Top Ten eBay Selling Mistakes

I enjoy selling on eBay but I have been burned a few times and I have occasionally lost money on my auctions. Please learn from my eBay mishaps:

1. Be careful about shipping outside the United States (if something gets lost in the mail, the eBay auction bidder is going to blame you)
2. Purchase shipping insurance for anything that you ship over $25.00 (share the cost with your auction winner)
3. Get a tracking number for everything that you ship (USPS Priority Mail is a great bargain)
4. Package fragile items securely (assume they will be dropped en route)
5. No matter how pressed you are for time, please do not pay shipping stores to package your eBay auction items for you (they do a great job but charge a lot)
6. Don't ship to anybody outside the United States who is not PayPal verified
7. Do not accept PayPal payments from anybody who does not have any eBay feedback (or who has a lot of negative eBay feedbacks)
8. Do not opt for eBay's "Buy it Now" option (you pay extra for that and eBayers rarely go for it)
9. Do not list things on eBay for your "computer shy" friends unless they fully understand that the final auction bid may be less than the amount they think is "fair" (put this in writing and make them read it aloud).
10. Beware of PayPal chargebacks