eBay: The Missing Manual

About This Book

If you'd like to get started with eBay but you don't know an FVF (Section 5.3) from a UPI (Section 5.7.2.1), this book will help you get to the site, get registered, and get going. Soon you'll be using eBay like an old pro. If, on the other hand, you've been trading Pez dispensers since eBay was Auction Works, this book can help you ramp up your eBay experience—find more bargains, build better auctions, and close more sales. It's loaded with advice and info like this:

• Most new eBayers assume that a 90 percent positive-feedback rating is a good thing, but those with experience on the site rarely trade with someone whose positive-feedback score ranks below 98 percent (Section 2.1.1).

• You can find bargains using sellers' spelling mistakes (Section 3.1.8), even if your own spelling is lousy.

• Despite its philosophy that people are basically good, eBay's popularity has made it prime hunting ground for scammers. Don't be a victim—recognize and avoid common scams directed at buyers (Section 4.3) and at sellers (Section 6.6.3).

• More than half of eBay auctions finish with just one bid or no bids at all. Get your listings noticed with the marketing strategies in Chapter 7.

• Tools for buyers (Section 4.1) and sellers (Chapter 9) can save you tons of time by automating searching, bidding, listing, market analysis, email, and feedback.

• Despite many requests, eBay has been reluctant to allow a feedback search that returns only the negative and neutral comments. But just because you can't do it on eBay doesn't mean you can't do it. There are a couple of ways to check out another eBayer's dirty laundry (Section 4.1.3).

• Some of eBay's most explosive growth has been in its specialty auctions. Chapter 8 tells you how to get in on the action.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: Seriously Weird Stuff

What's the strangest item ever sold on eBay?

Strangeness is in the eye of the beholder. An auction item that makes one person scratch her head makes another open his checkbook. Here are some of the weird and wonderful auctions that have added to eBay's amusement value:

• The Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich. Ten years before this auction, a Florida woman sat down to eat a grilled cheese sandwich and noticed an image that she thought looked like the Virgin Mary. The woman saved the sandwich in a clear plastic box and kept it on her nightstand—until the day she decided to sell it on eBay. After a ton of media attention and a bidding frenzy, the winning bid was $28,000.

• The haunted cane. The seller of this item claimed her son believed it was haunted by the ghost of his recently deceased grandfather and that she was selling it to allay his fears. The cane sold for $65,000.

• Name that baby. A number of parents have auctioned the right to name their newborn. And adults have auctioned off their own names, too. These auctions have been popular with Golden Palace Casino, an online casino whose advertising campaign has centered around buying far-out items on eBay. GoldenPalaceDotCom Smith, meet GoldenPalaceDotCom Jones.

• Walking billboards. When one enterprising young man sold a month's worth of advertising space on his forehead for more than $37,000, he started a fad. Auctions appeared for advertising space on pregnant bellies, cleavage, fingernails, an arm and a leg….

• Elvis water. A man received $455 for three tablespoons of water he said he'd retrieved from a styrofoam cup used by Elvis Presley in a 1977 concert and stored since then in a sealed glass vial. Later, he auctioned the right to display the styrofoam cup itself.

• Mystery auctions. You might wonder why on earth people would bid on something when they have no idea what they're getting, but mystery auctions have become such a craze that they have their own category. These auctions have included a mystery paycheck, mystery house contents, mystery mailbox, mystery baby-food jar—just about anything you can imagine. (According to eBay rules, the auction is for the container only; the "mystery" contents are a gift.)

• Weirdness loves company. If you can imagine it (and in some cases even if you can't), someone's probably tried to sell it on eBay. Real listings include a kite flown during a Florida hurricane; dryer lint; a deflated red balloon; a "time travel" machine; snow; a jar of air; a "mind-reading" helmet; a reproduction of Van Gogh's Starry Night made of Legos; a three-legged chicken preserved in a jar; an empty gum wrapper; even an auction for "absolutely nothing."

To see the weird and wacky things up for auction on eBay this month, check out www.bizarrebids.com or www.whowouldbuythat.com—two Web sites that track the strangest auctions they can find.

About the Outline

eBay: The Missing Manual is divided into four parts, each containing several chapters:

• Part 1, Buying on eBay, has everything you need to get started. Most new eBayers begin by buying something to learn how auctions work and to start building feedback. (And if you're here to sell, it's worth taking the time to learn how to think like a buyer.) These chapters help you register, learn the basics of searching and bidding, avoid getting scammed, and rev up your buying power with advanced techniques for bargain hunters and collectors.

• Part 2, Selling on eBay, is all about one of eBay's biggest attractions: the promise of making money in your spare time by selling off the stuff you no longer want or need. For some sellers, that promise evolves from part-time hobby to full-time business. Part 2 starts with the things you need to know before you sell on eBay—how to register as a seller, list an item, and close the deal. The chapters that follow guide you as your experience and your feedback score grow— how to get your auctions noticed, build customer loyalty, deal with deadbeat bidders, and handle the business side of things. You'll also find chapters on specialty auctions and tools to make selling faster and easier—no PowerSeller would be without them.

• Part 3, Finding Other eBayers and Getting Help, contains info that's useful to buyers and sellers alike, from networking and socializing with other eBayers to getting quick answers when you have a midnight payment crisis.

• Part 4, Appendixes, tells you where to learn more, covers the basics of HTML for enhancing your eBay listings, and suggests some other auction sites to explore.