How do you motivate yourself to sell on eBay?

DD265

I have some things listed, but I have a mountain of things left to add and I just can't be bothered. I'm not willing to donate the items and eBay is my preferred selling platform so I need to kick myself up the butt and get it done.

I've found listing directly on my mobile is a lot quicker, but wondered how other people motivate themselves to get it done or make the job easier?

mrcol1000

You could always group together similar items and sell them as one job lot. Especially useful if individual items won't make much.

For my business I found Turbo Lister easier as you could create templates and just fill in information. Now that is gone it may be worth just copying listings via sell a similar item. If you have the same postage and text on each item, it makes it quicker. Just double check the listings if doing it that way to make sure they are correct

hollydays

Keep photos on my phone and add them whoever I have a spare minute if I have a lot to list. What motivates me is the money!

fishybusiness

but wondered how other people motivate themselves to get it done or make the job easier?

I don't anymore.

Used to use Garagesale as my lister of choice, really couldn't be bothered with Turbolister.

Garagesale has upgraded, so many can't list messages from ebay I have given up.

Just seems like the rules and regs for ebay have become so complicated it is no longer an amateur selling platform.

I go with facebook groups and gumtree these days.

RedPanda16

I can't offer anything useful. I usually feel motivated by bids on existing items and coming up for Christmas but then I'm just looking to off-load sunk costs. Not a professional seller. Gumtree is a waste of time in my neighbourhood but I think Gumtree is a very local thing - friends further afield do well on Gumtree. I've just had time wasters. And Facebook would do nothing for me and frankly I don't want to use it for various reasons - not least privacy. But eBay has become a joke. No-one leaves feedback (if they are happy), the buyer protection means sellers are hung out to dry in 99% of cases raised. It used to be a great place to sell unique items or ephemera and mint condition collectables. Now everyone wants stuff for almost nothing. It is very hard to get motivated. Done more this weekend as have an offer on selling fees. That having been said, I don't expect much to come of it. So this is a useless post in terms of motivation. I share your inertia.

jasmineswhiskers

You either love it or you don't (a bit like ironing lol)

soolin

The easy answer is 'the money'. I spend very little actual time on ebay- yet rarely go more than a few weeks before holidays as that's mainly what I use the money for. Those half dozen foreign holidays and slightly more UK ones really motivate me to trade on ebay )and a few other places), it is fairly easy money when it isn't stressing me out. If I do get over stressed I just put holiday settings on for a while and have a few free days.

When I look on the 'up your income ' board and I see people doing 40 minute surveys for 50p- that's when I wonder about people's motivation.

EDIT- I do now have a lower profit limit below which I will not bother listing, I am certainly not listing anything that shows in the completed listings as selling with less than a few pounds profit. The only time (and it's rare) I'll only take a small profit is if I think I am going to get poor stars or bad feedback- and I sell a few quick and cheap things to have some feedback in hand.

ballisticbrian

Just put up a manageable amount, say 10 listings. Start with some bulky items so it at least looks like you are making progress getting your "mountain" down. Not everything sells first time (if it's clothes and junk). Aim to relist each week and bring on line new sales to keep your running total of active sales always at the figure you chose (10). e.g. If 4 items of your initial 10 sold, you only put up another 4 or maybe 5 items the following week.
This is the real lazy approach because you can kinda secretly hope that nothing sells!!! lol

DigForVictory

I hoard the selling info on a memory stick. Photos, specs, postage - all there. That is the grunt work, the boring stuff, & I do it to stop myself cruising other webpages that might tempt me to spend money.
Then I wait for the seller promotions, where there's a decent chunk off the Final Value Fee. At which point I take leave, curl up away from as many distractions as possible and list like a thing demented.

Why?
For the money...

vacheron

As a non-business seller I find the departure of clutter (including all the saved up packaging and cardboard boxes) to be more motivating than the money.

I hate throwing away anything with inhernet value, so this is what results in the initial backlog which pushes me to have a clear out every now and again.

The way I get motivated:
1: Put everything you want to sell together.
2: Get the SLR and tripod out and take loads of detailed pics of each item.
3: Throw all the pics onto a Dropbox folder.

After 1, 2 and 3 are done I can sort / edit the pics and create the listings from wherever I am in the world whenever I get the spare time. However I tend to find that once I get started writing listings it is easy to churn out quite a few in not too much time at all.

forgotmyname

If you want less hassle sell it in bags or boxes as carboot items.

Just done let buyers cherry pick the better stuff out. A good clear picture of whats included in the bag/box and ideally cash on collection.

But collection only will really limit the number of potential buyers/