Hints and Tips from our resident Premium-rated ebay seller: Sanad Attia.
First Experiences...
When I first started selling online I had gathered a few household items that I had intended to sell at a car boot sale, then following a couple of wet weekends, I decided to give eBay a try instead.
To begin with, I just learnt by trial and error, but following some successful sales, I developed a good understanding of how I could make money quickly from selling items that I no longer needed anymore. As I’ve grown more experienced, I wanted to share some of my top tips and learnings from when I started out, so that you too can begin to sell online successfully.
The Basics...
Buy before you try (…to sell)
All eBay users have a feedback rating which shows how many transactions the user has made. Ratings are left by the opposite party following every transaction and offer a sense of trust and confidence when buying items from the site.
It’s a good idea to buy a few small items before you try to sell online. For one thing, it’ll help you to get familiar with the platform – but also, few buyers will do business with a seller with no feedback, and if they do, the item probably won’t achieve its full value.
Listing...
Now for the exciting part – selling your items. The first thing you’ll need to do is to take some photographs of the items you want to sell. If you’re selling lower value items then one or two photos suffice – but if you want the best price for a higher value item, then take the time to capture images from several angles, being sure to highlight any damage as buyers will appreciate your honesty and leave feedback accordingly. Photograph the items in good light (such as near a window, or under bright artificial lighting) and on a plain background so they stand out
Once you’ve got your photos, you’re ready to list the item. You can do this on the eBay website, or through the eBay app on your smart phone. eBay does a pretty good job of making this a fairly straightforward process – but you can get more information on their help pages if you need it.
Making Money
A key thing to remember when you start out is the various costs which you can incur – from listing fees to final sale fees to your postage and packaging costs. Your eBay fees could be approximately 10% of your sale and you will also have PayPal fees (usually 3.4% + 20p) if you plan to offer this as a payment option. The cost of postage and packaging will vary based on what you are sending.
Posting
You can save time by choosing the right parcel carrier. If you’re selling several items at a time, it’s worth using a carrier which can integrate with your eBay account. Instead of having to manually enter your buyers’ address details, these sites link with your eBay account to generate the postage labels automatically. SenditNow.com offers this feature, and also provides convenient options for sending – whether you want to have the item collected from your home or work address, or drop off at your nearest Post Office® branch or Parcelforce Worldwide depot.
I hope that my advice will help to give you the confidence to begin selling your unloved or unused items on eBay. If you want to keep up to date with our latest news and advice, follow SenditNow.com on Facebook and Twitter. Good luck!