EBay for Dummies (34 page)

Sure enough, when I tried this tactic, I found a considerable number of additional listings for a
Dukes of Hazzard
Lunchbox.
Coincidentally, when I changed my search (remember, sellers
do
make mistakes) to
dukes (hazzard,hazard) (“lunch box”,lunchbox)
, my search results went from 28 lunchboxes to 32! The best deals for buyers (and for sellers to resell) are always when the seller misspells a name or brand in the title.

Always search for the same item with different word variations or spellings. This is about the only time “creative” spelling can help you.

Look at the pictures on individual auction item pages for each item that your Completed Items search turns up. That way, you can confirm that the items (lunchboxes, for example) are identical to the one you want to sell. And when you do your research, factor in your item’s condition. Read the individual item descriptions. If your item is in better condition, expect (and ask for) more money for it; if your item is in worse condition, expect (and ask for) less. Also, note the categories the items are listed under; they may give you a clue about where eBay members are looking for items just like yours.

If you want to be extremely thorough in your comparison selling, go to a search engine to see whether the results of your eBay search mesh with what’s going on elsewhere. If you find that no items like yours are for sale anywhere else online and are pretty sure people are looking for what you have, you may just find yourself in Fat City.

Don’t forget to factor in the history of an item when you assess its value. Getting an idea of what people are watching, listening to, and collecting can help you assess trends and figure out what’s hot. For more about using trend-spotting skills to sniff out potential profits, take a look at the Appendix.

Know What You Can (and Can’t) Sell

The majority of items sold on eBay are aboveboard. But sometimes eBay finds out about listings that are either illegal (in the eyes of the state or federal government) or prohibited by eBay’s rules and regulations. In either case, eBay steps in, calls a foul, and makes the item invalid.

eBay doesn’t have rules and regulations just for the heck of it. eBay wants to keep you educated so you won’t unwittingly bid on, buy — or sell — an item that has been misrepresented. eBay also wants you to know what’s okay and what’s prohibited so that if you run across an item that looks fishy, you’ll help out your fellow eBay members by reporting it. And eBay wants you to know that getting your listing shut down is the least of your worries: You can be suspended if you knowingly list prohibited items. And I won’t even talk about criminal prosecution.

You need to know about these three categories:

Prohibited
lists the items that may
not
be sold on eBay under any circumstances.

Questionable
lists the items that may be sold under certain conditions.

Potentially Infringing
lists the types of items that may be in violation of copyrights, trademarks, or other rights.

You may not even offer to give away for free a prohibited
or an infringing item, nor can you give away a questionable item that eBay disallows; giving it away doesn’t relieve you of potential liability.

The items that you absolutely
cannot
sell on eBay can fit into
all three
categories. Those items can be legally ambiguous at best — not to mention potentially risky and all kinds of sticky. To find a detailed description of which items are prohibited on the eBay Web site, follow these steps:

1. Click the Policies link, which is on the bottom of all eBay pages.

You arrive at the friendly eBay Policies page.

2. Scroll to the Prohibited and Restricted items link and click.

Ta-da! You are presented with the lists and links that will help you decipher whether selling your item falls within eBay’s policy boundaries.

Or, if you don’t mind typing, you can go directly to
pages.ebay.com/help/policies/items-ov.html
.

Sometimes an item is okay to own but not to sell. Other times the item is prohibited from being
sold and possessed.
To complicate matters even more, some items may be legal in one part of the United States but not in others. Or an item may be illegal in the United States but legal in other countries.

Because eBay’s base of operations is in California, United States law is enforced — even if both the buyer and seller are from other countries. Cuban cigars, for example, are legal to buy and sell in Canada, but even if the buyer
and
the seller are from Canada, eBay says
“No permiso”
and shuts down auctions of Havanas fast. Figure 9-3 shows an auction that was shut down soon after I found it.

Prohibited items

Even though possessing (and selling) many of the items in the following list is legal in the United States and elsewhere, you are absolutely, positively
prohibited
from buying and selling the following on eBay:

Firearms of all types:
This also means firearm accessories — including antique, collectible, sport, or hunting guns; air guns; BB guns; silencers; converters; kits for creating guns; gunpowder; high-capacity ammunition magazines (receptacles designed to feed ten rounds or more into a gun, not the publications about ammo); and armor-piercing bullets. You can’t even sell a gun that
doesn’t
work.

You
can
buy and sell single bullet1s, shells, and even antique bombs and musket balls — as long as they have nothing explosive in them.

Firearms and
military weapons:
No way can you sell any type of firearm that is designed to propel a metal (or similar) projectile, regardless of whether it works. Military weapons? Items included are bazookas, grenades, and mortars.

Police and other law-enforcement badges and IDs:
Stop in the name of the law if you’re thinking about buying or selling any of these items, including actual United States federal badges or imitation badges. In fact, selling just about any U.S. government badge can get you in hot water.