One thing that most likely would have prevented the eBay and PayPal takeovers in the first place is the PayPal Security Key. The Security Key is a small key chain sized device that provides an extra layer of secuity by generating a temporary six digit number to be used in conjunction with your user name and password when logging in to PayPal and can also be used on eBay. I signed up for mine over a year ago when they were first announced and have used it ever since. The only drawback, if you can even call it one, is that eBay has you log in again so many times when doing certain things or visiting certain areas and you have to add the six digit code each time.

PayPal was giving them away last year at eBay Live!, but they only cost $5.00, which is basically covering shipping and handling, so don’t wait till June to see if they give them away again.

To find out more, watch a video demo and order your Security Key visit the PayPal Security Key page.

Have Fun!
Mike

The week before brought the announcement of a re-launch of the eBay Trading Assistant Program. eBay Sr. Marketing Manager, Sharon Guldner and American Research Institiute (ARI), the team behind the amazing success of the eBay Education Specialist Program, are working their magic and bringing many changes and new features to the program (I will add details in a separate post). Because of the success of the Education Specialists, eBay will no longer hold the eBay University classes that had been traveling around the U.S.

If you listen to eBay Radio with Griff, you know he has been hinting at other changes to come, including one concerning Feedback. With so many changes coming early in the year, I can’t wait to find out what announcements are made at eBay Live in Chicago.

Have Fun!
Mike

Several weeks ago I was at an estate sale and bought a vintage Pioneer Audio Rack System with several components. When I listed the first piece, the rack shelf, I mentioned that I would be listing the rack itself in a week or so.

A couple of weeks later I got a message from a potential buyer asking when I was going to list that rack. I had to break the news to him that he had missed it. It had sold two weeks earlier. I also briefly told him how to use my RSS feed to keep informed about my new listings.That question made me realize that there are many eBay users out there, both buyers and sellers, who don’t know that eBay provides RSS feeds, much less how to use them.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. A feed is a summary of website content that updates regularly and it can be utilized to keep users informed of the latest changes. eBay provides feeds in RSS 2.0 format for search results, Stores, Announcements, discussion boards and more. Just look for the orange RSS button to subscribe.

The first thing you need to do in order to utilize RSS feeds is find yourself a good RSS aggregator or “reader”. Personally I use Google Reader but there are many others available, both free and paid, each offering its own set of features. Just experiment to find what works best for you.

As a Buyer who is waiting for a particular item or just wanting to know when your Favorite Seller lists new items there are a couple of ways to subscribe to an RSS feed that will keep you informed. If the seller has an eBay Store and has enabled his RSS feed (more on that later) you can just scroll to the bottom of any store page and click on the RSS button. If the seller does not have an eBay Store, you can add them as a “Favorite Seller” or do an advanced search for items just from that seller and then use the RSS button at the bottom of the search results page. This can be done for any type of search, by the way.

As a Seller, if you have an eBay Store you must turn on your RSS feed before your buyers can subscribe to it. If you go to Manage My Store, you will see on the left, in the Marketing Tools section, under Store Marketing is Listing Feeds. When you go into Listing Feeds you will need to choose the radio button for “Activate your Store Inventory listings via RSS” and click apply. Once activated, a RSS button will appear at the bottom of your eBay Store pages. If you do not have a store just have your buyers add you as a Favorite Seller and they can subscribe to a feed from your item listing page.

Now you can keep up to date with your Favorite Sellers and your buyers will know when you list new items.

Have Fun!
Mike

Whenever I have three spaces left after filling my auction title with keywords (another subject entirely), I will add “NR” at the end if it is a “No Reserve Auction”. Several times I have had people email me asking about the meaning of the “NR”. I usually respond by telling them it means “No Reserve” and apologize for the confusion. I am considering adding the explanation to my listings where I state it is a No Reserve Auction.

Now back to the title of this post. Do you know the meaning of all of the acronyms? Are there others that you use frequently? Maybe there are some you could be using to save space but didn’t even know about. You can find more information about these and more on the eBay Acronyms page.

Go, decipher.

Have Fun!
Mike

UPDATE:

2008 eBay Hall of Fame winners, Uncle Joe Adamson and Danna Crawford have recently written a book listing all these acronyms in a handy desk reference called Words For Auction.

At the time of this update, Danna is donating a portion of the selling price to First Book.

Before the Transaction

As a Buyer: You should always check a sellers feedback before buying from them for the first time. Even if they have 100% positive you should read the comments and look at what was sold before making your decision to buy or bid on an item. The new Detailed Seller Ratings give more information to consider as well. If a Seller has less than 100%, it is even more important to read the comments and check the DSR. Check the Recent Feedback Comments box and look for the number of Negative and Neutral Feedback and when it happened. If it was over 1 month ago it may no longer be relevant but you can still look for the comment. Sellers with high scores will take longer to go through, but at the bottom of the page you can choose to view up to 200 comments at a time so that can help speed up the process.
Once you find the Negative comment read it and determine whether or not it was justified. As we all know there are some folks out there who will leave Negatives just for spite. (You can go one step further and look at the feedback for the person who left the Negative. Do they leave Negatives frequently or is this an isolated incident.) Did the seller reply to the Negative Feedback? How did they handle it? Sometimes you can learn more about a seller by his reply to a Negative comment than from the Negative itself.

As a Seller: While it it not as important for sellers to check the feedback of buyers before the transcaction there are some instances when it is a good idea. eBay makes it easier by giving us Buyer Requirements to automatically block users who have Negative Feedback or Unpaid Item Strikes but sometimes there may be other reasons to check a bidder’s Feedback. For instance, if you notice a bidder with (0) Feedback who doesn’t have a New User icon , you might want to check that they don’t have an equal number of Positive and Negative comments resulting in zero. If that is the case you will want to research to determine whether or not to block them. Another instance in which I check a bidder’s feedback is when I am contacted about taking Money Orders. My listings state that I accept only PayPal but occasionally someone will ask anyway. In these cases I check the person’s Feedback and make a decision whether or not to accept a money order from them. Usually if they take the time to ask, they have a good rating and I will say yes. You should make your own policies and decisions based on Feedback.

After the Transaction

As a Buyer: You should wait to leave feedback until you are commpletely satisfied with the transcation or have exhausted all resources for resolution. If you receive your item and it is what you wanted, it arrived safely and on time, then leave positive feedback. If any problem arises, first contact the seller and try to work it out. If the seller resolves the situation to your satisfaction, leave Positive Feedback. If not, file a dispute through the Item Not Recieved process before leaving feedback. At the the end of that process you can determine whether neutral or Negative Feedback is justified.

As a Seller: It is my opinion that when a buyer pays for an item, Positive Feedback should be given immediately. There are other sellers that feel differently and that is fine, everone has to decide for themselves. I believe that paying for the item is the buyers only responsibility. Anything that comes after that falls back on the seller, as Customer Service. If your buyer ends up leaving a Negative, you have an opportunity to reply to that comment and tell your story (briefly). As I said before, sometimes that reply will say more about you than the Negative comment.

Have Fun!
Mike