Top tips I have?
#1 set a llooooooowwww starting bid. This ensures people who go in and click in order of lowest priced first (I would guess more than 50% of the users do this) see the item.
#2 if you need a minimum amount for the item, set a reserve.
#3 Always post a buy it now price of about 20% more than what your minimum is for the item. IE if you ABSOLUTELY must have $10 for the item (see #2). Set the buy it now at $12. You would be amazed at how many people just want to get it purchased and over with. Also keep in mind that once the first person bids buy it now option is GONE. There for if people want to play the nickle and dime game you may actually get more than the buy it now price (This has happened to me SEVERAL times)
#4 on small lightweight items use a set shipping amount, then offer to combine items for a smaller feet. IE $5 shipping, plus $1 for each additional item from my auctions/sales. Always be SURE you set the ammount to a fraction more than it is going to cost anyway.
#5 ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS offer insurance on an item. This has saved my bacon several times when the post office has messed up badly. On VERY expensive items don't even make it an option, MAKE them purchase insurance as part of the set shipping.
#6 payment. Get paypal. Deal with it. Don't accept forgein money orders PERIOD. The ONLY thing I accept other than paypal are postal money orders. When I get to the post office if the money order is a fake, guess what. Me no shippy shippy. Paypal is just WAY to easy to use, and way to easy to work with to accept anything else.
#7 NO MATTER WHAT! DO NOT login to ANY Ebay or Paypal web page link sent to you via email. DON'T DO IT! PERIOD. END OF DISCUSSION! If you are too lazy to type
www.paypal.com or
www.ebay.com just don't use the services. Pay pal won't ever ask you to verify a username or password. Neither will ebay. They are not about to close your account, and nobody hacked your account (At least not until you log in using that fake link).
Thats my advice. Some folks get alot more complicated. Some don't.
GoodOlBoy
__________________
(Moderator -
Gear & Gadgets,
Cowboy Action,
SouthWest Regional,
Small Game) GoodOlBoy@huntchat.com
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. - John 3:16 KJV
Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 8:15 KJV
"The gun has been called the great equalizer, meaning that a small person with a gun is equal to a large person, but it is a great equalizer in another way, too. It insures that the people are the equal of their government whenever that government forgets that it is servant and not master of the governed." - 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan 1911-2004