Master Reselling In a $1 Auction Setting
Ive noticed a recent influx of people joining the resale community.
Several people have reached out to me asking for tips and advice, so I wrote this blog for everyone to reference.
Heres a few things to keep in mind:
Do your research: Know a little about the products you are selling. At least a very base knowledge. While you can direct your customers to google to figure out their questions, its easier and more convenient if you can answer those questions. And a little advice, ALWAYS list dimensions. If you don't, there will always be at least one person asking for the dimensions.
Represent your products honestly: If there are any flaws or anything wrong with the item, list that in the description. This should not be a "buyer beware" situation. And, heres the thing, if you’re out here selling bad products, thats going to make the sellers weary of buying from anyone, and if YOU selling bad products affects MY money; that makes me very unhappy. Some things you will be unable to test, it happens. Either say in the description the item is untested, or be more than willing to refund customers if there are any problems.
Make pickup easy and consistent : I 100% believe tote pickup is the way to go. The buyers can come at their convenience and you don't have to schedule a time to meet. I, personally, will not bid on an item if its not tote pickup. However, I understand tote pickup is not ideal for some situations. So make sure your buyers know when and where you are available to meet. If you make your process known and easy to follow, I guarantee you will get repeat buyers.
Report no shows to the admin: The #1 question I get from sellers is "how do you handle people that don't show up?" I report them! Ive been doing this too long and have heard too many excuses. Asking people to pick up their items in 48 hours is not unreasonable. I even extended my pick up time to 72 hours for quite a while, and still had no shows. Its not the time frame. If someone doesn’t show up to get their item, report them. It helps the group as a whole to weed out the bad apples. And it helps your fellow sellers. If you let it slide once, and then they don't pick up with someone else, they’ll think its ok. Sellers must UNITE on this one!
Respect your fellow sellers: This is a big one. Ive noticed some not cool things happening in the last week so lets cover some dos and don'ts DO NOT cruise on auctions and contact bidders offering them the same product. This will get you kicked off the page STAT. This literally just happened to me a couple days ago. Thats a real quick way to get booted. And believe me, we are watching. DO NOT bad mouth other sellers. Talking bad about other sellers to buyers just makes you look immature and unprofessional. If you don't have anything nice to say.... DO reach out to other sellers!. Instead of trying to steal their buyers, if you have the same item as another seller, send them a message and ask if you can offer the product to their second place bidder AFTER the auction is over. Don't just assume you can do this because the seller may have several of that item and will probably offer it to the other bidders. So message them first. One more thing, while its not technically "against the rules" it is seen in poor taste to list an item that another seller already has on auction. Those of us that have been doing this a while consider this an unwritten rule and have all been in agreement not to do it. While you cannot possibly see every single item posted daily, if you see someone already has an item posted, just wait a couple days until their auction is over. Then, you can either ask them to offer your item to their bidders OR list the item yourself.
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