eBay-Basics-Course

If the winning bidder on your item backs out or if you have duplicate items, you can make a Second Chance Offer to another bidder.

It's free; you only have to pay the Final Value Fee if the item sells, and you can easily send it from My eBay.

Under Items I've sold, click Action and then select Send A Second Chance Offer.

eBay Shipping Center can help you figure the exact cost of shipping an item from one place to another.

To access the Shipping Center,click the Services Link in any eBay page and then click Shipping Center under Selling Reference.

In addition to figuring shipping charges, you can also print labels and track packages from the Shipping Center

One of the best ways to promote your eBay auction is to include links to your auctions on as many other Web sites as your can. The goood news is that you have such a permanent URL. It's called your eBay "About Me" page.

Your About Me page includes a list of all your current auctions. You can also add a Shop eBay with Me button. When visitors click this button, they'll be taken to your Items for Sale page, which lists all your current auctions.

To add this button to a Web page, follow these steps:-

• Go to the Link Your Site to eBay page, located at:
  http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/link-buttons.html
  
• Check the box next to the My Listings on eBay button.
  
• Enter the URL of the page where you want to display the button.
  
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the I Agree button.
  
• When the next page appears, copy the generated HTML code.
  
• Paste the HTML code into the code for your Web page.

Listing Designer is available to all users from the Sell Your Item page that providing you pay the extra cents per listing to use it.

Listing Designer provides more than two dozen predesigned templates, which eBay calls Themes. You choose a theme from the Select a Theme list, and then choose a layout for your pictures from the Select a Layout list.

Listing Designer is easy to use, and requires no additional software or ongoing subscription.

"My eBay " page is a good way to track of all your eBay activity if you are running a lot of auctions simultaneously.

eBay's My eBay feature is not only a way to track your auction activity,but also a way to personalize your eBay experience.

It's a page--actually, a set of pages--that you customize to your own personal preferences to track your own bidding and selling activity in your own way.

It is highly recommend you avail yourself of this useful feature.

You access My eBay page by clicking the My eBay button on the Navigation Bar. There are actually seven pages (or tabs) in your My eBay page , accessed from links at the top of the page, including:-

#Bidding/Watching
#Selling
#Favorites
#Accounts
#Feedback
#Preferences
#All

When you're planning your listing sales, you need to take into effect the fact that sales rates vary throughout the year. It's no surprise that sales go up in November and December,due to the Christmas buying season. But did you know that sales go down--way down--in the summer time ? That's right, eBay traffic in general drops significantly during June, July and August; lots of potential buyers are on vacation, and even more are outside enjoying the sunshine.

Keep these seasonal trends in mind when plannning your business. That might mean putting fewer items up for auction during the summer months, or holding your highest-potential items for the Fall or Winter.

Just don't assume you'll keep a steady sales rate throughout all 12 months of the year--because you won't !

Just as the time of day your auction ends affects your results, so does the day of the week. While different types of items perform better on different days, the general consensus is that Sunday is the best day to end most auction items.

When you end your auction on a Sunday, you get one full Saturday and two Sundays for a 7-day item listing. Sunday is a greaat day to end auctions because almost evrybody's at home--no one's outpartying, or stuck at work or in school. end your auction on a Sunday everning, and you're likely to get more bids--and higher prices.

Friday and Saturday are probably the worst nights to end most auctions, because a lot of eBay users are out partying on these-non-school night. End on auction for any item on Friday or Saturday night, and you eliminate a large number of potential buyers.

You should also try not to end your auction right in the middle of a hit television series or major sporting event--some potential bidders might find it difficult to tear themselves away fom the old boobtube. That means avoiding "must see TV" Thursday, and any blockbuster sporting events or award shows.

Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and co-founder of Omidyar Network with his
wife Pam, will be speaking at the Web 2.0 conference next month.

The session, "A Conversation with Pierre Omidyar," takes place at 4:30 on
October 7 at the Argent Hotel in San Francisco.

Omidyar is Chairman of eBay's board. Also speaking is another member of eBay's board of directors, Scott Cook, who co-founded Intuit Inc. in 1983.

As sellers, your listing are not 100% sold. In fact, the success rate is closed to 50%-which means that it's possible that half of your auctions will end with no buyers.

If your listing ends without a winning buyer or results in an Unpaid Item (UPI), you may qualify for a credit by relisting the item. If the item sells the second time, eBay will refund the Insertion Fee for the relisting, if the following conditions are met:-

• You didn't receive any bids on a regular (no-reserve) auction.
  
• For reserve auction, you didn't receive any bids that met or exceeded your reserve price.
  
• You are relisting an item within 30 days of the closing date of the first auction.
  
• If it is a reserve auction, the new reserve price is the some or lower than the original reserve price.

eBay won't charge you a listing fee for this item the second time, although you will be charged a final value fee if it sells. If your item doesn't sell the second time , there's no third chance--you'll have to create a completely new item listing, and all normal fees will apply.

Do you like to make extra money on eBay ?

Officially eBay has a scheme called Trading Assistants and a directory of a Task on the eBay site.

As eBay itself says "Want to sell your stuff on eBay but don't have the time ? Let a Trading Assistant do it for you ? Trading Assistants are experienced eBay Sellers who will sell your items on eBay for a fee."

eBay has just four requirements in order to register as an official trading assistant. These are:

- You've sold four items within the last 30 days
- Feedback above 50
- 97% of your feedback should be positive
- eBay account in good standing

Looking at the list, it's not to hard to register as a trading assistant. As long as eBay have your billing method on file and you pay your fees on time, all the other requirements are easily obtainable.

In the US, there are hundreds of eBay Trading Assistant Drop off stores. These are stores where you drop off your item and they sell them on eBay for you typically charging up to 33% of the item value. Some even charge up to 50% of the value.

In the UK there are some drop off stores that are instantly findable. These stores will start to open up and expand over the next few years.

Now's the time to get involved so register as a Trading Assistant today and start using eBay to its maximum potential.

eBay's built-in bidding software automatically places a bid for the bidder that best the current bid by a specified amount-but doesn't reveal the bidder's maximum bid.

For example, the current bid on an item might be $25. A bidder is willing to pay up to $40 for the item, and enters a maximum bid of $40.

eBay's Proxy Bidding System places a bid for the new bidder in the amount of $26--higher than the current bid, but less than the specified maximum bid. If there are no other bids, this bidder will win the auction with a $26 bid.

Other potential buyers, however, can place additional bids; unless their maximum bids are more than the current bidder's $40 maximum, they are informed via email that they have been outbid--and the first bidder's current bid is automatically raised to match the new bids ( up to the specified maximum bid price. )

The easiest way to contact eBay is through their Web Form support system.

Start at the Contact Customer Support page, located at http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/index.html

Select a topic, sub-topic, and specific issue, and then click Continue. The following "instant help" page includes links that answer the most common questions.

To continue through to contact eBay, click the continue button to display the Submit Email Form. Enter your email address and message, then click the Submit button.

Today's question is "What is Skype?"

eBay announced this week it would acquire Skype for several billion dollars,so this is a timely topic.

Skype is a free download that lets you use your computer to make telephone
calls. Calls from one Skype user to another are free, wherever they are in
the world. You make calls using usernames rather than traditional phone
numbers, and an instant-messaging client (for text chatting) is included.
Skype does not carry adware or spyware.

There are a number of paid add-ons: SkypeOut, for calling ordinary phones;
SkypeIn, which provides a real phone number so non-Skype users can call you;
and Skype Voicemail, to answer your calls when you are away from the PC.
With these services, Skype can provide its users with a rich set of features
at low cost.

To use Skype you need a PC running Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux, or a PDA
with Windows Pocket PC 2003. You also need an Internet connection, a headset or requivalent, and the Skype software.

A number of manufacturers are making phones with a traditional look and feel that work with Skype, for those who don't like headsets.

Skype is a VoIP (Voice over IP) program, which just means making telephone
calls over a computer network. VoIP is not a new idea.

Skype has several competitors, but has had huge success with home users due
to its reliability, ease-of-use, and great marketing. Like instant
messaging, PC-based VoIP programs all have their own way of transmitting
data, so users of competing products can't call each other directly. This
"lock-in" effect has helped Skype's user base snowball: it currently has 54
million members around the world, and is adding approximately 150,000 more each day.

I have used Skype for nine months, and have found the software to be
easy-to-use and polished. Quality is excellent for Skype-to-Skype calls, and
SkypeOut calls are good value but the quality is variable. I have
experienced some "spim" and "spit" (spam over instant messaging and spam
over Internet telephony) through the service, but it has been inoffensive
and is easily blocked by only accepting calls from your known contacts.

Skype has its critics. One concern is that Skype can act as a server for
other people's calls, passing their voice data through your computer en
route to its destination. Some users have reported that their bandwidth and
CPU usage has increased dramatically when running Skype (even when not
making calls).

This technology is called peer-to-peer (or P2P), and is integral to Skype's
success, having been used to great effect in file-sharing applications such
as Kazaa (which was created by the people behind Skype). It is possible for
your computer to act as a "supernode" and help route Skype traffic, but the
software is designed to keep this bandwidth use low.

If you use dialup or have a metered Internet connection, a network
monitoring application like NetLimiter may help you control bandwidth usage
from all your programs.

Others have security concerns. Privacy is well taken care of as all calls
are encrypted, but Skype is a popular application and is sure to attract
hackers' attention. Their track-record on security has been good, however,
with Secunia reporting only one vulnerability, which has been fixed. Compare
this with 85 advisories for Internet Explorer, of which 19 are unpatched. As
an Internet user, security should be important to you, so make sure your
regimen includes a personal firewall, up-to-date anti-virus and
anti-spyware, and regular software patches, at a minimum.

Skype is a useful, free, and well-made piece of software. You have much to
gain from trying it.

This article is by Andy Geldman

PayPal users are again reporting problems with their PayPal debit cards. The first incident occurred right before the Labor Day holiday weekend when duplicate withdrawals were made from their accounts. PayPal spokesperson Amanda Pires said the problem was caused by PayPal's processing partner.

Users began reporting problems again two weeks later - only this time, some reported PayPal deposited extra money in their accounts, while others said their balances were showing negative balances that should have been positive.

Pires said on Monday that all issues had been resolved by September 11. "Those users still have debit card issues, should call the phone number on the back of the card which goes into PayPal. All issues should have been fixed."

But the problems continued into the week of the 12th. When asked about the ongoing problems on Wednesday, Pires said, "once the issue was fixed with our processing partner, it does take 3 days in some cases for some of the duplication to be resolved. I would like to add that PayPal is very apologetic for the problems and inconvenience this has caused our customers."

A thread on the PayPal discussion board reveals people are again spending lots of time on hold trying to resolve discrepancies in their accounts '

London, September 12, 2005 – eBay Inc. has agreed to acquire Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA, the global Internet communications company, for approximately $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock, plus potential performance-based consideration.

The acquisition will strengthen eBay’s global marketplace and payments platform, while opening several new lines of business and creating significant new monetization opportunities for the company.

The deal also represents a major opportunity for Skype to advance its leadership in Internet voice communications and offer people worldwide new ways to communicate in a global online era. Skype, eBay and PayPal will create an unparalleled ecommerce and communications engine for buyers and sellers around the world.

Spoof Emails - How Do You Protect Yourself ?

Phishing, the practice of sending spoof email, is when a third party sends an email that looks like it comes from eBay, Paypal or any type of banking institution which asks you to follow a link to update your account or to give sensitive financial information. eBay and Paypal will NEVER send an email asking you to follow a link to their site. Always access eBay pages by going to the eBay home page and logging in from there. This is the best way to protect yourself.

The criminals are getting so good at this that the emails look real. It is so frustrating. I almost answered one and gave out my eBay user ID and password. It looked so real, as if it were coming from an eBay member. The email said 'Where is my item? If I don't hear from you in 2 days, I am filing negative feedback.' It got my attention and I immediately clicked on the link to take me to the eBay item number. eBay then asked me to sign in and I went ahead and input my information. Luckily, my brother had installed a firewall and it popped up and said 'Do you really want to send this information to skeleton88 blah blah blah?' It was not sending my information to eBay but to a scammer. I never follow links from emails anymore, but go to the eBay home page and then input the item numbers. You can never be too cautious with your personal information.

Another way to protect yourself is to log onto your eBay account and check My Messages whenever it looks like eBay has sent you an alert or message related to your account. Bottom line – if an email affects your eBay account, it's in "My Messages". If you get an email that looks like it's from eBay about a problem with your account or that requests personal information, look in My Messages. If the same eBay email is not in "My Messages", it's a fake.

The issue of phishing emails and fraud on eBay and Paypal must be addressed. It has grown in such a huge proportion in the past few years that it seriously has the opportunity to hinder our eBay successes. eBay has been working diligently to combat this but it is still out of control. I met with an eBay executive in Canada who works in the Fraud division and she asked me if I am forwarding these spoof emails to eBay and I said 'No, I just don't have the time.' She asked me to please take the time - because this is the only way that they can quickly break up these criminal rings - if we take the time to help. Forward a copy of any ebay scam email to
spoof@ebay.com and Paypal spoof email to spoof@Paypal.com

Article By Lynn Dralle-The Queen Of Auctions (eBay I/D: thequeenofauctions )

You can access multiple accounts with Turbo Lister software. Turbo Lister
supports the use of multiple user profiles in the program. When you
first started using the program you were prompted to create the first
profile, but you may also create more profiles and switch between them.

With the Turbo Lister program open on your computer, follow the steps
below:

1. Click "File," then "New," then "User File"
2. Select the "Set up a new Turbo Lister file" option and click "Next."
3. Enter the eBay account information for the new profile and follow the
prompts to complete.

To switch from one user profile to another, click "File," then "Change
User..." and select the profile you wish to open.

When you're researching items to sell on eBay, why not look on eBay itself ? eBay's search function (just click the Advanced Search link at the top of any page) lets you search both live and closed auctions in a number of different way. In particular, you can search current auctions to judge how hot or cold a particular type of item is.

If you don't know much about something, do a search on eBay. If you see 50 of them with no bids, don't bother. If you see only one or two and they're getting 50 bids, you're onto something.

The first key to closing more auctions is to attract more attention. One way to do this is with your initial listing price.

One of the most popular pricing tricks is to set an extremely low initial price. This attracts a lot of buyers attention and gets the bidding started sooner. Obviously you hope that all this attention will result in the price being bid up from the starting level.

When it comes to low prices, many successful sellers swear by 99-cent pricing.Even if you actually end up selling a few items at this price, it can drive traffic to your other auctions or your eBay Store. It's a loss leader, and you make it up with other sales.

Picture Manager is eBay's picture subscription service that lets you upload pictures for all of your items quickly and easily.

With Picture Manager, you eliminate uploading pictures individually and you can add multiple pictures to all of your listings without paying extra fees.

You can also quickly organize, change and remove your pictures. Listing items is faster because you have easy access to all your pictures from the Sell Your Item form, My eBay, the Selling Manager tools, Turbo Lister, and eBay Stores. Learn More details at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/picture-manager-ov.html

Seller's Blunder Number Five -Bad Timing

Consider the time of year. Don't try to sell ski items in the summer or swimsuits in the winter if you want to get top dollar. While eBay auctions do reach a global market, and seasons and temperatures of course differ throughout the world, the majority of your sales will be within the US and Canada. We sell about 90% of our items to the United States and Canada. So try to list items according to the North American seasons and holidays.

Think about time of day. Try not to end your auction in the middle of the night or at another time when fewer bidders will be at their computers, because the most competitive bidding usually occurs in the last few minutes of an auction. Keep in mind that eBay is west coast time and remember that time difference! Recently, I listed several strands of lovely coral beads over several weeks. I always had two customers bidding against each other for them. I timed one auction so that it ended at 10:30 PM Pacific time. Renate, one of the customers, lived in New York. She emailed me to say that she had stayed up until 1:30 am Eastern time to bid on the item and she was NOT happy! I was lucky she wanted the beads enough to lose sleep for them, but you can't count on that. Make bidding convenient for your buyers!

Avoid Seller Competition if possible. Do your research and find out how many similar items are up for bid before you list an item that turns up for auction frequently. I had a Steiff Jack Nicklaus bear that was quite common. A man in Japan was selling them every week. I waited until there was a week that he didn't put one up for auction and ended up getting $25 more for it than I would have otherwise.

Article By Lynn Dralle-The Queen Of Auctions (eBay I/D: thequeenofauctions )

Seller's blunder Number ( 4 ): Bad Photos
Research has shown that an item with a picture will sell for 20% more than one without. A good picture is so important! In fact, we just bought a new digital camera for that reason. We had been using a $300 Canon that had served its time. It would only focus at up to 6" and we found that we really needed a camera to get closer to our items. Our new camera is an HP 620 that focuses to 1 1/2". Our pictures are much better and clearer. If you have a bad picture or no picture at all, many buyers will pass your item by and go to one that they can really see.

Also, don't show your living room or your Aunt Martha in the background. Be very careful when taking pictures of mirrors and reflective chrome. We don't want to see YOU in the photo! Crop and lighten your pictures so that they look great! We have set up a photo studio and use it all the time. Our photo studio is outside with drapes for a background, a roof over the top, and indirect sunlight. We take the best pictures. Check out our auctions at here to see our great photos! Also, do not make your picture too large. About 3-5" on each side is perfect (at 72 pixels per inch this is 300-400 pixels on each side). Very large photos take too long to download for those who don't have cable or digital internet access and they will not wait!!!

As an example, we checked completed auctions and found a red little tikes airplane swing where you see the seller's living room in the background. We were selling one that we had taken the photo in our photo studio. It looked very professional. Which item would you rather purchase? Even though theirs came with the original box and was sold in the summertime, it only sold for $20.00. Ours sold in the fall and did not have the box, but sold for $25.01. I think the photo definitely had something to do with it!!!

Also, don't add all that fancy html, color graphics and music to your listings. As a buyer, I quickly go to another auction. Although, the jury is still out on this one and I have heard conflicting reports. However, there is nothing more irritating than to have to wait to read the auction description because some fancy background and music has to take extra time to download. I also get scared out of my mind when I am at home alone searching eBay and some loud music comes on. Keep it simple!! Good, clear and well-cropped photos will help to sell your merchandise !

Article By Lynn Dralle-The Queen Of Auctions (eBay I/D: thequeenofauctions )

Inaccurate or Incomplete Descriptions
Your Description is so important. The description is one of the most important keys to selling your item. You want to be very thorough and accurate in your listing. If you don't list all the information required, you will get a lot of emails requesting more information. Answering the same questions over and over can be very time consuming. Time is money. If you make sure to include all the information in the original description you won't be answering unnecessary emails. Here are the most important details to include.

• Size: Height, width and length. Small, medium, large.
  
• Brand: Artist, company, manufacturer, designer, etc.
  
• Markings: What is the signature? Style #? Edition? Issue?
  
• Color: Sometimes the web photos can alter the color so describe it as best you can.
  
• Condition: Note all flaws, chips, cracks, stains, tears, discoloration, etc.
  
• Age: What is your best guess as to the item's age? New, vintage, old, antique, etc.
  
• History: Where did you get it ? Was it bought new and used a few times? Did it belong to a relative ?

If you include all this information in your description, your listing will be very informative. Information helps to sell items. Sometimes, the item's history (also known as provenance), is more interesting to the buyer than the item itself.

Remember, that if you don't describe all the damages and defects accurately, you will get returns and customers will be tempted to leave negative feedback. I do not like to do this. Here are a few examples of our missing important point in the descriptions.

Just remember, the more accurate your description, the less returns you will receive. You will also save time by not having to answer extra questions. And don't forget, a great story can sell your item !

Artice By Lynn Dralle-The Queen Of Auctions (eBay I/D: thequeenofauctions )

Seller's Blunder Number ( two ):-The Wrong Price

Too High of a Starting Price. Do your Research!!! Do not start an auction at a starting price that is higher than what other similar items sold for. It will not sell and you will spend a fortune in listing fees. I am guilty of this mistake a lot with my Grandmother's personal items. As an example, she collected portrait miniatures on ivory from the 1840's. She always believed that they were worth $1,000's of dollars and at one time they were because they were hard to find. With the advent of eBay and the internet, they became easier to find and the prices dropped. Nevertheless, I didn't want to believe it. When I started listing the portraits on eBay I put high hidden reserves--$600 and up. Guess what? They didn't sell. They didn't start selling until I had dropped the reserves to the range that they should have been $200-$300.

If you can start your auctions low, like 99 cents or $9.99, you will be amazed at how the prices will climb if you have a desirable item. If you don't have a desirable item, you may be forced to sell your item for the 99 cents. Just be sure you are prepared to do this! I have started selling more items with very low starting bids. I typically start all my auctions at $9.99. It is easier for me to list items at lower starting bids that I buy at Garage Sales than things that I have an emotional attachment too. The auction environment is the perfect economic model of supply meeting demand. If you have the right people watching that week, the marketplace (the auction buyers) will price it correctly for you and sometimes even over price it! If you can get several people in an auction frenzy, it is amazing what things will sell for. I just put up a Hummel 1980 Anniversary plate on eBay. I had 3 of them. I started them all at 99 cents and sold them over a 3 week period. The first one sold for what it should have—$55.00. The second one sold for $151.50. Yippeeee! And the 3rd one only sold for $21.99. What a crazy thing this eBay is!

On the flip side, if you have an item like a cloisonné miniature teapot, which doesn't get too many bids, you will not want to start it at 99 cents. You will want to price it at what you feel comfortable selling it for. My Grandmother collected these and I have sold most for around $99.00. I start all these auctions at $99.00 because I know that they are worth this and I just wait it out, week after week, until they sell. Or I move them into my eBay store at a fixed price.

Don't Relist too Many Times. The danger of starting your items at too high of a starting price means that you will have to relist them again and again until they sell. This can cost you a lot in listing fees and by the time you have dropped the price to a realistic price level, the buyers just don't care anymore. There is nothing worse than having your item auction worn (much like shop worn where your item has sat on the shelf too long). One of our portrait miniatures on ivory was a little boy in an ivory frame. It was darling. I had a hidden reserve of $399.00 the first time out. The buyers bid it up to $245.00, but because the reserve wasn't met, I didn't have to sell it. Well, I relisted it with a hidden reserve of $299.00 and there were no takers. It didn't even go up past $85.00. Finally, I put it on at a starting price of $199.00 with no reserve. It did sell for the $199.00, but I missed out. If I wouldn't have had the high reserve the first time, it would have sold for $245.00. In retrospect, I could have emailed the high bidder at $245.00 with what is called a second chance offer. Then, they could have bought the item through eBay at the high bid, even though the auction reserve wasn't met.

Use Your eBay Store. If you don't have a fully stocked eBay store, get one today! I thought my eBay store was only for commodity items. I thought it was for selling those items that I could buy and sell over and over again. What I learned about six months ago is that I can sell anything from my eBay store. I found that just because your item doesn't sell at online auction doesn't mean it won't eventually sell. Not everyone is looking for your specific item during that one or two week period when you have it for sale. Now, eBay will even show store items when someone does an auction search if not items turn up in the search

My strategy now is to put an ordinary item up for auction at $9.99 and if it doesn't sell I relist it from 99 cents to $4.99. If it doesn't sell the second time out, I put it in my store. Sometimes, I even price it a lot higher in my store. Prices in my eBay store range from $4.99 to $499.00. The item that is $499.00 is a rare Swedish Organ/Piano. I tried it on eBay at $99.00 and it didn't sell so I moved it into my store. Wish me luck! The store has been such a success for us. We sell about $500 to $1,000 out of it every month. The beauty of the eBay store is that the listing fees are super cheap. The cost to list is only 3 cents per month for any item with a gallery photo. Unfortunately, eBay just raised the selling fees for their stores. Nevertheless, it has still been a great avenue for us to move merchandise.

Artice By Lynn Dralle-The Queen Of Auctions (eBay I/D: thequeenofauctions )

Seller's Blunder Number One -Bad Title and Bad Category
Use all 55 Characters in the Title. The majority of buyers search for what they want to buy using a title search only. Sometimes a buyer will search by title and description. However, these searches can bring back too many unrelated items and most buyers will only search by title.

The TITLE is the most important part of your listing. USE all the characters. For example, you may have a pair of new men's socks to sell. Think first about all the ways you can describe them; color, condition, age, brand name, size, fabric, and finally a great adjective.

It is easy to use all the characters when you think this way. An example of a bad title would be "Men Socks". A great title would be "Ralph Lauren Black Men's Socks New Size 9-12 MWT Super! I used all 55 characters. There is a free article on my website that lists words to use when you have 1 to 13 characters left. It is a great list of adjectives to help you motivate buyers to open your auction instead of your competitors. If you can get them to open your auction—you can get them to bid!

Spelling is Super IMPORTANT. You would not believe how many errors are maed in speelling (oops—just kidding). If you spell it wrong, the item will not come up in a buyer's search. As an example, we sell a lot of Schafer & Vater.

It is an early German porcelain that my Grandmother loved to collect. We had hundreds of pieces and we could never seem to get the spelling right in our listings. When we do spell it right, our items sell for a lot more than when we misspell it.

Right now on eBay there are 64 completed auctions for Schafer & Vater and only 2 for Schaefer & Vater. You get the point. As a side note, if you are a savvy buyer you can find some bargains by searching for misspellings!

Pick the Best Category. Do your research and find out which category best fits your item. Many collectors and buyers at online auctions will watch their favorite categories for auctions ending in the immediate future. For example, if you have a Bing & Grondahl Christmas plate to list you have several choices for a category. There are:

2796 Home>All Categories>Pottery & Glass>Pottery & China>Porcelain>Bing & Grondahl

13838 Home>All Categories>Collectibles>Decorative & Holiday>Holiday, Seasonal>Christmas:Modern (1946-90)

3951 Home>All Categories>Collectibles>Decorative & Holiday>Decorative by Brand>Bing & Grondahl Coll Plates

You see how many options you are confronted with. eBay does give the opportunity (at an added expense) of using 2 categories to list an item. They have often quoted statistics saying that listing in double categories will increase your sales price.

I have not found this to be true. Any of the categories listed above would be good to use. My choice would be the last one because it is the most specific. Use your best judgment, do your research and find out which similar items sold for the most in which categories. RESEARCH is so IMPORTANT !

Artice By Lynn Dralle-The Queen Of Auctions (eBay I/D: thequeenofauctions )

The name you choose determines your Store's Web site address (or "URL"). For example, if your Store's name is "Fine Jewelry", your Store's URL is: http://stores.ebay.com/fine-jewelry. eBay will take out special characters (apostrophes, spaces, &, !, $, etc.), add hyphens between words, and make all letters lowercase.

Your Store name:-

• Must start and end with a letter or number
  
• Cannot start with four or more consecutive letter A's
  
• Cannot start with an "e" or "E" followed by a number
  
• Cannot contain the following characters: <, >, or @
  
• Cannot be the username of another user on eBay
  
• Cannot contain "www" anywhere in the name
  
• Cannot contain two or more consecutive spaces or non-alphanumeric characters
  
• Cannot end with a top-level domain abbreviation used on the Web (.decom, .net, etc.)
  
• Cannot be a name that is identical or confusingly similar to another company's name which is protected by trademark law. Also, you may not use a name that contains the word eBay , Half.com, or PayPal, or which is confusingly similar to those names.
• See our Trademarked Items and Domain Name policies in the eBay Help Center.
  
• Your Store name can be your eBay User ID, as long as it meets the requirements above.

Tip:-

Choose a name that immediately tells buyers what you sell. For example, a straightforward name such as "Ben's Computers" will be more helpful to buyers than a creative name such as "Zebra Park." This will also help Web search engines find your Store when buyers are looking for the kinds of products you sell.

Lynn Dralle is an experienced eBay PowerSeller, Author and Teacher. Here she shares her tips from her experience selling on eBay.

eBay Stores:How You Can Benefit ?

I have to be honest, I thought that the eBay stores were only for selling merchandise that you had in quantity.

I would only put commodity items in my eBay store, like Royal Copenhagen Christmas Plates, glass prisms and my auction tracking tools. I never thought that I could sell unique one-of-a-kind items in my store. I thought those things were only good for the auction format. About six months ago, I found out something that helped my business and will also help yours !

The eBay stores are awesome ! What I am going to teach you here can add a big chunk to your monthly sales. We have increased our eBay sales by $500 to $1,000 each month by utilizing the store !

When you have tried an item at online auction once or twice and it hasn't sold, don't be discouraged. I used to give up and give the item to charity. No more ! Now I list it in my eBay store at anywhere from $4.99 to $499.00 and it only costs 3 cents per item each month. That 3 cents also includes a gallery photo.

I use the “Good Until Cancelled” feature, and that way, eBay automatically keeps it in the store until it sells or you pull it out. We have about 2,000 items in our store, and it only costs us $60 each month to list them. That $60 investment brings in $500 to $1,000 each month—a huge return on investment !

Every day we get at least one (and often more) emails that say "end of transaction"-- this means that another item has sold. It is really exciting. Stuff we thought would never sell has now found a home.

Some tips for managing your store items :-

• Only use one photo (unless you are hosting your own photos). eBay will charge 15 cents for each photo after the first one. This can really add up.
  
  
• Always use the gallery feature. It is only 1 cent per item for the stores.
  
  
• Choose a basic store for $9.95-$15.95 each month unless you have a lot of items. If you have a lot of items (like we do), it may be worth it to move up to the featured store at $49.95 per month. I was told by eBay store services that this would bring my items up higher in the searches. We just upgraded last month, so I have not made my final decision. I will need to look at sales data over a three-month period and see if there is any significant change.
  
  
• Offer a shipping discount for buying multiple items. Many times, an auction shopper will add on an item from the store just because a $9.99 item that normally would cost $16.99 with shipping is now only $10.99 (because we only charge an extra $1 for each item—as long as they are small).

Artice By Lynn Dralle-The Queen Of Auctions (eBay I/D: thequeenofauctions )


Learn to sell like a pro, sign up Basics Of eBay Selling course at:-

1)Bedok CC
2) CCK CC
3)Bishan North CC
4)Informatics

Have you ever being asked by bidders: "I never got your email ! " ? If your answer is yes, then you need this software.

"MSGTAG Free" is a software sends you notifications by email when your messages are opened at their destination and viewed by the recipient.

The eye-catching MSGTAG, look like a small capsule in size, sits on your desktop or in your system tray, allowing you to enable or disable tagging with one click. It doesn't hassle your friends with pop-up boxes, all they see is a small MSGTAG Footer at the end of your message. Best of all, "MSGTAG Free" is Free !

You can sign up for the basic Msgtag Tag option for free ! This will allow you to tag your e-mail, but the e-mail you tag will include a line at the end identifying it as being tagged by Message Tag.

If you have some concern about keeping in touch with your customers through e-mail, the free product offered by Massage Tag seems like a good idea.

Stop by at Http://www.messagetag.com to learn more about this tool.



Learn to sell like a pro, sign up Basics Of eBay Selling course at:-



1)Bedok CC

2) CCK CC

3)Bishan North CC

4)Informatics

Whether you are trying to buy in bulk becasue you sell on eBay full-time or whether you are a business manager trying to save your company money, you can locate business and industrial supplies at bargain price on eBay.

The place to start if you are looking for business supplies, is the portal that eBay created for business trading, eBay Business Market-Place at :-http://pages.ebay.com/businessmarketplace/index.html

Learn to sell like a pro, sign up Basics Of eBay Selling course at:-

1)Bedok CC
2) CCK CC
3)Bishan North CC
4)Informatics

Most sellers will end their listing on a weekend, becasue more buyers are available then, but that depends on what type of buyers you are looking for.

If you are looking for individuals who work during the week, you are more likely to attract them to end your listing on weekend.

But from an Advanced Seller Techniques report that eBay mentions in the Business & Industrial area, the most peak activity time on week day is at 3.oopm and 8.oopm , as many people who work in an office are shopping for their businesses' needs during the week.

Varying your schedule to suit the habits of your customer is just part of your buiness scheduling needs. Other essential activites for which you need to allocate time are described as below:

1)Manage items closing times.
2)Provide outstanding customer's support.
3)Provide Feedback.
4)Deliver on time.

Please read full details at :http://pages.ebay.com/newsletterdirectory/operations.pdf

Learn to sell like a pro, sign up Basics Of eBay Selling course at:-

1)Bedok CC
2) CCK CC
3)Bishan North CC
4)Informatics