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5 eBay Tips

Posted by on Feb 26, 2008 | One Comment

Gnomie Levi Mahoney writes in with some wise eBay advice:

Hi, Chris! Recently I have been selling quite a few things on eBay. Most sales are great, and the customers are very pleased with the items, but you get a few people who are just not happy with what they bought and leave negative feedback. I have a few tips on how to keep your eBay customers happy.

  1. When listing your item, make sure it’s perfect. List all the features of the item and (if there is anything wrong with the item, i.e. any damage) make sure you state this in the listing. If you don’t state this, your customer won’t be happy and will probably leave you negative feedback. Remember: how you describe your listing is crucial to increasing your chances of a sale.

  2. If you are listing your item as an online auction, make your starting price realistic. Nobody is going to pay a ridiculous price for something they can buy in their local shop for cheaper. If you have an idea of what the absolute minimum is that you’ll accept for your item, set a reserve price. This will give you peace of mind that your item won’t sell for less than you want for it.
  3. Make your shipping price realistic. You should be able to get accurate shipping prices from your local courier or shipping service. You see many sellers on eBay charging too much for shipping costs, and this may put a buyer off.
  4. If you state a certain time period for delivery, make sure it will arrive on time. If not, your buyer may leave negative feedback.
  5. Finally, keep your buyer posted. Get a tracking number from the courier company and give this to the buyer so they can track their item. If you do not get a tracking number and your item goes missing, you may not be able to get a refund. This will leave you out of pocket as you would have to refund the buyer. Also, if your buyer has any questions about the item they bought/are going to buy, ALWAYS answer them. This will show that you are a good seller.
  • Lance

    Also, with cell phones, listing it as compatible with every single carrier in the country is less than worthless. It’s simply not true (GSM vs CDMA), and the phone may not be able to active with some carriers, even if it is compatible with their network.

    GSM: If the phone is unlocked, list it as such. The buyer will be able to activate it with any GSM carrier. However, if the phone is NOT unlocked, list specifically which carrier the phone is locked to (T-Mobile, Dobson, etc.). If you don’t know whether it’s unlocked or not, assume it isn’t. If you got it from your carrier, and haven’t unlocked it, it almost certainly is locked to that carrier.

    CDMA: While *technically* a CDMA phone can work with any CDMA carrier, getting it to work with a carrier other than the one it was originally sold for is a pain, and best left for those who know what they’re doing. ALWAYS list what carrier the phone is branded for. Always. This will save the buyer a lot of headache, especially if they are not knowledgable, or not inclined to do the modifying and programming necessary to make it work on a different carirer. The biggest hurdle is that many CDMA carriers have a policy of not activating phones that aren’t branded for their service. This is slowly changing, as evidenced by recent announcements by Verizon Wireless, but even with the changes in their policy, it isn’t anywhere close to being as simply as giving them the ESN/MEID and programming the phone.