We all know what a sniper is, it’s a soldier that stays hidden and waits until he has a clean shot as his target.

Did you know that snipers also operate on eBay?

An eBay sniper is a third party that will enter a bid on your behalf in the last moments of an auction, leaving you to go about your routine as normal. Some people may think “wow what a good idea” and in theory it may be, but in practise is it really that good? You see, for a sniper to operate on your behalf you have to give them the item number, your maximum bid and (more alarmingly) the username and password to your eBay account.

A spoof email is an email from someone pretending to be somebody else, i.e. eBay, PayPal or your Bank. The reason for them sending spoof emails is that they want to get your details, passwords etc so as to steal your identity.

It’s not every day that I receive a spoof email, but I do get quiet a few each week. The latest one says it’s from “secureATpaypal.com” and it’s entitled “Important Information Regarding Your Account”.

The first mistake of the sender was sending it to an email address that isn’t linked to my PayPal account. So there’s not a chance of me opening it.

However, when I get any suspect emails there are a few simple little things that I check.

We all know that the competition for sales on eBay is very high, so whenever you make a listing, you should always think like a buyer. You can only make sales from your sales page and you need to get your potential customers to open it. How?

The 1^st most important thing is the title; you have 55 characters, including gaps between words, to say what the item is. In the title you should use as many keywords as possible as most initial searches are based on them. As an example, I’ve found these two listings on eBay just now;

250+slow cooker recipes

250 Delicious Low Fat Slow Cooker Recipes Cook Book CD

Isn’t it frustrating, when your eBay listings just don’t seem to sell. Well I’m about to give you a little tip that may help you make the sales. Before you make your listing, do a little research into similar sales of the item you’re selling. On eBay there’s an advanced search function, which allows you to search not only for current listings, but more importantly, it allows you to search the completed listings as well. Why search the completed listings, you may ask. The answer is simple, it will show you whether the item sold or not, and if so, for what price.

In April 2008 eBay changed the policy on the sales of digital items, eBooks. As they thought it may lead to feedback manipulation. Thousands of sellers were affected all over the world, many of which threw in the towel. This in turn left a gap in the market. During my 30 day eBay suspension, as mentioned in my last blog posting, I received an email telling me about a man called Dave Nicholson who had a solution to the problem; he’d produced a package called Digital Media Solutions which not only told us how to get around the problem, he showed us how to do it in short videos.

So there I was, selling eBooks on eBay, along with the other items of stock that I still had. The difference with eBook sales was that there wasn’t a need to post them, as it was all automated through emails and download links. Because there were no postal charges it enabled me to list items on eBay.com as opposed to eBay.co.uk, which is a much bigger market place, as the sales are world wide.

Whilst browsing eBay I came across an advert for The 90 Day Powerseller Challenge. I didn’t have any thoughts of becoming a Powerseller at that time, but the eBook seemed to have a lot of information that would help me. So I bought it, and it was, and remains to be, the best purchase I’ve ever made.

The eBook was easy to follow and full of relevant information. It explained the eBay rules on becoming a Powerseller and how that could be achieved. But more importantly it gave me some guidance on when and how to list my items for sale. Once I put that into practise I noticed my sales improving.

I was selling books and gift items to schools, play groups, nursery’s, nursing homes and offices. It was all going ok, but I had to tie up all my money in stock, and run up a huge bill on my credit card. No stock = No sales = No Income.

 Then my car started breaking down and put a major strain on my finances. Not only in the repair bills, but also in the loss of earnings. Then one cold winters day it coughed, spluttered and died. I was towed by the AA to my local garage where I was told that the car would cost nearly twice its value to repair. I just couldn’t afford to do it. Sure I could’ve bought another old car but with the expenses and experiences of one old jalopy I wasn’t about to do it again.