As many of you know, I sell a lot on eBay, manage 4 eBay stores and run the VDS store. That is just some of the drum stuff I do.
Here are some personal observations and insights I have encountered.
1. I ask questions to sellers I do not know to see what kind of response I get or if I get a response at all. This gives me some pre-insight in who I'm dealing with.
You can tell a lot by the response what they are all about. The lack of response also might indicate how they do business.
2. eBay shoppers are not always looking at price. They look at your product lay-out, description and how your listing looks. We sell things higher then others, but because we represent ourselves a certain way it builds confidence.
3. Feedback is important, but the above will out-way the shoppers confidence. I know, I just started a store for a friend, 0 feedback, and a new user ID. I built him a logo and set up a nice listing template for him in a regular eBay account (not even a store) Within two weeks seven sales and the average sale is $70
4. Offers are game. I sell many of the same items in one particular store and I get people offering on one item. Once I take it, they then go do the same offer for other similar items. As a seller, I know the game, but it is a game and many of them know how to play it. I just take the other offers.
5. Any offer that is a ball bust, I just decline. I offer no explanations or feed them any information as to why I'm declining. (tubelugs is correct on that one)
6. Many times I just end items after a certain time period or so of being listed. I wait a week and re-list it and then it will sell within days. The person watching that item wanted it, so once they noticed it re-listed they did not want to miss it a second time.
7. After 2 months I review all items and then I drop prices to see if I can entice the watchers to take the bait. It works.
8. If an item is priced correctly, listed professionally it will eventually sell. Many of our items sit for 4-6 months and then sell. So if you can't handle the wait then adjustments to listings might speed it up.
9. Back to offers, be careful, the potential buyer can put little notes there saying I want free shipping. If you move to quick or do not realize, once you agree to the offer, those notes are locked in the system.
There is a lot more, and I'm not staying to topic, but wanted to fill in a few things on my personal learning curve over the years that might help others. I will add this info to the eBay post in the selling section of the forum.
David
Ba-Dum..CRASH!