- Take good photos and post as many as possible in your auction. Start by getting a decent digital camera. There are some really good digital cameras on the market that are very affordable and will take stable, blur free, well focused shots 鈥 that don鈥檛 need a camera expert to operate. Buy a couple of clip on flood lights from the hardware store so you can light your subject decently. Take lots of photos from different angles and get close ups. With digital cameras, it doesn鈥檛 cost anything to take more photos, so fire away!
Once you take your photos and load them onto your computer, take a minute to do a bit of photo editing. Photo editing is as important, if not more, than the actual photograph itself. You don鈥檛 need expensive software to do this; you probably have photo editing software that came with your computer or with your camera (if a CD came with your camera, there鈥檚 probably photo editing software on it). Start the editing process by cropping your photo to get any unnecessary things out of the image area. Then try 鈥渃olor balancing鈥 your photos 鈥 often digital photos will end up very brown or dark, depending on the type and amount of light on the subject.聽 If you color balance your photo, you鈥檒l return its colors to their natural state and enhance the photo鈥檚 beauty. Your photo editing software probably has a one-click setting that will correct anything wrong with the original shot with a single mouse click.
After you shoot your photos and then clean them up on your computer, you should try to add as many photos as you can to your auction. Try to find an image hosting service that will host an unlimited number of photos 鈥 better yet, try getting a free hosting service. Post as many in your auction as you can afford. We often put more than a dozen photos into our auctions including close ups of many features of the item we are selling (we use an auction service company that allows unlimited photo hosting). Always remember that eBay shoppers are actually buying something 鈥渟ight unseen鈥 so the photos you take are crucial to their decision to buy your item.聽 Note that if you are selling DVDs, Books or electronics 鈥 items that are already known to the marketplace 鈥 and you sell them new-in-box, your photos will be less important since people already know what your item looks like.聽 However, it鈥檚 still important to show a photo of what you are actually selling 鈥 not just a photo you downloaded off the manufacturer鈥檚 website. You are providing tangible proof that your item is in good shape and that it is what you say it is. - Write good auction copy. Seems like a DUH!, doesn鈥檛 it? However, you鈥檇 be surprised at the auctions we see with little or no copy that explains what鈥檚 for sale and its features. Start by telling buyers as much as you know about your item including where you got it (unless it is a new-in-box item that you got from a wholesaler or drop shipper). People really want to know where things come from and as much history as exists on something. We sell antiques and collectibles and nearly always tell people where we got our items. If you bought it at the estate sale of the nutty old lady in your neighborhood, tell eBay buyers that in your auction copy. That makes the item more interesting.
Then do some research on your item. Please don鈥檛 write 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what this is, but it鈥檚 cool鈥. We鈥檝e seen that line in auctions all too often! Your item will seldom get any bids if you can鈥檛 figure out what it is, how old it is, who made it, etc. There are often clues on a piece as to who made it 鈥 a maker鈥檚 mark, a signature, a label, a number. These things can be 鈥済oogle鈥檇鈥 which will lead you into the fascinating world of researching collectibles and antiques. For example, there are numerous good online china matching services where you can look up pattern names (if you are selling china or silver it will really help you to know the pattern name and the maker). There are other websites which will give you photos of hundreds of pieces of antique furniture and the names of their styles so you can tell the difference between Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Just spending even a few minutes poking around the internet can reveal an enormous amount of vital information on the piece you鈥檙e selling.
Make sure you give dimensions and a report of the condition of the item. If it鈥檚 new, tell us 鈥 especially if it鈥檚 in the original package. If it鈥檚 not new, then tell us about any signs of wear on your item. If it has damage, state the damage clearly 鈥 you鈥檇 be surprised at what you can sell even if it has damage. There are many eBayers who are in the market for a bargain or are experts in restoring just the type of damaged piece you might be selling. Price damaged pieces accordingly. Don鈥檛 let someone find out about the damage for the first time when they receive it. That鈥檚聽a costly mistake. If the item is new-in-box, make sure to tell people as much as you know about how the item functions. If you鈥檙e selling new electronics, try to go to the website of the maker and get the full specs of the item and put them into your auction.
Finally, make sure you type your auction neatly. Please don鈥檛 type it in all capital letters or in one long, run-on sentence. That makes it impossible to read and won鈥檛 encourage bidding. Above all, please try to make it typo free. Proof reading is really important. It also will help your auctions to learn a little “html” coding so you can make them easier to read (html is computer-read coding that works in the background to enable your text to have paragraphs, bulleted lists, bold face type, colors, etc.). You really only need to know the html coding for two things: 1) creating a new paragraph and 2) making bold type fonts. There are dozens of websites you can visit that will show you the basic of html coding 鈥 just type 鈥榟tml鈥 in a search engine and you鈥檒l find them.聽 If you choose to get fancy with html聽you can learn how to introduce color, add links, etc.
- Tell the eBay community a little about yourself.聽 Create an 鈥淎bout Me鈥 page if you don’t already have one.聽Credibility is the key to successful selling on eBay 鈥 that鈥檚 the entire purpose of the feedback system. If you haven鈥檛 established a large feedback record yet, telling us who you are really helps. Even if you only tell us that you are a hobbyist who is selling off her old clothes or her maiden aunt鈥檚 possessions 鈥 it gives you credibility. It is important that your potential buyers know who is behind the eBay ID and that you鈥檙e a real person, who is going to do an honest transaction and not abscond with the buyer鈥檚 money! 聽It鈥檚 very easy to set up an About Me page and your eBay auctions will automatically link to it (that鈥檚 the 鈥淢E鈥 icon you see next to so many eBay ID鈥檚). You don鈥檛 have to give any personal information, just the facts that are relevant to your eBay sales 鈥 like how long you鈥檝e been on eBay, what types of things you sell, how you like to do business, etc.
- State your policies … clearly and nicely. It鈥檚 important that people know what you will and won鈥檛 do and it鈥檚 just as important to keep this buyer-friendly. We鈥檝e seen so many auctions that literally start with 鈥淭hese are OUR RULES and if you WON’T ABIDE BY OUR RULES, DON’T BID!”聽聽 聽Would you bid on anything sold by someone who wrote that?! Sellers who are unpleasant, inflexible and unwilling to work with the customer, limit their bids.
Your shipping policies and the shipping price are聽the most important things you need to be specific about. For example, will you combine shipping for multiple item buyers? (You should do everything you can to encourage multiple purchases).聽 Shipping is a great concern to all eBay shoppers since the price of it is going up so dramatically, so clear shipping policies are important. If you only ship once a week because eBay is your 鈥渟econd job鈥 and Saturday鈥檚 the only day you can ship, state that in your auction so there鈥檚 no expectation of the purchase arriving immediately.
eBay will soon require sellers to always list their shipping price. You don鈥檛 have to include the shipping calculator if you aren鈥檛 comfortable with it鈥. just give a price.聽Don鈥檛 let your buyer be surprised if something is heavier than it looks in a photo and will be costly to ship.聽 Buyers can now rate sellers on their shipping speed and shipping price so be certain your price is fair … and, if you are shipping something large so shipping will be costly, be certain your buyer understands WHY the item will be so costly to ship.聽 Many buyers are used to paying the reduced shipping charged on the larger online merchants — those dot-com merchants (like QVC, Macy’s, Target, etc.) get deep discounts from shippers so the prices they will charge for shipping .聽聽聽Many sellers are trying “free shipping” on for size.聽 There are really only a limited number of sellers that can afford free shipping (and they generally have the shipping built into their item price) — many things are simply to large and heavy to build shipping into the cost of the item.聽 The clearer you make your shipping price, the better it will be perceived by your customer.聽 We sell a lot of large pieces of furniture that are shipped by truck which costs $$ hundreds — buyers don’t hesitate to pay this cost, once they understand the need for crating and truck shipment.
Have a concise, buyer friendly refund policy and state it clearly 鈥 this shows you are willing to rectify any mistakes you may have made (we are all human and most eBayers are very patient with errors, as long as you鈥檙e willing to correct them).聽 eBay now requires all sellers to state their refund policy and it is in the main auction template.聽 However, it’s more user friendly for you to write out your policies on refunds and/or exchanges within your own listing copy.
- Take ALL forms of payment. Accept checks 鈥 you can hold the item until the check clears. Bouncing checks are rarer than you think. Accept PayPal.聽 It鈥檚 easy to sign up for PayPal and the small commission they charge is worth it. Most Power Sellers will tell you that over 75% of their business is transacted with PayPal payments. There are many people who aren鈥檛 comfortable with PayPal but your eBay business will most likely be limited unless you accept PayPal payments. Any downside to PayPal (we鈥檝e all read and heard those scary PayPal stories too) is more than compensated for by an increase both in bids and cash flow.聽聽 Please note that eBay will also be changing the PayPal requirements soon so that PayPal will likely be a required option by sellers.聽 Furthermore, PayPal now has new advantages to sellers that ensure you won’t lose money because of a dishonest buyer.
We hope you鈥檝e found these five eBay seller聽”tricks of the trade” to be informative. While there are many more, these are the five we consider to be the most important 鈥. so they鈥檙e strictly our opinion and you may have others you鈥檝e found vital to your eBay transactions.聽 With eBay changing the rules of the game lately, what’s important to sellers is changing … but the five basics, we think, haven’t changed much … just taken on different characteristics and perhaps a new order of importance.聽 We cannot tell you anything about how to improve your “DSRs” or figure out eBay’s new “best match” algorithm — because we haven’t figured that out yet either!聽 So, for now, we’re sticking to the basics and we’ve found they still work.
FROM:http://reviews.ebay.com/THE-5-MOST-IMPORTANT-EBAY-SELLER-quot-TRICKS-OF-THE-TRADE-quot_W0QQugidZ10000000003993118
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