Buyer Questions

Questions are good. They indicate at least a degree of interest in at least some of your items. I never turn down a question- even some of the wackier-sounding ones. I once sold a vintage VCR dating from about 1977, and someone asked me if the thing was digital. Almost nothing was digital back in 1977 except maybe some new-fangled Japanese wristwatches and some enormous IBM mainframe computers of the day, but I still answered his question.

Some buyers will try to trick you in to self-doubting yourself, and your pricing strategy. They might say, "Well, that radio you have listed for $125 is really only worth $55 because I bought one just like it last week for that much." Mmmm hmmmm.  Did the one last week work as good as the one I am demonstrating in my video? Was it in as good shape, or was it missing the volume knob and with a broken antenna?

One habit you should always try to get in to is answering potential buyers' questions ASAP. Here's why: If Amy sends you a question about your lovely quilt on ebay for $135, what's the next thing she's going to do immediately after she clicks that 'send' button? She's going to go back and see all the other quilts on ebay from other sellers- your competitors. You want to be able to answer Amy's question ASAP to eliminate the gap between her question and her chances to look at the next item for sale. The object is to keep her interested in your item- not to drift off in to ebay-land and look at other things to buy. Now, certainly, there are times when you simply can't be at a computer to answer every email as soon as it comes it. But it certainly helps to catch the ones you can!

Owning a web-enabled cell phone allows you to do just that. You can be at the tire shop getting new tires when you whip out your cell and answer a question sent to you 13 minutes ago about the Betty Crocker Cookbook collection you have on ebay for $50. Or at the hair salon. Getting your nails done. At junior's soccer practice. Waiting in the dentist's office. Sitting in the back pew at church during a boring sermon! LOL- I know, terrible of me!

The saying goes, 'Time is Money'. Use technology to convert some of your downtime in to sales. If nothing else, people are going to appreciate your expediency in returning emails and answering questions. In this day and age of immediate communication, people pretty much expect it. There might be three similar items on ebay to your item, and the same buyer may ask the same question to all four sellers, and may buy the item from whichever seller answers first, simply because he or she simply doesn't want to be bothered with wasting any more of his or her time dilly-dallying around with the question-and-answer ping pong game.

While I am on the subject of questions, I will make one more important point. While you never want to discount any question, you also want to try to minimize them as much as possible. I am not trying to suggest that answering buyers' questions is a waste of time, but there simply are more productive uses of ones' time. So, you will always want to try to minimize the number of questions that you receive. You can do this in one extremely important way: your listing description. What do I mean?

Your listing description is your one written opportunity to describe your item in detail. So why not make the best of it? Suppose you are selling a radio. What sorts of things could you mention about your radio in the listing description area? How about how big the radio it is? AM? or AM/FM? How many batteries does it take? What kind of batteries? Does it even work? Is it in good shape? Any damage? Does it have any unusual markings, stains, dings or odors? Can you find any identifying model number on the thing? Is there a jack for headphones or earphones? These are the sorts of details you want to mention up-front, in your listing description, before your listing even goes live. Doing so helps to ensure you don't receive as many redundant or avoidable questions down the road- questions that you'll have to stop what you're doing, possibly going to find the item to double check, and replying back to the buyer.

Get my drift? Buyers will appreciate your thoughtfulness and your thoroughness, and it will lend an air of professionalism to your listings.

Not sure about some of the features on your particular item, or what to call a certain feature or part? Look up the same item on ebay and see just how other sellers wrote up the same listing for their duplicate item. Review their listing, and look for ways to make yours BETTER. With a little practice you can be writing listing descriptions like the pro's, and avoiding avoidable questions all at the same time!

Another point about buyer questions, and, in general, ebay activity as a whole. I generally tend to get most of my questions tossed to me in the evenings, as well as most of my sales. While not everyone works a 9 - 5, the 9 - 5 seems to be the rule rather than the exception for the workforce. Likewise, the evenings are pretty much when you will generally want to try to stick around the house. This is especially true if you do not have a web-enabled cell phone. It's easier to head out in the evenings for dinner if you can carry a cell with you to answer questions if need be.

I am not saying that ebay will restrict you to be a homebody weekday evenings from 5 pm to 2 am just so you can answer emails. Life as an ebayer will allow you to do as you please.  What I am saying is that an early bird gets the worm, and the earlier you can respond to questions, the better!