EBay Hacks 100 industrial strength tips and tools

eBay Hacks 100 industrial strength tips and tools

Chapter 1. Diplomacy and Feedback
Section 1.1.
   - Hacks #1-8
   - Hack 1. Searching Feedback
   - Hack 2. Using Prefabricated Feedback
   - Hack 3. How to Avoid Negative Feedback
   - Hack 4. Replies and Followups to Feedback
   - Hack 5. Withholding Feedback
   - Hack 6. Remove Unwanted Feedback
   - Hack 7. Improve Your Trustworthiness Quickly
   - Hack 8. What to Do When Your Email Doesn't Get Through

Chapter 2. Searching
Section 2.1.
   - Hacks #9-19
   - Hack 9. Focus Your Searches with eBay's Advanced Search Syntax
   - Hack 10. Controlling Fuzzy Searches
   - Hack 11. Jumping In and Out of Categories While Searching
   - Hack 12. Tweaking Search URLs
   - Hack 13. Find Similar Items
   - Hack 14. Search by Seller
   - Hack 15. Search Internationally
   - Hack 16. Save Your Searches
   - Hack 17. Create a Search Robot
   - Hack 18. Find Items by Shadowing
   - Hack 19. The eBay Toolbar

Chapter 3. Bidding
Section 3.1.
   - Hacks #20-32
   - Hack 20. Sniffing Out Dishonest Sellers
   - Hack 21. Snipe It Manually
   - Hack 22. Automatic Sniping
   - Hack 23. Conditional Sniping with Bid Groups
   - Hack 24. Keep Track of Auctions Outside of eBay
   - Hack 25. Take Advantage of Bid Increments
   - Hack 26. Manipulating Buy-It-Now Auctions
   - Hack 27. Retract Your Bid Without Retracting Your Bid
   - Hack 28. Tools for Dealing with Fraud
   - Hack 29. Send Payment Quickly and Safely
   - Hack 30. International Transactions Made Easier
   - Hack 31. Save Money on Shipping
   - Hack 32. Dealing with Disappointment: Getting Refunds

Chapter 4. Selling
Section 4.1.
   - Hacks #33-54
   - Hack 33. What's It Worth?
   - Hack 34. To Bundle or Not to Bundle
   - Hack 35. Reserve Judgment
   - Hack 36. The Strategy of Listing Upgrades
   - Hack 37. Putting Keywords in Your Auction
   - Hack 38. Track Your Exposure
   - Hack 39. Expectation Management
   - Hack 40. Formatting the Description with HTML
   - Hack 41. Customize Auction Page Backgrounds
   - Hack 42. Framing Your Auctions
   - Hack 43. Overriding eBay's Fonts and Styles
   - Hack 44. Annoy Them with Sound
   - Hack 45. Put a Shipping Cost Calculator in Your Auction
   - Hack 46. Allow Visitors to Search Through Your Auctions
   - Hack 47. List Your Other Auctions in the Description
   - Hack 48. Make Good Use of the About Me Page
   - Hack 49. Opting Out of Checkout
   - Hack 50. Make Changes to Running Auctions
   - Hack 51. Dynamic Text in Auction Descriptions
   - Hack 52. Let's Make a Deal
   - Hack 53. Diplomacy 101: Answering Dumb Questions
   - Hack 54. Keeping Out Deadbeat Bidders

Chapter 5. Working with Photos
Section 5.1.
   - Hacks #55-64
   - Hack 55. How to Keep Your Item from Looking Pathetic
   - Hack 56. Mastering Close-Up Photography
   - Hack 57. Doctoring Photos
   - Hack 58. Protect Your Copyright
   - Hack 59. Host Your Own Photos
   - Hack 60. Make Clickable Thumbnails
   - Hack 61. Construct an Interactive Photo Album
   - Hack 62. Show a 360-Degree View of Your Item
   - Hack 63. Create a Photo Collage
   - Hack 64. Create a Good Gallery Photo

Chapter 6. Completing Transactions
Section 6.1.
   - Hacks #65-71
   - Hack 65. Keep Track of Items You've Sold
   - Hack 66. Sending Payment Instructions
   - Hack 67. Protect Yourself While Accepting Payments
   - Hack 68. Cheap, Fast Shipping Without Waiting in Line
   - Hack 69. Selling and Shipping Internationally
   - Hack 70. Damage Control Before and After You Ship
   - Hack 71. Dealing with Stragglers, Deadbeats, and Returns

Chapter 7. Running a Business on eBay
Section 7.1.
   - Hacks #72-81
   - Hack 72. eBay Stores
   - Hack 73. Streamlining Listings
   - Hack 74. Streamlining Communications
   - Hack 75. Streamlining Checkout and Payment
   - Hack 76. Obtaining Sales Records
   - Hack 77. Make Money by Linking to eBay
   - Hack 78. List Your Auctions on Another Site
   - Hack 79. Accept PayPal Payments from Your Own Site
   - Hack 80. Process PayPal Payments Automatically
   - Hack 81. Keep Tabs on the eBay Community

Chapter 8. The eBay API
Section 8.1.
   - Hacks #82-100
   - Hack 82. Climbing Out of the Sandbox
   - Hack 83. API Searches
   - Hack 84. Retrieve Details About an Auction
   - Hack 85. Automatically Keep Track of Auctions You've Won
   - Hack 86. Track Items in Your Watching List
   - Hack 87. Automatically Keep Track of Auctions You've Sold
   - Hack 88. Submit an Auction Listing
   - Hack 89. Automate Auction Revisions
   - Hack 90. Spellcheck All Your Auctions
   - Hack 91. Negative Feedback Bidder Alert
   - Hack 92. Automatically Relist Unsuccessful Auctions
   - Hack 93. Send Automatic Emails to High Bidders
   - Hack 94. Generate a Custom Gallery
   - Hack 95. Leaving Feedback
   - Hack 96. Negative Feedback Notification
   - Hack 97. Automatic Reciprocal Feedback
   - Hack 98. Queue API Calls
   - Hack 99. Cache Auction Data to Improve API Efficiency
   - Hack 100. Working Without the eBay API

Hacks for All

Chapter 1, Diplomacy and Feedback Feedback in the eBay world is like credit in the real world: you use it to buy and sell things, you build it up over a long time, and you protect it like a first-born child. This chapter introduces eBay's feedback system and describes the many different ways to maintain a good feedback profile and use it to inspire trust in others.

Hacks for Buyers

Chapter 2, Searching The only way to find anything on eBay is by searching, either by typing keywords into search boxes or by browsing through category listings. The hacks in this chapter describe how to find auctions before anyone else does, focus your searches with a variety of tools, and even create an automated search robot.

Chapter 3, Bidding This chapter explains both how bidding is supposed to work, and how it actually works in the real world. It also discusses how you can use eBay's proxy bidding system to improve your win rate while spending less money.

Hacks for Sellers

Chapter 4, Selling The beauty of eBay is that anything you buy can be sold, sometimes for more than you paid for it. This chapter shows the strategies involved with selling, such as which listing upgrades work best, how to promote your items without spending extra money, how to format your listings with HTML and JavaScript, and how to protect yourself from deadbeat bidders.

Chapter 5, Working with Photos Photos can make or break an auction. This chapter shows you not only how to take good pictures and put them in your auctions, but also includes specific code you can use for cool presentations.

Chapter 6, Completing Transactions The hacks in this chapter will give you the selling tools to help receive payments, ship your packages, and protect yourself while doing it.

Chapter 7, Running a Business on eBay If selling on eBay is your full-time job (or if you just wish it were), the tools in this chapter will help you sell more in less time and with less effort. Streamline listing creation, communications, and checkout, and make more money while you're at it.

Hacks for Developers

Chapter 8, The eBay API To the delight of anyone interested in hacking, eBay's API lets developers write applications to communicate directly with the eBay servers. But it's not just for developers—anyone with a computer or web server and a little time to learn Perl can write (and use) quick-and-dirty scripts to search, retrieve auction information, leave feedback, and much more. acks for All