Top Rated Selling Tips for Getting Started on eBay
Are you a collector? Thrift shop entrepreneur? Garage sale deal finding maven? Or maybe you just want to get rid of some stuff and make a little extra cash? If so, you’ve probably thought of selling things on eBay. Chances are you may have bought something on eBay already.
Whatever it is that you’re looking to sell—from old comic books to brand new automotive parts—eBay is a tremendous marketplace that opens you up to a worldwide customer base. Both the website and the mobile app are user friendly and intuitive, and it’s easy to get started selling.
I’ve been selling sports cards, comics, and collectibles on eBay for the last 3.5 years, and with an average sales revenue of around $10,000 per year. It’s not making me rich, but it’s a fun hobby that has funded vacations, home improvements, and other purchases. I maintain status as a “Top Rated Seller” and am hoping to share a few insights that will make your experience smoother, easier, and more successful.
Speed Is Everything
The more you can list, the more you can sell. This isn’t just about sales volume, it’s also about your workload. When you get started on eBay, listing your items can be tedious. There’s a lot of data entry, figuring out what details to include, how to describe the condition of your item, Googling California Prop 65…it can be overwhelming. You need to economize your listing process so you can list more and not burn yourself out. Okay…how?
Sold + Completed – if you search for an item and select the filters for “Sold” and “Completed” this shows listings of recent sales for that item. This is a well-documented tool in terms of finding “comps,” or comparable sales, but it is also invaluable in terms of speeding up your process. If choose a Sold item, scroll down the box that says “Sell Similar” or “Sell One Like This.” This option will have eBay use the details from that sale to populate your listing. You’ll want to make sure the sale item your using has the correct info—it’s not very useful if the seller left everything blank—but it can save several minutes per item. You should change your title a bit to correct mistakes, or avoid redundancy, but you’ll be off to a great start.
Sell Similar on Your Own Items – maybe you’re selling something from a set or selling a bunch of similar items that have individual listings. You can re-populate info from your own listings as you make them. Say for example I’m selling two sports cards from the same set, of a different player. I do the listing for Player A, and then clone it for Player B. Now I make minor adjustments to a few things like Player B’s name, maybe the card number, and I’m done.
Auction vs Buy It Now
Do you set your item at a fixed price or let the market decide? This is a question I still struggle with, and there isn’t really a definitive answer. Auctions have the highest risk but also the highest reward. Set a $500 item to start at .99 and the bids come flooding in, and you might see your price go over $500 because the bidders want to win. But sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the $500 item only ends up going for $300. Why? It could be market fluctuations—especially for volatile speculative items like sports cards and other collectibles—or other variables like other similar items available, or a lack of eyes on your specific item. (Less likely if you sell at a high volume achieve Top Rated status).
Conversely, “Buy it Now” or “BIN” protects the price floor on a listing. You set the price, and you don’t have to take a dime less. But BIN listings seem to draw less attention and lack the urgency that comes from a timed auction. I’ve sold plenty of Buy It Now items at exactly the price I wanted to. But I’ve also listed others that just sit there for weeks without purchase, even when priced competitively. If you don’t want to take the risk of losing money on the sale, setting a BIN price somewhere around the current “comps” you should be able to move the item in a reasonable timeframe. Success for either sales option is obviously dependent on what item you are listing and how high demand is.
If I want to sell quickly, or clear inventory, or have a highly in-demand item to sell, I’ll run an auction. The risk is worth the reward on the high side, and on the low side I’d rather get something for the item than have it in my closet any longer. On the BIN side, if I can be patient—or don’t want the risk—I’ll set a price close to market value and wait. Sometimes I’ll even set a higher price if I think the market doesn’t properly value the item.
Understand How to Schedule
There are two scheduling items to consider when selling on eBay. The first is your personal schedule. We’ll assume you have a life, maybe a day job…if not, that’s okay too. The second is scheduling when your auctions are going to end. These two schedules will intersect when it’s time to ship your items. Remember, speed is everything. It takes time to list your items, and it takes time to ship them.
For auctions, weekends tend to draw the most eyes. So, in an ideal scenario, I’m running five or seven day auctions that end on a Fri/Sat/Sun. But I need to make sure that I’m available when things need to ship out.
If you travel for work during the week and don’t want to bring items with you, or ship them from exotic places, ending your auction Saturday or Sunday might now work. Typically shipping/handling time is set to three business days, and if you don’t ship on time, your Seller Rating will be penalized. So, if a weekend buyer pays right away, that’s Wednesday. Thankfully, eBay allows you to schedule your listings to start at a given date and time to accommodate your needs.
For me, this means setting specific shipping day each week. Tuesday. All my auctions would end on the weekend, payments would come in over the next day or two, I’d pack all my items on Tuesday night (usually while watching a late-night NBA game) and drop them off at the post office Wednesday morning. The point is, make it work for you. You don’t want a scenario where you’re packing up items and making trips to the mailbox 4 or 5 times a week.
Understand Shipping
Speaking of shipping, there’s a lot to it, and a few different ways to approach it. But you want to do whatever you can to keep your costs down.
Here are a few ways to do so:
Have the buyer pay for shipping. Free Shipping will certainly help your item sell faster, and depending on the item or your ability to pay for shipping it may be a viable option, but buyers paying for shipping is standard and something that people who purchase on eBay are used to.
USPS has free boxes of several different sizes. You can order them online or just roll up to the post office and grab some. HOWEVER—these boxes are for “Priority Mail” only, so you’ll either have choose that as the shipping option on your item, or wrap up the boxes like a birthday present to cover the markings that say “Priority Mail.” If you bring it to USPS with “Standard Ground” or other postage on it, and they can see the Priority Mail markings, they won’t ship it. These boxes are also useful to cut up and protect items like magazines, comics, and sports cards at no cost.
Bubble wrap, bubble mailers, and other packing supplies should be factored into your costs.
For stamps, trading cards, or other small items under $20, select “eBay Standard Envelope” and change the weight to 1-3oz. It’ll be $1.25 or less for your shipping options and it includes some very basic tracking.
Stamps and Standard Envelopes take longer and sometimes get delayed. Ground and Priority Mail will get there fastest and track best. I use Priority Mail for any higher value item—but its more expensive. Occasionally, buyers will become impatient with USPS delays and request refunds prematurely.
If you print your labels on time, they’ll be marked shipped on time—even if you can’t drop the package at USPS or UPS until the next day. However, if there’s a significant or disproportionate delay in the delivery time, you may get penalized.
Keep Up the Pace
Follow these steps and whatever others you need to consistently list items week in and week out. New items pop on the search algorithm, and consistent volume—with on time shipping—is one of the easiest ways to reach Top Rated status quickly. You’ll get more sales and more feedback, which will make buyers trust you more.
GET OUT THERE AND GET STARTED!
When you start out, every transaction can feel a little anxiety inducing. I remember early on I had a Derek Jeter rookie card listing get taken down because I listed it improperly, I started sweating and got distracted from real life. I was ruined! But I wasn’t. I fixed the listing and sold the card. Mistakes happen. It’s a big world, and it can seem scary, but it’s simple if you focus on details and create some consistency. Hopefully these tips make your life a little easier and help you turn that big box of Beanie Babies into the gold mine that you always knew it was.