How to get started with Ebay?

Hey Guys,

I am a complete novice with Ebay, and am thinking about trying to do a little drop-shipping, but I haven't even signed up an account yet. I'm actually hesitant to do so because I don't know what type of account to create (personal or business), and I'm worried I'll mess things up before I even start (by choosing the wrong account).

Would you guys have any suggestions on which account to choose? I'm planning to just start out small for now, like maybe listing a few different items and seeing how they do.

Ideally it would be nice to not have to pay some business membership -- so I'm leaning towards the Personal account. However, am I losing out on anything important?

Haven't used eBay in forever, but I seem to remember everything as temporary auctions. But I'd like my products to NOT have "bids" and be "permanent" so I can do things like "ranking the products", and not have to worry about listing another product when one sells (or even if it doesn't sell in a certain timeframe.

Can that be done on a personal account?

Also, I'm worried I'm going to signup a personal account, and then as a seller, my name is going to look unprofessional or possibly even have my own name.

Am I able to choose my public username on a personal account?

And anything else I should know?

You are not losing out on anything most people who sell on ebay use personal accounts. Instead of bids you can have fixed price so max day for listing is 30 days. You don't have to worry about your name on ebay because you can change your ebay username to whatever you want that is available. Also if you have been banned from ebay/paypal before make sure you use a new IP and create a new user on your pc to login to your new account.

themaou23 said:

You are not losing out on anything most people who sell on ebay use personal accounts. Instead of bids you can have fixed price so max day for listing is 30 days. You don't have to worry about your name on ebay because you can change your ebay username to whatever you want that is available. Also if you have been banned from ebay/paypal before make sure you use a new IP and create a new user on your pc to login to your new account.

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Ok, I gotcha. Is the "30 day" listings regular for everyone? Or is that one of the benefits of going with "business" is that you don't have an expiration date?

Also, sorry to keep asking dumb questions But... should each listing should stay up for atleast 30 days, regardless of that amount that is sold?

I just mean like... I'm looking at some products not on eBay, and they show a quantity. I could buy I bunch of them, and they product would still be listed. I'm just thinking of the other "auction" type formats where once it's sold then the product would disappear. Is there anything I should know there? Like can that only been done on a business account?

Thats the quantity available in their fixed listing which they probably have alot of in stock so their listing will stay up. You can list the same between personal and business accounts. If you start on a new account I wouldn't list that much quantity in a single listing on fixed price maybe 2-5 items max per listing.

samiejg said:

'm actually hesitant to do so because I don't know what type of account to create (personal or business), and I'm worried I'll mess things up before I even start (by choosing the wrong account).

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It doesn't matter. If you start doing volume they will want you to convert to business anyways.

samiejg said:

Ideally it would be nice to not have to pay some business membership -- so I'm leaning towards the Personal account.

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Again, this is a non-issue. It is perfectly legal to operate a business under your own personal name without a separate business entity if you declare the business income on your personal taxes.

samiejg said:

Haven't used eBay in forever, but I seem to remember everything as temporary auctions.

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Auctions are dead. It is less than 15% of total eBay sales now, IIRC. What you do is list item at a fixed price for a time up to 30 days and you can set it so it automatically renews at the end of 30 days.

samiejg said:

Also, I'm worried I'm going to signup a personal account, and then as a seller, my name is going to look unprofessional or possibly even have my own name.

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This is also a non issue. You can have a eBay user name that is not your personal name, and your personal name is not revealed to the buyers.

Thanks guys.

That just about covers everything So I will try to get started then. I also noticed it looks like I can change my username every 30 days! Thanks again!