Buying and Selling on eBay: Tips, Tricks, Problems & Questions

[marc roberto]

Almost organized.

WHOAA! That's amazing man.

 

[capnwes]

Almost organized.

Went through all my auctions this week, serializing everything.

Can you explain how you do this? Do you assign a number to each item upon purchasing?

Believe it or not, while I probably have one of the most extensive inventory "collections" in this group, I have no orderly inventory system in place. I basically memorize where I put everything.

 

[jebarne]

Hi folks,

I spent some time on Sunday re-designing my store site. I had been waiting for GarageSale to release a new template that allowed more customization than some their other templates and would let me do the changes I wanted.

Would love any constructive feedback on the presentation.

1. developed a wall paper based on a base of a brown paper bag, with a repeating pattern of clothing outlines
2. New Header/Logo
3. New layout with T&Cs at the side (all ebay frames and headers turned off)

I'm also dinking around with the first image of the listing. It always bugs me that it gets letterboxed so I've starting cropping an image in a square to completely fill the ebay photo placeholder in the top part of the description. It also appears larger than a traditional landscape image if you're looking at it in a search list, but not as big an image in Portrait.

At any rate, here's a listing with a square image:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HANDSOME-HI...SA_MC_Blazers_Sport_Coats&hash=item3a871c35c6

And here's one done the old way with an image straight from the camera

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLASSIC-Bot...SA_MC_Blazers_Sport_Coats&hash=item3a871c35db

Again, feedback on look/feel/content or anything that helps me improve I will gratefully accept.

jb

 

[Koala-T]

Hi folks,

I spent some time on Sunday re-designing my store site. I had been waiting for GarageSale to release a new template that allowed more customization than some their other templates and would let me do the changes I wanted.

Would love any constructive feedback on the presentation.

1. developed a wall paper based on a base of a brown paper bag, with a repeating pattern of clothing outlines
2. New Header/Logo
3. New layout with T&Cs at the side (all ebay frames and headers turned off)

I'm also dinking around with the first image of the listing. It always bugs me that it gets letterboxed so I've starting cropping an image in a square to completely fill the ebay photo placeholder in the top part of the description. It also appears larger than a traditional landscape image if you're looking at it in a search list, but not as big an image in Portrait.

At any rate, here's a listing with a square image:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HANDSOME-HI...SA_MC_Blazers_Sport_Coats&hash=item3a871c35c6

And here's one done the old way with an image straight from the camera

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLASSIC-Bot...SA_MC_Blazers_Sport_Coats&hash=item3a871c35db

Again, feedback on look/feel/content or anything that helps me improve I will gratefully accept.

jb

 

[Fueco]

Can you explain how you do this? Do you assign a number to each item upon purchasing?

Believe it or not, while I probably have one of the most extensive inventory "collections" in this group, I have no orderly inventory system in place. I basically memorize where I put everything.

I do something similar, but not packaged.

I assign a number to each item as I list them (serial number based on the date of listing). This gives me three things: peace of mind that I've picked the right item to ship, a really easy way to tell how long something has been active on Ebay, and easier tracking of sales since I use an Excel spreadsheet to track sales.

 

[My Main Man]

Again, feedback on look/feel/content or anything that helps me improve I will gratefully accept.

jb

My $0.02: First off, your pages look really great! On my computer, the square image looks better. On my iPhone, the rectangular image looks better. Considering a lot of people search eBay on their phones, I would just stick with the photo straight from your camera.

 

[capnwes]

My $0.02: First off, your pages look really great! On my computer, the square image looks better. On my iPhone, the rectangular image looks better. Considering a lot of people search eBay on their phones, I would just stick with the photo straight from your camera.

+1, I was going to say the same thing.






Although in the search listings the square look better..

 

[Brianpore]

Brian - your auction template and pics are amazing. I was lurking your auctions last week, really impressive! I also like that you have the ebay pics for the mobile guys and good sized pics in the auction. Absolutely the way to go IMO.

Thanks. It takes extra time as I need to upload all the pictures to photobucket then copy them over to the html on ebay but I think its worth it. I'm sure there is a quicker way but dont have a mac or garage sale.

Quote: I use the square photo when I can for the 1st image in the listing and then rectangular images for all the rest. I think the square image lets you shower a larger item in the search page as it fills up the entire area.

 

[Koala-T]

Pardon me if this is covered elsewhere, but can anyone tell me off the top of their head how many Seller feedbacks you need to be a top-rated seller?
*Also, at what point does PayPal stop holding your funds for 1 to 3 weeks?

 

[hbkshin]

Pardon me if this is covered elsewhere, but can anyone tell me off the top of their head how many Seller feedbacks you need to be a top-rated seller?
*Also, at what point does PayPal stop holding your funds for 1 to 3 weeks?

100 transactions, 1000 dollars, 98% feedback, 90% shipping info uploaded within stated handling time

 

[Brianpore]

FYI - You can open unpaid item cases after 48 hours. I changed it to open the case after 48 hours to get the process started asap.

 

[Koala-T]

100 transactions, 1000 dollars, 98% feedback, 90% shipping info uploaded within stated handling time

Thanks!
What does this mean: "90% shipping info uploaded within stated handling time"? Just making sure that you are keeping your 1 day turn around promise?

 

[hbkshin]

Thanks!
What does this mean: "90% shipping info uploaded within stated handling time"? Just making sure that you are keeping your 1 day turn around promise?

You need to upload the tracking number within your stated handling time. So if it's one day you have one day to upload your tracking information. Also you have to have same or 1 day handling for top rated status.

 

[jebarne]

Thanks. It takes extra time as I need to upload all the pictures to photobucket then copy them over to the html on ebay but I think its worth it. I'm sure there is a quicker way but dont have a mac or garage sale.

I use the square photo when I can for the 1st image in the listing and then rectangular images for all the rest. I think the square image lets you shower a larger item in the search page as it fills up the entire area.

wow, I thought you used the Plank's theme in GarageSale.

I guess Garagesale simplifies it because you can open a photo browser that grabs the folder structure from iPhoto. You select the raw photos and place them in the place holder, and GS re-sizes the photos to ebay max size.

I have noticed that your photos are large. That's the main downside of the new theme I chose for my store. The side bar goes all the way down which limits the width of the photos. Its the one downside so far.

for all of you other guys who suggested stuff.

Jgill......corrected the spelling.

Wes and MMM, thank you for the feedback on the photo format. I never thought of looking at it on my iPhone or iPad until you mentioned it. since most people first see you in the search results, I'm going to stay with square for a while and see how it goes.

I've learned a lot about GS, replacing images and tweaking stuff in the standard templates and the markup language. not straight forward, but pretty fast once you have it. The best thing was learning how to apply a template change to an entire set of auctions and not having to go into everyone and make the changes.

 

[jebarne]

You need to upload the tracking number within your stated handling time. So if it's one day you have one day to upload your tracking information. Also you have to have same or 1 day handling for top rated status.

if you use the ebay mail labels, doesn't that track it automatically for you?