Apparently more and more forum participants are using eBay as a way to earn some extra income. I have been selling over eBay for about two years, so here are some tips.

At any one time eBay has several million items offered for sale so you need to tailor your listing to be both specific and easy to find.

Make your title as specific as possible using as many buzz words as will fit in. Don’t just say, “Nice Basket” but rather “Lovely, large, handmade, XYZ-style basket.”

In the description go out of your way to adequately describe what your are offering. Here include additional buzz words which didn’t fit into your title. Example: say you are offering the screw-on style of hubcaps/grease caps from an early automobile. The dictionary spelling is hubcaps; however, many people spell it as hub caps. Since these are threaded you want to mention that also. Thus, included in the description may be something like screw-on/threaded hubcaps/hub caps. Mention every ding, nick and wrench mark since if someone is interested in them for a restoration project or just display, they want to know the specific condition. Also mention if you have other related auctions going and that combining several items will save on shipping.

On shipping, I tell them the approximate item weight and then encourage them to go to www.usps.com, Calculate Postage and get an estimate from there.

I write and proof my descriptions in Word and then cut and paste them into the description block in the listing form. Here you have to use your right mouse button and look for paste there.

Photographs are always helpful. The first one is free and each additional one is an extra $.15. I don’t have a digital camera. I just use my regular camera and have the images returned on a diskette (along with a card showing each shot). I change the name of each file to something I can readily recognize. Once in eBay, I go to the portion of the listing for photographs, tell it to go to my a:drive and just double chick on the file I want. EBay will upload it directly from my diskette. My shots come out a bit fuzzy in close-ups. If I want an excellent photograph I take the item into a flea market in town and he uses his digital camera to take the shot for me at a per shot charge.

I don’t think what category you put the item in is all that important. I strongly suspect most people do title and description searches on key words, rather than category searches. In the above example, the hubcaps would show up if they inquired on hubcap screw or hub cap screw or several other combinations.

I use the free counter option on items I haven’t sold before to see how many hits they receive. If there are a number of hits and the item doesn’t sell, it basically tells me it is overpriced. (And if the item doesn’t sell you can relist it my using that option on the auction once it goes into the Completed Auctions section. Here you can make whatever adjustments you want, such as dropping the price. If it sells on the relisting, eBay will refund their charges against the first listing. If you aren’t getting hits, then either no one is interested in the auction or it isn’t worded in such a way for it to show up on searches.

You have your option of 3, 5, 7 or 10 day auctions. Whichever one I use (normally 7 or 10), I have the auctions close on Sunday evening. My thinking is here people have more time on weekends to go to eBay. Starting a 10-day auction on Thursday evening allows it to be listed for two weekends. The extra cost for this is $.15.

Expect most of your bids within the first day of listing and within the last day before the auction ends. Reason for this is some people search on newly listed items and others search on auctions about to close.

If I have an item which was run up in price, and have another to list, I sometimes get the e-mail address of the unsuccessful bidders and send them a short e-mail alerting them of the new auction. Auctions work funny though. I have had an item run up, listed another one at the same opening bid price and not get a bid against it, or no where near what the previous one sold for.

Positive feedback is important as it helps establish your credibility as a buyer or seller. With each item I sell I include a slip of paper. It says, “Thank you for your eBay purchase. I will leave positive feedback for you and hope you will do the same for me. eBay has now made this simple. In Feedback Forum, select the second entry. This will give you a list of all transactions within the last 90-days on which feedback has not been left.” This is followed by a line for Item title, a line for Auction number and my name and Internet address. I believe this little reminder helps to remind them to leave feedback. I, of course, make sure I leave feedback on items I purchase.

Say you have an auction going and get a bid from someone with a feedback rating of –3. EBay allows you to go into the system and cancel their bid. Look for this option on the Site Map page.

On bad buyers, who either don’t send payment or bounce a check (and won’t make it good), there is a method to get them banned from eBay. On the Site Map go to the entry for Request Final Fee Credit and complete the forum. EBay will send them a notice they are expected to make payment. If they don’t, after ten days you can request a refund of the auction charges. At this point eBay will send them a warning. Three warnings gets them permanently banned from either buying or selling. The only way for them to get around it would be to use a different computer as eBay tracks on their cookie. Just reregistering with the different user id won’t get them back on the system (or even allowing anyone else to access eBay from that computer. People can also get banned by bidding against their own items.

(And yes, I have one negative feedback. The first item I sold. Computer went down and I wasn’t able to contact the buyer so they left a negative feedback for me. They were very apologetic when they learned what happened, but once feedback is left, it cannot be retracted. All which can be done is to respond with your version of what happened.

If you want to see my auction formats, just search on seller scharabo@aol.com.

Anyone have other tips?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 20, 2001

Answers

Ken S, Thanks for the tips. I have some things that I know won't sell in my area and was debating on using e-bay. Now I think I will give it a try.

My 2 daughters buy on e-bay and have never been stung yet. The company I do consulting work at has discovered that they can buy the servers they need at huge discounts on e-bay and have done so with great success as well.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), October 20, 2001.

Thanks for the tips, Ken! My brother uses ebay a lot to sell his no longer needed items, and even sold a travel trailer on it. I think you can sell in different, that is, local markets, also--listing things that would need to be picked up, rather than shipped, if I understand it correctly. Wish I had more time to just look at all there is for sale on there! Thanks again, Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), October 20, 2001.

Thanks for the info Ken. I have been thinking about selling on ebay. I purchase items and have had good luck. I too do not have a digital camera (yet) and have used the cd option in photo development. Maybe after butchering chickens I will have some time to get started.

-- JoAnn in SD (jonehls@excite.com), October 20, 2001.

Ken, Thanks for the info. I've bought things on eBay for a while now and have been considering selling a few things. This post answered the questions I had about it. Thanks.

-- Murray in ME (lkdmfarm@megalink.net), October 20, 2001.

Jan:

eBay has a regional listing feature to where on inquiries you can limit the searches to a particular region. This is generally used for large items, such as furniture and travel trailers, which need to be picked up. Or, as in my case, I tell them I don't want to list regionally. I have sold items in just about every state and Canada.

If someone gets into overseas sales, if it goes through USPS there is just a small custom form to fill out. If you go UPS, you have to include two invoices on the outside of the package. USPS is so much simplier than UPS, I seldom use the latter. Prices are comparible except for heavy items.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 20, 2001.

I have bought and sold on ebay. I only had one person win the bid and then not respond to emails. I was able to sell to the second highest bidder. What Kens says about hubcaps/hub caps is right. I have some dalmatian things to sell, and was looking at the listings to see what is / is not selling. 2/3 of the listings have dalmatiAn spelled dalmatiOn. Also even using a plural will change whether it comes upon the search such as diaper/diapers. I sold some of my childhood toys and dolls. My old Raggedy Ann and Andy now live in Japan, and I have a new Bernina Sewing machine!

-- Joyce Dingman (FriendsPatterns@juno.com), October 20, 2001.

A couple of more:

You have to cite a credit card number when registering as a seller. That is the method eBay uses to keep kids from listing such things as healthy white babies and kidneys.

On eBay billings you have two options. You can establish a cash account to where you send in periodic payments. You can list as long as you have a balance in that account. Or you can provide them with a credit card to be automatically billed at the end of the month. I use the latter.

On payment methods, I indicate a money order or personal check. Haven't taken a bum check yet - cross fingers. However, even here you can indicate you will ship within X business days for a money order to shiping will be held until after the check clears. For a personal check, I look at their feedback. If no problems, I ship. If I see some negatives, or they are new to buying, I'll let the check clear first.

On searches, you can broaden the search by putting an * after your key words, such as hubcap* or hub cap* or thread* (which would give thread, threads or threaded).

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 20, 2001.

Ken, I think another thing for new sellers to consider is the need to insure the item and always get delivery confirmation. I've had UPS damage one bike, DESTROY one bike, and outright lose another, all within a span of 4 months. Without insurance I would have been eating the cost myself. And beware that there are a few unscrupulous buyers who will get the item and then say it was never recieved, better to pay the P.O. the extra $0.40 than to refund their money. For the most part everyone I've bought or sold to has been great, but there always seems to be a couple who try and ruin it for everyone else.

-- Nik Nikkila (laplander@onemain.com), October 20, 2001.

eBay I think is a great way to get extra or full time income for the homestead,buying selling your no longer used items or such. The good thing about these online auction places is that if your handicap or such you can now make some type of living from your home. I have been selling (new,used,handmade items from used jeans to snowshoes)on eBay for 2 yrs off and on and am now up to around $450 - $600 a mth. income. Slowly but surely I am becoming full time with it and other online places.I know several people from my area that make a living doing it full time,and by living I mean several thousand dollars a mth.income with a rented store front also.One of them also started on eBay and is now a state licenced Autioneer. I also have a registerd state business name so that I can get items in bulk/lots at cost or wholesale.

As far as shipping gos I use USPS (1st class,Priority or Media Mail) and in some areas of the country (Chicago area,anywhere in upper midwest area from Minnesota to Idaho)you have to use insurance and get a confirmation number or else the item will never get there. I also never use Parcel Post from the Post Office,because no matter where the package is going, across country or next door it takes 3 to 5 weeks to get there,I learned from experience on that. If one of your packages do get lost in shipping and it's not insured or such,there is a FORM 1510 that you can get and trace it.

Another good place is Half.com and several other auction places like Yahoo.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), October 20, 2001.

I have bought and sold a few items on eBay and have had good luck. Ken has givin a lot of good advice here. I will add a few things that have helped me on eBay.

I sell all my items with "No Reserve" and state it in the title with "NR". I Set the first bid in at the lowest possible price I am willing to sell the item at. This has worked well for me and I belive it creates more activity.

I NEVER quote what the item cost new, such as "This Breadbox sells new at Wal-Mart for $37.95" I have sold items for more money than they could be bought new for. If I were to quote a price I belive that I would not get any bids over the quoted price. This goes the same for prices out of "Value Guide Books". I don't care for the "Buy it Now" feature for the same reason.

I differ a little with Ken on this one. Choose the right catagory for your item. It is now possible to list one item under more than one catagory. An example of this would be if I had an old Primative Breadbox I might list it under "Primitive Antiques" and "Kitchen Decor" it will cost a little more but I think it will exspouse my item to more potenail bidders. Some times people only browse thru certin catagories. If you write a good Title and Desscription as Ken stated your item will still be found by those who use the search feature.

I Research my items before listing by doing a search under completed auctions for simaler items. This way I can find out if these items are getting bids, how much they are bringing. Looking at the completed auctions I try to figure out why one persons item brought more than someoneelse's item, did they list it under a better catagory? Did they use "Keywords" that I was not aware of? I also occasionly do a search at google.com and find out information about an item that I did not know that my aid me in writing a better description.

I try to put in the description the Town/City, State where the item was manufactored in/or found. I know many people who do searches using the name of Towns/City looking for memrobila from these Towns/Cities or States.

eBay is an amazing place! Sometimes it is mind boggling the different things people collect. I once saw a radio from the 70's that sort of looked liked a space helmet on eBay and it had a bid of over $100, I did a little research and found a few more bringing in the $100's and some of these did no longer work. A few weeks later I spoted one at a yard sale for $5.00 and purchased it and listed it on eBay and it brought $170, I found one more months later for $10 and it only brought $63. Items tend to run hot and cold on eBay so sometimes it hard to figure out what the item might bring.

Well Good Luck to all who are going to give eBay a try. I hope my info maybe helpful. Thanks Ken for starting this thread! I need to get back involved with eBay!

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), October 20, 2001.

Oh a couple of things I forgot I use counters from Honesty to help track activity an items brings and I also was using PayPal to accept credit cards. I have not listed any items in quite awhile and know that Honesy and PayPal now charge a fee.

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), October 20, 2001.

Another feature of eBay is Dutch auctions. Here you can list more than one each of IDENTICAL items. Works like this. You list five each of an item for $3.00 starting bid. A bids $3.00 on all five. In order for B to bid, they have to go to $3.25 so say they take two. C then bids another $3.25 for one, as does D. Now E, in order to be sure of getting one of these, bids $1,000,000. What does everyone pay? $3.00 since it is still the lowest successful bid. A gets 1, B gets two, C gets one, D gets one and E gets one - but all at $3.00. If another bidder had come in to where all five items now have more than one bid on them, the lowest successful bid would have bumped up to say $3.25, since A has now been outbid on all five they originally bid upon. My experience is on Dutch auctions you seldom get more than your original opening bid price so set your opening minimum bid accordingly.

On buying on Dutch auctions, be sure you understand the shipping terms. For 100 items it may say shipping will be $10.00 IF you are the highest bidder on all 100. However, if you get less than 100, shipping might be $3.00 EACH, with no break for quanity shipping. I have complained to eBay about this, but they say as long as the shipping terms are clearly given, they is nothing they can do about it.

I disagree a bit on giving comparison prices. For the items I am currently selling, most can be bought out of a catalog but at a far higher price. I let them know this catalog carries the item for a certain price. On one item, the catalog has it for $17.00. In my description I now include this. If they want to go over $17.00, fine, my conscience is clear. On this item the first time I listed it I didn't not indicate it was available elsewhere for $17.00 retail. The high bid was $47.00. I am only charging him $17.00 since that is the way I am. Now they have been advised of the catalog price in the description, I don't care how high they want to bid it up. ($17.00 is still a 170% return on my investment since I paid only $10.00 for this item.)

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 20, 2001.

Ken, I think you made my point as to why I do not use "comparision pricing". I myself would rather make a $37 profit than a $7 profit. Many folks feel guilty when they make a profit and they should'nt if they repesent the item fairly and describe it correctly it is up to the buyer to do research as to its value. If someone is bidding on Blacksmith equipment I would assume that they had some knowledge on these items if they don't have the knowledge they have the whole internet at their finger tips to find out.

If you brought a load of steers to the Livestock Auction and all the steers that were sold before yours brought .55cwt and then when your steers sold they brought .85cwt even though they were no better than the previous steers. Would you stand up and tell the Auctioneer to go ahead and sell your steers for .55cwt like everyone else's? Would you? I would hope not.

I have bought and sold items of a wide vareity since I was about 8 years old as my Father did and I have never felt guilty about making a profit! Contrary to popular belief you can be Honest and be a Salesman at the same time!

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), October 20, 2001.

Hello ken you alturistic fellow you! I must admit i would have taken the 47.00 all the way to the bank![ if customers can't research other sources for an item in 7-10 days, they become a 'mark' in my eyes!] :o Try a 7 day start & end after lunch friday. It seems nobody works much then & there is a ton of surfing done while on the company computer. I also use an auction house to send mail for me automatically & they host 50kb ~70 pic. for 3.00 a month.

Am I remembering right that you were offering an e-book for homsteaders & creative incomes? If so please sign me up! I got caught up in the fall painting/fencing whirl & forgot to reply. i've been on ebay for a little bit now, about to become a 'blue star' whee![seller name-shimofuri]. And my advice is for your auction title to focus entirely on key search words. many folks causually search an interest & once in a while some have e-bay send out alerts on their fave. search words. So my titles do not read as 'sentences' per say but they sure get the hits, from 10 above avg. to 2xs as many. look around at items on your farm, did you buy one once? seeds,plants,postcard,fishing lure,pot holder...etc? Then somebody on e-bay is wanting to also buy it now or next week. When you clean out your crud your friends & relatives will bring you theirs to sell for 50% commission. This is the worlds largest garage sale, jump in !

-- bj pepper in C. MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), October 20, 2001.

Selling and buying over the internet is a great way to make extra money by either getting rid of stuff you no longer need or buying stuff to resale. Remember though, if you make a profit you owe taxes. Ebay has already agreed to give the IRS full access to all records and they are looking into it at this time. Selling a few things from your garage is not going to raise any flags but doing like a friend of mine and selling $75,000 of old coins has already gotten him a letter. He was selling coins on commission 20 percent I belive but his records consist of nothing. He has no records that show he paid 80% to the owners they wanted cash so they would not have to report the sale. Right now the IRS wants taxes on the total of the sales. If you are going to be in business be in business. It took them three years to contact my friend. They now want the taxes, interest and penalties for the whole three years. Keep records and recipts for everything. Ebay has all the records on how much you sold, you will have to have recipts on what you paid for the merchandise.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), October 20, 2001.

http://www.bargainandhaggle.com

-- Willy Allen (willyallen2@yahoo.com), October 20, 2001.

Let me try that again...

I recently started reveicing information about another type of site for buying and selling stuff. The don't hold an auction, rather they put the buyer and the seller together directly. They have a fee for their services similar to E-bay. Has any of you used these guys?

http://www.bargainandhaggle.com

-- Willy Allen (willyallen2@yahoo.com), October 20, 2001.

Thanks Ken, for all your tips. I have been buying and selling on ebay for awile now (5 or 6 months) and really have had a great experience. I sort of stumbled through and figured it out as I went along. Wish I would have had your advice back then. I mostly have sold things that wouldn't have ammounted to much of a yard sale..and I would have made less money for sure. Have added to the dishes I collect...much cheaper than to buy them in my area. Most I have bought have come from the east coast. Here on the west coast they are less common. I have even bought a repro ad for my dishes from YOU!! Anyway, the extra $$ has really helped around here, and it is alot of fun. I hope you all have as good an experience with Ebay as I have.

-- Jenny (auntjenny6@aol.com), October 21, 2001.

Great post! I've been selling on ebay for over a year and have had quite a bit of success...of course, it seems to come & go. Just a suggestion - please be careful when emailing the "runners-up" in an auction about a similar listing; this could violate ebay's spam policy (see http://pages.ebay.com/help/spam_policy.html ). Also, the extra fee for having a 10-day auction is just 10 cents.

Ending times on ebay can make a difference - Sunday nights are very popular. The time of day you start your auction is the same time that it will end - the day depends upon which you select (I usually use 7 days). When possible, I like to have auctions end between 9- 11p EST, which gives users on both coasts a chance to get home from work & participate. I had a lot of luck last year by having women's clothing auctions end during Monday Night Football, but bids would drop during Thursday nights because my potential buyers were all watching Survivor. :)

-- Reghan (reghan@columbus.rr.com), October 22, 2001.

Good Pictures make all the difference in the world. It could mean the getting $10 or $100. You would really be suprised what people will buy. I have some old garden standby flowers that grow, grow and grow. I play up the fact that they are "lazy gardeners" plants, great for beginners and the business person who wants pretty flowers without the fuss and time spent. Odd seeds collected sell. Even if you only get a dollar it's extra money and the seeds that would normally fall in your yard cost nothing. I always stop at yard sales and auctions. Never know what you will find. Last year I bought an old saddle for $25. Sold it for over $2,300! Rebuilt my very sad porch with the money. No way I would have been able to do it otherwise. I love it. I work on my time and my terms. If I want to spend the day with my family I can. No time clocks to punch.

-- Sue in the North (fostesky@cyberportal.net), October 22, 2001.

Ken,

Seeing as you have so many blacksmith tools for sale at ebay, perhaps you would like to help a gentleman who recently posted a question as to the value of his anvil. I tried but I don't feel all that qualified, as I am sure, you are.

Thanks, and I am going back to see what you have.

-- Glenn (gj_usa1@yahoo.com), October 22, 2001.

Hey Ken,

I looked at some of your stuff of closed auctions. How come some people bid against themselves? Like on the dishes poster, gary bid 5.00, then bid 7.00 against his own 5.00. That's what it looks like anyway on the bid history.

I have soooo much stuff here I could sell. Old coins, lots of them. (I used to run an ice cream truck in AZ!) and about 200 very old postcards (my mom belonged to a post-card club in the 20's and 30's), and all our crafts we do. I've always knew I should do Ebay, but never really have any time to just do it, or research how much I should start bids for.

You all sound like you do so well. But how much time do you spend driving to the P.O.? It's like a 40 minute at least round trip for me, plus a couple dollars gas for my truck. Do you wait, and just go to the P.O. like once a week? It's too far for me to even walk to my mailbox, and anyways I wouldn't trust putting anything in it to go out. I do have a very good postal scale (for worming pups) and I suppose if I had allot of stamps on hand, Steve could drop the items in the blue mailboxes if they would fit. What do you all do?

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), October 23, 2001.

Glenn:

Used anvils sell for $1 to $2 per pound depending on condition.

Cindy:

On the bidding one of two things might have happened. You can bid yourself up. Say you bid $5, then later decide you would go $7. You basically raise your own bid. The second is a previous bidder left a proxy bid. Say they bid $5, but would go as high as $25. The system would accept the $5 bid and keep the other $20 in reserve. Other bidders have to top this proxy amount.

On listings, you can also leave what is known as a reserve bid. Say you won't take less than $40 for the item, but want to start the item off lower to get bidder fever going. Unless someone bids the reserve amount there will be no sale. I don't do this. I just set the opening bid at the lowest I'm willing to go and let it go from there. Reserve bidding also gives the seller a bit of leeway in that the last bid may have been $39 and they would be willing to accept that. They can contact the highest bidder for a private sale. However, here, eBay will not provide assistance for a bad sale.

Another feature is "Sell it Now". You can start an auction off at say $5, but indicate you will sell it now for $15. If someone bids the $15, the auction ends. If the first bid is lower, the sell it now option ends and the auction will run its course.

After you have submitted a listing you are allowed to change certain thing, such as payment method, prior to the first bid. You cannot change price, length of auction and a couple of other things. After a bid you can only add to your item description.

I sell in batches, so payments come in batches (most over two days). I can then make one trip in to the Post Office. For delayed payments, I figure they were in no hurry to get the money to me, so I'll just wait until the next time I go into town.

You can arrange for the post office to pick up stamped packages. It is a fixed amount regardless of the number.

In these times, I doubt I would put on a lot of stamps on a package and deposit it in a mailbox (which was the method Ted Kazinski used to mail his mail bombs). The route carrier may report it as a suspicious package. Talk to your post office about this. Perhaps you can rent one of those machines to where you pay in advance and the machine will print out a label with the proper amount of postage.

You can just indicate in your description you are not convenient to the post office and shipments will be made the next time you get into town. I'm only about ten minutes from the post office so it is not a problem for me. I do send out some lightweight stuff through the mailbox.

If you send a lot of priority mail, the post office will give you free shipping material, such as boxes and tape. The route carrier may even deliver it for you.

I make most of my own boxes. If I cut a two-pack carton in half sideways, it can be made into just the size box I need. I use mostly duct tape to secure the package.

Record keeping can be a bit of a problem. I ask buyers to send me their shipping address to determine postage. I then prepare a 3" x 5" card with my return address stamp, their address, what the item is they bought and their e-mail address. By the time payment is received, their package is ready to go. After a group of auctions close, I'll print out the list and use it as a worksheet on which I indicate shipping weight, when I receive payment, the buyer's e-mail and shipping address and if I have left positive feedback.

When I do receive payment I send them an e-mail to that effect and let them know when the item will be shipping.

This is a draft buyer notification I'm working on. Notice I don't use delivery confirmation notices, even though the buyer would pay for it. It says unless they buy insurance, I'm not responsible for lost or damaged shipments.

Thank you for your purchase over eBay. In order to determine what the shipping costs will be, please do the following by return e-mail:

Provide your full shipping address.

Estimate shipping weight is pounds. Go to www.usps.com, Compute Postage and then determine what shipping costs will be by category from zip code 37185 to your zip code.

For packages over two pounds, indicate if you want it sent Priority Mail or Parcel Post. With Priority Mail you should have it within a week of shipment. With Parcel Post it could take a couple of weeks. USPS seems to be very inconsistent on delivery times for Parcel Post.

Indicate if you want insurance. It would be $1.10 for up to $50 or $2.00 for $50.01 to $100. Unless you want insurance, I can assume no responsibility for lost or damaged shipments. I securely box them up, but the gorilla who use to test Samsonite luggage now works for the USPS. Old joke: At USPS fragile means toss underhanded. Here the insurance cost is basically worth it as insured mail is handled more carefully than uninsured mail, since USPS knows they can end up paying for damage. A good compromise may be insured parcel post.

There is no handling charge – just my cost of shipment.

Return e-mail can be as simple as:

John Q. Public 555 Main Street Anywhere, Any state, 55555

Send priority mail, no insurance. Or – Send Parcel Post, insure for up to $50.

I will then get back to you to confirm actual shipping charges.

On payment, I will ship out within two working days if a money order is provided. For a personal check, I will look at your feedback rating and determine if I want to hold shipment until the check clears. Basically if you have a good (positive) feedback rating, a personal check will be treated as if it were a money order. I do not accept electronic payment, such as PayPal, or credit card charges.

Occasionally someone will send me payment via overnight express. Really no need to do so. Send it either insured or certified will expedite receipt of payment far cheaper.

Ken Scharabok 1645 West Blue Creek Road Waverly, TN 37185

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 23, 2001.

Thanks Ken,

I'm gonna check it out some more. I spent allot of time over there this morning. A person could get lost over there, there's sooo much stuff. Now I gotta go thru all my Susan B Anthonys, some were very high and some weren't even bid on. I'll have to check all the dates. Your post explained allot about shipping too. Maybe if I do it in small batches I can handle it. I'm allready so busy on the PC, but this sounds like a very good thing for me.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), October 23, 2001.

Hi all..

A friend shared with me the link to this conversation and I have enjoyed reading everybody's thoughts and experiences. I have a few thoughts to share about my evolution on ebay. I have been selling online for just over a year now, didn't do to much during the summer, as the garden and sun occupied my time and interests. As the weather changes and we feel financial pinches in our family of 6, I feel the need to produce some quick cash.

I saved items that were season specific last spring, late winter and just brought them out. I am setting spring things aside that just won't bring much money right now, but will bring top dollar later. If you are able to set up this kind of system, it is worthwhile.

For me, the big time consumption has been getting the listings up. I have tried several things. Auction programs where you paste in a clipboard of your html ad into ebays listing page, or just composing it on the spot. But there are many things to coordinate and it can be sticky... time consuming. For awhile, I used my internet provider for image hosting for no charge and then put it into the add. To do that you would link an image like this: That way you don't have to upload images on the listing pages and pay for it, but can put them direct into your ad description. I found that useful for awhile.

The real times saver is what I finally have just discovered a quick way of listing/relisting auctions and managing images by auctionwatch.com. They have free software that makes it easy to list auctions without dealing with ebays hassle of a listing screen. You can compose them all offline and send them up in a batch. This may look complicated, but if you want to save time/money, this is the way to go.. take the time, do the tutorials, etc.

It is really an evolutionary process. I started with books and videos on half.com, then moved to ebay. I would love to find my perfect market niche..I have not found a reliable item that I can buy cheap, sell high, all the time, easy to list? Anybody know that magic item??

I kind of like to sell regional items that are popular, and sometimes available in our garage sale market. Such as Hanna Andersson clothes, Columbia Sportswear, etc. Items that hold their value. It is possible to create cash/credit to buy items that have a higher resale value... for instance, buy a bunch of books at a garage sale super cheap.. take to a used book shop and buy out their nice hardcover, esoteric, educational, etc. books.. those will sell where paperbacks won't. SAme with clothes. Buy cheap, take to a resale, use your credit to buy higher end items. This really works. Clothes for nursing mothers sell especially well... these moms have limited budgets, are at home with their babies, and they are on the computer. The best label is Motherwear. Do a search, scavenge the resale shops, you will see! I am sure there is a mom at home reading this that could benefit from this idea in their area. I make regular rounds of certain shops that have these items.

I love paypal. I have a paypal card, I use it as a debit card and it makes auction income instantly available. The fees are very minimal if you use your card with business acct. as money spent gets a cashback bonus, and balances most all the fees.

I prefer 5 day auctions on things I know will sell for a good price. Hot items will sell on 3 day auctions at great prices. I sell 7 or 10 days on things that will be harder to sell.

Digital camera was a worthy investment. It was a process learning to use it and work with images. I don't use it in real life much.. mostly for ebay.

Post office. I have a good relation w/my carrier. She is fine to pick up pkgs. You can buy postage online. I just rented a machine to weigh/print postage to totally eliminate trips altogether. I have a tub I put pkgs under by my gate and leave the carrier a notet that there are packages to pick up. These days they are asking to note contents on outside of package. Partly because I ship a lot of plants from trading online at www.gardenweb.com and they can be quite leaky.

Brown paper bags work great for pkg'ing books/ videos.. ask people to save materials for shipping. Many will oblige you. USPS priority boxes ordered free online make shipping very easy. Learn your postage rates.

Streamline, get systems down, find your own personal rhythm. I am getting to the point where I can sell much with a minimum of time/effort on ebay.

BTW, I have never been burned and have had and given many generous gifts/ surprised on ebay and online in general.. I have met the world and have been comforted and supported by the openhearted, genuinely caring people out there. Ebay has really broadened my life... it's fun, too! My kids adore it. It's like a friend.. ebay and google.... oh.. better get me to bed.. : )

Peace, Meagan.... In the Woods, OR aka: moonsaga on ebay

-- Meagan Fuson (fusons@ados.com), October 25, 2001.

If I were to buy a digital camera, I would go with the model which takes images directly to a 3 1/2" diskette. That way you don't have to fool with extra software or connecting the camera to the PC. Fairly idiot proof.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 26, 2001.

Wow! Some great tips! I wanted to clarify an earlier post though. You can add free counters right when you list your item. Or you can add them through Andale.com. Its worked for me so far. Also Paypal is changing their terms again on November 6th, so be sure to check them out. I think the changes apply only to the minimum membership, but I'm a premiere member. For premiere members, the only fees I am being charged are for payments that are funded by a credit card. All other payments (like from an already funded Paypal account, bank account or debit card) are still free *crossing fingers that THAT doesn't change*.

-- Lisa in WI (lehman16NOSPAM@vbe.com), October 26, 2001.

I didn't realize you could post html in these posts! My image html came through as a bad pic. Once again, you do it as such: with the url link between the = and the > symbols, with no extra spacing. Very easy, save your fees for pics if you like, or add extras after the first one free component. There is a link on ebay for writing html (which I find an intimidating idea), truthfully, the image one is about the only one I ever use, and it is great. If anybody wants the link, I can find it.

Counters are handy, I like the program I am using that enters them automatically. Makes one less thing to hassle with.

Digital camera with a diskette sounds nice, but I do like that when I load in my pics, it is great to choose the best ones to keep... gives me more liberty with a camera than I could imagine.. because they can just be erased. I generally work with mine plugged in as they use batteries heavily, even the good rechargeds don't last too long.

I hope Paypal stays market friendly. I know they have been in heavy competition with Billpoint, so that should be some incentive.

take care, meagan

-- meagan fuson (fusons@ados.com), October 26, 2001.