Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or supplier mentioned in this book. Again I was blessed with Leah Cameron and Barry Childs-Helton who were my editors on this book. This book will give you the basics, the hows and whys of setting up a home business on eBay.
This book gives you the information you need to get started, in one handy (though heavy) book.
Hooking Up with Online Technology
Navigating through eBay
Signing Up and Getting Started
Understanding eBay Sales
Checking Out the Seller and Leaving Feedback
Bidding to Win
Completing the Transaction
Participating in the Community
Essential Tools
Researching on eBay
Researching on the Web
Effi cient Communications for Better Sales
Simplifying Payment with PayPal
Using eBay’s Management Tools
Selling Like a Pro
Be Sure Your Listings Make Cents
Understanding the Finer Points of Selling
Listing Your Items for Sale
Using eBay’s Turbo Lister
Managing Your Sales on My eBay
Using PayPal to Organize Your Sales
Checking Out Payment Alternatives
Sourcing Merchandise
Understanding Online Retailing
Buying Merchandise Like the Pros
Selling Other People’s Stuff
Liquidation and Drop-Shipping
Presenting Your Items
Your eBay Photo Studio
Mastering eBay Photography
Sprucing Up Your Listings with HTML
Getting Your Photos Ready for eBay
Getting Your Photos on the Web
Promoting Your Goods
Developing Your Web Site
The eBay homepage is the gateway to the most popular e-tailing site on the Internet. If you look carefully at the main page, you can see several other links that provide you express service in some key parts of the site. Some boxes in the subnavigation bar correspond to links on the page (more on the eBay community in Chapter 8).
Here you will find links that connect you to the largest car sales site on the Internet.
Marketing Your Web Site and eBay Store
Just enter a few keywords in the search box that describe the item you are looking for. Even if you're traveling at warp speed, you can spend hours checking each auction individually. You may have visited the eBay site once or twice with the thought that you might want to buy something.
If you have a momentary brain spasm and you've forgotten your age, just think back to your childhood. No, you're not auditioning for a superhero club, but never forget that eBay takes these things seriously. You understand that if you sell prohibited items, eBay may forward your personal information to law enforcement for further investigation.
If you're ready to go from window shopper to item seller, simply click the Sell button in the navigation bar. You'll need to fill out a few more forms and before you know it, you'll be running your own auctions on eBay. If you've never liked your real name or never had a nickname, here's your chance to rectify that situation.
If you like to have several short words as user IDs, you can use underscores or hyphens to separate them, like in super-shop-a-holic. But if you change your user ID too often, people may think you are trying to hide something.
Using PayPal to Increase Your Sales
Storing and Shipping
Organizing Your Merchandise and Shipping Department
If you want to ask me questions in person, you can call into my radio show. If you're in the market for a computer, you can buy or lease a new, used, or refurbished system, depending on your computing needs. But if you're accessing the Internet away from home, you might want to look into setting up a free email provider.
Type in the address (aka URL, for Uniform Resource Locator) of the website you want to visit, and boom, there you are. Money-saving special offers from third-party providers can be a boon if you're looking for a bargain. If you can't find a category you're interested in among those on the home page, simply click the Shop button in the navigation bar and you'll be taken to the main category page.
Shipping without Going Postal
Or maybe you thought you'd be smart and limit the search to an iron 3, but you still got over a thousand entries. Have you considered buying something and then left the site for fear of being scammed? Do not worry; the Age Police don't come to your house to give you a card; they have other ways to discreetly make sure you are at least 18 years old.
If your first memory is watching Animaniacs and Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers on TV, you're in. If eBay finds an error in your listing, such as an incorrect area code or postal code, you will see a warning message on the next page. Once you connect back to eBay and it knows your email address is active, you'll receive a hearty congratulations, as shown in Figure 3-3.
Until you've been an eBay member for 30 days, an image of a glowing gold cartoonish icon will appear next to your user ID wherever it appears on the site. This doesn't mean you've been converted into a golden robot; the icon merely indicates to other eBay users that you are new to eBay. Now that you're a fully-fledged, officially registered member of the eBay community, you may see an eBay pop-up window where you have the option to provide more information about yourself.
Anyone with your password can (actually) be "you" on eBay - running auctions, bidding on auctions, and leaving potentially controversial feedback for others. If you're on a home computer and want to make it easier to use eBay, click the box next to "Keep me signed in for today."
Insuring Your Item’s Delivery
Power Selling
Upgrading to eBay’s Selling Manager
Managing Your Business with Third-Party Tools
Studying Your Statistics
Becoming a PowerSeller
Opening Your eBay Store
Office and Legal
Getting Legal with the State and the Feds
If you want to see what a specific user (eg another Star Trek fan) is bidding on, use the bid search. Enter a user ID in the By Bidder search box and you'll get a list of everything the user has won. It's your choice - you can make your search as complex (or confusing) as you want by using the many options on the Advanced Search page.
If you don't have all the information you need, check the manufacturer's website or a website that specializes in the item you're looking for. If someone has listed an item with all these words in the title, I will be lucky and draw some winners. However, it's more likely that the words in your first search are buried in the description.
From my search results (pictured in Figure 1-2), I can see that my salad plates are listed in the sub-category of Pottery &. Sometimes sellers (when listing many items at once) make mistakes and list them in the wrong category. This is useful when you're looking for, say, a 1967 Corvette and you want to buy a car, not a Hot Wheels toy.
Use the following drop-down list to choose how you want to view the results. In the Gallery view, each listing takes up a large amount of your screen real estate.
The Joys of Taxes and Business Reporting
Using Bookkeeping Software
If you're desperate for help and can't find a Live Help link, you can post your problem in one of the eBay chat rooms. If you receive a suspension but believe you are innocent, contact the person who suspended you directly to plead your case. If you look at an item on a fixed-price sale, you'll see the words Buy It Now, as shown in Figure 4-2. 60 View the advertisement page.
When the item goes down in the last hour of the auction, you will see the time expressed in minutes and seconds. If the seller is willing to ship the item anywhere in the country for a flat fee, you'll see it here. Organization is the name of the game on eBay, especially if you plan to bid on multiple auctions while running your auctions.
Or, if the seller has set a Buy It Now price and you're (again) too impatient to wait until the end of the auction to win, click Buy It Now and go from there. If you are not the highest bidder in an auction, simply scroll down the confirmation page to the rebid area and place a new bid. If you are really interested in an item with a reserve price, email the seller and politely ask how much the reserve is.
Before you use the Buy It Now option (because you think you got a bargain), make sure to check the seller's shipping charges. If you still want to make the purchase, you can click Confirm to tell eBay that you are willing to pay the purchase price.
Keeping Your Business Secure Online
At the top and bottom of the store homepage, you will see a variety of things:. If you've ever dreamed of flying, this might be the category to start your hobby. You'll see everything from the best new to gently used private sales.
If you're looking for something to equip your business with, the Business & Industrial category is the place to be. When you go to the item page, you'll see the name of the nonprofit, some information about it, and the percentage of the final bid that the seller is donating. Reply to feedback received: If you've received feedback that you'd like to respond to, click this link.
If you are angry, take a deep breath before typing your complaints and click the Leave Comment button. If you are convinced that negative feedback is necessary, try a cooling-off period before sending feedback. See if what you're thinking is consistent with the comments others have left.
If you are on the user feedback page, click the Leave Feedback link; the Leave Feedback page appears. If you have a lot to say but are at a loss as to how to say it, here are some examples for every occasion.
Networking Your Offi ce
If you hide your feedback, people may suspect that you are covering up bad things. This information gives you a quick snapshot of the cost of the item you are searching for. Use asterisks as wildcards in your search, especially if you are unsure of the spelling of a word.
If you're in the US, why not bid on auctions on the eBay Canada website. If you're going to snipe, assume the current bidder has a very high-dollar stand-in offer in the works. If you know you face a lot of competition, calculate your highest bid on the penny.
Being on the buy side is bad form and can also lead to bad feedback for you. Complete the Contact Information form by entering the seller's user ID and the number of the item you are purchasing, then click the Search button. If you believe you have been a victim of fraud, you can apply for PayPal Buyer Protection (see Chapter 5).
Don't worry if you're not completely wild about your page on the first pass. If you're looking for that last place to retire, eBay has some great deals.
Offi ce and Legal
Effi cient Communications for Better Sales
Efficient Communications for Better Sales
