I've been selling on eBay for quite a while with no real problems. Admittedly, I usually sell smaller items along with books and paper and don't have a lot of worries about shipping.Here are a few hints:
1 -- Go to eBay and study the guitars being offered. What are the opening bids like? What's the quality of the guitars? How many bids are they getting? When you finish lookiong at these, click on "Completed" and see how much guitars like yours are actually sold for.
2 -- Look into some of the payment plans that others are using, ie., PayPal. These services charge a small fee to the seller, but make transactions much smoother. Another method is to accept payment by money order only; again, no waiting for checks to clear.
3 -- Go to your nearest shipping center and get a rough idea about the cost of shipping a guitar; also get rates for insurance. This information will give prospective buyers an idea of how much they'll have to pay for shipping and insurance. BTW, buyer almost always pays shipping costs.
4 -- When you list a gutar, put as much information as you can fit in that one line that you start with. Include such things as make, model, year, finish, style, number of strings, etc. Many buyers won't waste the time looking at every item listed as just "guitar." Rather they may only search for Guilds or Gibsons; they may only want a twelve string. The more information you provide, the more people will see your listing.
5 -- Include pictures. Items without pictures just don't sell. If you don't have a digital camera, take photos and scan them in as JPGs. EBay allows you to upload them directly from your computer, 1st one is free.
6 -- Be completely honest in your description. If there's a crack, point it out. If the finish is rough, say so. If you're including a case, give it a full descrition also.
7 -- Your opening bid, which you set, should not be too low. If you want $200.00, don't open at $20.00. Rather open at 100. If you're not willing to take any chances, you can set a reserve. But be realistic and make this, or the opening bid, the absolute lowest price you would consider. Too high an opener will result in no bids.
If there's anything else I've forgotten, I can't remeber it.
Happy selling -- Tom