Here are four essential tips to selling safely on ebay without losing money to fraud:

1. Should I accept checks? No. Just about every bank will charge you $20 if you accept a bounced check, and you will probably never see that money again. If you do accept a check, make sure to wait a week to find out if the check bounces or not.

Some businesses would lose money if they didn't accept checks, but I would refuse them out of principle. I do not agree with the fact that a bank can punish someone for cashing a check.

2. Should I accept PayPal payments? Unfortunately this is a must on ebay. There are bad things about paypal, but almost everyone wants to pay with PayPal. If you use PayPal, you must (a) require a confirmed address in the USA, and (b) get delivery confirmation for packages you send.

Any credit card payments without a confirmed address could be fraudulant and you could lose the money. If you use PayPal you must buy delivery confirmation for any package you send. If you don't, buyers can complain that they never got the item and will probably get their money back from you.

3. Should I allow bidders outside the USA? There are a lot of problems with allowing bidders from outside the USA, but I would lose too much business if I rejected them. If you allow foreign bidders, you shouldn't let them pay using PayPal. If you do, they will be able to complain to PayPal to get their money back and there is nothing you can do about it. Of course, bidders outside the USA will not appreciate that they can't pay using PayPal and it is not unusual for them to refuse to pay.

4. Should I promote my item using ebay? Ebay has special ways to promote your item such as hilighting, bold, and featuring your item. I do not recommend these services. If someone wins your item and refuses to pay, you will lose any money you spent on promotions. Even if someone uses a fraudulant ebay account to win your item, ebay will still refuse to give a refund.