I need some advice. Please help.

I am an eBay seller but only sell items in my country. If you're going to give free shipping, make sure you specify it's only within your country. You also can put a note there that "Only those in the (name of country) can bid on this item" just in case you really don't want to ship to other countries (which is quite expensive, by the way). When an item you're selling doesn't sell after the bidding is finished, simply relist the item. Sometimes, it takes several weeks for the right customer to find your listing. Had some of my items sold that way. Good luck! Oh, and I think Slovakia is somewhere in Russia ...

I strongly suggest you take a few hours and read through every FAQ on the Ebay Seller's tab, Buyer's tab, Security tab, and every other page on Ebay that could possibly help you better understand the process. There is much there and much is valuable. It seems like a heavy burden but it'll pay dividends later when you avoid making bad decisions. Don't be afraid of foreigners: I think it's wise to offer your product to as wide a public as possible as long as you understand the process and stick to the Ebay business plan. The great benefit of Ebay is your market is literally worldwide, meaning you expand from a U.S. market of potentially 300 million to a global market of potentially 6.5 billion. You just have to do a little more research and reading to find out how to make that happen and protect yourself. Responses made so far are helpful, but I strongly advise spending lots of time on Ebay researching how they advise you run your Ebay business.

Hi Kat..that person was me and i'm so sorry I live so far away..Slovakia is right turn past the old feed store and then make a left at dairy Queen..lol.. Hope this made you laugh at least.. huggs and love you..glad to see you here..

Well, the buyer is your friend after all? HahaThat solves a lot of problems. I'd go with what the others have said on the FREE SHIPPING part: specify clearly that it's only within your country, but as for international buyers ask them to contact you 1st before bidding. That's usually what my wife & I do. Don't be afraid to sell overseas as some said & like others said they make a lot on shipping, well as long as it's not too ridiculously high for postage costs. Anyway, the purpose of one being in business is to make money right? As long as it's legal, why not? Anyway, if they don't agree on the shipping, then they'll not buy. It's that simple. If both party agrees, then there shouldn't be any problem right? Oh, and for the insertion fee part - where we come from there's no insertion fee but if not mistaken there's an insertion fee for selling on ebay.com. What you can do is file a dispute after 7 days & if it's a genuine case eBay will refund you the insertion fee. But in this case, yuo friend might get an unpaid item strike but it shouldn't be too much of a problem if your friend doesn't have any negative feedbacks or unpaid item strike in the pass because if a person who has a string of negatives or unpaid item strikes may get their account suspended.

Hi kb, I haven't had a lot of experience yet but what I have had I had help from my sister. Thank goodness. Like one other member said, your money making is in the mailing charges. Is there anyone close to you that can help you out? The first thing I always say in my description is that I don't ship out of the US. As far as the product goes you should ask a little less than what you want and charge more for the shipping. Hopefully the bidding will get it to where you want it or more. I think Ebay is going strictly with Paypal now and since he hasn't paid for it, you should let ebay know it. Good luck KB. I need to start selling again. My sis ter does pretty well with ebay. leenie

Ebay provides a place on your listing to give your preference on how long they may take to pay. I always allow 5 days. You're probably correct about it being a valuable lesson on the shipping. I don't offer the international shipping myself. There are so many customs forms and stuff to fill out that it is just simply too much trouble for me but if you have the extra time I'm sure it would get easier once you caught on to it. But I've taken a few losses just to get things up and running. No better teacher than experience! It may be the time that you have listed your item that has resulted in no views. The best time is the first week of the month and weekends are good too. I list everything for 3 days and usually try to get it listed Thursday evening, sometimes Friday. I do ok on ebay but I'm not looking to become a miilinaire or anything by selling my junk! LOL

International shipping can get very expensive, so much to the point to where you would be in the hole for the item you are listing. To get around this, offer free shipping in the continental United States only. I don't see why you offer free shipping anyway. Most that buy on Ebay expect to pay shipping costs, it is part of the convenience of buying online! Good luck with your new Ebay venture! Oh, I've noticed from my past experience of selling on Ebay that the most action with page views will come on the last two days of the auction. Don't fret!

if you are to send the item to another country from ebay then the buyer should be the one shouldering the shipping cost and not you. if it is within the U.S, that won't be any problem, there would only be a small amount for the buyer to pay for. so, you should have a specified amount if it is outside of the U.S and if you want it to be only within the U.S then you have to specify it on your post at ebay that it is only available if they reside within the the country.

I am sorry to hear that. That sounds about like my luck LOL. I would have given them about three days to pay for the item. That is long enough or even a week is sufficient. I do not use Ebay for anything though.

Welcome to e-bay! I've done quite a bit of buying and selling and have learned many lessons the hard way! First if you are going to offer free shipping on items, check with your postal carrier first to find out about fees. They can run quite a bit and I wouldn't offer it to ship overseas. You can get a good idea of shipping fees by check similar items listed. If it's an expensive item, make sure to get insurance. I once sold a nice designer purse and didn't insure it, of course it never got to the person and I had to refund the money. Six months later it was shipped back to me so I got lucky, but I haven't been able to sell it again. Send the bill and its customary to wait about 3 days for a response. I'll usually send a second bill within three days and after 7 days unless I hear something I'll report to ebay as unpaid. They should be able to respond within that time frame. Good luck!

what product did you sell?? you could have mentioned as "free shipping within (your country)" that could have helped you.If you want to sell books i have a good site and recently i found a site which allows buying and selling of theater,party,concert,NBA,NCAA,NFL tickets.

If i offered free shipping it would be within the originating country not free international shipping. I havent had much luck however selling things on ebay...i've tried once or twice but either had no bids or they didnt meet the lowest bid i set.

My advice is get more clients connection with in the ebay to sell your products success what ever you are doing on ebay this is common the customer may have time to time different desire on them buying sense. Looking it in a positive way and keep trying on to get more clients by changing your products comparison well with other products in the same category that you are selling in the ebay site.

Hi! I hope this helps, I have listed items on ebay, but unfortunately the items did not sell. However, I have bid on item and it sold, the owner of the item emailed me 5 days after the auctioned ended, and told me the person did not pay, and would I like the item. So I did purchase it! My personal opion is not to wait more than that. Good luck!

I am a bit of an expert with Ebay... as I have sold quite a lot of items very successfully since 1999. First rule... if you listen to all of Ebay recommendations... Ebay is going to make more money than you do out of your item. I keep it simple. I always include a very good picture of my item... and a very good description of it. I only put it in auction if I know they are going to fight over it... and I usually get twice as much as I thought I would. I never offer free postage. Particulary if I list it world wide. When I do offer free postage locally... it is because I am selling it for a fix price... and the postage is included in the price. You will double your sales if you accept PayPal payments... because a lot of people like to use their credit card. However... when you list something... you need to take into account... - The cost of listing - The cost of Ebay's commission if you sell. - The cost of PayPal's commission if your buyer use a credit card. So... Free postage is a luxury you cannot afford. If I sell something for $22.00... all the above cost me about $5.00 The only luxury I spend money on... is to include the avatar of the picture in my description into the listing... in order to make my listing stand out. And it does work. If you have several items which are the same... and you are not sure how much to sell them for... Put one in auction and you will know. Once you know... sell them for a fix price. Fix price is good... as you can sell it almost as fast as you list it if they really want it. Slovakia is in Eastern Europe and used to be part of Russia. Use your post office website to calculate postage costs.

I agree on the other comments given. You could have specified a location where FREE SHIPPING is availed. Anyway though, you might as well email that person in Slovakia that since he or she is your very first customer at Ebay, SHIPPING was availed FREE. You might want to give her bonus though, if on his/her next order, he/she refers you another customer, she will get another SHIPPING FREE, of course, taking into account the cost of shipping and getting referrals will add you earnings to earn back the loss you have at first. Happy Selling! JNY