Pictures - Probably the MOST important element in your Ebay listing

Put yourself in the seat of your buyers. Lets say today we are looking for a formal dress to wear to holiday parties this season. Here are some examples of pictures that I've run across in this pretend search.


Really, would you spend good money on a dress that you can't even see? As sellers we are already crippled by the fact that our buyers can't try on our clothes or feel the fabric, so we must make sure that they can at least see what it looks like! That wedding dress up there has a $600 starting bid and that was the BEST of all the pics that seller posted. Do you think it will sell?

I've read some debates in the discussion boards about whether or not a model should be used. Some say no and I agree in some cases (like underware), however, I think seeing how something fits on a regular human being versus hanging on a hanger can be very effective. So, when possible, I use both. I have some listings that have a picture of a shirt laying flat on a table, on a mannequin AND on a model. I figure, what can it hurt?

I don't really get the controversy about the models. What exactly is it that folks assume? When you go to a store and try something on then buy it, wouldn't it be safe to assume that you probably were not the first one to put your body in that garment?

Any-hoo.

The fact is, no matter what it is that you are selling, pictures are important. If you sell clothes, invest in a mannequin (you can get them on ebay for cheap!), if you sell small items where detail is important you should get a light box and some lighting. Something like this would be great.

I just found this on ebay and borrowed the pic from seller id: time_4_bidding

The one I have is not as fancy as this because I rarely have small items to sell, but because I am a trading assistant and you never quite know what you're gonna get next, it is good to have. You'll obviously need to choose whatever is appropriate for you.

Photo editor - You need a photo editor. If it is just the one that came with your camera, fine. Just learn to use it! Even the lower level editors have many functions that can do some amazing things. 2 seconds would be all that it would take for those sideways pics up there to be right side up again. Photoshop is very well known but also very very expensive. Maybe if you are in the photography or design business, but for everyone else....I think it is unnecessary. I've got adobe's lower level software called Elements. It is about a hundred dollars but has saved me hours and hours of manual editing time. It does so much that I really just can't imagine how much extra stuff photoshop would have to have in order to justify the price being over ten times higher!
I've got this weird thing about backgrounds. For some reason I can't stand them so I go in and take them out. This took some time back when I was using the software that came with the camera, but now it only takes seconds. Here is an example of what I'm talking about.


I know, it is a little silly, but I just prefer to have the background in all my photos match. Just my personal thing.
It also will give you the ability to put more than one picture into a single picture therefore getting the most for your money when it comes to gallery. Take this on for example:


I got the model and the shirt all in one pic!
And you can use it to watermark your stuff too if you like. I don't bother, but my competitor does. (Ya always gotta know what they are up to!)


As you can see, my competition takes some really GREAT photos so I need to quit blogging and get to work on my photos!

Hooray for the sellers who make ebay great

Earlier I had written a post about the sellers who ruin it for the rest of us, well today I'm writing about the opposite.
I made two purchases on ebay this week and both of them deserved some recognition.
I am a seamstress and I was about half-way through a project when I discovered that I was a quarter of a yard short on fabric. So, l look it up on ebay. There were about 6 sellers that had what I needed and all of them were around the same price and all with good feedback. How do I choose? I narrowed it down by the seller closest to me because I wanted it fast and figured the quicker the better. I chose right!
This seller clockcrazylady was awesome. I paid right away and sent a note saying that I'd appreciate if she would send it right away. I know, I'm a seller, I should know better but I tried to be as polite as can be.
Clockcrazylady responded right away and even though it was a holiday week, got my fabric to me in 1 day!!
She mainly sells clocks, if you want to see her store click here
She's got a Hannah Montana clock that I'm pretty sure I will be getting for my 7 year old cousin for Christmas. Little ones are CRAZY for that Hannah Montana!

And then, after I cut the fabric and continued on with my sewing I realized that I didn't have enough boning to finish the project either! How frustrating. So, again, I go straight to ebay. I've bought boning from this seller before so I knew right where to go. Seller lilmunchin has never let me down. I purchased, paid right away and got it in three days. One of those days was Thanksgiving, so I guess you could say I got it in two!
if you want to see her store click here
this store is a sewer/crafters dream come true. Tons of great products and prices that put the local brick and mortar shops to shame.
Sellers like these are what makes people continue to come back to ebay. Simple, honest selling.
Kudos.

Using Ebay to Go to promote your stuff all over the place

Ebay has traffic. Lots of traffic. But, wouldn't it be great to have even MORE?

I try to look at things from the eyes of my buyers. Lets say that someone was looking for a pair of FSU medical scrub pants (or as I would think of them....pajamas)

If they go to google and type in "FSU scrubs pants" you won't get an ebay listing in the result, and even if you did... would it be the ones that you are selling? Doubtful.

So, why not bring in your own traffic? Do you have a blog? A website? the ability to add an html signature to your emails? a MySpace page? All of these things are just things off the top of my head that you should be advertising on.

I've been doing this forever but ebay finally came around and gave us a tool to make it look nice. EbayToGo!

Here is what the difference is, if you click the picture of those pants, it will take you right to the listing. And, so will clicking the widget below. I don't have to explain the difference to you... it is plain to see. Someone reading your blog or your myspace page may not know to click. Also, if it is an auction, I think the widget drums up some excitement too.

I'll try my best to walk you through the process of using it, so here goes. First off, I personally find it difficult to find so make sure to bookmark it once you get there. http://togo.ebay.com/

You will need to choose the one you want. This really just depends on what you are advertising. You can advertise your whole store if you want to, or just a few items.

It is up to you. If you are just going to advertise one item or a select few, than you will need the item number(s). Then you will need to choose an eBay search that will show up after your item has ended. This is something that you have to enter, but I recommend taking down or updating your widget before it gets to this point because what is the use if you aren't showcasing YOUR stuff?

Then Voila... it generates the code for you.

Now all you have to do is copy and paste it wherever you like.

You can even post it on eBay's blogs!

*special note: if you plan to use it on craigslist, you can't do it directly without breaking their rules. You will have to post it on your website or blog or somewhere else then post a link on craigslist.

I just LOVE ebay! But, some ruin it for the rest of us.

I love ebay! But, one must admit that ebay has a bad reputation sometimes. Recently FedEx lost my brother's ipod. He was staying with me for 6 weeks and had forgotten it at home out of state, so he had his friend ship it to him. We chose FedEx overnight thinking that it would be the most reliable. Well, it wasn't. It never showed up. So, we filed a claim and got some money from FedEx. He didn't want the new video nano ipod, he wanted the old one, just the regular ipod nano that he had before. Well, they no longer sell them in stores, so where do you think we could find what he wanted....hmmmm.....EBAY.

So, we go online and of course there are thousands of them for sale on ebay. He rarely uses ebay and has been burned so he is very worried about this. So, I volunteered to help. Just about every listing that we pulled up had something questionable about it. It took me, an ebay junkie, over an hour to find one that I believed wasn't a scam.

Over and over I found ipods that were listed with all the details then way down buried in their fine print in very small font tells that it is refurbished.

I don't have a problem with a refurbished product, what I have a problem with is the seller who tries to mislead someone.

I also found several that clearly were meant to look and sound like it was an ipod but if you read into the listing and read through their purposefully misleading text, you'll find it is for a CASE or a pair of headphones and not the ipod itself!

I realize that some products have a higher rate of fraud than others, and I'm sure that there are many many ipod sellers out there that are wonderful. But it sure is annoying to have to dig through to find the good ones.

There have been times that I was researching my competition and have run across a listing for a new with tags product in a brand that I carry that is listed for below the wholesale cost. When I find that, I switch to my buyer ID and bid right away. My competition is probably trying to use the low priced auction to drive eyes to their store, I do it too. So, if figure I'll take the gamble and if I win, great, I'll sell it for a profit later. If I don't win, that is ok, I've just driven up the price of their auction, in turn driving up the market value of a brand that I sell. Win-win. However, sometimes it is a loss.
Not everyone is honest. I've gotten things that were CLEARLY used, reeking of perfume and smoke. I've gotten things that were factory seconds with crooked seams, I've gotten things that were ripped, damaged and discolored. I've dealt with sellers that were rude. I've dealt with sellers that took a month after taking my money to put my item in the mail. I've dealt with sellers that charged me $8.00 for UPS shipping and then sent USPS parcel post. I've dealt with sellers who only sent me the top half of a bathing suit and half the money back without ever contacting me first. (Now what good is half a suit?)
Well, my point being, if I wasn't already an ebay junkie who made my living off of this, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't shop at ebay anymore after experiences like these. I've boycotted brick and mortar stores for much smaller offenses.
To those out there that ruin it for the rest of us: Please, be honest. If it is a factory second and has a missing seam, just state that. If you take a month to get around to shipping something, just state that. And if you run into a problem like loosing half the merchandise, email them first letting them know before sending half of it. Please, either shape up your business or sell somewhere else.... you are ruining it for the rest of us!
Ebay's marketplace is huge and there are buyers out there for everything. I personally have purchased ripped or damaged things before on purpose (I am a seamstress and I was going to cut it to pieces anyway). I've purchased things that I didn't need until a month later so it wouldn't have mattered if you told me that I'd have to wait. Just don't lie!
And, as proof. All but one of those damaged, missing or otherwise items that I've written about here were sold by me on ebay later, for a profit! I took good pictures of the damage, stated clearly what the deal was and have a good reputation to back it up. You can do this too.

Cool new feature ebay has added

I am so excited! Ebay has recently added a cool new feature. Most times lately the things ebay has added haven't really been useful to me but this one is! I love the 'Best Offer' option and use it for just about every listing. I set the automatic decline threshold at about 50% of the price. I set it so low because I like to send a counteroffer when the initial offer is too low, however, if someone is offering me less than $75 for a $150 dress than it is obvious that we are not going to agree on suitable terms so I don't waste my time.
Now, you can set an automatic ACCEPT amount. What a time saver! I can't wait until I get an automatically accepted offer....so exciting!

The weak dollar

I don't know the exact numbers because I've just got too much to keep up with to follow that too, but I can tell you that I've seen it in my sales!
The dollar is very weak right now and with the dropping housing market too, if you aren't selling internationally, it is time to start.
Yes, shipping international does take more time and slightly more effort but it is worth it. I'm looking at my pile of outgoing packages and today there isn't a single domestic one in the bunch! I sell clothing so I am mainly shipping items under a pound or just slightly over a pound. And my items are on average around $50 per sale so First class international is my best option.
The drawback is that I cannot get tracking or delivery confirmation. This means if something goes wrong I'm screwed.
But, if I were to lose one or even two of just today's outgoing packages it would have still been worth it!
Priority international is a little better, but for items under a pound, significantly more expensive. Under a pound to Australia = $5.20 for First class (very affordable!) but $21.00 for priority! $21 to ship would be alright for a high dollar item, but if it is a $20-$50 item, no one is going to want to spend that to ship. You'll need to weigh out what would be appropriate for you.
If you use paypal shipping, like me, and you want to ship first class international you'll either need to go to the post office or sign up for a service in order to allow you to print labels from home, paypal only offers priority international or express international.
As I'm looking at this pile of international shipments I can tell you the $9.95 a month I spend with Endicia is worth it. I have a slightly higher handling charge on international shipments and this helps me justify the extra time and pays for the service.
Think it all through and put your policies in place. Also, consider the worst case scenerio too and have a plan for that. Also, make sure to have your policies for payment in place. I've had some interesting requests from international customers. Some countries doing bank transfers is commonplace, or even sending cash!
Good luck.

Customs charges, duty, taxes and fees for importing and exporting

My policies state that I do not forge documents and I refuse to do so. I don't have it written in huge font clearly across my listings, but it is there if one chooses to read all the fine print.
I mulled over placement and wording of this policy for quite a bit and still don't know if my way is the right way but here is my logic. I figure that paying the taxes, duty or whatever other fees that your government accesses is the 'right thing to do'. As much as I feel that governments (in general) over-spend, having income is a necessity in order to keep the country running. So, fees and taxes that are accessed at the borders are just a part of that system. Just like our state taxes, federal taxes and sales taxes, of course we would like to keep them to a minimum but we can't avoid them.
I feel that it is actually rude for someone to ask me to lie for them. It would be rude in other instances so why is it acceptable when it comes to shipping out of (or into) the country?
I feel that filling out the papers honestly is what I am SUPPOSED to do and that stating that I will do exactly what I am supposed to do is unnecessary. This is why I have only stated it briefly and in the fine print.
I am SUPPOSED to send them their item, but I don't feel that it is necessary for me to state "I will send you this item" in my listings.
Things always look a little different when taken out of context.
Like the request I got once asking me to still state that they paid XX amount but to manipulate it to state that they paid only $29.99 for the item and the rest was shipping costs. If I went to sears and purchased a new refrigerator, what do you think the clerk would say if I asked could my fridge be rung up for $99.00 and the rest be rung up as a delivery fee in order to only pay sales tax on the first $99?
I also understand that sometimes the fees are quite hefty so I am sympathetic, but just not wiling to risk my business.
What are your thoughts?

Using ebay to drive sales to off-ebay sites

Every ebay seller knows that ebay fees are high and that ebay is a great tool to drive customers to your off-ebay site. The trick is knowing how to do that. I haven't quite figured it out yet because 90% of my sales are ON ebay even though I have the exact same products listed with the exact same pictures listed at a lower price on my website.

Makes ya wonder huh?

For me, there are a couple of problems. 1. My website needs work. I spend 90% of my time working on my ebay listings so of course it would only make sense that 90% of my sales come from there. 2. I haven't spent a dime on advertising my site. I read (and am in the process of re-reading) the Guerrilla guide to marketing so I am doing all sorts of no-cost things. I just haven't gotten my site the way I want it to look yet, so I don't want to put ad dollars out just yet. So, at this point I am using ebay as my primary traffic generator.

I can think of two main ways to get buyers from ebay to your website. 1. links and 2. direct your repeat customers there. Ebay is pretty strict on rules about linkages on their site. Can you blame them? They spend mega bucks on advertising and strategies to keep people on ebay. Notice that when you google something, anything, more than likely you will get an ebay page in the top five results. Have you noticed all the silly games and activities that they offer? This is all in an effort to get folks to spend more time there. The more time people spend on their site the more revenue they create. So, obviously you are NOT allowed to add links to your listings. You aren't even allowed to REFER to another site if it is one that has things for sale. I once got listings pulled for this line of text

"we have this product and more in our website, check my about me page for a link"

So, here are some things that you CAN do to move traffic from ebay to your site:

• link to pages that do not have items for sale. I've been adding links to size chart pages. These pages are website pages that still have the nav bars and my website logo at the top, just don't have anything on that particular page that you can buy. Click here for an example of the kind of page you are allowed to link to. *Notice the "click here to return to ebay"? that link doesn't just go directly to ebay.com, it goes to stores.ebay.com/addicted-to-rockabilly-and-punk?refid=store so that way it takes them right back into my store and if they make a purchase, I'll get a 75% discount on the final value fees! This way even if they are insistent about buying on ebay, I still get a discount on the fees. All I have to do is get them to click there.
• Promote your off ebay site through your buyers. Ways you can do this are to add coupons or flyers into the packages when you send products. Make sure that the coupons or specials that you advertise are for your website, NOT your ebay store. You want your re-peat business to go directly to you.
• Get people to look at your about me page where you do have a link. You can offer some sort of incentive to get folks to click there. I haven't done it yet, but eventually I will be offering a free tanktop on the 5th purchase and I will have the guidelines to that promotion listed on my me page. I figure FREE will get people to click! But there are tons of creative ways that sellers do this, just use your imagination.
• Host your photos on your website. This is a tricky one and with the templates I use, it would be more trouble than it is worth for me, so I don't do it. Maybe in the future when I am using more sophisticated software I'll incorporate it though. You can host your pictures on your website in a large size and then have them in a smaller size in your ebay listings making them clickable to the page on your website where they are big. It would be the same concept at the size chart that I talked about above. You can keep your nav bars, header and footer as long as you can't buy something directly from that page. Auctiva does this. If you look at a listing where the seller uses auctiva to host their pictures it says "click to supersize the image" and if you click, it takes you to auctiva's site. You can do this too, but directing people to your own site.

Technically you aren't allowed a link on your me page! Click here for the rules. But everyone does it and it is even suggested on ebay radio from time to time so I'm pretty sure that this is one of those rules that is not enforced.

ebay's Power Up Quarterly report

I got my Power Up Quarterly report from ebay today, well, actually it was yesterday but since I devote Saturdays to College Football, I didn't read it until today.

I might be mistaken, but I remembered the Power up as having personal reports on it in the past. Maybe I'm mixing up two different things, but if I'm not, I'm a little disappointed that they didn't continue that service. I really enjoyed the breakdown ebay sent me before. I know I can get the same (and more) information in the store sales reports section of myebay but there is just something different about having it there on paper. I've tried before to the the silly reports to print from the computer and all the graphs come up blank. (If anyone reading this knows how to do it, please contact me or leave the instructions in the comment box)

I'm also curious about this, do ebayers who are primarily buyers get a different one? or are they encouraged to start selling too?

Right now I am featured in Entrepreneur's ebay start up guide in the Holiday sales planning section. The article I interviewed for comes out with pretty much the same information that is here in the Power Up. (Of course, this one is Free) Ebay is very smart to do this sort of marketing. It is such a positive spin and seems so hopeful. I love ebay and I am very hopeful, but at the same time I know that there are tons of people out there that work very hard and end up taking a loss at ebay. It is depressing to read their posts on the discussion boards. From ebay's perspective it is very profitable for sellers to do well. However, it is also profitable for them when folks don't do well. If they create a huge frenzy making everyone think that selling on ebay will make you rich in just a couple hours a day....they make money, and more than likely you won't.
Like I told the interviewer at Entrepreneur, last Christmas I sold exactly the same numbers as I did in the summer and the fall prior. Why is that? he asked. The only think I can think of is that ebay did such a great job promoting sellers and bringing in new sellers, that the market got somewhat flooded. Again, I am no expert, just my experience and opinion. My biggest week of the year this year was in early September and the second biggest week was late January. Doesn't make much sense considering that I sell clothing and costumes. Oh well.....that is why I find ebay so intriguing I guess.

Silly plan to avoid international duty and taxes ... didn't work

I try not to write about my buyers and their specifics because I feel that people deserve a right to privacy but this one is just too much NOT to share. I'll make sure that I don't write anything expressly identifiable.
A few weeks back I get a question from a potential buyer on ebay who lives in Europe asking me would I be willing to mark the item as a gift. I take my business seriously and really don't need the trouble, so my policy is to always fill out forms honestly and I stated this to the potential buyer. (I'll include my thoughts on this subject in another post....I could go on and on)
so anyway, buyer responds back asking me to mark that he paid less for the item and more for shipping to equal the same total. I responded again that I fill out the paperwork honestly.
The next email was asking me if I would be willing to sell him the shirt for $29.99 and the buttons for $29.99. After a couple of emails back and forth to clarify, I finally agreed. He sent me a best offer for the shirt minus the buttons and even paid with two seperate paypal transactions.
I think it is completely ridiculous, but yes, I cut the buttons off of a brand new shirt and sold them to him for $29.99 and then sold him a shirt, button-less, for $29.99.
He paid for shipping separately too, and I sent them out separately with invoices for what was inside.
The shipping he paid extra in order to do this was $12.50. I don't know what the duty and taxes and all that are, but I just can't imagine them being more than $12.50 for a $60 shirt. Plus the extra trouble of having to sew the buttons back on too. And, the risk of one of the packages getting lost.
I expressly told him that he would be nullifying our return policy because the shirt would be considered 'altered' when I took the buttons off. He agreed and also agreed that this was completely his gamble.
End result?
Customs is holding the button-less shirt! The buttons, which were sent via USPS first class international have arrived but the button-less shirt, which was sent via USPS Priority (also his instructions to send by two different methods) is held up at customs.
This just makes me chuckle.

The anonymity of buying on the internet . . when is discretion necessary?

As an internet retailer I spend quite a bit of time surfing the net. I have been researching a particular brand of hosiery lately and being that it is an intimate product, I've been surfing through lingerie shop after lingerie shop. And, as I just received my Frederick's of Hollywood catalog so I got to thinking about how wonderful the internet is for those seeking anonymity in particular purchases.

And, as a retailer, how does this effect me?

Most lingerie sellers, will include a bit of text saying that items will be shipped discreetly. When should one make this leap? I'm holding a catalog in my hand that has a picture of a beautiful woman in a teddy. I did not order this catalog, it just showed up here in full color, not wrapped, covered or hidden in any way. Of course, you don't see nipples or hair or anything REALLY obvious, but she is still in a teddy! Personally, I don't mind. I am glad to receive these catalogs and don't have a problem with it whatsoever. But, what if I did? What if I DID have a problem with seeing these images of women in lingerie? The catalog's ship to address reads "or current resident". At what point does the need for discretion come in?

I sell to many cross dressers, so would I need to be discreet then too? My webstore is not a lingerie shop but we DO sell sexy costumes and hosiery, should I ship these items without a label?

or, is the need for discretion in the hands of the buyer?

My thoughts on Selling times, Is Sunday the best?

Sellers always want to know the best time to list auctions. Me too. The only problem with this question is that there is no answer. Because if there were an answer to this question than it would only be relevant for a split second because everyone would list all of their items at that exact time making any other time better.

There are several factors that go into the timing equation.

There could be more, I'm no expert. Competition. Sometimes listing among your competition could be good, other times bad. I carry a particular line of dreeses that at any given time there are about seventy to a hundred of them listed at auctions from about ten different sellers. Just a rough estimate, but about 60% of these listings end on Sundays. So, my first thought was to NOT list mine on Sundays, and I did this for awhile. However, these dresses consistently get a higher price when I DO list on Sundays. AND, I sell more of them from store inventory on Sundays as well. The only thing I can think is that because all these other sellers have been listing on Sundays it makes customers SHOP on Sundays. It is a curious thing.

Customer Base- If your primary customer is a blue collar worker than you probably won't sell much if all of your auctions end on weekdays during working hours. This, as all theories go, is also not an absolute.

Product - what you are selling makes a difference too. Like that dress I referenced earlier, it sells well on Sundays but the men's T-shirts I sell do well early in the week. So, this has to be taken into consideration too.

Location - your location as well as the location of the customer makes a difference. I sell several brands that are very popular in the UK and Australia. I can list these brands very late at night or even early in the morning because my target is in a very very different time zone than I.

So, basically I just wrote a bunch to say that there really is no answer. Each product and each seller will have their own 'best times' the difficult part is trying to discover them!

Judge Judy sticks it to ebay Scammer

I just found the funniest video on youtube! Judge Judy is awesome in how she doesn't take any crap from idiots. I know if you are someone reading this blog, than you are someone who enjoys making money on ebay and people like this chick really hurt our business. GO JUDY JUDY!

I finally figured out how to add Skype to my auctions

I have been wrestling with this stupid skype thing for so long and have wasted so many working hours trying to get it right. Well, I think I've finally done it. Notice that I said "think"? I am not completely certain of the working capability or my ability to ever do it again, but here goes.

First, you must set up skype by downloading it onto your computer and signing up with a skype name. This is completely free click the logo (it will open skype in a new window)

Well, it is not COMPLETELY free. There are services that they offer that ARE free but of course, we all need to make a living, so they have paid services as well. What you want to use it for on ebay though, really is free.
You can call computer to computer worldwide for free. What costs money are the specialty stuff like calling actual phones.
Video calling from computer to computer is free too! We use this to talk to my inlaws in Africa so they can see the baby.
Anyway, back to ebay. So, where were we? Ok, so you've downloaded Skype and now you have a 'SKYPE NAME', this is what you need for ebay. Go into your my ebay page and under 'My Account' click on preferences. Now scroll all the way down and then click the edit link in member to member communication preferences. There is a spot there to enter your skype name. Do that and then you are ready to roll.
Now, you can go back and revise your auctions and it will give you an opportunity to include skype. And, when you go to list your next auction with the SYI form, it will give you a choice to add skype.
Personally, I really hate to talk on the phone and most of the time I am not presentable enough to be seen using the webcam. So, I've set mine to only use chat. It will give you an option to click 'chat' and 'voice'. You can click one or the other, or both.
If you do chose to use voice, it will not automatically run the webcam. Once you are in a connection with someone you will have the option through skype to turn on the webcam or not.
And, obviously, if your computer doesn't have a microphone and you don't plug one in, than the voice option is not an option for you. Ebay won't know this, so you'll have to only click 'chat'.

I am not sure yet about wether or not different listing services have skype available yet. I know that auctiva has not yet added it, but I am sure they will soon. Feel free to post here and let us know if your provider offers it or not. Maybe a little publicity on the subject will get someone working on it.
Feel free to skype me if you need extra help.

Shipping solution to save you time on shipping International

I must tell you, I really over-did it last night so I am not moving very quickly today. What a horrible way to start a new month!
Anyway. Since I am not having such a good day, I'd like to refer you somewhere.
You simply MUST check out this company if you are an ebay seller. I could go on and on about how much time they have saved me, but instead I'm just going to give you the link.
(Click the picture)

Halloween Sales on Ebay - tips for selling Costumes

October 31, 2007
Today, is Halloween. For me it is an ebay breather! I've been selling Costumes and I have plenty to write about this ridiculous experience too. I don't even know where to start. I guess I could start by reflecting on what I learned in the process.
Costmes are a category where the "immediate payment required" feature MUST be used.
Time tables for shiping needs to be at the top of the listings
a cut off time should be used for shipping
cross promotion is a must
very very clear policies are needed
1. "Imediate payment required" is a feature that I have never used before and now, after a season of selling costumes, I will never sell a costume again without it. Costumes, are something that brings people to ebay who may not have ever shoped at ebay before. This is a wonderful thing, however, it can be troublesome sometimes.
Here is the scenerio. Customer is frantic. They really want to be XXXXXX for Halloween but can't find the costume anywhere locally. All their friends and co-workers say "have you tried ebay?" because they know, you can find "it" on ebay! Great advice, however, searching for something that you need to have arrive in less than 3 days when you have never bought on ebay before is a dificult thing to do.
Here are some of the problems I encountered that would have been avoided if I had used the "immediate payment requrired" feature.
a zero feedback customer purchasing 2 of the exact same costume because she couldn't figure out how to "make the system accept a check"
countless non-paying buyers who just take the item out of the system and don't respond in any way to invoices or emails
"oh, nevermind, I found a cheaper one, I'm going to buy it instead of this one"
2. Shipping time tables. Even though ebay so conviently lists the time tables for USPS and UPS, even if they are the only two that you use, customers need to be told. I don't intend to be catty, but sometimes what seems obvious to me, is not to others. I have the time that it takes to ship Priority, Express and UPS ground listed in my TOS, and ebay has it listed with the options, and I have it spelled out on the FAQs that pop up when someone clicks to "Ask Seller a Question" and I STILL must have answered the question "Will this get here by Halloween?" a dozen times a day. I am pretty sure that my neighbors wonder about me because I scream at my computer on a regular basis.
3. Time cutoff for shipping. I ship daily and I advertised that in the listings for costumes because I knew it would be important because everyone needed their costume by a certain time. I very quickly ammended this because I'm on the east coast and I would get emails over and over asking me why their item shipped the next day instead of the day that they paid when they had paid me after 5PM EST. A three hour time difference doesn't seem like it would make that much difference, but it can! I then stated clearly on EVERYTHING that payment had to be received by 2PM EST in order to get same-day shipping. And of course....I still got the question..."if I pay for this today, when will you ship it?"
ARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!