# Starting selling on eBay - any tips?



## Caveat (9 Mar 2010)

I might as well.  It struck me that we have a good load of stuff that we have no need for from clothes to CDs to furniture.

I already have an account which I opened a good while ago - just to have, but never used it.  I'm sure the process is easy enough and I'm sure Ebay will advise but does anyone have any tips or advice?  Anything to avoid doing?


----------



## dmos87 (9 Mar 2010)

The best advice I can give you is to get out a weighing scales and weigh each and every item. Then match this up to the postal office's guidelines as size and weight matter. They have a breakdown of costs for everything from local postings to international. I once sold a bag on eBay only to find myself out of pocket for the sale as it cost far more to ship than I imagined!


----------



## Caveat (9 Mar 2010)

Thanks yeah - I had considered that.  With this in mind is it a good idea to restrict selling to Ireland only or will that exclude too many?


----------



## dmos87 (9 Mar 2010)

It depends on your time really - i personally had no problem shipping worldwide but its time consuming. NEVER post something until payment is received either as this covers the shipping cost. Best thing to do is to restrict larger items to Ireland and the UK perhaps to make your item more appealing - no-one will buy an item for 20 euros and have to pay 80 to ship it!! 

Other than that, detail your ads as much as possible. 1 picture is free, so get one really good picture to post and hopefully thats all you need. Be reasonable with your selling prices too. 

Hope it helps!


----------



## jhegarty (9 Mar 2010)

Delete any contact someone makes about shipping the item to Africa.

You will gets loads , they will be scam.


----------



## Plek Trum (9 Mar 2010)

There's a few Irish based websites that may be worth considering before ebay.  I have found www.donedeal.ie a very good one to browse and use.  No affiliation, just a happy customer and regular browser there...


----------



## Caveat (9 Mar 2010)

Thanks all. Hadn't considered _donedeal_ but yeah, heard some people mentioning it alright.

Noted about the scams too.


----------



## chrisboy (9 Mar 2010)

I bought a ralph lauren hoody, brand new of an irish seller, who would only ship to ireland, for 13 euro.. The same top costs on average 55-60 sterling plus shipping when sold internationally, so be prepared to ship abroad..


----------



## sideswipe (9 Mar 2010)

> bought a ralph lauren hoody


 
Did you mean a "ralph lauren" hoody?


----------



## chrisboy (9 Mar 2010)

sideswipe said:


> Did you mean a "ralph lauren" hoody?



Yes, i meant a ralph lauren hoody.


----------



## Sue Ellen (9 Mar 2010)

I think a read through some of the previous threads  about e-bay might be worthwhile.  Might be something over on boards.ie too.

The 'Sell', 'My eBay' and 'Community' options here might be helpful also.  Don't use it myself but daughter uses it a lot.  Familiarising yourself with postage charges, procedures and processes here in Ireland is a good idea, get yourself some good padded envelopes and strong tape.

Make sure you request a receipt (even handwritten one) from the post office so you can provide the tracking no. or even copy if the parcel goes astray.

Presumably you already have a Paypal ac.

Most importantly get yourself a good goafer (like she has me well trained to do) and get them to do the trips to the local post office.  Its very handy for her when this goafer forgets to seek reimbursement of their expenditure on postage


----------



## allthedoyles (9 Mar 2010)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58829450#post58829450

Here is some sound advice for new eBay sellers


----------



## Caveat (9 Mar 2010)

Thanks again all - and thanks for the links Sue Ellen.

No, I don't have a paypal a/c - yet.


----------



## RMCF (9 Mar 2010)

I would try to end all your auctions on Sat or Sun nights, maybe around 8pm. 

I think auctions do best when they can have the max number of bidders watching the deal. And this is the time most people are likely to be surfing. No work, free time, not too late etc.

Also, treat your customers well. Don't bog your arm in for postage. I see people looking for £4 for something tiny. Don't rip people off and they are more than likely to bid. If it will cost 50c to post, charge 50c.

Also, get your stuff posted asap after the auction. I have fought eBayers very impatient. They want the stuff NOW !!

Follow these tips and you'll do ok. I have been on eBay for approx 8yrs. HAve 600+ feedback and all 100%. Enjoy, but watch out - theres loads of conmen and scammers out there.


----------



## Diddles (9 Mar 2010)

Quick question RMCF is it possible to put a price on an item without an auction.Cant seem to find how to do it,Im new to ebay as well.thanks d


----------



## mathepac (9 Mar 2010)

chrisboy said:


> I bought a ralph lauren hoody ... for 13 euro...


How much are genuine ones in adult sizes?


----------



## RMCF (9 Mar 2010)

Diddles said:


> Quick question RMCF is it possible to put a price on an item without an auction.Cant seem to find how to do it,Im new to ebay as well.thanks d



Yeah there is a BUY IT NOW option. It costs extra but think its minimal.

Any more questions feel free to ask or PM.


----------



## allthedoyles (9 Mar 2010)

Caveat said:


> No, I don't have a paypal a/c - yet.


 
You need to open a paypal a/c . It will cost € 1.50 and a month later you can verify your account and you will receive refund .

To verify your account , you must use the 4 digit code which will appear on your credit card statement , and enter this number in your paypal account .( see notifications at www.paypal.ie )

Be prepared to pay your fees ........There are eBay insertion fees and eBay final value fees etc 

Also Paypal fees , - when you receive a payment you will be charged 3.40 % plus € 0.35 

Best of luck on eBay


----------



## NovaFlare77 (9 Mar 2010)

More tips:

1) Communicate with your buyers. I sell some stuff on ebay, and when I'm posting the items I send them a message to say that it's been posted. If the buyer is outside of Ireland, I let them know approximately how ong it will take, using An Post's estimates. If you're posting something on a Saturday, let them know that it won't move until Monday.

2) As allthedoyles says, you need a paypal account and if your credit card company offers internet services, you can get the 4 digit verification code on your online statement after a few days.

3) Always leave feedback. It encourages your buyer to do the same and feedback is king on ebay.

4) Give as accurate an item description as you can. The description is free anyway, so use it to your full advantage.

5) Depending on the weight of the items you're selling, don't be afraid to list internationally. It doesn't cost extra anyway (except for US and Canada) and there's no harm gauging if your items have an international market.

I can't think of anything else, but I hope all of hte above helps. Happy selling!


----------



## chrisboy (9 Mar 2010)

mathepac said:


> How much are genuine ones in adult sizes?




Why? Do you want one? Here's a link if you want to pay full price..


----------



## Caveat (10 Mar 2010)

Thanks all - good advice.

I'm kind of excited at the prospect now - how sad am I?


----------



## DrMoriarty (10 Mar 2010)

6) Be sure to put a little extra care into how you photograph the items you're selling. It can make all the difference!


----------



## Caveat (10 Mar 2010)

Phew. 

Thanks for the heads up Doc - so I take it that it's not _de riguer_ to provide action shots of the collection of sex toys I was hoping to sell?


----------



## dmos87 (10 Mar 2010)

Not sure if you're joking but they wont allow the sale of sex toys! got given a toy as a joke by a friend and tried to sell it - it was swiftly removed 2 minutes later!!!


----------



## Caveat (10 Mar 2010)

Yes, it was a joke BTW.



dmos87 said:


> ... got given a toy as a joke by a friend



Ah yeah. That's what they all say.


----------



## dmos87 (11 Mar 2010)

I'm not a prude at all, I'd admit it if I had purchased one for myself but I am perfectly happy in the bedroom department thank you - I have no need for such things!!  Seriously though, It was a funny gift at the time, we moved homes so I did a clear-out and came accross it still in the packaging. eBay wouldnt allow a sale so I gave it away!


----------



## Boyd (11 Mar 2010)

Is it still for sale?


----------



## sam h (11 Mar 2010)

Caveat - based on what a friend has said (she sells a fair bit of stuff on ebay) - the photos & how you present the item is all important.  

Be prepared to get emails/texts at all hours asking questions about the item.  

Also, I hope you live near a post office as people do expect the item to be shipped immediately (waiting a week 'til you have more stuff to post is a non runner)

The friend I mentioned buys stuff in clearout sales and sells them on.  I always reckoned that unless you are doing it on a resonably decent scale, it is alot of work - she was raving about the 200% markup she got on a dress - cost €10 & sold for €30.  But given the time involved in getting the dress, taking phots, answering questions and going to the post office, I reckon it was a hard earned €20 & not much of it profit when she took out the time and effort involved.   She never seems to consider the other item that only covers it's purchase price, which will clearly bring down the overall margin.

It's a different story if you have 10 dresses on at the one time & can get it all done in a decent timescale.  

Anyway, if you have aload of stuff to get rid of, why not give it a go.


----------



## RMCF (11 Mar 2010)

As I mentioned warlier, and which can't be stressed enough, is to watch out for scammers.

I have been done a couple of times. People claiming they never received the item I sent (even though they had it up for sale themselves a week later) etc. So always get proof pf posting, and if possible make them sign for it on delivery.

I would also try to avoid people with very little feedback. Its ok on your description to say "Only bid if you have 10 positive feedback or more". But also watch out for some bidders, who can have feedback of 20 or 30 despite only registering with eBay 2 weeks before. They set up other accounts and buy from themselves or friends to get their score up, then try to rip people off.

But overall you can still make decent money. There are some stupid people on eBay and they can often pay silly money for things. 

Recently I did a quick trawl through my cupboards and sold 9 things that were gathering dust. I got £260 for them all. This then brings in another issue I have with eBay, the fees.

This cost me £24 in eBay charges, and then of course when all the winning bidders paid by PayPal they also take a % of the amount. PayPal are an eBay company so they get you twice.


----------



## joeysully (29 Mar 2010)

Iv been put off selling stuff on eBay purely due to eBay and paypal charges
Most of my items start at €1.49 so I don't pay an insertion fee.
but then it sells for that ebay takes a percentage of the total and paypal takes ~40c for the service of taking your fees. 

so I'm not listing cheap stuff any more I think its just not worth it. €4.99 will be my new minimum. 

As for tips. 

If you have photo-bucket or similar on-line photo storage you can add as many picture in the listing as you want for free. But you have to do it in the HTML tab when creating the listing so get yer "HTML for dummies" book out if you don't know what it is. This also gives you the ability to show large clear images of things rather than the small ones that are standard to eBay. 

90% of stuff I have sold on Ebay.ie goes abroad. 80% to the UK. In fact I rarely find anything on eBay.ie. Most of the stuff on it is RUBBISH or overpriced. 

I have found on occasion that the postage is more than I have quoted. In this case I tend to take the loss rather than explaining to the PO that I dont like there charges and delaying posting somthing by contacting the buyer for more money. Mostly its 50c to €1 but they all add up. 

Sold 2 books recently to the same buyer for €3 and got €16 for postage. 
postage turned out to be €18, paypal too about 50c, ebay took 20-30c 
so that left me with a few cent. Then the seller left feedback saying average postage rates . 

What I do sometimes is quote a postage rate above what the estimate is and note in the listing that the postage rates are high estimates and any overcharging will be refunded. People are always happy when they get money back after buying something. 

Say in your listings that you will leave feedback when buyer leaves feedback or they wont do it at all. 

as mentioned earlier best times to end an auction is sat/sun - this calender may help though http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/calendar


----------

