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Completing the Sale

The listing has ended and your item has sold. Good communication with your customers and prompt shipping after the listing ends is crucial to your success as an eBay seller. (What if you didn’t sell your item?)

Once your item has sold you need to:

You can manage your selling activites using My eBay. For example, you can mark an item as paid and then Posted.

Contacting your buyer

Once your listing is over, you’ll need to contact your winning bidder or Buy It Now buyer. Checkout will contain some or all of the necessary information about your buyer. If the details are not complete, you'll need to contact your buyer to exchange information.

You may need to inform the buyer:

  • Postage cost

  • How you will ship the item to them

  • When to expect it and a postal tracking number if you have it

  • The total price

Receiving payment

  • Always verify payment before posting items.  If you accept PayPal payments, you usually receive payments immediately (see Selling with PayPal).

Posting the item

After receiving payment, the faster you send the item, the more likely the buyer will be to give positive feedback and buy additional items from you.

  • Review which postage options and postal services fit your postal needs, including irregular size packages and large packages.

  • Pack the item with enough cushioning to ensure that the item arrives undamaged (see Packaging Tips).

  • Post with a tracking number and offer insurance. Email the tracking number to the buyer so they can track the item. This procedure can help resolve disputes if a buyer claims to have never received an item or to have received a broken item (see Shipping ConcernsPostalShipping Concerns).

Leaving feedback

  • Leaving feedback after your listing is over is an important part of participating in the eBay community. This is your chance to let other eBay members know what it was like to do business with your buyer.

  • The feedback system gives everyone an incentive to be honest, timely, and fair. And it helps both buyers and sellers make decisions about who to do business with.

  • You can leave feedback using My eBay, or leave feedback at eBay's Feedback Forum.

Paying eBay fees

You can make a payment or change your payment method at any time by going to the Seller Account section in My eBay.

If your item did not sell

If your item didn’t receive any successful bids, you can:

If something goes wrong with your high bidder, you can:


Contact Customer Support

If you have an additional question about this subject, email us at Customer Support.
If you would like to ask a question on another subject, please use the Contact Us page.


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