Selling Through E-bay

raq

hI ALL

I registered with Ebay 18 months ago purely on the buying side as I was expecting again and couldn't really afford the brand new clothes in the shop. What I have received from sellers has been of excellent quality. I came to a decision over the weekend to start SELLING myself. As I am a mother of 3 I have probably a room full of clothes, shoes and so forth.

Can someone please tell me how easy is it to have the selling side on e-bay up and running. Looking at the site last night looks like a bit of a headache. i.e. how much do you charge for postage. Am okay on pricing the items , it's just everything else.

Thanks

poppycracker

Hi raq

I'm selling like mad at the moment, and I'm finding it really easy so if I can do it!.................

There is an eBay board on here in the Bargains, sassy shopping and Fantastic freebies section where all the serious eBayers live. I've got a lot of hints from them so you should check it out.

re postage, kitchen scales give a good indication of how much to charge. Like everything else, sometimes you win sometimes you lose over postage but it tends to work out over time.

good luck!

deliciosa

Hi raq!

I am new myself on ebay but selling already - and its very, very easy! I onyl put 0.99 for postage because it literally does not cost me anything but anything up to £2-£3 is quite reasonable I think...

If you sell lots of similar items, its worth to create a good template to speed up listing, so that you only use the template and change only the description and title, but the rest of the options (gallery, postage, payment methods, etc) are all the same and you dont have to type them in all the time. It is very straightforward, if you start selling, a help window automatically appreas and explains everything. If you are selling clothes, its almost essential to upload a photo, I think.

And finally, once you're up and running do let us know - i am after some bargain clothes!!!!!!

shameless-about-money

You don't have to lose one penny on postage on Ebay.

Package the goods, then weigh them. Go to https://www.royalmail.co.uk , decide if you want to send it first or second class and whether you want it recorded - which is a good idea by the way and safeguards yourself as a Seller.

Add money for your packaging and maybe a little for your effort, maybe up to £1 and there you have your total fee for p&p

You do not need to be out of pocket on p&p and if you are it your own fault!

Have a good time selling!

deliciosa

sorry shameless I don't quite get it... how will royalmail deliver it if I dont pay postage?

KittyKate

deliciosa wrote:

sorry shameless I don't quite get it... how will royalmail deliver it if I dont pay postage?

I think what Shamless means is you pay the postage but the buyer pays for it in the end (by paying you for P&P with the item cost). You don't need to lose out on profit in postage, and you should add a small amount to cover shoe leather/petrol in taking it to the PO.

Ie. say you are selling a DVD. I'd say £2 was a reasonable amount. That covers the padded envelope (you can get 5 DVD sized padded envelopes in Poundland), the actual cost of the postage (probably about 50-80p?) and your effort. So if the DVD sells for £5 and you charge £2 for postage & packing you get paid £7, and the actual postage cost to you should be no more than £1 - £1.30ish.

Or say you are selling something a bit heavier like a pair of shoes. I'd charge £3.50 - £4 to post a pair of shoes (I am a size eight, mind!). The shoes might be tricky to wrap, need padding, cost more in actual postage, so I think that is fair. Sellers who charge extortionate prices end up selling their goods for pennies and risk being warned for fee avoidance (bumping up postage costs to avoid ebay fees). HTH

jenchin66

I always weigh my items, then go to Royal mail website and see how much it will cost to post;)

rls1973

always do your research by looking at 'completed items' on similar items to the one you're going to sell, that way you can see what sort of amount they actually end up selling for, plus get an idea of how much postage&packing for that item.

if you are selling something that you wouldn't be prepared to sell for ,say, 99pence ,try putting it on a buy-it-now,then you know how much it will sell for.

edit to say:
it's not a headache when you get going, it's deceptively simple, as long as you've got a spare room to keep all your goods in so you're not tripping over them in the living room, hallway, bedroom etc.!

shameless-about-money

jenchin66 wrote:

I always weigh my items, then go to Royal mail website and see how much it will cost to post;)

Really you must do this otherwise you can end up out of pocket!

I came unstuck with one of the first items I ever sold - a suede coat. Oh yes I weighed it and it was going to cost £12 parcel rate.
Then I HAD to send it in a box and the whole thing cost £13.20!

The moral of the story is always weigh the item WITH the packaging on it too!

Welshlassie

I've been selling on ebay for years and never been stung with the postage costs, I always always use the royal mail website to decide how much to charge for postage, add a little extra weight to allow for packaging and then add approx 80p on top for the cost of the packaging and getting it to the PO etc. No-one has ever complained about my postage costs and I have 100% feedback of well over 350 (mostly for selling).

I best tip would be to use Turbo Lister. It makes preparing your auction listings so much easier and quicker and also gives you designer pages to make them look better. The better and easier your auction is to read including as much information as possible the more likely it is to sell and make a good amount.

Turbo Lister is free to download and stores everything on your computer before uploading all your listing at once so you can prepare your auctions over several hours and then upload them all at once so they all finish around the same time.

If you are planning on selling lots at a time I would also recommend subscribing to Selling Manager (the basic package is free), this has tempalte emails for sending to your customers and splits everything up for you so you know where you are with each sale, eg paid for, waiting to post, waiting to give feedback.

Feel free to drop me a PM if you want any more advice. Most of all enjoy it, it feels fantastic watching something you were all set to throw out or give to charity making a bit of extra cash for you, especially when things go for more than you expected they would.

Good luck

raq

thanks for all your advice. Taking the plunge this evening to set up my account.

Great idea on the weighing scales and of course Royal Mail, didn't think of these two.

I have done loads of bootsales in the past and have always done well, but I thought, why not do all this from the comfort of your own home.

Will keep you all informed