Ebay hints & tips, come and share to help others.

superhans

I have started this thread to be a general chat thread to help people like me that are new to Ebay, I am finding it difficult at the moment to learn everthing about Ebay I have a friend who is a powerseller with 17,000 sales in 4 years and he seems to be able to tell me the answer to any questions I have, but I am sure he will get annoyed with me asking him for advice all the time.

My feedback score is only 13, so I have a long way to go,

But I have have got a few tips already,
under take all tips at your own risk, if in doubt don't do them.

Number 1,
Ebay only charges a final value fee on the price of the item not the postage,
unlike Paypal that calculates the fee on the total amount including postage,
so to save a bit of money with Ebay's fees put a higher postage amount to reduce the final value fee, a lot of ebay shops do it, I am selling similar items to them the postage only costs 52p and the envelope costs 13p and they charge £3.00 upwards so it is going on, no matter what people say.

Number 2,
Gallery picture, is free until 30th September, normally 15p, they have now made it free permanantly, in the fee changes due on 24th September, so it's silly not to use it, I find it amazing how many people don't use it, even though it is completely free.

Number 3,
I have asked my powerseller friend who he uses to send his bulky parcels and he said he uses Parcel2go, http://www.parcel2go.com/,
These are a lot cheaper than Royal Mail and the items are sent via DHL, he has used them for about a year and had no problems with them, they also insure your item for free upto £50, where as this service is extra with Royal Mail,

for example,
I was going to send a 9kg parcel with Royal mail it would have cost £11.40,

Parcel2go, quoted a price of £7.56 if booked after 12 noon, they also come and
pick it up from your house, you can also pay via your Paypal balance.

Number 4,
I went to my local Post Office to send a large letter only to find that it was only 52p for up to 100 grams, when I took 2 items in last week they charged me 78p for 101 - 250 grams, these 3 items were exactly the same in weight (75 grams) but the only difference was the scales I used in the Post Office, the more expensive postage was with the heavier duty scales used for parcels, and the cheaper postage was with the lighter more accurate scales, the heavier duty scales are incorrectly calibrated, so I would double check the scales you use in your Post Office.

Number 5,
You get 55 characters to explain to Ebayers what your item is, so you might as well use as many as you can, so your item can be found in many different searches, maximising the amount of views of your item, double check the description by doing a search to see how many items are found, as well as the gallery photo, this should help people choose your item, for example.

Black & Decker, gets 985 matches
Sanding belts, gets 497 matches,
Then also add the belt size, maybe the model they fit, Grit grade, how many there are,
new or used.

These are just a few of the tips I have used in the past if you have any please come and join in and post them.

Tips from other members.

luvvlyjubbly

Take clear photos and use a webhosting site like photobucket to get larger pictures in your description for free.
There is a sticky at the top of the of this forum that will give you some good ideas.

ArmitageShanks

courier thread. link to shortly
With regards to postage it depends what the item is. One of competitors charge £10 for parcelforce 24hr, we charge £6.80 DHL 24hr yet we both have 4.7 DSR for postage.
Courier Cost Cutting Feedback/Discussion thread

soolin

My tip (and I'm being all school marmy here again) is to make sure you understand the fee structure before you list, not afterwards.

Accept that not everything can sell at a profit on ebay, the idea that people can list any old rubbish is long gone, consider your products carefully, check out the previous sales and the competitors, work out your profit margin and then work it out again to be 100% sure it is worth doing.

You pay a listing fee, make sure you don't do something stupid like start an item at £1 when a 99p start might have saved you money, for items where you won't sell below a certain price, start it at that price don't risk a 99p start and then whinge item sold too cheaply.
Remember Final Value Fees are going up, so be careful with you profit calculations, FVFs are payable on all successful sales unless you later go through the dispute system. Remember also that you need a premier paypal account to receive all paypal funds and that you will then definitely be paying a fee on every amount received.

Don't go daft on your postage, raising postage to save a penny or two on FVFs is a really daft idea as all that happens is that your stars suffer and you end up on a warning and no visibility.

Make sure you send goods quickly and well packed, don't wait a week and then expect your buyer to be happy, 48 hours is ideal but 3 or 4 days is also acceptable.

Understand how to keep yourself safe, use the correct postal service or courier and make sure you have sufficient insurance in case of loss.

Don't forget as well that if trading on ebay, even in a small way you must register with HMRC within 3 months of starting.

shellsuit

Sorry but I totally disagree with your first point :

so to save a bit of money with Ebay's fees put a higher postage amount to reduce the final value fee

How is putting a higher postage amount going to reduce the FVF?

If the item sells for £10, then the FVF's will be based on that, so it doesn't matter whether the postage is £10 or £50.

Or, do you mean, say for example you are selling a brand new PS3 game, start it at 1p and have the postage at £10??

If so, you won't get very far without being reported I'm afraid.

StaffsSW

superhans wrote: »

Number 1,
Ebay only charges a final value fee on the price of the item not the postage,
unlike Paypal that calculates the fee on the total amount including postage,
so to save a bit of money with Ebay's fees put a higher postage amount to reduce the final value fee.

This is a VERY risky strategy, as buyers can mark your scores down enough to restrict your visibility in listings. I agree that P&P is more than just a stamp, and should also cover packaging as well making a contribution to processing time (more specific to business sellers, admittedly), but if you gouge the price too much your sales will drop. P&P is a very sensitive subject at the moment, and there are lots of threads on MSE alone about buyers upset at how much was charged in excess of what is generally considered fair.

Number 2,
Gallery picture, is free until 30th September, normally 15p, they have now made it free permanantly, in the fee changes due on 24th September, so it's silly not to use it, I find it amazing how many people don't use it, even though it is completely free.

It was announced last week that the gallery will be permanently free from September 24th.

superhans

shellsuit wrote: »

Sorry but I totally disagree with your first point :

so to save a bit of money with Ebay's fees put a higher postage amount to reduce the final value fee

How is putting a higher postage amount going to reduce the FVF?

If the item sells for £10, then the FVF's will be based on that, so it doesn't matter whether the postage is £10 or £50.

Or, do you mean, say for example you are selling a brand new PS3 game, start it at 1p and have the postage at £10??

If so, you won't get very far without being reported I'm afraid.

Say if you would normally put postage of £1.99, and your item sold for £10.00 = a total of £11.99, Ebay would charge you a final value fee on the £10, but if you put the postage up to £3.99 and the item sold for £8.00 = £11.99 you would only be charged a final value fee on £8.00, a lot of Ebay shops do this, I personally don't do this but there is the option for saving a few pennies, but you can't get away with the Paypal fees.

shellsuit

superhans wrote: »

Do it sneakily,
say if you would normally put postage of £1.99, and your item sold for £10.00 = a total of £11.99, Ebay would charge you a final value fee on the £10, but if you put the postage up to £3.99 and the item sold for £8.00 = £11.99 you would only be charged a final value fee on £8.00, a lot of Ebay shops do this, I personally don't do this but there is the option for saving a few pennies, but you can't get away with the Paypal fees.

I don't do sneaky on Ebay, I play fair and by the rules, which I hope every other decent seller does.

The point I'm trying to make is that you don't know what your item will sell for unless it is a buy it now, so you don't know what your FVF's will be until the auction has ended.

ArmitageShanks

Number 3,
I have asked my powerseller friend who he uses to send his bulky parcels and he said he uses Parcel2go, http://www.parcel2go.com/,
These are a lot cheaper than Royal Mail and the items are sent via DHL, he has used them for about a year and had no problems with them, they also insure your item for free upto £50, where as this service is extra with Royal Mail,

Only any good when they have their occasional half price offers on- otherwise much cheaper options around.

superhans

ArmitageShanks wrote: »

Only any good when they have their occasional half price offers on- otherwise much cheaper options around.

Like who?.

superhans

shellsuit wrote: »

I don't do sneaky on Ebay, I play fair and by the rules, which I hope every other decent seller does.

The point I'm trying to make is that you don't know what your item will sell for unless it is a buy it now, so you don't know what your FVF's will be until the auction has ended.

Well Ebay/Paypal don't play by the rules, with hidden fees everywhere.

shellsuit

superhans wrote: »

Well Ebay/Paypal don't play by the rules, with hidden fees everywhere.

How are they hidden?? You only need to click 'help' at the top of the home page, enter 'fees' into the search bar and you will find plenty of information and charts about all fees

Surely anyone selling would check what the fees are first?

And if the fees are everywhere, they can't be hidden

JCD_Capulet

I don't agree with number one on the list at-all. Buyers aren't daft, they look at the post marks on the things they recieve to see if it matches what they've been charged.

Last year I was looking to buy a powerball for my OH, I found a seller who was selling them at £10 each with £20 postage for second class STANDARD postage. I reported him straight away and the seller was dealt with. I, like many others, want to enjoy my ebay buying and selling experience with good honest buyers and sellers and as such I always report thoose who are blatantly taking the p!ss.

luvvlyjubbly

superhans wrote: »

Well Ebay/Paypal don't play by the rules, with hidden fees everywhere.

You're right they don't......but you really will shoot yourself in the foot if you the up the postage. An extra 50p on top of actual costs is probably acceptable.