eBay are somewhat strict about letting you withdraw your bid. They call it a ‘bid retraction’, and have a stringent set of conditions that you must meet before you are allowed to do it.
Below are eBay’s three acceptable reasons for withdrawing a bid.
You made a typographical error
This means that you accidentally typed the wrong amount into the bid box, bidding a far higher price than you meant to. This can be scary: imagine bidding $100 and accidentally adding an extra ‘0′! You are entirely allowed to withdraw your bid in this situation, and bid again if you want to.
The item’s description changed
If you bid on something and then the seller updates the description, you have the right to withdraw your bid. It wouldn’t be fair, after all, to force you to take something that you now realise you don’t want.
The seller is “uncontactable”
If emails to the seller bounce and they don’t answer their phone, then the auction obviously can’t continue, and you can cancel it.
So How Do I Retract My Bid?
eBay hide away the bid retraction form a bit, because they do not like people using it. However, you can find it by going here:
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?RetractBidShow.
Now all you need is the item number from your auction and this can be found on the item description page’s top right corner. If you cannot see it on the page, look in your browser’s title bar, and in any emails eBay have sent you about your bid on the item. Choose one of the three allowed reasons, click ‘retract bid’, and you are done.
Are There Any Consequences?
Well yes, there are. The more unethical among you might have considered that you could just cancel bids anytime you feel like it by saying that you accidentally entered the wrong amount. eBay are one step ahead of you. Each time you retract a bid, it is counted on your feedback page for all to see – and anyone with a lot of retracted bids looks more than a little dodgy. eBay also say that abusing the bid retraction feature could get you banned.
So is there a way to retract your bid without facing a penalty? There is if your seller is nice, and most are. Sellers can cancel bids on their auctions at any time, and if you email them with a half-decent excuse then most will be more than happy to do this for you. After all, it is not in their interest for their item to go to someone who will not like it, as you might leave negative feedback.
Of course, retracting your bid should still be a rare thing, as you will not win any auctions that way! If you have followed us this far, the chances are you have won an auction by now, or you are close – but you might be somewhat puzzled about what to do next.
The next posting will give you a few pointers.
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Stay tuned,
Christer
BTW
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If you find the information useful, don’t hesitate to Tweet or email the post to your friends and colleagues and set up a link on your own blog!
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You will often find yourself facing the choice of whether to pay a fixed price or keep on bidding. This choice might be presented to you in a single auction, or you might be choosing between different auctions of the different types.
So should you use that ‘Buy it Now’ button or keep on trying to outbid everyone else? It is all a question of weighing up the advantages and disadvantages.
Buy it Now.
- The Advantages.
When you use Buy it Now, you know the asking price and you can take some time to decide whether to pay it or not – you can even negotiate. You do not have to keeping your eye on the auction, or get caught up in the last-minute bidding frenzy that is now inevitable on any popular item. Not only that, but the seller will be happy to get a fixed price for their item, and they are likely to nicer to you than usual. Some sellers can be a little resentful when they feel that you got a little too much of a bargain on their item.
- The Disadvantages.
You will almost certainly pay more for the item, especially with more expensive items. Also, it takes some of the fun out of eBay. Are you not there for an auction, after all? If you want to pay a fixed price then there are thousands of online stores you could be visiting. It is like pressing ‘collect’ instead of ‘gamble’ on a fruit machine. It is the boring option. But anyway, maybe that is what you want.
These rules are relatively constant. There are few instances when using ‘Buy it Now’ would allow you to get something cheaper or when bidding would be an easier way to do it. In the end, as with so many things in life, it is a simple question of price versus convenience. It is up to you.
There are those times, though, when the strategic use of the ‘Buy it Now’ button can be a useful tool to help you outwit your competition. If the current bid is almost as high as the Buy it Now price, then why bid higher and keep the contest going? Clicking that button is a no-brainer. The same goes for times when a seller has, for some reason, set the Buy it Now price only slightly higher than their starting price for bids. Why bother to go through all the hassle of bidding?
You might also find that there are times when you should leave the ‘Buy it Now ‘ button as a last resort. It can be a useful way of ending last-minute contests with a decisive ‘this is mine’ gesture.
In fact, there are all sorts of tricks you can use on eBay, if you want to get ahead of the game. Remember that most buyers on eBay are casual, and do not know what they are doing. A little knowledge can go a long way in getting you an advantage. Our next email will have a few tips and tricks for you.
* * * * *
If you seriously thinking of earning, not losing BIG money on eBay, I definitely recommend a very successful product how to market eBay(R) auctions
eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches -
as a successful eBay Seller, you will need it!
Take Action – Click Here to Download “eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches”
* * * * *
Another viable and most recommendable option, when starting up an eBay business, is to make use of the drop shipping concept, which you can read about in the post – eBay and Drop shipping – What Is It All About?
Click here to find out more about drop shipping.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Stay tuned,
Christer
BTW
Do you also remember to FOLLOW ME on Twitter?
If you find the information useful, don’t hesitate to Tweet or email the post to your friends and colleagues and set up a link on your own blog!
http://twitter.com/christerfolke
When you buy things on eBay, you pay the seller before they send you anything. This means that you, as a buyer, are vulnerable to all sorts of problems. You might not get the items you have paid for, or they might be damaged or faulty.
Luckily, you have two very important rights when you buy on eBay.
The Right to Receive Your Item.
Maybe the seller never sent the item, or maybe it got lost in the post. Whatever happened, you paid for the item. If it does not arrive in the post as described, you have the right to a replacement or a refund, whether it is the seller’s fault or not.
The fact that you bought something on eBay does not mean that you do not have the exact same rights that you would have if you bought it in a shop (these rights are pretty much the same all over the world). Plus, under eBay’s rules, the seller is not allowed to change their mind about selling you the item: once the auction ends, it becomes a contract – you must buy and they must sell, or face eBay’s penalties.
The Right for Your Item to Be as Described in the Auction.
Sometimes sellers do not wrap items properly, and so they get broken. Occasionally they write descriptions that are misleading or just plain wrong to begin with, leaving out vital details that would have caused you to change your mind about buying. If this happens to you, you again have the right to a replacement or a refund.
So How Do I Use My Rights?
First, you should take it up with the seller as most will be responsive, and do not want to have their reputation damaged when an upset buyer leaves negative feedback for all their future buyers to see. If that does not work, report them to eBay.
While eBay does not have many people handling complaints, they do have a relatively effective set of automatic process to handle common problems buyers and sellers have with one another.
Finally, if that does not work, then you should seek advice from consumer groups in your country, and as a last resort from the police. However, you should never have to get this far. Problems on eBay that cannot be resolved easily are extremely rare.
Don’t Be Too Quick To Complain.
Remember not to get too annoyed and be unfair to the seller. Nice sellers have agreed to give me refunds for undelivered items, only for me to find out a few weeks later that they were being held for me at the post office! Always try your best to communicate and think of everything that might have gone wrong. eBay works best when buyers and sellers sort out their problems together, instead of reporting each other to the authorities straight away.
More often that not receiving what they paid for, buyers have an altogether different problem. T hey knew what they were paying for, but did not realise that what they were paying for was overpriced, low quality or a scam.
The next posting will give you a list of tips on how to avoid being ripped off on eBay.
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Stay tuned,
Christer
BTW
Do you also remember to FOLLOW ME on Twitter?
If you find the information useful, don’t hesitate to Tweet or email the post to your friends and colleagues and set up a link on your own blog!
http://twitter.com/christerfolke
eBay Lesson – 10 Ultimate Tips for Increasing Your eBay Customer Response
You have got the buyer in front of your auction, and they have read the description. They must be interested. Otherwise they would not be looking, right. But just how can you push them over that line and make them leave a bid?
Read on below for some enlightning tips.
- Improve your picture
In all that description writing, you might have missed the vital importance of your item’s picture. A picture with bad lighting or an intrusive background looks amateurish and will not make anyone want to buy from you.
- Add an About Me page
You will be surprised how much you can reassure bidders just by creating an About Me page and putting a little bit about yourself on your business on there. You can also have a few special offers there for people who bother to look at the page, and let people subscribe to your mailing list so that you can email them updates.
- Use SquareTrade
Signing up at SquareTrade and displaying their logo on your auctions shows that you are committed to have them resolve any disputes that arise. You always see this on PowerSellers auctions. It makes you look more professional.
- Write terms and conditions
Have the ’small print’ clearly visible on all your auctions, giving details of things like shipping times and prices, your refund policy, and any other business practices you might have. This helps build confidence with buyers.
- Show off your feedback
Copy and paste a selection of the feedback comments you are most proud of to each item’s description page, instead of making bidders go and look for it. If you have 100% positive feedback, be sure to write that on every auction too.
- Add NR to your titles
If you have extra space in a title, put ‘NR’ (no reserve) on the end. Bidders prefer auctions that do not have a reserve price, and doing this lets them see that yours do not have it.
- Benefits not features
Make sure your description focuses on the benefits that your item can give to the customer, not just its features. This is a classic sales technique. If you have trouble with this, remember - ‘cheap’ is a feature, ’save money’ is a benefit.
- List more items
If you want more people to respond to your items, then list more items! You might find you have better like listing items at the same time, instead of one-by-one. There is no need to use a Dutch auction – you can just keep two or three auctions going at once for an item you have more than one of in stock.
- Accept unusual payment methods
To reach those last few buyers, accept payment methods that many sellers do not accept, e.g. cheques.
- Buy some upgrades
The best upgrade is the most expensive one, which makes your item appear first in search results. In crowded categories, you might find that this is worth the money.
Once you have got some buyers, you want to keep them coming back to you. The next posting will show you how to turn one-time buyers into long-term customers.
* * * * *
If you seriously thinking of earning, not losing BIG money on eBay, I definitely recommend a very successful product how to market eBay(R) auctions
eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches -
as a successful eBay Seller, you will need it!
Take Action – Click Here to Download “eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches”
* * * * *
Another viable and most recommendable option, when starting up an eBay business, is to make use of the drop shipping concept, which you can read about in the post – eBay and Drop shipping – What Is It All About?
Click here to find out more about drop shipping.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Stay tuned,
Christer
BTW
Do you also remember to FOLLOW ME on Twitter?
If you find the information useful, don’t hesitate to Tweet or email the post to your friends and colleagues and set up a link on your own blog!
http://twitter.com/christerfolke
Most of the people who make money from eBay do not actually make all of that money on eBay. There are all sorts of ways you can use eBay to give your existing businesses a helping hand.
The Supply Side.
If you have any leftover stock or used items from another business you run, then why not sell them on eBay? You can make this a regular thing, using it to get rid of things that will not sell for the premium you ask for in a shop, or items that are no longer in demand in the town or city where your business is based.
You can really make a lot of money this way, if you know what you are doing. Of course, you will already have to be an expert in the items you are about to sell, as you use them in your business, and you do know that the items are of high enough quality to be sellable. This is a whole new market for your old inventory!
However, it is not only the selling aspect. Bear in mind that your good eBay reputation will make you a great buyer! If there is ever anything you want to get for your business, the chances are you will be able to get it on eBay for a discount.
The Sales Side.
Here is where the true power of eBay lies. eBay give you an ‘About Me’ page, where you can write anything you like and link anywhere you like. This means that you can get traffic to your business’ website by linking to your website from your About Me page and linking to your About Me page from each auction.
To create an About Me page, just click on ‘Community’ on the toolbar, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click ‘Create an About Me page’. You then get the option to either enter your own HTML or let eBay guide you through the process. All you need to do is write a little about your website, link to it, and you are done. You will notice that more people start to come to your site straight away.
There are thousands of people who swear by this technique to drive traffic from eBay to their website. With a little persuasive sales copy on your site, they say, you can sell directly to buyers, cutting out the eBay middleman. Additionally, all the traffic you will get will be targeted, as the people who click through were interested in your auction to begin with.
This can be a really powerful technique, even for affiliate marketers, especially if you have already got an e-commerce site. Even if you have not got one, you might find it worthwhile to set up a website that does nothing but list your eBay inventory with a few dollars off each item, with a PayPal ‘Buy Now’ button for each item. Then simply make the link to your About Me page read ‘Visit my website for even more bargains!’, and you are done.
Now that you have seen how to drive visitors to your website, maybe you would like a little help getting your auction in front of buyers.
The next posting will show you the secrets of taming the eBay search engine.
* * * * *
If you seriously thinking of earning, not losing BIG money on eBay, I definitely recommend a very successful product how to market eBay(R) auctions
eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches -
as a successful eBay Seller, you will need it!
Take Action – Click Here to Download “eBay Fortune , The Definitive Roadmap To Auction Riches”
* * * * *
Another viable and most recommendable option, when starting up an eBay business, is to make use of the drop shipping concept, which you can read about in the post – eBay and Drop shipping – What Is It All About?
Click here to find out more about drop shipping.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Stay tuned,
Christer
BTW
Do you also remember to FOLLOW ME on Twitter?
If you find the information useful, don’t hesitate to Tweet or email the post to your friends and colleagues and set up a link on your own blog!
http://twitter.com/christerfolke