Ebay Thread

Hello,

I thought about selling all my stuff I don't need anymore on Ebay. Mostly clothes. I never did it before, so I'm searching for tips and tricks how to sell with best possible result. :)

I've been selling on ebay for just over 6 months now, made one heck of a profit from it.

For a start you've got the right idea, selling old items and things you don't want or need anyone is the best place to begin.

Choose the correct category to sell in, this is pretty vital as it'll be where your item shows up when people search for it or related items.

Choose whether or not you want to sell your item via an Auction format (bidding) or via Buy It Now (fixed price). Buy It Now also has a Best Offer system that is pretty good too, it allows people to make offers on your item.

Next take a picture or two of it, it's great to have pictures of your item on your Auction.

Informative/Factual/Creative Writing - For the item specifics and description you will need to use a mix of facts about your item, being as descriptive as possible but not too boring... That's where the creative part comes in! You need to entice people into buying your item rather than someone elses.

Next make sure you have a decent amount of postal options, not too expensive but make sure you cover your costs.

Ensure you have Paypal... It's safe and I wouldn't recommend using Ebay without having paypal as a payment method as both a seller and a buyer.

Make your listing have a gallery and a bold option, these cost more but they're pretty useful.

Hope you find this useful!!

Also, I like to look and see who's selling the same things as I am. I look at how many there are, their prices, their page layout, and how much the item actually sells for. If it works for someone else, it'll probably work for you. I usually wait if there are a billion of the same thing I'm trying to sell already up for auction, or try to make mine stand out by bundling it with something else.

Have you made purchases from E-bay? I tend to ignore listings by people who have not bought or sold more than 100 items.

Have you made purchases from E-bay? I tend to ignore listings by people who have not bought or sold more than 100 items.

Paypal buyer/seller protection is your friend here for more 'risky' transactions.

Thanks for the tips guys. :D

Have you made purchases from E-bay? I tend to ignore listings by people who have not bought or sold more than 100 items.
I don't understand. Why not?

Like said I never sold anything, but bought one item. That was my Ebay history.

Thanks for the tips guys. :D


I don't understand. Why not?

Like said I never sold anything, but bought one item. That was my Ebay history.

A lot of people, quite rightly, are scared of buying from sellers with little/no feedback. I had this "problem" when I was first starting out on Ebay, all it takes is someone with a decent feedback rating to purchase something from you and give you Positive feedback and good comments and people will soon be willing to buy from you. There's always people out there who want an item enough to purchase it no matter what.

A lot of people, quite rightly, are scared of buying from sellers with little/no feedback. I had this "problem" when I was first starting out on Ebay, all it takes is someone with a decent feedback rating to purchase something from you and give you Positive feedback and good comments and people will soon be willing to buy from you. There's always people out there who want an item enough to purchase it no matter what.
Right. Because without the feedback, you may as well be buying a watch out of the pocket of some guy on a street corner. You don't know what you're getting. With a lot of positive feedback, you can at least be sure the seller is someone who cares about his reputation.

True but you can also quite easily tell the integrity of a listing and a seller regardless of feedback scores. I've seen recently scammers with 200+ positive feedback because they've purchased an Ebay account with such feedback. Generally speaking look at the listing, the wording, the seller and their 'about me' page if they have one. Look at the pictures of the item, are they home-taken or are they pictures you could get from Google? That can be a good indicator.

Granted there is no substitute for good/high feedback scores but still you can trust sellers with lower feedback ratings. Though I wouldn't for anything more than £100, as for newer sellers that's where Paypals protection stops. For more trusted sellers up to £500 protection is automatically available from Paypal on eligible items. Never had to use it myself but it's nice to have that fail safe there.

I definitely trust my own instinct more on ebay than the rating system. It's a nice feature, but spelling mistakes (not accidentally, but lazy ones), shipping costs and the like give a lot away about the seller. Also I refuse to buy when the shipping costs are just 50 Cent over what I call reasonable. This profit making via shipping increased a lot over the last years and I'd love to see more ebayers boycotting it.

For selling I think a photo is a must. Many people skip over other offers, because there are just too many these days, especially in clothes. Make it nice, but concise. Just like opening a thread on CoS :lol: - make sure your idea/item is understandable.

is there any type of insurance for ebay purchases or payments??? i want to sell some items as well, I'm just worried I won't get a payment or something.

I've bought a few things from ebay - usually new items that are a lot cheaper there than on any other website or instore. Pictures are definitely a must, and I take in account the seller's rating score, item description, and availability before bidding/buying. Shipping has to be reasonable too (this is for you, guy with the 20 dollar shipping for EARBUDS).

The first seller I bought from was really nice and suggested I get my paypal account verified, as there are sellers out there that only accept buyers with so. And since then I haven't run into any probems - sellers have always recieved my money, and I've gotten my stuff in reasonable time. There was one seller though, that closed their store right after I bought something - I got my item, but I couldn't leave feedback and they didn't leave any for me.

I was thinking about selling some of my stuff, but I gotta like sit down and read EVERYTHING beforehand - I don't wanna do anything wrong ^^;;

Where can i view my strikes on ebay ? how can i tell how many i have,,,

I got an unpaid item strike as he never game me his full address, i recieved the postal order back in the mail and i sent him a message explaining what happened and am sending it back to him, i need to know if he removed the strike or not.

I would try to make the case visible for ebay, they have some online tools to report a misbehaviour. But I'm not sure how long it needs to get it from your account.

This stuff is annoying. When sellers (or buyers) get impatient or don't trust each other any more, the whole idea of an online market place gets killed. Mistakes just happen. Hope you get that cleared! :)

Just recently I saw some stuff get deleted after a year (at least), maybe that's a solution as well - not as good as getting all cleared up, though.

I just started selling on Ebay too. I love it! I did some research to see what other items like mine were going for so that I knew the demand and price range. Also, watch closely if items aren't being bid on or just being watched. I researched specific items and found that I had priced too high, I changed the price and then people started bidding on it.

My bidding period is still not over, but I have made more than what I thought I would. Also, are there any shipping tips? I priced my shipping at or lower than what the estimate was, so I think it was pretty fair.

I guess shipping is some moral issue mostly. For sure package costs money as well (if one actually buys new one, I actually hardly do), but when I sell stuff, I want the direct shipping costs only. I don't want to earn on that one as well and also don't bid at stuff from sellers, who ship for double the price or so. I wish more buyers would act like this to stop the overprized shipping costs eventually.

For others I made the experience that a clear photo and a clear description gets the most trust. Also starting at 1 $, 1 € (or wherever you are) seems to work out better than giving a higher starting.

For sure package costs money as well (if one actually buys new one, I actually hardly do), but when I sell stuff, I want the direct shipping costs only. I don't want to earn on that one as well and also don't bid at stuff from sellers, who ship for double the price or so.
Wow people actually do this? I was wondering how that worked. I was planning on refunding money if I ended up spending less on shipping than I thought. I am all so new at this that I used their estamate and either kept that or went lower.

I plan on going to the dollor stor to get some envelopes since they are cheeper there than at the post office. For others I made the experience that a clear photo and a clear description gets the most trust. Also starting at 1 $, 1 € (or wherever you are) seems to work out better than giving a higher starting.
I agree about the picture. I would pass a product by if it didn't have a picture especially if there were more of like products.

What do you think about paying extra for the enlargement or an extra photo?

Wow people actually do this?On ebay Germany (where I am) it increased a lot over the last, say, three or four years. People realized they can really win on shipping costs. So parcels sent for 3,90 were charged for 7,00 and so on. It is annoying I think and should be treated by the community, but so far many seem to happily jump on the bandwaggon.

What do you think about paying extra for the enlargement or an extra photo?I didn't try that out yet, so I'm not too sure. Just usually I go for putting my offer in without any extra costs. It seems that works, I got quite high bids already. Seems things depend on what one sells more than extra images. It's also nice for putting it online a second time, if the first week didn't bring a bid. That's for free usually, but not if one has some special features. The gallery image is for free, I use that in any case since I mostly scroll over the offers not having one myself.

On ebay Germany (where I am) it increased a lot over the last, say, three or four years. People realized they can really win on shipping costs. So parcels sent for 3,90 were charged for 7,00 and so on. It is annoying I think and should be treated by the community, but so far many seem to happily jump on the bandwaggon.
:sigh: that is sad. I have a bigger item I am going to put up in a week or so and I am actually going to take it to the post office or UPS to see exactly how much it will be and how they suggest to ship it. That way I can price it to the tea.


I didn't try that out yet, so I'm not too sure. Just usually I go for putting my offer in without any extra costs. It seems that works, I got quite high bids already. Seems things depend on what one sells more than extra images. It's also nice for putting it online a second time, if the first week didn't bring a bid. That's for free usually, but not if one has some special features. The gallery image is for free, I use that in any case since I mostly scroll over the offers not having one myself.
Thanks for the tips. I have had pretty good success with just having one photo that they give you for free so I will stick with that the second time. Also, I saw that Ebay gets some of the money after it sells is there a certain percetange or does it depend on how much the item sells for?

There is a certain percetange, just now I'm not to sure any more how high that one is actually. It never disturbed me very much - it's not too much I think.

I had a bad experience with ebay -- I bought some inexpensive pepper seeds and the seller never mailed them. For weeks I sent messages through the site and also through email. Finally, I had to leave a rating for the seller, and I was honest about it. As you can imagine, within days, he had given me a horrible rating as a buyer, saying that I was making the whole thing up. Since then, I have lost an interest in dealing with people on ebay. Sad, too.

Yay, ebay always just is as good as its community. It's probably not installed in the US then, at UK and some other European marketplaces one can't rate the buyer others than positive. This definitely has it's flaws, but in this case it purpose to prevent for revenge ratings had worked out. It was introduced so that buyers feel save to say a honest word about a seller.

Just to be honest. Until now I hardly had problems with sellers, but a few times with buyers. This is getting really exhausting.

So how long do you usually give people to pay you? I still haven't received a payment from one of my buyers and it has almost been three weeks. She said she is going through some serious personal stuff and I don't want to be incentive, but I want my money or to put the item back up. :shrug:

I had a bad experience with ebay -- I bought some inexpensive pepper seeds and the seller never mailed them. For weeks I sent messages through the site and also through email. Finally, I had to leave a rating for the seller, and I was honest about it. As you can imagine, within days, he had given me a horrible rating as a buyer, saying that I was making the whole thing up. Since then, I have lost an interest in dealing with people on ebay. Sad, too.
That's aweful!! Did that happen awhile ago because now Sellers can only leave positive feedback for their buyers or report a problem they are having.

I would put the item back up. 3 weeks is too long. I think not giving her negative feedback would be considerate enough of her serious personal stuff. Shouldn't have bid if she didn't want or couldn't buy the item when the auction ended. I've had people ask me to hold stuff for them and then never contact me again.

I think I'm having a problem with a seller. I purchased something a little over two weeks ago. I paid right away with PayPal and I got an email from the seller the next day telling me it was being shipped. It was suppose to take 2-7 days to get here. I haven't gotten it yet. On wednesday, I emailed the seller. I haven't received any email back, although when I sent the email, I got a message from Ebay saying it should take a 1-2 days to hear back. That deadline passed.

My question is how long should I wait before I open a case with Ebay/PayPal or at least try to get the seller's phone number? I was going to give it until tuesday or wednesday.

I never got a tracking number or anything, so I have no idea where my stuff is. It's very frustrating. I've bought stuff on Ebay before and never had any problems.

I had similar cases and sometimes the item arrived still, just somewhat later. It's not very nice, but since it's a private selling site I tend to give the sellers the benefit of doubt and wait a bit longer than I usually would do.

So in your case I'd maybe wait one more week to make sure it's not the post system's fault, but then definitely open a case.

Yeah, that seems like a good idea. Thanks. :)
It just burns me that I emailed them and I haven't gotten a response yet. I would be okay if they would just tell me "sorry, I mailed it out later than I told you. " Or something like that.

Yes, I know what you mean. I didn't have many problems on ebay yet, but if I had I almost never believed their explanation. I think most peeps don't tell the truth, but at least still send the item then. So much easier if they just said, woops, it's still here, I thought I sent it two weeks ago. Nobody expects a professional seller there. (I know there are quite a few now, just usually.)

Does anyone use eBay to make profit? I don't mean scam, but for example - if you bought something at a discount price and there's a high market for it, do you sell it on eBay to make extra cash?

Well I've never sold anything on e-bay but I've bought plenty of stuff over the course of years I've had an account there(since 2004).

I've never had a problem buying anything. There was one time that an item got lost in the mail but the seller was nice enough to replace it.

I don't tend to have a problem with the site.

I've bought some awesome things on ebay. I bought my mobile phone for something like a third of the price (and it's perfect), bought my synthesiser for half the retail price (again, perfect)... hmm bought heaps of CDs, clothes, shoes, DVDs all sorts of things. Always for a fraction of retail price. I always turn to Ebay before buying anything. Only sold a concert ticket on there once (not a scapler, I just didn't need it anymore) but it ws a nice easy transaction. I got about $230 for it and ebay got something like $5 from that from memory. Might have been a bit less.

My question is how long should I wait before I open a case with Ebay/PayPal or at least try to get the seller's phone number? I was going to give it until tuesday or wednesday.
For these sort of problems, now ebay has the expiry policy, if the item is not shipped within a given due date, then the money is reverted in the full. You don't loose a single penny. I think its a welcome change. :)