Dear Uncle Griff and Dear Aunt Flossie

The following information is provided to educate and inform. eBay and its employees are not liable or responsible for any type of damage or loss caused, or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, by the information below.

eBay's kindly old Uncle Griff has agreed to answer questions for some of our members. If you have a question you would like to ask him, email him at unclgrff@ebay.com. NOTE: Not one to be left out of anything, Uncle Griff's mother, Aunt Flossie, loves to meddle in her son's business. Aunt Flossie offers "helpful" replies to questions also (email her at unclgrff@ebay.com).

Uncle Griff:

With your extensive experience on eBay, and with your infinite wisdom, how do you decide when to relist an unsold item? Is it better to relist immediately, or wait a couple of weeks for the item to "cool"? Would your answer be different for an item that had bids but did not meet the reserve?

Anxious to Sell

Hello Anxious,

Uncle would think that a seller would relist an item immediately to capture the moment's interest. However, Uncle must confess that he has never used reserves for his own items, and none of his items have ever gone bidless so he never had to address this dilemma.

Regards, Uncle Griff

Dear Uncle Griff,

I am a "young" Senior Citizen, and I love to travel to flea markets and antique shops throughout the U.S. I would like to drive to Biloxi, Mississippi to visit my cousin's grave in the National Cemetery and to bake on the beach, eat great seafood, and, of course, search for wonderful treasures for my collections. It would be so nice to have the help of an advanced person....someone who lives in the area who could help people obtain clean, reasonable motel accommodations, or camp sites ... someone who could take people to the beach, flea markets, the best kept secrets of the area. Do you think there is any way, through eBay, that a network like that could be set up? Just a thought. Thanks for your time.

Phoenix

Hello Phoenix,

You could post your suggestion on one of our various chat boards and possibly find a few other users who would be interested in your proposal. You might want to start here: http://pages.ebay.com/community/chat/index.html

Good luck!

Regards, Uncle Griff

Dear Uncle Griff,

Just read your page for the first time and I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it — I'll be back. I am fairly new to eBay and have made some good buys. I hope to soon become a seller (as soon as I learn how to put pictures on here).

Thanks, dixiesgranny

Hello Dixiesgranny,

Thank you for the nice email. We are certainly grateful that you are enjoying eBay. If you need assistance with placing photos on your listings, try our Images Tutorial located here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/phototut-index.html

Also check out our Images/HTML board:

http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBoard&name=image-html

If you need more help, please do not hesitate to email us and we will help you with the process. It seems daunting the first time, but once you have listed your first item, it will seem like child's play, I assure you!

Regards, Uncle Griff

Dear Uncle Griff,

I am new to eBay and I have a few questions. How can I make a living selling on eBay? I've heard some people do. Also, other than collectibles, what products are in hottest demand besides computers and computer accessories?

No name given

Hello,

Welcome to eBay! So you want to make a living selling here? Not a problem! Thousands of folks are doing so already. Here are some tips:

1. Consider what type of item(s) you would really enjoy selling. You stand a much better chance of selling success if you know and like the items you are offering, whatever they may be.
2. Find something that others are NOT selling on eBay (for example, there are lots and lots of people selling Ty Beany Babies so you will probably have a lot of competition if you choose to sell them...that is, of course, unless you have a few of the very early retireds to sell).
3. Make satisfying your customers your first mission.
4. Learn from the pros the proper way to list items.
5. Be sure to include a photo with your listing.
6. Finally (because six steps are more than enough), enjoy yourself! If it is not fun, it isn't worth doing.

(By the way, the hottest products at eBay right now are too many to list, but you can get a pretty good idea of some of them simply by scanning through the various category listings.)

Regards, Uncle Griff

Dear Uncle Griff,

Am I the only one in the world who doesn't know what "eBay" stands for?

Please advise.

Thanks, Wendy

Hello Wendy,

No, you are not the only person in the world who does not know what the word "eBay" stands for. Some folks believe that it is a shortening of "electronic bay" and still others are certain it is a contraction of "East Bay" (which is a bit loopy since we are located in the south Bay Area of San Jose, California - but never mind...)

Uncle likes to think that "eBay" stands for many things like "fun" or "adventure" and even "community" but of course, what it ACTUALLY means is "be" in pig Latin:

Q: "Otay eBay oryay otnay otay eBay?..."
A: "Oh stop reciting the ardbay and bid for Pete's sake."

Regards, Uncle Griff

Dear Aunt Flossie,

I collect old matchbooks, as well as cigarette and cigar collectibles. The trouble is, I recently missed bidding on a great, old matchbook that I didn't know was listed because I was focused on a few cigarette-related item listings, and I forgot to run a search on the word "matchbook" looking for new matchbook listings. By the time I saw the matchbook, the auction had closed. What can you suggest to improve my memory?

Forgetful in Florida

Dear Forgetful,

Could you repeat your problem, Aunt Flossie can't remember what it was? Oh yes, you recently missed the opportunity to bid on a matchbook because you didn't know it was listed until it was too late. Well Aunt Flossie has some great news for you, yes indeedy! eBay has a new feature called Personal Shopper, and it's just perfect for those of us who don't have the memory of an elephant! Here's how it works: You tell Personal Shopper what item or items to look for, and at certain times that you specify, eBay notifies you by email when that item is listed. Basically, the email serves as a reminder to let you know "Hey, I've just been listed! Don't miss your chance to bid on me!"

Now if only I could get eBay to notify me when my plants need watering...