Seeking advice from the experts

someone i know has just shown me a spreadsheet showing how much they have saved since following suggestions on this site. unbelieviable!
they now want to clear clutter and sell things. they don't want to do a car boot sale & heard about e bay. i know nothing about e bay and not sure what to tell them- can you set a minimum price for the goods? how do you decide what should be the minimum? should you wait to receive money before sending goods? do e bay get commission? what is the best way of asking for payment? they don't have a scanner so can't put pictures of goods? is this a problem. they just want to sell the lot in one go and make as much money as possible. any advice greatly appreciated. thanks

Comments

  • Tony_H_3
    Tony_H_3 Posts: 2,643
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    MSE have special forum just for "Auction Site" questions & queries so I will move this over to that board. You will find you receive faster, better answers on that board.
  • angelcake
    angelcake Posts: 4,496 Forumite
    Best thing to do is look on similar listing of item you have and see how much they are going for etc! A picture is a major thing in a listing so you can actually see what you are getting, could you not borrow a digital camera? Although if you don't have a picture then put a very clear description including any descrepancies in the listing and see how it goes, you can start the price at anything you like but again if there are cheaper listings then people would probably go for them.

    Yes you should wait for the money before sending goods! there are too many non payers etc on ebay! also scammers so beware!

    Ebay charge you a % on what you get, they also charge you a listing fee and for different auction formats! check out the fee table in ebay help.

    Cheque, Paypal, postal order, Bank transfer, or payment on collection. Although paypal is not always the best, it is the fastest way of receiving money, it depends on how you want to accept money! Paypal charge fees.

    Keep away from anyone saying they are from Nigeria or want to oay western union or bidpay....these people are always scammers, and until you know what you are doing I would probably stick to selling in the UK til you have some more experience, there have been a great many untrackable parcels go "missing"

    When you quote postage the thing most people do is weigh the package on kitchen scales to find out the weight and then check it out on the Royal Mail Website to see how mush it costs so say it costs £1 to send I would add another 20p-50p depending on the packaging.

    You would probably make more money selling individual items.

    Hope this makes sense (It is early on a sunday morning!)

    Hope it is helpful and Good Luck :)
    :p:p Angel :p:p
  • Go onto ebay and read the help items to get started. You need to read the SELLING section. This will explain everything generally. whays not on there is on here.Unless these items are all one type of goods though, it could be a waste of time. I think the frist thing I would do is to find out the cost of postage of these items. Try Ezay tools before you advertise anything!
    Annual Grocery budget 2018 is £1500 pa £125 calendar month £28.84 pw for 3 adults
  • Mandles
    Mandles Posts: 4,121 Forumite
    You really need pictures of your items or you will get peanuts for them. Sell them in the friday ad if you can first as ebay are a bit pricey & friday ad is free if under £50.I always start my items at 99p as the higher you start the more ebay charges.
    Also NEVER NEVER send out items before payment as the nicest sounding people have ripped me off before because i was new & was trying to be a super fast seller!
    And yes ebay charge you to list item & then a percentage of the final cost & then again when people pay by paypal!!! So i suggest friday ad or local paper if you want to earn money(maybe look at ebay to see what to charge in local paper(make sure you see what the end price is as prices really escualte in last 30 mins!).
    hope this helps.
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