Your eBay reputation is everything you are on eBay – without it, you’re nothing. Your reputation is worth as much as every sale you will ever make.

If you’ve ever bought anything on eBay (and the chances are you have), then think about your own behaviour. Buying from a seller with a low feedback rating makes you feel a little nervous and insecure, while buying from a PowerSeller with their reputation in the thousands doesn’t require any thought or fear – it feels just like buying from a shop.

A Bad Reputation Will Lose You Sales.

So you’ve decided that you want to get started as a seller on eBay. There are a few things that you really need to know before you go and throw yourself in at the deep end.

What to Sell.

First off, you need to know what it is you’re going to sell: what’s your speciality? You’ll do far better on eBay if you become a great source for certain kind of products, as people who are interested in those products will come back to you again and again. You won’t get any loyalty or real reputation if you just sell rubbish at random.

While you can sell most things on eBay, quite a few things are banned. If you try to sell any of these things then eBay will remove your auction and all bids will be void.

Here is eBay’s full list of prohibited or questionable items:

Do you have trouble sometimes understanding when people talk about eBay? Don’t worry, some of the jargon is really obscure, and you can’t be expected to understand it until someone’s told you what it means.

Here’s a little list of some of the most useful lingo to know, but you don’t need to memorise it – even the most common jargon is only used relatively rarely.

Words.

Have you ever attended an auction before?  The auctioneer is usually some older man who speaks faster than the speed of light but all of the bidders seem to understand him.  In the real world, we auction off many things: farm animals, household goods, art, and antiques to name a few.  But, hardly ever will you see several different categories of items auctioned off at the same time.

That is you wouldn’t see that in the actual world, but cyberspace is a different arena all together.  There is no auctioneer wowing you with his linguistic talents but the amazing thing is that you can find so many items for sale from so many different sources at one time.

If you are thinking about selling products on an online auction site, you are heading in a great direction.  Auction sites have made some people very rich indeed.  But, before you can sell those products, you have to find an auction site that will be the best fit for you.

All online auction sites are not the same.  Some mimic others on the outside, but when it comes to deeper things, they fall flat.  Avoid getting pigeonholed into a site that does nothing to promote your products or help you to succeed in your endeavor.  Here are a few suggestions for finding that site.

It’s surprisingly simple to get started posting your very first auction on eBay. Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Open an eBay seller’s account.

If you’ve bought things on eBay, then you already have an account – just log in with it and click ‘Sell’ in the toolbar at the top of the page, then click ‘Create a seller’s account’. If you’ve never used eBay before, then you’ll need to open an account first using the ‘register’ link underneath the toolbar, and then click ‘Sell’ and ‘Create a seller’s account’. The eBay site will then guide you through the process. For security, this may involve giving card details and bank information.

If you’ve ever read an article about eBay, you will have seen the kinds of incomes people make – it isn’t unusual to hear of people making thousands of dollars per month on eBay.

Next time you’re on eBay, take a look at how many PowerSellers there are: you’ll find quite a few. Now consider that every single one of one of them must be making at least $1,000 per month, as that’s eBay’s requirement for becoming a PowerSeller. Silver PowerSellers make at least $3,000 each month, while Gold PowerSellers make more than $10,000, and the Platinum level is $25,000. The top ranking is Titanium PowerSeller, and to qualify you must make at least $150,000 in sales every month!

PayPal and eBay were made for each other – and now that eBay own PayPal, using them together is getting even easier.

What is PayPal?

People with PayPal accounts can send money to each other securely online. You can deposit money in a PayPal account from a bank account or a credit card, and withdraw money to your bank account. It is the most common way of paying on eBay, as well as being in widespread use on the rest of the Internet.

Opening a PayPal Account.