Auctioncope Auction Blog

What is Paypal Seller Protection?

EBay and Paypal both tout Paypal Seller Protection as an all encompassing safety net for sellers against fraudulent activity.  In reality, Paypal Seller Protection only applies in an extraordinarily limited amount of circumstances.  Seller Protection has improved dramatically over the past three years or so.  Paypal Seller Protection used to only cover the first $5,000 of contested sales.  Now, there is no limit to the total value or number of transactions Paypal will cover (Although they’ll cut you loose if they have reason to believe your account is also perpetrating fraud).  Seller Protection used to apply only when the buyer was in the U.S., Canada, or the United Kingdom.  Now, Seller Protection is available on all transactions regardless of where the buyer is located.  In the past, if a seller shipped to a buyer with an “unconfirmed address,” Paypal Seller Protection was not available.  At the beginning of 2008, Paypal began covering eBay Powersellers who shipped to buyers with unconfirmed addresses as part of “Expanded Seller Protection.”    Now, Paypal “covers” almost every transaction, regardless of whether or not the buyer’s address is confirmed.  Expanded Seller Protection is also now available for all Paypal users, not just Powersellers.  Paypal used to not tell sellers whether or not a transaction was covered by Seller Protection.  Now, the information is readily available for all transactions immediately after they are received.  To find out if a transaction is eligible for Paypal Seller Protection, check the transaction details in “My Account.”

Then look at the top right:

Despite all of the improvements Paypal has made in regards to Seller Protection eligibility, it is still rare for it to apply in practice.  Out of more than 50,000 completed transactions on eBay, I have only received a refund from Paypal Seller Protection twice.  I would agree that two times is better than zero times, but many sellers make the mistake of seeing “Eligible for Seller Protection” and assume that they’re off the hook for anything that might go wrong during the transaction.  This is far from the truth, which is why sellers need to be aware of all the precautions necessary to ensure a smooth transaction.  When dealing with eBay and Paypal, a “smooth transaction” can be defined as any transaction where the buyer joyously keeps the item and the seller keep the buyer’s payment.  Sounds like that should be the ideal scenario right?  Well, it doesn’t always turn out that way.

Paypal Seller Protection for Item Not Received Disputes, Claims, and Chargebacks

Paypal Seller Protection comes into play in only two very specific scenarios.  The first is for buyers who complain that they did not receive the item.  The buyer can file a claim with Paypal online through the Resolution Center, or if they paid with a credit card, they can file a credit card chargeback with their credit card company.  The first requirement to be eligible for Seller Protection is for Paypal to tell you that the transaction is eligible as shown in the pictures above.  The second requirement is to have proof that the item was actually delivered.  If you ship an item and the tracking or Confirmation number does not show the item was delivered correctly, you are not covered by Paypal Seller Protection.  If the total cost of the transaction was $250 or more, Signature Confirmation is Necessary.  The item must have been shipped within 7 days of receipt of payment.  Also, you must have shipped the item to the address the buyer provided in their Paypal payment.  Never ship the item to an address that is not the address listed in the Paypal payment.  A buyer paying with one shipping address and trying to convince the seller to ship to an alternate address is one of the most common scams on eBay.  It doesn’t matter if you provide Paypal with 100 emails showing that the buyer instructed you to ship to a different address.  If the buyer insists, tell them you’ll refund their payment and they can either add the shipping address to their account or add a gift address.  The item must be tangible and shipped through the mail.  Never accept Paypal for items that are picked up in person.  Finally, Seller Protection as explained here. is only available to those accounts with primary addresses in the United States or Powersellers in Canada.  If any of these conditions are not met you, the transaction will not be eligible for Seller Protection.  This all seems fairly reasonable, so what exactly is the problem?

First of all, the seller will win any Item Not Received Paypal dispute/complaint for a transaction under $250 when the tracking/Confirmation number shows the item was delivered to the correct Zip Code.  If the transaction was $250 or more, the seller will win any Paypal dispute or complaint when there is a signature showing the item was delivered to the buyer properly.  If the seller shipped the item correctly and has proper delivery documentation, Paypal Seller Protection will never come into play for a Paypal dispute because Paypal will side with the seller in the first place and the seller will not have to refund the buyer.  If the seller botched the shipment, and either does not have Signature Confirmation for a $250+ transaction, doesn’t have tracking showing delivery, or the item doesn’t show as being delivered, Paypal will grant the claim for the buyer and Paypal Seller Protection will not apply because Paypal already decided that the item was not delivered, and therefore is not eligible for Seller Protection.

If a buyer files a credit card chargeback, Paypal Seller Protection does come into play.  If the item was properly shipped and delivered to Paypal’s satisfaction, Paypal should release the held funds within a few days of the seller receiving notification that the credit card chargeback has occurred.  Why does Paypal grace us with this protection?  Paypal knows that they can give the delivery information to the buyer’s credit card company and the credit card company will find in Paypal’s (the seller’s) favor.  By releasing the held funds, Paypal is simply giving the seller access to money that they would have likely gotten back anyway (Don’t worry, Paypal brings in about 2.5 billion dollars in yearly revenue so they’re good for it).  If a buyer paid with a credit card through a merchant account or other credit card processor, the seller would likely win  an Item Not Received chargeback if they had proof that the item was received anyway.

Paypal Seller Protection for Item Not Received disputes isn’t particularly special.  You will win a Paypal claim or dispute if you shipped the item properly and the item was delivered correctly.  If you didn’t do these things, Paypal Seller Protection wouldn’t cover the transaction anyway.  In the case of a credit card chargeback, Paypal may release the funds earlier than you would have gained access to them had you dealt with the buyer’s credit card company yourself.  Still, the chance that you will receive a credit card chargeback for an item that shows it was delivered is extremely unlikely.  I’ve never received one.  But you never know what Paypal and eBay scammers will come up with next.  Your best course of action against Item Not Received disputes is to ship according to Paypal’s guidelines in the first place.  If you are unfamiliar, check my shipping superguide: Guide Roundup – How to Ship on eBay and Paypal

Paypal Seller Protection for Unauthorized Payment

A chargeback or Paypal reversal for unauthorized payment is one of the most frustrating things that can happen with Paypal because there’s usually nothing a seller could have done to avoid it.  Unauthorized chargebacks and reversals occur in a variety of situations.  The most common is someone accidentally (or fraudulently) giving out their Paypal account information and a third party charging payments to the account.  When the account holder realizes what happened, they contact Paypal and Paypal reverses all of the illegitimate charges.  A stolen credit card can be attached to a Paypal account and when the real owner disputes the charges, any purchases made via Paypal will be part of that.  There are endless scenarios.  Luckily, it’s in Paypal’s best interest to be good at combating credit card and unauthorized payment fraud and, all things considered, they excel at minimizing it.  As technology has improved over the past few years, Paypal’s anti-fraud equipment rivals and probably exceeds everyone from Visa to the Pentagon.  Out of my last 5,000 transactions I haven’t received a single unauthorized payment notice from Paypal.  Since I’m a bit cynical, I assume that there have been some unauthorized payments that Paypal hasn’t let me know about in an attempt to mask the loopholes that still exist, but there’s no proof of that of course.  And even if that is true, I’m happier living in ignorance.

If you do receive a notice that you have received an unauthorized payment, there will be an email that comes along with it asking various questions like what the item was, what address the buyer provided, whether or not they contacted you, how you shipped the item etc.  You need to answer these questions to the best of your ability and reply to the email as soon as possible.  If you delay, Paypal might decide that you didn’t answer in a “timely manner” and deny you Protection.  You’ll also need to provide proof that the item was shipped to the buyer, but delivery isn’t necessary.  If you did not already ship the item, Paypal will not refund you since you still have the item and aren’t out anything.  Since I don’t advocate fraud in any way I won’t tell you to print a shipping label and send a brick to the buyer to qualify for Seller Protection.  Paypal Seller Protection for Unauthorized Payments is one of Paypal’s few remaining positive attributes.  Dealing with an unauthorized payment is still a hassle, but it’s nice to know that it’s in Paypal’s financial interest to limit credit card/unauthorized payment fraud as much as possible.

In Conclusion,

As far as combating unauthorized payments is concerned, there’s never been a better time to be selling on eBay with Paypal.  Unauthorized payments are now rarer than they’ve ever been and Paypal’s anti-fraud computer systems are some of the most advanced in the world.  With that said, many sellers still overestimate exactly what Paypal Seller Protection is and what it covers.  Seller Protection does not cover 99.9% of problems sellers will run into selling on eBay.  There is no protection on credit card chargebacks or disputes for Items Not As Described.  There’s no protection against buyers who return a brick in place of a laptop.  Basically, there’s no protection against anything that isn’t a fraudulent payment that Paypal didn’t notice until it was too late.  The most important thing sellers can do to protect themselves is be aware of the scams that exist and use preventive measures to counter them.  Always ship according to Paypal policy.  Finally, make sure you read the Paypal Seller Protection Policy in its entirety (since it doesn’t cover much it isn’t very long).

There are a variety of free tools available to buyers and sellers who are looking to research who they are dealing with on eBay.

Toolhaus

Toolhaus provides a variety of helpful feedback tools.  The most popular is the negative/neutral feedback search.  If a seller receives a lot of feedback, it can be a pain to click page after eBay, Toolhaus, Goofbay, Sellerdome, Free, Bidding, Tools, Auctionpage looking for relevant buyer complaints.  You can type in a seller’s eBay ID and Toolhaus will list only the neutral and negative feedback a seller has received over the entire history of their account.  There are also other tools available on the site, including item-fb where you can check a seller’s feedback on a particular item.  If you’re looking for a refurbished Xbox 360, you may want to know what feedback a seller has received on the other Xbox 360′s they’ve sold in the past.  There are also a couple of other searches available on the site, including one that will tell you if a seller is in danger of suspension for seller non-performance as well as a blocked-bider check to see if any of your blocked bidders can be removed from your list because they are no longer registered.  This was more useful in the past when eBay allowed sellers to  keep a much shorter list of blocked bidders.

Goofbay

Another handy site with a number of free tools for bidders is Goofbay.  Goofbay provides a feedback checker similar to Toolhaus’s along with several other tools.  The first, “Not in Title Search,” searches eBay for items that don’t include the basic keyword for what the item actually is.  For example, as you learned from my eBay Item Title Guide , all of the words a buyer searches for must be present in your Item Title for the item to show up in their search results.  If a seller lists a Canon Rebel XTi Digital Camera, but forgets to include the word “camera” in their listing, anyone who searches for “Canon camera” will not see the listing, even if it’s what they’re looking for.  When you search for these listings you have a better chance of getting a bargain because fewer bidders will have seen the item.  The “eBay Seller History” search takes a long time to complete for sellers with a lot of transactions.  You can try it, but if a seller has a lot of listings the search probably will never complete unless you give it a long time.  The eBay Best Offer search also seems like a great idea, but it also takes a long time to complete for sellers with a lot of completed transactions.  The eBay bid history search is useful to see what else your bidders are bidding on.  A similar search is available from eBay, but Goofbay includes the item’s gallery picture for easier viewing.  The “eBay Price Finer” and “eBay Most Popular” searches are entirely worthless as far as I can tell, but you can give them a shot if you like.

Sellerdome

Finally, Sellerdome provides a list of the top eBay sellers worldwide by feedback score.  If you want to purchase an item from a professional eBay seller, this is a good place to start looking.  It can also be interesting to search sellers by userID to see if they’re in the top 100,000 eBay sellers.  If they are, Sellerdome breaks down their feedback scores, what category they sell in, and links to their eBay items or store.  The search box is located at the top right of the page.

These are just a few of the popular tools available free to interested buyers and sellers on eBay.  If you have another you think would be helpful, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list.

What is the Promotion and Why is it Terrible?

The eBay fee promotion announced today is one of the most bizarre I have ever seen.  There have been plenty of bad promotions in the past, but this one takes the cake.  Starting June 16, 2009, EBay is offering sellers 5 free insertion fees every 30 days when they use the regular Sell Your Item form on eBay.com.  If you use a third-party listing solution like Auctiva, then you will not be able to participate in this promotion unless you list your first 5 items via the eBay site.  We know eBay doesn’t give anything away for free, so what’s the catch?  Oh, it’s a doozy.

The final value fee on these “free” listings is 8.75% regardless of what the item sells for.  Normally, eBay collects 8.75% of the first $25, 3.5% of the amount between $25.01-$1,000, and 1.5% of the amount above $1,000.  Let’s say you started a listing today at 99 cents and it sold for $100.  The insertion fee is 15 cents.  The final value fee breakdown would be $2.19 for the first $25 ($25 x .0875) + $2.63 for the remaining $75 ($75 x .035) + .15 insertion fee for a total of $4.97 or 4.97% of the selling price in total fees.  With this “promotion,” the final value fee of your “free” listing on June 16 would be $8.75 ($100 x .0875) or 8.75% of the selling price in total fees.  To save the 15 cent insertion fee, you pay eBay almost $4 more in final value fees.  Even if you started the listing at $100 and the insertion fee jumped to $2, you would still be paying eBay an additional $2 in total fees.  It’s like McDonald’s running a promotion for free hamburgers and then sending a bill for $10 a week later.  Like always, eBay is trying to trick sellers into thinking they’re doing them a favor, when in reality they’re trying to gouge unsuspecting people into paying more in fees.

How Do I Make This Whacky Promotion Work for Me?

It’s going to be hard for most sellers.  The final value fee you pay eBay on these “free” listings is 8.75% of the winning bid, or $20, whichever is lower.  The only way you could come out on top of this promotion is if you sold items where the insertion and final value fee would exceed $20 under normal conditions.  If you start your listings at 99 cents, the selling price of the item would have to exceed $530 (15 cent insertion fee + $19.87 final value fee = $20.02) in order to save money on fees.  If you started the listing at $200, your item would have to sell for $450 to save money on fees ($3 insertion fee+ $17.07 final value fee = $20.07).  This is going to be difficult for a lot of sellers who don’t have a lot of $1000 items laying around that they’re willing to risk selling on eBay.  The regular final value fee is 8.75% up to $25 which is the same as the promotional rate.  My suggestion would be to find 5 items that you think won’t sell for more than $25 and list those as your 5 “free” listings.  This way, you’ll end up paying the same amount in final value fees and you’ll save a whopping 15 or so cents per listing. Remember though, if the item sells for more than $25 you’re actually losing money in fees!  Otherwise, items that don’t sell still count towards the 5 free listings.  You could find 5 items that you know won’t sell for the price you list them at and do it that way. Bidders might think you’re crazy trying to sell a blank DVD-R for $1,000 though.  Not really worth the hassle is it?

This is another example of eBay using “promotions” and supposed “fee discounts” in an attempt to confuse sellers into paying higher fees.  The headline sounds great, but the catch always costs unsuspecting sellers a great deal of money.  Do your research and calculate what your fees would be with a fee calculator like eBay and Paypal Fee Calculator.  Be careful with this promotion.

The price you decide to start your eBay auction at will greatly affect the number of views, bids, and most importantly the final selling price of your item.  There are a variety of price point strategies sellers use to try to get the highest price possible.   When selling at auction, you can set your starting price well below what you determine the value of the item is, set it at the minimum price you are willing to accept for the item, set a low starting price with a reserve, or set a low starting price with a “Buy It Now” attached.   The best strategy to employ will depend on a number of factors including what kind of items you sell, how comfortable you are selling on eBay,  how much you’re willing to pay in fees, and whether or not you want to guarantee the item will sell.

Do Your Due Diligence By Searching Completed Listings

The most important aspect of setting a starting price is finding out what the item has sold for in the past.  Chances are that whatever you’re selling has been sold on eBay before, and if it hasn’t, then there are similar items out there.  If you are unsure of how to check completed listings, check my Item Title Guide for complete instructions or on eBay.  You can find out what the seller’s starting price was by clicking “Show” after “Listing and payment details.”

This shows you the starting price as well as the duration of the listing and what day and time the listing ended.  These are also important details to take into consideration and I’ll be discussing them in a future article.  Take note of the amount of bids and scroll down to the end of the listing and see if there is a visitor counter.  This will give you an indication of how popular the item is with bidders.

Start Low, Sell High

Items with low starting prices will almost always receive more views and bids than auctions with high starting prices.  Buyers on eBay are looking for a bargain and a low starting bid will attract the most bargain hunters as well as serious bidders looking to win the auction.  Buyers are also more likely to “watch” your item if the current price is low, because the item is still in their price range and they’re willing to bid.  The goal is to get as many different bidders as possible bidding on your item.  There have been numerous studies done on the psychology of auctions.  When bidders are bidding against each other, they want to “win” the auction by bidding higher and higher amounts.  The bidders’ emotions get the best of them and they are willing to bid more than they were planning to so they aren’t “losers.”  This is why it’s important to get more casual bidders bidding as well.  More often than not, a bidder who is only casually interested in an item can drive the price up substantially.  In addition, items with low starting prices receive more bids than those with higher prices.  This makes the item seem more valuable and in-demand than higher priced items that have not yet received a bid.  When bidders see an item without a bid, they assume that there is something wrong with the item or other people don’t want it.  No one wants something no one else wants, which makes it harder to sell an item with a higher starting price.  A low starting price also helps guarantee the item will sell.  If you want to be rid of whatever you’re selling or need the cash, your best bet is to start the item at a lower price.  Your item will be much more likely to sell and you won’t have to keep paying eBay fees to relist the item.

The key to deciding if you want to set a low starting bid is figuring out if the item is in high demand.  In order for the price to increase significantly, there must be a number of bidders competing to purchase the item.  When you searched for completed listings did you notice a lot of listings?  When you search active listings are there a lot of items listed and a lot of bids on those items?  Are the prices near what you were expecting to be able to get for the item?   If the answer is yes, then you have an item that is likely to receive a lot of interested buyers and you have a better chance of them getting into a bidding war that will drive the price higher.  If you’re selling antiques, collectibles, or something else that might not draw the same kind of attention, you probably don’t want to start the listing at such a low price.  The problem with starting items at low prices is that they can also end at low prices if you don’t get enough interested bidders.  If you only end up with one interested bidder, they may have entered a maximum bid much higher than the item sold for, but because no one challenged them they got the item for the lowest price possible.  This is one of the worst things that can happen to a seller on eBay, so figuring out what the demand is on the item you’re selling is of the utmost importance.

If you decide to set your starting price well below the value of the item, I suggest setting it at 99 cents rather than a higher minimum.  EBay Insertion Fees are based on the starting price of the auction.  If you expect your item to receive a lot of bids and the price to increase significantly then there is no reason to set a higher price.  You’ll end up paying more in fees, fewer bidders will click the listing, and your high priced item will look odd sitting at $25 with no bids.

Start Your Listing at the Lowest Price at Which You’re Willing to Part With it

The second common pricing strategy is to set the price at or around the minimum price you are willing to accept for the item.  This guarantees that your item will sell for the minimum amount you are willing to receive or it will end without a sale and you’ll have the opportunity to relist it or reevaluate your price point.  This method is best for new sellers who may not be familiar with all of the tools necessary to bring in a lot of interested bidders.  It also works well for sellers who aren’t sure how many bidders will be interested in the item.  If your listing lacks pictures or a clear description then you may also want to raise your starting price as fewer buyers will be interested in a poorly constructed listing.  If you have doubts about your listing or description, you may not want to risk bidders passing over your item, even if it’s otherwise popular.  If this is the case, keep reading AuctionCope ^_^  Finally, eBay is largely “hit or miss,” even when you think you’re doing everything right.  Even if your listing generates a ton of interest, the bidders might not be there when it comes time for the auction to end.  For this reason, setting a higher minimum price is a smart choice if you aren’t willing to risk putting the price in the bidders’ hands.

The downside of this pricing strategy is that bidders are less likely to bid on the item, which means they probably won’t be present at the crucial last minute of bidding.  On average, auctions that start at low starting prices end higher than those auctions that start with a higher starting price.  Nonetheless, getting $100 for your item instead of $110 is better than the auction ending at 99 cents because you only received one bid due to some mistake in the listing.

When Should I Include a Reserve Price?

The third common auction strategy is to list with a low starting price, but include a higher reserve price <a href=” http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/reserve.html”>Reserve Price</a>.  The reserve price represents the lowest price at which you’re willing to sell an item.  If an item has a reserve price, it shows up in a buyer’s search results in red next to the current price.  When entering a bid, potential bidders will see that there is a reserve price, but that price will not be shown.  Once the reserve price is met, there will be no indication in the listing that there ever was a reserve included in the listing.  If the reserve price is not met, you are under no obligation to sell the item for the lower price.  When should a reserve be used?  Never.  The only reason reserve auctions exist on eBay is because they’re a cash cow.  First, your insertion fee is based on the reserve price, not on what you start the auction at.  If you’re selling your Xbox 360 with a reserve price of $200 and a starting price of 99 cents, you pay the fee as though the starting price is $200.  Second, there is an additional fee of $2 for reserves under $200 and 1% of the selling price of the item for reserves above $2, up to a $50 fee.  You used to get the reserve fee back if your item sold, but that is no longer the case.  Third, if your item doesn’t sell for the reserve price, eBay will charge you to list the item again.  Fourth, a high reserve means a higher final value fee for eBay.  See a pattern here?  Reserve price auctions are ridiculously expensive, and only get more expensive as you’re forced to relist the item because no one was interested in bidding.  Bidders aren’t interested in bidding on items with a reserve price because there’s no guarantee that the item will sell for the price they’ve entered, even if they’re the highest bidder.  Bidders don’t want to waste their time bidding on an auction with a mysterious reserve price when there are likely a great number of items they can bid on for much less.  EBay will try to convince you that an item with a high reserve and a low starting price is more attractive to bidders than one with a high starting price.  Don’t be fooled.  EBay bidders aren’t interested in the hassle of dealing with reserve price auctions.  The only reason reserve price is still an option is because it nets eBay so much revenue.

Should I Add a Buy It Now to My Auction?

The “Buy It Now” feature on eBay is handy in a number of situations.  If you have the minimum feedback requirement of 5 and accept Paypal, or 10 and don’t accept Paypal, you can choose to include a Buy It Now price on your auction.  This gives buyers the opportunity to purchase an item immediately without risking the price going higher than the Buy It Now or having to wait for a long auction to end.  The downside of the Buy It Now is that it’s visible to buyers for an uncertain amount of time.  In the past, the Buy It Now price disappeared immediately after a bid was placed.  EBay since changed that policy because too often a bidder would bid the lowest amount possible in order to remove the Buy It Now and have the opportunity to get the item for much less.  Now, once an item is bid up to about half of the Buy It Now price, the Buy It Now usually disappears.  If the current price doesn’t approach the Buy It Now price, the Buy It now disappears a couple of hours before the auction ends.  This isn’t always true though, as sometimes the Buy It Now option will remain even after the item is bid up near the Buy It Now price and sometimes it disappears long before an auction is due to end.

Buy It Now fees are relatively inexpensive, maxing out at 25 cents for Buy It Nows over $50.  There are a few Buy It Now strategies sellers use and several things to consider when setting a Buy It Now Price.  First, you have to decide if you want to set a Buy It Now price that a bidder is likely to use or if you want to set the Buy It Now price much higher in order to make bidders think that the item is worth more.  Let’s say you’re selling an Xbox 360 and a fair price for it based on your research is $200.  If you have a Buy It Now price of $200, bidders who see that price are not going to bid more than $200 and will likely bid significantly less in order to get a “bargain.”  This means that if no one takes you up on your Buy It Now price that the price you ultimately get for the Xbox will be less than the Buy It Now price.  If the Buy It Now price disappears early on in the listing, then you have a better chance of receiving $200 or more for the Xbox, but you’ve wasted the Buy It Now fee.  If you list the Xbox with a Buy It Now of $400, you’re not likely to get anyone to purchase it for that price, but it may entice bidders who see it to bid more, thinking that $200 is a great deal compared to the $400 original asking price.  On the other hand, a price that is too absurd will make bidders think you’re crazy and potentially less likely to bid.  The third way I don’t recommend.  Some sellers will list with a starting price of $199 and a $200 Buy It Now.  They do this in order to get their listing in search results of buyers who list only auctions and only Buy It Now listings.  I don’t recommend doing this because bidders who are looking for auctions with low prices aren’t going to be interested in bidding a high amount.  Bidders looking for a Buy It Now of $200 might be interested, but you may as well have sold the item as a Fixed Price listing instead.  The final value fees may be higher for Fixed Price listings, but relisting fees add up too when your item doesn’t sell for the high auction or Buy It Now price.  Plus, if you have more than one Xbox 360 you can use a multiple quantity listing in order to get <a href=”http://www.auctioncope.com/guide/19″>Higher Best Match Results</a>.

When selling popular items, listing with a 99 cent starting price and a moderately high Buy It Now is usually your best bet.  This combination will get the most bidders interested in your item and give you an opportunity to sell the item for a premium price.  If you’re unsure of whether or not a lot of bidders will be interested in your item or otherwise concerned about what the final price of the auction will be, it may be wise to start the auction around the lowest price you’re willing to accept for the item.  Reserve price auctions are too expensive and make bidders much less likely to click your listing, let alone bid.  It’s wiser as well as cheaper to start the auction bidding at what you would have set as the reserve price.  Do your research and pay attention to what successful sellers on eBay are doing and you should be able to emulate their success.

You may also be interested in these guides: Utilizing USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes For Your eBay Business and The Perils of International Shipping With eBay and Paypal – A Guide to Successful Shipping Practices

Postal rates increased today for many services provided by the USPS (United States Postal Service).  Luckily, the May postage increase should not cause too much pain for most eBay sellers.  Priority and Express Mail prices won’t change.  The cost of  Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes also stay the same.  The cost to ship a 1 ounce letter increases from 42 cents to 44 cents, but the cost to ship each additional ounce remains 17 cents.  The cost to ship large envelopes and packages First Class also increase 5 cents and 3 cents respectively.  The cost of First Class International has increased (But you should never ship this way on eBay ).  The cost of Delivery Confirmation is increasing, but is still free when you print the label online and ship via Priority Mail.  At the Post Office, Delivery Confirmation costs 5 cents more – 70 cents for Priority and 80 cents for First Class.  When printing online, the cost of Delivery Confirmation on First Class parcels increases 1 cent to 19 cents.  The cost of Signature Confirmation is increasing 15 cents.  When the shipping label is printed online the cost is $1.95 and at the Post Office it costs $2.35.  The cost for various other services also increase up to around 20 cents.  If you would like to find out how much a particular service has increased, you can view the January 2009 Prices and compare them with the May 2009 Price List.

Priority and Express Mail pricing should change again next January.

If you found this guide helpful, check out the site index by clicking here for 75+ more guides including how to get around eBay selling limits, enabling PayPal’s merchant rate to save money on fees, and raising your auction and fixed price visibility in best match search.