Selling

I first started selling on ebay because I go to garage sales, estate sales, and auctions quite frequently. I often see things I know are collectibles, such as Fire King dishes, that are priced really low. (People don't know what they have.) Even though I don't want them, I can't resist picking them up. I thought about getting a booth someday at an antique mall, but I didn't think it really would pay off. So, I thought I would try selling a couple of things on Ebay. The hardest thing about the whole procedure is getting a good picture. I would suggest investing in an inexpensive digital camera if you don't already have one. People don't buy anymore without pictures. 1.You have to be registered with a credit card or checking account that they can debit the fees to list your merchandise to. 2.Click on the sell button on the top of the page. 3.Choose a category to begin. Collectibles, glass and pottery, antiques, books, etc. They have a category for everything. 4.Use the pull down boxes to select your exact category that you want your item listed in. For example: I chose glassware, and then kitchen glassware,and then measuring cups for a measuring cup I recently sold. 5.Enter a title. Make sure you have as many key words in that title as people may search for. You are limited the amount of letters though. 6.Type in your description. Make sure you describe absolutely everything, especially if it is not mint. Also make sure you tell them your return policy. One of my first ones I listed I was burned because I had not listed specifically enough my policy. Read many people's and decide on something you are comfortable with. 7.Add any pictures that you took. The first one is free, and any other cost .15. You have to browse through where you saved them and then hit your open button. I choose the standard layout because it is free, but you can pay extra a large picture or a slide show. 8.There are several sections I will group together. You have to enter the item location, how many you are selling (I've never sold a multiple item auction), the minimum price, and whether you want a reserve (A minimum past your minimum that you will sell your item for), how long you will list it for (3-10 days) ( 7 is what I normally do), and if you want buy it now (people can buy it before a bid has been placed for a price you set). 9.The next section has many options to add many fees to do fancy things, such as highlighting and bolding. The only thing there I do is add a counter so I can see how many people even looked at my item. 10.Next, you enter the types of payment you will accept. PayPal is a great service that I will do a later review on. 11.The next section is shipping. Chose where you will ship to and whether they will pay exact shipping or you will set a fixed cost. I usually do the later, but be careful you really estimate enough. I have been burned many times by that. Do your research with similar items to see what other people are charging. 12.The last thing to do is to click the continue button. It will summarize for you what your listing will look like and give you a summary of the fees. It costs an insertion fee depending on the opening bid you set(.30 for less than 10) and a percentage of the final value (5.25% if it sells for less than $25. This uploading function will take a few minutes if you have pictures. It really is not hard at all. There are several tutorials out there also. I recently noticed there was a Sell Your Item 2.0 link right at the the top of the sell your item page.

Buying

Buying is much more simpler than selling. I usually do a search at the top for something that I want, such as a local artist I collect. Once the results come up, you just click on one that you want to view. It will tell you all the pertinent information at the top, such as who is selling it, how long it has, what the current bid is for, how many bids it's had, where it is located, who the current bidder is, where they ship to, what payments they accept, etc. Then if you scroll down, you will be able to read the description and see a picture if they listed one. If they do not have a picture, I would be a little leery. If you like the item, and the price is right (remember to figure the cost of shipping into the price you will pay), you're ready to bid. But before you do that I would suggest reading about the seller. The number beside the sellers username tells you how many feedbacks they have. If you click on it, you can read the feedbacks other people have left about them. If you are satisfied with both the seller and item, go ahead and place a bid. At the bottom of the page, it will tell you what the minimum bid has to be. I would encourage you to put in your maximum that you will pay. That way if someone enters a bid higher that your minimum, ebay will bid for you. You will have to confirm your bid right away. Be very sure that you actually want to bid. Once a bid is placed, it can't be taken back. And if you don't honor your bid, you will get negative feedback and people won't want to deal with you. Ebay will email you that you are high bidder, when you have been outbid, and when the auction has ended. Now, contact the seller or wait until they contact you. Pay, sit back and wait for the item to arrive. I have been disappointed a few times, but I usually love what I get.

Researching

When I get something at one of those garage sales, I usually do a little research to see what they are going for. I also have done research for other people to tell them what their things are worth in the market. The easiest way is to do a simple search. This will show you everything on their right now, and what it is going for. Pay real close attention to whether there are any bids. Sometimes, there could be 50 things out there, but only 1 or 2 have a bid. That tells me the market for that right now is kind of low, and I will hold onto it for a little while. If you don't get alot of results, or want to what they have went for in the past you can do an advanced search. First, click on the search button on the top of the page. There will be some blue categories on the top of the search box that comes up. Click on the last one, titled completed items. If you search completed items, it will items that have ended and what they went for. This feature has been really helpful for researching items.

I love ebay. The service is a great way to sell unwanted items, attain items you want, or just research the market. I would encourage you to give it a try.

Recommended:
Yes