A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO EBAY (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: junkboxjules

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	15/07/03 (235 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A fun and addictive way to earn a bit of extra cash for items you no longer want

Disadvantages: It's time consuming, Sometimes there are rogues out there who let you down

I registered with ebay about a year ago but it has only been in the past 3-4 months that I have actually started to buy and sell through the website - up until that point I was a bit sceptical about it and didn't really understand how things worked so I avoided it - however, I have read a lot of good feedback about the money people are making from ebay and decided that I would try my hand at a bit of selling to see how easy it really was.

The main thing that put me off selling at ebay was the fact that whilst I had read how much money you could make and the categories available I didn't really know how to start - there are instructions on the website but ploughing through them is rather time consuming, so I have written this opinion more as a guide for new ebay members to help get them started when buying and selling on ebay. I have tried to include lots of information based on my own personal experiences that I think will be helpful to anybody considering buying or selling on ebay for the first time.

**FIRST THINGS FIRST**

Before you can become a seller on ebay you need to register, the registration process is simple and there is no charge to register to become a seller, however, to register as a seller you will need to have a bank account and either a credit or debit card so that ebay can verify your details and take payments from you bank account for your sellers fees by direct debit. When you register you have to choose a username, this then not only becomes your username but also the sellers name, ie the name that you will be known as to other members on ebay, as ebay has thousands of members world wide it is wise to have several choices of names available as there is a high chance that you won't get the first name you choose. Once you have registered you are ready to begin making your millions!

**HOW TO SELL**

There are lots and lots of categories available for you to list your items for sale under and y
ou can more or less sell anything you like on ebay - I've even seen jars of Marmite for sale. Prohibited items include fireworks, prescription drugs, travel vouchers, shares and football tickets - probably items that the majority of people wouldn't consider selling anyway.

As I'm currently on a diet and have managed to lose some weight I decided to sell some of my clothes that no longer fit me and try to earn some money to buy some new clothes to replace them with.

In order to list an item for sale you need to follow the procedure detailed below.

Firstly, select the Sell option from the browser bar - this will take you to a screen which asks you if you want to sell your item at auction or sell at a fixed price as a "Buy It Now" item - the Buy It Now option is only available to ebay members who have a feedback record of 10 or more. Buy It Now allows the seller to sell an item at a fixed price - once somebody has put in a bid for that amount they become the winner of the auction - this is a good idea if you want to sell multiple items for a set price but I prefer to go to auction as you may find that you could have got more money for your item at auction. You can put a reserve price on your item to ensure that it doesn't get sold for any less than the minimum amount you are prepared to let it go for and if you wish you can also select the option of going to auction with bidding starting at whatever price you decide, (let's say 50p), but also have the Buy It Now option that allows the vendor to pay the fixed Buy It Now fee of £3.00, (or whatever amount you decide), and guarantee winning the item.
Once you have chosen whether you wish to sell at auction or as a Buy It Now option you are ready to progress to the next stage.

The next page details the categories available for you to list your item under - as I was selling clothing I chose the clothing and accessories category, followed by the followin
g sub-categories - plus sizes - type of garment for sale, ie dress, trousers, skirts etc and finally item size.

Initially knowing where to place certain items can be a bit daunting - if you are not sure where to place an item then try carrying out a search, there is a search button on the browse bar, if you type in details of the item you are looking for, this will list all other items matching the description you have typed in, if you then click on the item that best matches your item you will be able note from the bar at the top of the page which category and sub-categories that the item has been selected from.

If you wish you can list your item in more than one category and there is an option to list under a second heading on this page before you proceed to the next step - however, there are extra charges for listing the item twice.

Once you are happy that you have selected the correct category for your item you can proceed to the next step.

We can now proceed to the item description page - here you need to chose a title and write a description about your product. When choosing your title try to make your item sound as attractive as possible and this will ensure that you receive lots of viewings which will hopefully lead to lots of bids and ensure that you get the best possible price for your item. When writing the description remember that you are trying to sell an item purely by describing it and possibly with a small picture - the better the description and the more information you bidders give the more likely you are to sell it. Let's assume you are selling a pair of trousers - give details of not only the size and colour but also the inside leg measurement - omitting a small detail like this could lose you a lot of potential.

When writing your description it is best to type it in Word, read it back to ensure that it makes sense and run a spell check through it, once you are happy with it you can then copy an
d paste it into the description box.

There are options to make your description more eye catching by adding HTML tags to change the colour or style of the text - if you wish to choose these options there is a help button available that you will guide you through the process of how to do it.

One point to remember is to add the following HTML tag <p> between sentences that you want to separate with a new paragraph as without this tag all your text will be condensed together and not in separate paragraphs.

When you are satisfied with your title and description you need to enter details of your starting price whether there is a buy it now option or a reserve price you wish to enter, (there is an additional charge for these options). You can also decide if you wish to start the auction immediately or on a set date at a set time, (there is an additional charge for this option), and how many days you wish the auction to run for - from 3, 5, 7 or 10 days, obviously the longer you list the item the more viewings you are likely to get and therefore possibly more bids, however, I have sometimes found that nobody bothers to bid or look at many items until the final day/hours of the auction and therefore unless you have such a wonderful item for sale that lots of people will be desperate to get their mitts on it doesn't really matter whether you chose the 3 day or the 10 day option.

Within this page there is the option to upload a photograph/s of your item to help promote it. You can upload a picture which you have taken with a digital camera or scanned, if you don't have access to a digital camera or a scanner try searching images on www.google.com and you will probably be able to find a suitable picture to use to support your item - be careful not to choose anything that has been copywrited though or you could land yourself in trouble. You can upload one picture for free - if you wish to add additional pictures there is an addi
tional charge of 12p for each additional picture you add.

Within the photograph options you can choose whether you would like to have your pictures laid out as standard, (free), or have additional view and sizes for an extra charge.

You can also choose if you would like to include your photograph in the gallery for 0.15p, go bold for 70p or even highlight your item description text for £1.50. There are also other options which allow you to have your item featured in the Featured Plus area of items in your category and another option called the Home Page Feature which will possibly feature your item on the home page - however, these are costly at £9.95 for the Featured Plus option and £49.95 for the Home Page Feature, so unless you are selling an item that is worth a lot of money these aren't options you are likely to want to use.

We then move on to the payment section, this is the area where you need to choose which payment you want to accept from PayPal, Postal Order, Bankers Draft, Cash on Delivery, Credit Card, Other Online Payment System, or Personal Cheque. I accept personal cheque and postal orders - if you chose PayPal there is a commission charge so it is worth bearing this in mind - some vendors put an extra charge of around 30p on top of the postal charges for people wishing to pay by PayPal in order to cover the fees they are charged for using PayPal

On this page you also need to list the postage and packaging charges and state who pays for P&P whether it is the buyer or seller. If you are unsure what these will be you can choose to advise the buyer at the end of the auction - personally if there is no p&p listed I will not bid as some ebayers are known to charge exorbitant p&p charges so where you think you may be getting a bargain it could turn out that you are getting stung on the p&p charges. It is reasonable to charge a little bit extra over and above the postal charges to cover your time and the packaging that
you have wrapped the item in - don't be greedy though as this will put buyers off.


If you wish you can also choose to sell to members in other countries - you will need to check out overseas postal charges and advise the buyer where necessary - sometimes sellers list postal charges within their description and have a list of costs for sending the item abroad as well as to the UK.

You can opt to post to UK, World wide or UK and then select other countries listed to post to, alternatively if you are selling a particularly large item you can opt for the arrange for local collection only option.

The final option on this page is whether or not you wish to accept Escrow - Escrow is when a third party holds the buyers payment in trust until the buyer receives and approves the item from the seller. I can't imagine that many people choose this option, however, if you wish to then you can either choose to accept Escrow if the buyer pays the fees or accept and agree to pay the Escrow fees yourself.

Finally, the last step is to review the details that you have entered to ensure that you are happy with your item description, title, photograph, p&p charges etc and if you are hit the submit button and your item will be listed - and that is all there is to it. It may sound complicated but it really isn't - there are help buttons to click on along the way and you can usually find all the information you require by clicking on the help button.

Once you have listed your item you can make amendments to the listing provided that there are no bids on the item or that there is more than 12 hours left before the auction ends.

You are charged a fee to list your item - listing fees are as follows:-

from 0 - 0.99p the listing fee is 15p
from £1.00 - £4.99 the listing fee is 20p
from £5.00 - £29.99 the listing fee is 0.35p
from £30.00 - £99.99 the listing fee is £1.50
and finally from £100.00 upwar
ds the listing fee is £2.00

As you can see the prices do vary considerably, especially the higher the item you wish to sell - it is worth putting an item in for £29.99 rather than £30.00 as the charge is considerably higher for a 1p difference.

If you successfully sell your item you will be charged a final value fee - the current charges for this are as follows.

From 0 - £29.99 you will be charged 5.25%

From £30.00 - £599.99 you will be charged 5.25% up to £29.99 and 3.25% on the balance above
£30.00.

From £600.00 you will be charged 5.25% up to £29.99, 3.25% on the balance between £30 and £599.99 and 1.75% on the balance above £600.00.

**I'VE SOLD MY ITEM WHAT HAPPENS NOW?**

At the end of the auction you will receive an e-mail from ebay to tell you whether your item has been sold or not. If it hasn't there is a button to click if you wish to relist the item along with helpful hints to help you relist the item and possibly amend any details or the price.

Let's be positive and assume that your item has sold - within the e-mail you will receive from ebay is a "send information" to buyer button - if you click on this it will take you to the sale information and list details of the item number, item description, the successful bidder, their address and the winning bid amount - you can print this copy out for your own records so that you know where to send the item to - often buyers send their money but forget to tell you what they've bought - at least if you print their details you should be able to hopefully link the item and purchaser together.

Once the purchaser has received the invoice they will be send an e-mail requesting them to complete checkout - basically they just need to acknowledge that they have won the item and they will be sending payment soon - once they complete checkout you will receive an e-mail to advise you that checkout has been complete
d - then you just need to sit back and wait for your money.

In the event that you get a non paying bidder - somebody who doesn't send their payment through - you should send them a reminder, either by e-mail or via the send reminder link on your my ebay area. If no payment is still received you may like to follow up with another ebay giving the purchaser 3 days to contact you or you will resell the item.

If you do not hear back from the original winner of the auction you can either opt to make a second chance offer to the next highest bidder on your auction, this means that you have to sell your item to them at the highest price they bid, they then get several days to come back and confirm that they wish to purchase your item - if they do not then you can relist your item - alternatively you can opt to just relist the item in the first place.

**POSTING ITEMS**

Once you have received payment for the goods you should think about sending the purchaser their goods - you may wish to wait for the cheque to clear or you may decide that the purchasers feedback is good and therefore you trust them to be honest and not to stop the cheque or have it bounce. If the buyer has paid by PayPal there is obviously no reason to delay posting the goods as it will automatically be cleared.

Package goods in suitable packaging and make sure that all items are fully protected and well sealed. Remember that your purchaser is paying you P&P charges and therefore you owe it to them to ensure that their goods arrive safely and well packaged - if they don't your feedback could well be tarnished by some negative feedback.

If you are selling several items it can be quite time consuming packaging up and preparing items to send. There is money to be made but it is hard work and does require commitment - you owe it to your purchasers to be prompt and efficient.

**LEAVING FEEDBACK**

Once you have received payment for good
s and are happy that the cheque isn't going to bounce, it is courteous to leave your purchaser positive feedback. See information about how to leave feedback further down page.

**BUYING ITEMS ON EBAY**

You've made your first successful sale and now you fancy buying something nice for yourself with the money you've made, so how do you purchase items on ebay - read on to find out.

Firstly you need to register as a buyer - even if you have already registered as a seller you also need to register as a buyer. In order to do this click on register and complete the simple registration process - you do not need to have credit cards or a bank account to become a buyer.

Once you are registered you can shop - to find what you are looking for, firstly select a category from the home page - if you are not sure which category the item you are interested in will be listed choose the Search option from the browser bar and search for a keyword(s).

Once you have found the correct category you can choose whether you wish to view all items for sale under that category, items ending today, (ie within the next 24 hours), or items that are within their last hour.

To view an item just click on the item description and this will take you to further information about the product, along with P&P details.

If you decide that you wish to bid you need to go to the button at the bottom of the page that says "place bid" then you need to enter the maximum amount you are prepared to bid on the item, for example, lets assume that the item you wish to bid on already has one bid of £1.00 - you are prepared to pay up to £1.50 for the item - you would type in £1.50 - if the previous bidder was also prepared to pay up to £1.50 you will be outbid - if however, the previous bidder was only prepared to pay less than £1.50, (ie, £1.05 - you will outbid them and your bid of £1.05 will be the current highest bid). If somebody
then comes along and bids £1.60 on the item, you will be outbid as you were only prepared to pay up to £1.50. If you do get outbid you will be send an e-mail from ebay to tell you that you are no longer the highest bidder, within the e-mail there is a link to press that will enable you to go straight to the item and increase your bid.

If you accidentally bid more than you had intended to - e.g. you forget to put a 0 in front of 80p for example and instead of bidding 0.80 you end up bidding £80.00 it is acceptable to retract your bid - you must however not retract bids unless it is really essential - when you place a bid on an item it is legally binding.

If at the end of the auction you are the highest bidder you will receive an e-mail sent directly from ebay to advise you that you have been the highest bidder and that you have won the auction - there will be a link within the e-mail that will allow you to complete checkout. The checkout information will give you details of the vendors name and address and the amount payable and you should then aim to send your payment to the vendor within 7 days.

Once you have received the goods from the vendor it is polite to leave them feedback - if you are not happy with the item it is best to try to resolve the situation with the vendor first rather than leaving negative feedback and upsetting somebody.

**MY EBAY**

My Ebay can be found on the browser bar and allows the user to check items they are bidding on, or selling, view their feedback or gain access to the area where they need to leave feedback about others, register details of their favourite sellers or categories and change their personal information.

**ACCOUNT TAB**

Within my ebay you will note that there is a tab marked "account" you can view your current balance by clicking on this tab, you can also make payments from the area. If you have agreed to pay your account by direct debit you will rec
eive an e-mail invoice once a month telling you how much you owe ebay and when the money will be debited from your account.

**PREFERENCES TAB**

The preferences tab allows you to change information about yourself and to change your password or user id etc, you can also create a ME Page from the preferences page.

**ME PAGE**

A me page is a profile page that you can set up to tell other ebay members all about yourself - you can include any information you like in your ME page.

**COMMUNITY**

There is a community page on ebay, I have to be honest and say that I rarely visit the page but if you do want to visit the community page you will find message boards, announcements, a suggestions box and you can also learn about ebay.

**WHAT IS FEEDBACK?**

Once a purchase or sale has been completed and you have either received your goods or payment for goods that you are selling you should leave feedback for the seller/purchaser. To do this need to go to my ebay and click on the feedback tab and follow the instructions from there. Feedback is useful as it tells other ebay members how well you pay and whether or not you are reliable. Each time somebody leaves feedback about you, you will get a number in a bracket next to your username - this number indicates the number of feedback comments that you have received. You will also notice that all ebay members have a star or an angel next to their name. The colour of the star represents the amount of feedback they have received. An angel next to the username indicates a new ebay member who has been a member for less than 30 days.

**SHOP**

When you become more established you may decide that you want to create an ebay shop - there are full instructions on how to do this within the help pages on ebay.

**OTHER INFORMATION**

Once you become established with the way that things work on ebay you are quite likely to become addicted to i
t. I now find myself out and about on a Sunday morning scouring the car boot sale for things to sell to try and earn a bit of extra cash from.

Selling on ebay is fun but it is very time consuming and you do have to be committed as if you are not you will be letting down others - if you don't think you have the time to commit to selling why not try buying for a while and then if you find that you enjoy it you may well find yourself selling before you know it.

Very occasionally there are rogues on ebay that slip through the net - it doesn't happen very often, but unfortunately there will be times when people take your money but never show up with the goods - there are also cases where people have received stolen goods which have been sold through ebay and purchased quite innocently by others - unfortunately as the law stands should you be unlucky enough to purchase a stolen item it is quite possible that you could find yourself out of pocket and be asked by the police to return the stolen item. Fortunately, instances like these don't occur very often but it pays to be vigilant.

If a seller lets you down by cashing your cheque but not coming up with the goods you should report them to ebay - they will then deal with the matter on your behalf. I'm not sure exactly what happens from thereon as I have not been in this position.

Please don't let the above two negative points put you off - overall ebay is a great fun and highly addictive way of making a bit of spare cash.

Thank you for reading - happy bidding.

Julie

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