eBay

upoly909 · ‎09-10-2016

Hello, I am new to Ebay even though I opened my account awhile ago I'm only going to start using it now but I have a few questions first so, I'm hoping someone can clear some things up for me;

first I was wondering if there was any other method of payment other than paypal to use that's effective someone can recommend? I have a list of things i want to sell but I really don't want to use paypal, but "I see paypal everywhere.

Also, I originally opened my account here but I keep getting routed to the US site, does that mean I can sell or start to sell there too or am I just allowed to start selling here on the Canadian site?

And how do you factor the shipping costs here if you don't know where it's going when you first make and post your listing?

And lastly, is there a way to find the definition of the terms? like for example when you first list things it says "like new" or "new" how do you know what ebay considers "like new or new" cuz my like new might be different to what ebay means ?

Also any good pointers about how to be an effective seller would be great too!

Thank you!

femmefan1946 · ‎09-11-2016

any other method of payment other than paypal to use that's effective

EBay demands that we use an electronically visible payment method. While there are a few others that are accepted by eBay, customers prefer the anonymity and the security of Paypal.

Buyers can ask to use cash, money orders or personal cheques. The seller can accept or decline. The buyer is giving up most of his protection when he uses these methods. (Also cheques bounce.)

I keep getting routed to the US site, does that mean I can sell or start to sell there too

You can sell on any eBay site, including dotCOM (USA and the original site), dotCA (Canada), dotDE (Germany) , dotCOdotUK (Britain) etcl.

But only on dotCA can you use Calculated Shipping, which is very important if your products require parcel rate shipping.

how do you factor the shipping costs

On dotCA you use Calculated Shipping and eBay does all the work.

On other sites you use the Canada Post website and some massaging to list Flat Rate.

what ebay considers "like new or new"

When you choose a Condition term there is a popup that gives eBay's definition and a text box to explain more details.

This is in addition to the Description box.

And look on the Site Map (at the bottom of this page) for an A-Z listing of terms and policies.

Also any good pointers about how to be an effective seller would be great too!

Sell what you know : know what you sell.

Don't offer anything you don't have in your possesstion.

Keep track of the money you take in. Your profits should be declared on you income tax.

Describe as if you have no pictures. Picture as if you have no words.

ypdc_dennis · ‎09-11-2016

@upoly909 wrote:
first I was wondering if there was any other method of payment other than paypal to use that's effective someone can recommend? I have a list of things i want to sell but I really don't want to use paypal, but "I see paypal everywhere.

You can sell with local pickup only -- and those sales can be for cash.

For electronic payment methods on ebay.CA or eBay.COM the elephant in the room is PayPal.

I don't expect that to change until 2020 when the ebay/paypal 5 year separation agreement comes to an end (they split into separate companies last year).

Some sellers accept credit cards directly (rather than through paypal), but they already do that as part of their business (not worth it for a new seller).

-..-

momcqueen · ‎09-11-2016

Effective sellers start out as great buyers. Use this profile to do some buying on ebay before you consider selling. This serves a few purposes:

1. It will give you a better idea of how ebay works and the ways in which sellers provide good customer experiences.

2. It will give your feedback count a boost and increase confidence in you when potential buyers or bidders come to your listings. A low feedback count is a magnet for members who may have less-in-the-ethics-department than they should.

mr.elmwood · ‎09-11-2016

Femme? What about your shipping cost and pricing tutorial?

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momcqueen · ‎09-11-2016

By popular demand, femme! Give us the shipping lowdown.

cumos55 · ‎09-11-2016

Paypal is the acceptable method for payment on eBay .

A seller cannot say they accept forms of payment such as money orders or cheques(checks) in a listing , but a seller can accept a method of payment other than Paypal if a potential buyer asks if these methods of payments are acceptable by a seller.

The most important link is the ...Help & Contact.... link at the top of a page.... It is here you can ask a question or search a topic and get an answer. The answers are placed there by eBay..... These are eBay policies and rules...

That is where one can ask questions and do a lot of reading. These answers are there to help, and provide direction to eBay sellers..

-----------------------------------------------------------

eBay can be "difficult" at times.... The key to eBay is to keep it simple..... KIS

... and know what NOT to do to be successful... eBay is very much different than ten years ago... and sometimes one year can be a big difference.... Learn to adapt and adjust as eBay adjusts....

Start in a simple, easy manner, build up a feedback record up to 150 to 200 and then migrate to the selling of more expensive items...

You will find that it will be difficult to sell things under $10 to $15, where profit is minimal and most likely not worth the effort.

For me ... Lower priced items, $15 to $25., pay the bills.... Higher priced items make the profit

--------------------------------------------------------------

Before I started I did about two months of reading on eBay and Paypal.... and then I was ready to start.... My consideration was to constantly ask myself how to I keep the buyer happy...

There are many ways to say the same thing..... My choice was to say it in the third person

That is to say... It was done... and not.... I did it..... first person is too direct and too powerful.

--------------------------------

Your description should be direct , short sentences, short paragraphs.....

NO CAPITALS except as required by everyday use and sentence format..... Some sellers will list with CAPITALS only... where online ALL Capitals are considered yelling and very hard to read....

Be calm, and quiet,, but very direct in third person..

Terms of sale are important but should not be so long no one reads the Terms of Sale....Look at the listings of many who come to this board...

-------------------------------------

When in doubt search for an answer through Help & Contact.... and when you are not sure..... come here.... You will get many variations on a theme.... for we each sell something different on eBay, and each us has found what works for each of us and for what each of us sells. .

----------------------------------

Beware ... the discussion boards on eBay.com can be "difficult..... eBay Canada is most tolerable..... However, every once in a while a difficult someone may come along..... the key is posting ID's versus selling ID's ... Some people like to hide behind a posting ID

---------------------------

And... Away we go.....

mr.elmwood · ‎09-11-2016

@cumos55 wrote:
Paypal is the acceptable method for payment on eBay .

A seller cannot say they accept forms of payment such as money orders or cheques(checks) in a listing , but a seller can accept a method of payment other than Paypal if a potential buyer asks if these methods of payments are acceptable by a seller.

The most important link is the ...Help & Contact.... link at the top of a page.... It is here you can ask a question or search a topic and get an answer. The answers are placed there by eBay..... These are eBay policies and rules...

That is where one can ask questions and do a lot of reading. These answers are there to help, and provide direction to eBay sellers..

-----------------------------------------------------------

eBay can be "difficult" at times.... The key to eBay is to keep it simple..... KIS

... and know what NOT to do to be successful... eBay is very much different than ten years ago... and sometimes one year can be a big difference.... Learn to adapt and adjust as eBay adjusts....

Start in a simple, easy manner, build up a feedback record up to 150 to 200 and then migrate to the selling of more expensive items...

You will find that it will be difficult to sell things under $10 to $15, where profit is minimal and most likely not worth the effort.

For me ... Lower priced items, $15 to $25., pay the bills.... Higher priced items make the profit

--------------------------------------------------------------

Before I started I did about two months of reading on eBay and Paypal.... and then I was ready to start.... My consideration was to constantly ask myself how to I keep the buyer happy...

There are many ways to say the same thing..... My choice was to say it in the third person

That is to say... It was done... and not.... I did it..... first person is too direct and too powerful.

--------------------------------

Your description should be direct , short sentences, short paragraphs.....

NO CAPITALS except as required by everyday use and sentence format..... Some sellers will list with CAPITALS only... where online ALL Capitals are considered yelling and very hard to read....

Be calm, and quiet,, but very direct in third person..

Terms of sale are important but should not be so long no one reads the Terms of Sale....Look at the listings of many who come to this board...

-------------------------------------

When in doubt search for an answer through Help & Contact.... and when you are not sure..... come here.... You will get many variations on a theme.... for we each sell something different on eBay, and each us has found what works for each of us and for what each of us sells. .

----------------------------------

Beware ... the discussion boards on eBay.com can be "difficult..... eBay Canada is most tolerable..... However, every once in a while a difficult someone may come along..... the key is posting ID's versus selling ID's ... Some people like to hide behind a posting ID

---------------------------

And... Away we go.....

I resemble that remark.

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femmefan1946 · ‎09-13-2016

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

Use metric measurements. Canada Post went metric in 1974 and everything else is guesstimation.

BUT-- double check that your US shipping is showing up - there is a disconnect between USPS and Canada Post of a few services.

If you don't need parcel service consider using Free Shipping.

Which is cheapest?

A $5 item with $10 shipping?

A $10item with $5 shipping?

A $15 item with Free Shipping?

Buyers loooooove Free Shipping, and yes most do realize that the cost of shipping is in there somewhere. They still get the warm fuzzies.

More to the point, buyers hate paying more for shipping than they do for the doohickey. No matter how legit it is.

Any time you can ship your doohickey at a Flat Rate/ Free Shipping, consider listing on dotCOM instead of dotCA. (I'm not seeing much difference so far since the changeover in either number or value of sales between the two sites. YMMV).

KISS

Keep It Simple

Make your listings on a desk/laptop. But cross check them on a mobile. They look vastly different.

upoly909 · ‎09-15-2016

@cumos55 wrote:
Paypal is the acceptable method for payment on eBay .

A seller cannot say they accept forms of payment such as money orders or cheques(checks) in a listing , but a seller can accept a method of payment other than Paypal if a potential buyer asks if these methods of payments are acceptable by a seller.

The most important link is the ...Help & Contact.... link at the top of a page.... It is here you can ask a question or search a topic and get an answer. The answers are placed there by eBay..... These are eBay policies and rules...

That is where one can ask questions and do a lot of reading. These answers are there to help, and provide direction to eBay sellers..

-----------------------------------------------------------

eBay can be "difficult" at times.... The key to eBay is to keep it simple..... KIS

... and know what NOT to do to be successful... eBay is very much different than ten years ago... and sometimes one year can be a big difference.... Learn to adapt and adjust as eBay adjusts....

Start in a simple, easy manner, build up a feedback record up to 150 to 200 and then migrate to the selling of more expensive items...

You will find that it will be difficult to sell things under $10 to $15, where profit is minimal and most likely not worth the effort.

For me ... Lower priced items, $15 to $25., pay the bills.... Higher priced items make the profit

--------------------------------------------------------------

Before I started I did about two months of reading on eBay and Paypal.... and then I was ready to start.... My consideration was to constantly ask myself how to I keep the buyer happy...

There are many ways to say the same thing..... My choice was to say it in the third person

That is to say... It was done... and not.... I did it..... first person is too direct and too powerful.

--------------------------------

Your description should be direct , short sentences, short paragraphs.....

NO CAPITALS except as required by everyday use and sentence format..... Some sellers will list with CAPITALS only... where online ALL Capitals are considered yelling and very hard to read....

Be calm, and quiet,, but very direct in third person..

Terms of sale are important but should not be so long no one reads the Terms of Sale....Look at the listings of many who come to this board...

-------------------------------------

When in doubt search for an answer through Help & Contact.... and when you are not sure..... come here.... You will get many variations on a theme.... for we each sell something different on eBay, and each us has found what works for each of us and for what each of us sells. .

----------------------------------

Beware ... the discussion boards on eBay.com can be "difficult..... eBay Canada is most tolerable..... However, every once in a while a difficult someone may come along..... the key is posting ID's versus selling ID's ... Some people like to hide behind a posting ID

---------------------------

And... Away we go.....

I'm sorry, what do you mean by that? I don't quite get that...

Also, thank you everyone for the advice, I will try to do everything suggested.

Although, I did have some additional questions;

Femme, I believe you mentioned something about declaring it on your income tax, why? I thought you didn't have to until you earned something like 30K a year or am I wrong in that?

Also, I've been hearing or well, rather reading that PayPal withholds funds for up to 90 days if you're a new seller and while I understand that pov is there any way around that or does that mean that if you sold - lets say - 10 items during the last month or however many you sell then all those funds from your sales are basically frozen until the 3 months are up?? that is an awfully long time to withhold funds just for being a new seller.

And another thing, I get where people are coming from saying to buy first but do you have to? and if you don't how do you do a work around to not having any feedback both for avoiding scammers and getting people to trust you're a decent seller just starting out, any advice on that?

Also Mr. Cumos (sorry, I'm assuming you're male, that's the voice I heard while reading your post) you mentioned not to use capitals but can you use them in the item title? other than the help & contact area where did you read up on ebay and PayPal? if you don't mind can you provide a link please? I'd appreciate that so I can inform myself better as well on how this works. Also, terms of sale, what do you mean? (I have a feeling you might suggest to just search random items to see what you're talking about, which I will do but just in case you mean something else I'm asking anyway 😃 )

I think these are all my additional questions - thank you for all your responses, you're really helping me out! ^_^

momcqueen · ‎09-15-2016

People pick a new ID for the Discussion Board so that if they speak their mind or aggravate others, they don't have to worry about retaliation on their selling account. I prefer not to do that since it keeps me from publicly losing my temper and saying something I'd regret.

As to your tax question, you have to declare all of it on your income taxes. You don't have to register to COLLECT sales and/or GST until your annual sales reach $30,000 as I understand it. Best discuss that with an accountant.

PayPal holds funds for 21 days after transaction for new or occasional sellers. This may continue 90 days or more until PayPal decides you are trustworthy based on their secret set of combinations. There is another thread open on this topic on the Discussion Board.

Buying is the easiest way to learn about eBay and to build feedback. Most sellers leave feedback but only about one in three buyers leave feedback for sellers. Right now, I've left feedback for 100 per cent of buyers. Feedback left for me by buyers is at 15 percent of transactions. It's not equal. There is no easier way to build your count than by buying. If you hope to avoid bad buyers, set your Account preferences to block Unpaids and Reports.

Good luck.

cumos55 · ‎09-15-2016

Use capitals where appropriate in Sentence structure.

Titles of listings.... the first four words are the most important....

Let us say you found a book about the CN Tower..... to be listed under History>Canada

The title of the listing would be ...

CN Tower, History and Architectural Excellence, Toronto, Ontario

All Capitals would be hard to read, in a title as in a description....

cumos55 · ‎09-15-2016

I did all of my initial reading... before I started selling on eBay.... on eBay and on Paypal.....

I registered on eBay towards the end of November 2002, and sold my first series of items at about the beginning of February 2003.

and over my reading period I did find something that was critical to using Paypal..

I had no discussion board to read.... but in 2003 eBay was so much different than today... and I continued to learn with each passing year.

Develop a selling protocol that allows you to be comfortable and correct in relation to eBay's rules and regulations..

femmefan1946 · ‎09-21-2016

Femme, I believe you mentioned something about declaring it on your income tax, why? I thought you didn't have to until you earned something like 30K a year or am I wrong in that?

If you are cleaning the basement, you no more have to declare the money you get than if you were holding a garage sale.

If you are buying for resale, you must declare the PROFIT from those sales on your income tax.

You do not have to register to collect and remit sales taxes until you are grossing about $30,000 a year. Having to collect those taxes is a sign of a $ucce$$ful business!

Do NOT collect taxes you are not registered to collect and remit. Revenue Canada gets testy about that.

PayPal withholds funds for up to 90 days if you're a new seller

There is a Hold on cleared customer payments but it is 'only' 21 days for Canadians.

Meanwhile, you are required to ship the paid purchase.

If you use Paypal shipping labels, the cost of the labels can be taken from the Held funds.

There is also a discount of between 5% and 17% off PO counter prices on some services when you buy shipping through Paypal.

saying to buy first but do you have to?

No. But it is a wise move.

and if you don't how do you do a work around to not having any feedback both for avoiding scammers

There isn't one.

Feedback is trust.

Which is why it is a wise move to build FB by buying. A digital metric scale would be useful. And poly envelopes of appropriate size if your items will fit into them.

terms of sale, what do you mean?

Most sellers include a few notes for buyers about how they handle sales.

Some go on and on and on and on.

And on.

Buyers don't always look at these, but the point is to be concise and positive.

You are convincing the customer that you are professional, knowledgable, friendly and honest.

Take a look at the listings of the posters here (those of us who post with our selling IDs).

You will see a variety of approaches, partly personality, partly product line.

This is my ToS on one of my IDs. :

<hr>
</center>
<center> We prefer Paypal which is fast, secure and free to the buyer. We will combine shipping on multiple purchases. Email for further information . </center>
<center>International bidders welcome! Internationales Bewerber Willkommen! Les sousmissionaires internationales sont bienvenues! Recepción Internacional De los Licitadores! </center>
<center> BRITISH, AUSTRALIAN AND OTHER OVERSEAS: Shipping anywhere in the world by Air Mail International. And again Paypal . </center>
<center>
<hr>
</center>
<center> </center>Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying.

With coding.

You don't have to use HTML, most small sellers don't, but it can help with branding. My listings show on a pink or blue background. Nothing fancy.

EBay has optional 'designer' templates which are a waste of money.

Your best advertising is in your title. And you have 80 keystrokes there absolutely free.

(Cuomos55 makes a very good point about the first four words.)