Tell Me About Selling On eBay

[jyl]

I'm going to start streamlining my life, starting with getting rid of a bunch of stuff that used to be important to me but is now just clutter.

eBay is the natural route for some of it. I've sold a few things over the years on eBay but I am not an experienced seller at all.

Can you guys offer me any tips? Lessons, warnings, etc?

I decided to try it out and sold a couple of low value items - random plastic model kits, they went for $10-20 and eBay added shipping charges of $10-15 which seemed too high but I quickly learned that barely covers postage. And I see that my Paypal funds are held for a month. Hmm.

I want to figure this out before selling the higher value crap oops collectibles.

[jwgn777]

Describe the item you are sell as accurate as possible. Post clear photos. Get a scale to weigh your item and you can go to the USPS web page and get the shipping rates. Sometimes a flat rate will work. Always research the item you are selling by looking on ebay before you list it to get an idea of what it had sold for.

[Embraer]

ive been selling stuff on ebay for about 10 years. i recently sold my Lancia on there...never had an issue until now.

Listed the car, and mentioned there was rust holes in the subframe and holes in the passenger floor. Guy bids on the car without asking any questions. Wins the auction, and has the car shipped across the country.

Upon receipt of the car, decides to have buyer's remorse and demands 1/3 of the sales price as a refund. I was willing to work with him (just out of good faith...even though i had NO requirement) until he started extorting me. Told me I would get bad feedback unless I gave him exactly what i wanted. That sealed the deal in my mind. He was going to get nothing. Of course, he gives me bad feedback...and as a seller, you have no recourse anymore. You can't comment on it, and you can't give him feedback.

Ruined my feedback rating (well...for the next 12 months). I reported him to ebay for extortion. they're reviewing the case right now. he emailed through their message console, so there's the paper trail of his communications with me.


FYI...ebay's shipping calculator sucks. it's always way less than the actual cost of it. Make sure you tell buyers that they'll pay actual shipping. also..don't tag exhorbitant shipping costs on. that's just annoying.

[gtc]

-High quality photos make an enormous difference.
-Also, listing things Sunday evening seems to get the most bidding activity at the end - probably since most people are at home then.
-Getting things boxed up and calculating shipping before creating a listing seems to be the only way to not get screwed on S&H.
-Prepare to be surprised by how much or how little your stuff sells for.

[Gene Wilkes]

Research is key! Use google to find similar items being offered for sale and price accordingly!
Lots of good tips from the others too!

[Baz]

Graham made a great point about timing your auction to end on a weekend night. I used to have them end on Sunday nights around 9-10pm.

I also usually put in a starting bid of the minimum amount I want for my item. That way if I get only 1 bid, I get what I want.

Also you might want to put in a Buy It Now - at a reasonable amount above your starting bid enough to make it enticing but also enough to give you a nice margin.

As far as shipping...I use USPS for everything I can. Especially Priority Mail because they supply the boxes and calculating shipping is fairly easy to do and post on your auctions.

Also the smaller and lighter the item the easier it will be to sell - due to shipping requirements and cost containment.

As the others have said....good photos are a must. I used to host them on one of my private websites and then insert the HTML code into my auction. That way it was essentially free and I could upload some nice large and clear photos.

I haven't sold anything in a few years but at some point I also need to get back on it. I've always thought it was one of the best avenues for selling stuff in the country today.

I also have a Paypal account and that makes it easier. I don't remember my funds being held for 30 days...maybe that's a new policy that wasn't in place when I was selling.

Good luck and please keep us posted on your endeavours!

[bell]

Also be aware of you are new to ebayyou will not see any of the funds sent for 15-18 days, including shipping money, so you'll have to "front" that money.....
Unless they changed it recently.....
Plus they take their cut.....which isn't small change on big items. ...

[wdfifteen]

Between eBay and PayPal figure 17 to20% in fees. Shipping is easy with their system, and the postage is less if bought from eBay. I thought it would be a rip off, but I've used the office shipping calculator and compared it with bay's postage price and eBay is always lower. PayPal money is available immediately if you have it linked to a bank account.

[dafischer]

USPS Priority Mail flat rate boxes are the best, as long as they fit what you're selling. Buyer pays shipping, which you know without having to weigh stuff, and checking postage to different zips. Print and pay postage on line with them , and you'll save some money over the price at the post office.

[LeeH]

Lots of great suggestions. I'll add:

Always search closed auctions to see what your items might sell for. People can ask outrageous prices. Doesn't mean like items ever sell in that range. A dozen unsold items for less than you think it's worth? Don't waste your time.

The vast majority of my auctions are started at $.01 with no reserve. Low starting prices get attention. People know the item will sell so they add it to their watch list. Sometimes items sell for more than I expect.

If there are a lot of closed auctions for a like item, check out the seller's title... especially for the highest priced sold items. Look to see what words they've used in the title. Use those same words. Use every space available on the title line, but only use relevant words. If I'm selling a watch, I might say, "Vintage Seiko Scuba Divers Watch, Stainless Steel." Those are all words someone might enter on a search. Words like "Awesome, Beautiful, Cool, etc," just take up space and are not likely to be included in a search.

Definitely calculate the shipping cost to the furthest point before entering a figure for shipping. I'm in Phoenix and will usually calculate shipping to Boston (because I know a zip code there). If the buyer turns out to be in California, I come out ahead. Free shipping does help sell an item. May just be a psychological thing. I usually only offer free shipping on smaller items that will likely sell for more money. I bought a small postal scale. Makes it way easier to use the eBay shipping function and skip the lines at the PO.

Don't expect off the charts bids of you have low feedback numbers. If you're selling a rare (high dollar) collectible and only have a feedback rating of 2, you're going to miss out. Might be worth finding a friend with higher feedback numbers to run the auction for you.

If you don't ship using eBay, make sure to enter the tracking number once you get it.

[speeder]

Plenty of good info, I'll just say that ebay these days is a much better place to buy stuff than to sell. It somehow became more of a buyer's market for most things, plus the fees and Paypal monopoly have made it less profitable.

That said, it's still the only game in town for reaching a large audience for your used item that someone, somewhere might need. I have a friend who sold virtually everything he owned and hit the road, he told me that "if it can be shipped, ebay it". Don't even waste your time with Craigslist. Though I did get lucky last week selling a very large and unshippable item on CL.

[mikester]

I would look for alternative places to sell specialty items - like those model kits. Go to a popular forum and become a member there. You'll likely get a better price and won't have to deal with eBay's quirks.

I sell RC stuff I get tired of all the time. I'll buy it via eBay but I never sell it there. I always sell via rcuniverse.com. Free listing and it goes right to the target audience.