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Free packing material can be obtained from furniture store dumpsters. I get bubble wrap sheets, foam wrap sheets and rigid Styrofoam sheets. Easy to find, just ask first and clean up your mess. Boxes can be found everywhere.... I never pay for packing material.

Packing peanuts are good for lighter objects, but they do allow for items to shift, so wrapping breakable stuff in bubble wrap is nice also. Newspaper, crumpled or shredded is great for filler also. Heavy items like a coffee maker should be packed like they do from the store... a box that allows for at least 4 inches of clearance all the way around and then pack Styrofoam sheets, cut to fit, all the way around.

Check your shipping options. Size and weight can be plugged into ups, fedex, and usps web sites to get prices. Pick the best price, that's the best fit for you. Having an account with these shippers gets you better rates.

USPS has flat rate boxes. For small, heavy items this is the way to go. I got 30 lbs of small transformers in a med flat rate box and shipped for $10.50.

Test everything you can, describe things as best as you can, be very clear with what you are selling and any problems you notice with it. Be fair. Try to put yourself in the buyers position and do whatever you can to make yourself trustworthy. Take lots of high quality pictures from different angles and use a photo-hosting web site to save on pic fees. I use USE.com, no account needed.

Spelling. People make a living off of searching for misspelled words on ebay listings and buying items at dirt cheap prices, then listing the item correctly and getting the right price for the item. One of my competitors here in town spells arcade as archade. Drives me nuts... I'm the worst speller, but at least I know what spell check is. If you misspell in your title you will miss buyers. Add all the description you can in your title to get more search results... just don't put things in your title that don't pertain to your item... that will get you listing pulled.

Be aware of ebay's pricing structure. Starting bidding at 9.99 instead of $10 will save you in listing fees. Know the fee/price cutoffs. I get 50 free listings a month... use them and list whatever you can.

Um... ship promptly. Play the ebay game. They (ebay) will give you a discount in fees if you indicate in your listings that you have a 1 day handling time, 14 day return policy, free shipping... blah, blah, blah... hoops to jump through, but it saves 20% on fees and makes you look like a solid seller.

Ebay has messages boards also. I spent lots of time there also learning lots... and hearing about what the best practices are. Lots of info there... check it out if you really want to learn.

About it for now.

Thanks wdaddy I didn't know about the discount thing and I've been on eBay for years, I'll have to try that out.

Any tips to make more sucessful sales? ANd last ?? what do you do when people buy and dont pay after 72 hours?

Right in my listing it states that the item must be paid for within 3 business days and it's been almost a year since I had to file a case against a customer. At least they know up front.

Originally Posted by forwardlookguy

If you use liquor boxes for shipping, they have to be wrapped in brown paper as it is illegal to ship alcohol. Even though there's no alcohol in the box, USPS doesn't allow it.

I use them all the time. Never had a refusal.

You can file non payment after 4 days I believe. I have not had to do this yet. At four days, I send a message asking still very politely for payment and give them a couple days more. It may take a week or so, but the couple times I had problems, if they kept the communication open, I gave them enough time.

UNTIL, I had an auction end on this past Tuesday night (the 15th). The auction ended and I get a message from the buyer. (brand new buyer with a zero). It says "I get paid on the first of the month, is that alright?". I wrote back and told him he should not have bid if he did not have the money, and I am going to file non payment tomorrow for the first time ever. Had he asked me before bidding, I may have said yes, not sure. He just pissed me off asking after the fact.

Yeah, evilbay sucks, but I am finding myself with needing to go back to it as I have some items that I'll only be able to sell there.

Haruumph!

I sell with the "Buy it Now" quite a bit and there is a box to check so they have to pay right away if they order.