You’re Doing It Wrong! 10 Ways To Lose Money On eBay (Part 2)
6) You don’t spell check/grammar check
Top-rated sellers won’t need to worry (as much), but for the up-and-coming eBay seller with few ratings and little positive feedback, spelling/grammar is very important.
Why yes, I would like to buy that product with the name you can’t even spell correctly. I can tell immediately that you are a “profeshonal seler” and this item is a “grate bargen”. In fact, I will pay the “deposet” right away and trust that you will not mispell my shipping address. Good day!
7) You don’t accept PayPal or Credit Cards
Sure, you could avoid certain seller fees and charges by accepting only personal checks and money orders… but come on. Unless a buyer is desperate to have what you (and ONLY you) are selling, you would not catch many people wasting the considerable amount of time required with the mailing, checking, and clearance of a check/money order payment. Not to mention, PayPal is the eBay payment standard and a much safer/reliable/convenient method.
8 ) You don’t understand your own costs and profits
Listing fee, selling fee, shipping fee, PayPal/credit card processing fee, auction management fee, sales tax… Yes, there is a lot more to selling items than a simple “buy for X, sell for Y”.
As an eBay seller, it’s easy to get into the rush and thrill of selling items, but it’s just as easy to fail and end up with a loss at the end of the month instead of extra money in your pocket. Before deciding whether to sell an item on eBay, and what to sell it for, you need to understand all the costs involved.
To help with that check out Chinavasion’s handy blog on how to make your own Free eBay Profit Calculator. You’re welcome!
9) You don’t read/follow eBay rules
What items can you sell? What category should it go in? What kind of pictures can be used? What can go in the description? What words can go in the title? What phrases are forbidden? How many members have been shocked and frustrated to find their listing has been pulled by eBay?
eBay has many, many rules, but it is still in your best interest to follow them if you want to avoid the shock and frustration of having your listing pulled. eBay can and will take down your listing and keep your fees, so toe the line!
You should avoid these kind of words,phrases and items, for example:
- Like new
- Any other brand name than what you’re selling, including “Nokia replica”
- Prohibited, banned, illegal, outlawed
- Bad language, such as *#$+|%*!
- Website addresses, email and phone numbers
The kind of words and phrases will make your item, for example the replica Nokia, turn up in searches for the bona fide article, i.e. Nokia phones, which is seen as misleading by eBay and therefore a breach of regulations (pages.ebay.com/help/sell/title_desc_ov.html).
10) You don’t research the price of your item
I’m sure someone out there would love to buy your unlocked iPhone 3GS for $700 – I mean, that’s how much you bought it for after all! It’s a different story, however, if the latest and greatest version is now available for about the same price.
Before listing your item, do a little research on eBay to see what the market price is and what others are selling for. You can check a whole bunch of eBay-style sites in order to get a grip on pricing. Find out where by taking a look at Chinavasion’s eBay alternatives blog.
If you have any tips to really help boost your eBay sales that we haven’t mentioned, please feel free to add them as a comment below and help the Chinavasion community!
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Ebay doesn’t offer a way to search for best selling items on ebay auctions with typo’s in the title…..Is it True..??? best selling items on ebay
This two-part post is really helpful tips for online sellers to boost their sales and profits. An online seller must always keep these things in mind so that they won’t end up losing their costumers and money as well.
in answer no 8, if i not selling at ebay, i want selling at my country classfield. how i need to put in the listing fee, where i can find out the shipping cost.
Hi Tracy,
For eBay queries, please refer to eBay’s own knowledgebase material.
To find the shipping cost from Chinavasion you need to select the items you want and go to the checkout. At the checkout you can select the shipping method that you prefer. At this point the shipping cost (for these particular items) will be displayed. Please note that going to the checkout with items costs you nothing, so you can do this to ‘check’ shipping costs as often as you like.