complete novice where ebay is concerned....

FrankieM

Hi everyone,
Just looking for some general advice.
I've decided I'm going to give selling stuff on ebay a go. Looked at their selling advice which says to look up similar 'completed' items, which I did.
A lot of the books I want to sell either sold for barely nothing or didn't sell at all.
What do I do in this kind of situation?
I will eventually have more than just books to sell, I have some more sorting out to do. So do I wait till I've got more and hope that the stuff that sells covers the cost of the stuff that doesn't?
Or do I just not list the stuff that hasn't seemed to sell for others?
Or do I list it and just hope for the best?

Obviously I'd like everything to sell and to make a mint....

But I certainly don't want to be left paying for stuff that I haven't even managed to sell...

Your advice would be greatly appreciated

apprentice_tycoon

Have you considered selling them on Amazon? the key point being - no photos - no fees till you sell.

There is a lot of help here

Syman

as a new seller on ebay you have the option of trying to sell the books at just enough to cover your costs (e.g. selling at a start price of about 25p) and making sure that the postage is correct. ( i will not bid for an item myself where the postage cost is used as a way to boost profit) just to boost your feedback points. however you will be stuck with the listing fees if they do not sell.

you could try and group similar books as a "job lot" only one listing fee to sell two or three books. this has the advantage if only one of the books is wanted some one will bid on it, whilst if another of the books is wanted by some one else you then have two bidders going against each other which may push up the price.



as tycoon posted amazon is a good outlet for second hand books, i have got a few on there myself (though none have sold yet) if they don't sell you don't get charged as i understand it.

angelcake

books don't sell to well as there is a lot out there! you can pick them up cheap enough in charity shops! but the other 2 posters advise is good! I would try and sell as a job lot! or try Buy one get one free! even though you are paying for 2 books postage everyone seems to like the word free!!

Contains_Mild_Peril

EBay sometimes do 5p listing days, so you could wait for the next one to sell your books, then you won't lose too much money on those that don't sell. Common titles can be hard to sell, since you may have to charge more for p&p than some charity shops charge for the same book, but if you have any that are harder to find, the rarer ones might sell well. As others have suggested, Amazon is also worth considering, to avoid your profits being eaten up by listing fees for unsold items.
EBay's 5p listing days are normally Thursdays (so 10-day auctions will finish on Sundays, when most potential buyers aren't at work), and are normally announced on the previous Tuesday, so it may be useful to sort out and perhaps even photograph your books before the next one is announced. I sometimes put aside low-value items which I think may not sell well, and wait for the next 5p listing day to advertise them. Some 5p days come with conditions, e.g. applies only to items with start price under £1.
You may also be able to cut packing costs by reusing jiffy bags, as I often do.

Amba_Gambla

imho there's very little point in selling/buying books on ebay - any saving you do make is quite often wiped out in postage costs (even if they post at cost price)

I bought some books a while back from ebay, and it would be nearly as cheap to buy them new from amazon (if you're buying a few to get free postage)

soolin

Like the others have said there is no point at all in trying to sell things on ebay where completed listings show that they don't sell. The ebay fees mount up very quickly, so even listing 10 books at a start price of less than 99p will cost you £1.50 eating into any profits before you even start.

I have two bags of books here that someone gave me thinking i might want to sell them on ebay, a quick look through both ebay and Amazon show no market at all for any of them. The annoying thing is that even my local charity shops no longer accept books, so I am having to take them all to an Oxfam book dump on a local trading estate as soon as I remember to load them in the car.

Finding the right items is the hardest bit on ebay, if you have found books don;t work for you, keep looking until you find that magic item that does!

Good luck.

Soo