| A good buyer | | | A good seller |
| Being a good seller | How to do it |
| Give a detailed, honest description of each item. | This can be a delicate balancing act. Too little description, and people won't know what you're selling. Too much, and you may turn people
off. However, I'd advise risking too much. Just tell people what it is, what it looks like, what kind of condition it's in, etc. Write enough
to make sure that your buyers know exactly what it is.
How big is the item? Some sellers put something in the picture (a coin or ruler for example) to show scale. Is the item new or used? What condition is it in? (note any scratches, nicks, odors, fading etc...) Don't worry about this making the item unappealing. Sometimes it adds character, but above all it shows a tendancy toward honesty! Listings that are TOO busy are annoying, such as endless graphics not having to do with the item, music, etc. Text should be easy to read with all the goodies up front. |
| Battling the catch-22 | If you put very little information in your TOS, your buyers can get confused and may not fully understand how you want things run. On ther other
hand, putting to many things in there, especially warnings about deadbeats, can turn some people off. The problem, of course, is that if you
DON'T put all that stuff in, you open the door to deadbeats and people who will try to work around some things that you want. For
example, if you don't take checks, but do not specifically say so in your TOS, they may try to send you one anyway.
On the whole, I would advise to put in just the basic information. It's my experience that deadbeats will ignore your TOS, no matter how many times you say something. Certain things are assumed, like all bidders are expected to pay, serious bidders only. As briefly as possible, simply list your payment terms, shipping price and options. Loads of stern warnings and repetitions will only serve to turn off good buyers and sail right over the heads of deadbeats. |
| The only stupid question is that which goes unasked (and unanswered) | Try to answer questions from buyers as quickly as possible. Not responding can make a BIG difference in the final price for an auction.
Let's say the high bidder has bidd 100.00, someone else comes along that is willing to go as high as 400.00, but has a question. It's not
answered in time and the auction ends. You just lost 300.00.
This is one reason it's important to have as complete a description as possible. The goal being to have enough information that someone could bid without having to ask a question and then wait for a reply. If someone asks a question, you might add the answer to future listings, since it's likely that someone else may have the same question. |
| A man's gotta cancel what a man's gotta cancel. (Women, too) | Sadly, there are times when you need to cancel a bid. Maybe you don't accept bids from buyers with an overall negative feedback rating, or maybe this is a buyer who's caused you grief in the past. When this happens, cancel the bid and e-mail them AND safeharbor. Explain that you have canceled this person's bid. Give full information : Auction number, names, dates, reasons why, etc. Then offically ask him never to bid on your items again. Each time he bids anyway, repeat the process, CC'ing to safeharbor. Eventually, this person will be suspended. |
| Communication is the cornerstone of any good relationship (just like the buyer guide!) |
When you win, be sure to inform the seller right away. See my comments about auto-messages above. I suggest that with every piece of e-mail,
send along all information. Include such things as auction number, description, your name, your username, your e-mail address, your
snail-mail address, the total price, and so on. Is this overkill? Yes. However, it's often necessary. By always sending full information,
there's less chance of error. I once had to ask a seller THREE TIMES for his address. Yuck.
Send e-mail every day until you reach the buyer. As I've learned from the business world, there is an enormous difference between sending one e-mail five days ago, and sending e-mail every day for five days. Don't overdo it, though. Don't send more than one per day unless there is an ongoing communication between buyer and seller. Keep up the one a days until you establish initial contact. |
| Have a generous clock (also just like the buyer guide!) |
eBay says communication must be established within three business days of auction end. However, this may not always be enough time. Don't
be quick to jump the gun and run screaming to safeharbor the minute that you pass the 72-hour mark. I did that once, and while everything
worked out OK, I don't recommend it.
When I win an auction, I tag that day as day 0. If it's a weekend or holiday, I tag the next business day as day 0. I send an e-mail every day with full information and any questions that I might have. Beginning day 4, I start to announce how many business days have gone by. Beginning with day 5, I CC safeharbor. |
| Hash out the final terms, but stand firm | This may sound arrogant, but when it comes to payment terms, shipping options and prices, YOU are in charge. You are the one who decides
whether or not to accept checks, PayPal, etc. If you do or do not want to ship via USPS, Fed Ex, that's your decision.
If you have any unusual shipping requirements or options, you should specify them in your TOS as far as you are able. You can't always predict exactly what something will cost, of course, but you give any info that you can. That way, the buyer will know exactly what he's getting into. It will speed up the process, since that will require fewer e-mails back and forth until the whole transaction is ready to go. There seems to some discrepancy in the rumors that I have heard regarding so-called hidden charges. For example, an eBayer claimed that he won an auction only to have the seller inform him that on top of the winning bid and the shipping charges, which were firmly stated in the TOS, that there was an addition 16% handling fee charged to all auctions. This little bit of information was not in the TOS, but according to rumor, eBay informed the buyer that this was acceptable. Even if it is, I strongly advise against such tactics. They will almost certainly ruin any goodwill and the chance for future business. Sometimes, of course, you may not know certain costs in advance. If this is the case, state so in your TOS, and make sure that your buyers never have to pay for charges that were never mentioned. |
| Our Ship (and shipping) has come in | When sellers don't list their shipping charges, it really bugs me. If you want to make an extra buck or two, that's no problem, but
please mention it first! All you have to do is say "Buyer will pay a fixed rate of $5.00 for shipping" and that's all.
Hidden or unmentioned charges are dishonorable in my opinion. List all shipping charges up front.
Try to offer as many shipping options as you can. You do not really need to list them all in the auction page, but inform the bidder of all that's available after the auction is over. |
| Payment and Shipping processing. Move expeditiously! | PayPal payments are received immediately. It's understandable that for high-volume sellers you may choose to go to the bank or whatever
once per week. Still, it's a good idea to inform the buyer when the payment has been received and when it's been confirmed.
It's also a good idea to inform the buyer when the package goes out. If you have Tracking ID, you may want to provide that info to the buyer so that he can track it too. |
| Is anybody home? | Once two-way communication has been established, and all information has been exchanged, I stop the daily e-mails. From that point on, I only
send e-mail when a milestone is reached, or when more than two weeks have gone by with no communication. Various milestones include...
For the most part, I just want to make sure that the buyer has not forgotten about me. Later on, I want the buyer to know that I'm moving on processing their item. I know that so much e-mail can be a little annoying, but it's odd for such a long period to go by between milestones, except for confirming a personal check. Still, it's good to keep in touch, even minimally. |
| Leave feedback and beg the buyer to return the favor | As of this writing, I've never had a transaction go bad (apart from a few sellers go NARU after I sent payment), so I don't feel qualified to
fully discuss leaving negative feedback. I'll just say that if you feel that the deal was bad, and that such action is fully warranted, and if
you have given the buyer every chance to make good, then go ahead and do it, but make really sure.
In my opinion, the seller should leave feedback first. The only responsibility of the buyer is to get the payment to you, the seller. Once that's done, the buyer can't do any more to make the transaction go smoothly. Some sellers wait until the buyer leaves feedback, and while I don't do that myself, that can be understandable. Yes, yes. I know that feedback is voluntary and all that, but it's important to me. My feedback rating is my record of how well I do on eBay, and it's a bit of a letdown when I go through all this work, and get no feedback. It's like the transaction was never really completed, and something's missing. A seller who does not leave feedback reminds me of a boss who praises you all year long, filling your ears with hollow words. Then, when it's time for you salary review/raise/promotion, he's nowhere to be found. It's a very empty feeling. Some sellers claim that they're too busy to leave feedback. After all, they're running auctions, taking money, packing items and shipping them out. Feedback just doesn't make the cut. However, I feel that if you have time to post an auction, take my cash and box that whatever it is up and ship it out, but you can't find 1 minute to post positive feedback, then maybe you're selling too many items. Part of being in business is satisfying your customers. eBay itself is not doing a very good job with this right now, and by not giving that last touch to each transaction, you're not doing too much better than they are. |
| Little odds and ends | Don't use all caps, backgrounds, music. Don't do L@@K,W@W. Don't exaggerate condition. Don't post more items than you can manage. Don't use stupid added features. Don't throw around negs & neutrals until you have no other avenue. Don't expect support to be of much help. Over pack everything, assume a gorilla is in charge of delivering your item. Clear tape over labels, if they get wet the ink may run. Do answer questions quickly, be prepared to send extra pics. Don't think you will be a success by selling quantity, always sell quality. Don't accept offers to sell off line. Do manage your auctions, eBay is NOT the place where items magically sell themselves. Do look at other similar closed auctions but do not assume your item should bring the same money the last did. |