Here are some articles we have written or gleaned from the web for those that wish to learn more about eBay.

How to Start Selling on eBay by Jim Reid - Bastion e-Panning

     Want to start selling on eBay?

     Wondering what to sell or where to start?

    It is difficult to buy wholesale without a registered business and a tax number. So let's start out small.

 eBay has a statistic that states every household has $1100 worth of items they no longer need or use that can be sold on it's site. It may be best to start by looking around the house to see what may be sold. Do your research in the completed items pages and select a couple of items to start.

 It is also best to start with what you know; for instance look for something at your work or in your hobbies that may be easily sold on eBay. This way you can start with a thorough knowledge of your products and learn more about the market place as opportunities arise. You can also bundle items that go together, for instance if in your work or hobbies you have a need for widgets and they require a widget setting tool, bundle the widgets and the tool together as 1 listing.

Thrift shops and garage sales are also a good place to start, look for things that are interesting to you and are priced low, if they don't sell donate them back to the thrift shop. Avoid large or heavy items (they are too expensive to ship) and set a budget say $5.00 or less. Don't buy anything over $5.00 unless you check on eBay first and know it will sell for a profit. Look for items that are collectable or rare in other parts of the world that are common or under appreciated in your part of the world.

 If you buy 10 different items at $.50 each and sell 1 for $10.00 you will break even but will have the knowledge to keep a look out for that 1 item and buy it when ever you can. It is also best to avoid expensive items at first; with only a few feedbacks you may open yourself up for one of the few eBay predators to cheat you out of the money they paid you as well as the item you sent them. Good luck, have fun and happy eBaying.

eBay Fees; The Facts by Jim Reid - Bastion e-Panning

It is important to know that eBay charges fees when you list an item and a final value fee when it sells; Paypal charges fees when the buyer pays.

 The cost to sell an item on eBay for $100 could be as high as $10.00 depending on the items starting price. The cost to sell an item for $10.00 on eBay could be as high as $2.00. The cost to sell an item for $0.99 could be as high as $1.07. I know but what can you do, it happens. These fees are a fact of life but a lot more reasonable than operating a brick and mortar store.

 Keep this in mind when you are getting started on eBay and make sure you have enough money in your paypal account at the end of the month to pay your eBay fees or you will become NARU (Not a registered user) and you will be banned from eBay until you settle your bill. Paypal has a front load payment plan so their fees are taken out before your money is deposited into your account.

Have fun, do what you say you will do, be honest and respectful, pay your fees and the world will type a path to your door. 

This is a great rant from Canuck Chat on eBay

Canuck Chat resides in Canada -that is the huge country tacked on the north end of the United States of America (home of eBay)

SHIPPING AND HANDLING

This is exactly what it says it is - SHIPPING and HANDLING - at no point in time should an eBay buyer ASSUME (ASS - U - ME) that S&H equates to POSTAGE STAMPS.

If the seller says that the Shipping & Handling is $10.00, then that is what you will pay for the item you win at an eBay auction to be sent to you, plus of course your winning high bid.

It does NOT mean that you will see $10.00 worth of POSTAGE on the parcel.

If you do not want to pay anything MORE than what the postage stamps ON the actual parcel as going to cost the seller, then please get in your car and drive to Wal-Mart and purchase your items there.

Of course, when you do that, you are incurring expenses beyond the sticker price on the item you purchase, but YOU are the one in control of the expenses and you have nobody to yell at but yourself (yelling at yourself for spending $10.00 in gas to drive to Wal-Mart to buy a $2.00 item might be an interesting way to spend your time though)

An eBay seller does NOT deserve a negative feedback comment or rude and surly and sarcastic emails because the postage amount on the parcel does not equate to what you paid for "SHIPPING & HANDLING" to them.

Yes, some sellers will charge "more" along the S&H lines than others will - so pick and choose carefully who you purchase items from. The choice is - inevitably - all YOURS - you are the one that decides to bid or not to bid.

And once you bid - it's yours:

You Bid - You Win - You Pay

American sellers - please be forewarned that it is best NOT to use a courier service when shipping items to Canada.

A courier such as Fedex or UPS can possibly cause the Canadian recipient to be billed for a brokerage fee of $25.00 or more for an item that is coming into Canada.

This is ONLY the brokerage charge - any items that are valued over $20.00 Canadian may also possibly have taxes and duties charged on them.

If you send parcels to Canada using the postal service (United States Postal Service = USPS), then the brokerage fee will be $5.00 as charged by Canada Post because this is how postal service parcels enter into Canada.

This $5.00 charged by Canada Post is ONLY the brokerage charge in this instance - any items that are valued over $20.00 Canadian may also possibly have taxes and duties charged on them.

This matter has been further complicated by the existence of dual USPS/UPS stores in the United States. Often a clerk at such a store will offer the sender a cheaper rate to send by UPS as opposed to USPS. Please remember to ALWAYS use USPS, which is the POSTAL SERVICE, as it will prevent a large brokerage fee to be charged to your Canadian buyer.

Sellers need to be aware that they have to develop excellent customer service skills in this world of eBaying - even more so than in retail - because a face-to-face return is so much easily handled than an email-to-email post office-to-post office return!

I have been researching and digesting eBay's new fee and feedback policies. The following are some thoughts I have put together to help us survive the new eBay.

Fees

 Here is a calculator that will calculate your savings or not with the new eBay fee structure. Listing @ $.99 and selling 70% of your items at $2.99 will cut the fees in half. Listing at $30.00 and selling 50% of the items at $30.00 will save 1/3 in fees. The general consensus is that those sellers with Power seller status and 4.6 or higher detailed seller ratings that sell low end items with a low sell through rate will save lots of money. Those that sell high end items with a high sell through rate and don't have the powerseller status will pay through the nose. 

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/feecalc

            eBay is rewarding the low end powerseller to, in my opinion boost the number of items available on it's site. This will increase their bottom line and make it almost impossible for Amazon.com and other online merchants to keep up. It is the number one online merchant site and it wants to keep it that way.

What can we do to realize all of the benefits of this new fee structure?

     I am going to work up a form letter to send to all of my buyers telling them when their item was shipped and to keep this in mind when they leave feedback. It is not fair to be rated on Canada Post and U.S. customs lack of speed.

    This will add a lot of time to the post sale process and affect my bottom line but should bring the DSR ratings up in communication, shipping charges and shipping time. 

    With higher DRS's and the Powerseller rating our items will be less costly to list and more visible in search and should therefore translate into more sales and more profit for us.

Feedback

    There is no good news to be gleaned from the new feedback system for sellers, although I think a new strategy might counteract the inevitable flow of negatives that will be forthcoming.

    Be proactive. Send a positive feedback as soon as the item is shipped. This is also a good opportunity to mention handling time and such IE; "Thank you item shipped today. Handling time 2 business days.

    A percentage of buyers will then leave a positive feedback immediately. Those that don't can't be helped. Look at this feedback rating:

 http://feedback.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=corijennin&ftab=AllFeedback&sspagename=STRK:ME:UFS

            This seller leaves feedback as soon as the item ships and has had no problems at all. They are good sellers with good products, much like us.

            Offer a return policy. One school of thought is that the longer the return time allowed the fewer returns you will get. On low end items I just refund the entire amount they paid, they can keep the items. If the items are worth having them returned, it will be important to pay the shipping back to you as having the buyer pay shipping will leave them with a feeling that they paid X amount of dollars for nothing. If the whole process does not cost them anything they should go easy on the DSR's and Negatives. This is provided they have not left a nice feedback already. So in your listings always state that the buyer must pay return shipping and adjust accordingly.

            Watch out for feedback extortion it is against eBay's rules and should be reported immediately. Some of the uglier buyers will use the new system to extort refunds or extra items from us. See

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/feedback-extortion.html  for details.

            Buyers that purchase multiple items or are repeat customers will have all of the feedback they leave us count so they should be handled with care. It is possible to limit the quantity of items one buyer can bid on at a time.. Go to

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html  for info on limiting quantities to buyers.

It is also possible to cancel bids if you see that a buyer is very active on your auctions and has a bad feedback score. It is also possible to check the feedback they have left for others. This will be very important when they are no longer eligible to receive negative feedbacks. Go to

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html#canceling  for info on canceling bids.

            Frequent buyers and repeat customers should be properly rewarded and made to feel special. This can be done with free gifts, go withs or extra shipping discounts. It is also possible to let them know how important the DSR's are to us and hope they respond accordingly. It is way easier to keep a good customer happy than it is to change the mind of a disgruntled one.

            First time eBay users should also be treated in this way. They are less likely to have a good grasp on the feedback system and may well do you more harm than good. If we lay out the way we would like them to respond with the DSR's they may add a star or 2 to their rankings.

            Will this all cost a lot of time and money? Yes.

            Will you be able to survive the new eBay if you don't change your ways? Maybe.

            Even if you are a great seller with golden stock, golden feedback, dedicated shipping staff, dedicated customer service representatives and the lowest prices on eBay, you are going to get more undeserved negative feedbacks from un-eBay educated or ugly buyers. There is nothing we can do about that. If your DSR's and/or feedback ratings get too low you will be paying more to list and will be lower down on the product search pages. How will that help your business? It won't! I believe that it is wiser and more beneficial to maintain a high feedback and DSR ranking through stellar customer service and some of the fore mentioned strategies, realize the savings eBay is offering, and use some of that money to grease the buyer rails and fend off any preventable negatives or low DSR's.

            Jim Reid is a Canadian eBay Powerseller, a registered eBay Trading Assistant and a registered eBay Education Specialist with a web site devoted to his eBay business. http://www.onlineauctionvictoria.com/