Online Auctions
and
You
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Online Auctions
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Wow, you have treasures that you might like to share with others, and try to make a buck at the same time. It all sounds simple, BUT...
** I shall be updating this page as time permits, and plan on adding at least another illustrated info page, linked to this, concerning materials needed, such as packing supplies, basic office equipment and related topics -- so stay tuned!
Now available are -
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My main eBay auction info page |
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My auction paperwork page |
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My really old online buying / selling / trading page |
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My general TIPS and PITFALLS page |
You are HERE |
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How to Play With Digital Photos |
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Do you want to start an eBay store? |
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1. Unless you just want to do the "usual" simple text, black and white item description, which DOES work and probably will get you bidders, a more detailed listing takes a real LOT of time, especially if you have to take digital pics and/or make scans to add to the blurb and Gallery, and try to add as much information as possible. I usually do my multiple listings in batches of from 6 - 15, which take me several hours to do. BUT a pic and Gallery posting DOES get you considerably more bids, which ultimately translates into a better final selling price -- so it may be well-worth the extra 25 cents!
Try to remember that an online auction is NOT your local country auction or flea market (incidently, they are GREAT places to find items to offer!) where a potential buyer can paw through boxes of stuff, actually hold it in their hands, look for imperfections, or ask you REAL TIME questions about it. Your potential online auction bidders depend on YOU to list your treasures as THOROUGHLY as possible.
2. Unless you make sure that your item title has ONLY important SEARCH words in it, MANY people will NOT find your item doing a simple search. Leave out "VERY NICE", "L@@K HERE", "EXCEPTIONAL VALUE", "MY LAST ONE", "A REAL BARGAIN", and such headers which might be nice on a roadside billboard BUT they offer NO clue to the EXACT item you want to sell. And make sure that you SPELL the keywords correctly! People will look for GOLDEN COWRY or COWRIE (a somewhat rare shell) BUT they will NOT search for COWERY!
3. Unless you put your item up for 10 days, you may lose out on potential bidders, taking into account the sometimes frequent DOWN TIMES due to whatever excuse. It took me 2 years of 7-day auctions to realize this simple logical fact! The additional 10 measley cents DOES bring in MORE bidders!
4. Unless you are VERY organized when you have a lot of auctions going, you may become backlogged in your contacts and data-keeping. Some helpful hints along these lines may be found at RECORD KEEPING.
5. Unless you can be 300% SURE that shipping to a foreign country costs the amount that you quote a buyer, DO NOT even think of selling outside of the USA. I have used the online INTERNATIONAL RATE CALCULATOR - BUT the rate I was actually charged at the Post Office was almost always HIGHER than what the calculator said it would be and what I charged the buyer! And, of course, the buyer will NOT reimburse you for the difference - which can be MANY $$ more! Adding a pound to the items weight to include packing MAY help, and a PRINTOUT of the info on the postage calculator MAY also be useful. Some people I know actually take the package to the Post Office to get the shipping cost BEFORE emailing the winning bidder - although I have NOT done this YET - it just might be the best way to handle such international shipments - and I have had MANY. I just sent a book to Switzerland that the rate calculator quoted me some $7 for, and it actually cost me a whopping $16.80 - much more than the cost of the item!
6. Unless you are VERY observant ot the Post Office BEWARE of those FLAT RATE PRIORITY envelope shipments! Although the people know the person who sends my stuff out, they INVARIABLY "forget" to type-in the flat rate key on their postal computer and may try to charge you the actual weight, which may be several $$ more!
7. Unless
you do NOT mind
other eBay sellers
freely using YOUR pics/scans, the ones that may have
taken you quite a while to produce,
you may consider adding a discrete ©
by me script somewhere on each
and every graphic you use in your auctions. Although this
does NOT totally
eliminate this illegal use of
copyright material, if you or some pal discovers it and notifys
eBay, I have known
items to be deleted because of this,
which is only fair. I even do things somewhat differently for
the idiots that not
only use one of my images but also link it directly to the image on my web site
(the lazy twits!) -- I figure out which of my pics they are linking
to on my site and rename a really
neat animated gif I keep stashed
just for that purpose with the file name of the purloined pic,
and replace it on the server. OK,
they wanted to use my image, and now they have it! -- and
it really spices up their
otherwise boring item description! And
they might not even notice it for days and still get bids!
Hey, I am easy to get
along with -- ask and
you shall receive. I have given permission for pals to
use some of my stuff and enjoy sharing.
8. OK, so you sell like wild, are organized, email your winning bidders with payment information, send them an email when their payment arrives (if you have the time) AND when you ship the item/s, ship regularly (I usually ship 1-2x a week) and add feedback for your buyers (I usually do this, as stated below, after I see feedback for me from the winner/seller), what can possibly happen now to make your life miserable?
P I T F A L L S
1 - ALL bidders do NOT always read the entire item description or really look at the pic/s, or so it seems. And they may or may NOT email you for more information, if they have a question. This could lead to problems down-the-road UNLESS you are VERY exact and inclusive in your item blurbs.
2 - ALL winners of somewhat expensive items may NOT request insurance when it would be wise to do so, AND is suggested in your item description AND in the email that you send to the winner, and IF something is damaged, they blame YOU for it in some way! Hey, CHEAP is CHEAP!
3 - ALL bidders do NOT reply to your original WINNING BIDDER email, giving you their personal information and acknowledging your note, and when payment arrives I have received some with no more than a name on the money order and the sometimes illegible postmark on the envelope - NO note or letter! That means that you may have to search through DOZENS of computer files to find out what they won via the amount they sent - then email them asking for their address!
4 - ALL bidders do NOT contact you using the same screen name they have registered with the auction site! And if they do NOT specify the item number or other identifying details, it can get somewhat confusing, and ALWAYS unnecessarily time consuming and frustrating.
5 - ALL bidders do NOT send you their payment, sometimes for OVER 2 months or NOT AT ALL! I do not really mind the wait because I realize that personal things may arise which, as one late payer stated, turned his home topsy turvy! I always give basically the same feedback for those which I do eventually receive payment, no matter how late it arrives - "Thanks for your friendly emails and prompt payment".
6 - ALL checks do NOT have sufficient funds! I have had several bounce, even AFTER my usual 10-weekday waiting period, as a matter of fact even 3+ weeks later, but then again my bank never was the brightest crayon in the box - and AFTER I, trustfully, sent the item/s! Then just try to get them to pay up or even answer your emails or telephone calls!
7 - ALL bidders do NOT reciprocate and add feedback for you on a completed deal for whatever reason. Several have emailed me asking how to do this, so they were apparently new at it and it might be expected in these cases. Others just do not bother themselves. I used to add feedback as soon as I received the payment. Unfortunately this did NOT result in their placing feedback for me, so I finally decided, across the board, to give feedback directly from my own feedback page -- which simply means, I'll show you mine if you show me yours!
8 - ALL winning bidders will NOT like what you sent them, for whatever reason, no matter how well you attempt to describe your item - UNLESS you outright scammed them - some sellers are undisputed frauds, and unfortunately it happens regularly! My worst-case scenarios occurred when I won Beanie Babies from some sellers several years ago and the item/s were NOT at all as described. You email the seller immediately and they give you a song and dance about how "YOU switched the Beanie", how they "had WITNESSES present when the Beanie was selected and packed" and other such pure crap! It was as if they had read a how to scam manual because the story was always the same or very similar! For that reason I have NOT gotten these toys for over 2 years already, EXCEPT from people I know and trust. And even this rule of thumb does NOT always work! A person with whom I delt in Beanies for years sent me a check that bounced, said she would send a money order - and that was MANY months ago! But then again BEANIES AND the people conected with them are NOT what they were when I started many Moons ago!
9 - ALL bidders are NOT pleasant when a potential problem occurs with a deal, and they MAY give you NEGATIVE feedback for some stupid reason/s! This has NOT occurred frequently, and when it does I become VERY annoyed because I try my best to offer items at a CHEAP opening bid (usually without reserve), describe it to the best of my ability, do my part to facilitate the transaction, and consider each and every sale final - very simply because what they got is what they bid on, no more, no less.
And when a problem does arise, just try to get your URGENT email to the auction site concerning the matter PERSONALLY answered in a timely manner - OR at all! Over time you will collect a file full of automated - "canned" responses though, filled with all kinds of links for further assistance! They have a MUCH better infrastructure in place to collect your FEES (and even that can be slowish at logging a payment on - even an online payment!) than they have for so-called "customer service".
N E G A T I V E S
1. After emailing a seller for about 2 weeks and getting NO reply about an item I won, the dork gives me a negative because my last email told them I was no longer interested in their item and obtained it elsewhere - and incidently, cheaper. They did not reply to that one either and just put in a negative!
2. A lady won a bear, sent check paying for STANDARD MAIL delivery (which is about half the PRIORITY cost and seems to take forever), said "no rush", then complains that the bear will not be received for her grand-daughter's birthday and that my shipping was way too slow - even though it was sent out 2 days before my ususal 10-day waiting period was up. Go figure!
3. A crazy won a BOOK described as having 2 black and white plates and when he got it he was "shocked and chagrined" that it did NOT have a LOT of color plates, demanding a refund. Although I tried to be as "proper" as possible in our exchange of emails, he even filed an auction insurance claim due to alleged "misrepresentation" and notified 3rd parties with his totally unfounded accusations.
4. A lawyer, of all things, from Florida won some 12 art books in December 1999, sent a check that bounced, said he would send a money order when I emailed him about the bad check, and it is mid-February of 2000 and I am still waiting for his payment! I did NOT give him a negative, but should have! And the day the box was to be trustfully shipped, came the bank notice! Lucky me! Now they have to be unpacked and perhaps reoffered.
5. I have sent several framed art works, some LARGE, and have had to charge, naturally, for proper and secure packing, as well as the usual postage/shipping - which would seem normal - and NOT the easiest thing to pack more or less well. Frequently my charge is actually short of what the packing and shipping actually cost me! One gentleman said my packing charge was way too high and that I should just weigh the thing and calculate the postage, mentioning, as an aside, that he already has it sold for more than he paid for it! Obviously, it was worth a LOT more than his cheapo winning bid. On top of that he complained about having it insured for its REAL worth because it would have been some $4 MORE than his bid price! I suggested that I remove it from its frame and send it folded-up in a letter-sized envelope!
6. A know-it-all, nasty and threatening expert in the comic field, probably a dealer, claims I sent him a 34-year old PAPERBACK that smelled of smoke, was in a fire, was burned and in deplorable condition. The book was NOT described as mint, is printed on newsprint-stock and was described as yellowed with a worn cover - PLUS I had my usual item pic up for 10 days - OF THE COVER!
LIFE IS WAY TOO LONG TO BE A BITCH ALL THE TIME!
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