Simplx Blog

This week I’ll share advice about eBay’s rules. More specifically, I’ll share advice about staying out of trouble.

The Most Common eBay Beginner Errors
Did you know that eBay devotes a whole section of their website to their policies about what buyers and sellers can and cannot do on eBay? If you haven’t the time to study all eBay’s rules before you begin, I offer the following advice on common rule violations for beginners:

Be Polite
In general, if you are polite and use courteous language, you will avoid violation of several eBay rules.

Play Fair
Remember that good old Golden Rule, “Do unto others…”? It works particularly well on eBay. If your auctions are fair and ethical, you will avoid violation of several eBay rules.

Do Not Misrepresent the Name Brand
As I’ve mentioned in a previous article in this series, name brands are important on eBay. Therefore, it’s important to note that according to eBay’s rules, sellers can’t include any keywords in the title that do not apply to the item for sale. This includes name brands. So, if you have a nice-smelling perfume, don’t be tempted to say: “Compare to Body by Victoria Secret” in the title unless, of course, it is Body by Victoria Secret.

Don’t Include a Link to Your Website, Unless…
In general, I advise you not to include a link to your website from your auction listing. However, as mentioned in the rules above, eBay does allow you to include links to outside websites that provide more detail about your product. The trick, then, is to include the link to a product description page that does not lead directly to your shopping cart. But (and here’s the good part), the page you link to can contain links to other pages in your site. These pages can lead directly to your shopping cart or catalog.

This is an approach worth thinking about if you are trying to increase traffic to your website! (And who isn’t?)

Be Careful About the eBay Users You Add to Your Marketing Contact List
One of the major reasons for you, as a website owner, to sell on eBay is to increase your marketing contact list. But you need to be careful about who you add to your list. eBay states that you can only contact eBay users who have won an auction from you or who have contacted you first. This means that you should not contact bidders who haven’t won your auctions unless they contact you first.

And when you do contact an eBay user, don’t try to sell a product directly (that violates another rule). Just advertise your website.

Don’t List High-Priced Items at First
As long as your feedback rating is low (under 100), don’t try to sell a high-priced item, such as a $2,500 flat-screened TV. Extravagantly priced items send up red flags to eBay’s fraud department and, if you’re feedback is low, they will shut down your account. Once they shut it down, it will be a few weeks before you can go back to business on eBay.

My advise is to start with low-priced items and gradually work up from there. Eventually your track record will speak for you.

Verify the Mailing Address
Before shipping the item to the winning bidder, verify the shipping address your buyer has provided you first. I sent an item to the eBay-registered address for one of my winning bidders and had it returned to me. Why? I was using UPS to ship the item and the address was acceptable for USPS (United States Parcel Service) but not for UPS. I eventually had to resend the product to a different address. This not only cost me more, but it also irritated my customer.

Always Give Feedback
Don’t neglect to leave feedback. The person on the opposite end of your auction is hoping to increase their feedback rating, just like you are. It’s also important to leave the most positive feedback possible. If there were glitches in the transaction, be fair. If it wasn’t intentional and the user did everything they could to correct the situation, give positive feedback.

Ironically, if you leave too much negative feedback for other users, it will hurt your own eBay reputation in the long run.

eBay Rules Every Seller Should Know
I’ve highlighted several eBay “no-nos” below, but if you’re interested, you can view the complete list at http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/index.html.

General Rules

No Unwelcome Email/Spam: Do not send unsolicited email to other users.
No Offers to Buy or Sell Offsite: Do not offer to buy or sell listed items outside of the eBay site.
No Profanity: Do not use racist, hateful, sexual or obscene language anywhere in a listing.
No Using the eBay Logo: Do not use the eBay logo without a written license agreement from eBay. However, eBay offers buttons for your your site that link to the eBay home page or to your auction list.

Seller Guidelines
No Circumventing Fees: Do not try to find ways to avoid paying eBay listing fees.
No Duplicate Listings: Do not list more than ten identical listings as separate auctions.
Use Keywords Correctly: Do not add irrelevant or misleading keywords to listing titles.
No Links Outside eBay: Do not include links to websites, home pages, or any page that has items for sale outside of eBay.

Note: I found a loophole to this rule. If you link to a page that further describes the item, it’s allowed, even if the page has links to your catalog.

No Catalog Sales: Sellers can’t list catalogs from which buyers may directly order items.
Categorize Items Correctly: Items must be listed in the appropriate category.
No Choice Listings: No auctions that allow winning bidders to choose from a variety of options.
Shipping and Handling: Shipping and handling fees must be reasonable and cannot be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.
No Misleading Titles: Titles must accurately describe only the actual item or items you are offering for sale. Use of words such as “like,” “style,” and “not” in the title of your listing will often result in a comparison violation.
Payment Surcharges: Sellers may not charge eBay buyers an additional fee for their use of ordinary forms of payment.
Reserve Price Violations: Do not include a reserve price anywhere in the title or description if the auction isn’t officially listed as a reserve auction.
No Want Ads and Trades: No advertising a desire to buy or trade items.
No Shill Bidding: Do not bid against your own items to increase the price (friends and relatives can’t bid, either).
No Misrepresentation: The item you sell must meet the description you entered in the listing.
Non-Selling Seller: Sellers cannot refuse payment or delivery of an item at the end of a successful sale.

Taxes

You must comply with all applicable tax laws.

Feedback
Feedback Extortion or Solicitation: Do not threaten negative action to achieve the desired feedback. Likewise, do not solicit a desired feedback in return for a favor.
Feedback Abuse, Withdrawal, and Removal: Use caution and good judgment when leaving feedback. If a court were to find that your remarks constitute libel or defamation, you would be held legally responsible for damages to that member’s reputation.

Popularity: 26% [?]