100 Tips for Buying and Selling on eBay

Introduction

100 Tips for eBay Buyers and Sellers is a digest of some of the best tips, tricks and secrets used by veteran eBay buyers and sellers. Some of the information is from my newsletter and some is from my books, The Basic Guide to eBay, Selling Antiques and Collectibles on eBay, The eBay Power Seller's Manual, and The Wholesale Buying System.

You can also subscribe to our free newsletter for auction sellers - another source for the tips in this book.

There are more tips here for sellers than for buyers. But, even if you only buy on eBay and have no interest in becoming a seller, I suggest you read all of the tips as there is plenty of information that will make you a better buyer. I guess it comes under the heading of "walking in someone else's shoes."

The more you know about the process, the more fun and rewarding eBay can be.

If you are a seller, or interested in becoming a seller, I would encourage you to explore our web site. Even if you decide not to purchase any of our educational manuals, there are tons of free resources and excellent informational pages that can add to your selling experience. I would especially encourage you to go through back issues of the newsletters.

Let's get on with it. The first tip is probably the most important, and many of the other tips relate to it. Imagine, if you went into a shopping mall and every store had a board near the entrance where customers could post notes about the products and services sold in each store. Do you think that would improve customer service? Well, that is what eBay's feedback system is all about. Achieving and keeping a good feedback rating is essential to your long-term success on eBay.

Tips for Buyers

Almost everyone starts his or her eBay experience as a buyer. Learning how to buy effectively will improve your eBay experience and prepare you for becoming a seller. I recommend you make at least ten successful transactions on eBay before trying to sell. We hope the following tips will make you a better and more successful buyer.

1. Build A Positive Feedback Rating

Give and get good feedback. This is less critical for buyers than for sellers, but having a good feedback rating makes other eBayers comfortable doing business with you. For example, I accept checks for immediate shipment if the buyer has a good feedback rating. If someone has very little feedback (less than 20) or several negative comments, then I hold the checks until they clear before sending an item.
2. How to build feedback quickly?

Here is a quick way to build good feedback: make some purchases for a few lower cost items you use everyday or that you would normally buy at a store. There are plenty of items in the Health & Beauty category that you buy every day such as shampoo and razor blades –often at prices less than you would pay at Wal-Mart.

Pay promptly using PayPal and immediately post feedback for the seller as soon as you get the item. If the seller does not post feedback, send them a short email telling them that you posted feedback for them and you would appreciate them reciprocating.
3. Be generous with your feedback

Post feedback quickly and leave specific comments. Leaving a comment that says: “great seller,” is nice –but it is more helpful to say, “Item arrived quickly in perfect condition, just as described.” Or: “Quick Professional transaction –good email and just what I ordered.” If the seller sells something specific you can mention it such as: “Beautiful Print –I will enjoy for many years.”

This type of feedback is very helpful to future buyers and it tends to get you better feedback comments in return.
4. Use PayPal

Sellers want to be paid quickly and everyone is concerned about fraud. There is no faster or safer way to complete an eBay transaction than PayPal (now owned by eBay). PayPal is now used by over 100 Million users around the world and now processes more debit and credit card payments than Citibank. Over 80% of registered eBay users accept PayPal and eBay has fully integrated PayPal into their systems. Take the time to become a verified seller and always give your verified shipping address. This gets you the fraud protection. Go to www.paypal.com .

Did you know you can also use PayPal as a savings account. According to Money Magazine, PayPal now pays the highest rate on ordinary savings accounts. When I wrote this PayPal was paying 4.3% while my bank, Wells Fargo, was only paying 2.3%

5. Avoid Fraud on Large Purchases

Given the millions of transactions that occur each month, fraud is actually rare on ebay but it does exist. The most common type of fraud on eBay is a seller that offers an expensive item for sale at an unbelievably good price. When you win the item the seller asks to be paid in cash, cashiers check or money order. You send the money and then the seller disappears.

Demanding a cashiers check or a money order only is a red flag. Never bid on a large purchase if the seller will not take Paypal or a credit card. Always check the seller's feedback and how long they have been registered on eBay.

Most fraudesters set up an eBay account, run a few quick expensive auctions, get the money and either disappear or are kicked off of eBay as soon as they are discovered. Be especially careful if the seller is located outside the U.S.
6. Pay sellers quickly

Paying quickly will help you build feedback faster and you will get your item sooner.
7. Be honest – admit your mistakes

If you forgot about the auction and are late getting a payment off, or you forgot to ship something you sold – be up front and honest. Apologize and admit your mistake. People can be very forgiving if they believe you. They can be unforgiving if they think they are being B.S.’ed.
 

8. Create an About Me page on eBay

EBay allows you to create a page to describe you and your family or even include your pets. You can put a photo on the page, talk about your hobbies, your family – basically anything you like. The About Me page is where a person can get a sense of who you are and if they would like to do business with you. If you have a web site, this is the one place on eBay where it is allowed to direct buyers to your web site.
9. Master the power of searching

According to eBay, about 65% of bidders find their item by searching. Including the exact name of the product you are selling is key to bidders finding your auction. Some sellers place a tilde (~) or a star * next to their auction title to help get attention. Place a space between a tilde (or *) and a word, or the word will not come up in a search.

For example: *Nikon* would not result in any items found, because eBay’s search engine sees the * as part of the word. According to Power Seller News, some of the most searched words on eBay are: DVD, Art, BMW, Gucci, Longaberger, Louis Vuitton, Laptop, Playstation 2 and Paintball.

Use eBay’s powerful search engine to find items and to see what items are selling and how much they are selling for.
10. Be sure to thank people

Send an email to your seller when the item arrives. Thank them and let them know you posted feedback and are happy with the transaction.
11. Search for misspelled items to find bargains

Finding misspelled items is a great sport on eBay. Remember that 65% of eBay buyers find items by searching. If someone spells an item name incorrectly it will not come up in a search. These items usually get very few bids and this is a great place to shop.

Here are a few misspelled words to try: jewelery, strawberry, Ken Griffy, Porsch, beaney, If you want to buy something specific on eBay, think of how the word could be commonly misspelled and type it into the search box. You will often be surprised how many items come up.
12. Use the .02 or .03 rule.

Most people bid in even numbers. If the bid increment is 50 cents, make your bid .52 or .53. This way you will just outbid someone by a few cents instead of a large increment. This is very important when sniping (see next item)
13. Learn to snipe

EBay’s proxy bidding system allows you to set your highest bid and then forget about it. EBay will keep bidding the minimum increment up to your maximum. This is fine if you know exactly how much you want to pay for something. If you are not sure how much you want to bid or if you know an item will be hot, then learn how to snipe at the last minute. Here is how to snipe:

Open one window with the auction description. Open a second window and place the highest amount you will pay for the item and hit “Review Bid.” Now enter your username and password –but don’t hit “Place Bid” yet. Wait until 15 or 20 seconds before the auction ends. (Refresh your first window to see the time left). At the right moment, hit “Place Bid.” With luck your bid will arrive at the perfect time to beat out your competition.

Be sure to synchronize your time with the official eBay time or you could just miss the end of an auction.

You can also purchase a sniping service. I use BidSlammer which is very inexpensive and can snipe the auctions where I am not around.

14. Use Ending Today

 When searching eBay listings and categories, it can become very tiresome because there is so much out there. If you’re just browsing for stuff to buy, then select a category, and select Ending Today. Items ending in the next 24 hours will be highlighted in red. Here's a tip to find great bargains. Look for items ending after midnight. There aren't as many people up after midnight and those auctions tend to get fewer bids. If you don't want to stay up that late, use BidSlammer to bid for you.
15. Search Completed items

 To find out what a product is worth, it doesn’t do any good to find prices for on-going auctions as this could change minute by minute. Searching Completed Items (from the eBay search box) is the best way to determine an item’s worth or value.
16. Check the seller’s feedback rating --and the comments

Because you are spending your hard-earned money, it pays to check the feedback left by others about the person from whom you’re thinking of buying. When in an item’s auction page, select “view seller’s feedback.”

This will list all comments made by others that have dealt with this person in the past. It can be very revealing. If you see a bunch of negative comments, stay away from this seller. If you see positive, then proceed. Don’t let one or two negatives dissuade you if most of the feedback is positive. Everyone makes mistakes, and things do get lost in the mail. Also there are some people out there who are very difficult to please. Be careful buying expensive items from sellers who are newly registered or have a low feedback score.
17. Be careful about leaving negative feedback

You should always try and work things out with the seller. If a seller is a total fraud, then go ahead and leave negative feedback.

EBay is a community and most people are basically good, although all of us screw up once in a while. Unfortunately there are a few “Crazies” out there. If you leave negative feedback on them, they seek revenge, start flaming email wars, send emails to your bidders and so on. Sometimes leaving negative feedback on these people can cause more trouble than it is worth.
18. Check your email at least twice daily

As a buyer, you want to ensure you win the most bids you can– within your price range, of course. Since eBay will email you whenever you’re outbid on an item for which you have an outstanding bid, you want to be sure you know as soon as possible, so you can re-bid if you want to. If you don’t check your email, and you receive an outbid notice, by the time you do check email, the auction may be over for that item. Checking your email regularly will keep you informed of the status of your bids.

Also you want to respond quickly to any emails from buyers or sellers relating to your bids or your auctions.
19. How to narrow your search?

Since using a single word for your search can return many, many ads, you may want to narrow the search even more to get down to a more specific need. For example, suppose you are looking specifically for Timex watches as opposed to just any watches. Then use the AND keyword function in your search. In the search field, you'd enter Timex watch. This would return a list of all ads with both the words Timex and watch in them and exclude all ads that do not contain both words.
20. How to narrow your search even more?

Let's say you are looking for ads that include certain phrases, or words that go together in a specific order. For instance, if you are searching for teddy bears, you can use quotation marks. The command you would use is "teddy bear". This will return a listing of all ads with the words teddy bear in them. The word bear must immediately follow the word teddy for the listing to show.
21. Finding auctions with multiple words

If you are searching for items that have one of multiple words, you can use the OR keyword in your search. For example, if you wanted to find all auctions that have in their title listing the words cat or dog, then you would enter (cat, dog) in the search field. This would return all ads that have either the word cat or the word dog in their listing.
22. Locating auctions with one word, but not another.

If you are looking for watches, but are not interested in Timex watches then you would use the AND NOT keywords. In the search field, you would enter: watch -timex. This would return all auctions whose listings included the word watch, but excluded the word Timex. (Note there is no space between the minus sign and the word timex).
23. Don’t Fall for Spoof email supposedly from eBay or PayPal

Many emails you receive in your email account from PayPal or eBay are really fakes. If eBay sends you an email to your email address –and they sometimes do, don’t open it. Whenever eBay sends you an email they also send it to you’re My Messages box in you’re My eBay Page. Just go to you’re My eBay Page where you will also see the email if it really came from eBay. You can open it there safely. If you receive an email from PayPal, don’t click on any of the links. Instead just log into your PayPal account and you will see any notices on your main account page.

All genuine emails from eBay and/or PayPal will be always be addressed to you by name. If the email says Dear Member --it is a fake!
24. Be careful using a SPAM filter

Unfortunately once you start buying and selling on eBay, your email gets out there and your volume of spam increases. Eudora has a great free email program called Eudora Lite, free at www.eudora.com, which allows you to direct all your eBay related email into a special mailbox where you can filter it. There are also new services available on the Internet to filter out spam –but they are not 100% reliable. They sometimes filter out legitimate messages and still let a lot of spam through. That can be a problem --you might not get legitimate emails from sellers, bidders or buyers. So get in the habit of checking your spam filter regulary.

25. Know what you are buying

Unless the item you are bidding on is clear and unambiguous, be a little careful. If an item description is not complete, or if you are buying a collectible or something used, take the time to email the seller and ask questions or for clarification. If the seller doesn’t answer quickly and completely, that is a warning flag and you should be careful.

Be especially care when bidding on high-priced items.

Tips For Sellers

Whether you just want to have some fun, use eBay to clear out your attic, make a few extra bucks, or even start and eBay business, you will have to master the “basics” to sell successfully on eBay. The following tips are a good start –but you will need to keep learning to master the secrets of eBay success.
26. Learn to sell on eBay

Even if you don’t need the extra money and have no interest in building an eBay business, try selling things from time-to-time. Why? It’s fun! You will get far more for stuff on eBay than you would from a yard sale.

Also, selling will make you a better buyer. You will understand things from the seller’s point of view and learn other ways to spot bargains.
 

27. Buy on Overstock.com and other auctions to sell on eBay

eBay is king of the mountain. Overstock.com, and others are good auction sites, but they are not even a close second to eBay. Because Overstock.com auctions do not get as much action, you can often buy good items on Yahoo and resell them on eBay for a profit. The same is true of Amazon, ePier, BidFields and other smaller auction sites.
28. The best types of products to sell on eBay

Everyone wants to sell the latest consumer product –but the truth is there is a lot of competition from established sellers and even big online companies that have discovered eBay. The best item to sell on eBay is something used or a very specialized (niche) product that few others are selling.

You can buy virtually anything used: clothing, books, computers, DVD’s, Stereo equipment, and so on. If you are going to sell new goods, make sure you can buy them cheaply enough to sell and make a profit. One source is the closeout and liquidation companies that sell overstocks and seasonal items returned by department stores. Here is a link to a Free Wholesale Search Engine. I also offer an inexpensive product called My Top 20 Wholesale Sources for eBay Sellers. This is a great place to find good wholesale sources that will work with eBay sellers.

Another great item is consumables. The idea here is to get repeat business via your web site from customers who buy from you on eBay. One of the best selling products from The Auction Seller’s Resource is the Wholesale Buying System (WBS). This tells you how, what and where to buy products to sell on eBay. The WBS comes with password protected access to a member’s-only web site where you can access thousands of wholesale companies directly. The web site is updated monthly to add new sources.
29. Search Listings on eBay to see what is selling

Go to: http://listings.eBay .com to see what is being listed and sold on eBay. The number in parentheses after the category title is the number of auctions for a given item. In general, the higher the number the more action and sales.
30. Master niche marketing and specialize for success

This is home plate for your success strategy. Find your own niche. Define your market. Then you can know the type of person you’re going to be selling to and the types of product you want to sell. You will also have less competition. Forget trying to sell computers, digital cameras, iPods and plasma TVs. There is no way you can compete with the big guys unless you have tons of money. And those drop ship web sites and programs that claim to have those products are mostly scams. Find a small niche --or several small niches that you can dominate.

Along with being in a superior position to take advantage of repeat business, the benefits from becoming specialized are endless. If you know more about your product area, you will be able to buy at better prices and people who sense you specialize in something will be more comfortable buying from you.

My friend James Jackson runs a site called Find Hot Niches that can help you figure this out.
31. Become an expert in your field

Become an authority on what you do in your online auction business. If you sell printer ink cartridges, you want to be thought of before anyone else.

When you become an authority in your field, a whole new universe of business and opportunity is opened up to you. I buy certain types of things on eBay from the same sellers over and over. I wouldn't dare do business with anyone else, not when they have proven themselves and their product.

You want to earn that same type of position in the minds of eBayer’s for your niche. Also continue your auction education. Read books and training manuals, visit the chat and message boards, attend an eBay University when it comes to your town, go to eBay Live, and keep learning all the time.
32. Increase sales by putting audio in your auctions

I began using audio (voice) in my auctions in May of 2004. I saw an immediate increase in sales. For example, I sell expensive fire pit barbeques ($200+). Before using audio, I was selling one or two a week. Once I put audio in my auctions I started selling almost one a day. The same thing happened with my EZ Cube Photo Studios. I was selling about two a week on eBay. When I added audio to my auctions with Seller's Voice, my sales more than doubled. Now I sell at least four and sometimes five or six units a week.

We also sell Starbucks collectibles. I ran a test of identical auctions with and without audio. Every auction with audio got more bidders and sold for a higher price --in some cases as much as 22% higher!

I use a company called Seller's Voice for my audio. It is so easy. I just dial an 800 number, record my message and then go to their web site and copy a short line of code that I paste into my auction. If you launch your auction first, you can also record the message and just type the auction number into the phone and they will paste it in for you.
33. Get a sales tax number

Contact the sales tax authority in your county or state offices to get a sales tax number. This will allow you to buy from many wholesale companies that would not deal with you otherwise.

If you are not sure who to contact in your state, just call your local chamber of commerce and they will advise you or give you the phone number or web site address to register. If you go to the FREE Articles page on our web site there is an article on state sales taxes with a link to all of the state web sites where you can apply on line.
34. Automate your auctions

Automate your auctions with an auction management service. I have tried several companies and have finally settled on Vendio. They provide auction templates where you type in your headlines and text, insert your images, set your price, terms, length of auction and upload your auctions at any time or day you specify.

These services also track your inventory and sales, send automated emails to customers, provide a PayPal or credit card gateway and automatically post feedback once payment is received. Vendio is by far, the best service I have used.

People are often hesitant to pay a monthly fee to an auction management company, but believe me --over time they really save you money and they are far better than eBay's tools such as Turbo Lister and Selling Manager.

You should also invest in software to print labels. www.edicia.com is a good resource. You can get a great deal on label printers and scales that integrate right into your computer.
35. Build credibility

Be trustworthy. Remove every doubt about your credibility. You can do this through presenting yourself positively through your feedback, being passionately devoted to your business and by being an expert. See the section above on creating an About Me page. A photo of yourself will humanize the online experience can bring amazing results. One with your dog or cat in the picture is even better.
36. Your auction headline and item description is where it all begins.

Your headline is your advertising and your item description is your salesperson. On the web, how you're potential buyer perceives you and your product is everything.

Be sure to use power words in your auction title (headline). Rare, Unique, Powerful, New, Unusual, Stunning, Top Notch, First Class, etc. Just be sure not to exaggerate. Don’t call something ‘rare” if it is not.

Copy writing is the art of showing you and what you sell to your buyer in the best possible light. It’s the most important thing you have going for you. A carefully crafted sales letter (item description) can increase you results exponentially without having to spend an extra penny.
37. Use keywords in your auction headline (title) and description

Remember that 65% of eBay bidders find what they are looking for by using the search function. Be sure to use carefully chosen and accurate key words in your title and description. eBay gives you 55 characters in your headline. Be sure to use all of them. This will help you get hits.
38. Stand behind your product and service

We offer an unconditional money-back guarantee on every thing we sell. This has been our practice since our first day on eBay. Now if you are selling cars or houses, or “as-is” used goods that may not be a good idea – but the simple offer of a satisfaction guarantee will dramatically increase your sales.

Even unhappy people rarely go to the trouble of sending something back. The cost of providing the few refunds will be far out weighted by the increased volume of your sales. At the very least offer a guarantee that your items are exactly as described and you will give a full refund if they are not.
39. Set up an eBay Store

eBay Store listing fees are very low (much lower than auctions). This is a great place to park merchandise between auctions, to clear out slow moving merchandise, and a place you can promote in your emails, and with various web site promotion techniques. Place a clickable link in your auction item descriptions that invite people to view your store. I often run promotions where I tell people if they visit my store and buy two items I will give them free shipping. Also, eBay indexes your store listings to search engines such as Froogle. If someone comes to your store from off of eBay (such as from a Google search) and buys something from you, then eBay credits you 75% of the final value fee.
40. Accept personal checks up to $20 for immediate shipment from anyone with good feedback.

Remember it costs about $20 these days in bank fees if you bounce a check. Most people will not write a bad check for this reason. I have performed over 5,000 transactions on eBay over the past 5 years and I have only received one bad check – and it was eventually made good by the buyer. I usually offer immediate shipment on receipt of a personal check if the person has a good feedback rating. (At least 20 feedback postings with no negatives). Also, it used to take 5 to 7 days for a check to clear. Banks are now clearing checks in 1-2 days.
41. Set up a PayPal Shop

PayPal offers a service to all of their users called PayPal Shops. A PayPal shop is nothing more than a link to your eBay store or your web site.

PayPal offers users a search engine where they can search PayPal shops for goods offered by merchants who accept PayPal. Occasionally PayPal may feature your shop on their checkout page. If this happens your shop will get thousands of hits a day as long as it is featured.
42. Use an email signature

One great free way to promote your auction business is by using a signature. Signatures are six to eight line inserts at the end of your email messages. All email programs support them. You signature should include a description of what you sell and a hyper-link to your eBay store or your about me page.
43. Automate your shipping and save time at the post office

If you don’t have much time to spend at the post office, and I'm sure you don't, prepare in advance. You can have all of your mailing supplies sent to you by the USPS and UPS.

Visit http://www.usps.gov and http://ups.com for more details. eBay and PayPal now have an automated shipping system integrated with UPS and USPS right on their site.

If you ship via USPS Priority Mail (a favorite option for eBay sellers) you can use delivery confirmation to track your packages. It is free if you do it on line at http://www.usps.com or it costs 45 cents to do it at the post office window.
44. Building a High Feedback Rating Quickly

Here is a quick way to build good feedback: Sell something at a very low price, such as an inexpensive baseball card for under a dollar. Put up a Dutch auction for 50 of the item you are selling. Don’t worry about making money; just try to break even. Mail the cards out quickly, post great feedback for each buyer and send each buyer an email politely asking each of them to return the favor. Be sure to include the hyperlink to the feedback post in your email.
45. Where to get free shipping supplies?

If you send your items via USPS priority mail the post office will give you free envelopes, tape, and boxes. Think this through. If you pay the priority mail fee, and get free boxes, that is often close to what UPS charges when you add in the cost of a box. See below, however, for ways to get free boxes –and packing materials.

Another source for free supplies is your local gift shop or kitchen shop. These merchants receive merchandise in good boxes everyday with plenty of bubble-pak and Styrofoam peanuts that they simply throw away or pay to have recycled. Get friendly with your local gift shop and you can have access to tons of free shipping suppliers.
46. Sign Up for BuySafe and SquareTrade

If you sell expensive goods, BuySafe is a company that provides fraud insurance to your buyers. It cost a little to sign up, but BuySafe has plenty of evidence that shows that using BuySafe in your auctions will increase your bids and final values much more than the cost of their service. Sign up at www.buysafe.com.

SquareTrade is sort of the Better Business Bureau of eBay. Sign up at www.squaretrade.com. They also provide a dispute resolution service for their members and can get bad feedback removed.
47. Get your news from AuctionBytes.com

www.AuctionBytes.com is a great site with lots of free resources for auction sellers. They have an online auction calendar that lists best times to start and end an auction, a free online tutorial on how to take good photos, a daily and a weekly free newsletter and plenty of additional free resources. Best of all they have a daily news feed of news about eBay and online auctions.
48. Learn how to write great headlines and auction item descriptions

Our premier book, The Complete eBay Marketing System has two chapters on writing auction titles (headlines) and item descriptions designed to help you increase hits and bids. Poor titles and descriptions are one of the largest reasons eBay sellers get poor auction results.
49. Use Google AdWords to drive hits to your auctions, eBay Store or your web site.

Google AdWords can get expensive, but if you look for the obscure keywords no one else is bidding on your can really drive hits from out of eBay to your auctions or eBay Store. If you send someone from outside of eBay directly to your store and they buy, eBay credits you 75% of the store fee. If you join eBay’s affiliate program and this person was a first-time buyer, then eBay will pay you a commission on top of that. There is a service called Wordtracker that is free to try out and very inexpensive to subscribe to. It will help you find those obscure key words that you can buy very cheaply.
50. Learn simple HTML commands to spice up your auctions

Don’t be afraid of HTML. Anyone can do it. For example, you should start all of your eBay auction item description with the command: <font size=+1> This will make your type larger and easier to read. It helps to break your item description into smaller shorter paragraphs to increase readability. Just use this command to create a new paragraph <P>.

You can make your text bold by typing <B> at the beginning of the bold text and </B> where you want it to end.

Go to: http://www.davesite.com for a simple and free online tutorial on how to do HTML.
51. Create attractive backgrounds for your auctions

Go to: http://www.grsites.com/textures to get free background textures for your auction item descriptions. Over 6000 backgrounds are available at no cost.
52. If you are going to be in this business – you need to know the vocabulary.

Net Lingo at http://www.netlingo.com is a free site that teaches you all the terms and lingo of the world wide web and various online services.
53. Get a professional auction education

• Attend eBay Live (The next conference is in Las Vegas in June 2006).
• Watch for announcements of eBay University coming to a city near you. (Usually listed on the eBay community page.)
• Use the various eBay online tutorials
• Take the Auction Genius course at http://tinyurl.com/aej4
• Print out the eBay help files and place them in a 3-ring notebook for easy reference.
• Print this document out (99 tips) out and put it in the same notebook.
• Buy some of the great eBay training books from The Auction Seller’s Resource Bookshop

54. Incorporate to Protect yourself from liability

Not many people get sued selling stuff on eBay, but it can happen. If you incorporate, the corporation can shield you from most lawsuits. In fact once a lawyer learn that you are incorporated and you don't keep assets in the corporation, a lot of times they will not bother suing because they know your assets are protected. There are also lots of tax benefits to incorporating even if your eBay income is fairly small.

I used a company called Click & Inc.Online Business Incorporation Service. They did an excellent job --very personal service and very quick. Best of all they did it right. Some of the online incorporating services are really shoddy and they don't tailor the corporation to what you are doing. Click & Inc. contacts you and works with you to tailor just the solution you need for your situation and your specific state.
55. Learn how to buy at government auctions

Don’t pay for this information. Here is a link to our site where everything you need to bid on government auctions is free: http://www.skipmcgrath.com/auction_sr/gvnmtauctions.shtml

Government auctions can be a great place to find bargains – but proceed with caution. Make sure you thoroughly inspect anything before you buy it.

56. Package your eBay shipments professionally

No one likes to receive his or her “treasure” in a battered shoe box or an old cereal box. Take the time to pack your sales carefully. Invest in bubble pak, peanuts, tissue paper and so on. Re-read tip number 45 for how to save money on these supplies.
57. Sell Liquidation Closeouts

Clothing, accessories, electronics, household goods, toys and sporting goods are some of the hottest sellers on eBay. It can be very hard to source these products new from the distributors. But many eBay sellers make excellent profits buying these products from Liquidation and Surplus Dealers. One of the largest and easiest to deal with is Liquidation.com. They use an auction format similar to eBay. One word of caution, check the shipping before bidding.  Click here to see the wholesale auctions at Liquidation.com
58. Set your starting bid low to attract hits

Do you have a good item that you KNOW will sell well? Start it off at a very low price. This will get you healthy early bidding. You want a large group around the item; some will be competitive bidders – people who will pay extra just for the thrill of winning.

You'll usually get more for your item than someone who priced their item higher, because your auction has more bidders watching.
59. Write complete auction item descriptions

Make your item description as complete as possible. Include all relevant details: condition, size, weight, age, collectability, any short-comings or defects, etc.

What you think is not important – may be very important to someone else. Describe your item’s condition, talk about its benefits and uses and keep writing until you run out of something to say.
60. Have a written sales, payment and delivery policy to protect yourself and avoid misunderstandings

Spell out everything you do. How much do you charge for shipping? How will you ship the item? What is your policy on insurance? Do you use escrow for expensive items? When do you post feedback? Do you hold checks until they clear?

The more information you give a buyer the better the buying and selling experience will be for both parties –but don’t forget to make it sound friendly. You don’t want your auctions to sound like a bunch of rules written by a junior high school principal.
61. Don’t get greedy and overcharge for shipping

This is one of the more common causes of negative feedback. You should only charge what it normally costs you to pack and ship. Buyers are sensitive in this area. They know when you are making a profit on shipping. You can charge a small premium to cover your cost of handling and shipping materials, but it should be reasonable. Always offer to combine shipping costs if a person buys more than one item. Explain your shipping policy in the item description.

There is a game some sellers play whereby they list a $5 item for 99-cents but the shipping is $7.99 when it only cost a dollar to ship. eBay will cancel your auction if they catch you doing this as it constitutes fee avoidance.
62. Always include the auction number in your emails

Always include the auction number with the end of auction notice and any request for payment. Place the number in the subject line so you can easily track emails. People often bid on several items and can get confused.
63. Start and end your auctions at the best times

Do you always start and end your auctions at the best times? Start and end your auctions at peak traffic periods when traffic is the heaviest.

I like my auctions to end on Sundayor Monday evenings between 5 and 10 PM (Pacific Time). Saturday and Sunday mornings are also good times. Believe it or not, Mondays during the lunch hour are very good also. Remember there can sometimes be a posting delay of up to two hours on eBay during the busy times. Also --don't forget that eBay uses Pacific Time.

This is one of the best reasons to use an auction management service such as Vendio.com. You can create your auction and schedule it to launch at a specific time or day.
64. What to do when you make a mistake in an auction?

If an auction has not received any bids you can revise it. Click on the link “revise auction” right below your username. If the auction has received bids, you can first cancel the bids and then cancel the auction.

If you go to My Account on you’re My eBay Page there is a link where you can email eBay and ask them to credit the listing fee. Just explain that you cancelled the auction, fixed the mistake and relisted it. Give them the old and the new item number and they will usually –but not always credit you the fee.
65. Why does eBay end auctions?

eBay will only end your auction if you violate the listing guidelines. First of all print out the guidelines and read them carefully. They are written to give eBay wide latitude. EBay rarely discovers a listing violation. They rely mostly on the community to report violations. (Yes, there are a lot of busybodies with too much time on their hands).