10 Ways To Put Your eBay Business In The Grave

by Clint Herman

It’s extremely easy to put your eBay business 6 feet under… You have to be careful, even though you can start over from scratch without it costing you much, but is this something you really want to do? However, if you want your eBay business to end up dead in the water, here are ten simple and easy ways to do it.

Lie about an auction item… If you say an item works fine, when it sometimes doesn’t, or if you say it’s in perfect condition, when it has blemishes, then you will have angry customers.

Mail the auction item whenever you feel like it… If you leave your customers hanging around wondering when their item is going to turn up, then you will probably end up with no repeat buyers.

Let items end anytime… Few people will be around to bid on your auction if it’s ending in the middle of the night. You should go thru the trouble of figuring out whether or not auctions will end at a good time.

Don’t bother with email… If you take the attitude that communicating with customers is a time-waster, then your eBay business will end up on the chopping block, fast. Communicate by giving informed responses to questions about your auction item.

Offer junk items… Don’t get caught up with thinking you can just sell any old thing on the eBay marketplace for a huge profit. Don’t ignore the need to sell only good quality items. At the very least, if you do sell an item at auction that is old, tarnished, scratched, etc, then be open and honest about that in your eBay auction ad.

Give no discounts… If you stand hard and fast to the adage that you will give no eBay buyers discounts, then you are going to leave money on the table. If you are not greedy, not only can you get buyers to buy more, you can get buyers to come back again.

Use visually unappealing auction listings… Things to do if you want to lose potential bidders: Use a bunch of colors, flashing lights, and animations. Write the entire auction description in CAPITALS!! Hey, might as well use big, red capital letters. Also, be sure to use the fonts Impact and Comic Sans, and for an extra special touch, see if you can figure out a way to add some music.

Don’t use pictures of your auction item… Not only do pictures give more information to your eBay bidders, but they will also give your auction more of a chance of getting checked-out when buyers do searches. Also, I personally think that having pictures in your listing can give bidders more of sense that they will not get ripped off by you.

Write short descriptions… Another eBay business killer is to be as brief as possible in your auction description. Also, try not too use too many mysterious abbreviations, and for goodness sake do not just write the title again in the description box.

Use Reserve Auctions… Now, this is a fairly controversial idea, but this can be one of the best ways to scare away your eBay customers. They’ll see ‘reserve not yet met’, and click that ‘back’ button before you know it. Luckily, they can always bid in a normal auction for the item somewhere else. Now, I know that reserve auctions can be used properly, but try to avoid them as often as possible.

Good Luck, Clint

Clint Herman is a successful eBay seller with over 6 years experience selling on eBay. He also loves teaching others how to sell on eBay. He is the author of How To Get Started Selling On eBay, which is a beginner’s guide to selling on eBay designed for people who are new to eBay.

You may also benefit from the following recommended publication: 7 Steps To Starting A Successful eBay Business