Ebay Selling Advice for Beginner

elsmandino

Hello,

I have bought quite a few items on Ebay before but have decided to have a go a selling (to get rid of a few items from my loft).

I would be really grateful for some beginners advice on how to start.

A few questions, already:

*What is the best method of packaging?
*Should you include the P&P in the starting price and advertise the P&P as free?
*What method of shipping should I use and how do I accurately predict how much it is going to cost?
*If I work out how much a parcel will cost to ship to any part of the UK, what happens if an overseas buyer purchases it?

theonlywayisup

elsmandino wrote: »

*What is the best method of packaging?

It depends what you are sending. A comic, book, dvd and glass ornament will all have different 'best' packing. The item needs to be secure and as bullet proof as you can make it without adding kilos to the weight.

elsmandino wrote: »

*Should you include the P&P in the starting price and advertise the P&P as free?

That depends. Some people prefer to see the 'real' price others tend to think free p&p really is free. What are other sellers doing in your market niche?

elsmandino wrote: »

*What method of shipping should I use and how do I accurately predict how much it is going to cost?

Use the carrier websites and Royal Mail to work out how much the postage will cost. Have a read of the postage sticky to work out what level of risk you are likely to accept.

elsmandino wrote: »

*If I work out how much a parcel will cost to ship to any part of the UK, what happens if an overseas buyer purchases it?

You can exempt overseas buyers by updating your preferences in the account section. Or you can use the aforementioned sites to work out exactly how much the item will cost and list correctly with the p&p for that zone.

mrcol1000

International you can also use Ebay's own GSP service (or whatever it is called now). You just send the item to a UK center and they deal with onward posting and customs etc... The buyer pays them directly for the international cost, you just get what you would have got if it had sold to someone in the UK.

Also remember that you are responsible for the item until it reaches the buyer ( or GSP center). So if it gets lost or damaged then you will have to refund the buyer and then claim yourself. My Hermes offer very cheap tracked postage but you will need to protect anything that could be damaged (but then you should do that with any carrier)

Lisbon

Have a read of the thread started a day or two ago on this forum - see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5766751

Brooker_Dave

elsmandino wrote: »

Hello,

I have bought quite a few items on Ebay before but have decided to have a go a selling (to get rid of a few items from my loft).

I would be really grateful for some beginners advice on how to start.

Option 1

Take it all down the dump, afterwards admire your empty attic.

Option 2

Spend hours photographing junk from every angle, write essay like tomes on each listing.

"Sell" junk, first "buyer" never heard from, second "buyer" from Antarctica and expects free next day shipping, third buyer actually pays and receives junk and then pretends there something wrong with it and ebay gives it to them for nothing (after taking 20% off you), bitter experience of the last 3 months, and having it cluttering up your house leads you to take the rest of it down the dump.

Seriously, unless its priceless, either give it away or throw it away.

elsmandino

Thank you all very much for your input.

Dave's post really made me think about what I was getting into with this.

As I have no rating for selling, I thought I would start out by selling a DVD, just to get the ball rolling.

I spent a not insignificant amount of time cleaning, photoing and then writing a description.

I then had to package it and weight it before adding postage to my description.

I then realised that in addition to Ebay's fee, I would be paying Paypal as well.

It only then dawned on me that:

1. If an item is worth very little, the time taken to try and sell it is probably not worth the amount of time it takes to get that sale (if it sells at all).

2. If an item is likely to gain big bucks - Ebay and Pal's % fees really become significant.

As has been mentioned, Ebay (based upon what I have recently read) is so one-sided, in favour of the buyer that I run the risk of potentially losing money on such items.

I don't want to be a defeatist before I have already had a go but my main motivation was to clear our loft, rather than make lots of money out of it. I just read, somewhere, that the average loft has £4,000.00 of items in it.

Is Ebay, now, really only the best option for someone not using it as the basis for a business?

Is there any general advice for when I am cleaning out the loft - i.e. are there items that I should look out for and perhaps sell elsewhere?

For example, I have lots of the following:

* Used clothes
* Electronic devices
* News clothes with labels on them
* Books
* Textbooks
* Furniture
* CD/DVD/Games

mrcol1000

You don't need to be a business to sell on Ebay, however your item needs to be worth more than a few quid to make it worthwhile to sell on Ebay. Otherwise you need to make it into job lots of items or you'd be better off going to a car boot.

All the items you listed will sell well or not sell at all. It depends on brand, condition, rarity etc.... The best advice I can give you is to check on Ebay for sold prices of the items you want to sell. That should give you a good indication of if its worth selling.

Check on Amazon for books, CD, DVDs etc... You will be amazed how many people are selling that DVD you paid £15 for a few months ago for just 1p.

Those you might be better of selling to someone like Music Magpie. They will only give you probably 20p each but if you have a few you will get more money and it will be easier than selling individually.

Brooker_Dave

elsmandino wrote: »

For example, I have lots of the following:

* Used clothes
* Electronic devices
* News clothes with labels on them
* Books
* Textbooks
* Furniture
* CD/DVD/Games

Used clothes - cash for clothes place, they buy it by the kilo

Electronic devices, gumtree or Facebook selling pages.

New clothes local Facebook selling pages

Books/textbooks - Amazon

Furniture - Gumtree

CD/DVDs Amazon

Other than Amazon (where the fees are pretty high) Gumtree and Facebook are just as full of messers as ebay, but you're not going get so easily cheated out of money as you do with ebay/paypal.

System

elsmandino wrote: »

* Used clothes
* Electronic devices
* News clothes with labels on them
* Books
* Textbooks
* Furniture
* CD/DVD/Games

Certainly you can sell new and used clothes on there (I have done, many times)

Books, CDs and DVDs I would normally prefer to sell via amazon, but I do sell them on EBay too.

Electronic devices can be a bit of a minefield and I've never tried selling large items like furniture, but many people do. Your local GumTree would be another option.

Seriously, it's not all doom and gloom You CAN get problem customers, but generally I've found, if you're honest and accurate with your listings, you should be fine. You can also refuse to post outside the UK (as I do).

macloud

I refuse to post outside UK these days also.

Sold a book to someone who turned out to be on Western Samoa (Pacific island) ! When I tried to get the money, plus enhanced postage, purchaser baulked claiming he had forgotten he had bid on my book and had purchased a copy locally !

But most folks are reasonable and this was an (almost) isolated experience in about 300 sales.

soolin

macloud wrote: »

I refuse to post outside UK these days also.

Sold a book to someone who turned out to be on Western Samoa (Pacific island) ! When I tried to get the money, plus enhanced postage, purchaser baulked claiming he had forgotten he had bid on my book and had purchased a copy locally !

But most folks are reasonable and this was an (almost) isolated experience in about 300 sales.

Non payers happen everywhere, not just overseas buyers.