Things to bear in mind.

You probably wont get through selling your item all in one hit. Before you can start selling - you will need to register as a seller. So there is a lot here. But like all things on the net - we dont usually 'buy' on the first visit to a page. We keep going back to it till we feel confident enough to bid. Similarly - I don't expect you to create a seller account on the first vist - though I'm sure you could easily do it. The sell your Items page described on Page 3 of these notes is particularly complicated and my notes are necessarily quite long. What I'm trying to do here is to 'familiarize' you with the selling pages, and get you used to the way they will look. So that when you eventually do it for real - you will know what to expect.

Please try to read it all, and in order. If it's too much in one go - keep coming back to it.

2. AN UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO SELLING ON EBAY.

2.1. Introduction (On this page)

2.2. Creating a seller account (On this page)

3. Selling Items (On Page 3)

4. Marketing. (important – do not skip)! (This will be eMailed to you separately)

The tab you have always wanted to click on!!!! - We are not far from it now!

2.1. INTRODUCTION

As far as I can remember, in order to start selling you need to register as a seller as well as being a buyer. On the next webpage (page3) I will go through the ‘Sell your item’ routine and here (page 2 section 2.2) we will look at registering as a seller. Once you have registered - you will be able to access the 'Sell your Item' pages from your 'My eBay' page. Please bear in mind that I am trying to write these notes around the eBay.COM site as opposed to the eBay.CO.UK site – but my ‘My eBay’ page is on the UK site so there may be subtle differences. Some pages I can only access from the UK site. In section 3, I’m sure that the ‘Sell your item’ steps will be similar on both sites.

Photographs

This is important. Looking back at your feedback profile I see that nearly all your recent purchases have photos. Moreover - nearly all of them use eBays 'iPix'. I think that speaks volumes, don't you?

I recommend you use the eBay photo loading procedure as it is SO much easier than having to load your picture onto another site and then loading it onto eBay. I know there are some on the UK board that own picture hosting. And I also know you would like to show them loyalty. But the fact is that 95% of people selling on eBay - use the eBay picture facility. If we think of what this means - it means that if MY picture hosting site goes down for any reason (be-it eBay or some other). If I am using ebay - and Ebays pictures dont show up for a few days - theN my prospective buyers cant see my pictures. But - they cant see the pictures of 95% OF MY COMPETITORS EITHER! So I am not at a disadvantage. However if I use a free site 'Freepix' ar auctionpix for example - only about 1% of people (if that) use either of these sites. Now if THAT site goes down BUT eBay is working - 95% of my competitors have a big advantage over me. So I use and recommend eBay - Makes sense doesn't it?

Anyway - Photographs are only a small section on the 3rd page of eBays 'Sell your item' form. So let's not worry about it here.

In Section 4 we will look at ‘marketing’ and how it applies to eBay selling – this is overlooked by many sellers and although they DO manage to sell somethings, their ratio of unsold goods is high. If we use our car analogy (we don’t need to know what’s under the bonnet in order to drive a car) – then section 3 is the bit where we find the steering wheel, gear shift, light switches etc. And Section 4 is whether we are driving a battered chuck wagon or a stylish limo.

I have a Diploma in Management and two of the four years of study was devoted to marketing in some form. I also have a CD that purports to making you a millionaire on eBay. Its mostly rubbish – but there are one or two good things on there. The trouble with all these ‘make a million on-line’ products is that the originals were written by computer geeks that got on the net in the early years. Most of them were never, and never will be involved in ‘marketing’. Unfortunately they sold their ideas and there has been a proliferation of them all revolving round the theory of 'Screw others to make yourself rich'. Not many of their ideas actually thought about things from the buyer or customer point of view. That’s how we know they were not marketing experts. BECAUSE MARKETING STARTS FROM AND REVOLVES ROUND THE VIEW FROM THE CUSTOMERS PERSPECTIVE. From those customers comes profit. On eBay - you don't get buyers unless you FIRST get bidders! So section 4 shows you how to apply some 'good stuff' to your Item Descriptions

All this may seem a far cry from wanting to sell a household item or a piece of kids clothing – BUT IT IS NOT. Your buyer will only pay good money if it is what they want. They can choose your item, or an item from ANOTHER seller. The difference is that these days the companies that are successful - think about the customers. To be sucessful, Ebay sellers - are subject to the same comercial forces as those outside companies - IE if the customers feel they can do better elsewhere - that's where they will head! The added disadvantage of selling on line is you have to get your customers to trust you enough to put in a bid. All this from just 7% of communication that is the written word! SO GENERALLY SPEAKING - WHEN YOU ARE BUYING YOU THINK LIKE A BUYER - WHEN YOU ARE SELLING - THINK LIKE A BUYER!

2.2. CREATING A SELLER ACCOUNT.

I will be deliberately short on this bit as I was only asked to do this once and cant access this choice again unless I create a new account. But on the .COM site you will see (on the 2nd line down the various links ‘Browse’ ‘Search’ ‘Sell’ ‘My eBay’ and ‘Community’. It is the ‘Sell’ link that you need to click on. I believe I’m right in saying that if you are not yet a registered seller – you will be prompted first to register. If you are already registered – it takes you straight to step 1 of 5 of ‘Sell your item’ – which is why I cant give specific instructions here. But it is a fairly straight forward page.

I beleive the page looks something like the picure below.

- As you can see - it's pretty straight forward and you need to fill in the little white boxes. (the page may not be exactly the same as the picture above because this is the 'new member form' and I don't know if it is the same as the 'new seller' form). So I cant go through each box with you on this one. I'll be able to be more help on the 'Sell your item' page, once you have completed registration as a seller.

One important thing though – at one stage you will be asked how you would like to pay your selling fees that will be charged to you monthly. You can pay by check, credit card or direct from your bank. I have chosen Direct from Bank as my bank does not charge me a single penny for the monthly transactions. I feel it is important to choose an ‘automatic’ method (bank or credit card), because – as you no doubt have seen on the UK chat board – if you forget to send your check – eBay stop you from selling further items till you have settled your account. And corresponding with eBay takes weeks sometimes! Anyway – the choice is yours – whatever suits you!

PLEASE HIT MY EMAIL LINK BELOW AND TELL ME WHEN YOU HAVE CREATED YOUR SELLER ACCOUNT.

Now we can move onto 3. Sell Your Item