Article Surfing Archive

1. Avoid putting a reserve on the item. This is a DON'T unless you really cant afford to sell for the start price. People can make a decision on whether to bid or not depending on whether there is a reserve or not. What to do without a reserve? Just start the item at a price which you would be willing to sell for. That way, even if someone snipes your auction in the last second you are still bringing in decent cash. With a reserve, no-one will snipe your auction at all.

2. A Picture. A picture is STILL worth 1000 words. A picture can also save you a flood of questions like "Just exactly what shade is that red car you're selling?". This way you won't lose you're cool either. People like to see what they're buying before they make a bid. Make sure every auction you put up has a photograph with it, as professional as possible.

3. Do some research. If everyone is selling Ipod Nanos for '10, then sadly, yours won't sell for '200. See what everyone else is selling them for, what people are buying them for, and then decide on your price.

4. Shipping. Learn about it. You need to find the most reliable, cheap shipping method that you can. Shipping is all down to the seller and once you've chosen a shipping method, you need to state that in your auction, and make sure the buyer knows how much shipping is.

5. Offer as many payment methods as you can. It's hard to, if you really hate paypal, tell people that they can pay via it - but without it less people will buy. I only buy via paypal, and therefore I like to be offered a full slate of options when it comes to buying. So that's what to do when you're selling. Think about what you would want in terms of payment options and then put everything up there anyway.

6. Feedback Matters. Focus on getting a lot of good feedback before trying to sell something big. It sounds harsh, but if you're living in the city, with no feedback and you're trying to sell a car radio, the chances are most people will think worse of you and not get involved.

7. Act professionally. Don't lose your cool, and act like you're running a company. Ebay is just like any other shop, and you should offer a superior customer service. Even if this means typing in your description :

"THIS IS A MODEL CAR - 10cm x 5cm"

And then answering questions like:

"Is this a model car? How big is it?"

It'll all get you a better chance of a sell.

8. Finally, and most importantly, life is harsh. You will get negative feedback for doing nothing wrong, you will get no bids on a brilliant item, you will sell items for less than they're worth and you will probably get scammed at some point. Try not to, but if something like that happens, do what you can to resolve the situation and move on.

Hopefully now you can sell successfully. Get out there and start earning!"