In previous posts, I have discussed how I make extra money selling things on eBay and gave you some ideas as to popular brands of clothing that sell well on eBay. Today, I am going to take you through the process of listing an item.
- Take a picture of your item. Make sure that you use a white background (sheet of poster board works well) and plenty of light. Download your picture to your computer and then edit to make sure your picture looks the way you like. I use the editing tools on my computer to crop pictures, but you can use the ones that eBay provides as well. You may choose to take more than one photo of your item (eBay allows you to have up to 12 pictures) to show your item from different angles, however, make sure your first photo is the front shot of your item.
- Choose a category. This should be fairly easy to do, but if you are having trouble determining where to best place your item, you can do a search on the selling page to see which brings the best results.
- Title: Besides having a great picture, this is one of the most valuable parts of your listing. Be sure to list the as much of the following as you can fit in your title: brand, size, style, type, color and condition of the item. eBay gives you 55 characters to use, so use them effectively! Be sure to check your title for misspellings. I can’t tell you how many people miss out on making money because they misspell the brand name!
- Price your item correctly. One of the best ways to determine what to expect your item to sell for is to do a search for similar items under Completed Listings. You can see what the item sold for as well as at what price the auction was started. Be sure to list your items at a starting price that you are willing to sell it at. I would advise against selling a product you spent $2 on for $.99 as there is a slight chance you could sell at that price & then have to eat the loss. Starting with too high of a price may cause you not to sell the item at all.
- Item Description. The success in your eBay listing hinges on the details! Give a full description of the item to avoid having buyers ask you a hundred questions. Be sure to highlight the condition of the item. If there are any flaws, this is the place to fully disclose them! I would also suggest that you list all other pertinent information regarding you as a seller. For example, if you are a smoke-free home, this would be a great place to let buyers know. While there is an area for additional ship, I would use the space in the item description to explain your shipping terms (Do you combine shipping? Do you ship internationally? Is Delivery Confirmation or Insurance included in the price?).
- Shipping Terms. There are several different ways to determine shipping. You can give a flat shipping charge or you can allow eBay to calculate the cost based on the weight of item and the zip code of the buyer. If you want to determine a fair shipping price on your own, you can find a shipping calculator on the USPS website that will allow you to put in the shipping method, weight & zip code to determine the cost of shipping. This is also when you will have to decide whether or not you want to ship internationally. Shipping internationally gives you an entire new audience of buyers and it is to your advantage to allow them to bid! There is a lot to say about shipping, so I will be posting a more detailed article on shipping in the next few weeks.
- Additional Checkout Instructions. This is your last chance to tell buyers any other details you might want them to know prior to bidding. This is a great place to discuss their return options (which I recommend you have).
I hope you found these tips useful! Feel free to post any eBay related questions you have & I will do my best to answer them!
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