Hello to all the new sellers that decided to click on this and read. I just want to say that I was once new and found it difficult and always appreciated the tips I got when I was new. 1st off, Minimum bids!!!!! Start your items low not high. If I was a buyer and wanted clock radio, I would want to bid on the most competitively priced minimum bid out there. If the item is $15 in the stopre and there is a minimum bid of .99 available I am going to bid on it. If there is a minimum bid of $10 out there I am staying away because most likely it won't sell in the auction for more than half of what it sells retial. This is not the same for an iphone or an ipod, but in some cases it helps if you're a new seller and you go to completed listings to see what things have sold for before you place a minimum bid. If your item sells for about $25 but you want to list it at $40 to start, You're wasting time and money listing it and paying for the listing fees because nobody is going to buy it. Ebay is like a giant NASDAQ or NYSE exchange. Research is done, market values are set and they stay in play until it has dies out and goes down in value.............Reserve auction.....there is no point anymore in doing it, flat out great answer for you is it scares people away. If there are 50 auctions for a new walkman and 49 of them have no reserve and one does, guess what, yep you're right, nobody wants to waste time when they know they are guarenteed to win it somewhere else.....SHIPPING AND HANDLING......if someone buys a glass figurine from you and you just put it in the box and mail it, you're going to pay for it in the end! Package things properly and use supplies u can buy really cheap on ebay. Packing peanuts and bubble wrap are the best for fragile items as well as foam padding. Remember \, when your buyer gets the item and sees i nicely packaged item, they will race to leave you good feedback and also will increase the odds that they might add you to their favorite sellers list. If you don't pack it right, they will race to the computer twice as fast and leave you bad feedback, then they will contact paypal and file a claim, you will lose and now you're out the $$ and the piece since it came destroyed......DESCRIPTIONS......If you're selling a mink coat...telll us about the length, animal used to make it, does it have tears, stains, tell us about the lengths of the sleeves, is it clean, how old is it, where did you buy it, etc etc. The more we know as buyers the more we want to bid on it. When we were kids and the teacher read us a good book, we wanted to know more and more right? Same principal here, make it intriguing, make it interesting. Don't say "its a mink coat" i think they used a mink to make it and its brown in color. its bog and my grandma used to wear it to bingo on cold nights".....none of that info helps............DETERMINING SHIPPING COSTS....dont get caught up in excessive shipping charges. experienced sellers like myself charge for the sh, insurance if optional or required, packing materials and maybe a few extra dollars (2 or 3) if we have to go to the post office and mail it from there or because it's time consuming to pack it. Sellling a radio worth $20 for a penny with $19.99 is wrong. You screw ebay and eventually other people who are new will see this and go to another site to shop, hurting us good guys and girls. Besdies any ebay member with the tiniest bit of heart will report it to ebay and you can be suspended for doing it. It's easy to report, there is a link at the bottom of every auction to report the item...........ANSWERING QUESTIONS.........if you are selling something and I have a question its best to answer it right away rather than waiting 3 days. ANswering quickly tells me as a buyer that you are a serious seller. it tells me that you care about your business. by getting an answer in a few days deters me, makes me thing you are unreliable and in the mean time i found another similar item to bid on where my question was answered right away...........GETTING EBAY AND PAYPAL EMAILS IN UR PERSONAL EMAIL INBOX OUTSIE OF EBAY....if you get an email from ebay and you have to sign in from your email to access the message...DON'T DO IT!!!!!......It's a scammer trying to get your personal info. When you enter your user name and password it is emailed to the scammer. The scammer goes in your ebay account and changes the password so u cant get in. He then sells things to people and asks them to pay with wesern union. While many people dont fall for that there are some out there that will send the money and when they realized they have been scammed, they go to the cops and guess who the cops go to? your house!!! Even though they wont arrest you, its still a hassle and if they come to your house u may feel embarresed and have the neighbors passing rumors around. Be safe out there and use what i have said. Please......if you have any questions email me through ebay and I will assist you in any way i can. i dont mind doing it at all. I like to help people. One day my karma will come to me!