A Beginner’s Guide To Ebay

In A Beginner’s Guide To eBay, we cover everything you need to know for opening up your own eBay shop!

Years ago, I listed one item on eBay. It was a pair of jeans, and it got no bids. I figured there must be some trick to getting things sold. Maybe you had to be a marketing whiz or something, I don’t know. But anyway, after that auction, I never thought about selling on eBay again…

… Until one day, not too long ago, when I read an ebook on the subject (hey, it was a free download).

I decided to give eBay a second chance. It’s been a smashing success!

So if you’re interested in starting your own eBay business,  I assure you it’s very easy. Here’s my version of a beginner’s guide to getting started:

The first step, of course, is to create both an eBay and a PayPal account.

After that, you’ll need merchandise. Time to clean out the attic!

A Beginner’s Guide To eBay

• Start with stuff you already have. This is important because it allows you to get some selling experience, make a few mistakes, and get a feel for what sells nicely with no cash out of pocket.
• Once you round up a few things you’d like to sell, go to eBay and search for that item. Check the box on the left-hand column of the page that says “sold listings.” Looking at the sold listings will give you an idea of how popular your item is and how much it’s selling for.

I use ergos as an example because… well, I love them.

• Once you find an item that’s the same or very close to what you have, find the “sell one like this” button. It’ll be directly under the item picture. This button will save you a massive amount of time by not having to create listings from scratch. Many of the details and categories will already be filled in for you. Just be very sure to change pertinent details.

Ergos always get bids. Always.

• Start your auctions at a price you’re happy with. eBay suggests starting at $0.99, and for some items – the ones you know will get a lot of bids – that’s okay. But your time is worth more than $0.99, and you want to ensure you get some return on your time investment.
• Don’t price gauge. While I’m not going to waste my time on $0.99 listings, I also don’t try to squeeze every penny I can out of an item. If something is going for $5.00, I might list it for $4 or $4.50. I hope that mine will sell instead of theirs. Indeed, you won’t get many bids on your stuff if it’s higher than everybody else’s.
• Be honest about the item’s condition. Make sure to point out any flaws in an item. Add pictures of the flaws and point them out in the description. You want the “flaw pictures” to be last on the list, but they must be there. The buyer needs to know exactly what he’s getting, and if you ever have a dispute with a buyer, eBay will be more likely to come down on your side if the flaws, etc., were pointed out in the listing.

Always point out the flaws.

• Calculate your shipping costs. Free shipping is attractive to many potential buyers. If you offer free shipping, make sure your starting bid reflects that. Otherwise, figure out what your item will weigh and/or what size box it needs, and find the best shipping option you can. One thing that used to detour me from selling online was the thought of making all those trips to the post office. Not so! You can package it, print off a shipping label, hang it on your mailbox, and presto! Done!
• Relist, relist, relist! Not every auction will sell in the first week… Or even the second, third, or fourth. If you’re selling something a little obscure, it may take a while to get a bid on it. That doesn’t necessarily mean you should come down on your price. It means someone interested in that particular item or topic hasn’t found you yet.

For instance, I had a book called Unassisted Homebirth. That’s not a very popular topic, but it’s also a hard-to-find book …which means that a person looking for that book will be willing to pay for it. I think I relisted that thing for nine weeks before it finally sold.

The thing is, there was only one person who bid on it. If I’d priced it for $0.99, that’s what they’d have laid for it. Great for them, but not so great for me. I learned this the hard way.

Fortunately, two clicks of the mouse is all it takes to relist.

You will, of course, come across things that are simply undesirable to anybody. How do you know when to give up listing something? I don’t know. Are there other listings like it? Are they selling? If they are, are they selling at a worthwhile price? My general rule is that if I can’t get more than a dollar for it, I’m just not going to bother. I prefer much higher ticket items. My last five sales totaled over $75 before shipping. Sure, they took longer to sell, but it was a lot easier than listing 50 items to get that much.

Keeping the ball rolling.

Okay, so you’ve sold a few things, cut down on some of the clutter, and are excited about the number your PayPal account is showing. Don’t blow it all on candy corn or… Whatever.

Use that money to restock your inventory! Thrift shops, yard sales, flea markets… These are all great places to find eBay-worthy treasures.

From experience, you may have a good idea of what to look for, but even better, if you have a smartphone, you can look things up as you go.

(I admit this strategy hasn’t worked very well for me lately. Balancing a smartphone, a glass figurine, and a baby who’s incredibly sick of shopping isn’t easy, y’all. )

Anytime you go anywhere, be on the lookout. Not long ago, Gabriel brought home a big bag of hand-me-downs. Someone who was cleaning out their storage stuff. Until then, I’d never sold clothes and didn’t think I ever would, but hey, the clothes were free, so I could sell ‘em cheap. Worth a try, right? Much to my surprise, the first skirt I listed sold right away.

You just never know when you (or your listing in this case) might be in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price.

As a mom with two little ones living on a farm, time is at a premium, so one of the significant benefits of eBaying for me is that eBay does all of the marketing – all I have to do is list. Even so, I rarely have a big enough block of time to devote to getting a listing done all at once.

The way I handle this is to grab odd moments throughout the day to work on it. Edit the title, walk away. Upload a picture, walk away, etc. With this method, I may end up posting a listing at midnight or 8:00 A.M., which isn’t ideal, but since eBay only charges for things that sell,
If it doesn’t sell this week, I’ll hit the relist button at a more ideal time.

Whew! This thing got wordy, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. I recommend How to eBay in Real Life (For a Living) for further reading. It’s a relatively quick, easy read with lots of information. Or if you feel like taking the plunge without more reading, hey, what’s stopping ya?