How to Sell on eBay – The Basics In person
Tuesday, March 19th from Noon to 4 pm
1975 E. Main Street
My cell is 760-880-3535
See you soon!
Please arrive with your….
1. User Id
2. Laptop & Power Cord
3. Camera or Most likely your Smart Phone (since these take better pics than most cameras!)
4. Cord to transfer photos to your laptop
And a few items to actually list!
WELCOME!
Before we begin I want to say a word about security on the Internet. There are unscrupulous people who will try to get your username and passwords to access your account.
Never share this information with anyone. No one from eBay will ever contact you requesting your login information. To be safe, you should always navigate yourself to these sites to log in, never follow a link in an email. Having said this, I want to reassure you that with the proper precautions, the Internet is a safe and proven means of doing business used by millions of eBayers every day.
1. Pick a Catchy Name
Before you register to sell on eBay, you need to start thinking about what you will choose for your User ID. This needs to be a catchy phrase that your customers will remember easily.
As many of you know from trying to get an email address on aol.com or gmail.com, many of the good names are already taken. This is why I want you to make a list of possible options beforehand. If you don’t do this, you can get flustered when you register and pick a User ID that does not make sense.
I started out selling on eBay as LAWilson (my initials and last name) in 1998. After my divorce, I decided that I wanted something more telling of my business. My publicist had started calling me the Queen of Auctions so I went on eBay to change it to QueenofAuctions. Guess what? It was already taken. Luckily, I had written down some other options and TheQueenofAuctions was available.
Remember that you can change your User ID on eBay and your feedback points and information will follow you. You can only change your User ID every 30 days.
Also, keep in mind though, that eBay will only refer customers to your new id for 30 days. It is not a good idea to change your id if you can help it. Pick the right User ID from the get go.
Some hints for choosing your User ID:
*If you plan on specializing in one area, pick an ID with that category in your name. As an example a book seller may choose—BooksRFun, Books4U, Books4You, BookLover, Book$, BookstoYou, Books2You, Books!, BookReader, Read4Fun etc.
*Add punctuation !, $ and real numbers 4, 2 to make the id different from others that may already be on eBay.
*Do not make your User ID too long, unreadable or add too many numbers. Some sellers like to use their birth year or favorite numbers in their id. This can get confusing and hard to remember. 2976Porsche, Hamilton1955, and 789546821 are not easily remembered (and these are actual User ID’s from eBay).
2. You May Want to get a P.O. Box
Before you sign up and register to sell on eBay, I suggest that you register for a Post Office Box or use a Business Address if you have one. This is for your security. We really don’t want to use our home address as the return address.
It just isn’t safe anymore with all the mail and identity theft. For years, we had an unsecured mail box at our antique store. Over the Christmas Holiday in 1999, four days worth of mail (including thirteen checks from our eBay buyers) were stolen (Today we can’t accept checks for eBay sales, but it is a good lesson). Can you imagine the time and effort spent unraveling this? It was a nightmare for both our buyers and ourselves. Be safe not sorry.
Also, you want to be very careful and not let your buyers know where you actually live or where your expensive merchandise is being stored. A Post Office Box or using a business address is the way to do this. They are relatively inexpensive. I used to pay $45 every six months for a 5″ by 5″ by 18″ box. Pick a post office that is close to your home and that you drive by frequently.
eBay will ask for an address after you sign up. Use your P.O. Box for this or a business address if you have one (Now I just use the store).
3. Register on eBay
Once you have your list of favorite User IDs, it is time to actually register on eBay. Click here to register. It will first ask if this is a personal or business account. Unless you are doing this as a full fledged business, I would sign up as a personal account. You can always change it later.
Then it only asks for your first and last name, email address and a password at this point.
Finally, be sure and read the eBay User Agreement and Privacy Policy. Please at least skim this policy J. A few things to note…
* eBay’s services are not available to persons under the age of 18
* Children under the age of 18 may use the site in conjunction with, and under the supervision of a parent.
After agreeing with this policy, please check the box at the bottom of the page.
Nowadays, eBay automatically assigns you a user id. Mine for the purpose of this course was Lynnsv_3…Hated it!
To change it you need to go to the “Hi Carlos!” (because I signed up as Carlos Wilson..haha my cat) in the upper left hand corner and click on the drop down arrow. Go to Account Settings and click on Personal Information. Once there, you are able to edit your User ID. It is the first line item.
I tried CarlostheCat taken and it recommends three similar ones with strange punctuation, so I tried KittyCarlos, also taken. I finally used CarlosandChaCha and winner winner chicken dinner! It became my 8th eBay user id…seriously, it is true!
The inispiration for my user id!
A few more things to get done before our class meets and I will explain how to do them next.
1. Please download the eBay app on your phone.
2. Verify your Account Details
3. Add a Bank Account
If you can get these housekeeping details taken care of before the class, we will have much more time to actually learn.
To download the eBay app. Go to the app store on your phone. Search for eBay and download the eBay Marketplace app.
To Verify your Account Details on eBay (you will do this after you have signed up for an eBay account) go to the drop down arrow next to your name and click on Account Settings. This is what that page looks like.
After you have clicked on Account Settings, here is what the next page will look like. You will be adding information to both the “Personal Information” section and the “Payments”.
This is what the Personal information page looks like. Please fill out as much of this information as possible. Sometimes eBay will not let you list an item for sale until they have confirmed your identity, so please take care of this before the class. Thanks!
Next, you will be setting up your payment information. Most importantly is to add your bank account (this is how you will be receiving payments through eBay Managed Payments) and also a cc or bank account to pay for listing/selling fees if there isn’t enough money in your eBay account to cover them. Again, very important to do before the class. Here is what that looks like.
Don’t worry about some of the other items, like payment schedule etc. as we will go over that in class.
OK, that should be it for now! See you soon! Lynn PS ChaCha will not be there LOL!
Thanks for reading my ezines! I appreciate it….as always!
eBay with Heart, Design with Heart & Dress with Heart………Lynn
BTW, we now have a blog on the website where you can read all of our past newsletter
Link to Blog.
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https://lynnsconsignment.ricoconsign.com/