It has been a little while since I dove into the tumultuous sea of Ebay as a buyer or a seller. Back in the day, I found that the key was, unless you had something rare (of course it couldn’t be SO rare that no one knew it existed so no one could be looking for it), you really had to market yourself and specialize. I did respectable, if not gangbuster business.
However, I always envied the person with a feedback of “5″ who sold a plastic container of hurricane wind or a haunted walking stick for gobs of money. Why did I spend so much time retouching photos of condiment receptacles with the meticulousness of a graduation photo photographer erasing zits? My hours seemed like a waste.
Now, the big controversy is that Ebay has done away with allowing checks and money orders as a payment method. Much rending of garments has happened. I will say, as a seller, my best customers were those that sent checks and money order, but on the other hand, sometimes they took forever to get. It was easy for someone to say “the check is in the mail” and then it never comes. Meanwhile, you could have sold the item 10 times over. The change in policy may actually speed up the process for a seller, but there is still a kink. There is a rating system for speed of delivery, and if a seller cautiously waits a few extra days for a check to clear, they could risk getting a low rating. These days, it seems that unless the buyer is reasonable, if you don’t practically teleport the item, you could risk getting knocked down a peg. As it always seems with changes, people stomp their feet and threaten to leave and come right back, or a whole new crop of people give it a whirl, so it doesn’t seem to cause Ebay to pause and reflect.
Overall, if you are thinking about Selling on eBay, I recommend a few things
- Market yourself, spread the word about your own auctions
- If you plan on doing it for a length of time, specialize so that you can market to past customers for repeat business
- Don’t waste your time with $5 items on ebay.
- Or come up with something really bizarre. Get out the toaster, or toss that $1 garage sale plate against the wall and see whose profile the broken edge looks like!
- Oh, and you better like to gamble.
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