3 Misconceptions About Selling on eBay (And Only We Will Tell You)

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It’s like being the hottest celebrity (or, ok, maybe one of them) – people get jealous and disgruntled with their own lives and start spreading rumors about you. Or, maybe they just heard the beginning of a sentence about you and imagined what the rest of the sentence was supposed to be and start telling everyone what they’ve deduced. Then, other people read those rumors and start believing stuff. It’s not nice, but it’s how it goes.

Here are some of those misconceptions, rumors, or myths about selling on eBay that you may have heard that are not true (or not entirely true).

You Can Only Accept PayPal on eBay.com Transactions

Despite what you may think, eBay has heard of monopoly laws and is not intent on breaking them.

I mean, ok, well, some people are required to accept PayPal – new sellers, sellers with a poor customer service history have to accept PayPal, but that’s so that the money can easily be returned to the buyer if you do something ridiculous – like not send the item.

Other than that, you basically just have to accept some form of electronic payment. You can also accept MoneyBookers, ProPay, or a merchant credit card – none of which are owned by eBay.

PayPal just happens to be the best way to pay online, so your buyer’s probably going to want you to accept it anyway.

Drop Shipping is a Great Idea on eBay

I mean, this is only considered a good idea because some experts have said it is, but I’m going to disagree.
It does have some pros: reduced costs because the item never has to be shipped to you and you don’t have to pay for inventory until the item sells through your venue.

But, the cons are more variable and could cause you to lose your business. Basically: it takes the transaction out of your hands. When someone else has your inventory and will ship it at their leisure, you no longer have control over the transaction. They could take 6 weeks to process the order before shipping it out, they could break something and not tell you, they could ship a different style than what the buyer ordered, or they could be selling counterfeits (you don’t have the items in your hands, how would you know?).

I would tell you that, basically, the risks outweigh the benefit, but that would be cliche.

eBay Will Remove Negative Feedback Because It’s “Unfair”

No. No, they will not. Well, unless you live in the UK, then they will sometimes, but it’s complicated, and other than that – no they won’t. It’s not considered “feedback abuse” or a violation of policy to leave unfair feedback, either.

eBay looks at feedback as an opinion – an opinion that they may eventually suspend you over, but an opinion nonetheless. And this is America. Sort of. So they’re not going to tell a buyer what their opinion of the transaction should have been.

So, there’s the condensed run-down of eBay misconceptions for you attention-span-challenged junkies. Now back to your gossip magazines!!