Basic Info for Private sellers starting on eBay.

soolin

I have noticed a rise in the number of people on various forums asking about selling on ebay for the first time to get some extra money for bills or such like. If there are any newbies reading this (and I have mentioned MSE to a few people) then do consider listing a few bits and pieces this month. If you are new to ebay you might be very limited in the number of listings you are allowed, maybe as few as 5 for the first month or so, but the sooner you start the quicker your limit will increase.

Start with easy things, don't go straight in with expensive items or easily scammable goods, look round your house- what have you got that might raise a few pounds and get you used to how ebay works? Always check out completed/sold items to see if something is worth selling , forget current listings (and looking today at coins I collect there are people asking stupid money for common 50ps that don't even sell at face value) - concentrate on what has sold and for how much.

Remember ebay take fees on both item cost and postage, so factor that in, here is a link to the FAQ about fees Fees for private sellers | eBay

As a new private seller you should get free listings, that means free to list not free to sell (see FVFs above) , you might not necessarily get the FVF offers - mentioned on this thread FREE LISTING email alerts - no chat - Page 65 — MoneySavingExpert Forum    until you have some sales under your belt.

Calculate your postage carefully (I will expand on that when I get more time) take no notice of ebay suggestions, weigh and measure your item and then work out postage.

Regulars feel free to add to this thread, new sellers either ask general questions here or start a new thread.

Remember as well that there are other sites you can use, this forum is for questions on any selling site, so ask away. Some other sites I use are etsy, Vinted and facebook marketplace, but we have experts on here that use Amazon as well. 

forgotmyname

When I read the title of this thread my first thought was business sellers registered as private sellers.

So just to clarify.  If your buying items to sell your are a business.  As a new seller on ebay you are more likely to have issues
if you break the rules no matter how minor.

soolin

forgotmyname said:

When I read the title of this thread my first thought was business sellers registered as private sellers.

So just to clarify.  If your buying items to sell your are a business.  As a new seller on ebay you are more likely to have issues
if you break the rules no matter how minor.

Good point, how should I phrase the title better? I’ll change it now but if it still looks wrong I’m open to suggestions. 

forgotmyname

I think the title is fine but maybe bullet point number one is buying to sell then you are a business just like any shop
whether its a hobby that makes very little, pocket money or to make a living.  Even if your making a loss buying to sell
is a business.

Archergirl

How would anyone know if you have bought a random item to sell on or if you had it in your house anyway?

soolin

Archergirl said:

How would anyone know if you have bought a random item to sell on or if you had it in your house anyway?

There isn’t any real check , it’s only if a pattern emerges of say someone selling lots of clothing, all different sizes or perhaps someone selling large multiples of the same item. However , eBay don’t seem to be policing it much at the moment, they seem to go through periods where they ‘catch’ hundreds of wrongly registered people, and then don’t bother again for months. 

forgotmyname

Not sure if they still do it but Ebay had users who could report things higher up than the generic useless report form
on the listings.
Sellers with multiple items were easy to spot, as were sellers with buying options. 

You may think your under the radar but they have a habit of restricting your account after a clump of sales where they
have your money.

No idea how this works now with ebay payments rather than paypal.   Just had a check of the standard report form and it
appears to be useless.  Very little you can report it seems.

Have thet expanded the users who can report or is it all AI now?

soolin

for sellers wanting to sell internationally but not wanting to manage all the forms and costs then ebay have a Global shipping programme (GSP)

Using GSP is treated the same as a UK sale and that is all a UK seller needs to worry about.

International postage for sellers | eBay

• You only need to send your item to our UK shipping centre and we'll take care of the rest. We'll manage international shipping and customs, and add tracking information so you and your buyer know when the item will be delivered
• If anything goes wrong during international shipping, your seller performance won’t be affected and you won't have to handle eBay Money Back Guarantee cases

and also here

Global Shipping Programme | eBay

How it works

When you're listing an item, simply select Send it to the UK Shipping Centre, and the rest will be taken care of for you in the International postage section.

Once your item is sold, we'll send you the address of a UK Shipping Centre, along with a unique reference code. Make sure you either print the label we provide or include that reference code if you're using your own label. Then post your sold item to the UK Shipping Centre and the rest of the processes will be taken care of, including international tracking.

The item must weigh no more than 30kg and be no larger than 125,000 cm³, and no longer than 120cm on the longest side.

The item's price cannot exceed a price of £2,000 (not including postage), except when selling to buyers in the following countries:

and most importantly

How you're protected

With the Global Shipping Programme, you're protected in the following ways:

• You qualify for automatic 5-star protection on postage and dispatch charge detailed seller ratings when you provide free domestic postage to the UK Shipping Centre
• You qualify for automatic 5-star protection on delivery time detailed seller ratings when you post with same day or 1-day dispatch, upload tracking information within 1 working day of receiving cleared payment (or mark the item as shipped if you don't use a tracked service), and the item is delivered to the UK Shipping Centre within 3 working days
• Your buyers will be able to leave you feedback for transactions involving Global Shipping Programme items. However, eBay will remove neutral or negative feedback associated with Global Shipping Programme transactions in some circumstances
• You aren't responsible for item loss or damage that occurs after the item reaches the UK Shipping Centre. Once an item has been forwarded by the UK Shipping Centre, you won't be responsible for refunding the buyer if an eBay Money Back Guarantee or PayPal Buyer Protection case is filed against you for one of the following reasons:
  • A buyer claims an item isn't received or a package is damaged in transit

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Luciecat63

Hi - I haven't used ebay as a seller for a few years, and I have just signed in to sell. I am being asked to link my bank account to something called Trustly, which has terrible reviews on Trustpilot. Can anyone advise? I never had any issue with Paypal, but this new system is completely unknown to me. Thank you.

soolin

Luciecat63 said:

Hi - I haven't used ebay as a seller for a few years, and I have just signed in to sell. I am being asked to link my bank account to something called Trustly, which has terrible reviews on Trustpilot. Can anyone advise? I never had any issue with Paypal, but this new system is completely unknown to me. Thank you.

Ebay have moved away from paypal now and the only way to sell on ebay is via managed payments. You will need to go through the process of identifying yourself, some people have had to supply scanned documents, some just the bank details on their own - unless you do this you won't be able to sell. Just make sure that your bank details are in the same name as your ebay registration , some of the issues people registering recently have had is a mismatch, which flags up an issue.

There are some positives to managed payments, it is slightly cheaper to sell now and also sellers now get protection against an INR claim for collected items if they use the QR scannable code or a written code from ebay.

The new system doesn't actually require any more permissions than we gave paypal, and as it is all integrated your fees will be taken straight away (so no monthly bills going forward unless you pay more in listing fees than you sell) . Your payment will go straight to your bank every Tuesday but you can now also have payments sent on demand whenever you want if you prefer not to wait on a weekly basis.

Jerry_Cornelius

I have a couple of questions about GSP ...

1) Are you able to see how much the buyer is paying P&P for the GSP part of the journey?

2) Can you tell from somebody elses listing whether they are using GSP or not?