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We are pleased to present a Live Chat Event with Jim Griffith on Thursday June 18th from 16:00 - 17:00 PDT. During this time, Griff will field questions concerning his just released book, "The Official eBay Bible". Have you read it already and liked it? Would you like to know more about what is included in the book? Join the Live Chat and find out more about his book.
eBay Member exclusive Live Chat with Jim Griffith, aka Griff, Dean of eBay Education
About Jim Griffith: "Griff," as he is popularly known, has been the foremost education expert on eBay since 1996-when he was invited to join the company as its first customer support representative. For the past three years in his role as both eBay ambassador and instructor, Griff has been traveling around the country leading eBay University seminars and attending community gatherings on how to buy and sell on eBay. With his intimate knowledge of every aspect of eBay, Griff educates people on everything from basic search tips to growing a serious business on eBay. Most importantly, he makes learning eBay fun and easy. |
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eBay: Good evening. With us tonight is Jim Griffith, Dean of eBay Education.
We would like to field questions concerning Griff's just-released book, "The Official eBay Bible." Please submit your questions now.
Jim Griffith Welcome everyone! It's nice to be back off the road. I've been on the road for two and one-half weeks doing book signings across the country, and meeting hundreds of eBay buyers and sellers. It's been a great experience. I'll answer your questions now! 9030: Besides your eBay Bible, will you please name four or five other books that, combined with yours, could make for a total picture and make for a buyer's as well as seller's complete knowledge of the how's and what's, and everything else we buyers and sellers want to know? Jim Griffith There are a few books that were published in the last five to six years that would make excellent additions to any eBay buyer or seller's library. I highly recommend the "eBay for Dummies" series by Marsha Collier. Marsha is a very experienced seller and buyer, and her new book coming out (of which I don't know the title) focuses on power shopping. It sounds really cool! In addition, don't forget to pick up a copy of Adam Cohen's "The Perfect Store." It's an excellent history of both eBay as a company, and eBay as a cultural phenomenon. And lastly, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the first "Official eBay Guide" by Michael and Laura Kaiser. Michael is currently an eBay University instructor, and their book has excellent information, and also is a terrific snapshot of eBay in an important period of its development. Boss Joan: : I have been all over eBay and made numerous calls, because I'm trying to find out the dates and location for next year's eBay Live. I have to start saving now to go. Thanks for your help. -Joan Clarke. Jim Griffith We actually haven't decided where or when for eBay Live! 2004, but we should announce it on the Announcement Board when we have firm dates. We'll publish them there. You can always find the eBay Announcement Board from the Community link on top of any eBay page. Expo: How do I distinguish between a real eBay email and a fraudulent one? Jim Griffith It can be really tricky. I recommend that when anyone ever gets an email purporting to be from eBay or PayPal, you immediately discount it and delete it. Do not click the links, and NEVER give your eBay User ID or password to anyone via any solicitation - email or otherwise. If you have a question about your eBay registration or account, go directly to www.eBay.com, sign in, go to "My eBay," and click on the "Accounts" tab. If your credit card has expired, you will see an indication there letting you know. eBay will NEVER ask for your User ID or password in an email. We will never ask for your credit card or other financial or personal information. Tell as many people as you can! Thank you. Orange Blossom: Hey, Griff. I wanted to purchase your book, so I filled out all the information, and then I find out you can't pay with PayPal. What's up with that? Jim Griffith Yes, unfortunately, at the moment, PayPal is not offered as a payment option for purchasing items through eBay-o-rama, including "The Official eBay Bible." RDW Divx: How many auctions does eBay list a day, on average? Jim Griffith Two million new items are added each day to eBay, worldwide. Square Dance Girl: On page 67, you have a clear explanation about feedback. Why do you think users are reacting badly to your opinion on page 289? What do you think newbies will pick up on? Jim Griffith I haven't a clue as to why a few folks have reacted so strongly to what is clearly an opinion and suggestion, and not a change or creation of eBay Feedback policy. I clearly state in the book that Feedback is voluntary, and that I say sellers should leave feedback first. Should does not mean must. What do I think newbies will pick up on? I think any new eBay user who goes out to buy "The Official eBay Bible" is interested in learning how to shop, and, hopefully someday, to sell correctly on eBay. What I hope they pick up from the entire book, including my advice on feedback, is we believe, and I believe, that people are basically good, and when you treat people as though you expect them to be--basically, good--they tend to rise to the occasion, as opposed to treating people with suspicion. I do not conduct myself that way in my own life, and I could never, in good conscience, advise anyone to do so. That being said (this is my final word on the subject), sellers are free to practice any feedback-leaving procedure they like. Bkcrt: I received "revenge feedback" for leaving another person a 'negative' they deserved. The feedback I received says that I did not pay for the auction, but I have PayPal records stating that I did. Is there a way to remove this false feedback?? Jim Griffith Possibly. You need to go to www.squaretrade.com and look for the links for "Feedback Removal." You'll be asked to follow a few steps and provide some information, and the folks at Square Trade will arbitrate after they have contacted the other party, and based on their decision, they will let eBay know whether or not we should or should not remove the feedback. That being said, please note if you are a good buyer or seller and your feedback is generally positive, other eBayers know how to read feedback in context, and will discount the occasional undeserved negative. I know receiving a negative feedback can sting; however, look at it this way--it's a battle scar for fighting the good fight. The purpose of feedback is to let other people know your accounting of the transaction. People can read your words, determine if you are an honest person, and make a judgment accordingly. Coin Zzz: Can you still make money on eBay when everyone is selling the same items? Jim Griffith It's possible, but, of course, the more competition, the more difficult it is to sell those types of items. Many sellers look at it as a challenge and thrive on the competition. Those sellers tend to check out the competing sellers everyday, notice what it is they are doing right, and try to do them one better. This is advice I always give to sellers. Figure out what your competition is doing, and do it better than they do it. And more importantly, look for some of those things some of your competitors are doing that don't work, and make sure you avoid those business practices. For example, many sellers are not successful, because they start their items too high, do not provide good deals for shipping, or do not have explicit item descriptions. These are good things to avoid. Medicine Man Writing: A friend and I are getting a start-up business together. What would you suggest for a solid present and future reference guide for growing our business on eBay? Jim Griffith Besides my book "The Official eBay Bible," my friend Marsha Collier has an excellent business on eBay. Also, one of the best sources of information is eBay itself. As I said in the previous response, you can learn a lot about how to be successful on eBay by looking at the sellers who are doing well now, and copying the things they do well for your own eBay business. Note that this doesn't mean actually stealing their pictures or copying their descriptions entirely. That would be, at best, bad etiquette, and, at worst, a possible violation of eBay policy, but no one has a copyright on good business practices. Another source of good information would be to join or, if necessary, start an eBay seller user group in your area. In my experience, successful eBay sellers tend to be very generous about the information that makes their businesses successful on eBay. Never be afraid to ask. The worst someone could say is "No. I won't tell you." In my experience, most eBay sellers tell you what makes them successful on eBay. Twist Mister: When selling using "Buy It Now," why does the B.I.N. disappear after a bid? I wish it would not, but I do not want a reserve price. Jim Griffith The "Buy It Now" format was created to be used in conjunction with the Auction format as a selling and buying strategy and option. Sellers use "Buy It Now" as opposed to straight fixed price format, because it tends to give more incentive to buyers for those items that may be unusual, unique, or even rare. It gives them the incentive to instead of bidding on the item and possibly losing it in a bidding war, to simply purchase it outright. If you are a seller and want to use a fixed price format other than "Buy It Now," and you have 30+ feedback, you can list items using the fixed price format. Fixed price format allows you to set a price with no auction, no bidding, and buyers can either buy one, or if you have a quantity of one or more, they can select a quantity and purchase one or more of the items at your price immediately. The fixed price format is a great way to sell items of a known value and possibly of a certain quantity (more than one) to many buyers quickly. Book Bug: Is there a way of finding out eBay stats? For instance, what is a hot seller? Jim Griffith Although there are a lot of items for sale on eBay--16,000,000 at any given moment--a person can discover trends currently for what items receive a lot of attention and bids by browsing through a Category of items and noting those items that have the most bids. Those tend to obviously be the ones that have the most interest, and are thus the hot items. Also, on the Discussion Overview page on the bottom, there's a link to Hot Items. It provides a plethora of information for sellers including Category sales data. It's updated every week, and it shows the Hot Items for specific Categories. Great Buys Guy: Does your book cover accounting for taxation at the state and federal levels? Jim Griffith My book does not go into great depth about tax responsibilities for eBay sellers for two reasons. For one, the responsibilities would be as numerous as the state, federal, and local laws that would apply. And two, since I'm not an authorized tax accountant or attorney or expert, I'm not authorized to give advice about something as critical as complying with tax laws. However, the Internet is a wonderful thing. You can find all of the information you need about your state, local, and federal tax responsibilities by visiting the appropriate web sites. For federal taxes, that would obviously be www.irs.gov. For your particular state, try typing in www, and then the abbreviation of your state dot com (.com). That should bring up your state government's web page. Look for the link on that page for your state tax department. All the information you need should be found there. Moma Hedger: I have not read this book yet, but does it embrace well new people so they can find help, like the chat boards and the help boards? It took me two years to find the boards. Jim Griffith Two years is a long time. Congratulations! I do provide a section in my book that describes how to find the Chat Boards and Help including Customer Support and our recently introduced Live Help feature. Helene: I'd like to start a pet supply business, and I would like to list items on eBay. How do I get started? Jim Griffith Before you do anything, check out other pet supply sellers on eBay. The Pet Supply Category at eBay is found on the eBay homepage under the Category "Home," on the list of the Categories on the left-hand side of the homepage. Browse through those Categories including all the sub categories, so that you can get a really good idea of what's currently available on eBay in the way of pet supplies, what sellers are getting for prices, what things are hot currently in pet supplies, and what items are not hot. The next step is to take one or two items from your inventory and list an Auction with them or two. Start small. Pick something of little value that's easy to ship, easy to picture, and easy to describe. Don't be afraid to lose money on your first item. It can happen. The important thing is that if you've never sold on eBay before, selling that first item will instill confidence, and subsequent listings will be a lot easier. The biggest mistake some sellers make is listing a lot of inventory on eBay for their first listing. If you're successful and you have a lot of things to sell, and you've listed them on the site, you may be overwhelmed by the after-sale tasks, such as packaging, accepting payment, invoicing, and shipping. Unless your current business is already set up for Internet sales or mail order catalog, I cannot stress enough the importance of starting small and building it slowly over time. One of the big benefits of this strategy is that it will give you time to adopt the business procedures that best suit your way of doing business. For example, you may discover in your first few weeks of selling one or two items a really good system for invoicing and emailing high bidders that works for you--one that will be able to expand easily (otherwise known as scale) as your business, hopefully, grows. Best of luck with your new business on eBay. Feel free to email me with questions. My email address is Griff@ebay.com Craig's Closet: A newbie to selling on eBay. I have the book, and it quickly got me up-and-running. Any cheerleading type of advice would be great. I have my first item out there, but no bids yet. Jim Griffith Congratulations! Your eBay journey has begun! Do not be discouraged if your first item does not receive bids. It can happen. Think of it as a valuable education on how to better promote and market your items. Now I'm not looking at your item right now, but I can tell you from my experience that the biggest obstacle to selling an item successfully on eBay tends to be high opening bids or over-valued prices for fixed price items. It's only natural for a seller to want to get as much as they can for an item, and, thus, many new sellers will start their items with not necessarily unrealistic prices but prices or opening bids that are too close to the actual market value of the item itself. Always keep in mind that a great appeal of eBay to buyers is the possibility of a bargain or a good value. In the Auction format, the best way to instill that opportunity is to provide wiggle room for bidders. Many sellers at eBay actually trust the marketplace and let bidders decide value. Yes, it can be risky, and, occasionally, a buyer may get a really good buy if you start your items low. However, if you use excellent titles that contain only keywords, and if you place your items in appropriate categories, and if your item descriptions are clear, concise and comprehensive, and if you're providing as many payment and shipping options that are possible, buyers will find your items and they will bid. It only takes two determined bidders to drive the price of an item up to value, and sometimes higher. Remember that the point of getting people to bid is often bidders forget themselves in a bidding war and let their egos take over. I know this from personal experience as a bidder. Good luck with your future listings, and feel free to email me if you need assistance with your eBay selling in the future. Teaker: There are other books about eBay out there. What makes your book different from the others? Jim Griffith First and most obviously, my book is told in my voice. Although my position at eBay and my history with eBay may not be unique (many eBay employees also buy and sell on the site), I get to meet with literally thousands of eBay buyers and sellers every month, both through email and face-to-face at our eBay University events. I have been teaching people how to buy and sell on eBay since 1996. One of the most frequent requests that I've received over the past six years has been for a book written by me, including not only my own story, but also a selection of stories of miraculous stories of other eBay buyers and sellers whose lives were changed, as mine was, by eBay. Sigmaration: What inspired you to write this book? Jim Griffith Most everyone who is comfortable learning about something as complex as eBay on a computer did so in the first few years of eBay. Many people are not comfortable learning from a web page. I must confess I am among them. Those of us who grew up learning from books tend to feel more comfortable learning things we don't know from a book. So many people have approached me over the last six years and said, "I just don't get it, Griff. I try to figure it out, and it doesn't make sense. If I had a book beside me that I could follow step-by-step, I know I could figure out how to buy and sell on eBay." Yaberebyc: What are the strategies and techniques, if any, that are to be used by a bidder during the last two or three minutes of bid closing to win the bid? Jim Griffith Good question! I think before we talk about bidding strategies, we need to make one point clear about buying. When you are determining what to spend or what to bid on a particular item, you need to be very honest with yourself. You need to ask yourself, "What is the absolute maximum amount I am willing to spend for this item to the penny?" As I say in my book, don't lie to yourself. When I say "absolute maximum" it means absolute maximum. Once you've determined that amount, either bid it right away and let the system hold it as a proxy bid, or if you enjoy the adrenaline rush, the heart-pounding thrill, the sweaty palm experience, otherwise known as sniping (bidding your absolute maximum amount in the final moments of an eBay auction listing), bid in the final moments of the listing. The important point here is to know completely what your limit is. If you should be outbid in this situation and you say to yourself, "D'oh I would have bid more than that," then you told yourself a little white lie when you determined your absolute maximum bid before bidding. On a happier note, don't be too concerned if you lose out on an item. In my experience, even the most rare and most unique items tend to show up again, and sometimes within a few days of losing the item for which you were outbid. Happy hunting! Brain Freeze: What is your intended audience for this book, buyers or sellers? People who are experienced, or people who are new to the site? Jim Griffith Exactly! I wrote the book as a source of information, instruction, and inspiration for both the brand new eBay user and the experienced eBay Power Buyer or Seller. Avigones: Is it ok to send email to a seller asking for feedback when they forget to give you one? Jim Griffith It sure is. Just make sure when you remind a seller for a feedback comment that you do so politely. It is bad form to give even the appearance of demanding a feedback comment. Again, my experience (and I have purchased over 2,000 items at eBay), the lion's share of eBay sellers are extremely conscientious about not only making sure their customers are happy and satisfied, but also in leaving feedback. One note--many eBay sellers do a very high volume of sales on eBay. In speaking with those sellers, I've learned that many of them leave feedback on a schedule. For example, some sellers leave all the feedback to their buyers once a week as a regular task. Because of this, I advise buyers to not be impatient about their feedback. It's a rare case when a seller actually forgets to leave their buyer's feedback. Beginner's Notebook: : I am just starting out. I read your book, and it was very helpful, but I'm overwhelmed with listing many items at a time. How do you keep it easy? Jim Griffith By starting small. As I mentioned earlier, all new sellers at eBay should start out by listing one item, and increase the number of items listed at your comfort level, keeping in mind that a listing's tasks do not end once the item is listed. You will need to be available to receive email questions from your bidders or buyers, to send invoices when the listing closes, to accept payment from your buyers, and to fulfill the transaction by packing and shipping the item to the buyer. Plan out these tasks before you start selling and increase your volume, again, at your comfort level. If you are a single seller with no help, the worst thing you can do to yourself is load up a whole lot of items on eBay and then find yourself totally overwhelmed with the fulfillment end of the transaction. If you go to the Workshop Board, the link to which can be found on the Discussion Overview page, you will find an archive of a workshop I recently led called "The 90 Day Plan - A Pilot Plan for eBay Sellers." You may find the information in this workshop to be very handy. Let me know how you do. I love to hear from sellers as they're ramping up their brand new eBay businesses. Best of luck! Bayou David: What do you like about the eBay Live! event? Also, will you be there to autograph your book? Jim Griffith The people! Last year, eBay Live! afforded myself and the rest of the eBay staff the priceless opportunity to meet personally 5,000 dedicated, enthusiastic, and yes, sometimes very concerned eBay Buyers and Sellers. I am hooked on that experience. Quite frankly, I would quit working for eBay if I could not meet members of the eBay Community on a regular basis. They are without a doubt the most amazing, exciting, funny, and passionate people on the planet. As you can imagine, I cannot wait for next week. Last year was like Woodstock for eBay. This year can only be better. My book will be for sale at eBay Live! 2003, and I've just completed a rigorous wrist-training so that I can sign as many books as necessary. Wheatie: How long did it take you to write this book? Did you hit any mental blocks along the way? Jim Griffith From beginning to end, the entire process took about one year. I had a very fortunate experience in that I began writing the book shortly after emergency surgery that put me home for about six weeks. It was perfect timing. I must admit I didn't hit any mental blocks or writer's blocks along the way, but I also must confess that many times during the process I experienced serious bouts of self-doubt. It seemed such an enormous project, and, in many ways, it was. However, I have a terrific support group, both in my friends here at eBay in San Jose and Salt Lake City, as well as with those members of the eBay Community with whom I have developed close friendships. In the end, it was a lot of fun writing this book. Fashionating Finds: Griff, you were the highlight of the Rosemont, IL eBay U that got me into this Jim Griffith I remember the Rosemont Illinois eBay University. You guys were really a rowdy and excited crowd. I'm glad we were able to help you get started. Now, about eBay Stores--eBay Stores can be a terrific tool for many sellers, but they work differently than regular eBay listings, and it is extremely important that sellers understand the difference so that they can better leverage the eBay Store feature for their business. You can learn more about how Stores work from the eBay Stores Hub page. It's easy to find. Just go to the eBay homepage and click the link in the upper left hand corner for eBay Stores. I will give you an example of how eBay Stores can be an effective selling tool. Say you sell digital cameras along with a wide range of digital camera accessories, such as batteries, camera bags, memory chips, lenses, etc. A great way of listing your accessory inventory so that you don't have to pay high regular listing insertion fees is to place the bulk of it in your eBay Store. One of the cool things about eBay Stores is you can have your inventory list until canceled for five cents a month for each item. You then place some of your digital cameras in a regular eBay listing format either fixed price or auction. Now the cool part--you can set up your listings so that when someone purchases a digital camera from you, the buyer will see three items that you have selected from your Store inventory with some incentive text such as, "Well you've purchased the camera, how about a camera bag, extra battery, or memory chip?" This is called merchandising, and many sellers utilize eBay Stores in this fashion. It's an effective and cost-saving way to have large amounts of inventory available. If you have particular questions about your types of merchandise and how to best list them using an eBay Store, feel free to email me. Best of luck! eBay: Thank you for a wonderful chat. Unfortunately, we are almost out of time. Do you have any parting words for us? Jim Griffith Thank you for this opportunity to meet and speak, and answer questions about eBay. Answering questions about eBay seems to be my whole life, and I have to tell you I couldn't have asked for a better life. Hope to see you all at eBay Live! 2003. If not at eBay Live! 2003, perhaps at one of our eBay University seminars in the coming year. Check out www.ebay.com/university for more information about where we'll be for the rest of 2003. Chow! Thank you for join us for this Live Chat with Jim Griffith. We hope that we answered most of your questions. If you would like to review a transcript of this event, please bookmark this link (pages.ebay.com/event/griff/index.html). We will publish the transcript as soon as we can. A Production of LiveWorld. Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. |
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