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Help a noob start selling on eBay
Bitstream
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi all,
I've been holding on to a lot of useless junk (well, for me, anyway) with the plan of selling it on eBay eventually, and the proverbial rainy day has arrived. Unfortunately I have only ever bought and never sold, and I'm hoping you guys can give me some beginner tips.
Most of the stuff I'll be selling is of the classic videogame variety, if it helps.
I've been holding on to a lot of useless junk (well, for me, anyway) with the plan of selling it on eBay eventually, and the proverbial rainy day has arrived. Unfortunately I have only ever bought and never sold, and I'm hoping you guys can give me some beginner tips.
Most of the stuff I'll be selling is of the classic videogame variety, if it helps.
Bitstream on
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Posts
As for shipping charges, you can go the lazy way and just give a flat rate or you can go to the post office and figure it out. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you necessarily have to specify shipping charges beforehand, but people will be hesitant to buy in that case.
How's your feedback rating? People on eBay are often cowards about buying from people with low ratings. I've gotten unbelievable deals because people were afraid to bid on auctions by respectible people who happened to have low feedback ratings. It's something you should be aware of when trying to maximize your item's price.
Be completely honest.
Send a thank you card with the package, as well. Remind them in the card to come back and rate.
Respond to questions promptly.
Specify what they are going to be. I'm a frequent buyer on eBay and trust me, if faced with a $5.00 purchase with unspecified shipping (I have to email and ask) or a $7.00 purchase that says the shipping in the auction, I'll take the latter, *every single time* without even asking the first guy.
Decide if you are going to ship internationally. I'm in Canada, and yes, shipping costs me more, but that's fine, just put my shipping charges in at the higher charge (eBay's sell your item form lets you do that) and I'll still buy the item.
2. Feedback:
Sounds like you already have a few feedback from buying. Feel free to be honest in the listing about why you are selling the items if you think people might be concerned about lack of feedback ratings to judge you by. No need to go into a life story but a few lines about "New to selling on eBay, just clearing out the closet" can help with trust.
3. Accept PayPal:
If you don't have a PayPal account, set one up NOW, before you list the items. Sometimes you run into problems with having used that credit card before on another PayPal account or forgetting your password/changing your email address or whatever and the last thing you need is to have to go and edit your PayPal info in the listing later.
Accepting personal checks or money orders can be a pain. Decide if you're willing to deal with that, waiting 10 days for a check to clear before mailing the package while getting emails every day saying "Where is my stuff?!?!". If that concept seems like you'd rather stab yourself in the eye, state in the listing that it's PayPal only and make sure you select PayPal and nothing else when listing your items.
4. Pictures:
Yep, you *must* take pictures. Try to make them large and clear. No need to do the eBay "Gallery" thing and pay extra. If you have something needing more than one pic, host them yourself if you can, to save the money, otherwise I think they have the first pic free anyway (it will load faster if you use eBay hosting probably) and it doesn't sound like you'll need too many for classic vid. game stuff.
5. Description:
Add in any flaws in the items, and say the obvious stuff like "This is still working great, tried it out last night" or whatever. People sell a lot of broken stuff on eBay, so saying the obvious is necessary. Tell them if you have the box or manual or whatever and be 100% clear on what the buyer will receive in the mail when they win.
6. Fees and money stuff:
Understand that eBay doesn't take their fees from the money people pay you (after all, how could they do that if someone sent you a check?) so your PayPal account (if you use PP) will fill up with the payments, and then eBay will send you the bill at the end of your billing cycle (theres a couple a month).
When you set up your selling account, eBay will ask how you want to pay your bill, I recommend PayPal again, or credit card. The checking account thing isn't a good idea. One typo in the account number and whammo, huge fee for a declined payment.
So at the end, let eBay take their cut from your PayPal account, then ask PayPal to transfer the rest of the money to your checking account you have on file or credit card or whatever and enjoy the money. Or, just leave it there and use it to pay for other things through PayPal, whatever works.
7. Be competitive:
eBay has a completed listing search option (on the left after searching) so hunt through and see what your stuff is worth, what it has sold for, and also look at the items that didn't sell and think about why, perhaps (crap pictures or too pricey or didn't specify shipping). eBay can be a very tough eye opener about the worth of some kinds of items. Be fair with your cost and offer to combine shipping charges if people buy lots of your items at once. If they are similar items, chances are people will poke around in all your listings to see what else they want. Advertise that on your listing, saying to check out your other items. (Be cautious not to mention the other items by title in other listings, as that is called keyword spamming and it can also confuse stupid buyers).