Rating:  Summary: Should have been three books. Review: I have been selling for 5 years and have 6000+ rating with 100% positive. If I had read this book first, I would have been scared away, thinking eBay was too complicated. I leave feedback as soon as the person pays...they have fulfilled their requirement. Pictures must be clear and fill the entire field. Scanning small items works well for the beginner without a digital. EBay Hacks gives much time to the details of picture taking with film. If a person has a film camera, they know how to use it. And I can not imagine someone using my photo in their sales and if they did, I doubt that I would know. Mr. Karp says they use his and he has had to deal with these people. I use Multi Block Storage for my canned messages. Free for a month to try it out and then $10.00 one time payment. This is the only money I have spent on frills. Did the cut and paste recommended by eBay Hacks for several years and it works fine but Multi Block is better. But NEVER put a negative in your canned messages as eBay Hacks recommends. He recommended giving it lots of space so you don't copy and paste it by mistake. Negative should be written fresh each time and from the facts of that sale. It should be so rare that you do not need a short cut to save time. People should start slowly to see if eBay is for them. Some people just don't have the temperament for listing, waiting for payment, packing, mailing and living with the clutter of packaging materials and items to list. Mr. Karp had a lot of information for the beginner that would help avoid costly mistakes...like putting in a counter that can slow the loading of the page and avoiding noises and wall paper. But I think the book should have had a beginners section with the balance of the book written for after sellers got their eBay feet wet.
Rating:  Summary: Great book about eBay. Review: I have read many books about eBay and I use eBay a lot. And this is by far the best book I have read and studied about eBay. I learned a lot of things that make using eBay more productive. Just one of the 100 hacks listed was immediately useful for me, (Hack #32) this hack paid for the book. Its also great as a quick reference, as the book is well indexed. I am now looking at other books in the "Hacks" series. Thank you Mr. Karp.
Rating:  Summary: The perfect eBay book Review: I was admittedly skeptical, given the abysmal selection of eBay books out there, but I was pleasantly surprised at the level of detail and professionalism in eBay Hacks. With topics like sniping and negotiating with sellers, this is not just another eBay-sanctioned user's guide; it's a meaty, thorough, entertaining, and well-written handbook, and a must-have for any buyer or seller on eBay. No eBay user should be without this book!
Rating:  Summary: For serious buyers and sellers only Review: Like Amazon Hacks, this book is for serious users of the EBay Web Application only. Those would be people who buy and sell on EBay for a living, or are likely to do that in the near future. For those this book has 330 pages of in-depth material about how to buy and sell, and, at some level, about how to automate that process. This book is less like the other Hacks book in that it has more expository detail about the human side of the story, and less about writing small Perl programs to do stuff. That's fine though, since no Perl program will help you get positive reviews from your buyer's and sellers, but the tips in this book just may help you do that.
Rating:  Summary: Indispensable if you buy or sell on eBay Review: O'Reilly's "hacks" series continues to impress. I've been buying and selling on eBay for nearly two years now, and have already learned a lot. In the few days it took me to read this book I learned as much again and more. Although split into 100 separate "hacks", this book is surprisingly enjoyable to read from cover to cover, and gives a real sense that the author knows what he is writing about.The book is 1/3 buying advice and 2/3 selling advice. It's way more than just a user manual. As well as eBay itself, it covers a selection of third party tools and web sites which can help you get the best from your eBay transactions. Learning from the sections on "dealing with disappointment" and "keeping out deadbeats", could mean you can avoid those problems yourself. The tips on how and when to use the eBay "feedback" system are golden. There's even some detailed advice (with perl code) about how to use the "eBay API" from your own software. If you buy or sell more than one or two things on things on eBay in the next year you really should get this book. It will easily pay for itself in saved time, shipping costs, and stress; it will help you win the items you really want, and it can probably get you better prices too. Go out and buy it.
Rating:  Summary: Indispensable if you buy or sell on eBay Review: O'Reilly's "hacks" series continues to impress. I've been buying and selling on eBay for nearly two years now, and have already learned a lot. In the few days it took me to read this book I learned as much again and more. Although split into 100 separate "hacks", this book is surprisingly enjoyable to read from cover to cover, and gives a real sense that the author knows what he is writing about. The book is 1/3 buying advice and 2/3 selling advice. It's way more than just a user manual. As well as eBay itself, it covers a selection of third party tools and web sites which can help you get the best from your eBay transactions. Learning from the sections on "dealing with disappointment" and "keeping out deadbeats", could mean you can avoid those problems yourself. The tips on how and when to use the eBay "feedback" system are golden. There's even some detailed advice (with perl code) about how to use the "eBay API" from your own software. If you buy or sell more than one or two things on things on eBay in the next year you really should get this book. It will easily pay for itself in saved time, shipping costs, and stress; it will help you win the items you really want, and it can probably get you better prices too. Go out and buy it.
Rating:  Summary: One of the Better eBay Books Review: Ok, I must admit I have read most of eBay books simply because I am amazed at how bad they are. None have helped me in any way shape or form with the exception of this book. I am not going to go in to the details however if you are already a seller on eBay you WILL learn some new beneficial tricks. If you are new to eBay this book will save you the first six months of learning curve boo boos. This book is worth the price. Don't lend it to your friends if they will be competing with you. Of course since eBay is online things go out of date fast. Hopefully O'Reily will keep it up to date, they are in my opinion a very conscientious publisher. A great buy!
Rating:  Summary: Phenomenal Review: Reading through this book, one gets the sense this could be a slightly abbreviated "how to use eBay" guide, rather than a book of "eBay hacks." Many of the hacks offered in the book are not only informative and helpful, but a few almost seem like common sense tips, such as ways to avoid having bad feedback written about you when you sell an item to someone on eBay. Since I'm a "eBay novice," I found a few of the hacks a bit confusing. But I think this is due much more to my inexperience with eBay than anything else. And after reading this book I will attest that it has increased my curiosity and willingness to both buy and sell items on eBay in the future. The book offers numerous excellent "tips" (er hacks) in several main areas. As with other books in the O'Reilly Hacks series, these areas are divided into several chapters. Areas covered in various chapters include Diplomacy and Feedback, searching for auction items, ways to bid on items offered, using photos to help "sell" your items, and completing transactions. If you do any buying and/or selling on eBay, you need this book.
Rating:  Summary: For rookies only Review: Rookies only If you've been doing business on eBay for a long time, you don't need a book like this. Take me as an example; I don't consider myself an eBay expert. Six year experience will make you have an idea about the name of the head of SafeHarbor and how to remove unwanted negative feedback. The book, in my personal opinion, just scratches the surface without giving you enough inside info that would eventually help you. For example, Hack #5 Withholding Feedback. It teaches how to lower the probability of being left unwanted feedbacks. It only works when you're either a contract seller or a power seller. Meaning that you really don't care about your feedback since you generated about 20 plus feedbacks per day. Ratio is your priority concern. On the other hand, those beginners, who are not high volume sellers but want nothing but doing honest business on eBay and have fun. The tip will impede their speed of cumulating feedbacks and directly hurts their sales. Like I said, the tip just scratches the surface without giving valuable information that will help you ultimately. Again, the book is not bad but having a wrong name. If the name was "eBay Fundamentals", it'll be a 5 star. eBay Hacks? Sorry, one star.
Rating:  Summary: This is the one to get! Review: The author is most knowledgeable - a must have book for sellers.
|