I recently created a new eBay account through which to sell extra singles. I quickly realized that I have been spoiled with the options available on my other account as a top rated seller (international shipping, promoted listings, instant published listings, etc.).
For anyone who has built an eBay account from the ground up, what has your strategy been to establish credibility with eBay? Lots of transactions? Feedback from purchases? Just time on the platform? I am grateful to here your responses. Thanks!
I would say to sell at lower prices to build out your feedback numbers, but when i see a card go for lower from a 0 feedback seller, i normally just spend a few bucks more from a trusted seller… (sorry i’m part of your problem). Though I would still recommend this.
I would say include nice notes/extra bulk to incite buyers to leave feedback.
Also, last thought, having a reputation as a great buyer can also help!
Maybe funnel some of your regulars towards the new account? I agree with @boogus though; it’s a bit of a long, somewhat painful path. You’ve done it once, so I imagine you’ll have no problem getting the second account up and running.
It’s mostly just a numbers game as you pointed out. The more transactions, the more feedback. However, when I started I wrote short, handwritten notes to thank the buyer. It seemed to work out pretty well and I got a decent number of reviews/feedbacks that way.
Making a few purchases on the account helps to get above that 0 feedback threshold
Besides that just messaging when people do Purchase requesting feedback & throwing in business cards in your orders/asking for feedback
I’d say you can throw In 2 business cards from your main eBay account with something like “check out my 2nd account for singles” etc but it’s a bit of a grind to say the least
I recently created a new eBay Account myself to use for everything that I sell outside of Pokemon Cards. I’d forgotten how tough it was starting-off from “0”!!!
Unfortunately, there’s really not much that you can do to build-up credibility with eBay outside of the usual sales, positive feedback, and just giving it time… I usually send everyone who purchases something under my new account a nice note thanking them for the purchase and asking them to leave positive feedback in-order to help my eBay Metrics - never realized how few eBay Buyers actually leave Feedback! LOL
The one thing that you can do in-order to help with your listings / sales is link the selling limit’s of your main account with your secondary account. My OSP Selling Limits are basically non-existent; but, very restrictive on my New Account. So, I linked the two accounts together and now have the same Selling Limits (all other limitations still apply). You need to call eBay to do this though and the Rep. that I spoke with originally said that this wasn’t possible; but, I knew it was; so, I asked if they could look into it further and within a couple of minutes on-hold, they got back to me saying that I was all-set.
I didn’t realize there were such heavy restrictions on new accounts. I knew there was a selling limit but I had no idea about that other stuff. I’ve been on eBay for so long I’ve either always had it or have just forgotten what it was like not to.
I suppose one good thing about selling singles is that it’s a lot of listings that sell quickly so you can more rapidly generate sales and feedback compared to most people. I grew my account quite a bit during the pandemic by selling a friend’s singles for them after they opened their booster boxes. So at least the nature of the hobby promotes faster account growth.
I have my secondary account set-up for weekly payouts and haven’t had any issues with delayed payments as far as I know. I haven’t been good about keeping track of that account as closely as I do with OSP Account; so, I may have missed a couple small delays (1-2 Days) - definitely haven’t had any substantial delays with payments.
Follow up after sales with a personalized message making sure everything went well and asking if they could take a minute of free time when they get a chance to leave positive feedback. Don’t have it be a generic sounding message though.
Grab cheap singles from your bulk pile and throw them up for auction at $.99 starting price. Include a note that says something like “Thank you for your purchase, please consider leaving feedback” with each envelope.
Assuming your cost basis on these cards is near 0 and you are shipping with ebay standard envelope, it’s a nearly free way to get additional feedback on your account.
Start small. Sell “normie” items/cards and random stuff around your house you don’t need. Shipping same say as sale really makes people happy. Also, send in a quick hand written note stating that you appreciate the business and it would help if they left feedback so you can sell higher end items.
I know for me whenever I get a quick note in my packages or even surprise freebies, I always leave feedback which increases sell credibility.
Thank you everyone for the advice! I’ve set up about 100 auctions of low-value cards for this weekend and have also gotten a few feedbacks through purchasing supplies through that account. Hopefully, a few rounds of mass auctions will be enough to get me up and running. Thanks again
