A good ebay listing

ebay question here. What does it take to make a good ebay listing? I realize this can be subjective. I have 9 good feedbacks from a few years back when I sold some video games, but nothing recent. I'm looking to drop off some silver and my local coin dealer gives less than I can get on ebay (obviously) and was looking for some advice on good listings that will not cost me an arm and a leg in fees.

Things I already know:
-Good pictures
-Be honest
-Small or no shipping fees if possible

What is a good way to ship?
-ASE's and commem's in the mint packaging
-Slabbed coins
-Quarter or proof sets in mint packaging

 

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What percent of melt is your coin shop offering you? Because when you sell an item on eBay and receive payment through paypal, you can expect to lose about 12% (that doesn't include the money it will take you to then ship an item), so do your math carefully.

 

I didn't ask what percent it was, they gave me specific prices for each piece. 44 for an ASE, 24 for 90% commem, 27 for a silver quarter set, and 40 for a silver proof set. I will keep that in mind though about the 12%.

 

Gotcha. When it comes to a listing, though, I like to keep mine professional and right to the point. Brief description of all the necessities (year, mintmarks, weight, composition, special notes about it, mintage, maybe a catalog reference number, and a guarantee of authenticity underlined and bolded) followed by photos. To help bidders, what I do is I also include photos in different lighting. So for example, my first set would be nice "wow" photos in nice yellow, darker lighting that highlight the coin's features and epth of details, but then I also throw the coin under a scanner for the most generic, least-attractive, neutral images and post them underneath the camera photos that I "staged".

I personally don't like listings that tell long stories that are meant to get people pumped about an item, or stories about how rare a coin is, or long paragraphs of info that waste my time. If I'm looking at your listing, there's already a reason I'm here: I know what the coin is, and I want it.

Also, make sure you include a description of your shipping policies, and take into account any scenario. List one for domestic, international, give people the rates for regular vs. registered, and then tell them what your policy is on additional items that they win and how it affects the shipping charge.

That's how I do my listings, and I very very very rarely get questions from bidders. All the info is out there for them, there's rarely anything I can clarify further. I have a feedback of over 300 and my "Item as Described" is 5.0/5.0, so that type of listing has done well for me.

EDIT: I just saw your packing/shipping question... pick whatever you want, as long as the item you're selling is secure in the envelope and well sealed. I HATE getting items in the mail where the coin is rolling around in the packaging, or the envelope is so think that my banknote got folded and bent. I throw in a piece of thin cardboard into the envelope no matter what I sell, it makes the thickness of the envelope uniform, instead of the mailman "feeling up" your envelope and knowing there's a coin in the middle.

Don't waste money on expensive shipping supplies. Reuse packages, reuse cardboard, reuse paper, save yourself the money. Personally, I do tracking numbers on things that cost more than $30. I do certified (needs a signature) if it's more than about $75. Everything under $30 gets regular mail, I just put stamps on that thing and send it off. Keep your shipping charge under $4, you'll be good.

 

This is good info.

Lets say I have an ASE like this (I pulled it off google images)

http://tinyurl.com/43ge355

Would a standard letter envelope be too thin and flimsy? Is a yellow bubble envelope good, or a waste of my money? Should I just toss it in a tiny box with some newspaper or bubble wrap?

I have lots of questions because I want to make sure I'm doing things right the first time and don't run into unwanted trouble and lose money because of it.

 

Personally, I would use a Duck Bubble Mailer. Just my preference.

 

Does the length of the auction matter? If most of the action is in the last 2 hours, why would I pick a 7 day auction vs. a 1 or 3 day auction?

I just posted my first auction. I know I can't put a link here, so I'll put it in the auction forum. I just thought you might be interested in looking at it and telling me what I can do better next time.

 

I'm new to selling on ebay as well. I purchased a postal scale at wal mart for $24, you could probably buy one cheaper online, but I didn't want to wait to receive it. The investment I think will pay for itself overtime. I have been printing my shipping labels on paypal which offers a discount. A confirmation number is also only .19 cents on paypal (which is required anyway) so it gives me a piece of mind knowing somebody can't say they didn't receive the coin. To ship on paypal is only $1.22 which include the price of the confirmation number for a package that is 1oz or less (you have to put a min. of 1oz) This also saves a trip to the post office since they can be dropped in any mail box or handed to a carrier. Between the small discount and the time and travel to the post office, I think the $24 scale will pay for itself.

I use the #000 size envelopes with bubble wrap inside. you can order these in bulk on amazon in lots of 250 or 500 for 11 cents and 8 cents respectively or buy packs of 10 at wal mart for about $4.50 (comes to 45 cents an envelope) if you don't want to buy the bulk. i reuse packaging when I can, but I try to make it a habit to sell more then I buy so I often have to use new envelopes. For a single coin I will use a paper envelope with cardboard inside, but I still print the shipping label through paypal instead of using a stamp, so the shipping cost is the same, you just save a little on the materials. I do this mainly because I want the confirmation number.

I use my scanner for pictures because to me it seems to provide the most true to life color. You can also upload pictures to photobucket and post pictures in the description area of the listing by using the photobucket HTML links. This saves on ebay fees of posting multiple pictures.

For the length, I usually do 5 or 7 days. This gives more time for people to find your item. I try to end my auctions on a saturday or sunday night (I don't know if this is true, but I read somewhere that this is when most people surf ebay, again, I've never really researched this, but it may be worth finding out if its true). I suppose doing a 1 or 3 days auction might have some advantages as well, since people might do an impulse buy and not have time to think about it. I always offer a 7 day return policy, so I don't want people to impulsively buy a coin then return it after having some buyers remorse.

I too have a low rating, so am currently only selling low grade inexpensive coins (as well as other low priced items) simply so people will be less hesitant to order them. Once I get over 100 feedback reviews I plan to then start selling more expensive items.

 

here's a good read to decide how long to list your auctions for:

HOW LONG SHOULD I AUCTION MY ITEM ? 1, 3, 5, 7 AND 10 DAY AUCTIONS EXPLAINED

There are several options for the length of time to run an auction on eBay. Choosing which to use is not intuitive. This guide is designed to explore each option and suggest possible situations in which you might use each. The goal here is helping you to make the right choice for each sale.

1 DAY AUCTION

Most people view their searches by “auctions ending first” largely to be able to buy the item they desire sooner, rather than later.

In cases where the customer is in a hurry to get his or her item – 1 day auctions are ideal. From a seller’s perspective, the short time availability of the item limits its overall exposure (and getting the possible best price). So, the 1 day auction option is only good for those items that are in extremely high demand -- with low to no supply otherwise available! An excellent example is the Wii Game Box (and some related merchandise) only spotily available during this past holiday season.

This year (and last), the news and the company let it be known that Wii game systems were in very short supply. In case you missed the news, the message was also clear by the lines forming outside of every national chain at 6 a.m. the day a delivery of the systems was expected to arrive. In many cases, desperate “Santas” had to revert to paying “market value” ($500.00 or more on the web) rather than $249.00 suggested retail price. This translated to BIG profits for those lucky enough to buy and sell some units on eBay - so one day was enough to fetch big dollars for the seller.

Another example were the Apple iPhones on the release day, or shortly thereafter. In anticipation of scarcity drummed up by the media, there were lines at stores over night in some cities. Hundreds wanted to be the first to have these magic gadgets. The anticipated shortages resulted in a high demand on the internet too as with the Wii Game Console. So, if you were lucky enough to get an iPhone (or more than one) in the first few days after the frenzy began, you could take advantage of the “shortage” by selling them on eBay for twice the retail price or more usinf only 1 day auctions.

In most cases, putting such items on eBay during the holiday sales season netted huge profits over the original investment BUT it had to happen during the frenzy and BEFORE Santa was to deliver the goods. Under those circumstances, a 1 Day Auction, is necessary and became essential, the closer to Christmas it actually got. Even in 1 day of exposure these items were sold to the highest bidder (with many folks bidding). So limited exposure time was no real issue. If your item is in high demand, and supply is low (or non existent), especially during a holiday season, you should get it out there and sold while the demand is still hot. 1 day auctions are the perfect way to do that.

Do note that this situation is also a perfect case for adding a slightly inflated “Buy It Now” option to the auction. There are often those who will pay even more to avoid the bidding war and waiting any amount of time at all for auction end.

3 DAY AUCTION

Using a 3 day auction is very like using a 1 day auction, and serves a similar purpose. In this case, you are hoping for buyers with slightly more “staying power” in the shorter auction period, while also gathering a bit of additional market exposure for your hard to find or unique item. If you have several items that are in high demand, you can put one in a 7 day format and another in the 3 day format. This assures that you are making it available to bidders with less patience for auction style buying in the shorter auction. A good indicator of the type of item that would be a good candidate for a 3 day auction is an item that, after only having been listed one or two days in a 7 day auction, is now bid up to or beyond it’s expected profit level (a high demand item). Having an additional item also available in a shorter auction rides the same popularity and scarcity wave as the original item in the 7 day auction.

5 DAY AUCTION

Five day auctions are best used to bridge auction time on your shorter term auctions to take in a long weekend or a holiday weekend. For instance, if you normally use the 1 or 3 day format and there is a holiday weekend coming, you may want to bridge the weekend from Thursday through Monday with a 5 day auction. The additional exposure over the length of the holiday weekend is great because people love to shop online during their leisure periods.

7 DAY AUCTION

eBay’s big vendors and many Power Sellers use seven day auctions routinely. The 7 day format always covers at least one weekend, and provides optimum exposure for their merchandise. The popularity of 7 day auctions is usually ascribed to the fact that they always cover a weekend and the term (7 days) is long enough to pull in a wide range of potential customers. Yet, the duration is also short enough to hold the interest of the largest number of potential customers.

10 DAY AUCTION

For an additional $0.20 for each extended auction, you can keep your item(s) listed for auction for 10 rather than 7 days (3 more days than the standard 7 day auction). A 10 day auction practically guarantees that you will get the widest range of bidders available on eBay. However, you may loose a few who are impatient or forget to bid on the auction during the longer waiting period. The 10 day auction length is best suited for those items that are unique or expensive. In those cases, you would sensibly like to realize the best possible return at auctions end. That will only come from maximum exposure. Items in this category are also the best suitable for the use of reserves, should you choose to do so.

 

That's some good info clay.

I just had a thought. What if I post some silver on ebay, and half way through there is a huge drop in the price due to a correction. Naturally, the price will go back up over time, but is it too late for me to pull the silver out of the auction? Can the bidders cancel their bid if the price drops and decide they are paying too much?

 

As the seller I believe that you reserve the right to cancel all bids at anytime unless there is less than 12 hours left in the auction. If there is less than 12 hours you have to sell to the highest bidder unless the bidder agrees to withdrawal their bid.

Bidders cannot cancel their bids without suffering consequences unless it is a mutual agreement between you and the bidder. I'm not sure what those consequences are, probably getting their account suspended for a period of time, and it is your responsibility as a seller to report any user who cancels or doesn't pay within the specified amount of time if no mutual agreement between the two of you was made.

You might want to search the help sections of ebay to be sure of this, but I just read this information a few weeks ago when I started selling. I was concerned that an item might get lost or stolen during the auction period and wouldn't be recovered before the auction ends, which will hopefully never happen, but in case it would I researched it and found that information. I'm pretty sure it came from ebay themselves. I found it before so you should be able to find it also. I think my info is pretty correct, but double check by searching ebay help sections.

EDIT: Actually it wasn't to hard to find, I checked to make sure my info was right. It pretty much is but here is the exact info from ebay about how a seller can end an auction early and how a buyer can retract a bid (which usually requires permission from the seller unless there is a valid reason, which are explained in the link).

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/end_early.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-retract.html

 

Be sure to read the "fine print" section in them links I gave you. It states:

"Sellers are not allowed to cancel bids and end listings early in order to avoid selling an item that did not meet the desired sale price. This is considered to be a violation of our reserve price policy. Although there are legitimate reasons for ending a listing early, abuse of this option will be investigated."

I'm not sure if the situation you gave would qualify or not since technically you would be cancelling the listing because you hoped you were going to get more for the item but then the price of silver dropped. It seems your reason for cancelling would be because you could no longer get the desired sell price. perhaps ebay wouldn't consider such a scenario abuse of their policies, but it couldn't hurt to send ebay tech support an email to be sure though.

 

Absolutely the truth! Do yourself a favor and do not start playing a game of cat and mouse on your ebay account as prospective buyers remember krap like that and it will not be good for you in the long run. Silver will not go down in price for awhile and you can take that to the bank. Even if it goes down for an adjustment it's gonna be alright. Everyone I know makes money off of ebay sales but that said, they have all lost money as well. You can not win on ebay with every single listing you make but you can win as a seller if you're good to your buyers. One hand washes the other, keep that in mind as you shape your reputation and good luck!!

 

I sold something on ebay. A 2010 proof ASE for 84 dollars. I received payment and mailed it out this morning. Should I give him feedback first, or wait until he gets the coin and gives me feedback?

 

This is one of the reasons I quit buying from ebay. As the buyer, I completed my bid, sent my payment on time. I fulfilled my obligations for this auction. Why should I wait to receive feedback until I receive the item. A poor seller using the feedback system as revenge for negative feedback due to his screwups is not the way the system was supposed to work. I think the feedback system is different now, but "I'll withhold my feedback until I see what you give me" was not the way to go. As the buyer, I'm not leaving feedback until I'm satisfied the item was received in a timely manner, was as described, and any issues being resolved. But I feel if the seller received payment as requested, the buyer has fulfilled his contract.

 

eBay's new policy reflects this. As a seller, you are supposed to leave feedback once payment has been received. In my experience though, there are still about 20% of the sellers out there who 'hold you hostage' with their feedback rating until your feedback is left.

Another bit of advice; time your auctions to end on a sunday evening between 6-9:00 PM EST. This will expose your listing to the maximum number of bidders. Most of eBay's business is conducted in the US. Most Americans are home on Sunday afternoons/evenings a large portion of them are surfing the internet. This is when a large portion of on line shopping occurs. People are sitting around the house relaxing before they kick off their week.
I also favor a longer listing; 5 or 7 days. This is where the psychology of bidding comes into play, if someone has bid on your item early on in the listing, they have a greater tendency to have some sense of 'ownership' over the item, and thus are more willing to increase their bid in the waning minutes of an auction, which is when most of the bidding occurs.

 

I leace feedback usually the day I get paid. But here is the problem I am running into. Buyers do not leave me feedback once they receive their item. After about 10 days after they received their item (based on the delivery confirmation date) I contact them and request that they leave me feedback. Some still don't do it. To me a seller getting feedback is far more important than a buyer getting it. Your feedback rating brings in business. I only have about 67 feedback ratings and I want to get my next color star when I reach 100. People who buy do look at a seller's score and some might not buy from a seller with a low score. Even though I have 100% positive feedback I still have only 67 ratings. It's true that the buyer has fulfilled their contract and should be left a positive feedback score, it is agravating as all heck when they don't give you feedback! As a seller I feel me receiving feedback is much more important then a buyer getting it. My point is that I'm experienceing problems getting feedback from buyers even several days after they receive their item and I need that feedback to increase my score. I have been going out of my way to ship items the next day after receiving payment to be sure positive feedback is in order and it is infuriating when you don't get any feedback at all. I'm planning on starting to sell more expensive items once I reach 100+ feedbacks left. It isn't going to happen if buyers keep doing this to me. Starting to hold their feedback hostage until they give me mine isn't sounding like a bad idea right now. I'm not going to do that, but it has crossed my mind more than a few times. Granted, most buyers so far has been leaving feedback, but those ones that don't just get under my crawl.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you on this point. I always left positive feedback once I got the item. I figured this was a sure way to let the seller know I got the item, and I was satisfied with it. I never had a problem on the items I won, but too many times I was left wondering about the feedback. After all, once the seller received my payment, my obligation is fulfilled. Why give me negative or no feedback? Even if the selller screwed up, and wasn't happy with my comments, why screw me? I did my part. But that's just me. Through ebay you're dealing with literally millions of people. They're not all saints. You pay your money, take your chances with that kind of exposure. With all the horror stories floating around, and the fact that the auction format doesn't fly with a lot of buyers, I am happy to spend my money elsewhere. I have, for the record, never sold anything on ebay. I do know alot of people who sear by the service, both as sellers and buyers. It just doesn't seem a good fit for me.

 

I was a buyer for years before deciding to sell. As a seller you cannot leave negative feedback for a buyer. You have the option to leave positive feedback or to leave feedback later or to report a problem with a buyer. I suppose if they don't pay you, they give you an option to leave negative feedback. I haven't had any trouble with receiving money yet, but once they pay you can't leave negative feedback (which why would you, you got your money, they fulfilled their part of the deal). When I was only a buyer I never cared if a seller left me feedback or not, but now that I am a seller I know the importance of it. Most people who only buy probably don't care about their rating. You can buy an item regardless. So holding their feedback "hostage" until they leave you feedback probably don't matter to them anyway, so there is no reason to do that. But if you have less than 100 feedbacks as a seller many people will be hesitant to buy from you even if you have 100% positive. There are far more buyers than sellers on ebay and people who never sell anything or never plan to sell might not realize how important the color of that star is beside your username. I wish you couldn't delete an item until you left feedback for it, that way buyers might atleast leave feedback to clear their list of items bought.

I guess you do take your chances though. I wish everyone was honest and fair but it doesn't work that way. Still, atleast ebay and paypal try to be fair. I made an order one time with paypal (it wasn't through ebay but a website that used paypal) and I never received my order. After several weeks of no order confirmation and not receiving a package I made several attempts to contact the website. Finally I filed a claim with paypal, I guess they couldn't contact the website either so they refunded my money in full. So atleast by selling though ebay and using paypal you have some reassurance that you won't get completely scammed.

 

In reference to you mentioning you reuse packaging... I think this is a very important point, and one of the main ways to save dramatically on shipping costs, which can then be passed down to your customers. I know from firsthand experience that when I see an item I'm looking to buy on eBay, and I see 'Free Shipping' underneath it, I always go to those specific items first, and then if I don't like them, I'll look at the items that are similar / the same but do cost something to ship. It's something psychological, and even eBay recommends to keep your shipping prices in mind when thinking of ways to have a successful auction.

I also reuse packaging - manila envelopes that I receive coins or other items in, I simply rip the labels off, then slap my own on, and ship items right back out. I also use cardboard food packaging when I need an actual box to protect a coin better. Since it can be hard, and/or pricey to find very small boxes that fit the item you're selling perfectly, just open your pantry, find a box (from anything - granola bars, crackers, smaller cereal boxes etc. Take a razor blade, pick a corner of the box, then cut it in one cut, from top to bottom. Then, fold the box inside out (for the sole purpose of turning the foods label inward), and use packaging tape to reseal the corner/edge of the box you cut open. There you go - you have a 'free' box. You cannot do this with USPS flat rate boxes because USPS thought ahead of time, and printed their logo all over the insides of their flat rate boxes.