eBay For Seniors For Dummies

People from all around the world enjoy eBay. If you’re thinking about buying or selling globally, visit the international discussion boards. They’re a great place to post questions about shipping and payments for overseas transactions. Along with eBay chat, the international boards have discussions about current events and international politics.

When you see on eBay, you have to follow the laws that affect eBay business. The U.S. government uses two laws on the books to go after eBay outlaws. One is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act, which prohibits deceptive or misleading transactions in commerce. The other is the Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule, which requires sellers to ship merchandise in a timely manner or offer to refund a consumer’s money.

Reserve-price auctions on eBay have an extra feature. In addition to a minimum bid, which is required in any eBay auction, a reserve price protects sellers from having to sell an item for less than the minimum amount they want for it. An eBay auction with a reserve is shown here. Suppose that you see a 1968 Jaguar XKE sports car up for auction on eBay with a minimum bid of only a dollar.

The online world is spawning all kinds of businesses (known as e-commerce), and eBay is the superstar. Originally, eBay grew — person by person — across the country (and soon around the world) as people peddled their own stuff from their homes and collections. Now, eBay is also a marketplace for new merchandise.

An eBay seller is obligated to describe the item honestly and in detail. You can ask an eBay seller a question if it isn’t answered in the item description or in the pictures provided. To ask a seller a question, click the Ask a Question link in the Seller Info box. You’ll be taken to a page that has links to common questions.

You’ve sold an item on eBay, and now you’re ready to gather your shipping supplies: boxes, filler materials, and other handy items for mailing. Start by using a box that’s larger than the item you’re shipping. Evaluate the item you’re shipping and choose packing materials specific to the item’s requirements. Make your packing do all the little things that you’d want done if you were the buyer — use double boxes for really fragile items, wrap lids separately from containers, and fill hollow breakables with some kind of padding.

When you list your item for sale on eBay, you want to attract your potential buyers’ interest as much as possible. Although eBay’s display options aren’t quite as effective as a three-story neon sign in Times Square, they do bring greater attention to your auction. Bold is an inexpensive option that affects the look of your title in searches.

When it comes to bidding and winning in an eBay auction, a bunch of software programs and Web sites can help automate your snipe bids. One service to consider is BidRobot, which places sniping bids for you from its servers. BidRobot has won many auctions for people who’ve been on the road or are working. BidRobot is one of the least expensive services out there, charging a low flat rate.

Being a Top-rated seller on eBay has its privileges, and any Top-rated seller has a badge next to his member’s user ID. The Top-rated seller designation is given to only those eBay PowerSellers who uphold the highest levels of customer service on the site. The eBay Top-rated seller status rewards sellers who create the best buyer experiences, including these: PowerSellers of all levels, from Bronze to Titanium, can qualify as eBay Top-rated sellers if they have at least 100 transactions and $3,000 in sales in the past year, and low Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) — where “low” means 1- and 2-star ratings — on no more than 0.

eBay PowerSellers have to maintain certain monthly levels of gross merchandise sales (total dollar amount of eBay sales — GMS in eBay-speak), and they get there by providing good items for sale and excellent customer service. A PowerSeller has the PowerSeller icon on his My eBay and Accounts pages. To become a PowerSeller on eBay, you must fulfill the following requirements: Be an active eBay member for at least 90 days.

As an eBay PowerSeller, you have access to places on the eBay site reserved for PowerSellers only. Your benefits include access to a PowerSeller newsgroup, PowerSeller discussion board, and even special items at the eBay store. You can find all these places at the eBay PowerSeller portal. You must log in to this area, and only PowerSellers are allowed to enter.

You’ve found the perfect item (say, a really classy Elvis Presley wristwatch) on eBay, it’s in your price range, and you’re ready to bid. So just how do you bid on an eBay auction? First, make sure that you’re registered. Then follow these steps:Find the bidding form at the top of the auction listing or click the Place Bid button at the bottom of that page.

After you plan your eBay About Me page, you’re ready to build it. You have several ways to get to the spot on eBay where you can create your About Me page. Here’s the simplest way is to create your About Me Page: Click the Site Map link at the upper right of any eBay page. In the Connect area, click the About Me link.

You don’t have to participate in an auction on eBay to buy something. If you want to make a purchase without going through the eBay auction process, you can usually find the item and use the Buy It Now feature to purchase it immediately. If you want to Buy It Now on eBay and avoid the auction process, browse the listings or visit eBay Stores.

Just because you sold an item doesn’t mean that you have to head to the post office to ship your package. Thanks to technology and the new print-it-yourself postage, you can give all your packages directly to your mail carrier. You can print postage for First Class, Priority, Express, and Parcel Post, and additional postage for delivery confirmation and insurance.

Although eBay’s success was built on auctions, eBay also allows sellers to handle outright sales. You can buy an eBay item outright in any of the following ways: By using the Buy It Now feature in an eBay auction: You may have already looked at auctions and seen a Buy It Now price located below the minimum or starting bid amount.

Before you list your item for sale on eBay, determine the specific category people will look for it in. On eBay, this category is where you want to list your item that you want to sell. Selecting the exact category isn’t crucial to achieving the highest price for your item. The bulk of buyers (who know what they’re looking for) just input search keywords into eBay’s search box and look for their items.

How many times have you seen an item on eBay laid out on the page all pretty-like with a fancy border around the description? If that sort of thing appeals to you, you can choose a design for your eBay listing. eBay’s Listing Designer will supply you with pretty borders for almost any type of item for $0.10. Selecting your design is as easy as clicking the menu.

Your eBay user ID is how other eBay users will know you, so think long and hard before choosing one. You can call yourself just about anything, but the eBay user ID you choose shows up on all listings, bids, and personal pages. If you’ve never liked your real name or never had a nickname, your eBay user ID is your chance to correct that situation.

If you make a mistake when you list your eBay item, but don’t catch it until the auction is up and running, you can still make corrections. eBay allows revisions before the first bid is placed as well as after the bidding war is underway. You can’t correct everything, though. Here’s what you can change about your listing before bids have been placed (as long as the listing doesn’t end within 12 hours): The title or description of your item The item category The item’s starting price The item’s Buy It Now price The reserve price (you can add, change, or remove it) The duration of your listing The URL of the picture you’re including with your auction A private listing designation (you can add or remove it) Accepted payment methods, checkout information, item location, and shipping terms When you revise a listing, eBay puts a little notation on your auction page that reads: Description(revised).

Opening an eBay Store can expand your business. eBay stresses the fixed-price format on the site these days, and buyers are looking for that format. The more that savvy buyers learn about eBay Stores, the more popular they become. The more popular they become, the more people buy from them. An eBay Store provides you with your own little corner of eBay where you can make use of your good relationships with your customers and sell directly to them.

When you click the feedback number next to an eBay member’s user ID, you see all the tools you need to gauge that member’s reputation. Think of members’ feedback profiles as their eBay “report cards.” First, check out the Recent Feedback Ratings and Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR) areas. Looking at the number of positive ratings and the average star ratings (DSRs) gives you a pretty good idea of a member’s performance in eBay transactions.

You need to carefully review the seller and item info on eBay. On the right side of an eBay listing page, you see two stacked boxes. The top box is the Seller Info box where you find valuable information about the seller. Below it is an item information box, which offers you some handy details about the listed item.

Before you think about placing a bid on an item on eBay, keep in mind that the maximum bid you place won’t be the only money you spend on an item. You need to also factor in the shipping costs, and, if applicable, sales tax. Make sure that the amount you’re willing to spend includes these figures. If you have only $50 to spend, for example, don’t place a $50 bid on a fragile item that has to be shipped a long distance because, as the buyer, you’re the one who probably has to pay for shipping and insurance (insurance is included in the seller’s shipping charges).

When you have an eBay Store, the fee structure includes other fees as well. In addition to the monthly rental fee, you have listing fees, optional listing-upgrade fees, and Final Value Fees. Store Inventory Listing Fees Item Price Listing ($) per 30 days $1.00–$24.99 .03 $25.00–$199.99 .05 $200.00 and above .

In traditional situations where you pay sales commission on a big purchase (such as a house), you usually pay a fixed percentage on the entire amount. eBay’s Final Value Fee (EVF) structure for auctions is different: It’s set up as a three-tiered system where you pay 8.75 percent of the closing bid amount for the first $25.

Finding merchandise to sell on eBay is as easy as checking your garage — and as tough as clambering up into the attic. You can sell on eBay just about anything you bought and stashed away (because you didn’t want it, forgot about it, or it didn’t fit). To find an item to sell on eBay, start by looking in your closet and find what’s just hanging around: Clothing that no longer fits or is out of fashion.

You can find a lot of detail on an eBay listing if you take the time scroll farther down. When you do, you see three tabs that take you to the details of the eBay listing. eBay item Description tab When you click the Description tab, you see the most important part of the eBay listing. Read all the information about the item carefully before buying or bidding.

If you’re selling on eBay, getting positive feedback establishes your good-seller reputation. And if you’re buying on eBay, while you can’t get official negative feedback, the seller still has their “say.” Feedback as an eBay seller Here’s how to get a good reputation as an eBay seller: Establish contact with the buyer (pronto!

Help is available on eBay, but to be fair, the people at eBay Customer Service are pretty busy. The eBay Customer Service team has millions of customers. many of whom are asking questions and wanting help at the same time. If you stick to the eBay Help area and — in the most extreme cases, such as your pictures not showing up in search — use the Contact Us link on the eBay home page, you should be able to get the help you need on eBay.

You don’t have to know a lot of fancy computer tech stuff to do well on eBay, but you must have a computer — either a desktop or laptop variety. Keep the following pointers in mind as you get your computer ready for eBay: Computers come in various shapes, sizes, and configurations (see some examples in the figure).

You can help eBay be a watchdog. As a member of the eBay community, you can — and should — report bidding and selling abuses to the eBay staffers at the Security & Resolution Center. The Security Center is where eBay’s Trust and Safety gurus focus on protecting the Web site from members who aren’t playing by the rules.

When you sell an item on eBay, most of the time you will be shipping it to your buyer. You need to decide where you’re willing to ship your item. Here are the choices eBay offers on the Sell an Item form: Ship to the United States only: This option is selected by default; it means you ship only domestically. Will ship worldwide: You’ll ship items to countries worldwide.

As soon as you receive the package containing the item you won (or bought) on eBay, open and inspect it immediately. If you’re not happy with the item you receive, the seller may have some explaining to do. E-mail or call the seller immediately and (politely) ask for an explanation if the item isn’t as described.

Sometimes packages (and their contents) — even your eBay item — really do get damaged in the mail or misplaced during shipment. That’s what insurance is for. Although eBay doesn’t allow sellers to charge buyers for insurance, smart sellers still purchase insurance on expensive items, one-of-a-kind items, or very fragile items.

Joining and participating in eBay community boards, chats, and groups can help establish your eBay presence. You can connect to the people and happenings on eBay through the navigation bar’s handy Community link. Thanks to these groups, chat rooms, and discussion boards, eBay can have a small-town feel. The one cardinal rule for eBay chat boards and discussion boards is: No doing business on the board.

Selling on eBay is going well, and you want to keep track of your eBay profits. The best place to tally up your eBay sales is on your My eBay page, which helps you stay organized while you’re conducting all your eBay business. But you can’t just add up your selling prices and call that your profit. Use this checklist of what to watch out for after the listing closes: Keep an eye on how much you’re spending to place items up for sale on eBay.

Every item listed on eBay is charged an insertion fee, which is calculated on a sliding scale based on the minimum bid, your fixed-sale price, or the reserve price for your item. So what does the insertion fee buy you on eBay? These two essentials: A really snazzy-looking display page for your item that millions of eBay members worldwide can see, admire, and breathlessly respond to.

eBay has its rules about the types of items you can sell. The following table lets you know what eBay considers infringing or questionable items. (Questionable items may be sold under certain conditions only.) eBay Infringing Items Item Including Comments Re-recorded music, movies, or television shows Any entertainment media that’s been re-recorded from an original source For music, an original source would be a compact disc, cassette tape, or record; for movies, an original DVD, laser disc, or commercial VHS tape; for television shows, an original network, cable, or satellite service airing.

eBay has its rules about the types of items you can sell. The following table lets you know what eBay considers prohibited items — items that you can’t sell on eBay (or give away) under any circumstances. eBay Prohibited Items Item Including Comments Firearms and accessories Antique, collectible, sport, or hunting guns; air guns; BB guns; silencers; converters; kits for creating guns; gunpowder; high-capacity ammunition magazines; and armor-piercing bullets You can’t even sell a gun that doesn’t work, but you can buy and sell single bullets, shells, and even antique bombs and musket balls — as long as they have nothing explosive in them.

All eBay listings include an item description, which lists details about the item being sold. If you know what to look for, the eBay item description gives you a clear idea about whether this is an item you want to buy. The eBay item description is the most critical item on the item page. Read it carefully; pay very close attention to what is, and isn’t, written.

You should leave feedback on eBay as soon as a transaction is completed. For eBay buyers, that means you should leave feedback as soon as you receive their items and check them out. For sellers, timing is up for grabs. Don’t leave feedback for buyers until you know they’re happy with their item. Even though a seller can’t leave a negative, you don’t want to leave a spurious positive for a difficult buyer.

Experienced eBay sellers know that when planning a sale, timing is almost everything. You need to know when to sell your item on eBay. Fur coats don’t sell well in July, and as a collectible seller you don’t want to be caught with 200 Nintendo games during a run on Xbox. But vintage games may still sell at any time.

Many eBay sellers are afraid to ship items internationally and list “I don’t ship overseas” on the item page. Of course, sending an item that you sell on eBay that far away may be a burden if you’re selling a car or an exercise bicycle (they don’t fit in boxes too well), but sending a package internationally can be just as easy as shipping across state lines.

You’re not required to leave feedback on eBay. However, feedback is the benchmark by which all eBay users are judged, whether you’re buying or selling, so you should always leave feedback comments. Get in the frame of mind that every time you complete a transaction — the minute the package arrives safely and you’ve taken the time to check the item — you should go to eBay and post your feedback.

eBay says to make feedback “factual and emotionless.” You won’t go wrong if you comment on the details (either good or bad) of the transaction. If you have any questions about what eBay says about feedback, click the Feedback link under the Account tab on your My eBay page. On the resulting page, click the Go to Feedback Forum link.

Whether you win an eBay auction or are simply buying an item outright, your next task is to pay for the item. eBay’s Checkout is a convenient way to pay for your completed auctions, fixed-price sales, and Buy it Now sales with a credit card or eCheck through PayPal. eBay’s Checkout is integrated directly onto the item page so that you can win an auction and pay for an item in less than a minute.

PayPal’s protection program covers fraud. As a buyer who pays for eBay items through PayPal, you can be covered against fraud for the full purchase price of your item. Before you make a claim to PayPal, make sure that you exhaust your options for dealing directly with the seller and that you also understand what PayPal means by “fraud.

You can refine your eBay search by narrowing it down to a category. When you click a category listed under Refine Search, you’ll get closer to what you’re looking for. For example, if you’re searching for a wool sweater large red, you can click the Women’s Clothing Category to open up a much easier way to find your item.

Most eBay users spend their time hunting for specific items — say, Barbie dolls, designer dresses, baseball cards, plumbing supplies, or U.S. stamps. That’s why eBay came up with the Organize area of your My eBay page where you can organize all your eBay searches. Whenever you view your My eBay Organize links, you see a list of your favorite searches and sellers.

If you sell something on eBay, you have to pay taxes. Whether in cyberspace or face-to-face life, never forget that Uncle Sam is always your business partner. (If you live outside the United States, check the tax laws in that country so you don’t end up with a headache down the road.) You may have heard some rumors about not having to pay taxes on eBay profits.

You can pay for your eBay purchases in several ways, but eBay allows sellers to show only electronic payment methods. The eBay seller isn’t required to accept any form of payment except PayPal or one of the other electronic payment options (ProPay, Paymate, Moneybookers, or a merchant account). If you want to make a payment in the form of a check or money order, use the Ask a Question link that you find on an item listing and ask whether you can!

The My eBay page is your space to personalize and manage all your eBay activities. After you register, your personal My eBay page helps you track the items you’re watching and bidding on, as well as items you’ve already bought and sold. You can access your My eBay page at any time by clicking the My eBay link in the navigation bar at the top of every page.

Your eBay About Me page is an important part of your eBay presence. You can prepare several elements for your About Me page even before you start the page-building process. Think about how to present yourself on your About Me page through the use of the following elements: Title: Come up with a title for your page.

eBay has options that you can use to get your listings noticed — for example, bold face titles (for appearance) and subtitles (for adding extra item information). The options you choose (and the price you’re willing to pay) depend on the type and price of the items you plan to sell. Here are eBay listing options and what they’ll cost you.

Selling an item eBay works best with pictures. But potential buyers don’t want to wait all day to see photos of what you’re selling. Follow this checklist of tried-and-true techniques for preparing fast-loading images to display at eBay: Set your image resolution at 72 pixels per inch. You can do this with the settings for your scanner.

Before you package up the item you sold on eBay, take a close look at the buyer's merchandise. Here’s a checklist of what to consider about before you ship a purchase to the winning bidder: Is your item as you described it? If the item has been dented or torn somehow, e-mail the winning bidder immediately and let them know.

If you own intellectual property that you think is being infringed upon on the eBay site, you should take advantage of the eBay Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program. Owners of trademarked or copyrighted items and logos, as well as other forms of intellectual property, can become members of this program for free.

You can browse eBay all you want without registering, but before you do any transaction on eBay, you must register. You must be 18 or older to register on eBay. Until you’ve been a member of eBay for 30 days, a picture of a beaming, golden cartoonlike icon is next to your user ID wherever it appears on the site.

Before you list an item to sell in an eBay auction, you need to do some research to find out as much information as you can about the items you intend to sell. Here are some ideas for researching what you want to sell: Hit the books. Check your local library for books about the item. Study historic guides and collector magazines.

After reading feedback you’ve received from other eBay members, you may feel compelled to respond. If the feedback is negative, you may want to defend yourself. If it’s positive, you may want to thank the person who left it. To respond to feedback, click the Feedback link in the drop-down menu under the Account tab on your My eBay page and then click the Go to Feedback Forum link at the top of the page.

You can search eBay to quickly find items. Right below the eBay logo on the home page is a search box that helps you find items by several methods. You can type title keywords, use a drop-down list to choose categories to search, and zero in on specific items by clicking a link to eBay’s Advanced Search page. Below the search box, you find more link boxes (similar to those in the navigation bar), including Categories: Click here for a drop-down tab showing the complete listing of top-level categories.

PayPal is a popular method of payment on eBay. PayPal lets you (or your eBay buyer) click the Pay Now button that shows up at the end of a transaction or on an invoice. You can easily set up a PayPal account. After you register with PayPal to pay for an item, PayPal debits your credit card or your bank checking account and sends the payment to the seller’s account.

Shipping the item you sold on eBay can be the most time-consuming task for many eBay sellers, but it needn’t be. It’s your job as the seller to see that the item gets to the buyer in one piece. Your reputation is reflected in your professionalism at shipping. Keep these pointers in mind when shipping your eBay item: Before listing your item on eBay, get the package ready to ship.

The folks in the brown UPS trucks love eBay. Most eBay sellers who ship with UPS opt for Ground service. UPS also takes many of the odd-shaped large boxes that the U.S. Postal Service won’t accept. UPS makes pickups, but you have to know the exact weight of your package so that you can pay when the UPS driver shows up.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is still the most efficient and inexpensive way to ship items — eBay or otherwise. The post office also supplies free boxes and labels for Priority and Express Mail packages. You have several options: Priority Mail, Express Mail, First-Class Mail, and Media Mail. Exploring your postal system options Priority Mail, with its flat-rate free envelopes and boxes, is the standard method of shipping for eBay users.

If you’re new to selling on eBay or you don’t sell many items on eBay, you may want to try shipping your sold item directly from PayPayl. By using PayPal, a seller can streamline the buyer’s shopping experience, making it simple to buy, click, and pay. Those out in the eBay world who haven’t used PayPal before find the service to be a life-changing experience.

You can search for items on eBay without signing in, but what fun is that? If you haven’t registered with eBay, you’re pretty much out of luck if you find a great deal on a lamp that’s just what you’ve been looking for — and the auction closes in five minutes! To sign in to eBay:Click the Sign In link on the home page or at the top of any eBay page.

Sometimes the best strategy when it comes to bidding on an eBay auction is to do nothing at first. During the first six days of a week-long eBay auction you want to bid on, mark the page to watch in your My eBay area and check in every day to keep tabs on the items you’re watching and revise your strategy (or maximum bid) as the eBay auction proceeds.

Auctions on eBay close at a prescribed time. So you need to synchronize your clock with an eBay auction to make sure that you can make the most strategically timed bid possible. To find out what time an auction ends, simply look at the auction page. Note that eBay runs on Pacific Time and uses a 24-hour clock (00:00 to 24:00 versus the more familiar 12:00 to 12:00).

Adding photos to your eBay listings helps attract potential buyers. Try to create the best-looking images possible, no matter what kind of technology you’re using to capture them. A point-and-shoot camera may be okay for a group shot on vacation, but not for taking a picture of the item you want to sell on eBay.

A site the size of eBay can be overwhelming, but you can search with keywords to find what you want on eBay. Keywords are usually nouns (plus some adjectives) that you would use to describe your item. You don’t need to start your keywords with capital letters because they’re not recognized by a search engine — on eBay or anywhere else.

In addition to choosing clear descriptive keywords, you can use special tactics to conduct searches with the eBay search engine so that you can find just what you want on eBay. The following table highlights shortcuts that you can take advantage of during your eBay searches. Shortcuts for Use on the eBay Search Engine Symbol Effect on Search Example Quotes “” Limits the search to items with the exact phrase inside the quotes.

After you figure out what category you want to list your item in, eBay wants to know what to call the item you’re trying to sell. Type the item name, or title, where prompted. eBay gives you 55 characters for this purpose. You want your title to use the item’s common name and outline its age, condition, and any special features.

After you hook potential bidders on your eBay item with your title, you can use a fabulous description to reel in buyers. Think infomercial (the classier the better). A great description of your eBay item can help you close the deal. In your description, include information about your item that accentuates the positive.

You have three ways to sell an item on eBay — auction, fixed price, and Buy It Now. You can decide which type of eBay listing is best for you. An online auction is the tried-and-true traditional sale format on eBay. Many people look for single-item auctions; you can combine one of those with a Buy It Now option for potential buyers who want the item immediately.

You need to research similar sales for the items you gathered and now plan to sell on eBay. Look at completed sales by conducting a Completed Items search on the Search page to determine the following information: Exactly how many of any collectible item has been sold in the past few weeks. The high selling prices and how many bids the items received by the time the auctions were over.

eBay is more than just a Web site for buying and selling stuff. eBay is about people connecting with people. And a key (and free!) way to make eBay your online home is to create an About Me page. The About Me page is basically a personal Web page, and thousands of eBay members have created them. The About Me page enables you to personalize yourself as a bidder to sellers — and as a business to prospective bidders.

While the majority of items sold on eBay are aboveboard, you can’t just sell anything on eBay. eBay forbids listings that are either illegal (in the eyes of the government) or prohibited by eBay’s rules and regulations. In either case, eBay steps in, calls a foul, and makes the item’s listing invalid. Three categories of items can get you into trouble on eBay.

eBay is a safe place to buy and sell, unlike some online classified sites with no built-in security. You also receive many other benefits from buying and selling on eBay: eBay serves as your online auctioneer. Throughout the auction process, eBay’s computers keep tabs on what’s going on. When the auction or sale is over, eBay takes a percentage of the final selling price and enables the buyer to check out and pay for the item.

eBay offers several kinds of auctions, but for the most part, they all work the same way. An auction is a unique sales event where the exact value of the item for sale is not known. (The price is determined by how much someone is willing to spend.) As a result, eBay auctions involve an element of surprise— not only for the bidder (who may end up with a great deal), but also for the seller (who may end up making a killing).

If you love to shop but can’t stand to pay full retail for anything, then you may want to buy an eBay Daily Deal. eBay can send you a daily e-mail from eBay called the Daily Deal. All you need to do is sign up to take advantage of the eBay Daily Deal. Each day, eBay works with sellers to select four very popular items and offer them for sale at very low prices — with free shipping!

When you list your item for sale on eBay, you need to choose both the duration and timing of your eBay listing. eBay gives you a choice to run your auction — 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 days. If you choose a 10-day auction, you add $0.40 to your insertion fee. If you have an item that you think will sell pretty well, run a 7-day auction (be sure it will cover a full weekend) so bidders have time to check it out before they decide to bid.

When you open an eBay Store, you have your choice between several types. All types of eBay Stores are on a level playing field and are equally searchable from the eBay Stores hub page. All eBay Stores have the following standard characteristics: Listings: All your eBay listings, whether auction, fixed-price, or store inventory, will appear in your eBay Store.

Many eBay users add emoticons to communicate graphically on eBay. Many experienced posters to the board have cute little smiley icons (called emoticons) next to their posts to show emotion. Emoticons can help indicate whether the writer is being (for example) sincere, ironic, or goofy about what he wrote. The following table shows how you too can doll up (or clarify) your posts with a little emotion.

Although the eBay Sell an Item form looks daunting, filling out its many sections doesn’t task as long as you may think. Some questions you’re asked aren’t things you even have to think about; just click an answer. Other questions ask you to type information. You can find eBay’s Sell an Item form by using either of these methods: Click the Sell link on the navigation bar at the top of the eBay home page.

When you consider buying a more expensive item on eBay, be sure to click the seller’s feedback number (beside the seller’s user ID in the Seller Info box) when you visit the auction listing. Clicking the number takes you to the member’s Feedback Profile. At the top of the Feedback Profile, you get a lot of info, including User ID: The eBay member’s nickname appears, followed by a number in parentheses — the net number of the positive feedback comments the person has received, minus any negative feedback comments.

You can expand or shrink an eBay search to quickly find what you want. Scrolling down a search results page can open up even more options — called Preferences — for finding just what you want on eBay. Some options are there to narrow down your search, and others will open it up. Using the Buying Formats preferences is similar to the tabs at the top of your search results, but with one important addition: eBay hides store listings unless the core search comes up with 30 or fewer auction-style and fixed-price items.

Unlike traditional businesses, on eBay, you don’t have to spend much money to sell your items. eBay keeps selling fees low and volume high. eBay does, however, charge sellers for selling their wares on the site. Keeping costs low for sellers is one reason eBay has become one of the most successful e-commerce companies on the Internet and a darling of Wall Street.

If you’ve won an eBay auction, you’re most likely to find it out from either the seller or the Won section of your My eBay page. As a rule, you won’t hear about it right away from eBay. eBay tries to get its End of Sale e-mails out pronto, but sometimes there’s a bit of lag time. The Buy section of your My eBay summary page shows you all your bidding, watching, and buying action on the site.

A particularly quirky situation can arise when an eBay auction has some characteristics of a fixed-price sale. In this case, you see the Place Bid button along with the Buy It Now button. In that situation, you need to make the choice whether you should bid on the item or buy it outright. If you like the item so much that you don’t want to chance losing it (and you’re willing to pay the listed price), click the Buy It Now button.

You can put in a single picture to accompany your eBay listing. Loading an image of your eBay item so also causes a postage-stamp-size version of your image to appear next to your listing in the category or search. Many buyers enjoy browsing the Gallery catalog-style, and it’s open to all categories. The best thing about using a picture in your listings is that it’s free and it draws attention to your item on a search or category page.

Establishing yourself as an eBay seller isn’t as difficult as you might think; you just need to do a bit of homework and get to know the ropes. The key to making your first eBay sale is to start small and grow from there. Whether you just want to clear out 35 years of odd and wacky knickknacks cluttering your basement or you seriously want to earn extra money, you can find a place on eBay.

To bid on eBay, you don’t have to sit in on an auction 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, manually upping your bid every time someone bids against you. You can make your high bid by proxy in an eBay auction. By proxy means that eBay’s automatic-bid feature stands in for you so that your bid rises incrementally in response to other bidders’ bids.

The eBay home page is a sensible place to start your eBay adventures. To access the eBay home page, type www.ebay.com in your browser’s address bar and press Enter. eBay changes the home page from minute to minute to reflect what’s going on — not just on the site, but in the world as well. Today you may notice that a link that was on the eBay home page yesterday is gone.

Sniping is the fine art of outbidding your competition in the very last seconds of the eBay auction — without leaving them enough time to place a defensive bid. If you’re going to snipe, assume that the current high bidder has a very high-dollar proxy bid in the works. In 1999, sniping was a fairly new idea. Now everyone knows about sniping, and it’s pretty much an accepted bidding method.

After you’ve prepared your eBay listing using the Sell an Item form, you should preview your listing. Scroll down the page and confirm that all the information you entered appears as you intended. If so, you’re ready to put your item official up for sale. To preview your eBay listing: On the Sell an Item form, under the heading How Your Listing Will Appear in Search Results, click the Preview Your Listing link.

The eBay My World page is another free tool that helps you establish your eBay presence. If blogging (online journaling) is the key to the new Web, then your My World page is the hub of your eBay user interaction. Your About Me page is there for customers, and the My World page is mostly used by the eBay community.

All eBay listing pages — whether auctions, fixed-price items, or Buy It Now items — look about the same. At the top left of the page, you see the item picture; the top middle shows the item title. When you view an auction page like this one, you scroll down to see a complete description of the item, along with shipping information and return policy.

Feedback comments are a valuable tool when deciding whether to do business with an eBay seller. If a seller has several negative feedback comments, you may not want to do business with him. To read an eBay seller’s feedback comments, go to the seller’s Feedback Profile by clicking the feedback number (beside the seller’s user ID in the Seller Info box) when you visit an auction/item page.

On eBay, you are only as good as your feedback says you are. Your feedback is made up of comments — good, bad, or neutral — that people leave about you (and you leave about others). In effect, people are commenting on the overall professionalism of the buyers and sellers they meet on eBay. Feedback serves two purposes: Good sellers can be rewarded with praise when they earn it.

As an eBay buyer, you may, under certain circumstances, retract your bid. Just note that each time you retract your bid from an auction, the retraction shows up above the Feedback comments. Sellers often check this area to determine a bidder’s reliability. (A history of bidding on items and then changing one’s mind is a danger signal for sellers.

Many people feel more comfortable keeping their receipts and filing them in real manila folders. If that describes you, you can print copies of your eBay purchase records to help keep your transactions straight. The item page shows the amount of your winning eBay bid, the item’s description, and other relevant information.

When you’re ready to ship your eBay item, Federal Express is an option. FedEx Ground service has competitive prices and carries all the best features of FedEx. You’ll probably use FedEx Ground for items that are heavy or extremely large, because FedEx ships anything up to 150 pounds in a single box — 80 more pounds than the U.

If you want to place a successful bid during an eBay auction, follow these few short tips really work. Follow these tips, and you should be able to not only increase your number of successful eBay bids, but also get better deals: Shop eBay.ca. If you’re in the United States, why not bid on auctions on the eBay Canada Web site?

In the paragraphs of your eBay About Me page, you can use HTML, a markup language used on the Web, to add images or fancy text. These unique-to-eBay HTML codes give your About Me page a custom look. You can combine some code with others (such as those for bold and color). The following table gives you the codes that you can type into the HTML portion of your text entry.

When you shop on eBay, you’re going to come across some acronyms in item titles. Knowing what these acronyms stand for ahead of time (so you don’t have to click every item) will help you quickly figure out what you’re looking at. The following table shows you a list of some of the more common abbreviations used on the site.

You can use the drop-down menus in eBay to quickly find what you want to do. The drop-down menus are shown as link boxes on the navigation bar (Buy, Sell, My eBay, Community, and Help). Keep in mind that all informational links provided to you by eBay in these drop-down menus are just that: from eBay. They may be influenced by advertising deals, alliances with providers, and so on.

When dealing on eBay, you need to take the feedback system seriously. Check a seller’s feedback profile before you buy and follow these tips. Before you send feedback to another eBay member or read feedback that eBay members have sent you, make sure you do the following: Before you bid on an item on eBay, do check the seller’s feedback rating by clicking the number that appears next to the seller’s user ID.

Buying an item on eBay is an art. You can get some great deals! But before you bid on an auction item or buy a fixed-price listing, follow these tips: Research the item before you bid or buy, and search completed item listings to see what price similar items have sold for in the past. If the item is new and can be bought in a store, do some online research on search engines to find out what the stores are selling the item for.

How do you find the shipping supplies you need to send your eBay item to its buyer? The place to start looking for packing material is the same place you should start looking for things to sell on eBay: your house. If you save all the boxes, bubble wrap, padding, and packing peanuts you get in the mail, you’ll rarely have to buy packing material.

You may want to get comfortable bidding and buying on eBay. Or maybe you’d like to gear up and take on the role of seller. Knowing these terms related to eBay listings can help you figure out how to buy and sell effectively. Best Offer: You generally see this feature with a Buy It Now, fixed-price listing. If you like the item, but the price is a bit more than you’d like to pay, click the Make Offer button and make an offer to the seller.

Using eBay smartly is a mantra for all buyers and sellers. Before you jump in, check out the eBay lingo and increase your sales savvy. Use the time chart to keep up with online auction timing, and embrace the tips for buyers and sellers, and for leaving feedback.

eBay’s clock goes by military time in the Pacific time zone, and eBay sellers use it to schedule auction start and end times. Print this chart and keep it by your computer where you can quickly check on the ending time for an auction you want to bid on. Find your time zone in the table and check the corresponding times on eBay.