Quite simply, honesty, simplicity and communication. Too many sellers now fill a huge amount of space with a long description and specification taken straight out of a manufacturer's brochure. We don't need it: what's the internet for? We can download that for ourselves. What we need to know are three very basic things: Does it work exactly as it should? What kind of physical condition is it in? And if there is anything at all wrong, what precisely is it? With those three questions answered, our decision whether to bid or not is one we can make quickly, and we won't need to pester you with emails asking for the answers to those questions. Be honest. Don't, please, be economical with the truth. Don't, for example, describe an item as though it is perfect in 48pt type, and then put in small print forty lines down at the bottom that it's "faulty" or that an essential part is actually missing. While you may well initially get more because you have effectively misled bidders who didn't see the small print, in the end you will lose. This aggrieves the buyer, and is still grounds for a complaint to eBay. Communication is essential, and it is often neglected. Here's why you need to email buyers and keep them informed: DELIVERY: Postal or courier deliveries are always made during working hours. Obviously, that means when most of us are at work. Some of us are lucky enough to live a short way from a Royal mail sorting office and can pick up a package, many are not. And the trouble with most courier companies is that at best they may only attempt a delivery twice id no-one is in the first time, and their offices are usually hidden miles away in industrial estates. So, please tell the buyer when the article was posted or collected by a courier company and when the delivery can be expected. That way, the buyer will be spared saved days of anxiety wondering first whether or not it's been lost, and secondly, whether or not they've been the victim of one of the all-too-common scams. And they can arrange for someone to be in to collect it! (You wouldn't take four days off work not knowing exactly when your new fridge was being delivered, would you?) IF yu cannot send an item immediately, no-one will mind AS LONG AS YOU TELL THEM! Whether the article is being sent by Royal Mail, ParcelForce or courier, get a receipt, and tell the buyer. If the item does disappear, it makes tracing it or getting compensation much easier. And don't imagine courier companies are any less likely to lose anything than the Royal Mail. I have known one piece of furnitire despatched and "lost" three times by the same courier company. Send small packages either Recorded Delivery or "Next Day". Either just requires a couple of extra minutes in the Post Office to write your and the buyer's address on a label, and doesn't cost much. Tell the buyer what the "Tracking Number" is, so that if it doesn't arrive when expected, the buyer can ask what's happened to it. BUYER REASSURANCE: Always send an eBay invoice yourself, don't just rely on the eBay automatic notification of a winning bid to the buyer. (Although eBay seems now to have managed to stop the scammers who sent authentic-looking "winning bid" or "payment not received" emails now, that's no guarantee that these scams won't re-appear. When the buyer receives a formal invoice, it's just one added assurancce the sale is legitimate. If you sell frequently, think about your email address. If it is an obvious pseudonym, is GoogleMail, MSN or Yahoo, well, anybody can have an email address like that,, and dump it in a fortnight. Set one up preferably in your own name or at least your eBay user name. That is also more reassuriing to the buyer. And always offer your own postal address in your communications. You have to give that to PayPal anyway. "Fred Flinstone, Ealing" is simply not going to convince anyone you are a legitimate seller.You don't need to give a telephone number; that is actually not advisable: there are buyers, alas, who make a career of frivolous complaints and abuse. (But the Royal Mail can do something about abusive letters; it can be harder to stop abusive phone calls.) PACKAGING Please pack items properly. It will be sheer luck if a laptop battery sent in a thin brown envelope ever arrives. It will almost certainly come apart in the post. Don't rely on one layer of bubble wrap covered with a black bin bag for fragile or electronic items. If it's damaged, neither the Royal Mail nor a courier company will pay any compensation on the grounds it was inadequately packaged. And, whatever you may think, you are then liable to compensate the buyer. Boxes of pretty well all necessary sizes are quite cheap in larger post offices. And no buyer will object to paying a little more if you explain that that is what you will use for packaging. SILLY CHARGES: Don't, please, offer something for sale at a cheap "Buy it Now" or starting price, and then try to charge four times what it really costs to post to make up. eBay is soon to penalise you for this anyway, by placing your listings last, but it will put the vast majority of your buyers off in any case. I will never bid for anything I know can be sent for about 30p postage and 75p for a jiffybag if I see the "postage and packing" is £7.00. Check the postage before you list. The Royal Mail website has a calculator which will tell you what it is. Courier companies can be trickier; you may have to phone them first. Remember: many buyers are also sellers. They know what something costs to post! COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE! Answer emails. The more a buyer is left in the dark, the less likely you are to get a) good feedback and b) that buyer coming back to you. Remember, it has to be a very rare item indeed that will not appear sooner or later on eBay being sold by someone else. And generally sooner. And, if you get negative feedback (and most of us will) don't be abusive. It makes would-be buyers wonder how you would treat them even when things go well. Finally, if a buyer emails you to say they are pleased and the item arrived safely, just hit the "Reply" button on your email and say something, even if it's just "Thanks". Even "thx" will do!