My ebay notes

Midmac · 9 January 2006 at 2:26PM

Here is a collection of my ebay notes, hope it helps some of my fellow MSE'ers

Helpful ebay links to keep :

Block a Bidder form

Create an About Me page

Cancel a Bid

Checkout preferances

Feedback you need to leave

Make a one off payment

Request a users contact details

Rules + Safety Form

Search page

Feedback:
If your leaving negative feedback wait till 89 days after the end of the auction. Mark this day on your calender with the item number so you can leave the a neg and by the time they see it, its too late for them to leave a retalitery(sp?) neg.

When leaving negatove feedback dont make it too harsh otherwise your the one who looks bad. I like to opt for something informative like:
" Didnt pay, ignored emails, very bad buyer :mad: "

or something funny but not too harsh like:
"Never paid. Would offer ebay for dummies book but probably wouldn't pay for that either "

Get more views on your items
The more people that see your item,the more your bids and sales will increase.
An effective title is essential, its just as important as the description. Make sure you cram every word that people are likely to search into your title
For example:
Your selling a ps2 game
A lot of people search for "Playstation" and "new" so put these in your title. ( only if they are appropriate)
Think about what phrases you would search to find that item and put those in your title.

Good ebay supplies
A good site to use for supplies such as media and storage is:
http://www.svp.co.uk/index.php thanks to sarah_elton
This site is quite cheap, allows payment via paypal ( very handy for me

)and you can have it delivered to work or home

Getting repeat customers
Open up one of your auctions and copy the address for adding yourself to your favourite sellers. You can then paste this link into your auctions like this:
Add me to your favourite sellers [ URL=YOUR LINK HERE]Click Here[/URL]

This will get you some more repeat customers as they are always watching what you are selling.

Misc tips:
Niche- After you have sold all your junk

find a niche of yours. Something your intrested in. This helps in 2 ways. Firstly you know your market and value of items in that market and secondly its something your intrested in.

Contact - Keeping plenty of contact with your buyers is always a good thing to do. Tell them thanks for their promt payment and state when you will dispatch the item etc.

Photos-Take very clear photos, maybe invest in a better digital camera. Also use the free additional photos by uploading to imageshack or photobucket and insert the html tags into your listing.

Calulate your postage- After you have taken photos of your item, package it and take it to your local post office to find out the postage cost before you list. Alternativly pick up a postage cost leaftlet or use https://www.royalmail.com

Customer satisfaction- Keeping your customers happy is extremely important. This will influence weather they come back for more items later and the positivity of your feedback.

Feel free to elaborate on anything i posted
Thanks are appreciated
Midmac

EDIT: thanks to all who post information to add to this

soolin · 9 January 2006 at 2:42PM

midmac, your suggestion about the 'not ipod' keyword in your title is still against ebay t and c's and occasionally ebay pull everything that does not comply so it isn't worth keyword spamming if it is likely to get a warning on your account.

Also your idea about emailing past customers is a definite no no, any contact without express opt in permission is spam and will get a warning on your account if one of your buyers reports you.

Finally take care with your feedback at day 89 suggestion, it is often possible to leave feedback past day 90 if you know how. It is easier to just go through the NPB route for non payers as under the new rules they can no longer leave a feedback rating that counts against your score if they don't respond to the dispute process.

Soo

Midmac · 9 January 2006 at 2:49PM

soolin wrote:

midmac, your suggestion about the 'not ipod' keyword in your title is still against ebay t and c's and occasionally ebay pull everything that does not comply so it isn't worth keyword spamming if it is likely to get a warning on your account.

Also your idea about emailing past customers is a definite no no, any contact without express opt in permission is spam and will get a warning on your account if one of your buyers reports you.

Finally take care with your feedback at day 89 suggestion, it is often possible to leave feedback past day 90 if you know how. It is easier to just go through the NPB route for non payers as under the new rules they can no longer leave a feedback rating that counts against your score if they don't respond to the dispute process.

Soo

I know what you mean Soo. I will remove that bits.

However i didnt realise there was a way to leave feedback after 90 days?

I tend to not leave negative feedback for most situations but if i do i always wait till the 89th day.

any recommendations on how to get repeat customers without violating ebay rules?

nightswimmer · 9 January 2006 at 2:59PM

Midmac wrote:

any recommendations on how to get repeat customers without violating ebay rules?

Corney as it sounds, my best recommendation is to offer good service and fair prices.

You can also add a reminder to your auction page, and any corespondance that you send them, that they can add you to their favourate sellers list (I think you can make a link for this to add to your auction pages too).

Midmac · 9 January 2006 at 3:00PM

I always put the "View my other items HERE" link but i have never thought of putting a one for adding to favourite sellers.

Good tip

soolin · 9 January 2006 at 3:10PM

nightswimmer wrote:

Corney as it sounds, my best recommendation is to offer good service and fair prices.

You can also add a reminder to your auction page, and any corespondance that you send them, that they can add you to their favourate sellers list (I think you can make a link for this to add to your auction pages too).

A sentence reminding your buyers to add you to their favourite seller list is a good idea, it can be just tagged on to the end of auction email and wouldn't be considered spam.

Also, if you are trading you can add a sentence to your end of auction emails with an opt in clause for future mailing shots..however, you must take care to only email those in future who specifically sign up and read your terms and conditions about the use of their email address. You must also have an opt out system in place for when they wish to stop receiving your emails.

Soo

apprentice_tycoon · 10 January 2006 at 6:43AM

Midmac wrote:

any recommendations on how to get repeat customers without violating ebay rules?

I try to get my customers coming back by making sure that the service is so good that there is no reason for them not come back, this is the most obvious tactic.
I also offer a 10% discount for returning buyers. I don't know if it's against any ebay rules but I've done it for 5 years, my feedback score is over 1000 less than my total transaction score meaning that there are many returning buyers and buyers with multiple items.

Midmac · 10 January 2006 at 2:07PM

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

I try to get my customers coming back by making sure that the service is so good that there is no reason for them not come back, this is the most obvious tactic.
I also offer a 10% discount for returning buyers. I don't know if it's against any ebay rules but I've done it for 5 years, my feedback score is over 1000 less than my total transaction score meaning that there are many returning buyers and buyers with multiple items.

Very good heads up there, thanks.

I suppose the items you sell also influence the amount of return customers. The product im selling at the moment doesnt need to be bought more than once.

HOLsale · 10 January 2006 at 5:27PM

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

I try to get my customers coming back by making sure that the service is so good that there is no reason for them not come back, this is the most obvious tactic.
I also offer a 10% discount for returning buyers. I don't know if it's against any ebay rules but I've done it for 5 years, my feedback score is over 1000 less than my total transaction score meaning that there are many returning buyers and buyers with multiple items.

i'm sure it's ok as you get the option when you invoice them to account for discounts...

i send physical vouchers using fun vouchers http://www.fun-vouchers.org.uk/
when i'm promoting something particular. then i tell them they only need to quote the voucher number (you get a sheet you keep so you can tick off when they are used, good for your taxes too that is) i then invoice them with a new discounted invoice...

i find that offering the vouchers really enhances the buyers perceptions of you even though 90% of people i send them to don't actually use them... they still come back though. if someone keeps buying from me i spontaneously offer discounts and that really goes down a treat

Midmac · 11 January 2006 at 2:01PM

Added a few more tips for selling

nightswimmer · 11 January 2006 at 2:20PM

A tip if you sell a lot of items on eBay (this is also useful for non-eBay stuff).

You know those links you have in the OP? Make a HTML file with those links, plus any other useful links you use frequently (even non eBay links), save it to your hard disk, and make it your home page. That way you always have those links handy, and anytime you want to go somewhere quickly, you just hit your browser's "Home' or 'New' buttons, and up they pop. Much quicker than searching through your favourites, or looking through your notes.

My ebay notes

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