I will be a college student this fall in Michigan. I come from a low-income family, and its going to be tough enough trying to pay my loans back. I look to get a part-time job, and I would like to learn how to become a successful eBay seller to make a little extra money. I would like to know how to get started, how to know what to sell, and any other extra useful information.
As most everyone collects something or other, one’s man trash is another man’s treasure. It really doesn’t matter what you sell as long as it isn’t junk. CAUTION: With the most popular items sold, you will have much more competition among sellers who sell volume at reduced prices by buying volume at a wholesale discount. It’s difficult to be competitive with volume sellers of a particular item.
But to get you started…………….
You can go to ebay for a tutorial on how to be a seller:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/selling-basics.html
But to get to the nitty-gritty:
There are no secrets………..just common sense + hard work!
Be honest and accurate in your descriptions – One-sentence descriptions are for lazy sellers. One paragraph should be sufficient for most items. My general guideline is the more expensive (read higher priced) an item, the more you should ‘talk it up.’ It won’t be time wasted. Use lots of adjectives in your descriptions. Adjectives make prose and your items come alive. Without them, prose is dull and your items less appealing. Just add a little ‘sizzle’ and even have a little fun with it. In short, make your descriptions stand out above the crowd.
Be professional – use good English with no spelling errors – AVOID ALL CAPS TEXT
PICTURES:
Including one picture is a MUST, more pictures for higher priced items. Make sure your pictures are clear. There are far too many pictures on ebay that are dark. If prospective buyers can’t see your items clearly, your items, more than likely, will not fetch the closing prices they deserve. To remove darkness, use any photo editor to add some brightness and a wee bit of contrast.
Eliminate clutter. Prospective bidders don’t want to know what kind of cereal you eat or what kind of kitchen table or bedspread you have. Use a SOLID backdrop when taking your pictures as you want to focus all of the attention on your item. In short, the one and only thing you want in your picture is the item being sold. A SOLID white or light blue backdrop is best. However, there are certainly items that won’t show well on a light backdrop. In these cases, use a darker backdrop. And for gosh sake, don’t even think of using a plaid blanket as a backdrop for your pictures as I once saw on ebay. You should also crop the photos in your photo editor. Good pictures can add 5% to 10% to final closing prices.
GOOD DESCRIPTIONS + GOOD PICTURES = GOOD PRESENTATION. This is what you should strive for.
COMMUNICATION:
GOOD Communication is a must – Always notify buyers when you mail their items. It is not only a courtesy you would want and expect as a buyer but it is also both good customer service and good business practice. After all, you are the ‘President & CEO’ of your ‘company’ running your business but using ebay as your selling medium. In short, conduct your business so that it reflects well on you as a person. Treat everyone as a human being, not a living being and this includes people who have inquiries about your items, not just your buyers. Prospective buyers making these inquiries could ultimately be the winning bidders and possible repeat customers.
TIPS TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS:
Do not limit your auctions to one country. SELL WORLDWIDE. The reason is elementary. You now have access to the largest market ebay has to offer. Limiting your auctions to only one country also limits your potential profits. A basic business tenet is, ‘the greater the potential market, the greater the potential to maximize profits.’ But do note in your listing that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from overseas bidders/buyers. Through experience, you will learn that there are certain problem countries. Italy seems to be one of them. Mail sent to buyers in Italy very often ‘mysteriously disappears.’ If this is the case, just note in your listing you sell to all countries EXCEPT (name(s) here).
However, if you decide to limit sales to only one country, such as the USA, never say NO when you receive an email asking if you would ship to Taiwan, Germany, Australia or wherever. The reason is that you have a ‘FISH ON THE HOOK!’ This person will bid! When he or she does, this may force a previous bidder to enter another, higher bid or force later, first time bidders to come in with higher bids. So always say YES to these emails if you want to maximize your profits. But do say that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from these overseas bidders
Avoid selling ‘nickel and dime’ items. People who list and sell a steady stream of items that close for $5 or less are wasting their time. Less expensive, similar items ($5 or less) are best sold as a group to save time. If you have a large number of these cheaper, similar items, divide them up into sub lots of three, four or five.
More expensive (higher priced), similar items are best sold individually to maximize profits. There are ebay ‘vultures’ who just love to swoop down on similarly grouped items in one listing. When they win these auctions, they turn around and sell the items individually and, in most cases, get one and a half to 2 times and sometimes three times what they paid for them on an average item basis. I know this works. When I had more time (read unemployed), I was one of these ‘vultures.’ This is one of those situations where the parts are worth more than the whole. However, do be cautious if you venture into this arena. You have to know your merchandise. Stay in those areas you are familiar with. You can’t jump in blindly to any and every auction that has grouped items.
Ebay sellers are increasingly complaining about the high cost of ebay and PayPal fees. I say, try establishing your own business and reach the close to 200 million people that ebay reaches and find out how much your expenses are. To these complainers, I say ‘Kwitchurbellyakin.’ There is always a cost of doing business. Many sellers have left ebay for other auction sites to save on fees. I don’t think this is prudent. They may be saving a few bucks on fees but an item that sells on another auction site with far, fewer members for $10 would likely sell for substantially more at ebay with its much greater membership. This is a classic example of “stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny” and being “penny wise and pound foolish.”
These smaller auction sites are great for buyers for the same reason they are bad for sellers:
Fewer potential bidders = Less competition = Lower closing prices.
These smaller auction sites ‘dangle their worms’ with low and no fees but they certainly won’t tell new sellers their items will sell for less than at their sites than they will sell for at ebay. There isn’t another auction site on the web that can hold a candle to ebay and the tens of millions of members it has. Many have tried and many have failed and yet, many are still trying. Ebay has a virtual lock on this business. This is where you want to sell as ebay has the largest potential market.
The ebay formula:
LARGEST auction site by far = MAXIMUM competition = HIGHER closing prices
Lastly, keep in mind that experience is the best teacher. Start off slowly listing only two or three items and see how that goes for you. Once you get your feet wet and gain confidence, start listing more items on a weekly basis. You will soon learn the ins and outs and the dos and don’ts in short order and ultimately settle on a system that works best for you. The more items you list, the more items you will sell, the more $$ you will make and the harder you will work. Nothing in life comes easy and that includes becoming a successful seller at ebay. If you are conscientious and put in a little extra effort, you will do well. If you are lazy or indifferent in selling your items, you won’t. Good luck & happy selling!
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