When you buy things on eBay, you pay the seller before they send you anything. This means that you, as a buyer, are vulnerable to all sorts of problems. You might not get the items you have paid for, or they might be damaged or faulty. Luckily, you have two very important rights when you buy on eBay.

The Right to Receive Your Item.

So youve got the buyer in front of your auction, and theyve read the description. Theyre must be interested, or they wouldnt be looking but just how can you push them over that line and make them leave a bid? Read on for some tips.

Improve your picture: In all that description writing, you might have missed the vital importance of your items picture. A picture with bad lighting or an intrusive background looks amateurish and wont make anyone want to buy from you.

When you sell on eBay, its important to know how to take advantage of the kinds of markets you encounter in the different seasons. As a rule, the summer months are slow and the winter period is fast, but theres more to it than that.

It Depends What Youre Selling.

You may have noticed that many sellers list PayPal as the only payment option they accept they simply cant be bothered cashing cheques and money orders, never mind any of the other strange ways some people want to pay. Like all things in life, though, PayPal has its advantages and disadvantages. Lets take a look at what PayPal can do for you, and what it cant.

The Disadvantages.

Are you finding that auction after auction fails to attract any bidders or buyers? It happens to the best of us sometimes take a good look at these things to see if any of them could be making your bidders avoid you.

The starting price was too high: People dont want to have to make a high bid before anyone else has you should always start your auctions low and let the bidders bid them up.

So you have a question? Has something gone very wrong and you dont know what to do? Well, fair enough. Here are the questions that I hear all the time from buyers.

Does eBay have a Customer Service Department I Can Phone?

Have you noticed that whenever you open a newspaper, watch the TV or have a conversation, people seem to be talking about eBay? If youve never used it and youve no idea what its all about, then the chances are that youre starting to feel a little left out. But dont worry! This email contains everything you need to know about the basics of bidding and buying on eBay.

So What is eBay?

In fact, you might not even have heard of eBay stores. Read on to find out what youve been missing.

eBay stores come at three levels: Basic for $15.95 per month, Featured for $49.95 per month or Anchor for $499.95 per month (yes, that is typed correctly: almost $500). The best place to start out is with Basic (you can even get a months free trial), but if you like what you find then you should upgrade to Featured quickly, simply because it has so many extra features. Note that you must have a feedback rating of at least 20 before you can get an eBay store.

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

If youve 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 doesnt require any thought or fear it feels just like buying from a shop.

A Bad Reputation Will Lose You Sales.

Its surprisingly simple to get started posting your very first auction on eBay. Heres what you need to do.

Step 1: Open an eBay sellers account.