| This is a thread for new internet sellers in the used/collectibles arena. As long-time internet buyers and sellers, we thought that we'd share what's worked for us. The key here is the "for us" part. No ugliness, please. This is how WE feel as online shoppers. Doesn't mean that we think other ways are wrong. Just thought we'd share our online shopping habits. Positive-only reactions and discussion here, please. We're hoping to help each other, not engage in hair-pulling. If you have a different opinion, please present it as something that works for you, not a complaint against the OP. Please feel free to add things that have worked for you over the years. I, for one, am glad to be on this site and NOT on a marketplace (been there, done that). It's a learning curve, though, and I'm gleaning much from the positive comments/suggestions on this forum. Thanks for maintaining this spirit of help. 1) Contact your buyer as soon as possible (certainly less than 24 hours). Send an e-mail telling them when the item shipped. If weather prevents you from shipping on time, send another e-mail and explain. Then be sure to ship ASAP and send another e-mail thanking them for their patience.
2) Don't send subsequent e-mails telling us that you have more of something for sale. I'll find you, if I'm looking for something else.
3) Package every item as if it were the most fragile thing on earth. Pack it in exactly the same manner as YOU would want to receive it.
4) Describe your item EXACTLY. Listing even the smallest defect circumvents surprises for your buyers. Let the buyer decide whether or not water stains or small tears matter.
5) Selling books. Don't use industry terms if you don't know what they mean. Very Good and Good mean something to many people in the book world. Substitute the word nice if you have to. If you're going to use those terms, then know what most people think they mean. Better yet, just give a detailed and critical description of the book.
6) Selling records (LPs), read #5. Mint condition does not allow for surface scratches. Warped is warped.
7) Selling used DVDs. Saying that a movie was "watched once" tells me nothing. Three thumbprints and a handful of scratches tell me something. Clean those disks first. Then list anything that wouldn't clean off.
8) List the exact method of packing in your auction listing. Tell the buyer that any other packing will affect the shipping rate. We LOVE these sellers and learned this practice from one of our favorites. I'm here to tell you that if you're selling a computer game on CD and charging $1.47 for shipping, I'm not going to buy from you. I know that the only way you can ship for that is to put it in a flat manila envelope with no packing. Not that higher costs always mean better packing, but lower costs always means poor packing. Unless you're offering low shipping as an incentive, then explain that in your listing.
9) Selling stamps, postcards and sewing patterns. Read numbers 3 and 8. If you're charging $.50 to mail my stamps, then they won't be in "new unused" condition when they get here. If you're charging $1.00 to mail that pattern, then I can almost guarantee that my rural mailman will have rolled it in with the rest of the mail before I see it. Even a cake-mix box or any other piece of cardstock/cardboard makes very little difference in your shipping but will win return buyers for you.
10) A fancy-background, slow-loading auction page makes us automatically hit the back button. When your auction requires Active X control, I start muttering under my breath as I scramble to get out.
11) I wish that I could list an example, but you all know what I'm talking about. When you use 24 pt. type and a different color for every line on your page to vent every bad thing that selling online has brought your way, you alienate buyers. When I have to scroll and scan, trying to find the description of the item, I'm out of there. Don't tell me why you don't take personal checks. Just say that you don't and tell me what I can buy from you today.
12) I don't mind waiting for logos to load, but I don't want to wait for pictures of your dog or cat, your eight favorite charity logos, or your husband eating his breakfast in bed. In fact, we are a charitable family, and just happen to have 13 indoor rescue cats, but I don't have time for your personal life to load when I'm looking to buy something. Keep the loading time down.
14) Fuzzy, dark, grainy, bad pictures. Bad pictures sell nothing. If your clothes pictures look like somebody shot your laundry pile, then get someone else to help you.
15) Stock photos. If you're selling a brand-new-from-the-manufacturer item, then stock photos are okay. We absolutely NEVER buy from someone selling a used item (no matter how much "like new" it is) who is using a stock photo. If you're selling a used item, then you need to show me what I'm buying.
16) The same thing goes for pre-filled information. We've bought so many books recently that weren't what was listed. The person used pre-filled info for the hardback, let's say, and we received a paperback. It's NOT the same thing, no matter how much you say it "doesn't really matter". 17) For US, we only buy from people when we know what the shipping is going to be BEFORE we add something to the cart. (This is OUR method of shopping, remember, not some only-right-way stand.) Best for us is when it's typed right on the sales page or the page has a shipping calculator. Second best for us is when you have a "shipping rates" link on your page that doesn't require us to go to the cart first. For us, there isn't anything after this. We don't buy from sellers that don't list their shipping up front. Remember, now, that's just our buyer preferences. 18) Keep your pages as clean as possible. That doesn't mean that you can't have a three-foot listing. A lot of people don't like that, but we like as full a description as possible when we buy, so we don't mind long pages. What clean does mean, though, is to logically break your page into different areas. Give your seller the description first, before you give your selling policies. Don't make them look all over the page for your description. Don't use every colour in the colour wheel. Marketing standard is black with two (or three, if you absolutely have to) other colours. Two type fonts, max. Period. (That doesn't include logos.) I'm looking forward to seeing what others add to our list. We have little experience in the clothing arena, for instance, so perhaps someone can jump in there. Let's help each other get through this learning experience, and we'll all see sales climb, climb, climb . . .
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