I’m going to dig a little deeper into eBay listing basics today…

When putting together your listing it is important to avoid some costly mistakes. I don’t mean costly as far as financial investment but rather the cost of unknown bidders because your listing “made them go away”.

There is one simple rule: Take photos as if there were no accompanying text. Write the text as though there were no accompanying photos. In short, that means you must provide precise, clear, details.

Your Title line can make or break the sale. While millions of buyers pass through eBay every day, you need to get them to find your listing amongst the sea of others and then be interested enough to open it.

Make use of all the space provided in the title bar. Think of all the possible search words someone may use to find your item. Hint: they will not search on “cute” “wow” or “look” - those are nothing but wasted words.

Instead, think of all the relevant adjectives such as color, size, and brand and of course the noun – what it is. Some acronyms you can also use in the title – NIB, new in box; NIP, new in package; NWT, new with tags or NWOT, new without tags.

However do not try to mislead people. Don’t say it’s new if it is not. Don’t use keyword spamming, which means if you have an off brand doll but want to drive traffic to it by listing it “like American Girl” – anyone who searches on American Girl will stumble upon your auction. Tricks like that will tick the buyers off and more importantly will get your auction pulled, canceled, taken down, kaput!

When writing the description, be sure to include as much detail as possible - including payment, shipping and return information. Also, answer any questions before they are asked. If selling clothing, provide actual measurements, not merely Size Small.

A final word on photos – in the eBay world, a photo is truly worth a thousand words. If you don’t have a decent camera, get one. Blurry, dark photos will not help you at all. It will cause people to leave your auction without placing a bid.

Make sure you have proper lighting; crop out any noise in the background (such as feet or clutter on a table) and provide enough photos to allow the bidders to have a similar experience as though they were actually touching and feeling the object.

Remember you are essentially asking buyers to send you their hard earned money in exchange for an item they have not held or seen. It is your responsibility to provide as much information in the listing as possible.

 If you’d like more tips & advice on creating eBay listings to maximize your profits, we have more indepth articles & information on our Boutique Bargains members site. ;0)

Have fun & good luck! Until next time…

Hello! This week I’m back with more tips to help ensure you actually make a profit when selling on eBay.

Many people come to eBay to look for a bargain. If you are selling items from around the house, something is better than nothing, therefore profit margin isn’t as important. However if you are purchasing items with the specific intention to resell, your income expense ratio will be very important.

All sellers want to make money; or else they would offer the item to Freecycle or a thrift store. But the truth is not every item sells. Those who have no regard for cost of goods sold and don’t factor in fees and time, actually lose money by selling on eBay.

At the very minimum, you want to break even. Try to minimize those occurrences too, as it is a waste of your precious time. To ensure you do not go into the red, take the price you paid for an item and consider all other associated costs, i.e. listing fees, final value fees, and PayPal fees. To better illustrate, below is an actual example.

You purchase a pre-owned little girl’s dress and list it with an opening bid of $9.99. The item sells, but only with one bid of $.9.99.

-Cost of little girl’s dress from second hand store, including tax: $6.35

-Listing fees, including multiple photos, and the gallery option: $1.05

-Final value fee: $.52

-PayPal fee on your premier account to receive money: $.60

It cost you $8.52 and it sold for $9.99 which means you made $1.47 profit. But wait… what about the time and gas it took you to go to the thrift store? What about factoring in the cost of your internet service, ink and just simply for what your time is worth?

The above example is very real and happens every day. Some sellers think that because they make a purchase for about six bucks and sold it for ten, they made a profit. A good rule of thumb is: do not buy anything to resell unless you are reasonably confident you can make at least a $10 or more profit.

You can only know what will sell by doing your research ahead of time. One suggestion is to pick a category and know the top four brands that sell for big bucks. Then only purchase those select few. Or call a friend while you are at the store and have her look up the item on eBay to see selling prices.

If you’re interested in selling children’s boutique clothing, I recommend you join Boutique Bargains. That’s what we specialize in & we can help you get started by sharing our experiences, so you don’t have to make the same mistakes we did.  ;0)

Buying smart is the only way you will make a profit. It is that simple. We’ve all paid stupid tax when we first started. Don’t think it will make a profit; make sure you know it will.

Since we had so much fun last week with our ME pages, I sorta feel bad bringing this up… but thought we should touch on one of the ‘not-so-fun’ aspects of selling on eBay.

One of the biggest worries both buyers and sellers have about eBay is getting scammed. No one wants to be out money or product because of a dishonest trade. While the concern is valid, there are steps you can take as a seller to avoid eBay fraud.

It is SO important as a seller that you disclose everything. If there is a tiny rip, tear or stain - do NOT hope that no one will notice it. Mention it in your listing. Buyers can be very picky; and rightfully so, they except to receive the item as described.

As long as you have your i’s dotted and your t’s crossed it will be very difficult for buyers to prevail in any bogus claim against you. Some also claim that items were never received. Eliminate this by always using Delivery Confirmation and/or insurance.

Others will claim that the item was somehow defective or not as described. If you have thoroughly inspected and tested the item before it leaves your possession, then you can be certain it left in good condition. Ask the seller to return it to you or to send you a photograph.

There are buyers out there who just want to get something for nothing. They will threaten to leave negative feedback if you don’t issue a refund or give them a portion of their payment back. If they refuse to prove the damage by not returning the item or taking a photo, then do not (under any circumstances) return any money. Obviously it’s up to you, but you don’t want to be taken advantage of.

Many will not even bother packaging it back up and returning it, but make sure your return policy is spelled out on your listing or About Me page. If you offer three day unconditional money back, then after you receive the item back, stand by your word. Don’t allow anyone to come back weeks later to complain.

Also consider only accepting electronic payments or money orders and certified checks. Personal checks are more likely to have non sufficient funds. If you do accept personal checks, do not send the item until the check has cleared the bank.

Granted, most buyers and sellers on eBay are honest and just. But if you carefully review the buyer’s feedback, you’ll have a better chance of a successful trade. You have the absolute right to cancel a bid and block bidders if their feedback reveals past problems.

Most importantly, don’t give the buyer any reason whatsoever to complain. If you run an honest eBay business it’ll be harder for the rotten ones to get you down.

Until next time…

Your eBay About ME page is an awesome, awesome tool.

What does your About Me page reveal about you? What? You don’t have an About Me page? Yet you expect buyers to just send an unknown person money in hopes of you exchanging goods with them? Hmmm… I see...  ;0)

In all seriousness, anyone who sells on eBay should have an About Me page. Whether you don’t know what one is, simply do not have one, or even if you DO have one - you can follow a few tips to ensure that it is working for you the best it possibly can.

It is important to understand why you should have one. An About Me page lets the eBay community know who you are, and it helps build your credibility as an honest seller. It also helps you show off your treasures & talents. Perhaps you specialize in hand made boutique clothing or jewelry, you can highlight it there.

This page can also display your items up for bid. After all, the goal is for people to see what you’re selling. If you are a Mom with 3 kids (like ME!) and you are selling their gently loved boutique clothing, saying so on an About Me page will enforce that you are an expert in the goods you are selling.

You don’t have to know HTML to create a page; you can use the template provided. If you do know what you’re doing with code - you can use it, but it is not required. Look at some other About Me pages to get an idea of what you may want to include.

To create a page, you simply enter page content, add pictures if you want, select a page layout and then preview it. Once you’ve chosen a layout that you like, click the submit button to save your page. It is literally that simple.

When you’re finished, eBay will email you the web site address (URL) to share with your friends! Also, other users will see the icon (the word “me”) next to your User ID. They can click on the icon to view your page and learn more about who you are.

http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?AboutMeLogin

So what are you waiting for?

Get to work on that ME page & let me know if you have any questions!  Until next time…