eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies

An auction is an auction is an auction, right? Wrong! eBay has four types of auctions for your selling pleasure. Most of the time you’ll run traditional auctions, but other auctions have their special uses, too. After you’ve been selling on eBay for a while, you may find that one of the other types of auctions better suits your needs.

How you photograph your eBay listing makes a huge difference. Why not learn from the mistakes of others? These examples show you a bunch of big-time don’ts. eBay members have seen images like these all over eBay at one time or another. Mistake #1 The image below shows a nice item, but the picture suffers from two major flaws: A glare from the camera’s flash shows in the cellophane on the item.

When you get a tip, double-check to see who it’s coming from. Visit eBay’s community boards and chats, and listen to what the others have to say. Before taking anything to heart and changing the way you do things, check the tip-givers’ experiences. Are they really experienced on eBay? Or are they selling seminars or passing on the latest misinformation?

Consider this very important reason to be recognized on eBay: eBay’s Best Match search algorithm weighs every item and every seller. Attaining recognition as a seller who is in business seriously makes a difference in how prominently your listings are displayed on eBay. Joining PowerSeller ranks The ranks of PowerSellers have five levels of membership, depending on your monthly sales.

How you conduct your eBay business can demonstrate to your customers that you’re a responsible person. You need to present a professional appearance when you meet your client, and you should have a professional attitude in your dealings.Being professional also means anticipating possible problems. In addition to being very clear about financial issues with your clients (especially fees and the realistic selling value of your clients’ merchandise), you may want to consider getting additional insurance to cover the merchandise you’re holding in your home.

QuickBooks can give you up-to-the-minute reports about the status of your eBay business and keep track of everything — including payroll and sales-tax liability — in the background. Here are a few things that are great about using QuickBooks to streamline an online business: Inventory reports: As you purchase inventory, aside from deducting the money from your checking account and expensing your merchandise account, QuickBooks adds the purchased merchandise to your inventory.

eBay’s Hub is great because it gives you the opportunity to keep all your selling information in one place. It also provides a downloadable report — in spreadsheet format — that you can archive for your records. Here’s the information you can expect to find in the reports: Sales record number: The number assigned to the transaction by Selling Manager for identification purposes.

You’ve finally found an item you’d like to buy on eBay. Don’t place that bid just yet! Taking a look at the seller’s feedback will supply you with a good deal of information about the reputation of your potential trading partner.Although the eBay Money Back Guarantee covers your transaction in almost any way, it will not cover you if the seller takes a long time to ship.

If you’re just starting out on eBay, chances are you like to shop and you also collect items that interest you. You’ll find out early in your eBay adventures that a lot of people online know as much about collecting as they do about bidding — and some are serious contenders. Understanding eBay’s grading terms One of the keys to establishing value is knowing an item’s condition, typically referred to as an item’s grade.

You can refine an advanced search on eBay by using more of the options offered in the Advanced Search area. Don’t be intimidated; you need to understand just a few more bells and whistles.Here are some of the additional options you’ll find in the Advanced Search: Find Items area: Words: You can choose to search All words, any order Any words, any order Exact words, exact order Exact words, any order Exclude words from your search: If you’re looking for some silver flatware, for instance, and you want it to be solid, not plated, you could type plated.

If your eBay business plan involves buying items online for resale, you will need to take measures to protect your investment. There are many legitimate sources of goods on the Internet. But the Internet is loaded with scam artists; it’s up to you to check vendors out for yourself before spending your hard-earned money.

The navigation bar has a handy Community link that connects you to the people and happenings on eBay. eBay has more than 169 million active users — a bigger population than some countries — but it can still have that small-town feel through groups and discussion boards. Start on the main page by clicking Community on bottom of eBay pages.

eBay is a venue — a place where sellers sell their wares to smart shoppers like you. No one at eBay owns the items, and no one at eBay can guarantee that any item is as described in auction listings. That means you could, theoretically, buy a “genuine” Kate Spade purse on eBay for $24, and immediately realize when it arrives that the purse is counterfeit.

To find one-of-a-kind items (remember these are not always new things) at a great price and make a profit selling them for your eBay business, follow these helpful purchasing guidelines: Try to pay the lowest possible price for your item — buy at wholesale (or in bulk) whenever possible. If you're the handy fix-it-all type, find items in need of minor repair and repair them.

When buying clothing to sell on eBay, be sure you have the right sizes in your business inventory. The average American woman's dress size is 14 (the beginning of plus-size clothing), not an 8; the average American man is a 40 regular. When buying apparel for your eBay business in lots for resale, ignore the standard "1 small, 3 medium, and 2 large" lot, and instead buy 1 small, 2 medium, 1 large, and 1 extra-large.

Now that eBay has become a world marketplace, a single-page auction or item listing is becoming an increasingly valuable piece of real estate. Millions may view your sale, and the more auctions and fixed-price items that you can list, the better your chance to make a good living. Time is money: You need to post quickly and accurately.

Want to know more about the people on eBay? You can learn by clicking their User IDs to visit their Profile pages. eBay users with active Profile pages have a Me icon (with a blue lowercase m and a red lowercase e) next to their User IDs.If you’re on eBay, you need a Profile page; consider it akin to your Facebook page.

To easily sell your merchandise on your eBay business and for the most amount of money possible, use these successful selling tips for your eBay items: Answer all e-mail questions from prospective bidders and buyers within 24 hours, and check your eBay Messages frequently before the close of your auctions: Good customer service goes a long way in promoting and building your eBay business.

When you're working on your eBay business, you may sometimes wonder why certain keys don't exist on your keyboard for a specific character. Windows has taken care of it by creating special codes for these characters. To get them to appear, press the Alt key on your keyboard while typing the numbers on the number pad.

Understanding eBay’s categories was a lot easier when there were just a few. Now that the total number of categories is around 20,000 — including child (or sub-) categories — the time has come to either abandon all hope of understanding them or to take things in hand and appreciate the elegance and organization of a system that’s just beyond the realm of comprehension.

What is eBay Valet? Simply, the eBay Valet program is an automated system for people who want to sell merchandise on eBay without bothering to learn the ropes. It would be (as you would be as a consignment seller) a way for those who are not familiar with eBay to get their items sold. The portal for eBay’s Valet program.

No one likes to deal with taxes, especially if you're late in filing. So keep track of your eBay business transactions and know when the deadlines are to file your taxes. Note: Please check with your state government offices for due dates on sales taxes and license fees. 15th of every month: Prior month payroll tax deposit date (if you're on the monthly deposit system) January 15: Estimated taxes due January 31: Last day to distribute 1099s and W2s to people you paid during the prior year January 31: Payroll reports due for quarterly period ending 12/31 February 1: Last day to send the government copies of your 1099s and W2s February 28: 1099-MISC (nonemployee compensation needs to be sent out) March 15: Calendar-year corporation tax due April 15: Deadline for Individual or Partnership Annual Tax return or deadline to file an extension April 15: Estimated taxes due April 30: Payroll reports for period ending 3/31 due June 15: Estimated taxes due July 31: Payroll reports for quarterly period ending 6/30 due September 15: Estimated taxes due October 31: Payroll reports for quarterly period ending 9/30 due If the due date falls on a weekend or a federal holiday, the due date is the first business day after that date.

To get the most for your eBay auction items (and your time!) make sure the photo, or image, you post on your eBay auction page looks great. Use these tips for photo help to boost your eBay business: Be sure that the item is clean, unwrinkled, and lint-free. Turn off the flash; use diffused light instead. Take the photo against a solid, undecorated (preferably white) background.

When you're working on your eBay business, learn some basic codes for typing special characters that you will need, and keep a list of tax deadlines on hand so you're not late in filing. To present the best image of your eBay items, follow some basic photo tips; when purchasing merchandise for your eBay business, stock the right sizes and look for unique items in a variety of places.

Your eBay business requires the same meticulous care for data as any other business. Here are some tips for protecting all the right data and keeping your records safe. Keeping your records and data safe The hazard of not backing up your computer is a tired subject. Whenever you hear someone talking about their latest computer crash, all the person can do is stare blankly into the distance and say, “I lost everything!

Seller Hub allows you to monitor or automate many of the more tedious eBay tasks. The page is divided into several boxes, which are described below.You can click the Orders link to view a summary of your sales activities. The Overview page lists at-a-glance statistics so you can see what’s going on with your sales quickly, at any time.

eBay runs some special categories that make up a good deal of the business on eBay. Check out the supercategories and specialties to really make the most of your eBay business. Real estate Since the founding of our country, land has been valued as a great commodity; passed from generation to generation. As Gerald O’Hara so eloquently put it, “It’s the only thing that lasts.