Friday, July 21, 2006

Top 7 Tips on how to Successfully Sell on eBay - By Haze Spehar

I remember when I first started to sell on ebay. I had been going to flea markets, selling at garage sales, etc.

A neighbor of mine asked if I had ever heard of ebay. Of course, I had heard of it, I just never actually went to the site. I was amazed by what I saw! There were people on here selling and buying everything you can think of! It was incredible! It was then that I knew I had to get in on this action.

But where do you start?
That was my first question. So I went to the ebay seller's pages. There were so many links, I just clicked out of ebay entirely, and didn't go back for a while. I did stay with ebay, but only buying.

After I was involved with ebay for a while, I decided I would really try to sell. Hey, everyone else was doing it, why couldn't I?

I will give you 7 very helpful tips, when you are starting to sell on ebay.

#1: Go to your local bank and open a free checking account. You will need it. I don't want anything I do in cyberspace to mess up my actual checking account! It takes a few minutes, and could easily save you a lot of aggrivation in the long run!

#2: Sign up with PayPal. This is a must! More and more ebayers use PayPal, for buying and selling. It is the safest way for money transaction on the net.

#3: Get a GOOD digital camera. I don't mean to go out and spend a thousand dollars on a camera, my first one was 50 dollars. You can even find a good camera on ebay for less than that!

#4: Take good pictures. If you are selling clothes, take a picture with them grouped together, then sepatately. This costs a little more, but is well worth it, as it brings more and higher bids at the end of your auction!

#5: Proven fact all ebayers must know. End your listing on Sunday noght, between 9pm and 12 pm. This is when most ebayers are on, and you get both the buyers looking for the 'what's new' listings, and the buyers who are looking for that perfect deal, the last minutes of the auction.

#6: Ship worldwide. Why? Simple. Quite a few sellers won't go to the additional 'trouble' of shipping worldwide. (trouble being you have to fill out a paper for the Post office) This takes about a minute of your time, and a lot of my sales have come from overseas!

#7: Treat each and every customer you have as your friend. Actually, they are-they are the reason that you're in business, right? Wrap their item with care, enclose a personal thank-you note, etc. Just one simple extra step from you can bring many happily return customers, and word-of-mouth customers!

There are so many tips and tricks to the 'ebay trade'. And some sellers may get mad at me for telling you these secrets, but I don't care. I finally became successful, and these are only a few of the things that I have learned, through my trials and errors with ebay.

Good Luck Selling!!

Haze Williamson Spehar is an accomplished ebay seller. Items ranging from handmade to vintage, and currently ebooks. Visit her at http://www.hazescrochet.com