Is it possible to make a lot of money from selling on ebay?

Question

I am out of a job and need to work from home on my computer. Can anyone give me tips for selling items on ebay? Should I stick with one thing like... black dresses, or is it better to sell different things?

Answer 1

Yes, where there is a will there is a way! 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. It doesn’t matter what you are selling provided it isn’t junk and it has ‘good presentation.’ But to get you started…………….

You can go to ebay for a tutorial on how to be a seller:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/newtoebay/get...

I will also add:

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 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.

Be professional - use good English with no spelling errors

ALWAYS include at least one picture, 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.  

Use a SOLID backdrop when taking your pictures as you want to focus all of the attention on your item. Eliminate clutter. Prospective bidders don’t want to know what kind of cereal you eat or what kind of kitchen table or bed you have. 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 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.

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.

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

Do not limit your payment options – Offer all of them. Sellers who offer only PayPal or only money orders or money orders and checks are further limiting their potential market and, in turn, reducing their potential to maximize profits. Some people will not bid on items that do not have PayPal as a payment option. Then you have a smaller percentage that refuse to use PayPal and prefer to pay by check only or money order only.

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, 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, I was one of these ‘vultures.’  This is one of those situations where the parts are worth more than the whole. When I see an auction of grouped items it tells me loud and clear that the seller is far more interested in getting rid of his stuff the quickest, easiest way possible and ‘be done with it’ rather than making any decent profit. However, do be cautious if you venture into this arena. You have to know your merchandise. Stay with items/ merchandise with which you are familiar. You can’t jump in blindly to any and every auction that has grouped items.

Short of items to sell and where to find items to sell? Garage and yard sales are obvious as are ‘junktique’ shops. If you want to let your fingers do the walking, you too can be crafty ‘vulture’ like a select group of other ebay sellers. Become a member of several smaller auction sites and search for bargains there.  But do stick with items / merchandise you know. 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

Once you have your bargains, turn around and sell them at ebay. Ebay has the largest membership of any auction site. There isn’t another auction site that is remotely close and I do mean remotely close to having the number of members that ebay has.  Here is the ebay formula:

Largest, by far, of any auction site = MAXIMUM competition = HIGHER closing prices,

Don’t let anyone discourage you from selling at ebay and using PayPal because the fees are too high. Hogwash! There will always be a cost of doing business. Would you rather sell an item at a smaller auction site for $10 and pay no or low fees or sell it at ebay for $20 to $30 and pay a few bucks in fees?  Sellers who sell at these smaller auction sites perfectly illustrate the old adages,  Ã¢Â€Â˜stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny’ and being ‘penny wise and pound-foolish.’



If you want to do your listings OFFLINE, download the TURBO LISTER program free from ebay. Once you have finished with your listings, you can upload them anytime or schedule a date and time when you want your auctions to start.

Lastly, keep in mind that experience is the best teacher.  Start off slowly listing only one or two 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. Good luck & happy selling!