How many times have you seen terms similar to this at the end of a listing while browsing eBay?

"Terms and conditions! Please read before bidding".

Payment must be made within 48 hours, if payment is not made within this time negative feedback will be left and eBay will be informed.

No new users. If your feedback is below 10 please contact me before bidding or I will retract your bid.

No time wasters, scammers or fraudsters..

Why do people do this? It's not going to stop non paying bidders, fraudsters or scammers. What it is going to do is result in fewer sales. Sure, we all hate the non payers and eBay is a scammers paradise but do you really think having terms like that is going to stop it? Of course not.

"Payment must be made within 48 hours, if payment is not made within this time negative feedback will be left and eBay will be informed".

If you even hint at giving me negative feedback for any reason I will simply move on to the next auction. You have just lost a sale.

"No new users. If your feedback is below 10 please contact me before bidding or I will retract your bid".

Why pick on the newbie, we all have to start on zero feedback and most of us start by buying something. By having a silly statement like that you could have lost a customer for life.

"No time wasters, scammers or fraudsters".

Do you really think this will stop a fraudster or a scammer?

What I am trying to say here is try and make your buyers experience as pleasant and easy as possible. For me silly terms like this sound negative and if I can get the product elsewhere I simply close the page and move on to the next auction.

We can all have unpleasant experiences from time to time on eBay and it's not nice if you get scammed but don't take it out on the rest of the eBay community. I would suggest you browse your listings and take a good look at your terms and conditions and if you have any negativity in your auctions have a serious think about changing them as all you are doing is harming your own sales.

All you need to do is keep your terms simple and easy to understand and you will have more sales, guaranteed.

About The Author

John Thornhill is an eBay powerseller and trades on eBay under the username planetsms.

If you really want to succeed on eBay with information products visit http://www.auctionprofitstreams.com/.