Lets have a bit of fun here! Everyone share your best eBay advice!

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone!

As some of us have been selling for a long time and are very experianced with selling on eBay, others may only have been selling for a short period of time. What have been the best lessons you have learned since you started eBay? For me, I learned quickly that sound research is key! 

Im looking forward to chatting to some like minded eBay sellers as we are all a family here!

[*help_no_brakes*]

From posting on these boards I have learned that it is very important to be correctly registered when one is a business seller.

[pixiesen2012]

mine is people who are trading on private accounts shouldn't stick their head above the parapet!

you are trading on a private account and need to upgrade to a business account ASAP before you face the wrath of those who are properly registered

[*knight-rider*]

especially after 5 years getting away with it 🙂

[tressygirl]

My bit of learned advice to pass to others is for those listing in auction format,  to always start the item price for the lowest you are happy to receive,  it cannot sell for less.  Then,  if only one bid is received,  which more than often happens,  you will have achieved the price you wanted.

Also, to avoid any listing upgrades,  all have non refundable fees charged the second the listing goes live,  and  in my humble opinion not worth the extra payment,  as as shown above,  the most expensive one the Reserve, is pointless to use,   as it all can be achieved as described above,  for free.

[Anonymous]

OK, here goes:

Start stuff at the price you want

Don't worry about number of watchers, it means nothing whether high or low

Expect stupid qustions, try to be polite answering them even if the information is in large letters all over the description

Don't be offended by low offers, it's your choice to ignore them.

Sometimes it's best to leave stuff a month or so before relisting to avoid the boredom factor, and it can be lsted at a higher price without making any difference, sometimes it will sell.

Don't let Ebay do ANYTHING to your account or listings automatically.

In Ebay speak, "improvement" means higher fees.

Advice given on the forums is often incorrect or based on the same problem you get with listings, i.e. the answer is made after not reading the question correctly. "Expert" is sometimes only a label.

[pixiesen2012]

@Anonymous 

have you read this? :-

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Starting-a-small-business-on-eBay-UK-Top-questions-answered/m-p/7133098#M583738

[Anonymous]

Is that tongue in cheek? Yes, as I've contributed to that thread, I have read it. See last point in my post above!

[pixiesen2012]

sorry, I thought the comment:-

Advice given on the forums is often incorrect or based on the same problem you get with listings, i.e. the answer is made after not reading the question correctly. "Expert" is sometimes only a label.

was aimed at those of us who promote registering properly

[Anonymous]

Not specifically, alhough there was a thread a week or so back where the "you are a business" bandwagon got rolling at high speed when the OP was indeed correctly registered. I believe that as a registered business seller, everybody else trading as a business should also be registered whether Ebay care or not. Level (ish) playing fields, and all that.

It was more aimed at the threads where the topic goes wandering off into all sorts of esoteric byways involving ill-thought out "legal" advice and so on, especially where the OP isn't even in the UK, so even if the advice was correct, it probably wouldn't be applicable.

The constant confusion on the forums between buyer and seller (often by the OP) also leads to more problems amongst those racing to get the first answer in.

I'll wind my neck in now.

[stevirobbo]

I have a little advice for people selling on ebay .... Always check people who have an under score in their name as a buyer or a seller as they usually only put underscores or hyphens in when they have run out of names to use so have to start using the under score. Bots use underscores too 🙂 There you go 

[stevirobbo]

Oh and never listen to a community newcomer ... What do they know? haha

[messier44000]

Put the blinkers on, and don`t worry about looking at others selling the same.

Don`t chase the price down to the floor, and instead do a quality photo and description.

The amount of times, because of the above, customers have said they bought from 

me because it looks like I know what I`m talking about.

Start a you-tube channel with reviews about you products. It`s by far my greatest 

percentage of incoming traffic  to the checkout page. OK that`s for the wesbite, 

but you could direct to your eBay shop.

[jojo_777482]

When I started, you her the rumours mostly from the kids or other younger people, dont do that or the ebay police will ban you. Well I started, mostly to the fun of my sons, I had sent out an item and the customer said it was not working and sent me photos. On it return it was it bits in two plastic bags. Me, only going a matter of week, gave a full refund. Then the light came on READ THE TERMS there are no ebay police, to late sent a refund.what a learnig curve it has been.

Best JJ   

[arkwebus]

Don't sell anything on eBay unless - ultimately - you could afford to lose it/the money

@Anonymous 

[mahenr_962]

I didn' know about that. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Oh, pants. Is there a legit prejudice against this? I avoid unnecessary underscores and the like in URLs and site names, but quite enjoy their use in other applications, especially when apostrophes and capital letters are denied -- for me it makes things easier to read!

[the-olas]

I have resurrected my account after a few years and really want to get back to selling.

My best advice, have a look around see what you've got and don't be afraid to list. I've had collectibles hanging around doing nothing for years. 

I am rolling the dice and seeing what happens, so far it's paying off albeit slowly.

[rcscrapyard]

Here is a really handy tip to help you keep your Ebay top rated seller status (lets hope ebay dont read these!)

As a business seller selling on more platforms tha  just ebay, its easy to run out of stock sometimes. but if you forget to change the stock one ebay, you could sell something you dont have. The threshold on ebay for keeping your top rated status is only 0.5 % of sales, after which your statut drops. HOWEVER, If you send an email to the buyer first offering an alternative product, or a refund, and they decide not to accept, you can then choose the reason "buyer asked to cancel" when you refund, which doesnt affect your ratings!

Hope that helps "somebody" 

[rcscrapyard]

Fully Agree. My youtube channel with help and advice (along with a ticker tape showing the product names and ebay item numbers) has by far been one of my biggest contributers to sales. If you know what you are doijng, and come across as professional and confident - people will buy from you.