Building Feedback on eBay
If you are thinking about becoming an eBay seller, I am here to tell you that you can make a living just selling on eBay! Now common sense tells you not to quit your job just because I said that, but if your goal is to be a Stay at Home Mom, and you are playing around in your head that eBay might be the answer, what are you waiting for? Bite the bullet! Start an eBay account and get busy. List things that you no longer need around the house. List clothes that your kids have outgrown. Get your husband involved. Does he have stuff he no longer needs? Ask your family, friends, neighbors to donate their junk. You would be surprised at what sells on eBay. It is important to get a feel for eBay and there is no easier way than to start with what you already have laying around. Once you've set up an account, it's time to build your feedback. As a seller, your feedback is your reputation. If you get a lot of negative or neutral feedback, a buyer is going to pass you by. To make sure you keep a good feedback rating, represent your product accurately, communicate well, and ship fast. If the buyer has a problem, solve it for them and in a timely manner.
As a new seller you are starting out with zero as your feedback score. Buyers might pass you by for this reason alone. There are several ways to build your feedback: 1. Gather up things around your house and sell them for cheap. A buyer will not think twice about paying a few dollars for an item even if you don't have any feedback. 2. Buy several items from other sellers. I bought used books. They were cheap and it helped build my feedback score. Some buyers won't look at whether you got your score from sellers or buyers, they just look at the overall score. 3. Buy dollar items at local stores or online and starting the bids off at $.99 with free shipping. This is certainly a way to build your feedback, but please be aware that you are going to lose money if your item sell for $.99 shipped. Think of it as an investment. My Daddy has told me my entire life you have to spend money to make money. Basically here, you are buying your feedback while also getting experience on how to pack and ship items as well as how much shipping actually costs.
It's not a bad strategy to 'buy' feedback. It just depends on how much you are willing to invest. I am an established seller but I do have some items that bring very minimal profit. I sell them as such because it is easy positive feedback. Making sure your metrics are good with eBay is really important. Even though negative and neutral feedback no longer affect a seller's performance status, most buyers look at your feedback score and decide from there whether or not to buy from you. It IS important.
When you are building your eBay account it's not important to make money. Not to begin with. Just get the selling going, offer great service, build feedback and push for limit raises. Most new accounts only get 10 listings per month. The better you do in that first month, the more chance eBay will recognize you as a serious seller. For more information on eBay and how they limit beginning seller accounts, take a look at Limits on eBay sellers.
I want to insert here that even though you need feedback, never mention feedback to your buyers. Don't ask for it, don't beg for it, don't even whisper it. It's bad business. You never want to appear more concerned about feedback than you are about selling an item to your buyer.
How have you built your feedback? Comment and let me know other ideas.
