5 Mistakes New eBay Sellers Often Make

I'm far from an expert on eBay but I have been a member for over 10yrs plus a seller for about 3yrs. I've often seen the same mistakes made over & over again. These mistakes are often made by new members or people who don't use eBay too often.

The mistakes sellers make on eBay can often hurt them by losing money, losing a high price item they want to sell or hurt their future on eBay.

Please read the eBay help section which is full of advice. Simply reading the help section eBay provides will help you understand how eBay works.

The mistakes and advice listed below are my point of view. Other people may do one or more of the follow and never have any problems.

1. Joining Ebay just to sell something big

2. Paying a lot of money for inventory

3. Selling an item to someone else while item still listed on eBay

4. Paying for extras such as larger photos, bold title & reserve

5. Asking for feedback

What's the problem with these? Believe me, I've seen a lot of new sellers doing the following and it can back fire. Let's look at each of them one at a time.

1. Joining Ebay just to sell -Your son is going to college and asked you to sell his game system & games on eBay. You agree. You join Ebay & take all the proper steps to join and sell.

Example end result - You put the item up for bid keeping the price very low so people will bid. You sit back and wait. After 7 days you see you still have no bids but within the last hour a few people start to bid. The sale ends at a very low price. You feel that since it is so low you don't have to sell it.

This is a very common mistake among new sellers. They do not understand that once they put an item up on eBay & it sells that they have to sell it to the buyer.

So what is the big problems just joining eBay to sell? Isn't that it is for?

When you are join eBay & want to jump right in selling you run into a few problems.
You don't know how eBay works yet you are starting off at the top as a seller who doesn't know what they are doing.You will make mistakes gaining you a negative which will hurt your future sales Your feedback is at 0 since you just joined making a big target for scammers. Your feedback is so low a lot of buyers won't buy from you.

How do you fix this?

Learn how eBay works first. Start as a buyer and get the feel of eBay. Read the help section, read the community boards where you can learn a lot from fellow eBayers & most of all take things slow.

2. Paying a lot of money for inventory - a local store is going out of business and you have some extra money set aside. You've always dreamed of selling on eBay full time so you spend hundreds of dollars to buy out some or all of the store's inventory. It is brand new so you hope to sell it on eBay making big bucks.

Example end result - After spending hundreds of dollars you join eBay ready to sell all of this stuff. The stuff is piled up in front of you, you struggle to list each item which takes you a long time as you follow the steps plus you notice what you listed a few days ago still has no bids. You feel over whelmed. The last straw comes when you get a huge bill from eBay. You are upset because hardly anything sold yet you owe eBay over $75!

I hear stories like this all the time online or from friends who try to start selling on eBay. The first mistake is spending a lot of money on stuff you don't know for sure will sell. The next mistake is not knowing the items you are selling. Another problem is some new sellers do not understand that even if stuff doesn't sell you still have to pay eBay for it.

How do you avoid this? Start by selling some items slowly around your house or don't buy hundreds of brand new baby clothes to resell. First test things out by selling only a few that maybe you find on sale at the store.

3. Sold item to someone else while item was still listed oneBay - You are selling a game system and games on eBay. People are bidding but nowhere near the price you wanted for it. A friend says they will take it for the price you want so you sell it to him.

Example end result - You get an email from eBay telling you that your item sold. The winner has paid right away. You then contact the winner telling them you already sold the item to someone else. The winner is mad because you don't have the game system they wanted.

When you are list something for sale on eBay and sell it you are to send to the winner. If you change your mind you can remove the listing. If the item has bids you need to remove those first because if you end the listing first the highest bidder will win the item. So if you change your mind or sell it someone else first cancel the bids then remove the listing.

4. Paying for extras - large photos, bold title & reserve - You are putting something up on eBay to sell and you see how some sellers have bold titles and other nice extra things to make the listings catch buyer's eyes. You decide to use them hoping more people will bid on your auction.

Example end result - You are not too happy when you see your eBay fees are very high. You can't understand why and when you ask about it you see that you were charged for each and every extra you added to all of your auctions. You saw the prices when listing your items but you didn't know it would cost that much or since your items didn't sell you can't afford the fee.

All of extras are really unnecessary. Bold titles, subtitles & listing in two categories just add to your fees.

Keep things simple. You do not need to pay extra for subtitles you are given 55 characters for your main title. If you want a reserve try listing your item at the start price of the lowest you will accept. This way you don't have to pay the fee of a reserve. Rarely do you need list an item in two categories. If you feel more people will see your item make sure you can afford the fee before you do this on a bunch of items.

5. Asking for feedback - As soon as you sell something you are eager to get feedback since you only have 5 so far. You know feedback is important and want to make sure your buyers leave you feedback.

Example end result - You sold an item 2 weeks ago and using Delivery confirmation you see that your buyer received the item they won five days ago. You emailed them at the end of the auction asking them to leave feedback but they didn't answer. You email them again after you leave them feedback to ask them to please leave you feedback. They have had the item already for five day and still no feedback. You email them again asking for feedback. They give you negative feedback saying "Seller begs for feedback!"

This does happen. I once had a buyer call me a "feedback hog" after I sent a standard eBay supplied Feedback reminder. The key is to remember all feedback on eBay is voluntary. No one has to give feedback. Some buyers give it as soon as they get the item, some give it last and some don't. Same with sellers leaving feedback it all depends.

Asking for feedback may not hurt at all. I use to do it all the time until that one buyer called me a feedback hog. I now send out a letter with their item thanking the buyer for their business, ask them to please let me know if they are happy with their item by leaving me positive feedback & if they are unhappy to please contact me. I have found doing this I usually do get feedback left. If not than I don't worry about it.

As I stated at the start of this article the info about these mistakes is my own option and lessons I have learned selling on eBay. The eBay site has a very helpful help section where you can learn a lot about how to sell on eBay. Also the community is very helpful too. They have a large eBay Answer center where other buyers and sellers off their input. The eBay forums are very helpful too. Maybe I will see you there sometime.