Ebay FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
People who know me are always asking me questions about Ebay since they know I sell on there. Hopefully, the following will answer most of the questions you have.
Q: Is it safe to give Ebay my Credit Card or Bank Info.?
A: YES! They have BOTH of these from me & I have never had a problem with that. Ebay only charges your credit card for whatever you sell (once a month, and you can see your balance as you go along listing items).
Q: How do I collect payment from buyers?
Q: How do I collect payment from buyers?
A: Paypal or money orders. I usually don’t accept checks. There’s just too many problems dealing with them. You have to wait until they clear to make sure you get your money. In the meantime customers are wondering what’s taking so long. Then you have to worry if they bounce (& your bank hits you up for an NSF charge). I figure if the customer really wants what you have for sale, they will make the effort to go out & get a money order. Besides, most people nowadays use Paypal to pay (about 90% from my experience). So set yourself up with a Paypal account right away! (there’s a link below you can use). If you do decide to accept checks, make sure you clearly state in your ebay listing that checks must clear before shipment of items, usually 5-7 days to clear. I’d also check the buyers feedback before even depositing it. If it’s well above 100, you are probably fine. You can always call the issuing bank & ask them if there is enough money in their account to cover the check. Most banks will tell you this info.
Q: Is it safe to give Paypal my Credit Card or Bank Info.?
A: YES! They have BOTH of these from me & I have never had a problem with that. From the buying end of using Paypal, you are actually MORE protected than a seller. If problems arise, it usually is up to the seller to do the proving. If an item you buy gets lost in the mail, etc., the seller has to provide proof of mailing. Oppositely, from the selling end, realize most buyers are honest, and they actually do want what you are selling otherwise they wouldn’t be bidding on your stuff. When they receive it, they are (or should be) happy to receive it! However, don’t ship
out an expensive item ($50+) without either getting
delivery confirmation or a signature service from your
preferred delivery method. This should be just common
sense. The $50 figure I give above is just an example,
you should determine your own base line amount (based
on an item’s value) whether or not you want delivery
confirmation. Note: Paypal requires delivery confirmation
for items valued at $250 or more (actually, that have
“sold” for $250 or more).
Q: Who should I use to send my packages out by, USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc?
A: It really all depends on what you are sending (something small, big, heavy, valuable, etc.). For the small stuff, go with the post office. Also compare shipping prices. Ebay has a nifty shipping calculator that is pretty accurate. Base your decisions on this & make sure you charge the customer enough! You should check on shipping prices AS YOU LIST your stuff for sale. It’s not good when you charge the customer $4-5 for shipping only to find out that it’s going to cost you $8! And that’s for postage alone! You still have to supply a box, packing/padding material, perhaps a shipping label, etc. You’re going to NOT be making a lot of money fast if that happens! Consider that you can get free Priority Mail boxes from the USPS. But be sure that your item justifies using it - a 2 or 3 dollar item isn’t going to sell if you have to charge $7-8 to ship it! You have to strike a balance here, so compare the costs for each one. UPS & FedEx offer free tracking numbers (just as good as delivery confirmation in most instances).
Q: Where can I get cheap packing material?
A: Wadded/shredded up old newspaper works
good for most situations. You can also buy bubble
wrap (dollar stores are a good source for this), but
also, (FREE SECRET!) you can go to a furniture store (Art Van, etc.) - go around to their delivery docks and ask one of the guys there if you can have some old bubble wrap! They will be more than happy to just GIVE YOU a trunk full! They get so much of this stuff that most of the time they literally throw it in the garbage! I haven’t paid for bubble wrap in years! And I use a lot of it! The bonus to all of this, is that when your customers get their stuff from you, they will see how “expertly” and “carefully” you have packed it and think how in the world are you making any money since you have to BUY all this padding material! This trick works great! Even if the item you are selling is just so-so, with packing this good, it gives the impression that the item they bought is worth a million bucks! (by the way, don’t try & sell junk on Ebay, it will just backfire on you, customers will complain, leave you negative feedback, etc. - all not good). For boxes, etc., you can re-use old boxes, but make sure they don’t look like the UPS truck ran them over! Grocery stores are a good source for boxes. Again, go to the docks & ask for some. Otherwise they get pitched! Isn’t this a good way to help recycle & save the environment at the same time?!
Q: I got negative feedback from a bad customer, what to do?
A: This all depends. Was it actually your fault for the complaint? If it was, don’t retaliate & leave negative feedback for them - this will just show others how you deal with situations (badly!). I recommend that if someone leaves you a neg, you either don’t leave them feedback at all, or leave them a positive if they did indeed hold up to their end of the deal and it was you who made a mistake. Don’t worry, mistakes happen. As for the neg they left you, you can add a reply (onto your own feedback) that explains what happened. If it’s an honest one, future buyers will understand. Now, if they left a neg for unjustified reasons, that’s a different story. Go ahead & return the neg feedback! Just be FACTUAL with the words you use (describe the situation). Always remember though, that what you say in the feedback section is PERMANENT. Once you leave it, you can’t retract it, so that’s why it’s best to be factual. Yes, you are going to be mad when someone leaves you a neg., but it WILL happen, trust me. You can’t please everybody all the time (as much as you should always at least try to). Take a day to think about what you want to respond with, this way you can cool down. Perhaps you can work out the problem with the buyer. There IS an option that feedback can be retracted, although your comments (or theirs) will still be shown on the feedback page, your running “score” will not be affected. Ask the buyer what you can do to remedy the situation, and see if they will consider retracting. It doesn’t hurt asking.
Q: Where’s a good source to get items to sell?
A: THAT is the age old question! And the one that most people have the hardest time answering. Start with stuff around your house. There’s easily a few hundred bucks lying around collecting dust! After that, try asking family & friends. Maybe you can split the profit with them. Garage sales are good too sometimes, just be careful what you buy. A good experiment is to go to a few local sales & take notes on what they have + asking price. Don’t buy anything. Later on, go check on ebay & see what these items are selling for. Certain items should pop out as money-makers. Make a notebook that has some items listed in it from ebay that you saw at the sales that sold for a decent amount. Keep in mind, to really make it worthwhile (for your time and for the money) you should strive to make at least $10 per item. Yes, if you can get 100 of the same item & only make a buck or 2 on each of them, it could be worth doing, but odds are you are not going to find 100 of the same item! A word of advice, you can’t possibly be knowledgeable in EVERY type and kind of merchandise, so don’t try. Pick a range of merchandise and try to specialize in just that area. This way, you could possibly be a good (future) source for buyers. If they know you sell item “x” and are always putting up “x” for sale on ebay, they may buy from you for a long time! It’s nice having steady, repeat customers! You should pick an area / range of merchandise that you have an interest in. If you don’t, you will get bored fast selling widgets.
Q: How do I find what I’m searching for on Ebay?
A: There’s a general search box at the top right corner on most pages. Just type in whatever you are looking for. However, note that whatever comes up for your search is NOT the only items available! For instance, let’s say you want to find car parts for
a Corvette. Normally you would type ‘in Corvette parts’. That’s a start. But also try ‘Chevrolet Corvette’ - ‘2007 Corvette’ - 2007 Chevrolet Corvette’ - ‘Corvette Steering Wheel’ (or whatever specific item you are looking for), - ‘2007 Corvette steering wheel’ - etc., etc. Realize that not everyone lists the items you want by the terminology that you would use. It’s a time-consuming process occasionally to find what you are looking for! You can also use specific categories (available from the home page). Under “buy” which will bring up a list of different categories from where you can select the most appropriate choice. Be aware that there may be thousands of items listed under any one category & it will take you awhile to find exactly what you are searching for! That’s why I usually recommend doing specific item searches using the above method. Also, don’t forget to search Ebayers’ store listings, which do not appear in the regular auction listings that pop up when you do your searches. You can access store listings by doing a general item search (using the box at the top right on the page), and then from the left side there is a section called “shop ebay stores” where you can select “see all matching stores” which gives you the listing of items that are in these stores. You can also scroll down to the bottom of the page and choose “see additional buy it now items” from ebay store sellers. There’s no bidding on these items - if you see something you want, you just go ahead and buy it, right then and there, for the price the seller has stated in the listing.
More to come... stay tuned!
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