Marsha Collier

Article / Updated 04-14-2023

On the left side of the Twitter Account page, you’ll notice lots of links. Each one of those links has settings that can improve the time you spend on the Twitter platform. Here’s a short overview of some of what you can set in Twitter. Privacy and Safety is the best area for being sure you have a pleasant time on Twitter. Here you can make decisions as to how much contact you want from Twitter and from those with whom you connect on the site. Just be sure to read anything you are agreeing to before you give permission. Here’s a few things to consider: Don’t protect your Tweets; this makes them visible only to those whom you follow. If you set this, someone (perhaps an old friend) will find you through search, but can’t see what you’re sharing. People get to know you and about you by reading your Tweets. Twitter is a public forum, so be careful what you say (or are willing to defend or argue). Never post anything on Twitter that you wouldn’t want to see printed in your local newspaper. More than one celebrity has done this at one time or another and regretted it. You can delete Tweets, but they stay in the public timeline from the time you post until the time you delete them, and someone might take a screen shot. Why add a location to your Tweets? Unless you want the public to know every place you are, leave this option blank. Address book. Address books are tricky if you want to keep your contacts private. If you uploaded every contact you have, you might find some on Twitter and compromise your friends’ privacy. Direct Messages are private messages that you access in a different area from the public timeline. There’s a lot of strangers out there. You can opt to receive Direct Messages from anyone or not. Send/Receive read receipts. If you read a private, Direct Message and choose not to respond, it could be considered a breach of etiquette. So you turn this option off and answer messages in your own time. The Safety area. This covers sensitive content and Tweet media settings, which allow you to label your media for the appropriate viewers, and select whose media appears on your Twitter home page. If you prefer not to see possibly offensive images, leave Display Media That May Contain Sensitive Content unselected. If you plan on posting some racy pictures, select the Mark my Media as Containing Sensitive Content check box — to protect the innocent. A most important Twitter setting Buried subtly below the very prominent Manage Your Contacts bar is an innocent-looking category called Personalization and Data. There’s no free lunch on the Internet. If you followed any of the very public brou-ha-ha over the Facebook Cambridge Analytics scandal, this is where those permissions can leave you open. Next to the bold phrase Allow Some, click the word Edit. The page that opens here transparently shows you where and how your data might be shared. (This advice is relevant on other platforms as well.) Personalized Ads. This means that the ads you see on Twitter would be based on your interests. Twitter knows your interests because of the words you share on the platform. For example, if you talk about dogs, you might see pet food ads; talk about a garden and you could see ads from florists or gardening suppliers; talk about politicians and you may see political ads. Get it? You can opt in or not right here. Personalize based on your devices. This option gets a bit trickier. When you’re on Twitter, they obviously can see what you comment on and how you feel about things. Know this about your devices, this is one thing you can’t control: Every browser or app you use on any device accesses the web via its own IP address set by the Internet provider. The IP address doesn’t expose you personally, but it would indicate that, say, someone from Atlanta, Georgia is visiting a website at a certain time, on an iPhone using the iOS operating system (and what version). What you can control with this setting is whether you give Twitter permission to follow you around the web for further information on your interests. Personalize on the places you’ve been. This permission allows Twitter to serve you ads that may be relevant when you are away from home. This can be a good thing when you’re traveling, like getting an ad from a local restaurant. Remember that because when you are on a mobile device, websites can tell where you are anyway. Track where you see Twitter content across the web. Data (not personalized — meaning they don’t know your name, Twitter ID, email address, or phone number) will be used when you browse the Internet to serve up ads on websites that match your interests. Share your data with Twitter’s business partners. This generally means they sell. (A business needs to make money, right?) Twitter might “share” device-level data (like that IP address), demographics about you, your interests, and what ads you’ve viewed (and/or taken action on). Again, as in the paragraph prior, your actual personal information will not be “shared.” Revisit these permissions occasionally on all platforms to see what changes have been made and keep up on any changes in Twitter Privacy.

Article / Updated 03-27-2023

The Internet, especially social media, has some mysterious words of its own that are not always understood by those over 30. Understanding (and using) these acronyms may help you chip away at a possible bias. Plus, it’s an eye-opener when you understand the secret (ever-changing) language of internet slang kids use today. These internet slang terms are for intermittent usage; don’t use them too often or you’ll be deemed uncool. It would be easy to list a hundred, but for brevity’s sake, here are some favorite Internet slang phrases. AMA: Ask Me Anything. This started on a website called Reddit, where an authority on a subject takes open questions. BAE: Before Anything Else. This acronym is generally used when referring to one’s sweetie or dear one. DM: Direct Message (also PM = Private Message). The default way to give permission for someone to message you in private. ELI5: Explain Like I’m 5. When you want a simple, short explanation of something. Epic: An adjective to describe anything huge or amazing. Facepalm: Reaction when someone says or does something incredibly stupid. ICYMI: In Case You Missed It. When you mention something that you think most people already know or you have said it before. Manners count. IMHO: In my humble opinion. Use when you’re trying to put across a point, but you don’t want to be pushy about it. IRL: In Real Life. Real life versus Internet life. JSYK: Just So You Know. This is the new way of writing FYI. Lulz: For the laughs. A derivative of the longstanding LOL (Laughing Out Loud), meaning you did something just for fun. Lurker: Someone who follows a chat or a forum but never comments. (This is a perfectly acceptable practice.) Meme: Superimposing a snarky comment (or captioning an image) on a photo. I would show you a screen shot, but they are generally NSFW. You can make your own memes with this meme generator. NSFW: Not Safe For Work. Anything marked NSFW should not be viewed on a big screen in a public environment. Photobomb: When someone (human or animal) unexpectedly appears in a photo. Like when your cousin Larry jumped in between you and your Bae while taking a selfie. PWNED: When you’ve been PWNED, you’ve been defeated or humiliated and your opponent has victory over you. Also used as a noun: PWNAGE. SMH: Shaking my Head. Conveys disappointment in something someone does or says. TBT: Throwback Thursday. When you want to share something from the past, do it on a Thursday and tag it #TBT. TL;DR: Too Long; Didn’t Read. If you share an article that seems really valuable, but it went into minute detail, you might not have time to read the entire thing. Mark your comment TL;DR. TROLL: Trolls are people who post to annoy or anger you. They can be terribly annoying. The best advice I have is, “Don’t feed the trolls.” Just block them and move forward. Well played: A response when someone does something particularly well. YOLO: You Only Live Once. Your excuse to do something incredibly wacky. There are many Internet slang dictionaries on the web, but view at your own risk (just for lulz).

Article / Updated 10-26-2021

Facebook has a feature that enables you to send private messages to your friends. Think of it like Facebook email, only your personal email address is not revealed. Even better, you can email people on Facebook whose email addresses you don’t know. Sending messages to non-Facebook friends is built into the system, allowing for private chatting (instead of posting on public walls). It’s important to note that while you can follow the easy process outlined below to privately message friends on Facebook on desktop devices, messaging on your smartphone is a bit different and requires the Messenger app. There are a few different ways to access the messages function on Facebook. Using the Messenger page to send a message One way to send a message to a friend is from the Messenger page. Here's how: Click the Messenger link in the menu along the left side of your home page (you might have to click on "See More" to find it). Facebook takes you to your Messenger page. Along the left side of the Messenger page is a Chats column with a list of your Facebook friends. You can click on one of these names, or search for a person in the Search field at the top of the column (see the figure below). When you click on a name, it will appear to the right, at the top of the page. If you've already had correspondence with the person, you'll be able to scroll through those messages in the middle of the page. At the bottom is an empty text field (see the arrow in the figure above) for you to type in a new message. After you've typed in that field, a Send icon will appear to the right ― click that to send the message. Another way to start a message on the Messenger page is to click on the New Message icon (it looks like a tiny notepad and pen) at the top of the Chats column. When you do this, a "To:" field appears to the right at the top of the page. Begin typing a person's name and Facebook begins to auto-fill names from your friend list as you type. When you find the correct friend, select the name by clicking it. Again, use the text field at the bottom of the page to type your message. When you’ve completed your message, simply click the Send icon to the right of the text field. To the left of the text field is a plus-sign icon. Click on that and several icons appear above the text field, offering you the ability to attach files, photos, videos, and links to your message, as well as a variety of other options, depending on whether you subscribe to any Facebook applications. Sending a message from any Facebook page You don't have to go to the Messenger page to correspond with people. There are two icons you can click to access the message function from any Facebook page: One of these is the Messenger icon on the navigation bar in the top-right corner of the page (circled in red in the figure below); it looks like a tiny speech bubble with a squiggly line in the middle. When you click the Messenger icon, a small window pops up that includes a list of your friends and a Search field at the top. Search for a friend, or click on a name in the list ― another small window will open up, where you can see past correspondence with your friend and type a new message. The other icon found on every page is the New Message icon (tiny notepad and pen) in the bottom-right corner (circled in red in the figure above). Click on this and a small message window will pop up. Begin typing a person's name in the "To:" field and Facebook auto-fills names in a list below the field. Click on a name to select a person. Send a message on a friend's Facebook Timeline Alternatively, you can visit a friend’s Facebook Timeline page to send a private message. Click the Message icon just under the cover photo, or click the Messenger icon on the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-02-2021

Before you jump into buying and selling on eBay, learn a few terms, check out some helpful tips to be a successful seller and buyer, and understand the importance of feedback. The following offers helpful eBay information, tips, and selling strategies.

Article / Updated 04-23-2021

It's tempting to ignore your eBay costs as you list items for sale. As a seller, you can fall into the habit of listing and relisting without reevaluating the profitability of your final sales. But as a person in business for yourself, you must always take into account money going out costs as well as profits coming in. The cost of your initial listing is just the beginning of your outlay for that item; you have to factor in the cost of all the options and features you use as well. If you use a credit card payment service such as PayPal, that service also charges you a fee. Insertion (listing) fees Your insertion fee is based on the higher dollar amount of your minimum opening bid or your reserve price. If you start your auction at $0.99 and have no reserve, the listing fee is free (for the first 100 items per month), if you don't have an eBay Store. (If you start your listing at $1.00, your fee is $0.50.) But if you start your auction at $0.99 and set an undisclosed reserve price of $50.00, your auction costs $2.00 to post. When you place a reserve on your item, you're charged an insertion fee based on the amount of the reserve, plus the reserve price charge. Fixed-price listing fees are pretty clear-cut. If your Buy It Now price is $0.99 or higher, you pay eBay $0.50 per listing. Here's a summary of eBay insertion fees. eBay Auction Listing Fees Opening Bid or Reserve Price Insertion Fee Basic Store Subscriber Insertion Fee $0.01 to $0.99 Free* $0.10 $1.00 to $9.99 $0.25 $0.25 $10.00 to $24.99 $0.50 $0.50 $25.00 to $49.99 $0.75 $0.75 $50.00 to $199.99 $1.00 $1.00 $200.00 or more $2.00 $2.00 * If you do not have an eBay Store, you may list up to 100 auction listings in a month for free as long as your starting price is between $0.01 and $0.99, and you have no reserve price. If you exceed 100 listings with this starting price per month, you will be charged a $0.10 fee per listing. What if it doesn't sell? If your item doesn't sell, don't think you can get your insertion fees back. They aren't refundable. You do have the option of relisting your unsuccessful item without being charged a second listing fee, but only if your item sells with the second listing. If it doesn't sell the second time, the charge for the second listing will stand. Writing a better title, starting with a lower opening bid, and adding a snappier description can help in selling the item. Consider changing the category, too. eBay listing options are recapped here: Listing Option Fees Option Fee: Auction or Fixed Price 3, 5, 7, 10 days Fee: Fixed Price 30 days Subtitle $0.50 $1.50 Bold $2.00 $4.00 Listing Designer $0.10 $0.30 Gallery Plus $0.35 $1.00 Scheduled listing $0.10 $0.10 List in two categories Double fees Double fees Additional pictures $0.15 $0.15 Picture Pack 1–6 pictures $0.75 $0.75 Picture Pack 7–12 pictures $1.00 $1.00 eBay Final Value fees What if it does? eBay gets a cut when your auction sells. After your auction or fixed-price listing ends, eBay charges the Final Value fee to your account in a matter of minutes. Final Value fees on auctions are pretty easy to figure out. If your item sells, you pay eBay 9% of the selling price to a maximum of $50.00. Even a rocket scientist would have trouble figuring out exactly how much eBay receives at the end of fixed-price listings. Its Final Value fees are based on the category you listed your item in, as well as how much the item sold for. To help you calculate Final Value fees, see the following table: Fixed-Price Final Value Fees by Category If Your Item Sells for Electronics* Clothing, Shoes & Accessories; Motors, Parts & Accessories Books, DVDs & Movies, Music, Video Games All Other Categories Item not sold No fee No fee No fee No fee $0.99 – $50.00 8% of the final sale price 12% of the final sale price 15% of the final sale price 12% of the final sale price $50.01 – $1,000.00 8% of the initial $50.00, plus 5% of the remaining final sale price balance ($50.01 to $1,000.00) 12% of the initial $50.00, plus 9% of the remaining final sale price balance ($50.01 to $1,000.00) 15% of the initial $50.00, plus 5% of the remaining final sale price balance ($50.01 to $1,000.00) 12% of the initial $50.00, plus 6% of the remaining final sale price balance ($50.01 to $1,000.00) $1000.01 or more 8% of the initial $50.00, plus 5% of the next $50.01 to $1,000.00, plus 2% of the remaining final sale price balance ($1,000.01 to final sale price) 12% of the initial $50.00, plus 9% of the next $50.01 to $1,000.00, plus 2% of the remaining final sale price balance ($1,000.01 to final sale price) 15% of the initial $50.00, plus 5% of the next $50.01 to $1,000.00, plus 2% of the remaining final sale price balance ($1,000.01 to final sale price) 12% of the initial $50.00, plus 6% of the next $50.01 to $1,000.00, plus 2% of the remaining final sale price balance ($1,000.01 to final sale price) The Final Value fees for eBay Store subscribers are different when it comes to auctions. The fees are based on the final selling price: Auction Final Value Fees for eBay Store Subscribers Selling Price Final Value Fees Item not sold No fee $0.01 to $50.00 8.75% of the final selling price $50.01 to $1,000.00 8.75% of the initial $50.00, plus 4% of the remaining final selling price ($50.01 to $1,000.00) Equal to or over $1,000.01 8.75% of the initial $50.00, plus 4% of the next $50.01 to $1,000.00, plus 2% of the remaining final selling price ($1,000.01 to final price) To avoid draining your brain, use an eBay fee calculator to check your fees before you set prices.

Article / Updated 03-02-2020

Ever thought about using Twitter to get some eBay business? Twitter has 500 million total users (more than 215 million active users) and serves up over 500 million tweets a day. What’s a tweet? Not just a sound effect from a parakeet anymore. Now it’s a short online comment from one Twitter user to another; tweets often flit back and forth between users who follow each other. Tweets are not only comments but also other quick notes that can be quotes, links to news stories, and the occasional self-promotion. If you like to chat, comment, and read news stories, you’ll probably like Twitter. You don’t have to be there all day, because when people “talk” to you there, you will see it in your “Notifications” column. To answer, you just click the Reply link. You’ll find that your conversations on Twitter will engage you — but only if you engage with your followers. Those who are constantly broadcasting are just trying to build follower numbers — but it’s been proven that this practice will not increase sales. So if you go to Twitter and sign up, you need to give your Twitter stream a name. You should use your real name — for several solid reasons: Friends will find you easier. If you change businesses down the line, you won’t have to start over with a new name. On the Internet, you are the face of your business — and everything you post is archived somewhere. Your tweets on Twitter are archived in the National Archive (no joke). If it’s good enough for @MichaelDell (founder of Dell), @SteveCase (founder of AOL), @RichardBranson (founder of Virgin Group), it’s a good idea for you too. After you sign in, you need to put up a picture and fill out a short bio. The first thing you need to do is put up a picture — preferably yours. People like to see what you look like when they find you on Twitter. Do everyone a favor and describe yourself clearly, as best you can, in the allotted 160 characters. Although Anita maintains a separate Twitter account personally, the account represents her @ModelSupplies brand. In the account setting page, scroll down and put a check mark in the box next to Always Use HTTPS. This will cause Twitter to use a secure connection where possible to encrypt your account information. After you fill out all the cyber-paperwork, you’ll see your very own Twitter page. It will be a very blank page. When you visit the Marsha Collier’s Twitter page, you’ll see a tab that, when clicked, reveals Lists made of people on Twitter. There is one full of eBay Social Sellers that lists eBay sellers who participate in social media and are fun to follow. Just click on the link or go to http://twitter.com/MarshaCollier/ebay-social-sellers. On the list page, just click the link and you will automatically be following everyone on the list. When you see their tweets in your stream, click the Reply link to say hello — or share something interesting. No doubt they will follow you back. To find other people to follow, go to the search box on Twitter. Here you can type in keywords that reflect your interests or the items you sell, and you will be presented with a list of accounts who have mentioned this word in their tweets. If you put in a search for antiques, click the Accounts tab in Results, you will find a long list of people with similar interests. Type in your hobbies and your interests. You’ll find a bunch of people to follow, and your Twitter home page will become far more interesting. You can also search to find like-minded folks on Klout. This is a website that measures social media influencers and allows searches by category. Here are the current influencers in the topic of jewelry-making. Search Klout with keywords, and you can find (by clicking All) folks who tweet about topics that interest you.

Article / Updated 01-15-2020

Now you can take eBay along! You can use the eBay mobile app when you're out looking for items to resell on eBay. It’s especially helpful at a garage sale to see how much you can sell an item for — and to find out how many people are selling an item. If you prefer a different view, you can also type http://m.ebay.com into your phone’s browser to see a mobile enhanced version of the site. The eBay mobile app is available for download on smartphones: iOS (for the iPhone and iPad) and Android. If you don’t have one of those operating systems on your smartphone, you can always type the previous address into your mobile browser (or, if you’re reading this as an e-book, tap the link in that sentence). Several categories of actions are featured at the top of the screen on mobile, just below the search box. Tapping the words show you different views: Categories: This functions similarly to your My eBay→Buy pages. Here you can see your recently viewed items, and by scrolling your Watched Items list, you can see both your buying overview and your Selling overview. There’s a link at the bottom of each section to “view all” in that category. Saved: Here you’ll find searches and sellers you’ve saved for future reference as well as an area to input products you’re interested in. Deals: Very much like the eBay home page, tapping Deals shows you special promotions and deals of the day — and points you to various items that (based on your search history) eBay suggests you might want to purchase. In the Deals view, you can swipe side-to-side to see different categories and featured specials within those interest areas. Selling: In traditional eBay fashion, Sell is where you click to list an item for sale. You also see your selling history and listing drafts you started and haven’t yet completed. The experience is exactly the same on a tablet, but a tablet’s screen gives you a lot more real estate to use. This is especially beneficial if you want to list an item for sale. When it comes to getting the most out of eBay on mobile, I personally prefer the tablet experience to using my smartphone. If you’re out and about and find an item you think might do well on eBay, you can easily search for the item by tapping the text box next to the magnifying glass on the app. Your mobile keyboard pops up and you can type in the keywords for the item you’re looking for. Inside secret: Once you tap in the text field on the mobile app, you also see a tiny microphone. Tap there to input your text from speech. There is also an icon that looks like the lines of a barcode. This is a scan option. Just tap there to scan a barcode on an item to see whether that item is being sold on eBay (as shown in the following figure). The mobile barcode scanner is very fast and accurate; you get the results immediately. Then you can further refine your search to Sold Items Only to see at what price that item is currently selling. When you’re starting out on eBay, I recommend listing your eBay items for sale from your laptop or desktop computer. The text-formatting features available on the website’s Sell an Item page (such as bulleted lists and boldface) are harder to use on the mobile app. The app does have an HTML description writer, so if you learn a little bit of HTML code, you can give your descriptions a little extra character. Because my tablet has a great camera, I do enjoy listing from mobile. My smartphone also has a great camera, but I prefer the bigger screen so I don’t miss a detail when I’m getting a shot of the item. I start some of my listings on my tablet by writing my title, adding some details, and uploading the photos; I often complete a good portion of the listing on mobile, but I tend to click Save and then reopen the listing as a saved template on my computer. Once I am on my computer, I can search eBay more efficiently for top-selling keywords and pricing ideas. When I do complete a full listing on the mobile app, I still go to the website on my computer and buff up the description and double-check the options for the listing. Never forget: The purpose of your listing is to sell the item. So, as with a lady’s makeup, dolling up plain text (tastefully, please!) goes a long way toward making your item more desirable to a buyer.

Article / Updated 01-15-2020

You might think that you already know everything about eBay and the services you can use to win or list your desired item, but there are a few other platforms to make your life easier on the site as a buyer … and as a seller. Sniping with BidRobot When it comes to buying fixed-price items on eBay, there’s really no magic formula other than knowing how to use eBay’s search. Using some searching tricks can help you ferret out the best of deals. But what about auctions? There is very little more frustrating than losing an auction by a dollar or so. When I first started writing about eBay, I began to use the word “snipe” — loosely (and generally) defined as “to shoot at individuals as opportunity offers from a concealed or distant position.” So, to snipe at an auction (metaphorically speaking), you lie in wait and catch the competition off-guard. Sniping is a favorite way to win an auction. It makes the entire auction experience even more entertaining. When I have the time, I enjoy battling it out in the last few moments of an auction, bidding fiercely, even if (often) unsuccessfully. There are quite a few auction sniping services on the web. With BidRobot.com (shown in the following figure), you can quickly get responses to questions and queries. When you find an auction that you're serious about, go to the BidRobot website, log in, and place your future snipe bids. All you have to do is type the item number and your high bid, and that’s it. You can shut off your computer knowing that BidRobot will do your bidding for you. Nobody on eBay will know what item you're desperate to have, because the magical BidRobot doesn’t place your bid until a few seconds before the auction closes. If you're the high bidder, no one will have the chance to bid against you! Bwah-ha-haaa! It’s easy to use BidRobot to snipe single auctions. For single auctions, just type the item number and bid by using only the yellow top section under the BidForm title. You can ignore the entry forms in all other sections. But what happens when you find that a bunch of sellers have auctions for the same item at low bid amounts? You’d like to take a chance on each item — and only win one. That’s where the BidGroups feature comes into play. It will allow you to bid on multiple eBay auctions for the same type of item. When you win any one auction that you’ve put into a BidGroup, BidRobot cancels the remaining bids in that specific group automatically. BidRobot’s services are reasonably priced, based on the amount of time that you want to use the service. As of this writing, BidRobot has placed bids for hundreds of thousands of eBay users since 1998! You pay a flat rate for all the snipes you can handle. You don’t pay any extra charges for the service. For a free trial, visit BidRobot’s website at this special URL for my readers. Find out what it’s worth at Worthpoint Have you ever watched a show on the History Channel, American Pickers? If you have, you’ve no doubt marveled at the stars’ (pickers’) talents to recognize value in the most common items. I wish I had their breadth of knowledge because so many great items appear at estate sales, but I never know which is the best to purchase for resale. Enter the online collectible database Worthpoint, the brainchild of William Seippel. After seeing his family members sell heirloom-quality antiques for a pittance, William decided to put his economics degree to work and develop a tool so that no one will (hopefully) be taken advantage of again. Will has been an avid collector since 1974 and dealer of just about all things antique since 1984. In 2006, he began to build what most consider to be the world’s largest database of over 500 million items — and their sold prices online. This database, the Worthopedia, gives subscribers a chance to discover prices, descriptions, pictures, and sale dates from hundreds of auction houses. Genius, right? Worthpoint also has a mobile app so you can check out items you might want to buy for resale directly from your smartphone at an estate sale or auction. If you’re going to buy or sell collectibles, the cost of a subscription will pay for itself many times over. There’s so much value to this site that I could spend hours on it. You can go to the site for a 7-day trial (or seven price lookups). Buying a warranty through SquareTrade The people who founded SquareTrade were friends of mine back in the day. They founded the company in 1999, selling a trust seal that would appear in eBay listings after they had vetted the seller. They performed online negotiation and dispute resolution long before eBay integrated these services into the site. Perhaps they had bigger ideas. In 2006, they began selling consumer protection plans on electronics and devices. I’ve been buying SquareTrade warranties ever since. You can purchase their extended warranties for far less than retailers’ warranties as well as warranties for eBay and online purchases. They’ve covered my purchases for phones, computers, washers, dryers, and my refrigerator. The one time I actually needed service, they performed immediately and my washer was fixed within a few days. In 2016, they were acquired by Allstate, who added other services to their site. They offer a Standard policy or a Standard Warranty that includes accidents. The Standard SquareTrade Warranty protects eBay purchases from mechanical and electrical failures during normal use. One to four years of coverage, as indicated at the time that you purchase your warranty 100 percent parts and labor coverage Item repairs, or the full item price paid back to you if SquareTrade can’t fix it Covers new, refurbished, and used items — even if there’s no USA manufacturer’s warranty on your item Before you buy anything online (or in a brick and mortar store), visit SquareTrade and check out the deals on warranties. Check out more information on SquareTrade and eBay. eBay fee calculator: Salecalc Prior to listing anything on eBay, I run the numbers through a fee calculator. Knowing your fees and expenses ahead of time is a best practice that leads to profitable sales. Air-balling your selling price may cost you money when the item sells. eBay no longer has a calculator in the site. Knowing a pure picture of your bottom line in advance will help you price your items so that your profit is built in. (You can also estimate how low you can go with a Make Offer option on your listing.) I’ve found a site that will do the calculations for you (not only for eBay sales but also for other online venues) with a few clicks of your mouse (or taps on an app). Simple to use, Salecalc allows you to run different pricing scenarios and will help you decide on the best format for your sale; see the following figure. I like using this because I can work to figure out gross profits or just see the fee breakdowns. There’s a lot of options here, and I’ve found it to be very reliable. Salecalc also has an iOS mobile app, available in the iTunes app store. Kabbage: Working capital Do you need cash to grow your online business? Since I’m a fan of bootstrapping a startup, I don’t recommend you go into debt until you have a positive cash flow and know what you’re doing with your online business. So, after you’re up and rolling, you might come across a great deal on the latest hot-selling gizmos, but find yourself short of cash because they are sold only in lots of 50. All businesses need capital to grow. Kabbage provides working capital to online merchants through a short application process that can take under ten minutes (see the following figure). Kabbage provides funding only to online sellers. Online sellers are generally misunderstood by banks and financial services because traditional underwriting and funding criteria do not account for a virtual-commerce (e-commerce) business model or the value of recently sold inventory. When you apply, they look at many factors (other than your credit score) to determine how much they can advance, including your seller rating, time in business, transaction volume, and other feedback measurements.

Article / Updated 01-15-2020

On the bottom of almost every eBay page is a group of links: Click Community to connect to other eBay members, or click the Announcements link to check proposed changes to the site on the Announcements page. Keep in mind, when you see the tips and suggestions on these pages, they may come right from corporate spokespersons in disguise. Take a little time to explore this area for yourself and separate the important messages from the PR spin. News and chat, this and that It’s not quite The New York Times, but you can find announcements, groups, and discussion board links from the Community Overview page. The following figure shows you the important links on the page. (eBay is continually making changes to the community, so note that this page will change with regularity.) Although thousands of people used to discuss everything (including events of the day) on eBay’s boards, the online buzz is now a shadow of its former self, as most people have moved to social media for discussions. The most important place for you to visit in the community are the Seller Updates. eBay sends out information on all the important changes for the site here. Join in the social media conversation There are many places to connect with other eBay community members. Many are active on social media networks. You can find me (the author of eBay For Dummies) on Twitter (@MarshaCollier), http://twitter.com/MarshaCollier, or through Facebook. If you have a quick question, ping me, and I will try to answer ASAP. I also maintain a Twitter list of experienced eBay sellers who have a presence on Twitter. They are interested in helping others and are a valuable reference. More on them further on. Fill in your eBay profile Did you know that if you click your User ID on any eBay page, you arrive at your very own profile page? (You also have a link on your Feedback profile page.) Unlike the old About Me page, which you had to choose to set up yourself, every eBay member has an automatically generated profile page. Yours is ready and waiting for you to embellish. The following figure shows you aunt*patti’s simple profile. You can also add custom features to this page to share your other community moments. Your profile page can reflect your many varied interests. From here, eBay gives you other ways to express yourself: Items for sale: A few of your items you are selling will appear on the page. Reviews: Wondering what other eBay members think of a particular product, book, or movie? Selected items on eBay are reviewed by users, and you can contribute one of your own. Reviews you have posted show up when someone lands on an item for which eBay users have posted reviews. The following figure shows the review page for a previous edition of eBay For Dummies, written by eBay members. To add your own review, click the Write a review button. Following: A sample of which sellers and searches (Interests) you follow. Also, when you save a seller to follow, it shows up on that person’s profile page. Hear ye, hear ye! eBay’s Announcements Board If you were living in the 1700s, you’d see a strangely dressed guy in a funny hat ringing a bell and yelling, “Hear ye, hear ye!” every time you opened eBay’s Announcements Board. (Then again, if you were living in the 1700s, you’d have no electricity, Internet, fast food, or anything else you probably consider fun.) In any case, eBay’s Announcements Board is an important place to find out what’s going on (directly from the home office) on the website. And no one even needs to ring a bell. The Announcements Board is where eBay lists any news that affects buyers and sellers, new features, and policy changes. Visiting this page is like reading a morning eBay newspaper because eBay adds comments to this page almost every week. You find out about upcoming changes in categories, new promotions, and eBay goings-on. eBay also uses it to help users become aware of critical changes in policies and procedures. The following figure shows you eBay’s Announcements Board with information that could affect your sales. Help! I need somebody If you ever have specific eBay questions to which you need answers, click the Knowledge Base link in the Community. These boards work differently from eBay’s old chat rooms. Chat rooms are full of people who are hanging out and talking to each other all at the same time, whereas users of discussion boards tend to go in, leave a message or ask a question, and pop out again. Also, in a discussion board, you need to start a thread by asking a question. Title your thread with your question, and you’ll hopefully get a swift reply to your query. These boards cover almost any topic regarding selling and buying on eBay. Just post your question, and some kind eBay member will probably suggest an answer (but remember to double-check your answer, just as you would any advice from someone with unknown credentials). Keep in mind that the Knowledge Base is to answer questions; if someone tries to sell you something there, I’d say turn the other way. One of the best solutions is to find one of the eBay Social Media sellers on Twitter; many are very active on the site, and you’ll probably get an answer tout suite. User-to-user discussion boards eBay has some other boards that take a different tack on things. They’re discussion boards as opposed to chat boards, which basically means that the topics are deliberately open-ended — just as the topics of discussion in coffeehouses tend to vary depending on who happens to be in them at any given time. Check out these areas and read ongoing discussions about eBay’s latest buzz. Post your opinions to the category that suits you. You can find quite a few discussion boards on various topics relating to doing business on eBay. There’s one cardinal rule for eBay boards: Conduct no business. No advertising items for sale! Not now. Not ever. eBay bans any repeat offenders who break this rule from participating on these boards. Remember that you’re visiting eBay and that you’re a member. It’s not Speakers’ Corner — that spot in London’s Hyde Park where protesters are free to stand on a soapbox and scream about the rats in government. If you feel the need to viciously complain about eBay, take it outside, as the bar bouncers say. Category-specific groups Want to talk about Elvis, Louis XV, Justin Turner, or Mickey Mouse? Currently a bunch of category-specific discussion boards enable you to tell eBay members what’s on your mind about merchandise and auctions. You reach these boards going to the Community and then mousing over the word Groups. A drop-down menu appears where you can click Special Interest Groups. Of course, you can buy and sell without ever going on a discussion board or group, but you can certainly benefit from one. Discussions mainly focus on merchandise and the nuts and bolts of transactions. On eBay, you get all kinds of responses from all kinds of people. Take a portion of the help you get with a grain of salt; some of the folks who help you may be buyers, competitors, or have something to sell you down the line. Don’t be shy. As your second-grade teacher said, “No questions are dumb.” Most eBay members love to share their experiences.

Article / Updated 01-15-2020

Most of us have donated to charity in one form or another. But here on eBay, charities really rock. Do you need a Jurassic Park helmet signed by Steven Spielberg to round out your collection (and deflect the odd dino tooth)? Post a bid on one of the charity auctions. How about a signed original photograph of Jerry Seinfeld from People magazine? Yup, you can get that, too. All these and more have turned up in charity auctions. In short, having a big heart for charities has gotten a whole lot easier thanks to eBay. eBay for Charity November 2003 was a lucky time for this country’s charities. That’s the month that eBay launched the eBay Giving Works Charity auction platform. eBay originally teamed up with one of the first charity-giving sites on the Internet, MissionFish, which now runs the PayPal Giving Fund. After 9/11, as “9/11 Auction for America,” eBay’s giving program originally raised over $10 million through online charity auctions for organizations supporting the victims of the tragedy and their families. More than 911 million dollars have been raised since 2003 on eBay for Charity, supporting more than 66,000 organizations. If you’re involved with a charity, and are certified as a 501(c)(3), you can register your charity to get on the list of beneficiaries. You can also run your own fundraising events on eBay! Just go to the eBay for Charity hub (as shown in the following figure). The best part is that you can run an auction or fixed-price listing to benefit your favorite charity. Sellers can list items for sale and designate those items to benefit a charity from the eBay for Charity directory (which lists tens of thousands of charities). The seller can also specify what percentage (from as little as 10 percent up to 100 percent) of the sale’s proceeds go to the charity. You can browse to select the charity of your choice on the Giving Works page. When you list your item for sale, you can indicate — on the Sell form’s Create Your Listing section — to which charity you’d like to donate proceeds, and what percentage of the final sale price to donate. As you visit different areas of eBay, you can recognize the charity listings by the small blue-and-gold ribbon icon next to them in searches and the Category list. 9/11 Auction for America In late 2001, eBay took on one of its most ambitious attempts at fundraising: the Auction for America. In response to requests by New York Governor George E. Pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, eBay called on the community to raise $100 million in 100 days. eBay and Billpoint (eBay’s payment service at the time) waived all fees, and community members gave their all, donating and buying all kinds of items to benefit the New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund, the Twin Towers Fund, the American Red Cross, and the September 11 Fund. In early November, Patti Ruby and Marsha Collier worked with eBay to introduce non-eBay sellers to Auction for America at an event in Southern California. We brought hundreds of people to the site who participated in buying and selling to benefit the victims. There were many such events across the country. Community member Jay Leno sold his celebrity-autographed Harley Davidson for over $360,260; Tim Allen sold his 1956 Chevrolet Nomad for $46,000; and countless corporate sponsors joined in with the person-to-person community to raise funds. Over 100,000 sellers participated, and over 230,000 items were listed. The auction ended on December 25, after raising $10 million. This is an amazing tribute to the eBay members and their community spirit. Creative charity auctions New charities are popping up all the time on eBay. To see the sales that benefit nonprofits, go to the Giving Works page and click the Shop for Charity link. Here are some of the more creative charity auctions that have been held on eBay: The highest-grossing charity auctions tend to be the annual event from billionaire Warren Buffett. He donates a private power lunch to benefit the Glide Foundation. The 2019 auction grossed $4,567,888. Oprah Winfrey has jumped onto eBay with a bang! In 2003, to fund her charity, the Angel Network, Oprah auctioned two chairs from her set. These were not just any chairs. Aside from being luxurious leather chairs designed by Ralph Lauren, they had housed the behinds of famous names such as John F. Kennedy, Jr., Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey, and Michael Jordan. The 7-day auction netted the charity an amazing $64,100. In 2010 through this year, the media mogul cleaned out her own closet for her Leadership Academy for Girls. To celebrate Chivas Regal’s 200th year, the company chose eBay for CHIVAS 200, the largest online charity auction in the world. From September 6 to October 31, 2001, the Chivas folks auctioned more than 200 of the world’s most-wanted items and experiences — such as an opportunity to become a Russian space-station cosmonaut — all for the benefit of charity partners around the world. Music producer and singer Pharrell Williams decided to put his famous Vivienne Westwood park ranger–style hat up for sale to benefit his non-profit organization, One Hand to AnOTHER. Pharrell wore the famous hat during his performance at the Grammy broadcast in 2014. Folks commented that the hat resembled the logo for the Arby’s restaurant chain, so he tweeted through his Twitter account @Pharrell, “Hey @Arbys, you want my hat?” He started the listing on eBay for $200 (what he paid for it), and it did eventually sell to Arby’s for $44,100. Arby’s thanked Pharrell for the return of their hat on Twitter; the Tweet is shown in the following figure. When I appeared on The View with Barbara Walters and Star Jones, all four stars of the show autographed a coffee cup that we auctioned off on eBay to benefit UNICEF. We raised over $1,000 on eBay for a single coffee cup! Now that a couple of the hosts have moved on, I wonder what that little cup’s worth.