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Selling on EBay
Omeks
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My mom is cleaning out her basement and I've saved a lot of my old toys from her giving them away, thinking I can maybe make some money off eBay. But I've never used eBay before so I don't exactly know what I'm doing. I've got a lot of Star Wars vehicles and figures, TNMT figures, Beast Wars Transformers, Power Ranger zords. Toys range from fairly good condition (1995 Mell Falcon with opened box, only missing two minor components) to action figures that are missing their accessories. I have a few questions I'm hoping someone can help me out with.
1. Is it smarter to do Buy It Now and set a price or auction off?
2. I'm looking a lot of these up on eBay and seeing the same toys going for pretty random amounts, a lot of Buy It Nows with what seem to be high prices and also a lot of auctions with mostly zero bids. At a glance, it doesn't look like a majority of the already listed auctions are having a lot of success. Any tips or observations?
3. I'm kind of worried about having to deal with shipping. That's what's stopped me in the past from selling this stuff.
Any other tips would be helpful, or if you guys think I should use a different site or service. I figure Craigslist would be better to deal with locally, but I figure eBay would reach a bigger toy collector's market and thus I should go with eBay.
Thanks,
1. Is it smarter to do Buy It Now and set a price or auction off?
2. I'm looking a lot of these up on eBay and seeing the same toys going for pretty random amounts, a lot of Buy It Nows with what seem to be high prices and also a lot of auctions with mostly zero bids. At a glance, it doesn't look like a majority of the already listed auctions are having a lot of success. Any tips or observations?
3. I'm kind of worried about having to deal with shipping. That's what's stopped me in the past from selling this stuff.
Any other tips would be helpful, or if you guys think I should use a different site or service. I figure Craigslist would be better to deal with locally, but I figure eBay would reach a bigger toy collector's market and thus I should go with eBay.
Thanks,
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yes, sorry, I should have mentioned that
Sometimes. I've been noticing more and more that Priority Mail is often cheaper at certain weights (usually between 14 ounces and 2 pounds).
OP, I started doing what you're doing about a year ago. More advice that would've helped me back when I first got started:
-You see Buy It Now at a higher price because people who are impatient or don't want to deal with getting sniped at the last second choose that over waiting out an auction.
-Feel out which figures are worth more (look at completed listings) and sell them individually. Sell less valuable figures in lots (sometimes it's also a good idea to toss them in with the more valuable figures to move them).
-If at all possible, try to keep the weight of the item + any packing materials to under 13 ounces, which will qualify for first class shipping, which is a lot cheaper.
-If you have a printer, get a postal scale (you can find them for $10-$15 on Amazon). Use eBay shipping, since it gives you a discount and it makes your trip to the post office a lot faster. You'll make your money back fairly quickly.
-If you plan on shipping a lot of items, it might be good to order shipping supplies (boxes and padded envelopes) from Amazon. They tend to be cheaper than retail stores. You can also reuse boxes and envelopes that you get from other people to help save some money here.
-Keep in mind that shipping items all the way across the country can get expensive if the weight of the package pushes it out of the First Class mail zone. Keep this in mind when you set shipping costs. Don't be surprised if a 1 pound item costs $8 to ship.
-If you put the item up as an auction, try to do so at a time when the majority of people will be home and doing leisurely activities (I usually put mine up so that it's 10pm on the east coast and 7pm on the west coast). Also, try not to have the auction end on a Friday or Saturday night, as most people will be out and not paying as much attention to the auctions.
-You might want to take a look at forums that are dedicated to certain toylines, as they'll often have a Buy/Sell/Trade section. If you sell through them, you'll often get less money than if you sold it on ebay, but you also won't have to pay any fees to ebay. The only downside is that you won't have any feedback to prove that you're trustworthy.
-When packing an item, shake the box around once you think you're done. To make sure the item is secure, it should not move around.
-Plastic shopping bags make decent cushioning for shipping and most people tend to have a lot of them.
-ALWAYS ship with some form of tracking.
Also, for more valuable items that are ALMOST complete, it's sometimes worth it to find and buy the missing accessories if it'll boost the selling price of the item.
1. Sometimes you can sell items for a higher price as a lot, if they're highly sought after. For example, if you have all four Ninja Turtles, you can probably ask a few bucks more for them and the buyer will be willing to pay more since they won't have to search around for all of them.
2. Sometimes the item you think no one will want will get 20 bids and sell for 4x what you thought you'd get. Sometimes the item you think will get a ton of bids will only sell at the starting price. Either way, make sure you're comfortable selling the item at the minimum bid that you set.
hmmm must be my location or something. All my packages are 1.5 lbs and go about $10-$20 less than priority when using parcel post.
either way, you can get an 8$ vegetable scale from walmart, weigh the package, and go online to check respective prices.
And definitely use tracking.