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Top Tips and Some Pitfalls to Avoid - View Movie

This sections includes

1. Top Buying Tips and Some Pitfalls to Avoid
2. Top Selling Tips and Some Pitfalls to Avoid

Top Buying Tips and Some Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Don't get addicted and/or competitive! Avoid bidding 'just to win'. Avoid spending hours browsing.
2. Decide how much you are willing to pay. Let eBay bid for you by entering the highest amount you are willing to pay and then let the proxy bidding feature handle the rest.
3. Don't forget that the price displayed against a listed item does not include postage. Check the postage costs for an item before you bid on it.
4. Get to know the seller. Check the sellers feedback. Ask a question about the item. A good seller will reply with the information you need. Take a look at the other goods they are selling - do they appear genuine?
5. Don't pay over the odds. Do your research and see how much the item would cost elsewhere - on the web and on the high street. Just because it is on eBay, it is not necessarily a bargain.
6. Don't bid on something you don't intend to buy. If you bid on multiple similar items you could end up winning them all!
7. Use a safe method of payment. Sending a cheque is unlikely to offer you the same cover as using a credit card or Paypal. PayPal's Seller Protection programme also protects sellers from fraudulent chargebacks. Check eBay's Payment Methods summary.
8. If the goods you get are not what you were lead to believe then communicate with the seller. If you cannot resolve the dispute with the seller then use eBay's Item Not Received or Significantly Not as Described process.
9. Be caution in email correspondence. Do not disclose personal/financial details via email.
10. Check the eBay's Safety Centre and report any problems that you have.

Top Selling Tips and Some Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Make sure your postage and packing costs are realistic in that they cover your costs but do not become a source of profit. Excessive postage costs could lose you the sale. Think carefully about your postage costs outside the UK. Do your research and find out the costs before listing an item. You may consider only selling within the UK and Europe. If you can't deliver then don't. There might be a local market to exploit or if the item is really desirable your buyers may collect. Also, consider the use of postage insurance for expensive goods.
2. When you give the item a title use keywords that buyers are likely to search under. Avoid using meaningless terms such as 'bargain', 'fantastic', 'nice', 'must buy' etc that provide the buyer with no information about the item.
3. When listing items the procedure of choosing category, entering text, sorting out images can be very time consuming. But the more time you spend on producing a decent advert the more likely your item is to sell. It may help if you do listings of similar items at the same time as this should speed up the process. If you get no bids on an item ask yourself why. Is it in the right category? Is the starting price to high? Is the title to ambiguous? Was the auction too short? Do you need a better description and/or image? Do not mislead buyers with the description/image of the item you are selling.
4. Consider extending auctions to 10 days to give buyers more opportunity to bid. Once a bidding war starts the longer the item is listed the higher the price you are likely to attain.
5. If your sales expand you will need to think about having some sensible record keeping system as you would for any other part of your business.
6. Always check buyers feedback and remember to add feedback on your buyers. If you do so they are more likely to add feedback on you.
7. Set yourself a time limit for a successful bidder to pay up. Remember they may be unable to pick up their email for any number of reasons. Send a polite reminder indicating that the item will be re-offered for sale after a set period.
8. By careful which payment methods you wish to receive. Research the options available.
9. Do not send goods until you have received payment!
10. When a problem does occur give it urgent attention to avoid escalation. It is easy for people to get nasty/abusive hiding behind the anonymity of the web. Don't escalate it - sort it out.