Auction 411

To really begin understanding the ins and outs of eBay, you must first have an account to be able to navigate all the pages within eBay. First of all, we recommend that you keep your personal and business accounts separate. If you have an outstanding personal account, it still doesn’t matter because you don’t need everyone of your customers to know that you just bought the Pink Power Ranger from someone in Canada for $54 dollars plus shipping. Do you get the point? Don’t worry about your feedback ratings because you’re going to provide excellent customer service and the feedback will roll in with ease.

So, what Seller ID are you going to give yourself? We suggest you pick something simple that also describes your business. Names such as “crazy_girlie4506″ or “MikesDaManonCampus69″ just won’t do it because they are honestly impossible names to memorize and indistinguishable from your average eBay customer. If you’re selling Rubber Duckies, something like “BestRubberDuckies” or “RubberDuckies4Sale”would be a good and easy name for people to remember.

Register Your New Account by Clicking Here!

Tip: If you currently have an account with negative feedback, it may be a good idea to start a new account from scratch since feedback can’t be removed.

You do have the option of changing your ID once every month, however, many people do not change their ID often, if at all. Some people think you may have something to hide if you change your “identity.” eBay keeps a public track record of the number of times you’ve changed your ID, and what the past ID names were because of this very reason.

Once you’ve set up your account, the next thing you need to do is truly understand the bidding process from the point of view of a customer. I know that you might already have experience purchasing items from eBay, but do you really know what each step is?

So, let’s take out a piece of paper and grab a pen. Now go find an item that you can bid on, but don’t have to win - my favorite example is bidding $2 for a Red Ferrari since the worst thing that could happen is that you just won yourself a Ferrari for $2! Or if you already have an idea of what you want to sell on ebay, find a competitor and bid on their product. In any case, I want you to begin writing down each step you take. For example:

Step 1: Searched for “Ferrari” in Search Bar.
Step 2: Selected “Red Ferrari in Perfect Condition” Auction because I like how the tagline said it’s in perfect condition.
Step 3: Read the Description and History of the car. I’m going to make a bid because . . .

and so on . . . . The point is you understand what triggers people to make certain decisions. Keep the piece of paper so when we begin to set up your eBay Store, you’ll be able to reference key points in the selling process.

So now that you have really become familar with the selling process from the view of a consumer, you should go to your “About Me” page and write a paragraph or two describing yourself and your business. It doesn’t have to be a biography about your whole life, but it should be enough so that you come off as a regular person who’s got an honest business on ebay. Look at that piece of paper you just wrote and note what key phrases which attracted you which you might want to put in your own description. This will provide a genuine element to your storefront and make people more at ease when purchasing from you.

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