Jumpstarting your feedback- 50 in 30!  If you are already a well established eBay seller with a level of feedback sufficient to make visitors to your auctions “feel” comfortable with you as an eBay seller, feel free to skip this section. For the rest of the class, read on, as there will be homework.

     We are about to delve into a bit of eBay 101. By now, you are well aware that eBay’s feedback system amounts to your on-line report card. Easily viewed by the world at large, you will live or die by your on-line reputation. A 2005 edition of Entrepreneur Magazine, devoted almost exclusively to helping businesses embrace eBay, carried an interesting comment. Entrepreneur Magazine noted that most eBay sellers protect their feedback more aggressively than they protect their inventory. Though not the only criteria buyers use to decide on a merchant, it is by far the most important as folks will use it to qualify you as a seller. A high feedback seller with an abundance of recent negative feedbacks will predictably see a dramatic decrease in sales.

     Assuming you are either relatively new to eBay or are in the process of setting up a second ebay ID, must you wait for dozens of sales to start to build your eBay feedback? I think not! Though not a new or innovative technique, I am going to outline a method for taking the fast track to higher feedback. 

     You’ve seen by now that I prefer to present real-world information and then follow up with the exact steps you need to take to implement the information. Rest easy as we won’t deviate here. Most business owners I speak with over the course of a day will think that spending $100.00 on building a strong business reputation would be deemed a “small change” investment. In other words, it’s money well spent. How these same business owners balk when I suggest going on an eBay buying spree. The process is simple. Very much like a business owner may allocate advertising dollars for a newspaper ad, a yellow pages ad, or even a direct mail campaign, I am asking that you set aside a fixed budget for a one-time eBay feedback building initiative. For the sake of example, I will use a flat $100 investment to best illustrate this process.

   The process is easy and not particularly time consuming.  It may even be fun! Head on over to the eBay website and search under ANY global search term that comes to mind. Search terms like “pet,” “clothing,” “fashion” and the like are good starting points. You need not stay within the confines of your own industry. The only goal here is to deliver an extremely large list of auctions to cull through.

     Once you’ve pulled up your 14,000 matches, give or take a few thousand, set your list view to show auctions by price. You’ll find hundreds of penny auctions to sort through.

 WINNING BIDDER TIP! Windows users can save lots of time by simply right mouse clicking the auction they want to view. This will leave the original list intact as well as save you the time of recreating your master list. Simply click the “open link in new window” option from the drop-down menu.

Here’s where it gets fun. Start buying!  You’ll find thousands of items to bid on. It’s important to make note of a few very important points before you bid, however.

     First up, double check the shipping costs for your intended purchase. Many sellers will list items at a penny and subsequently charge $10.00 or more for shipping costs. These sellers are making 100% of their profits on the shipping charges alone. In many cases, sellers let the actual product sell beneath cost as they make up the money on the back-end. A one-cent purchase with an associated $10.00 shipping cost is not a one-cent purchase.  You will have just spent $10.01. The goal is not the acquisition of merchandise, but rather, the creation of feedback. We want to maximize the allocated one hundred dollar investment in feedback.  Also, keep in mind that your commitment to buy is a legally binding contract.  It’s always wise to ask questions before you click to complete the sale.

     eBay has very stringent and aggressively enforced policies that specifically do not allow the sale of feedback. Such is the value eBay places on it’s own internal monitoring. In fact, sellers cannot even use the word feedback in their listings. I discovered this quite by accident sometime in 2004.  My auction subtitle included a short notation asking bidders to “view my 100% positive feedback before you buy.” My intent was to do nothing more than ask my own winning bidders to take a good look at what others had said about my services.  Little did I know at the time that there were folks out there trying to sell feedback.  Needless to say, eBay closed that loophole very quickly. If eBay suspects that a seller is selling feedback, that seller can be permanently banned from eBay.  The real truth is that many sellers have gone underground with this practice, offering low cost auctions with no shipping costs. When an auction has an appearance like this, it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s been listed to, in part, satisfy the feedback market out there.

     WINNING BIDDER RECOMMENDATION!  Also critical to note, I strongly recommend not deviating in any way, shape or from eBay’s policies. Let’s look at the best reason first- it’s just wrong. I have become a fierce advocate of playing well with others and playing by the rules.  eBay is a legitimate business entity with a global responsibility to their clients. (i.e. folks like you and I). Not only are practices like taking sales for auction items off eBay, and abusing the feedback system wrong, they are a slap in the face to the very opportunity that eBay creates. eBay is consistently my largest source of new clients. If a client comes to me looking to purchase a service that I have listed on eBay, they MUST go directly through eBay’s system for their first order.  No exceptions. It is simply bad business to do anything that will compromise your integrity as an eBay merchant.

     After you’ve identified the qualifying auction, simply complete the auction. Make it a habit to run a quick eye over the feedback of the seller beforehand to watch for any red flags prior to placing your bid. In an effort to save time, always look for auctions that have a Buy It Now option lest you invest your limited time resources in the monitoring of 100 or more ongoing auctions.

     Once you have made your purchase, I strongly recommend that you make an instant payment to the seller. The best time to do this is immediately after the auction closes with your purchase. You are much more likely to receive positive feedback from a seller who is the recipient of two back-to-back emails- one for the closed auction and the second for the instant payment.  I know that from my own standpoint as a seller, those auctions still give me the warm and fuzzies! In one respect, most all eBay sellers are alike in one area.  The PayPal generated email that announces “You’ve Got Cash” still makes me smile!

     After you have completed your auction and subsequent payment, it’s time to wrap up the process with two final steps. The first step is to leave prompt feedback for the seller.  It’s important to look again at the quality of the feedback you leave.  As a rule, you will see a much higher percentage of returned feedback if you follow a few simple rules. As a general rule, flattering feedback sees a higher feedback return. I’m not referencing they type of feedback that sounds like your mother wrote it, however. Let me share a quick story about this.

   This past holiday season found me shopping on eBay.  In the course of my bargain hunting, I came across an auction that I chose to complete.  As I do with all my eBay purchases, an instant payment went to the seller. Before the item even shipped, the seller left me very flattering positive feedback.

“An asset to the eBay community! Thanks from PhoenixTradingCompany!”

     Not only was I flattered by the feedback, but I felt a sense of obligation to leave feedback in kind to this seller. This seller has over 73,000 feedbacks with a 99% positive feedback rating.   I smiled when I read the feedback he had left. The feedback he left me let me know quite clearly that he understood how to work the feedback system to maximize his return feedback. Also worth noting, all this was completed well within the eBay rules.  He left me immediate feedback based on my immediate payment. From his standpoint, I was well deserving of the feedback he left.  No playing ”let’s chase the buyer” with me for his payment. The transaction was smooth and worry-free.   Upon delivery of my order, I immediately logged on to eBay to leave positive feedback in kind.

     I have a few feedback statements that seem to have a higher conversion rate than others. When left, I seem to get more feedback in return. Statements like, “A Credit to eBay- Fast Payment, Friendly. Can’t ask for more AAA+++,” have seen a very high rate of returned feedback.  Sure, I could use simple phrases like  “AAA+++ Good Seller.”  But I would much rather stack the deck in my favor.  It takes no extra time and the returns are immeasurable.

     Of course, you will find your own unique way of wording feedback that is personal to you, but by now, I suspect you have a good feel for the point here. In terms of the numbers, in my industry, approximately 60% of folks will leave feedback.  Using this as a bit of a benchmark, if your $100 feedback investment sees you closing auctions that average a dollar, your hundred dollar investment should yield you approximately 60 new positive feedbacks. A follow up email by you to the seller letting them know you have already paid for your purchase and have already left very positive feedback for your purchase will reap huge rewards in returned feedback. Never underestimate the power of courtesy!