(About 1,171 words)
SELLING ON EBAY
By Dorothy Alexander, Executive Member
Sarnia Computer User’s Group, Canada
www.scug.ca
The first thing you should do is to look at the eBay site http:\\www.ebay.com (American site) or http:\\www.ebay.ca (Canadian site) and register with them. When you start selling on eBay they credit you with $10.00 to your eBay account to get you started. You then need to reimburse them using any of the following; credit card, money order, cheque or direct bank withdrawal from your account. You will need to decide on a user name and password with the auction house.
If you are planning to use BidPay.com (Western Union) it is advisable to register with them. If you are going to use PayPal you need to register with them also.
You should look to see what your type of item is selling for and see if there is an interest in it. Make a note of the category that the other items were listed under that were similar to your item you wish to sell. For additional fees you can list in more than one area.
Take a picture of the item. It is a known fact that it sells better with a photo. You are allowed one photo (not be over 250 kb) of each item with Ebay. Each additional photo costs five cents. After you take your photo you should scan it, remove unwanted backgrounds and size it. Make sure to save the photo. Save to
an appropriate folder for easy access. I have a digital photo folder and a sub folder called “Ebay photos”.
You are now ready to log onto Ebay. You need both your user name and password to do so. Location prompt is next. You can enter Sarnia or simply say Ontario or name of choice. The next prompt asks if you want it listed regionally. The reply is “DO NOT LIST REGIONALLY”. The reason is that this is for U.S.A. not Canada. Then the next thing you type in is Canada in the appropriate box. Now you indicate how many days the sale will be. You can choose 3, 5 or 7days. There is an extra 0.10 charge for a 10-day advertisement. Mark if you want a RESERVE price on item and enter the amount. There is a charge for this (see below). Sometimes this is a good idea for an expensive item that you definitely have a certain price in mind that you want to get. If there is a reserve price put on it you can start it low to get the bidding going. If you do not want to put on a reserve price start it just around the amount of money you would be willing to sell the item for: e.g. $49.99 if you wanted at least $50.00 for item.
The rates to list on eBay are:
Listing Price Cost to list
01 to $0.99 0.30
$1.00 to $9.99 0.35
$10.00 to 24.99 0.60
$25.00 to $49.99 1.20
$50.00 to $199.99 2.40
$200.00 to $499.00 3.60
$500.00 and up 4.80
Cost to put on Reserve
$1.00 to $49.99 1.00
$50.00 to $199.99 2.00
$200.00 & up 1% of reserve
Commissions are charged on the selling price and are as follows:
$25.00 or less 5.25%
$25.00 to $1000.00 5.25% on 1st $25.00 then 2.75% on balance
$1000.00 plus 5.25% on 1st $25.00, 2.75% on balance up to $1000.00 then l.5% on balance above $1000.00
Give your item a title. The aim here is to make it so attractive that everyone will read it! Decide how you want to word your advertisement. Your description should be quite detailed as to what you have to offer. Next choose the category best suited for the item you wish to sell. Make sure to totally describe the item (including flaws, tears, cuts (in other words everything). If it is a garment it is a good idea to measure it, even if you know the size. Give details as to how you want payment for the goods and instructions in regard to shipping and handling. State if you will accept checks or what kind of payment you wish. All items are paid for in U.S.A. dollars unless you go on EBay Canada or specify otherwise. Make this as descriptive as possible to avoid the goods being returned for misrepresentation. You can choose font size, colour, etc. when you are doing this. This is all loaded into your ad with a prompt to see if you wish to check it for spelling or errors BEFORE completing the ad.
These are the additional charges for special services
Home Page featured $99.95
Feature Plus in category 19.95
Highlight 5.00
Bold 2.00
Gallery 19.95
Buy It Now 0.05
The next question you need to answer would be if you want a counter on your ad. There is no charge for this and it lets you know how many people have actually looked at your item. Then you will be asked if you will accept escrow. I do not personally. I indicate that I will ship worldwide as I have a lot of my sales
go abroad. After you have filled out all the areas necessary you can get a preview of what you have filed in to confirm that you are happy with it. After all is OK click continue. They will tell you how much money you have left in your account before you click that you do in fact want your ad to be activated.
Now a screen will come up telling you were your ad is located and announcing that the sale has begun. You will get an e-mail, almost immediately, giving you the status of your account and listing cost of the ad that you just placed.
When your sale has been completed the buyer can put in a FEEDBACK for you, either Positive or Negative. You will see a star following your name. The colour changes at different levels and the number shows that there has been that many feedbacks entered for you. Most of the customers do this, but occasionally some do not. Of course you strive to get a positive feedback and not a negative one. New sellers have sunglasses after their name alerting the public that they are new to Ebay.
You can revise your ad but it has to be done prior to anyone making a bid on it. You can add additional information that you may have forgotten, at any time. It will be posted beneath your description in the ad.
If you do not sell an item you can re-list it for the sale again. If it sells the second time you get this listing fee returned to you.
GOOD LUCK! Have fun.
There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.