eBay Selling Success

Top tips from an expert eBay PowerSeller

Robert Pugh

• Publisher: Harriman House
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9780857192332
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Top tips from long-term PowerSeller and eBay expert Bob PughThe eBay marketplace can be daunting for the inexperienced seller and it can seem tough to go up against established PowerSellers. But it is possible for your business to compete successfully, and make a good profit, if you plan carefully, work efficiently and take the right approach.To help you on your way, Robert Pugh, author of the hugely popular eBay Business Handbook, has produced this collection of essential eBay tips. In this concise guide Robert - or Mollybol to the eBay community - reveals the techniques that have enabled him to become a successful and profitable seller over a period of seven years... and counting!Find out: - What to sell and where to find stock- How to structure your item descriptions- How to optimise your eBay shop for keyword-based search engines- Customer service and eBay etiquette that can make a huge differenceAnd lots more too!If you have made a start on eBay but are looking to take things to the next level and increase sales and maximise profits, this book will provide you with loads of useful ideas.

Save money wherever you can

Host your own pictures

Why pay eBay 12p for every extra picture you use when some simple HTML and an account with Photobucket (www.photobucket.com) can achieve the same result for free?

Just follow these easy steps:

1. Sign up with a free picture hosting website, such as Photobucket.
2. Follow their instructions for loading a picture on to the site, with Photobucket the green ‘upload’ button will allow you to find a picture on your computer and store it on the site.
3. Before you can load the extra picture(s) into a listing, it helps to have two internet browser windows open: one showing the item description that you are working on and the second with your free picture hosting site, so that you can see the picture you need.
4. To load your extra picture(s) into the listing, switch to the HTML view of your eBay description (there is a tab at the top left of the description field) and copy this code into the text space at the position you want the picture to be (you copy the code for each picture you wish to load): <img src=“ ”>
5. You now need to place the ‘URL’ (internet address) of your stored picture between the quotes in the code. The URL begins ‘http’ and ends with the image file type, such as ‘.jpg’. Just copy this from the hosting site and paste it into the code. If you use Photobucket just click on the second box under your picture and it will automatically be ‘copied’.
6. Switch back to the standard listing view and your picture should be there in your listing.

Your new picture may appear to be huge, as there is no restriction on size; if it is too big you will need to edit it before you load it to the hosting site. The picture may also need to be moved around within your description, trial and error will result in the best location. Check out my toy shop where I use most extra pictures and you will see that I like to centre mine in the listing.

I built a short guide to HTML some time ago, it might help – mollybol.50megs.com/Mollyweb/html.html

Don’t delete your picture from the hosting site until your listing is finished or it will disappear from your description.

Remember to still load the first free picture into the eBay system as normal. It is this picture that will be used should you choose to use the gallery feature.

Earn as you buy

Fancy a kick back each time you buy something on eBay? If you sign up for a Quidco (www.quidco.com) account you can collect a percentage (30% as at February 2012) of the seller’s fees each time you buy. If there are items you need for your business, such as bubble bags and boxes, that you buy on eBay then you can start to earn rewards on these purchases.

You will be getting back 30% of approximately 10% of everything you spend, which is not to be turned down.

Tip – Keep a record of any money earned purchasing items for your business as this will be counted as ‘other income’ for your business and will need to be included in your annual accounts.

Keep PayPal fees under control

PayPal costs money, so give them as little as possible. If you sell lower value items – with prices including P&P of £9 or below – then get yourself a Micropayments account as you may make a saving.

The Micropayments account is exactly the same as the standard one, but has a different charging setup. The fixed fee drops from 20p to 5p and the percentage increases to a flat 5%. With some quick maths you can work out that for sale values of £9 or lower the Micropayments account will save you money if you currently pay the standard rate of 3.4%.

You can change your current PayPal account or if you prefer you can open a new account and direct all of your smaller payments into it. I have two PayPal accounts and use the Micropayments account for cheaper BIN items – the savings over a year soon add up.

There is more information on this subject on the PayPal website (www.paypal-business.co.uk/take-micropayments-with-PayPal).

If you use the Micropayments account for single purchases of low value items remember to alter the PayPal account when you send a combined invoice to a buyer who has bought multiple low-value items.

Think carefully about enhanced listing options

eBay offer a wide range of options to make your listing stand out but they do come at a price. Second categories, subtitles, listing designer and so on could well be good value for money but I have never used them and never will.

Be wary of limited time promotions offering, say, a free subtitle for 30 days. On the face of it this is a good deal, but if you use the Good ’Til Cancelled option your item will relist automatically after 30 days and pick up the standard fee for the subtitle.

Consider the PayPal Merchant Rate

If your PayPal payment volume has averaged £1,500 per month for three months then you should consider applying for the Merchant Rate. This can reduce your PayPal fees down to a potential 1.4%. It is a great saving, but you have to apply in order to receive the special rate. Follow these steps:

• Log onto your PayPal account
• Type ‘fees’ into the search box on the top right of screen
• Click on ‘Transaction fees – PayPal’
• Under the heading ‘Receiving purchase payments’ you may see this message: If you receive more than £1,500.00 GBP per month, you’re eligible to apply for PayPal’s Merchant Rate – which lowers your fees as your sales volume increases.
• Click on the link ‘Are you eligible for lower rates?’
• Check the criteria here and if you qualify click the ‘apply now’ link.

One last thing to watch our for is that if you do have a Merchant Rate on your main account and a Micropayments account for lower value items, check which account you send money to as the breakeven level will change as your main account discounts increase.

Turnover is vanity – seek profit instead

Turnover is great but it is profit that will count in the end. Resist the urge to sell items that you like but which don’t add much to your bottom line.

If you turnover too much stock you could find yourself at the VAT registration threshold without actually making any profit at all (for more on the VAT threshold see ‘Manage turnover’ tip in this eBook).

Refund via PayPal

There will be times when you will need to refund some money to a buyer, perhaps because of an overpayment for postage or needing to make a partial refund to compensate for a problem. If you need to do this use the original PayPal transaction as this will recoup you some of the PayPal fees. Here’s how:

1. Access the payment in PayPal. I find the easiest way is to use the sale order details (just click on the £ sign next to the sold item in my eBay). Towards the bottom of this page is a link titled ‘PayPal transaction details’.
2. Click this link and log in to PayPal, you will be taken directly to the payment for your item.
3. Halfway down the page is an ‘issue a refund’ link, click this and fill in the details as appropriate.

Do you need to send money for personal reasons? There is a method you can use by which neither you nor the recipient will pay any fees!

1. Log in to PayPal and select the ‘send money’ tab (second from left).

2. Click the ‘Personal’ tab.

3. Enter the appropriate details and select a description of what the money is for, click continue and send.

Handy to know if you too have Elves that live away and need feeding!

Recycle

Recycling used packing materials becomes less important from a business perspective as...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Publishing details
• About the author
• About this book
• The basics
• Pitch perfect
• Sell, sell, sell
• Attracting customers
• Shops
• Keep customers happy
• Save money wherever you can
• Use the tools eBay provides
• Shipping
• Packing and dispatch
• Admin
• Christmas
• And that’s it
• Other business books from Harriman House and Brightword Publishing