Get Free Inventory To Sell On eBay - No Gimmick

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How To Sell On eBay When Your Paypal Account Is Suspended

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How To Sell On eBay After Having Paypal Account Suspended

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eBay Feedback Boost - Is It Ethical?

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eBay Buyer Not Paying For Items - What Should I Do?

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How to compete with rock bottom priced Chinese sellers on eBay?

How To Compete With The Low Prices On eBay From Chinese Sellers?

I constantly get people messaging me asking how they can possibly compete with the low priced Chinese sellers? Many of you who purchase inventory from Alibaba, Ali Express, DHGate, etc, are going to find that the same manufactures, traders, and resellers selling products to you wholesale are also selling those products on eBay themselves oftentimes for around the same price as your buying them for, sometimes even less. How is this possible and how can you possibly compete?

My biggest piece of advice is don't get in a race to the bottom with other sellers on price. Not only is it not an effective strategy but it doesn't work as there's always going to be someone willing to work on smaller margins and there's always going to be someone who can source products cheaper than you. 

Instead of trying to compete on price sell your item for more and get buyers to buy it. So how do you do this?

Couple strategies. One is simply you have the benefit of being in the USA. Many buyers don't want to buy from outside of the USA so Chinese sellers aren't even competition. Many buyers don't want to wait 3 weeks for an item to arrive via epacket so they are willing to pay a few bucks more to order from you instead. Another strategy for selling for more money is to optimize your eBay listings well so you rise above others in searches on eBay. Ultimately whoever ranks highest in search will sell the most items. One last strategy is private labeling. I'm not going to go into a ton of detail about private labeling but if it's something your interested in learning about watch this video on private labeling. 

What is the biggest challenge to selling on eBay?

What is the biggest challenge to selling on eBay?

So what is the biggest challenge to selling on eBay? Ultimately I would say there are two main challenges. The first has to do with getting started. It's incredibly difficult to first break in with a new account, low selling limts, and low feedback and sales rank. When you start out eBay doesn't show you high in searching ranking which in turn means your items won't sell. This is really a phase all eBay sellers go through and it's something you just have to be patient and get through.

The other biggest challenge to selling on eBay is dealing with customers. I think many eBay sellers would agree eBay buyers are probably some of the dumbest and most difficult buyers on the internet. I'm not sure whether eBay attracts stupid people or whether people are emboldened by the generous buyer protection and refund policies eBay implements to where they can extort money out of sellers but that is honestly one of the biggest problems. eBay sellers are incredibly demaning.

You can put a two day handling time on an item and you'll have buyers messaging you within hours of buying an item asking if it's shipped yet.

One instance which comes to mind is a guy purchased an item from me on a Saturday evening at about 11PM. He got my home phone number from my eBay account and started calling me at 6AM on Sunday morning asking why he didn't receive his package yet. I had to say well sir first of all you opted for the FREE shipping which is USPS 1st Class Mail. Secondly you ordered on Saturday night and items typically aren't delivered within 8 hours, especially on a Sunday when mail nor Fedex nor UPS runs. This is pretty much the norm in terms of the type of stuff you will deal with as a seller.

You also tend to run into problems regarding USPS shipping. USPS is NOT true tracking, it's delivery confirmation. This means it's not up to date and the only scan required is upon delivery. Despite this buyers will insist you didn't ship an item just because you didn't have a scan yet. You'll also get buyers claiming that the package is stuck in your city because it got an initial scan but hasn't gotten anything since.

Things are somewhat combative between buyers and sellers on many platforms with buyers saying sellers are the worst and sellers saying buyers are the worst. The truth is to some extent both are true. 

What Product You Choose To Sell Is The Most Important Element To Your eBay Success

What You Choose To Sell Is The Main Factor In eBay Success

Many people ask me what the most important thing is in determining if you will be a successful seller on eBay. I would have to say it's what item or items you choose to sell. You can be the best marketer in the world, the best sales person in the world, the best at eBay SEO and product promotion but if people don't have a need or want your product nobody will buy it.

Now that's not to say eBay SEO, listing optimization, quality of listings is not important, it's very important. You can pick a top selling product but if you have crappy listings you won't sell it. So how you go about things is important but ultimately the first step to success is making sure you select a good product.

So how do you know what a good product is? You could blindly throw darts at a wall picking and ordering small quantities of products and testing them out, or you could do some research before hand using a program like Terapeak and know with certainty an item is selling say $10,000 worth of product a week with a 100% sell through rating.

Now again just because others are having success with that product doesn't mean you will, but at the very least you know there's a demand for what your selling. From there it's up to you, your sales rank, seller metrics, listing optimiztion and if you go about doing all that correctly your listings will rank high and in turn sell.

For me personally Terapeak is critical to my eBay success both in finding products, sourcing products, and running analytics to make sure the products I find are going to be winners. You can actually get a FREE 7 Day Trial to Terapeak to try it out if you like. 

Make $300 Your First Month On eBay

Make $300 Your First Month On eBay

Are you new to eBay and struggling? Are your items not selling at all? Are your items not selling for as much as you would like them to? This is likely for a couple reasons. 

Though it's possible your listing isn't well optimized, maybe you could use a better title, description, pictures, etc. Likely the main reason your not selling items is that you don't have a high enough feedback and/or sales rank.

People who are established sellers in a specific category, and who have a proven record of happy customers get shown higher in search. As a new seller you don't necessarily have any negative strikes against you, however you also don't have a good track record so eBay buries you in searches and if your items don't show up high in searches people won't see them and in turn people won't buy them.

What if I told you there was a way to build up your feedback, build up your sales rank, and do it while making $300 in your first 30 days on eBay?

Get Free Amazon Products To Resell On eBay

The Method

Okay, so in the past I've actually bought popular items and sold them at a loss. I didn't care because my ultimate goal was not to make money selling these items, it was just to give my eBay account a boost. 

As you know as a new seller it'd difficult to break in. What I did on my last new eBay account was buy 50 iPod remotes. I paid $5 for them. I sold them all at 0.99 cent auctions with free shipping. While some of these wound up selling for $8 or $9, many of them sold for 0.99 cents or maybe $1.99. I was losing money, but like I said I didn't care because the goal wasn't to make a profit on these items, it was just to get some sales under my belt, raise my feedback, raise my seller rank, build up some seller metrics.

Once I did this, future items I listed would sell organically because I had spent the time building up some sales rank.

How You Can Build Up Sales Rank While Making $300+ Your First Month

Okay so not many people want to buy items to sell at a loss. Totally understandable. I have since found an even better method.

Many people don't know that you can get FREE Amazon products just for leaving reviews. For those of you who aren't aware Amazon is a very competitive market. Most items will only sell once they have built up 15 or 20+ reviews. Because of this Amazon sellers give away free or discounted products in return for buyers like you leaving an honest review on Amazon.

Here's how it works. You go to a site like ReviewKick.Com. You shop/browse the various products being given away. Some are FREE, others are heavily discounted at 80% or so off. 

So here's the method. You request a bunch of free products. Within a day or so sellers will approve your request and provide you with a promo code. You go buy their item on Amazon. During the checkout process you enter the promo code they provided you with which will take the total due from say $39.95 to $0. YOu get the free product. Uphold your part of the deal by leaving an honest review on Amazon and then you have completed your obligation to the seller and ReviewKick. 

At this point the item is yours to do with what you want. You list this item on eBay. I wouldn't expect to get the full retail value but on say a $39.95 item I would expect you'll probably sell it for $18 or $20. Regarldless of what it sells for it was free for you so even if it sells for $2, that's 100% profit and money in the bank for you. As an added bonus it also gives you a feedback and builds up your sales rank. 

I regularly get about a dozen packages a week from these review exchange sites and I primarily use only 2 or 3 of them. All in all there's probably well over a 100 different review exchange platforms from sites like ReviewKick and AMZ REview Trader which are more shopping platforms, there's also facebook groups, e-mail lists, and more. Here's a list to over 40 sites where you can get free Amazon products in exchange for your honest review. The more of these sites you signup for the more free stuff you will get. 

For those of you who don't know much about Amazon, the sweet spot for Amazon FBA items, due to the high fees charged for Amazon fulfillment, is anywhere from $15 to $50. This means that the stuff your getting for free is not crappy little items, it's generally stuff which would retail between $20 and $50. I've gotten everything from leather messenger bags, hoverboards, kitchen utensils, bluetooth speakers, and more. Some of the stuff I keep for myself and some of the stuff I resell. 

Now with an average price even on the low end of say $30, if you get a dozen products a month which can easily be done you have $360 in inventory. I typically get about a dozen or more products a week so that's about $1440 a month worth of product. Even if I only get 50% resale value on those products that's still $720 profit, and that's all 100% profit, all while building up my sales rank, seller metrics and feedback.

Get The List - Start Getting Free Amazon Products To Resell For eBay Riches!!!

3 Reasons Your eBay Items Aren't Selling With Examples & Solutions

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How To Search eBay For Only Items Which Ship China ePacket?

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eBay Buyer Left Negative Feedback Regarding Price

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How To Make $500 Your First 30 Days On eBay

How To Make $500 Your First 30 Days On eBay

If you're reading this your probably a new eBay struggling to get sales. You list items, but nobody seems to buy them. Most likely it's because nobody is seeing them.

eBay's number one goal is to provide a positive buying experience to buyers. Because of this eBay would rather show items and sellers who are established and have a track record of providing a satisfactory buyer experience. As a new seller this will be an uphill battle trying to build some sales rank so that your items will be shown more prominantly in ebay searches.

It's kind of a catch 22. eBay won't show your items until you can prove you ship quickly and have happy buyers, but you can't get those buyers to prove yourself as a seller because eBay won't show your items. I have a strategy for new sellers which will not only help you build up your sales rank and seller metrics, but will have you making money while doing it. If you follow this method you can easily make $500 in your first month selling on eBay.

The New Seller Hurdle

I've already explained to you guys what the new seller hurdle is above. But how do you get past it? In the past I've actually bought hot selling popular items and sold them at a loss just to build up my seller ranking. With my last new eBay account I bought 150 iPod chargers. These were an item I knew that would sell. I paid $5 per charger and wound up listing them all at auctions for $0.99 cents. While some rose to $7 or $8 and were profitable, many sold for $0.99 cents to a couple bucks and I lost money on them. I didn't really care because the ultimate goal wasn't to make money, it was to build up my seller metrics and feedback.

I knew that even though I had a poor seller ranking, since it was a hot selling item if I ran auctions and priced my items low enough people would take a chance on a new eBay seller for a discount and I would sell those items. I quickly grew my feedback to over 100, I grew my seller ranking and my other items began to sell organically.

I have a better method for you guys though. You don't have to buy items to sell at a loss and lose money. I have a way you can build your seller ranking not only for FREE, but you can make money while doing it. To the tune of $500 per month even on a completely brand new eBay account. In the next section I'm going to show you exactly how I do it.

The Method - Make $500 Your First Month On eBay

Many of you may not be aware that Amazon sellers regularly give away products for free in exchange for the "buyer" to leave them a review of their product on Amazon. Amazon has become so competitive that it's basically a necessity that every new seller with a new product give away free units to build up some feedback, otherwise they will never rise in Amazon's search.

As an eBay seller you can take advantage of this. Signup for the free product giveaways. Get the free product, do your part and leave the seller a review, and then resell the merchandise on eBay. It doesn't matter what it sells for because you got it for FREE and it's 100% profit to you. As long as you make sure the shipping cost gets covered it's all money in the bank and it's a way to raise your seller rank and make money while doing it as opposed to losing money trying to do this like I used to do.

So how do you go about getting these FREE products? Two of my favorite sites to get free stuff from are ReviewKick and AMZReviewTrader. You simply signup for an account which is free. You'll then be able to browse and shop among all the free products, choose the ones you want, and request them. Within a day or so the seller will provide you with a promo code making the item free. You simply enter the promo code during checkout and it will make the balance $0 and you get the item for free.

All in all there's over 40 different sites and e-mail lists where you can signup for FREE Amazon products. As I mentioned earlier, my two favorites are ReviewKick and AMZ Review Trader but there's a ton of others and if you like you can get a list of over 40 sites where you can signup and shop for FREE AMAZON PRODUCTS!

Now for those of you who aren't familiar with Amazon FBA. Because of the high fees sellers pay Amazon for fulfillment products sold via this method typically need to be between $15 and $50 to make it worthwhile for the sellers and to cover FBA fees. What does this mean for you? This means your not getting cheap crappy products for free, your getting higher priced items. Now you probably won't get the full retail price reselling, however you can still get a pretty penny. Just to give you an idea the types of items I've gotten for free. Some items are $10 or $15 items like phone chargers, phone cases, etc. On the higher end however I've gotten purses and messenger bags worth upwards of $70. I've gotten beach tends upwards of $50, etc. These are some quality items you can fetch a pretty good price for on ebay.

GET FREE AMAZON STUFF TO SELL ON EBAY

How Do I Get Started?

So you want to start ranking higher on eBay? You want to start selling m ore on eBay? You want to make $500 within your first 30 days selling on eBay? Here's what you need to do.

1. If you don't already have one signup for an eBay and Paypal account.

2. If you don't already have one signup for an Amazon buyer account.

3. Visit ReviewKick.Com and AMZReviewTrader.Com and signup for an account. Then start requesting free products.

4. If you want access to more than 40 sites and e-mail lists which will provide you with FREE products click here and obtain THE LIST!

5. Start requesting free products sellers are giving away. Once you receive them list them on eBay. Don't copy the Amazon listing word for word but basically paraphrase the title, bullet points, and description

6. You can price items however you like. eBay will typically give you a recommended amount. Start there, if your items aren't selling start your auctions at 0.99 cents and charge enough shipping to cover shipping costs and just let the auctions go off where they may. Again, this is 100% profit to you so even if it sells for 99 cents that's 99 cents more than you had before. As you do this the more you sell the better your items will begin to rank and you'll start getting more views and more bids on your items.

***If your not being accepted into enough free product offers on AMZREviewTrader and ReviewKick get the list of over 40 sites and e-mail lists to get FREE stuff. The more you apply for the more you will get, it's a numbers game.

If you'd like to see this method in action watch the video below

eBay Best Practices - 3 Tips For Ranking Your Items Higher In eBay Searches

How To Rank Higher In eBay Searches

Want to rank your items higher in eBay searches? Today we're going to be discussing 3 eBay best practices which will give your seller account and your items a boost in eBay search.

We have all heard the term SEO. It refers to search engine optimization. Basically knowing what search engines are looking for to rank items high and then meeting those requirements in an effort to get your website, article, blog, etc to rank higher in searches.

Though many of us don't think of eBay as a search engine, eBay most definately is a search engine. eBay and Amazon are two of the largest search engines in the world. Only thing is they don't search the web, they just search products on their website. That said the same way SEO applies to websites, there's SEO involved in putting together an eBay listing and getting it to rise to the top of eBays page one in searches. But how do you do this?

In this post were going to discuss 3 tips for getting your items ranked higher in eBay searches. Now first off your seller rank and feedback plays a very important role. That's not something your going to be able to build or change overnight, but the sooner you get started the sooner your rankings will improve. There are some things you can put into action today which will give your items a boost in search. Here they are.

1. Offer Free Shipping

Whenever possible offer FREE shipping on your eBay listings. eBay outright tells us they give a boost in search to sellers who offer free shipping. Buyers also like free shipping because A. it's free, but B. it's easier seeing free shippign or even a flat rate shipping as opposed to making a buyer enter their zipcode in the listing to find out what an item will cost in shipping.

Just roll the shipping cost into the item cost. If you would normally sell a phone charger for $10 with $2 shipping, just make the price $12 and offer free shipping. Your still getting the same amount of money and your going to get a boost in search.

The only time I would recommend against doing this is on larger, heavier, bulkier items. Reason being it may cost $50 to ship an item to California from where you live but only $10 to ship it a state over to say Wisconsin. With an item which has a much higher shipping if you go towards the higher end more local buyers are way overpaying for shipping and if you go on the lower or medium end of shipping prices without a doubt you will wind up getting a buyer from the other end of the country and the shipping fee you charged will not cover shipping, you will be comming out of your own pocket.

Aside from especially large, heavy and bulky items I would always recommend offering FREE SHIPPING.

2. Accept 14 Day Returns With A 20% Restocking Fee

I know many sellers don't like accepting returns. I'm with you, it's a hassle and it costs you money. That said in order to be eligible to be a top ranked and power seller you need to accept returns.

One strategy I use to meet this requirement, rank my items higher while still discouraging returns is to accept returns for the minimum amount of time 14 days, while also charging a 20% restocking fee. Now if an item arrives broken or not as described you cannot charge that fee, however if it's just a case of buyers remorse or the person doesn't want the item, they can return it, but will be charged a 20% restocking fee. This greatly discourages returns. At the end of the day you may want to waive that 20% restocking fee to avoid upset buyers and bad feedback, however it does act as a deterrent from people buying items on a whim and returning for no reason.

3. Use Terapeak

This is kind of hard to wrap up in a bullet point, I've made entire presentations and webinars on Terapeak and what an important tool it is to eBay sellers. Terapeak can help you with every aspect of your eBay business from finding you hot selling items with the hot selling or category research tools. It can help you analyze products your thinking about selling prior to buying inventory, and it can even help you source the inventory from Alibaba.

What I find most valuable about Terapeak from the persepctive of ranking your eBay items higher is the SEO and Product Research tools. The SEO tool will allow you to search a product or keyword and find out how much is sold in a given week, the sell through ranking. You can see the top 20 sellers ie your competitors. You can also find out what keywords buyers of your product are searching for and not only that but in the order of importance. You can then use those keywords in your listings title and description, putting an emphasis on putting the most important keywords to the front of the title. This gives a huge boost in eBay SEO or optimizing your eBay listing.

For those of you who aren't aware of Terapeak or who havn't tried it out you can get a FREE 7 day trial to test it out for yourself.

What happens if you don't pay your eBay fees and ditch the account?

What happens if you don't pay your eBay fees and ditch the account?

What happens if you don't pay your eBay fees? This is a question a reader recently sent us in. I'll post his question below and we'll touch on why this is a poor idea.

Not Paying Your eBay Fees? eBay Will Suspend You... FOR LIFE!

My girlfriend did this so I'm just wondering what the ramifications are. The fee's are over $50, but under $100.

First off this is a very bad idea, just pay the balance. Here's why. First of all only scumbags don't pay their debts. If you owe somebody money you pay them. That's integrity first and foremost. If someone owed you money you'd want them to pay so why wouldn't you pay when you owe someone money?

Secondly and more importantly however since integrity seems to be something many people don't care about these days is this. If you don't pay your eBay fees not only will eBay turn you over to collections, eBay will ban your account. For those of you who aren't aware an eBay ban is a ban for life, you will never get back on eBay.

While today your girlfriend may not care about eBay and may not have anything to sell or may not have a business which she would like to use eBay to sell her wares on, eventually some day whether she start a business or whether she just have an item laying around the house she would like to sell she will want to use eBay again. A $50 eBay bill is hardly worth losing an eBay account in life in my opinion. Your eBay account over the rest of your life is worth much more than $50 even as a casual user.

Lastly however and this is most important as it impacts others. She is putting anyone who uses the same IP address as her, anyone who lives at the same address as her, and anyone who has used her computer is now at risk of losing their eBay account. Many people don't realize just how sophisticated eBay is at tracking data about you from bank accounts you use, Paypal accounts you use, addresses and phone numbers associated with your account, phone numbers you've called customer support from and even the computer you've logged in on and the flash cookies and bios, eBay tracks it all and matches it to you as well as any other eBay accounts which have used that data.

If you've ever heard of people refer to stealth accounts it's people referring to essentially having to change all of this information so eBay doesn't match your new account up to any past accounts which have been suspended.

It just seems silly to walk away from such a small debt and throw away her ability to sell on eBay for the rest of her life as well as putting you or others eBay accounts at risk. If you have an eBay account, if you sell on eBay or if you plan on selling on eBay in the future I would highly recommend you just pay the debt for her to protect your own account.

eBay Sellers and Shipping to Business Addresses

Any Issues Sending To Business Addresses?

A reader recently messaged us to ask about any potential problems shipping to a business address. Here's what he asked and we'll answer below...

I've not experienced any issues so far sending an item to a business address, but I've just sent an item to a large corporation and I can imagine that it would be easy for the item not to get to the recipient - as it certainly would be delivered to the receptionist or mail room in the first place.
Is it possible or best to refuse to send to (some) business addresses?
Or are there generally no issues here?

Now I'll admit, I too get nervous when items go to a business or even an apartment building. You can't refuse to ship to an address just because you don't like the idea of it going to a business. Assuming this address is the one which came through on the order you must ship it there. Honestly in the grand scheme of things being shipped to a business address is actually probably in many ways safer than an item sitting on someone's porch. I would just make sure to message the buyer and give them their tracking. I know the buyer can see tracking within their eBay account but I get messaged for tracking so much it leads me to believe nobody actually checks it. I would also consider sending the buyer a message once tracking shows delivered letting them know. These few little steps will prevent the package from sitting for days and then being difficult to locate.

Personally I get a bit nervous having a package shipped to apartments as well. Why? Because I visit friends apartments and see packages just willy nilly thrown on the floor in the entrance where residents or anyone walking by can just grab it. For this reason I'll typically require a signature on apartments or businesses, at least that way at a business there's some accountability for whoever signed for the package and in the case of apartments it either won't be delivered without the person or at the very least will be left in the apartment office. If it's a high dollar item or something I'm really worried about I may even spring for Fedex.

Concerned About Shipping eBay Item To Unconfirmed Paypal Member

eBay Selling Tips - Reader Question Answered

Okay so today I received an e-mail from a reader of the blog who is at their wits end with eBay and was seeking advice. So here's the situation. The eBay seller sold an iPhone for just under $700. A Chinese buyer with an address in Oregon purchased the item. Paypal and eBay were not showing the transaction as having officially cleared and were showing the hour glass so the seller didn't ship.

The buyer then messaged and basically gave a deadline saying ship before Monday or I will leave negative feedback. The seller later contacted eBay who told them the payment had cleared and that they should have checked Paypal.

I'll post the buyers story below but just a bit of commentary. First I applaud the eBay seller for not making the stupid mistake so many make which is shipping immediately before payment has cleared or even caving to buyer extortion and shipping even if payment hasn't cleared.

I do agree with eBay to the extent the seller should have checked Paypal but I can see where the confusion comes in where eBay itself is showing the payment as still being an hourglass which is strange.

Apparently eBay told the seller this is not feedback extortion and they would not remove the feedback. Now one thing for you guys to be aware of. A seller having a "verified" Paypal account isn't a requirement of Paypal  or eBay. Sure it's good it means they've hooked up a credit card and/or bank account and have gone a step further in confirming their identity but it's not a requirement to buy or sell on eBay. Many people outside of the USA buy items on eBay and have them sent to a mail forwarder, typically on the west coast for Asian buyers. In my experience generally in California but Oregon would not surprise me. This is really big in the basketball card category.

I think the best thing to do in this situation is to try to contact the buyer and request a feedback revision. Express your concerns as well as confusion about the payment not showing cleared, you may even want to send a screenshot showing that eBay still shows an hourglass. Apologize to the buyer, maybe even offer a partial refund in return for having the feedback removed. I know people hate losing out on money but honestly the harm of negative feedback will cost you more than throwing a few bucks back the sellers way or offering free shipping or a return on shipping.

If that doesn't work you may want to give eBay another call and see if a different eBay rep may see your side of the story and remove the feedback.

I sold an iPhone on June 6 via buy it now with immediate payment required for $699.99. The item immediately showed up under my "Awaiting Payment" tab. It had the hour glass that said "This item is pending payment through PayPal". A few days ago I received a message from the buyer that said, "SHIP before next Monday, otherwise I will complain in EBAY and add NEGATIVE." This morning, the payment still showed as pending on eBay when I received negative feedback. eBay shows his is a user in China who is trying to have me ship to an unconfirmed address in Oregon. 

I called eBay this morning and was told by the first representative that my feedback would not be removed. She was very unhelpful. I was then transferred to someone on the Leadership Team. This person explained to me that I should have checked PayPal to see that the payment had cleared. 

Which apparently it did. However, eBay still showed the payment as pending and the page clearly said "Do not ship yet." She also said that the buyer had not tried to extort feedback because he simply wanted me to ship an item that had been paid for. Am I required to ship to an unconfirmed address? My account is 15 years old. I've paid eBay untold thousands of dollars in fees. And this is the treatment I get in favor of a buyer with 3 feedback and a year old account. I'm incredulous to this whole thing.

eBay Buyer Filed Chargeback 6 Months Later

eBay Buyers And Chargebacks

A reader had messaged us asking for advice about a situation they are currently in. They sold a gift card in digital form ie delivered via eBay message as opposed to sending the physical gift card which would have given him tracking information to provide as proof for the case, it also potentially makes the transaction a physical good and not a digital good. Here's what the reader said...

I received an email today that a buyer of a $200 digital gift card that I sold back on December 3rd filed a chargeback today...a little over months later. I delivered the gift card through eBay messages but my message box doesn't show the message I sent as it only shows the last 6 months of messages so I have no proof that I delivered it. I also know the seller protection usually doesn't cover digital goods, am I just totally screwed here? Thanks for your help!

Unfortunately I don't think having that eBay message would have done you any good anyhow. In my experience whether selling Bitcoins or Gift Cards or XBox codes, you should always physically send the card, or code, or even a slip of paper but you must send something. Anytime an eBay/Paypal transaction has no tracking number it leaves the seller open to a chargeback. If the buyer claims they never received eBay/Paypal will ask you for tracking, if you can't provide it you automatically lose the case.

Unfortunately this is one of the pitfalls of selling digital goods and specficially gift cards. There's a lot of scams with gift cards both on the side of buyers and sellers.

Is it possible to get Unbanned as an eBay Seller

How to get eBay Seller Account Unbanned?

eBay's offical stance on this issue is that an eBay ban is an eBay ban for life, assuming it's not just a week or month long suspension. Is this really true? Can you really be banned from eBay for life for one mistake?

Sadly yes. There's really only one reason for a ban which is fairly easy to overcome and that is not paying eBay seller fees. If you don't pay eBay seller fees for a substantial period of time eBay will eventually ban your account. In some instances eBay will agree to let you back on once your seller fees are paid. Outside of that it's difficult if not impossible to get an eBay account reinstated.

We should learn a couple lessons from this. First off guard your eBay account with your life. I'm shocked by how many people nonchalantly sell counterfeit Minecraft or Star Wars toys and then cry when they get suspended. That is probably one of the most aggregious violations of eBay policy there is selling counterfeit merchandise. Not only are you cheating buyers, your also stealing from larger brands.

Guard your eBay account with your life. It's always worth losing a couple bucks over your eBay account. I see so many eBay sellers stubbornly stick to their guns on issues which whether they are right or wrong are goign to be decided in favor of a buyer yet they stubbornly refuse to cave, wind up losing cases, get bad feedback, bad DSR scores and in some instances have their accounts suspended.

Losing a couple bucks on a transaction is much better than losing eBay income for life.

As far as getting unbanned there's really only one way this can happen and even then it's a far shot but at least it's considered. You'll need to find the e-mail address of the CEO of eBay as well as the executive offices. Email them, kiss their butt and tell them what a huge fan of eBay and the eBay community that you are. Tell them you made a mistake, and also have a remedy in place for how you will prevent that mistake from happening again in the future. It would also be wise to have a business plan of what you plan to sell and how you plan to run your business as this is also something they will typically ask for.

If you provide all this someone will at least look at your account and seriously look at the reason for your suspension and the possibility of being allowed back on. Don't even bother calling eBay customer support as they won't even consider it and don't have the power to do anything about it.

This is really the only way to get your eBay account unsuspended and even then it's a long shot.

Getting eBay Feedback Removed

What Type Of Feedback Can Be Removed

I recently received an e-mail from a reader asking about the topic of having feedback removed. Before we get into his question I just wanted to briefly touch on the types of feedback which can be removed.You can read eBay's policy on feedback removal here.

Now in eBay TOS they are pretty strict and pretty specific about what qualifies for feedback removal. Simply saying the feedback is not fair is not enough to have it removed, and technically speaking so long as they don't use profanity, mention your name, address, or other personal info, or  put a link in the feedback technically speaking it can't be removed.

Aside from that in my experience the only time feedback can be removed is if the customer in a message says something contrary to what their feedback says, or if the customer is doing feedback extortion which is something like saying please ship overnight for free or I'll have to leave negative feedback or something along those lines.

Now in reality I've managed to get feedback removed that fell outside of these reasons. One huge tip I can give you is carry yourself in a very professional manner. We all know eBay is full of unreasonable and stupid buyers. It comes across in their messages and when you continue to try to appease them and they continue to be difficult eBay reps will see this pattern of behavior in their review of a situation and its often a reason for getting feedback removed.

I had a specific issue where I sold a used item, it was clearly described as used. The customer threw a fit because it was used. I explained the title, description, and photos, as well as item specifics all clearly stated the item was used but none the less I was happy to accept a refund including shipping even though it was the buyers fault. The buyer continued on a tirade for about 3 more messages to the point of saying used items should not be allowed to be sold because they could have germs. Now keep in mind this was a collectible item think sports cards, so not even something that someone would put in their mouth or on their body. I pointed out the craziness of the messages to an eBay rep who also saw all throughout the process I was cordial, helpful and offering to make the situation right despite the buyer being at fault. eBay removed the feedback no problem.

My point is, try to keep your buyers happy. When they are not happy go out of your way to make them happy. Play the long term game not the short term game. So many people are unwilling to take a $3 loss for shipping, but don't realize that a negative feedback in the long term is going to hurt them and cost them more money than $3 in that it will cost them sales and hurt their rank in eBay.

At all times however carry yourself in a professional manner and do right by your buyers. eBay can and does see what's stated in messages and it's a big factor in having feedback removed.

How I Do $250,000 a Month Selling Alibaba and Ali Express Products on eBay & Amazon 

Have you tried your hand at selling on eBay but not had much luck? Chances are your selling the wrong products and not putting your listings together in a way that eBay ranks them high in searches. Without traffic going to your listings they aren't going to sell. 

Watch this great webcast on eBay selling. This video breaks down exactly how to find hot selling products guranteed to sell. Never buy inventory that doesn't sell again. This method uses a program called Terapeak which allows you to pull past eBay sales data to find out information such as the best time of day and day of the week to list your item. Most buyers of certain items tend to buy at the same day of the week and same time of day. This program also shows you possibly most valuable of all the top keywords for your product. You'll know exactly what terms the buyers of your items are searching for and will therefore be able to put those keywords in your listings title which will in turn help you rank higher in eBay searches.  

You can know before even buying a product how many similar items are sold per week, the overall sales, and even the sell through rate. You can even take a look at your top 20 competitors and try to replicate what they are doing to be successful. 

More than anything though this video focuses on how to find hot selling products, and then how to source them cheaply on Ali Express and Alibaba. 

Watch this video and see how someone does over $250,000 in sales each month using these methods. 

If your interested in trying out the analytic website featured in this video you can get a free trial by clicking here.

 

eBay SEO Optimization - How To Find Best Keywords

How To SEO Your eBay Listing

How well are your eBay listings ranking? Are your items showing up on the first page of eBay? If not chances are you aren't optimizing your eBay listing to it's full potential.

Though many factors come into play for eBay SEO such as seller metrics, description, pictures, item specifics, and other elements, one of the most important aspects to ranking high in eBay searches or mastering eBay SEO as they call it is using the optimal keyword and title structure in your listings titles.

How am I able to get my eBay listings to regularly on the first page of eBay searches? I use Terapeak to pull data on what terms eBay buyers are searching for in an effort to get my listings to climb to the top of eBay's first page.

Terapeak offers everal tools which are very helpful in doing this. The first tool is the eBay SEO tool of Terapeak as seen in the screenshot below

eBay SEO Tool

As you can see here as we'll a search on the word "watermelon slicer" and you'll see how Terapeak is able to pull up relevant search terms as well as a descriptor to tell us the context of the word whether it be a brand, material, or other descriptor.

Sample eBay Keyword SEO Report From Terapeak

As you can see in the image above we see the word "stainless" and "steel" refer to the color and material while words like "slicy" refer to a specific brand of watermelon slicer. We are also shown the number of sellers selling items with this keyword, an average sale price, and a few pictures of several of the product.

It doesn't just stop there though. Terapeak also has a product research tool in which we are able to see the keywords in order of importance. The goal when putting a eBay listing together is to try to put the most searched keywords as close to the front of the eBay listing as possible. It's oftentimes also not a bad idea to try to repeat the number one searched keyword at least twice at some point during the title.

eBay Product Research

Now you can still use SEO tactics in your eBay listing without Terapeak, however it's somewhat like trying to find a destination without a map. Without Terapeak we can make educated guesses about what keywords customers will likely be searching but we don't know for sure. With Terapeak we know with certainty what keywords customers are searching for, but not only that, we also know in order of importance in eBay's eyes.

If your interested in giving Terapeak a try you can get a FREE 7 Day Trial.

eBay Buyer Claims Not Received, Tracking Shows Delivered - What To Do

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eBay Shipping Labels Round Up or Down When Printing Postage?

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Frustated eBay Auction Buyers Never Pay For Their Items?

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eBay Keyword Research - How To Find The Best Keywords To Use In Your Auctions

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Drop Shipping On eBay - Is It Okay To Play Middleman?

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How To Know if an eBay Item will Sell Before Ordering Inventory?

Know An Item Will Sell Before Buying eBay Inventory

Most eBay sellers and Amazon sellers biggest fear is spending a bunch of money in inventory that doesn't sell. What if I told you there's a way to know fairly certainly if a particular product or niche will sell on eBay before you even buy inventory? Pretty cool right?

You can. There's a program out there called Terapeak. What it does is pull eBay sales data. There's a ton of data the program pulls such as who your top 20 competitors are, the best day of the week to list your item, the best time of day to list your item, and the best keywords to use in your title.

In this post however what were concerned with is know two things. How much sells of a given product in a week, and the sell through rating. The first piece of data is just overall sales. Say for example your selling silicone spatulas. We want to know how many Dollars worth of silicone spatulas were sold in a given week.

The next piece of data we want to know is what is the sell through rating. The sell through rating refers to the percentage of successful listings which were sold. For example if 1,000 silicone spatulas were listed but only 900 sold, that gives us a 90% sell through rating.

In this video below we show you how to use a program called Terapeak to pull this data and analyze whether a product is worth selling on eBay before we go shelling out any money on inventory.

Terapeak Shows Us If An Item Will Sell on eBay Before Buying Inventory

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Where To Obtain eBay Sales Data? Terapeak Is The Answer!

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eBay Feedback - How To Get Buyers To Leave You Feedback

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eBay Sell Through Rates - How To Find Sell Through Rate Of Products

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How To Find Sell Through Rating Of Products On Ebay Using Terapeak

How To Find eBay Sell Thru Ratingns

eBay Sellers, one of the most important analytic data points you need to know about when considering an item to potentially sell on eBay is not just the overall weekly sales, but also the sell through ratings.

What the eBay sell through rating is, it shows us how likely an item is to sell on eBay. For example, say there's 1000 listings on eBay for silicone spatulas. If 900 of them sell, that gives us a 90% sell through rating.

Personally I think anything below a 40% sell through rating probably isn't worth selling. Anything above 40% is worth investigating and 50% and above is respectable numbers.

One other point, if I ever see a sell through rating at 90% or above, what that tells me is there is a demand for a product but not enough people listing that product.

In this video below I show you how to find out the sell through rating of an eBay item using a program called Terapeak.

If you're interested in trying out this product you can get a FREE 7 Day Trial to test it out before buying!

Tracking says delivered but it hasn't arrived, been a week

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Can I pack my product in a regular box for priority mail instead of using the USPS priority box?

Your eBay Questions & Issues Answered Here

When I've sold items on ebay, I would use the USPS priority supplies. 1) because I had a problem with my 1st item I sold and 2) because it's free. This time I want to sell a hoodie and the only USPS priority box that fits is a medium flat rate box which is $13.45 to ship (which is way too much). If I want to use my own box, do I have to select "Priority Mail (1-3 days)- Package/Thick Envelope"? That way, I can get a discount on printing the shipping label online.
Sorry, I'm a total noob at this stuff.

This is a very good question. Many people new to eBay or who don't take the time to investigate and understand the various shipping options pay way to much to ship items. For example for my first few years on eBay I would send everything from the automated machine at the post office. This machine didn't used to offer First Class which meant I was selling tshirts and other very light items and paying a fortune for priority flat rate boxes. f

In reality I could have been sending those items under 15 ounces by first class mail for $2 as opposed to paying $8 for priority flat rate boxes at the time.

For heavy items, if you can fit them in a flate rate box it's a bargain. For lighter items however your much better off using your own packaging. Also, not everything fits nicely in a priority box all the time. 

 

 

 

eBay For Parts or Repair - Know When To Use This In Your Listings

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How to handle eBay situations where you can't ship on time?

Today were addressing a question a Redditor asked on the eBay subreddit regarding how to handle not being able to ship an item because an auction was ending after he was leaving on an unexpected vacation.



Unexpected vacation will leave me unable to ship an item that is ending in two days. What's my best move?

I've had items being relisted automatically for ages, they don't sell so I didn't expect anything to. I'm flying out of my city in a few hours, and just now noticed an auction ending in two days has a bid. Because of the duration of my trip, the duration of the auction, and the shipping and handling time (none of which can be extended) I will be unable to ship this in the time provided in the listing, and i can't seem to find a way to cancel the listing altogether. (I presume I can't since someone has bid.)

My thought is that I should contact the winner, whoever it may be when it ends, and explain the situation and offer either a discounted shipping rate and shipping immediately when I return home or a refund and not ship it when I return home, their choice. Is this indeed the best way to handle things, or is there something else I should do over this plan?


Obviously never schedule items to end while you are going to be away but it's understandable unexpected trips and events do pop up so we have to make the best of the situation.

As the Redditor mentioned he could offer some type of discounted shipping or discount for any inconvenience. He could contact the current high bidder and give them a heads up as well as any future bidders. If someone snyped it at the last minute there's really nothing you could do to warn them. The others however would have a chance to cancel their bids if that was an issue.

I believe the option of contacting the highest bidder and offering some discount isn't a bad one, though personally speaking I would just cancel the auction early, inform the buyer why and relist when I got back.

Here's why I would take this course of action. eBay's seller metrics have changed and though I don't recall them off the top of my head I do know they are starting to measure, like Amazon has long done, how quickly a seller uploads tracking and how quickly that tracking gets a scan to make sure sellers aren't just printing labels but not actually dropping an item off for several days after that. 

Because of this if the seller has it marked they will ship within 24 or 48 hours, their metrics will be dinged for shipping late and uploading traffic late, plus some buyers can be unpredictable and difficult so I wouldn't want to leave it open for some buyer to hold me over the fire threatening negative if I dont' refund 50% of purchase price or something crazy like that.

How would you handle this situation? Let know in the comments section below.

How to find items that sell well on eBay

What items should I sell on eBay?

Many new and old eBay sellers struggle trying to figure out what type of items they should sell which will actually sell well and which have good margins.

This video explains how to do research on potential products to sell on eBay. By researching products ahead of time you can find out if there's actually a market and a want or need for a product before spending your money buying inventory.

Watch the video below to learn more...

eBay's Re-Stocking Fee Take Returns WIthout Losing Money

eBay's Restocking Fee Let's you Charge 20% fee on returns

Many eBay sellers understandably don't want to accept returns. That said by offering returns when selling on eBay you not only gain ranking in searches which is essential to selling. It also  makes you eligible for Top Rated Seller and Power Seller discounts on listing fees and final value fees which puts more money in your pocket.

Many eBayers don't know that eBay allows you to charge a 20% restocking fee on returns where nothing is wrong with the item but the buyer just decides they don't want it. This allows you to cover any costs associated with a return such as wasted shipping money or ruining the resale value of the item.

Watch the video to learn more about how to use this feature.

Amazon to eBay Dropshipping a bad business model?

Amazon to eBay Dropshipping a Bad Idea

You're probably familiar with what drop shipping is. Lately there's a movement of using Amazon products to sell to eBay customers.

Some people claim great success with this model but in reality it's a recipe for disaster. If nothing else buyers are going to be confused when they order an item from eBay but receive an item from Amazon, even if with a blind packing slip.

Many customers are then likely to go over to Amazon to checkout the product there. When they realize you sold them a $10 Amazon product for $20 it's going to lead to people doing returns to buy the product cheaper or leaving you negative feedback because they feel duped.

I'm not disagreeing that people should be allowed to make money but ordering wholesale from China and reselling at least takes a bit more work than two clicks on Amazon.com and it will and it does rub customers the wrong way.

Many Amazon sellers will also include marketing materials in their packages which means they will wind up stealing the customer you sold to if they offer a coupon or include some marketing materials.

Watch the video below to learn more about why Amazon to eBay dropshipping is a bad idea.

eBay Buyers Not Paying? How to solve this problem once and for all!!!

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eBay Returns & Re-stocking Fees Explained

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eBay Buyers Circumventing eBay Fees - Is it worth it?

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How I Do $250,000 a Month Selling Alibaba and Ali Express Products on eBay & Amazon

How to sell 250K on eBay every Month

Ever wondered how big time eBay and Amazon sellers find the items that they sell? Ever wondered what items you should sell on eBay and Amazon that both sell well and have good margins?

Though there is no one specific type of item that will sell, many sellers focus on items which are cheap but have a high perceived value. Many of the items you regularly pay $15 to $30 for on eBay and Amazon are items which the seller may be buying in bulk for less than a Dollar.

Some other things many sellers focus on is items without moving pieces, they are less likely to break or have issues. That means less returns, which means more money in your pocket.

The video below does a great job of showing you the types of items many big time eBay and Amazon sellers are offering for sale. 

Paypal Alternatives for Selling on eBay

Paypal Alternatives for eBay

Paypal is by far the number one used and preferred payment option on eBay. At one time Paypal and eBay were the same company. Paypal and eBay are linked in many ways which make selling on eBay easier such as automatically marking if an item has been paid on your eBay dashboard, allowing you to print shipping labels directly through eBay, cutting out the step of having to go plug tracking into eBay if you bought shipping elsewhere. Paypal is very streamlined with eBay and also buyers like it and trust it.

That said there are alternatives to Paypal. Below we'll list a number of alternatives to Paypal for selling on eBay. A few words of caution, Paypal is the most well put together payment platform out of these. Paypal has better customer service than most, minus a real merchant account. Paypal also is very streamlined with eBay so if you use other payment platforms you will have to manually enter your tracking, will have to buy your own shipping and won't get eBay or Paypal discounted shipping rates, and it's a bit trickiet to issue refunds. Below are your alternatives...

Paypal Alternatives for eBay Sellers

Skrill

Skrill in my opinion is a complete joke. It took over a month for me to get my account setup. Skrill is a company more geared towards people in the UK. They do not even have a US customer service line, if you call up you will be told  they can't help you and given some Skrill guy from the USA's cellphone number to call. The company seems like a joke and the difficulty I had just setting up the account totally turned me off from doing any business with them. Should I ever have an issue with the actual service good luck getting that resolved.

Propay

For eBay only allowing Skrill and Propay in addition to Paypal you'd think those companies would really put a strong effort into integrating with eBay for a seemless experience however Propay, though better than Skrill, does not really integrate that well into eBay.

Propay also does not allow all categories allowed on eBay. Pretty much any item you are allowed to sell on eBay is allowed to be sold through Paypal and accept Paypal payments. Not the case with Propay, they prohibit many legal and allowed eBay categories from using their service. Personally, I think if you want to be a payment processor for eBay you should allow all eBay categories, it only makes sense.

Merchant Account

There's a million different merchant accounts out there and resellers of merchant accounts. The benefit of merchant accounts is you can typically get much lower rates through a true merchant account than you can through third party aggregators like Propay, Skrill and Paypal.

The customer service is typically much better. You pay lower rates. You typically don't get holds or rolling reserves placed on your account, new sellers don't have money held for 21 days. It's a more secure payment processing relationship than Paypal and many others who will shut you down at the drop of a hat.

The downside to a merchant account, it's a little tricker to setup. You can no longer print shipping labels or isssue refunds directly through the eBay platform, and it's a little more complicated to keep track of who's paid and who hasn't, you have to buy your shipping through Stamps.com or some other service and then go back and plug tracking numbers into eBay which adds a minute or two to each transaction.



All payment processors have their ups and downs. If you get closed down by Paypal don't think you're done, there are alternatives out there. My personal opinion, if your account is closed by Paypal get a real merchant account but maybe open and keep a propay account for backup.

What is an eBay unboxing scam?

eBay Unboxing Scam

What is an eBay unboxing scam? Typically an eBay unboxing scam is when someone purchases on item on eBay and receives either an empty box or a box stuffed with rocks, bricks, newspaper, or just an entirely different item.

An example of an unboxing scam would be someone ordering a Playstation and opening a box to find an old VCR or a box of rocks. Typically the buyer will win their money back via either an eBay or Paypal claim, however sellers who do this are typically saavy and will pull their money out leaving Paypal on the hook.

Another version of an unboxing scam is when a scamming buyer purchases an item, initiates a return and sends back a box of rocks or other items as opposed to the real item. Oftentimes a seller can find themself out the money with eBay and Paypal siding with the buyer as buyers are always right.

Both of these are terrible situations. It's important to know what they are and how to deal with them in order to successfully resolve the situation.

Do a quick Youtube search of unboxing videos and though they are terrible, there are some pretty funny videos. Also check out the video below which further explains what an unboxing scam is.