Making the Move from Bidder to Auctioneer on eBay

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Like many eBay sellers, Jo Stavig (eBay User ID: vintagevisionjo) is no stranger to antiques and collectibles, or even to putting her wares up for sale. She rented space in an antique mall in Chicago for several years, but she wasn't happy with the 10 percent commission the mall charged on each sale, and things just weren't selling fast enough.

When she cleaned out her mall space, her home became filled with boxes full of twentieth-century memorabilia. With the holidays coming, she became convinced that it was time to make the move from being a buyer on eBay to starting to sell. "I had some silver, crystal and glass items that I was nervous about taking to the mall because I didn't have a locked cabinet there (you had to pay extra for that)," says Jo. "I had some inventory left over when I moved out of there, and now I had the problem of where to put it all. It seemed that eBay would be a more cost-effective way to sell and reduce my collection. " Even though she had sold merchandise, and was used to buying on eBay, Jo still found the process of becoming a seller "somewhat intimidating. " She had to make a series of decisions about how to ship, whether she would ship overseas, how to accept payments, and whether she would accept returns. Next came the issue of how to take photos, and where to store them online. Then the technical preparation

- where to load your photos from, how to take photos. Her husband Steve helped by taking photos with his mini DV (digital video) camera, then touching the images up using the sophisticated graphics program Adobe Photoshop. "I put together a couple of backdrop fabrics on a drawing table, and I have a couple of clip-on lights that I can manipulate. " She signed up for PayPal, one of several payment methods that enabled her to sell overseas. She decided to take personal checks. Finally, she was ready to go online with her first sales. "It was exciting. I found it more exciting as a seller than as a buyer. At the end of an auction, watching a new bid suddenly come up was really something.

My first really exciting sale was a set of six nineteenth-century silver-plated forks that I bought at a rummage sale for 10 cents each. They went for $78. I knew they were that good, but I didn't think they were that good!" "I have not come up with a bad check policy. I haven't gotten a bad check yet. " Jo uses the U. S. Postal Service's (USPS's) Priority Mail for most of her shipping, and orders boxes through the USPS Web site. She emphasizes the importance of packing and shipping with care. "You can never use too much packing material. I thought I knew packing really well, because I worked in an art gallery, but found out I did not. There was a breakage on something that arrived in two pieces. I refunded part of the sales price. The buyer didn't send it back. If something gets broken, filing a claim with the post office is really difficult. "

In Jo's first four months as a seller, she has sold about 100 lots, including "bunches and bunches of Christmas ornaments. I've been spending quite a lot of time doing it. I've been doing freelance interior design, and other types of consulting, so it definitely helps with bills. " Jo's main piece of advice: "It's worth spending some time as a browser and a buyer first before you sell. I purposely tried to accumulate some feedback as a buyer and got a feedback rating of 30 before I went out there as a seller. "

The biggest benefit, she concludes, "is being able to get rid of all that stuff all around the house! Also, being able to sell things in a more timely manner, things that would have been sitting around in the mall for months without a buyer. I've enjoyed the contacts with buyers, which can seem amazingly personal. In mall space, other people were selling for me, and I had no contact with my customers. Now, on eBay, people will write me back, saying things like ‘I love the way this looks, this is better than it could possibly be. ' That's been an unanticipated benefit of it for me. "

Do Your Research

Before you start selling on eBay, do your homework. Know which kinds of sales attract lots of bids and which turn out to be duds. Scan the message boards to get an idea of the kinds of problems sellers tend to confront, so you can watch out for them yourself. In order to succeed, any business needs to come up with a business plan, and online businesses are no different. A business plan doesn't have to be an elaborate production. The most important things are to make sure what you want to sell, determine where you want to sell it, and verify that there's a market of buyers for the kinds of merchandise you want to put up for auction. The sections that follow provide you with some other tips for planning your eBay business.

Learn by Bidding

Few, if any, people start out selling on eBay without having bid on some items first. You can open an account and start selling without any other experience on the auction site, but I don't recommend it. The best way to get a feel for how transactions proceed and are completed is to bid on and purchase something yourself from a reputable seller. Perhaps the biggest benefit of bidding and buying before you start selling is the fact that you are able to accumulate positive feedback simply by following through with payment in a timely manner. You get some stuff you need or want, hopefully at a bargain price, and you get the feedback that you can then use to help you attract bidders when you start to sell. When you get to a feedback level of 20 or 30, people can tell you've used eBay for a while and are likely to be a reputable seller. At that point, you can start putting your own items up for auction.

Pick Items that People Want

It doesn't do any good to put items up for sale that no one wants, that don't get any bids, and that only consume the time and energy required to photograph and list them. Rather than trying to sell new dolls that were distributed at fast-food restaurants a few months ago and that aren't hard to find, try to sell older, limited edition dolls, preferably in their original packaging. Take a few minutes to look through the categories in which you have chosen to list your merchandise to see not only what's desirable, but what items turn out to be dogs on the market. You might be better off giving the undesirables away to charity or on eBay's Giving Board (http://chatboards. ebay.com/chat. jsp?forum=1&thread=59). eBay puts out a number of publications for buyers and sellers in especially popular areas, and they contain tips on what constitutes a good sales item. This newsletter has tips for people who sell antiques: http://www.ebay.com/antiquesnewsletter/Vol1Issue6. html.

Pick the Category In Which You Want to Sell

eBay started out with only a handful of categories in which to sell items. It's since grown to about 8,000 different categories. Yes, it's true, bidders often find what they're looking for through keyword searches that bypass the category system altogether, but it still matters where you sell your merchandise. Do a search of eBay's current or completed auctions to find items that resemble what you have to offer, and see what categories they were listed in. Because there are so many possible categories, it's quite possible that what you want to sell could fit in one or more categories. If that's the case, you only have to spend a few dollars more for the extra listing fee that enables you to list something in more than one category. "If you're not sure which category is best, or if an item has two groups of collectors, try to sell it in two categories," suggests eBay seller decoray, who says he's sold more than 6,000 items on the auction site. Although the fee for listing an item in two categories is $5. 00 instead of the $2. 50 for one category, the extra investment is worth it. It pays to think the way your prospective customers think, he says.

Get Registered

Just as you had to register with eBay when you started to buy, you have to register to become a seller as well. Even if you already have an eBay User ID and password and have accumulated feedback as a buyer, you still need to create a Seller's Account. That way, eBay is able to maintain a record of your contact information if they need to contact you. eBay also requires you to put your credit card name on file so they can deduct Final Value Fees, listing fees, and the other fees that go along with getting your auctions online. To start the process, click the Sell button in the toolbar that appears near the top of virtually any eBay page. Click the seller's account in the phrase "Create a seller's account. " Follow the steps shown on subsequent pages to set up your account. You'll be asked, early in the process, to enter your credit card information and your billing address. This might seem a bit off-putting, but don't worry. eBay only uses this information to charge you when it comes time to pay your seller's fees

- not when you register.

Pick a Good User ID

Perhaps you already have a User ID that you use for bidding on eBay. Even if you do, when you start an eBay business you might want to consider changing it. Why? Your name is part of your identity, and therefore, it's part of your business identity as well. Names that are frivolous, silly, or potentially offensive might turn away bidders. Whether you are creating your first User ID or thinking about changing, consider the following:

- Make your ID reflect your business. If you sell buttons, for example, try to work the word "button" into your name.

- Don't use your e-mail address. For one thing, you don't need to, as buyers and sellers can find you by clicking Ask seller a question from one of your auction listings. I made the mistake of using my e-mail address as my User ID, and I was flooded with junk e-mail.

- Don't use the @ or & symbol

- other letters, numbers, and symbols are okay.

- Don't use blank spaces; if you need to separate two words, use a single underscore character (SHIFT-HYPHEN).

- Don't use a URL as your User ID.

- You aren't allowed to use the word "eBay" in your User ID.

When you create a new User ID you get an icon that looks like a miniature pair of sunglasses next to your name. The icon tells other eBay users that you changed your User ID or obtained a new User ID sometime within the past 30 days. Remember that, if you ever have second thoughts about a User ID, you are allowed to change it 30 days after you create it. Changing your User ID doesn't mean you lose your accumulated feedback. eBay carries your feedback from your previous ID to your new one.

Create a Secure Password

Passwords are the most basic level of security on the Internet, and, when used by themselves and not protected by encryption or other means, one of the least secure. You can improve the inherent security of the eBay password you create by following a few simple principles:

- Don't use a word in the dictionary. Some hackers use password-cracking software that looks up all of the words in a dictionary to try to uncover just this sort of password.

- Don't make it too short. Hackers also try to crack passwords using "brute force" attacks that generates a vast quantity of random characters and submits them to the computer at very high speed. Keep your password between six and nine characters.

- Don't make it too long and complicated. You won't be able to remember it, or you'll easily mistype it.

- Use a recognizable phrase, like My eBay Auction Business, and use the initials MEAB. Mix the characters into upper- and lowercase: mEAb. Add a number that is meaningful, such as your street address: mEAB1553.

Making the Move from Bidder to Auctioneer on eBay

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