Selling on eBay
If you want to earn extra income from home, eBay is an easy place to start. If you have never bought or sold on eBay, spend a little time browsing around to familiarize yourself. On eBay you will find buyers and sellers from around the world with almost any kind of product you can imagine from automobiles to zebra striped purses.
Selling on eBay is relatively easy. Here are some steps to help you get started.
1. Register.
If you do not have an account you will have to register first. It is free and easy. To get started, just go to eBay
2. Decide what to sell.
This can be the tricky part. What will sell well? Start with things you already have. Did you recently get a new digital camera? Sell the old one. Get three coffee pots for wedding gifts? Keep the one you like best, and try selling the others. Need to de-clutter? You’ll probably get a better price on eBay than by having a garage sale. Or if you are skilled at making things, try selling a few. I wouldn’t recommend making a large stock though until you see how they sell, and whether you want to continue selling in this manner.
3. Check the Competition.
Use their search tools to search for items like what you want to sell. You can see if there are a lot of like items listed, and get a feel for what the competition is doing.
You can also see how similar items have sold. Once you find items similar to what you are thinking of selling click on “advanced search.” It is located next to the search button. On the next screen click on the box by “completed listings only,” and then click the search button again. This will pull up only listings that are complete. You can see if the item sold, how many people bid on the item, how much it sold for, and the shipping cost.
Looking at current and completed listing will help you decide if you want to sell your item or think of something else. It also helps you to get a feel for how to list your item, what is working for others, and perhaps how you can make your own listing better.
4. List the Item
Start by clicking on the “sell” tab at the top of the screen. The screens pretty much walk you through it step by step from there, but a couple of notes:
Pictures- The first picture is free, after that it costs you. Whether it is worth spending more for the pictures depends on your item. That is when referring to what others have done helps. For large ticket items more pictures are probably beneficial. People want to have a good idea what they are buying before they spend, especially if it is a large amount. For items with a smaller worth it may not be worthwhile. If I buyer wants more pictures they can be sent via email also. In my opinion having the picture displayed in the gallery is worth the extra cost.
Description- Be as descriptive as possible, especially if there are any flaws or damage to the item. Your feedback rating is extremely important when using eBay. You don’t want to try to hide or not mention issues with your item, and then have a disappointed customer leave you a poor feedback.
Starting Price/Reserve- You want to keep your starting price relatively low so people will bid on the item. If you are concerned about getting a certain amount from the item you can set the starting price higher or use the reserve. Both these affect the fees you are charged. You can click on “fee varies” to see the fee charts.
Payment Methods- PayPal is highly popular way to conduct transactions on eBay. It is not mandatory, but it does enable you to receive instant payment, and for customers to use credit cards. There are small fees involved.
Check and double check that everything is the way you want it, and for spelling and grammar. Once your item is listed you can only change some things. If someone has bid on the item there are very few things that can be changed.
5. Wait for the Item to Sell.
There isn’t much to do now, but wait. You can track the bids and watchers by clicking on “my eBay” tab.
6. Get Paid.
When the auction time is expired, you will get an email. If the item has not sold, you can re-list it for no charge. If it has sold you will be able to tell from “my eBay” if payment has been made already via PayPal. You can send an invoice if needed and you can also mark when the item shipped.
7. Ship it Out!
Be sure to use the shipping method chosen by the customer, and to pack the item very carefully.
8. Leave Feedback
Be honest if there was any problem with the seller, but remember they will be leaving feedback for you too!
After you have a few transactions under your belt, you will have a good feel for selling on e Bay. At that point you can consider if this is something you want to do regularly as a source for a second income.
Once you have sold the things you don't longer need and have a feeling about how the system works, the next step is to find a reliable source of items to sell. Car boot sales or moving sales can be such. Check with your local shop and businesses. Businesses have excess inventory or items no longer needed after renovations and you could provide them with a method to dispose of them in the most profitable way.