, the original Hollywood sign was sold on eBay for $450,400.
In February 2007, after Britney Spears shaved all of her hair off in a Los Angeles salon, it was listed on EBay for $1million USD before it was taken down after some considerable controversy.

Charity auctions
Using MissionFish as an arbiter, eBay allows sellers to donate a portion of their auction proceeds to a charity of the seller's choice. Some high profile charity auctions have been advertised on the eBay home page, and have raised large amounts of money in a short time. For example, a furniture manufacturer raised over $35,000 for Ronald McDonald House by auctioning off beds that had been signed by celebrities

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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

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