New to Selling on eBay: Tips Wanted

[dsteller]

@wallstreetgamer

Above are all very helpful. One thing I’d add: I personally avoid stating the condition of the card as “Mint” “NM” etc. since it is very subjective. When I first started posting on eBay I had some buyers that disagreed with my assessment and it got troublesome so now I just take good clear pictures (always use the 12 max - different angles etc.) and let buyers use their own judgement. Cards might not sell for as much but it’s the right way to go imo.

That’s a very fair point. I think the folks who are picking those fights are the same who would open a package and claim that the package was empty - few and far between. If that’s the case, I don’t know of this would make the biggest difference seeing as difficult people wanting to be difficult will always be difficult!

[dsteller]

@buckna

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr_2WlBzUII

This is great! I watched all the way through and value the video format. I really appreciate it!

[lamplamp]

You’ve gotten a lot of great advice so the only thing I’ll add is this: Every card I have ever listed has eventually sold for the price I had wanted. If you do your research on the market and price items relatively fairly, things will eventually sell for what you’re asking. Don’t bother with the messages from people trying to lowball you, it will happen a lot, especially on bigger ticket items.

[dsteller]

@lamplamp

You’ve gotten a lot of great advice so the only thing I’ll add is this: Every card I have ever listed has eventually sold for the price I had wanted. If you do your research on the market and price items relatively fairly, things will eventually sell for what you’re asking. Don’t bother with the messages from people trying to lowball you, it will happen a lot, especially on bigger ticket items.

Really appreciate the support to stay faithful to my research and prices. Thanks so much

[tnhooper45]

@hypernova

copy/paste from previous post

My advice would be to learn every nook and cranny of eBay’s policies as soon as you possibly can. It will save you a lot of headache and a lot of heartache.

When new sellers learn about the ‘Item Not As Described’ policy, and how it can be used (and sometimes abused) to force a seller into accepting a return, they try to craft their listing to be as vague as possible in the hopes that eBay will somehow magically side with them if a customer were try to use this technique to force a return. This doesn’t work, and when a seller does this to intentionally hide damage via deceptive pics or vague listings, they’re just begging for a return. Be upfront about everything that’s going on with the item - deception is a long-term loser’s game.

Spend more than 5 cents on your packaging, and spend some time learning about the best way to package and ship your items. I’m not sure there’s a good reason why tape should ever be on the inside of a package, unless you’re selling tape. Rubber or plastic bands and cheap ribbon do the job just as well and make your customer’s experience opening whatever they bought 100x easier. Bubble mailers, cardboard, and card savers are staples when it comes to shipping pokemon cards. If you must absolutely use toploaders, wrap the toploader in a piece of printer paper, throw a rubber/plastic band around it to make sure it doesn’t come undone, and wedge it between two pieces of semi-thick cardboard. Toss it in a(n appropriately-sized) bubble mailer and you’re done. If the card you’re shipping is so low value that the cost of the above is too high, look into top-loader sized envelopes and non-machineable stamps.

If you ever send a card, by itself with no other protection, immediately delete your eBay selling account. Cheap is easy, but wrong when it comes to collectibles.

Factor your shipping into your price and offer free shipping.

The world’s full of sharks and scumbags. You will meet both if you sell long enough. Don’t let them get under your skin.

International shipping can be a headache, and international buyers almost universally hate the thing that makes it less of a headache: GSP. I can safely say that all of my international sales would have eventually sold domestically, but at the time I was willing to take the risk of shipping internationally without GSP. Each seller has to figure out what’s best for them when it comes to international buyers.

The buyer’s obligation to you as a seller is to pay for the item. Once they pay, leave the positive feedback. You can’t leave actual negative feedback anyway, and leaving negative comments in a positive feedback is against feedback policy and will be removed by customer support if the buyer requests it.

Contrary to popular belief, sellers do actually receive protection by eBay against fraudulent buyers. Make sure you adhere to the seller protection guidelines when shipping your item, e.g., >$750 items need signature confirmation. I highly recommend purchasing postage through eBay. When a buyer requests a return, accept the return, even if you’re getting scam vibes out the wazoo. Most of the time you will get the item you sent back in the same exact condition you sent it. For the few losers out there that try to pull a scam by sending back a different item, as long as you met all the requirements for seller protection, you will likely get paid out for the item. And the buyer will still likely get their money back as well. This can be a hard pill to swallow. If it’s pokemon-related, you can ask to have them added to the blacklist here on the forum.

Spend some time learning how to take good pictures, and invest in some cheap lights and stands to display your products. Better yet, buy a scanner - picture perfect lighting every single time. The Epson Perfection V550 is perfect. Presentation is big part of making the sale, and good pictures not only give the customer more information about what you’re selling, they also show that you’re a competent seller.

Also spend some time either finding an eBay description template or making your own to make your listing process easier and your listing stand out from the auto-generated description that you’ll find on 90% of eBay listings.

Given enough time, you may become quite sad at how much eBay and PayPal take out of your earnings. You will have to reconcile those feelings with the realization that listing your cards in almost any other medium would result in 99.9% fewer eyeballs on your products and much less money. Both are a necessary evil for selling your stuff.

Nailed it imo

[tnhooper45]

@alienlien

1. Ignore buyers that message you with “best price?” or “whats the cheapest price?”, 99.99% of these messages are time wasters.

2. Don’t deal off ebay if you listed on ebay. If you list it on ebay, keep the transaction on ebay.

3. ALWAYS send with signature tracked shipping.

• Personally, insurance for the package is a coinflip for me. I heard horror stories of already opened packages received by buyer due to declared value (aka insurance). On the flip side, if item is lost during transit, you and the buyer are covered.

4. If you have “Offers” turned out and receive an offer, I screen possible buyers by checking their feedback. (Fun Story: I told a potential buyer I didn’t want his business due to negative experiences from previous sale, said he reported me for discrimination)

5. I normally take a picture with the contents inside the packaging with address clearly visible and then a second picture of the fully wrapped package once processed by the post office.

6. Make sure to register for DN on ebay.

What’s DN mean (#6)?

[parkermrparker]

@dsteller

@parkermrparker

Assess your risk tolerance and decide the threshold you will send stuff via lettermail for minimal costs. I think usa also has a very low cost tracked lettermail option, like $1 i heard.

Canada is a different story

I appreciate this consideration - I am thinking that applying a universal good service, regardless of price, is important. I have purchased $2 cards before which I really cared about which were ruined by lettermail before - I personally would opt to pay more to get a safe delivery. But if this is that big of a factor for others, I’d love to hear.

You can spend 50% more on shipping costs to save a 2.5% wastage cost, but if you think its worth it then go ahead. Do you understand what i mean ?

[smokemon]

If you do an auction strategically plan the ending time to finish on a Saturday or Sunday at around 9 pm. I’ve seen too many auctions from accounts based in US undersell because it ended on a Tuesday at 11:38 AM.

Something that amplifies my experience is a thoughtfully packaged box. One of the best packaging methods I’ve seen was from Syuju017. He used thin pieces of cut wood to reinforce his packages. This is over the top but it was a tip I have adopted.

I always take pictures of the product I’m sending next to the shipping label. It’s a quick and easy way to document your sales.

[dsteller]

@parkermrparker

@dsteller

I appreciate this consideration - I am thinking that applying a universal good service, regardless of price, is important. I have purchased $2 cards before which I really cared about which were ruined by lettermail before - I personally would opt to pay more to get a safe delivery. But if this is that big of a factor for others, I’d love to hear.

You can spend 50% more on shipping costs to save a 2.5% wastage cost, but if you think its worth it then go ahead. Do you understand what i mean ?

Yeah, I see what you’re saying - in the case of the $2 cards, you have a great point. But with more valuable items, I believe it’s safer to give a better safety of delivery.

[dsteller]

@smokemon

If you do an auction strategically plan the ending time to finish on a Saturday or Sunday at around 9 pm. I’ve seen too many auctions from accounts based in US undersell because it ended on a Tuesday at 11:38 AM.

Something that amplifies my experience is a thoughtfully packaged box. One of the best packaging methods I’ve seen was from Syuju017. He used thin pieces of cut wood to reinforce his packages. This is over the top but it was a tip I have adopted.

I always take pictures of the product I’m sending next to the shipping label. It’s a quick and easy way to document your sales.

That’s an interesting point that I hadn’t thought about before. I really appreciate this point about ending the auctions at certain time. That point resonated with me having missed items by unideal auction times.

I like the specialized box idea and I’m certain to invent some specialized and personalized way of packaging down the line

[parkermrparker]

@dsteller

@parkermrparker

You can spend 50% more on shipping costs to save a 2.5% wastage cost, but if you think its worth it then go ahead. Do you understand what i mean ?

Yeah, I see what you’re saying - in the case of the $2 cards, you have a great point. But with more valuable items, I believe it’s safer to give a better safety of delivery.

Yeah, its important you package the good stuff extra securely!