Selling on Ebay Series – Part 1

Selling on Ebay has been a great blessing for our family. There was a time when my husband had lost his job, he found a temporary job as an adjunct professor, but it did not cover all of our expenses. I was able to sell items on Ebay, and it actually helped us to pay our bills. We no longer have the need to make extra money to cover our expenses, but I still sell items on Ebay. I use our Ebay money as our “extra” money. We choose to live on a tight budget, so we use Ebay as a way to make some extra money for the items that aren’t included in our budget. The Ebay money gets used for Christmas presents, birthday presents, vacation spending money, or larger purchases we are hoping to make. I had the need for a new point and shoot camera last year, because mine had died, so I turned to Ebay to make the money necessary to buy the camera. I was able to earn enough money to buy the camera just in time for our trip to Disneyland.

Once you have signed up, you will need to figure out what it is you want to sell. It could be as simple as selling unwanted items you have around your house. If you are interested in making some extra money and you want to buy items specifically to sell on Ebay here are some tips.

1. You should sell items you are familiar with. It is much easier to sell items you know more about. In the past the items I have purchase specifically to sell on Ebay have included Gymboree clothing, Lego’s, and Target clearance items. All of these items are things I am familiar with, and makes it much easier when it comes to listing the items. Gymboree items worked well for me, because I was located near lots of stores, and it was very easy for me to find lots of clothing on clearance and put some outfits together. Gymboree would also work well even it it was used, because it really holds is resale value well.

2. You need to take into consideration how easy it will be to ship the item. The buyer will pay the shipping charges that you state, but if you have to box things up in HUGE boxes and go to the post office or UPS everyday it is not convenient and may not be worth the money you make. I like to sell items that can be package in smaller boxes or envelopes, so I can just go to the Automated Postal Machine, and then just drop the packages in the mailbox. The lines are way too long at our post office, I want to avoid having to stand in those lines. The smaller packages don’t work for everything I sell, but I do take the size of the item into consideration when I buy it.

3. This is an important one! To get an idea of how much an item will sell for, you can search for how much items have previously sold for on Ebay. This is always a big help for me, it helps me decide if something is worth selling.

Here is an example: I picked up a Lego Trade Federation set at Target at 75% off, it cost me $24.98. I want to see how much it is selling for currently, so I go to Ebay and click on “advanced search” (it is directly to the right of the regular search button). You type in the item you are looking for, and make sure to check the “completed listings” box. This will bring up all of the auctions that ended for that item, and you can see what they sold for. I see several auctions have ended for the Lego Trade Federation, and they have sold for $169.00, $178.50, and $145.82. Not a bad return on a $24.98 investment, huh?

I use this search for almost everything I sell, because it not only helps me decide if an item is worthwhile to sell, but it also helps me determine a price to list it at.

4. Collectors items or discontinued/retired items make excellent items to sell on Ebay. This is why I have found that Lego’s are such a great item to sell, especially the Star Wars sets. There are lots of collectors out there, and the Star Wars sets are very popular. You can almost always buy a Star Wars set that is being discontinued(even at regular price), keep it for a year or two and then make money on the set. You can make even more when you use the Target clearance deals to pick up Lego sets at a discount. Another example of a discontinued item would be the American Girl dolls. They have a specific Girl of the Year doll that is only available for one year, once she is retired, you will see that she usually sells for more than the retail price. There are so many options for retired items, just think about things you are familiar with and go from there.

5. You can find items to sell almost anywhere, your home, thrift stores, yard sales, and clearance sales. The items you sell don’t have to be new. I bought a used Gymboree Christmas dress at a consignment store for $8.99, and later sold it on Ebay for $69.00. That is $60 more than I paid for the dress! I do find that new items are quicker and easier to list, because you don’t have to worry about looking for any flaws that a used item may have. It is also quicker and easier to list severeal identical items. For instance, I have 3 identical Playmobil sets to sell, once the first one sells, all I have to do is go in and “relist” the item. Once I do this the second one is set to sell, I don’t have to worry about typing in. I love when I have several identical items to sell, it makes selling on Ebay so much more convenient.

So, these are a few ideas to help you get started on deciding what to sell. During part 2 of this series, I will give you step by step instructions on the specifics of getting your item listed.

If you are interested in selling and you just signed up for Ebay, I would recommend buying a few items so you can get some positive feedback. Quite a few people won’t buy from sellers that have “0” feedback. You don’t have to buy anything big, you can even buy some coupons to get started. If you have any question on anything I have posted so far, just ask!