Selling on ebay

top_drawer_2

hi,

I'm selling some stuff (again) on ebay amd am worried that I am doing something wrong (again) as I never seem to get a decent sale price. I know all about starting the auction at the level I'm happy with but then I dont sell at all!!! I'm so tired of paying XY for something and getting pence for it when it comes to resale.

All my stuff is things that I have bought and am not using anymore etc but there have been sooo many times the p&p has been more than the item. Please try and be polite, I am trying to raise a bit of cash towards Christmas as I simply cant afford it at the moment.

This is the <removed link>- sorry I thought I posted to myebay so it would display everything I am selling.

custardy

your link is to my eBay

Crowqueen

top_drawer wrote: »

hi,

I'm selling some stuff (again) on ebay amd am worried that I am doing something wrong (again) as I never seem to get a decent sale price. I know all about starting the auction at the level I'm happy with but then I dont sell at all!!! I'm so tired of paying XY for something and getting pence for it when it comes to resale.

All my stuff is things that I have bought and am not using anymore etc but there have been sooo many times the p&p has been more than the item. Please try and be polite, I am trying to raise a bit of cash towards Christmas as I simply cant afford it at the moment.

This is my link

Perhaps you are overvaluing your items. Firstly, depreciation hits the second you walk out of the shop door with it. Opening the box knocks another load off the price. A worn designer dress is never going to fetch anything like the price it sold for originally. Secondly, eBay is a good place for people to find out the market value of things precisely because sellers have a lot of competition and buyers usually bid the going rate, so browse completed listings to find out what closing prices on similar items actually are. Lastly, if you aren't getting a good price for something, you either need to make sure the item is well-described, or people can actually find it. Many people search by dress size, for instance, so if you don't have have that in your title, you aren't going to be seen by people searching rather than browsing.

I know there are things I can put up at 99p and they will sell for a tenner or more (sadly, run out of those particular things!). I also know there are things that just don't sell at all and no matter how I dress them up they will never leave my DVD cabinet or bookshelves for love nor money.

If no-one is prepared to pay what you want for the items, then they are not worth that much, or you are listing them at the wrong time (I listed something before a bank holiday and it sold for about half the price those sort of items go for usually). Christmas is coming, so people will be opening their wallets slightly wider (possibly only slightly this year though).

I hope you always go through with the sale and send the item, since that is becoming very prevalent among sellers who don't get what they want for an item.

Since we can't see what you are selling, and it's not a good idea to give away your eBay ID on these forums, perhaps you can give us a few concrete examples so we can give you some listing tips. Also be aware that some terms can be offputting, so give us those as well and we can see where you might be losing out to people with better customer relations.

top_drawer_2

Crowqueen wrote: »

Perhaps you are overvaluing your items. Firstly, depreciation hits the second you walk out of the shop door with it. Opening the box knocks another load off the price. A worn designer dress is never going to fetch anything like the price it sold for originally. Secondly, eBay is a good place for people to find out the market value of things precisely because sellers have a lot of competition and buyers usually bid the going rate, so browse completed listings to find out what closing prices on similar items actually are. Lastly, if you aren't getting a good price for something, you either need to make sure the item is well-described, or people can actually find it. Many people search by dress size, for instance, so if you don't have have that in your title, you aren't going to be seen by people searching rather than browsing.

I know there are things I can put up at 99p and they will sell for a tenner or more (sadly, run out of those particular things!). I also know there are things that just don't sell at all and no matter how I dress them up they will never leave my DVD cabinet or bookshelves for love nor money.

If no-one is prepared to pay what you want for the items, then they are not worth that much, or you are listing them at the wrong time (I listed something before a bank holiday and it sold for about half the price those sort of items go for usually). Christmas is coming, so people will be opening their wallets slightly wider (possibly only slightly this year though).

I hope you always go through with the sale and send the item, since that is becoming very prevalent among sellers who don't get what they want for an item.

Since we can't see what you are selling, and it's not a good idea to give away your eBay ID on these forums, perhaps you can give us a few concrete examples so we can give you some listing tips. Also be aware that some terms can be offputting, so give us those as well and we can see where you might be losing out to people with better customer relations.

I may well be over-valuing the items but I keep finding that over and over I get pence for my items. I spent quite a bit of time describing my items to the best of my ability although I know sometimes its easy to miss the obvious which is why I am asking on here. I always go through with the sale, much to my frustration otherwise I wouldnt be so annoyed about it.

I have listed the link to my ebay selling, not sure whether its working .....

Aesop

You're linking to your account, with the item in. You need to find the item code, like this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Babyliss-Curling-Wand-/320608586261?pt=UK_H_B_CurlingTongs_CA&hash=item4aa5c2ca15&autorefresh=true#ht_512wt_1139

or

Item number: 320608586261

amcluesent

IMHO stuff on t'Bay either goes for pennies at car boot prices or spins up to silly money, there's very little 'middle ground'. It's not uncommon to see stuff go for prices higher than Amazon is selling new.

Right now, plenty of peeps will be selling to 'make a few £' for Xmas, so it's a buyers market for 2nd hand clothes and home basics.

top_drawer_2

Edited again.

Sambucus_Nigra

Stuff goes on ebay for what someone is willing to pay for it, at that time.

It's not for what you think it should be sold for.

That's the luck of the draw.

Aesop

I'm no expert on ebay as my stuff either goes for 99p which I don't want, or doesn't sell. Sometimes I actually manage to sell stuff for a profit!

These trousers, from the picture it is hard to see what they really look like. Is there any chance you could get someone to wear them, or yourself, and take a photo? That would give a better idea of what they look like.

And if you wait until free listing day, you can put anything you want as the minimum price, ie £5, rather than having to let it go at 99p.

amcluesent

1st thoughts -

Postage looks high for 2nd class (before you read your comments about it being 'exact')
Pictures are only so-so (on a mobi?)
Sizes could be in the description
No mention of smoke/pet free home or if items washed

Crowqueen

OK, just found your list of other items: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/dancingshootingstar/m.html

You could do with seriously looking at how you list things. Most of those I'd look at and then go and find some others that give me slightly more information. You're making your buyers do too much of the work that you should ideally do yourself.

Always list full measurements on clothes - this provides some insulation against people saying "it doesn't fit, I'd like to return it". Try straightening the trousers out: it gives me more idea of the cut of them than the way you have them arranged in a V shape.

With the CDs, sell them individually. People look for individual titles, not job lots. Also, no-one will pick that listing up in a search - put the title or artist in the heading. Virtually no-one just browses the entire CD catalogue - you will get more for them if you list separately and use the item finder to enter each barcode so eBay will pick up what title you are trying to sell and pre-fill some information for you. Do they all go together in the same genre of music? If so, and you still want to sell them together, try something like "Job lot 9 punk CDs - various artists - used" to give people a better idea of what they are looking at from the search page.

"Postage will be exact (despite what I have entered), packaging is likely to be recycled from stuff I already have or that will be extra too." - does this mean you will charge me extra at the end of auction or refund me something depending on how much it actually cost? If so, it's always better to do your research before you list rather than after and use scales to weigh them and RM or Seajays' websites to work out what they will actually cost to post. This is going to put people off - they are likely to buy from someone who can give them an accurate quote for postage up front.

Put brand names in the title. Again, very few people search by colour. Something like "(Brand) bedspread - blue - used, Indian-style" or "(Brand) kimono dressing-gown - blue, size X" is better than what you've got.

Some pictures could be sharper. Experiment with your camera to get a good shot, and scan items that can fit on the top of a flatbed scanner - it can give a better close-up picture than a conventional camera can, at least of flat objects such as DVD/CD cases.

How big are the boxes? Do they fit files, papers, A4 folders, DVDs, CDs, what? Perhaps picture them next to a ruler or a piece of A4 paper to give me a rough idea what I could put in them. At the moment I'm wondering whether I could fit my documents in them or whether I could use them for my trading card collection. I might have made a bid by now if I knew how big they were without having to message you to find out. Otherwise I would just move to someone who has listed "Box, XXX x YYY x ZZZ, fits A4 folders".

Packaging - I'm just going to bin it so I don't need to know whether you recycle or not. If you do recycle, don't charge anything more than stamp cost. Personally I don't recycle - I don't think it looks good even on s/h items and I can never guarantee having the right size envelope/box at the right time for what I need to send. Also, it looks as if you have had criticisms of your postage charges but are trying to make excuses - don't, it makes you look defensive and as if there have been problems that you haven't taken on board but are trying to self-justify. If you have had criticisms, take them on board - these are the people you rely on to get stuff sold. If you haven't, be aware that that's how you come across to people who haven't had the benefit of talking to you on the forums and that I am very careful who I buy from on eBay, having had a few dud purchases.