Discover 3 Things to Avoid On Ebay

Whether you are buying or selling here are three things
to avoid on eBay.

1. eBay Scams and Fraud

Countless people have been scammed and
defrauded on eBay. You can avoid many scams
by using the right payment method. Whether you are
a buyer or a seller in most cases, Paypal is the
payment method you should use.

If you are scammed as a buyer, or less than
satisfied with the item when it arrives, you can
dispute the charge and demand a refund.
It is then up to the seller to reply and show proof that
the item was shipped, and that it arrived in the condition
that you expected. If you are not satisfied Paypal will
return your funds to your account.

As a seller, you can protect yourself by ensuring you only
Accept payment through Paypal. This will eliminate the
chances of receiving a bad check or having the buyer dispute a
credit card charge. Instead, they must dispute the
charge through paypal, and you of course will be able
to prove that you shipped the product. You cannot,
however, prove that the product arrived in the
condition that was expected. In this case, you should
demand that the product be returned to you before the
refund is issued.

Another common scam that buyers use is the
bidding scam. This type of scam is run either with
two separate eBay accounts – with one person in
control of both of them, or with two friends with
separate eBay accounts. A very small bid is placed
on your item, using one account. This is followed by
a very high bid, from the other eBay account. Right
before the bidding ends, the high bid is cancelled or
withdrawn, leaving the low bid as the winning bid.
This bidding scam can only be avoided by setting a
reserve price. That means that the lowest bid that can
be placed is the same as the reserve price that you set.

If you are an eBay seller, you can further protect
your auctions by placing a notice on your auctions
page, declaring that you have the right to back out
of the sale if you suspect potential fraud.

As both a buyer and a seller, also beware of spoofed emails.
These emails appear to be from eBay. The email
may claim that you need to verify your information,
and ask you to login to your eBay account, using
the link provided. If you follow that link, the site looks
exactly like eBay, but it is actually a scam to get
your eBay login details, as well as your credit card
details! eBay will never ask you to do this. If you
suspect a spoofed email, report it to eBay
immediately!

Report suspicious activity to eBay, and if a deal
doesn't feel right, simply back away from it and
move on to the next auction.

2. Losing to eBay Snipers

Sniping occurs when a bid is about to end. Some
yahoo rushes in and bids a little higher than the
highest bid as the clock runs out of time – winning
the bid. Sniping is against the rules at eBay, but it
doesn't slow the snipers down!

Simply by keeping up with the item you are bidding on
will lessen the risk of being sniped.
Make a note of the date and time that the auction
will end, and make sure that you are in front of your
computer and logged into the auction well before that
specific time. The objective is to either bid higher than
the highest bid during the last few seconds – which is
what snipers do - or to simply make sure that you are
not outbid by a sniper.

Remember that sniping is against the rules, so you
should log in about thirty or forty five minutes before
the bidding ends, and get your bid up until it is the
highest bid. At that point, all you need to do is to
keep an eye out to make sure that nobody else
raises the bid. If you've been logged in for a while,
this cannot be considered sniping.

You must be aware of automatic bidders. It is very
hard to bid against people who use bidding software.
That software has been designed for the purpose of
sniping, and your chances of outbidding the software
manually are very slim.

3. Failure on Your eBay Auctions

There are many reasons why auctions fail. The most
common reason is that the item is not in high
demand. This problem can be avoided by doing the
necessary research to determine which items sell
well, and which items should be avoided

Another reason for eBay failure is pricing. No matter
what your reserve price is, your opening bid price
should never be more than $50 or so. If you
set that opening bid too high, most people won't
even click the link to read the description for your
item. Also, before you set your reserve price, you must
determine what the item is really worth, and the price
similar items have sold for in past eBay auctions.

Poorly written descriptions are another cause of
failed auctions. Poor grammar and misspelled words
drive people away. Failing to post a picture of the
item will also keep people from visiting your auction
page.

High shipping prices scare people away from.
Find the lowest shipping prices you can. Even consider
paying for the shipping yourself if it won't cut into
your profits too much. Do not charge handling fees.

Offer great 'customer service' for all of your auctions,
and ask your buyers to give you feedback. If you
offer great customer service, you can expect wonderful
feedback and this will help a great deal in your future auctions.

This article is brought to you by Kevin Gowing whose site at
http://www.find-that-info.com gives more information about eBay
and helps you search for that something special