Post by wollastoni on Jun 10, 2013 1:53:52 GMT -8
I often see strange things on Ebay. I also read many people complaining about poor sales and so on...
As an Ebay seller and buyer for about 10 years, here are my few advices:
- price : put your right starting price : too low and you will go bankruptcy, too high and you will lose your time. So check the "market" price, before placing an auction. Don't forget Ebay + Paypal take about 14% commission.
- buy it now option : Listing an item is free for 50 ads per month, so ALWAYS use it. Sometimes people who really wants something can pay a lot. I fix it arount 3 times the starting price.
- clear and complete title : there are thousands of insects for sale on ebay. So ALWAYS write the correct latin name + the family name + the country of origin. Then people will be able to find your item via the ebay search engine.
Ex : if you write : "Nice butterfly", nobody will find it, if you write "Papilio machaon" it's better, but the best would be "Papilio machaon, A1 male, Papilionidae, Britain". Then collectors who are looking for the British ssp only will find it.
Don't forget some websites like Collector's Secret use "key words" to filter and promote some auctions to their visitors. Keywords are genus or family names, so use them and correctly spell them. You will then benefit of the traffic of those websites (about 200 visitors per day).
- picture : always put a good picture. NEVER try to hide defects or people will be disappointed. When I sell a papered lep, I always picture the worst side of the butterfly.
- paypal : yes paypal take 4% commission but if you refuse Paypal, you will lose 90% of your customers.
- description: don't spend 3 hours writing your description but be very clear. Explain if you have full collecting data or not. Explain if you ship worldwide or not.
- shipping cost : fix it at the right price you will pay for it. Don't forget Ebay's 14% commission.
- advertise your items : use InsectNet Classifieds or Facebook groups to drive customers to your items.
- buyers' questions : some buyers (like me) can ask many questions before bidding on a lep. Be sure to answer them as soon as possible.
- insect grading : insect grading is always a mess as a specimen are A1- for someone and B- for another one... so if you don't use them, always state clearly all defects your specimen may have. If you put "A1", be sure it is really A1.
- shipping time : always send parcels within one week after your have received the payment.
- listing optimisation : if you have 300 hundreds items for sale but have time to sell only 50 per months, try to regroup them per family as collectors often collect that way. I personnaly sell only Delias some months, or only French leps during other months.
To conclude if you follow those simple rules, you will with time, develop a network of loyal customers who will be happy to bid on your items.
Then of course Ebay is not the paradise, but as nobody is currently able to develop something more efficient, let's make the most of it.
I guess other members can add some advice on this thread.
As an Ebay seller and buyer for about 10 years, here are my few advices:
- price : put your right starting price : too low and you will go bankruptcy, too high and you will lose your time. So check the "market" price, before placing an auction. Don't forget Ebay + Paypal take about 14% commission.
- buy it now option : Listing an item is free for 50 ads per month, so ALWAYS use it. Sometimes people who really wants something can pay a lot. I fix it arount 3 times the starting price.
- clear and complete title : there are thousands of insects for sale on ebay. So ALWAYS write the correct latin name + the family name + the country of origin. Then people will be able to find your item via the ebay search engine.
Ex : if you write : "Nice butterfly", nobody will find it, if you write "Papilio machaon" it's better, but the best would be "Papilio machaon, A1 male, Papilionidae, Britain". Then collectors who are looking for the British ssp only will find it.
Don't forget some websites like Collector's Secret use "key words" to filter and promote some auctions to their visitors. Keywords are genus or family names, so use them and correctly spell them. You will then benefit of the traffic of those websites (about 200 visitors per day).
- picture : always put a good picture. NEVER try to hide defects or people will be disappointed. When I sell a papered lep, I always picture the worst side of the butterfly.
- paypal : yes paypal take 4% commission but if you refuse Paypal, you will lose 90% of your customers.
- description: don't spend 3 hours writing your description but be very clear. Explain if you have full collecting data or not. Explain if you ship worldwide or not.
- shipping cost : fix it at the right price you will pay for it. Don't forget Ebay's 14% commission.
- advertise your items : use InsectNet Classifieds or Facebook groups to drive customers to your items.
- buyers' questions : some buyers (like me) can ask many questions before bidding on a lep. Be sure to answer them as soon as possible.
- insect grading : insect grading is always a mess as a specimen are A1- for someone and B- for another one... so if you don't use them, always state clearly all defects your specimen may have. If you put "A1", be sure it is really A1.
- shipping time : always send parcels within one week after your have received the payment.
- listing optimisation : if you have 300 hundreds items for sale but have time to sell only 50 per months, try to regroup them per family as collectors often collect that way. I personnaly sell only Delias some months, or only French leps during other months.
To conclude if you follow those simple rules, you will with time, develop a network of loyal customers who will be happy to bid on your items.
Then of course Ebay is not the paradise, but as nobody is currently able to develop something more efficient, let's make the most of it.
I guess other members can add some advice on this thread.
