Ebay Tips & Tricks (part 4): Saving money on Shipping & Handling

Usually the buyer pays for all shipping and handling costs, but if you have ever shipped an item before, you know that there are many costs associated with shipping an item.  You have to pay for boxes, tape, bubble wrap, stuffing, and all kinds of other materials needed to ship an item properly.  Here are some tips that I have learned over the years that will help you save money and ship items properly. 

• Make sure that fragile items are packed securely.  There are cheap ways to do this, but the point to be made is that you MUST use bubble wrap, and you MUST pack the box tight with styrofoam peanuts, newspaper, or other padding material.


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Ebay Tips & Tricks (part 3 or 4): Customer Service

Whether you run a full blown Ebay business or you are just selling off some junk in your house, your reputation is key in the Ebay community.  If your reputation is bad, then you will have an extremely hard time effectively selling on Ebay.  Ebay does a great job at keeping track of seller and buyer reputations through their feedback system.  My only beef with the feedback system is that both parties have the option to leave negative feedback, even when one party has done nothing wrong.  For instance, I ship you something and the shipping was horrible so the product gets destroyed.  You can give me negative feedback, but I can equally give you negative feedback solely for you giving me negative feedback.  You can challenge the negative feedback, but most people only look at your feedback percentage when they are checking out a seller.  Anyway, keep that in mind before you go giving everyone negative feedback.

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Ebay Tips & Tricks (Part 2): Pricing Your Item

The initial starting price for an Ebay auction item is one of the trickiest and most important parts of being successful with Ebay selling.  Here are a few things to consider when pricing an item for an Ebay listing.

• If the item has low demand, start the price closer to what you want to sell it for.  If the item is in high demand, start the price at 9.99 or less and let the Ebay marketplace determine the price, which is usually close to what you want to get for it OR MORE.


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Ebay Tips & Tricks (part 1): Listing Items

I have had a couple of questions about Ebay lately, so I thought that I would post some tips and tricks that I have learned from selling and buying on Ebay for the past four years.  I consign items for friends and family, and I also have a few clients that I work with to sell their personal property.  People simply do not have the time to sell things on Ebay, because it is a tedious process.  You must take pictures, list the item, answer customer questions, and ship the item. You can make some extra cash simply by asking your friends and family if they want you to do the dirty work of selling their stuff on Ebay for a percentage of the sale.  I bet you’ll get some takers!  I had people begging me to sell their stuff at one point.  Today’s tips and tricks will focus on listing the item. 

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