This may work for some items that have a huge profit margin and are relatively inexpensive to ship like earnings however, in my experience I find that if I offered free shipping I would be taking a huge cut to my profits. Most people expect to pay some sort of shipping when buying on eBay, so why not charge them for it? I think the key is to not charge too much more than it actually costs to ship the item.

Yes the prices may end up being the same and the seller does make a few dollars extra but at the expense of everyone else on Ebay.
Maybe the Ebay fees would be lower for everyone if everyone played by the rules.
When someone cheats Ebay out of fees they have coming to them, they just raise the fees that are charged to everyone else so they make the same.
Same thing happens in retail stores with shoplifting, who do you think pays for all the items that get stolen and all the extra costs involved in hiring security guards, we all do with increased prices.

As for not buying items that have $30 shipping which apparently any “sinceable” person does (yes, I realize I’m replying to a comment that’s 4 years old; it just really ticks me off) – you’re honestly stupid if you do this. There is no difference between a $1 shirt with $30 shipping and a $30 shirt with $1 shipping. Listing the prices in different places doesn’t make the item magically more expensive. In a lot of cases, prices are actually LOWER because sellers do this – they save $5 or whatever in ebay fees by padding shipping costs, and in return they can make the item a few dollars cheaper than everybody else. It’s a win-win, if you’re smart enough to realize the numbers add up exactly the same way.

Pay for one photo, code in a whole bunch.

“For example, in my auction for the Tolkien animated films on VHS, I used the names of Peter Jackson, Liv Tyler, etc.”

This is called keyword spamming and violates ebay rules. Even if you don’t get your auctions pulled for it, it generates bad will among potential buyers as they discover your auction is not what it’s title claimed – deception is not a good sales tactic!

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This is called keyword spamming and can get your listing pulled. Bad advice. Use title keywords that are relevant to your product.

I’ve never understood this, but maybe it’s because I’m not a power seller. I think this is a good idea only if you’re listing multiple auctions where you cut/paste the template. I’ve made small mistakes where the title says one thing and the description says another. But I always think, as a buyer– “why would they not describe it accurately?” It ALWAYS puts a question mark in my mind as a buyer… UNLESS the seller explains that they list a lot and mistakes are possible, blah blah.

Re: #7 “Bill James had nothing to do with the book”

This is called KEYWORD SPAMMING and explicitly against ebay rules.

I just had an auction shut down the other day for (innocently) saying “LK NEW.” I think this is ridiculous, because the condition WAS like new. If someone only wanted “new” they can take “LK” out of their search by using a “-LK” in the search or using the advanced search options, “Exclude these words.” However, putting something in the title that admittedly has nothing to do with the book, is an easily chargeable offense.

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That sounds like some really bad advice. I know from experience that many people are losing sales on the net because they refuse to ship out of country. It’s just bad business and bad image.

Foreign buyers are not any more unreliable than anyone else?

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