Everything that appears on the Web is stored on a computer called a Web server. A Web server is connected to the Internet twenty-four hours a day, and is equipped with special software that makes files available to anyone with aWeb browser. When you create an auction listing, it is stored on one of eBay's servers. When you capture images of your items, you have some options. You can move your files from your computer to one of eBay's Picture Services sites and store them there. eBay lets you store one image per sale for free; the rest are subject to charges.
Or you can use the storage space that comes with your Internet access account. Before you can find a home at all, you have to have some images to put there. Are you going to have a friend or relative take photos for you? Or are you going to buy a digital camera and do it yourself? In any case, you need to decide how you're going to take good-quality digitized (in other words, computerized) images, because good photos are critical to sales.
Figure Out Your Payment Options
Transferring payment for something that's purchased online, whether it's through an auction or through an e-commerceWeb site like Amazon.com or Landsend.com, is one of the most nerve-racking things you can do with your computer. The big danger, from a seller's standpoint, is that you'll run into a high bidder who changes his or her mind or backs out of the deal for some other reason
- you'll never get paid, and you'll be forced to re-list what you sell. Buyers, for their part, have the great fear that they'll hand over payment to a seller who will take the money and run without ever bothering to ship what's been purchased. These things do happen, unfortunately, but my experience indicates that they occur less often than you might think.
Should You Use an Payment Service?
Brief answer: Yes. An payment service is a company that serves as an intermediary between someone who provides goods or services and someone who pays money in exchange for those goods and services. Instead of sending a check or money order to a seller directly, the buyer pays the service, which transfers it to the seller. Depending on the service, both the seller and buyer have to have accounts with the same payment service. One payment service, PayPal, is widely used on eBay, and in fact was purchased by eBay not long ago. But PayPal charges fees that make some sellers unhappy, and other services such as BidPay (http://www.bidpay.com ) are also popular.
The point is that payment services make buyers feel more secure about bidding, and you need to use at least one service in order to sell on eBay. Keep in mind that PayPal and BidPay only offer minimal protection for buyers or sellers. Although PayPal does verify the IDs of charge card users in the United States, credit card fraud still occurs. And BidPay offers no protection at all. The Escrow service Escrow.com offers a more secure environment for buyers and sellers than BidPay or PayPal. Escrow.com withholds payment to sellers until after the buyer has received the merchandise and approved it. The service also verifies payments by credit card so sellers are protected against fraud.
Pick Your Shipping Options
Getting your merchandise where it's supposed to go, quickly and safely, is one of the things that buyers note when they leave feedback for sellers. And at this early stage, accumulating positive feedback should be one of your big goals (along with generating income, of course). Therefore, you need to determine
- now, before you start making sales
- how you're going to pack and ship your merchandise. First, you need to pick a shipper. Most eBay sellers choose between the United States Postal Service (USPS), United Parcel Service (UPS), or Federal Express. The USPS's Priority Mail is especially popular because of delivery times as low as two days and the free, high-quality boxes, labels, and other shipping materials sellers get to use. But FedEx's Ground and Home Delivery options are competitively priced, especially for heavy items. In any case, you'll need to start accumulating large quantities of boxes, bubble wrap and other packing material, packing tape, labels, and other goodies.
Conduct Your First Auction
Let's say you've made the decisions you need to get started. You've got your ducks in a row and you're ready to start selling. To make sure, go through the following checklist:
- You've signed up for a seller's account with eBay and submitted your credit card information.
- You have accumulated some positive feedback through bidding and buying at auction.
- You've determined the general type of eBay business you're going to run.
- You've accumulated the merchandise you're going to sell.
- You've purchased a digital camera or figured out another way you're going to capture digital photos of your merchandise.
- You've picked some categories in which you're going to sell your merchandise.
- You've signed up with a payment service and decided on other methods of accepting payment.
- You've gotten together your shipping materials and picked a shipping method. At last, you're ready to get some sales online and start getting bids. The following sections describe how to get started.
Gather Your Materials
Pull together the items you plan to sell first. Don't start with too many items at once; for starters, just try a handful so you can get used to the process gradually. Get a good quality digital camera, or consider assembling a "photo studio" including auxiliary lights and solid-colored backdrops you can use for photos. Come up with a boilerplate text that you can use with all of your auction listings
- standard text that you include with each of your descriptions and that applies to all of your items. Buddhachick, the seller profiled earlier in this article, has a particularly friendly boilerplate: I take personal check, PayPal, and money orders. SORRY MICHIGAN BUYERS, PLEASE ADD 6% SALES TAX! Please do not be alarmed if it takes me a day or two to send you your total. I have several jobs and with the new USPS policies, calculating totals is a bit time consuming! It is my goal that all buyers will have a pleasant experience doing business with me. I am reasonable, honest, and I make every effort to describe each item accurately. If shipping is not quoted in description, I will charge actual shipping only.
Clothing and textiles are sold as is, directly out of estates unless otherwise noted. I do not take responsibility for uninsured items. I will contact you sending you an "eBay Checkout Invoice. " Thanks for looking and HAVE FUN!! You might say something about your payment options and about your policies as a seller. Save this document as a text file that you can paste into the Sell Your Item form whenever you create an auction listing.
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09052010
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