Advice for selling on eBay, coping with eBay trolls who bully on community message boards, mentoring, pay-it-forward, eBay guidance, help and support, networking, friendship, recommended reading.

Question about

book recommendations

for learning about eBay

• Hi, I just read your review: "Three Weeks to eBay Profits," by Skip McGrath.  Is there another book that has helped you more in your eBay endeavor? I am shopping around for the best. Thanks for your time. ---the Farmerswifey 

Hi Farmerswife, thanks for writing.

Surprisingly I found the best way to learn eBay is by opening a first level store with eBay; the one that only costs around $16 per month is an excellent entry-level-store.  (You can always move up to other tiers later.)

By 'playing' with the store, it allowed me to learn intricately how to set up categories and why they are so, so important. I learned all the nooks and crannies of designing and installing a store logo, header, custom pages, cross-promotion tools, HTML, listing frame, links, etc.

I had read about these things in a ton of different books I had bought at Barnes & Nobles, but the brain gets overloaded with details that can't get properly worked out unless you're mirroring the steps---which is what 'playing' with the store allows. 

It has taken me a year to learn eBay and just a few weeks ago, we tossed nearly 300 listings from our store and decided to revamp and start from scratch. A year of experience has taught us what's important and what's not. We want consistency with every listing, a major push in branding our store, and to implement everything we've learned about meta tags & RSS feeds. 

 In the three weeks since we tossed the 300 listings out we have redesigned and then tossed several more times---it's that important to us to get this perfectly right. We have total store insanity right now; test pages, test links, test headers, test rollovers, test hot spots, you name it.

But we'll keep plugging away because I feel it in my bones that when we do get it right, it's going to be spot-on and allow for unimaginable success!

 By the way, any books about eBay are life-long reference books that you should keep for bedside reading. The more you 'play' in your store, the more you will recognize when you read about it and you'll be having 100's of 'light bulb' moments that actually click, make sense and then that information becomes something you can tangibly work with!

 I am always scouting for more books about eBay. I'm going to send you some links to eBay auctions for a few good titles that should help you get started. (And keep reading for additional advice on learning about eBay.) 

A good bit of advice for newbies regarding the eBay 'trolls' on community message boards

 One piece of advice (as you're first getting started on eBay) is to observe but don't interact with the community message boards. There are, unfortunately, eBay 'trolls' who live for pouncing on newbies who are merely seeking help and information but instead get a big helping of ugliness and bullying. (After you've been around a while, the 'trolls' sort of become humorous and almost slightly adorable.)

After you're a weathered eBay veteran, all kinds of morphing or assimilation takes place. (Even with how you begin to view the 'trolls'.)  Hang around long enough and 'trolls' play a role of comic relief; but in the beginning, especially for freshman eBayer's... 'trolls' are a blight on the whole community. But it's like with most things--- just give it some time and somehow it all works out!

(Did you ever see the 'Saturday Night Live' episode where they feature a comedy sketch with the Gap troll? It was this ugly but hilarious little character who guarded the entrance to a Gap store and visitors could enter only upon guessing the answer to a riddle or rhyme. Entry was complicated, redundant,  and passing only allowed once the troll somehow felt satiated.)

 If you picture in your mind, the 'eBay trolls' in this same vein, their outlandishness and over-the-top antics are hugely minimized and can be viewed as quirky and perhaps only mildly offensive! 

You can write anytime and I'll be glad to communicate with you. Best wishes for a truly rewarding venture in transacting on eBay.

And if you're interested in reading more about selling on eBay, you can click on 'See all Guides & Reviews by this person'  in the box to the right,  to learn why we tossed all our eBay store listings and decided to start over. It's a new guide I recently wrote and covers topics on store design, custom headers, setting up store categories and revamping an entire eBay store.

 Again, thanks for writing and let me know if it's okay with you if I use your question either on my ebay blog or in a new guide. Perhaps this information might be helpful to others as well.

The Farmerswife Responds...

• Hi and thanks so much for the time and energy you put into the nice email you sent. You just don't know how much I appreciate these tips. Especially letting me know to observe the blogs (message boards)  but to be wary of the "bullies".  I am definitely making a lot of mistakes but I do know this is a learning process. I am trying to be very honest with my customers thus far. I know I appreciate that as a customer. I have only been selling for one month. I am presently waiting for a few important eBay "musts" to arrive in the mail before listing anything else. Thanks for the links to the  books you recommend. Also, the review you wrote was so well written. It is nice to know that your business has come so far in such a short amount of time. A lot of what you said in the review seems to be over my head right now but I know if I persevere I will eventually understand it all. Just like you said it will all start clicking together. Also, yes you can use my question in your eBay blog and new guide. That is fine with me. Best wishes and again thanks so much. ---the farmerswifey

Pay It Forward

Thanks Farmerswife and any time you need help on eBay, you've got a friend in me, okay? And when you learn it well enough to help someone along the way, you'll make your knowledge & friendship available as well, okay?

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