I'm doing almost all that....

> 1. First be sure your ad is prime. It needs to have some nice clear
> photos, tell the whole story, use wonderful descriptive words, and tell
> everything that you, as a seller, offer. For example if you offer a money
> back guarantee, put that in there.

Prime.

Primo!

Pree-mee-seemo!!

Really, I work my hiney off on my ads -- so hard, in fact, it's laughable. Here are a three of my auctions:

One, two, three.

If I don't scale back timewise, I have little hope of ever turning a significant profit.

> 2. Next, the more ways you allow people to pay you the more likely they
> are to bid on your stuff. Paypal is the best in my humble but don't close
> other options.

Yuppers -- Paypal, all major credit cards, cashier's checks, and money orders.

> 3. Be sure that your ads close at around 7 or 8 pm pacific time.

Gotta work on that one.

> 4. Consider using shorter duration ads and Buy It Now. People LOVE the
> idea of "instant gratification" and you should be sure you feed
> off of this.

I always offer Buy It Now -- but you don't mean ONLY the "But It Now" flat-price sale, right? I offer Buy It Now in addition to bidding -- that's what you mean?

> 5. Charge actual shipping cost and be sure you say this is your policy in
> your ad. This screams "Trust me" and people bid on items from
> sellers they trust.

This one kills me. I charge actual shipping cost with the CHEAPEST possible option -- FedEx Ground. (If it's small enough to fit a priority-mail envelope, then I use priority mail, and of course media mail for magazines, but that's all.) To Alaska and Hawaii, I charge way LESS than the actual shipping cost (my husband gets a discount which I essentially pass on to the buyer). I have even started comparing FedEx Ground with UPS and Priority Mail in my auctions so people understand the huge saving (because FedEx sounds expensive).

Then an auction expert on this board looked at one of my auctions and said my shipping price was way out of line and would turn people off.

Well I'm not gonna take a loss on shipping so I can be lower than rock-bottom-low.

> 6. Use great items to sell mediocre ones. In other words if you have any
> item that you KNOW if going to draw a crowd be sure you mention your other
> items in that great item's ad. "So, you like this item? Check out my
> other stuff!"

Good idea. Thanks.

> 7. Last but not least keep it fun. I know so many people who make a living
> now off of eBay it is amazing. And each one of them will tell you
> "Hey, it's fun!" It seems to be one of the commonalities of
> those who do the best on eBay.

It would have to be, because people with 2,500 low-ticket items listed at any one time who only sell about 15% of their items have to be doing it for something other than money. Sometimes, just for fun, I follow one of these people for a week or so and tally up their fees, etc., and wonder if they're insane.

I realize some people just do it to get leads to sell other items, but the people I follow don't seem to have any links to stores -- just their auctions.

I don't get it.

> 8. Recognize the trends on eBay do indeed change and there are times you
> might get stuck taking a little loss. It happens to the best of us. But
> the good news is that if you offer up items at an incredible bargain it
> can lead to lots of traffic coming into your other ads which leads to more
> bids and sales. If something is gathering dust on your shelf because it
> simply didn't sell on eBay, consider placing it into another package deal
> as a bonus, offering it with no reserve and a low starting bid, or
> offering it as a free gift to your 100th customer. It isn't doing you any
> good just gathering dust there afterall is it?

A lot of my things are dust gatherers right now cuz I'm trying to thin out the house. That's about all I'll have when the rainy season starts, since garage sales all but stop around here.

> I cannot count how many times I have come to your board, learned a lot
> about myself, my business, and life in general. You be sure to feel free
> to come on by the AuctionHints board and ask a few questions.

Thanks :-)

Luv,