Advice on Selling Stuff On Ebay

[Sarah E. Ford]

everyone had different opinions on this one. My advice is the feedback. and try finding the real price for what your selling or buying. that way people won't rip you off or that you won't do the same thing.

[Bugman]

I didn't know that ebay charged fees to sellers. How much are the fees?

[cube3]

The fees have increased over the years and I agree profits are greatly cut too. With that said, we can't deny that eBay is the biggest online marketplace with the majority of buyers too.

[Alex Marsh]

My sister sells clothes on ebay and she has a shop there. It takes alot of hard work to sell enough on ebay to make a living. Make sure you get the customer to pay the shipping fees both ways or you wont be making much of a profit. Also make your description look like you haven't just quickly written down the basics. Saying that they can feel free to ask any questions make the customer more interested as they can see that you care.

[volcom714]

Feedback is key!

[Hooman]

Some good advice here. I've been selling on eBay for about 4 years. I have been a PowerSeller at times, and have also gone months without any activity at other times. It's mostly been a side income activity. I tend to sell just about everything I list and also sell it for higher than other sellers. My profit margins are huge. I won't tell you what I sell, but I'll give these pointers:

• As many have mentioned - FEEDBACK is key. Guard it with your life. Not just having positive feedback, but also having a 100% score with a high number of points is hugely important. Do whatever it takes to maintain your 100% positive feedback, which leads to my next point...
  
  
• Always provide a satisfaction guarantee. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes. It's online, and you're not buying from an established store, rather some random seller online. Feedback aside, you'll want some assurance, and a guarantee is an excellent way to establish a sense of trust. I always provide at least a 7-day money-back guarantee on every item I sell. I usually provide a 30-day guarantee. Many will disagree and say it's costly or could lead to manipulation (although I only get about 1 return out of every 50 sales... less than 2% actually), but that is why I also...
  
  
• Screen and filter buyers. Set minimum qualifications on your auctions. Be sure to specifically address payment, shipping, and return policies on your listings. Be very clear and communicate well with your buyers. I never allow a (0) point bidder unless they contact me first. Even then, I only allow it if they have recently registered, because long-time registered users with zero feedback are typically scam sellers trying to destroy their competition.
  
  
• I only sell with auctions. Never open a store. There's lot's of talk about eBay stores, but trust me, it's more costly and a lot less effective. Auctions get the most traffic and have the most sales. Most consignment businesses are purely auction-based.
  
  
• Set your bids low. I always set mine to 99 cents. Again, trust me, this gets much more traffic, watchers, and interested bidders. By bidding, they have taken some ownership, and believe the item to be theirs. Therefore, as illogical as it may seem, they may engage in a bidding war, just to "win" even sometimes going past the retail value of the item. The more bidders you have, the more possibility for a bidding war, and thus, to get more bidders you start the bidding lower. This has been a bullet-proof tactic for me, and I'm sure for many others as well.
  
  
• Sell brand-name items that can be easily shipped in a small package and have a high retail price. The smaller the product, higher the price, and easier to ship the item is, the more successful you will be (granted it is also a brand-name). I only sell brand names, because those are what people are searching for. People use eBay mostly to get brand name products, such as electronics, for lower prices. Sell what people already want to buy. Don't sell Chinese rip-offs. It's not only illegal, and if you can manage to sleep at night doing it, I'm pretty sure you'll eventually lose out to others selling cheaper and cheaper. It's a terrible long-term strategy.
  
  
• Ship international. Many sellers are afraid of doing so. But if you're in the US, you have to realize our economy is performing really poorly and the average consumer has a much lower spending budget these days. Not to mention, the value of the dollar has dropped, and this coupled with the growth of foreign markets means international buyers are more likely to buy, despite relatively high costs of shipping. Trust me, I know this not just from my eBay business, but from reading many articles and from experiencing this reality at a place where I work part-time. International sales are going up while domestic sales are stagnating or going down.
  
  
• Take high quality pictures. Get a good camera. It's certainly an investment that will pay off. Many sellers will use a stock photo or just 1-2 low-quality pictures. The better your pictures, and the more accurately you show the item, including it's potential flaws, the more likely buyers will trust the authenticity of your product.
  
  
• To extend your credibility, you must sell yourself a bit. I tell potential buyers they should buy from me because I have such great feedback, because of my unconditional guarantee, and so on. This works, plain and simple, because that same exact thought is usually going through a buyer's head, such as 'why should I buy from this seller over that other one?' ... and you are basically spelling it out for them. Tell them what sets you apart.
  
  
• Lastly, to further protect your feedback, make sure you communicate with your buyers and specifically ask them to contact you before leaving feedback. Tell them you will gladly fix any issue or concern they have with the product, and that leaving feedback should be a reflection of their experience with your overall service, not just the item. Leave your ego off eBay, and apologize when necessary. Accept it when you are wrong. Don't fight with a buyer, because they are the backbone of your business, especially now with the way feedback is structured.
  
  
• Here are a few more tips all in one bullet point... if you want to really be successful with eBay, you have to treat it like a business. Create a listing template of your own, with your policies, a standard description format, picture holders, etc. and use it over and over. Create an efficient process for managing your inventory, taking pictures, and listing. This will reduce your listing times and make you more profitable with less time spent. Always schedule listings ahead of time by at least 24 hours, to make sure the listings show up in searches as soon as they go live, otherwise if you do not schedule ahead, they won't show in searches for several hours, and you will lose money. Schedule listings on Saturday mornings or Tuesday/Thursday evenings. These times tend to sell the best. Use 5-7 day listings for popular brand-name products, and 1-day listings only if you have to, or if the product is really hot (like iPads when they first came out and sold out everywhere). Use a 10-day listing if the product is not such a well-known brand and may take longer for traffic/viewers/bidders to arrive and find it. Hide your traffic stats, because they really only give your competition more information than they need to know. You'll be able to see your own stats anyway, no need to share it. Set your auctions to private during holiday seasons because this is when people are buying gifts and don't want friends/family (who may be aware of their eBay ID) to know what they've bought. Also use private listings at your discretion to ensure the privacy and comfort of your buyers.

Okay that's all I can think of for now. A lot of these things you will likely learn on your own after you sell for some time. But I would recommend you skip the mistakes and take my advice now. I've been selling more lately, and for instance, although it's just part-time here and there, I've made roughly $2k profit after all eBay/Paypal fees in the past month. It's really not as bad as some people make it out to be. If eBay does set up a new rule or regulation, don't get down about it, stay positive. If anything, remind yourself that while people will complain, it only means that more sellers will leave, reducing your competition if you choose to stay. And nothing is free in life, eBay has no obligation to making you happy because they are providing you with a service to be able to make an income. Be appreciative of it.

Most of all, have fun!

I hope that helps. Cheers.