Beretta.net

hey guys i have decided to give ebay a shot to sell some stuff laying around the house. mostly star wars collectibles so its all rather small. i have my account set up and have a few prepaid shipping boxes from usps.

are there any little nuggets of info or tips i should know to avoid it turning into a clusterfudge? or is it even worth messing with?

Well.

Since you are a new seller, you may have a harder time at first with getting buyers/bids right away, but here are the basic tips to follow:

Keep it simple. State the facts about the items, have good pictures, and be clear with wording and spelling, it majorly helps the sales. Make sure your listing title contains the information about the product that relates and what people might search ebay looking for. You often do not need the second title. State whether you want to offer returns or refunds or not. Read the info on listing costs, as your starting bid price governs how the pricing goes. .99 then 1.00 up to 24.99, then 25.00 up to 49.99, etc. I often list things that I know won't go well or that I know will get lots of bidding attention at .99 and just let the buyers go nuts, but I will sometimes throw a buy it now price with it again staying to the same pricing format. Example, I may list a busted laptop for parts, start the price at .99 and have a buy it now for 49.99. The reason for those price settings is it also changes the cost of using that feature. If I put 50 I pay more in ebay fees. READ the fees info, so you know what the costs will be. Charge at least 5 bucks on top of the shipping with larger stuff, to cover packaging, and it will cover you in the event of a price difference between what was quoted and what it ends up being, trust me.

Ship the item the same day you get payment if possible, or the very next day. Trust me, shipping times are sometimes more important than the item itself. I often line up the packaging even before I setup the listing, so its ready to drop, tape, and send.

Don't use the online ebay to buy your shipping, unless you have no local UPS or USPS office. Trust me, you save money on the shipping as that is where I used to get burnt. These days, I put a flat rate cost for UPS and then ship it with my local drop store. Use USPS for small, lighter items and UPS for larger or more expensive stuff. Always have tracking and insurance on your item for what it cost the buyer. Always pack it well to prevent breaking.

Good luck.

should i list "free shipping" as a catcher for items that will fit into my prepaid shipping boxes from the post office?

DTMAce wrote:Don't use the online ebay to buy your shipping, unless you have no local UPS or USPS office. Trust me, you save money on the shipping as that is where I used to get burnt. These days, I put a flat rate cost for UPS and then ship it with my local drop store. Use USPS for small, lighter items and UPS for larger or more expensive stuff. Always have tracking and insurance on your item for what it cost the buyer. Always pack it well to prevent breaking.

There are no savings buying your postage at a post office or UPS store. You pay more.
Online shipping through Ebay or USPS.com give you free tracking.

Ebay gives the corporate discount rate EXCEPT for those ripoff flat rate boxes. You will only come out ahead if you ship heavier items that fit into those. E.G. A GM PCM works well in a flat rate.

Sometimes Parcel Post is more expensive than Flat Rate. Often Priority mail by weight is a few cents away.

My Tips
Anything 13oz and less is 1st class. 1st class is trackable and usually inexpensive.
Never use boxes that contained or are marked for food, fluids and toiletries...ESP Tampons. Save the Tampon boxes for the annoying buyers.
Ebay's shipping time is ridiculous. Make sure you add 2 days if not 3 to your listing. I would recommend NOT setting to 1. Apparently shipping times are often unclear between when an item is expected and what is an estimate. A buyer on the opposite end of country gets the same time estimate as someone in your zip code.
Example. 1/13/2011 is a Friday. A buyer buys something at 8pm. Ebay's shipping calculator will show buyer will recieve it earliest Tuesday 1/15/2011 with standard/expedited shipping. Problem is that 1/14/2011 is a Federal holiday. If you live in Chicago and buyer is in Oregon. Realistic time is shipment goes out Tuesday. and buyer receives Friday 1/20/2011. Some people ship Saturday. I don't always have this luxury.
Know your parameters for Overseas shipping, A Return policy and most importantly sell your item for the proper price. If you have an item worth $130, but there are few buyers and you start it at $9.99 you may sell it for only $9.99...then again you may get $180 for it. Know your market and in todays ebay its perfectly fine to start an item for what you want to get for it.
Overseas shipping there is a small flat rate box that is nice it averages $13 and has only 1 document.

Ebay allows for up to 50 free listings a month. Sometimes promotions allow for free listings days. As of 2010 ebay has sales caps that need to be increased over time.

You will run into many good ebayers. They are polite, understanding, eager to get your items. You will also find the rudest, scamming, dumb, thuggish, creatures out there. Some that are bored and looking for trouble.

If you are new, do not accept bids off ebay.

If you ship to addresses that are not given to you buy Paypal or Ebay you are NOT COVERED by seller protection. If you ship without a tracking number you are NOT COVERED by seller protection. This applies to overseas shipping of 1st class.

Shipping Insurance covers the SELLER not the Buyer. If am item shows up broken or missing the seller is at fault. UPS has first $100 included with purchase. USPS insurance is extra every time. I ship higher value breakable items with UPS. FedEx offers a Home Service...I personally don't like them at this time. Horrible business hours



I personally run 3 online stores...and assist a partner with a 4th as a sales coach.

themadness wrote:should i list "free shipping" as a catcher for items that will fit into my prepaid shipping boxes from the post office?

read my info about flat rate boxes.

Flat rate are $10.50

A priority mail item that is 1lb 7oz might only be less than $8

ErichZ26 wrote: There are no savings buying your postage at a post office or UPS store. You pay more.

Not here I don't. I have been burned so many times using the online UPS shipping auto calculator and their pay and ship label setup. I ended up saving 5-7 bucks per shipment using the local ups store/drop off. Example. Last laptop I sold on ebay, the calculator put their shipment at about 18 bucks. I shipped it from the ups store for just over 11. I have shipped beretta rear sail panels to Kansas for less than 20. So don't tell me I will pay more. I have been using ebay for 12 years. I would like to think I have a fair idea of what to do. lol

Sounds like you do use it more than I do, that's fine. Advice is free, but not all advice is wrong.

DTMAce wrote:

ErichZ26 wrote: There are no savings buying your postage at a post office or UPS store. You pay more.

Not here I don't. I have been burned so many times using the online UPS shipping auto calculator and their pay and ship label setup. I ended up saving 5-7 bucks per shipment using the local ups store/drop off. Example. Last laptop I sold on ebay, the calculator put their shipment at about 18 bucks. I shipped it from the ups store for just over 11. I have shipped beretta rear sail panels to Kansas for less than 20. So don't tell me I will pay more. I have been using ebay for 12 years. I would like to think I have a fair idea of what to do. lol

Sounds like you do use it more than I do, that's fine. Advice is free, but not all advice is wrong.

First off there are UPS Stores which are private owned and once Mailboxes ETC... Then there are UPS Corporate Depots. If you are taking your laptops to a Private owned UPS Store the store clerk is giving you part of their discount. I have received this from a store i know because i was dropping my packages processed from my business. UPS stores get a $1(might be more now) per package for whatever you process at home and bring over. Sometimes i get screwed on shipping with oversize. I will send a dash for example and process my order via online. The order will go through and 1" more at the UPS facility by some random checker. The reality is that a piece of cardboard is sticking up. Next thing i know i get a $60 surcharge in my bill for my package. This cannot happen with retail store location...nor at a Corporate. I have seen Corporate and Retails +1 on dimensions.

There will be no difference in price between a UPS Corporate and if you are a basic seller on ebay/paypal. Powersellers get a discount on shipping of up to 32% from the retail prices.
UPS offers discounts on your account if you are high volume. You can get a standalone account with UPS and negotiate a deal with them...then link it to your Paypal account. Keep in mind you may pay more if you do not make the volume and pay for daily pickup. For years i did my shipping this way.

Lately i have been using USPS. You mention nothing about this in your response. You do not get a dicount at the counter at a USPS Post Office. You only get discounts online. All ebayers get the discounts. There may even be more discounts(i have yet to see this).

When you are a seller on Ebay. I mentioned Powersellers get the discount with UPS. If you are a Top Rated Seller you qualify for reducing your % fee's paid on shipping. Keep in mind that Ebay takes fee's as of laster year off your Shipping amount. Your high DSR score in shipping thus combined with Top Rated Seller will reduce this. Keep in mind this is on top of fee's taken out of your shipping from Paypal. Yes, those bastards are double dippers.


Tell you what...next week i'll test this and ship the same thing 3 different ways. 1. through my ebay checkout and my UPS account. 2. Corporate UPS 3. UPS Store.

Its not a big deal you know. I was just saying, that not all things are =

lol

With a setup UPS account through Paypal you can order supplies from UPS. There are 2 plain boxes that are called security boxes.
These are perfect for smaller items. These come in cases of 50 and are FREE.
UPS Boxes
SMALL 010195218 aprox size 9x6x3
LARGE 010195217 aprox size 12x9x3

Listen to Erich...

Just don't let him use your account. Just don't.