do you sell on eBay?

[freshstart]

(Steve, this will be a dup for you, I posted it on the wrong forum, lol)

sometimes the things I am donating I think are rather nice and I might be able to sell them on eBay. But the thought overwhelms me. Figuring out how much to charge for postage (do I need a postal scale?), is it hard to take a pic with you phone and then get it on eBay, how do you pay eBay? I think about all that and then give everything away. But others on here seem to do quite well at selling. Any tips?

I've used Craigslist to sell lots of kids' clothes and big toys. And I sold almost all my household furniture that way. But for the little things, I think I would fare better on eBay.

[rodeosweetheart]

I have no tips and have wondered the same thing, so I will definitely keep posted, freshstart, and hope you get some good answers!

[sweetana3]

You need to be able to do the following and it can be time consuming to do it properly:

Describe the item accurately including any flaws.
Provide a photograph(s) that clearly shows the item and and special details.
Understand the postal system to be able to either provide an accurate postage amount or mark up the item to cover postage and show free shipping. Note: you can limit your sales to the US and figure out postage pretty well using the USPS system but there are a lot of choices.
Be available for questions and handle all inquiries and sales in a fast and professional manner.
Understand Paypal for payment.

Note: Do your research on open and CLOSED sales to see if the item you have is worth selling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Estimate about 20-25% for costs of sale thru Ebay.

I dont think it is worth selling unless clear sales are shown that are more than $10 an item or more. We used to be sellers all the time and hubby has a feedback rating over 4800 with 100 positive.

[freshstart]

wow, eBay takes more than I thought! I assume you don't take every item to the post office to get a bead on postage costs. Do you weigh the item at home?

[ctg492]

I tried with a large collection of collectables from my Mom's estate. I have been an avid Ebay buyer since 2005. I check there for almost every item before buying anywhere. I figured selling would be an easy task....... Not my can of beans I guess I found out.

Ebay will guide you through the process and it was pretty easy. I used the USPS prepaid boxes after my first mailing which cost the price of the item to ship to CA. Prepaid I knew exactly how much shipping was before listing. The actual event of selling and shipping was easy, it was the wackos I ran into that was unbelievable to me:doh:I guess those that wanted Clowns were special collectors. I got email after email from a few of the buyers. I also found out that the selling price came no where close to the Collector Price Book. I thought I would be making say $100 on a clown and instead after shipping I was lucky to get $10.That was not worth the hassle of pleasing buyers. Yes as said above, view all ads and past sales to get a price for your item.

I can see how people make money on eBay. It just has to be handled as a business with good book keeping. Not for me, I stick to buying.

[herbgeek]

I listed a couple of items for the first time last month. I was pretty overwhelmed with questions too, but it was pretty easy. I was selling some name brand items that have a solid resale market. I currently have a lesser known item up and it's just sitting there. EBay fees and shipping costs were paid through PayPal. Labels were printed on my home computer so I just had to drop stuff off at the post office.

[sweetana3]

We sold many types of things and did our weighing and packaging including printing of labels at home. All we had to do was dump the boxes/envelopes at the post office. Found those offices where we did not have to stand in line. (Note: could have had mailman pick up but we liked him.) The label printing was a big thing because it provides free tracking.

Sometimes used the prepaid boxes, but only if it made sense. Lots of my stuff used padded envelopes. Postage could vary so much (and we only charged actual postage) that it would make the difference in making money or an expensive mistake. Dont sell breakable items unless you know how to pack.

The big big thing is to know your product and your true selling market. Know whether there are others selling the same thing and know whether it sells or not. If there are several sellers with items up for say $49 and I have the exact same thing, I will show a price that is lower to try and capture the market for that item. But if I see several other people doing the same thing, I might wait awhile for their listing to drop. It is a game sometimes. Also it is somewhat like Amazon where sellers can leave astronomical prices on their items until sold but others come and go with lower prices.

[freshstart]

maybe I will try Craigslist again first to get my feet wet

my goal for the first part of the year is to make all of my living space Kondoized (sp?) and then try to find my stuff in the basement and cull that, bring up things I need and decided whether to sell anything. I was pretty brutal when I packed so there's not much to purge of my stuff. But I haven't missed much of it i over 2 yrs so that may not be true anymore

the stuff I could really sell are my mom's duplicate things, IDK if she can cope with that, maybe if she knew she was making money. The Great Hummel Debate of 2016 will rear it's ugly head again. She thinks saving them for my kids is an investment in their future. Yup, their future of hoarding.

[lac]

You can weigh your packaged items and then create shipping labels through Paypal which is so much cheaper than the post office.

[ToomuchStuff]

You need to be able to do the following and it can be time consuming to do it properly:

Describe the item accurately including any flaws.
Provide a photograph(s) that clearly shows the item and and special details.
Understand the postal system to be able to either provide an accurate postage amount or mark up the item to cover postage and show free shipping. Note: you can limit your sales to the US and figure out postage pretty well using the USPS system but there are a lot of choices.
Be available for questions and handle all inquiries and sales in a fast and professional manner.
Understand Paypal for payment.

Note: Do your research on open and CLOSED sales to see if the item you have is worth selling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Estimate about 20-25% for costs of sale thru Ebay.

I dont think it is worth selling unless clear sales are shown that are more than $10 an item or more. We used to be sellers all the time and hubby has a feedback rating over 4800 with 100 positive.




Did you find the postage calculator on the Ebay site, to be as inaccurate as a friend of mine did? (postage was double what Ebay said)
Also, when you say 100 positive, do you mean 100%, or do you mean you had 4700 not so positive?

I should ad, that I am more of an exception then a rule, as I have ordered from people with zero feedback (new sellers, or new to Ebay), because there were less willing to risk it. (but it got me really bargain prices, below average) What that shown me was if your a new seller with no buyer feedback at least, you will be at the lower end of the selling scale.

[CathyA]

Doesn't it cost to just sell your stuff on eBay? I mean eBay charges you for a certain length of time, right?

I've ended up giving away lots of stuff that I could have made money from, just because it would be so much trouble to sell.

[herbgeek]

Ebay took some of the proceeds, yes. It was pretty small though, like a dollar or two on a $25 or so item.

[sweetana3]

100% from the first one to the last sale. I also have very occasionally bought from people who had zero feedback. This was due to Ebay's buyer protections. Got some great deals.

Never had a problem with postage calculation. Hubby loves it because it does classes of mail that the USPS site does not cover. Postal regs are headache inducing!!!!!!!!!!! even the employees do not know what some of them are.

Ebay and Paypal end up costing about 20% of the sales price when all the costs are added up. Listing fees, final value fees, and paypal fees. Sometimes you can get a deal on listing fees, but these are a small amount pre item and a hook to get listings.