Welcome back class!  This week we began to cover 2 great websites for buying and selling stuff on the Internet: eBay andcraigslist.  (Ok, so eBay this week and craigslist next to be a little more specific.)

Feedback to the future

One thing that eBay has going for it all these years has been it’s unique feedback rating system.  Basically, when a transaction is made, the buyer and seller are encouraged to behave ethically and promptly to ensure a smooth transaction of goods and funds.  They can then leave “positive” or “negative” feedback about the experience, a short comment and this gets attached to the other’s profile.  The total percentage of positive-to-negative feedback is always displayed by that person’s username, as well as the number of feedback items accumulated thus far.

Save for a few exceptions, this system has been very good for eBay, and is a fairly reliable way to “research” who you are buying an item from and if they will be trustworthy with your transaction.

To sell or not to sell

eBay accounts are free.  They are however in limited supply.  For those of you who have signed up for a new email with yahoo, aol or hotmail – you will know exactly what I’m talking about.  For instance, if I want the username “rockerRyan” I’m going to have to settle for some cryptic form of this name – like rockerRyan2929 – this is because rockerRyan has long since been taken.  (my eBay account is actually adrenaLANrush – from my old lan party of the same name)

Anyways, once you get your free eBay account, you will need to set up a paypal account to pay for your things.  Everything is still good and free – the basic paypal account that is attached to a checking account costs 0 and will continue to cost 0 as long as you only buy from people who use paypal.

This all comes to a halt however, when you start to sell.  eBay requires you to hold a different type of paypal account when accepting payment from auctions.   Once you have a premiere paypal account, you can accept credit cards,  sell on ebay and more – with a small percentage (I think it’s 2.9% + .30) – so if you want to sell, this is a necessary “evil” that we’ve all learned is the cost of doing business on eBay.

Not sure how up-to-date this link is, but found the information about paypal fees interesting.

Do your research

Before you start selling your item, it’s a good idea to get your stuff organized.  This includes:

• Take your photos (different angles, and try not to hide blemishes – people actually like to see the “real” of certain items)
• Search for your exact item on ebay. Chances are high that someone is either selling one now, or has sold one in the recent past (make sure you check “completed listings” for the most comprehensive search)
• Start a document on your computer (or google docs) and copy & paste your competitor’s description just so you have something to go by. (you can COPY by selecting the text, right click + copy. Bring up your word document in another window, and right click + paste.
• Decide which photos will go up and organize them in a folder.

By having a few of these things out of the way, we’re ready to post our acution!

AUCTION TIME

Step 1: Get your pictures to the web

You can use a free hosting service like picasa (we went over last week) or photobucket.com (melody’s favorite) or a listing helper (like auctiva.com) that does a lot of the leg work for you.

Step 2: Decide where your item is going, and what you want to say about it.

By typing your document in your word processor (Microsoft work or google docs) you have the benefit of spell check and autosave so you don’t have to write everything up all in one sitting.  Remember that copy (right click + copy) and paste (right click + paste) to get everything from your document to eBay’s description box.

Step 3: Link your pictures

This step is a little bit tricky, but a few sites (photobucket & auctiva) make it a lot easier to place images on your page.  Auctivain particular makes for very easy listings – it is free so is worth checking out!
If you want to use photobucket, you’ll have to copy and paste the image codes (HTML) from photobucket into your auction to get the photos to show up.

Step 4: Clearly state the terms of your auction

By stating your auction terms clearly, you will eliminate confusion and have some “rules” you can fall back on to make sure you don’t get suckered. Here are some good suggestions:

• Will ship only to United States & Canada
• Paypal only please.
• Payment is expected within 7 days of auction close, or I will relist.
• Guaranteed not DOA for 7 days upon receipt. (good for electronics)

You can go a little overboard on this – you want to keep it simple, and not discourage average people by stating too many requirements.

That’s it!  Do this a few times, and you’ll have a new hobby that makes a good bit of cha-ching on the side!