Keep your auction private

Posted by Offer Tsuriel on February 4, 2010

Although you won’t want to make all of your auctions private, don’t hesitate to use the private auction listing options with some of your listings. The high-priced items are good candidates for private auctions as are collectibles in highly competitive markets. This may seem like count erintuitive advice based solely on research numbers. Over 76 percent of the respondents to a recent survey by AuctionBytes claimed they had never used eBay’s private auction option as a seller. Nearly 65 percent of them said they’d be less likely to bid on an item that was put up as a private auction. So why would you want to alienate potentially two-third s of your likely customer basel
Private auctions protect your bidders and your busmess. They protect your bidders, because no one can see who is participating in the auction. That doesn’t matter much if you’re selling something for $24.95, but what if you’re expecting to get $2,500 for yo ur item ? Or $25,000′ By keeping your bidders’ identities private, you’re protecting the ones who come to eBay with a good deal of disposable income and an interest in buying. If you offer them privacy, unscrupulous sellers won’t be able to harvest their lIser names and approach them with bogus offers of their own.
You’re also protecting your business at the same time you’re keeping the names of your bidders private from the criminals who want to prey upon them. Once a criminal knows who’s bidding on your expensive item, he can approach your highest bidder or your underbidder and claim that you’re selling a counterfeit. The result is that you’ll lose your cllstomers and the trust you’ve built by all of you r honest efforts. You’ll find some of your bidders are withdrawing their bids and suffering the consequences rather than risk the chance of spending a princely slim on something they no longer believe in. A cllstomer you lose to this kind of scam is one who will be difficult to regain.

Usefull tips:

• If you decide to use a pnvate auction, include an information box that explains to your bidders why your auction is private. You want to keep the potential criminals and scammers at bay, but you want your customers to know that you have good honest reasons for keeping their identities hidden.
• Remind your bidders that not only are you protecting them from potential scammers, but you’re also protecting them from revealing too much about their shopping habits. The markets most likely served by private auctions are subsets of eBay at large. Bidders are more likely to recognize each other, because they’re interested in similar items in a relatively small market. By keeping your auctions private, you let your bidders operate without revealing their current interests to your competitors.
• When using private auctions, be sure to encourage bidders to contact you via e-mail, or even through a phone call, to discuss any concerns. As in all things eBay, communication is often the kcy to mitigating suspicion and developing good customer service.
• Keep offering private auctions when they’re appropriate. Across the whole of eBay, it may take time before the average bidder recognizes the advantages of private auctions, but that learning curve will be much smaller in the niche markets. You’ll be one of the sellers helping to bring about the change in perception necessary to make private auctions more acceptable, as your bidders learn how much more protection they receive from such sales.

Don’t assume it’s fraud

Posted by Offer Tsuriel on January 28, 2010

You must be thinking, “What, are they crazyl” Although we just assaulted you with all the ways there are to get robbed , we mean it. Don’t jump to conclusions. Sometimes a situation isn’t fraud so
much as it is incompetence. No one wins if we all enter this arena with the attitude that I’m going to get you before you can get me! So, when you think something may be fraud, be smart and careful, but don’t take to the bunkers right away.

“Some of the biggest hits we’ve taken from buyers were not fraud . We shipped the order, for example, and the buyer claimed he never received it. It felt like fraud at the time, but it was true,” notes blueberryboutique’s David Yaskulka. There’s a fine line between providing excellent customer service and being ripped off.  You’ll have to hone yo ur instincts in order to tell the difference, and in the meantime, you may have to give more than yo u’d like. No one wants to feel robbed, but it happens to all of us at one time or another.

The same can be true of other sellers taking your listing details. Of course, you know that’s wrong, but as surprising as it may seem, some inexperienced sellers don’t.

I found others were stealing the text and pictures from my listings,

reported PowerSeller beachcombers!

I address this through e-mail. I explain to them that the material is copyrighted and remind them that eBay will end the listing if they have to and ban tbem from the service if they continue. I tell tbem I’ll let it go this time, but if it happens again, I’ll have to report them.

Then she adds the seller to her favorites and checks back on them for a few weeks to make sure they’ve learned from their mistake. She’s found that usually works, because these are not really criminals, tbey’re just eBay sellers who don’t know better. Now she’s helped someone advance in her business instead of making her a criminal.

Usefull Tips:

• Lengthen your fuse. Once you know you’ ll have to deal with fraud and you won’ t let others defraud you with impunity, you don’ t have to jump every time you face a problem. Sometimes a disgruntled buyer is disgruntled legitimately, and you’ll turn a bad situation into a good one, if you take a deep breath, keep your cool, and gather your facts. Then you’ ll be ready to address the issue, and you’re likely to turn a disgruntled buyer into a loyal customer who trusts you and comes back to buy from you again.

• Remember tbat you’re a business owner now. “Every store owner in the bricks-and-mortar world knows to expect a certain percentage of loss every year through fraud,” noted Drew of PowerSeller whitemountaintrading. “It’s built into the business plan. eBay sellers need to do the same. I build a percentage into my yearly outlook to cover myself for fraud. I’ve never come close to reaching it.” Drew has a good point. If it ’s not possible to run a business without having some degree of loss through fraud and theft, why would you expect your eBay business to be any different?
• Know your category. Spend enough time in your category to know the major players. Watch to see who is new and who may need some education in manners and good practices. When you know the neighborhood well, you’re more likely to be an effective member of the neighborhood watch team.
• Audit your auctions. Drew of whitemountaintrading audits his auctions twice a day. He enters all of his listings into eBay’s search features. He searches by brand as well as by item type. Then he can see who his competitors are and what they’re doing. Not only does this keep him up to date on potential fraudsters, but it also keeps him right in the forefrollt of his competition.
• Watch for one-day auctions. Sometimes a one-day auction can be a great way to turn something over quickly, but a one-day auction can also be a way for a criminal to make a quick strike and be gone before anyone notices. When you know your category, you’ll learn to recognize suspiciouis one-day auctions, those offering very high-priced items, for example. If a one-day auction is set for Friday through Sunday, that can also be a warning. A scam seller will be on and off the site before anyone at eBay could possibly be available to shut the auction down . Be especially vigilant for one-day auctions that require Western Union payments or wire transfers. There really is no reason for these payment restrictions, except that they’ re impossible for the buyer to recover after the fact.