Initial advice for a first time private seller - in particular shipping.

Jerry_Cornelius

elsmandino said:

Thanks for this - I think I am starting to get how it all works, now.

I am sure that it will all make sense once I have sold my first item.  Am a bit worried if it goes wrong and they give me bad feedback.

Great tip about remembering to weight the packaging as well - I probably would have forgotten that.

So, just to summarise:

I should take my item, that I plan to sell, and measure the intended box.  I should then weigh the item, plus the box and all intended packaging.

I should then head over to the Royal Mail website and check which of the methods should be used and factor that into my price.

Only when the item sells should I then (from within Ebay itself) select the Royal Mail method above and print off the label (I do have a printer).

I then sellotape the label onto my package and simply take it to the post office who shall do the rest.

Is that a fair summary?

Pretty much a fair summary of what I do!

Some other things to consider ...

ebay do run sone promotions at weekends (there is a thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3824175/free-listing-email-alerts-no-chat#latest) where your final value fees are reduced, a lot of people take advantage and list their stuff only on the days the promotion runs, if you can sign up to an offer, maybe worth it. I tend to list Sundays which is fine for the promotion with 10 days listing duration so my listing finish Wed the week after, gives me two days to receive the payment and parcel up the stuff ready for posting Friday (I work during the week and Fri/Sat is the only real available posting time fo me)

If you do open your stuff up to Europe, and use RM to post, you should probably buy the postage online as the label created will allow you to select the item as sold via a Marketplace so customs in the receiving country will know via the label that the tax has been paid (the system is called IOSS - ebay add the taxes to the final payment your buyer makes so you need do nothing here, just make sure you have an IOSS label otherwise the buyer could pay tax twice)

You could use ebay's internal overseas shipping system called the Global Shipping Program (GSP) which ebay may automatically sign you up for as a seller, whereby you only post an overseas item to their UK address, and they do the rest, I don't use it personally but others do and maybe they can add their comments about it ...

When you list stuff, you may want to check existing listings first (especially completed ones) to see if similar stuff has sold and what prices they've got, will give you some idea of how much to start your listing at.

Make sure you take good clear photos (ebay allow the first 12 free i think) and try and be as descriptive as possible, list any defects and try and make sure a photo captures this if its major, so a buyer knows exactly what they are getting.

elsmandino

Perfect - thank you, Jerry.

Really helpful advice.

I suppose the best way is to just give things a go and see how I get on with it - something that has a bit of value (but not too much) and also not too heavy.

Jerry_Cornelius

elsmandino said:

Perfect - thank you, Jerry.

Really helpful advice.

I suppose the best way is to just give things a go and see how I get on with it - something that has a bit of value (but not too much) and also not too heavy.

Yeah, perhaps also just sell within the UK for first few items. International Shipping can be a bit involved as RM have basically 3 bands for Europe and then 3 World zones outside Europe, each wiith their own price bands. You can download the latest guides here from the RM site - Royal Mail prices | Royal Mail - but in essence you have to add P&P options for the various countries that a zone covers in your listing to reflect the P&P cost. I do currently just the one band for Europe as the prices between the 3 Euro bands are not much.

Remember that Royal Mail has an International Weight limit of 2kg for small parcels, and there are dimensional restrictions which are explained in the guides. Also, watch out for any of your stuff containing batteries that you can't remove, a lot of restrictions imposed on batteries in the last few years ...

soolin

I’m an experienced seller but no longer ship overseas unless using GSP. I was getting far too many issues, either things weren’t arriving quickly enough and I was having to refund before the items had even had a chance to clear customs, or my stuff was just disappearing and I was refunding. I also had a few people refuse to collect once the duty and taxes were levied. Add to all that the full customs declaration needed now and it really wasn’t worth it for me. 

Pollycat

I don't sell overseas either.

Langerhan

martindow said:

Langerhan said:

I use Royal Mail because I can go to my local Post Office, send something and get proof of postage. I've seen some people say they do it all online, but I don't have a printer so can't get the online prices.

RM will collect and are not charging for this at the moment.  On some services they will also print the label so you can take advantage of lower prices, get parcels collected from your home even without a printer.

I'm at work when the postie comes round, but good for the OP to know!

elsmandino

Thank you for the further advice.

The battery warning was particularly interesting - I had a check on the Royal Mail and, as was mentioned, you really have to be quite careful.  

I was thinking of selling an IPod and, luckily, there doesn't seem to be an issue with that but I shall keep a careful eye on that for the future.

soolin

elsmandino said:

Thank you for the further advice.

The battery warning was particularly interesting - I had a check on the Royal Mail and, as was mentioned, you really have to be quite careful.  

I was thinking of selling an IPod and, luckily, there doesn't seem to be an issue with that but I shall keep a careful eye on that for the future.

An old fashioned ipod is likely to attract a lot of attention and fetch a good price and I would recommend that you leave selling that until you have tested the waters with some cheaper items. Scammers do prey on newbies, assuming you won't understand how to stay safe and protect yourself, so build up some selling history first. 

Have a look round your house, anything you feel you could let go check out on 'completed listings' and see if it is likely to sell. If so set up a listing now , you can schedule it for some time in the future rather than list immediately - and then wait for a FVF offer day - which is likely to be the weekend of 22/23rd October. Obviously if you wanted to just try a few things now then list now- but keep them cheap until you are comfortable with how it all works.

elsmandino

Perfect - I am going to do just that (going to have a hunt round, tonight  ).

One other quick question, if that is OK - 

I have various bits of PC equipment, in my loft, that I can no longer test to ensure that is working (though, as far as I am aware, it was working when it was last used).

e.g. I have some sticks of DDR2 RAM but no motherboard that supports that anymore.

I also have some very old floppy disk drives (5.25") which will not connect to anything I current have.

How would you go about selling something like those - i.e. is it enough for me to say, in the description, that I simply cannot vouch for their working?

soolin

elsmandino said:

Perfect - I am going to do just that (going to have a hunt round, tonight  ).

One other quick question, if that is OK - 

I have various bits of PC equipment, in my loft, that I can no longer test to ensure that is working (though, as far as I am aware, it was working when it was last used).

e.g. I have some sticks of DDR2 RAM but no motherboard that supports that anymore.

I also have some very old floppy disk drives (5.25") which will not connect to anything I current have.

How would you go about selling something like those - i.e. is it enough for me to say, in the description, that I simply cannot vouch for their working?

I would ensure they are sold against the parts and spares category- not against the 'actual' category for those items. Then clearly state in title 'for repair only' , in the first item description box state 'selling for spares or repairs only, not tested no guarantee these are working' and when you fill out the main description box say it all over again.

The important thing there though is to ensure they are not in the main RAM (or whatever it is) , that way if someone is searching for RAM and don't bother reading descriptions yours won;t come up with all the new and working ones, but only under parts or spares.