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Ebay Can Help You Turn Your Old Stuff into Real Cash

Unless you’ve been in a coma for the past ten years, you know what Ebay is: the online auction site has become the go-to shopping and selling destination for millions of people looking to find affordable treasures or unload their stuff. It’s like a huge online yard sale, helping sellers find buyers and vice versa.

So do you have a closet full of things that you’d like to try selling? Or are you even more ambitious and ready to start a real Ebay business, one that might bring in some real income? Before you dive into the world of online auctions and try to make some dough, here are some tips to make the process as easy as possible, from Wallet Pop…

Be particular about what you sell - Sure, you can sell Target-brand dish towels or boxes of tissues on Ebay, but why would you want to? Common, everyday items don’t tend to sell as well as unique, hard-to-find ones, and the more special your item, the higher the demand will be (and the higher the final selling price might be). If you live in an area with some interesting local goodies or great local discounts, you could try taking advantage of those; my local Ross store, for example, has different designer brands available than the Ross stores in another state, so someone a few hundred miles away might be interested in the items I find close to home and put on Ebay.

Please note: You’re better off not trying to sell your broken, stained, ruined or otherwise useless junk. Ebay isn’t a landfill; few people want to buy something that needs repair. The exception might be old radios (some people like to repair old electronics as a hobby), motorcycle fairings (the plastics are often usable even with a scratch or some road rash here or there), or vintage fabrics that can be repurposed. Be practical about what you’re listing, and be sure to look around Ebay to see what other, similar items are for sale before you list your own item. And think about your items this way: Would I want to buy this damaged item if I saw it at a garage sale? If the answer is no, you might not want to list it on Ebay.

Be honest about what you sell – Do NOT lie about the quality of an item in order to drive up the price. You’ll get slammed in the feedback when the buyer sees what he or she is really getting, and a low feedback rating means that fewer people will want to buy from you. Worse, you could ultimately get banned from Ebay for dishonest business practices. If an item has a flaw, mention it in the description, and include a photo of the flaw if possible. If the item comes from a home that has pets or smokers, mention it. If you only take certain methods of payment, be clear about that (remember, the more flexible you are, the easier you make the process for a potential buyer). If you list a particular shipping cost for your item, you cannot raise that cost after the transaction is completed. Be sure to mention your return policy and any other info a buyer might need to know – some sellers refuse to sell to buyers with a negative or zero feedback rating, for example, so if that’s you, BE CLEAR about that. The more open you are about what you’re selling and what your policies are, the smoother the transactions will be. And of course, consult Ebay’s official policies if you’re not sure how to proceed with certain details.

More about the feedback rating – The feedback on Ebay is basically your standing in the community. The higher your feedback (and the higher the percentage of positive comments about you), the more people know they can trust you, as a buyer and seller. If you want to build up some positive feedback right up front so as not to scare off potential buyers, buy a few cheap items on Ebay yourself so that you can get positive comments from the sellers in those transactions. You’re working for the highest feedback you can get, with the best percentage of positive comments, so be courteous, timely, polite and honest in all transactions in which you take part.

Start by selling your own stuff - Don’t open a business trying to push a huge inventory right away! Just start with the items in your own home. Check your basement, closets, attic, storage space, etc. Find the quality items that someone else might want or need and start by selling those. Keep your overhead as low as possible to begin with so that you can get experience, build up your funds and work out any kinks in the process. Remember, you’ll be paying fees to Ebay to list and sell your items, and you’ll be paying for postage to mail the items to the buyer (you can pass along that cost with the shipping fee listed in the auction, but still), so try to minimize costs wherever possible. When you get really good at the process, then you can start looking into selling items for your friends and neighbors (on consignment, or for a fee), or keeping an inventory to sell on Ebay.

Write the best possible title for your item – You’ve read the Ebay policies and selected an item to sell, and now you’re ready to list it! You need to write a title for it that will catch the eye of potential buyers. Like a newspaper headline, this single line of text should clearly convey what you’re selling. Avoid sales pitch-esque words like “rare,” “beautiful,” “unique” or “one of a kind.” List the facts about your item, including model numbers, brand names and years where possible. You can wax poetic in your listing about the item itself, but for the headline, keep to what will attract the truly serious bidders and show up in the searches that those bidders run. And of course, the most important thing in your headline is correct spelling! No one will find your vintage Tiffany lamp in a search if you spell it “Tifnay.”

Make sure people find your item (and want to buy it) – There are a LOT of items for sale on Ebay at any given time, and if you’re selling something that’s got some competition, you should do what you can to help it stand out. Include photos – this is a MUST. In addition, consider setting a buy-it-now price or accepting “best offers” to give your buyers options in purchasing your item. You might want to offer free shipping, or no reserve price on an item in order to entice buyers to bid.

If you’re selling something pricey and really want to stand out, experts recommend paying the roughly $20 fee to have your item become a “featured” listing – this makes your item a prominent listing for buyers who are browsing categories. Also, if you have multiple listings going on at once, you can help buyers find your other items for sale by including links to those items in your listing descriptions.

If you’re ready to take on Ebay as a truly serious seller (after you’ve spent some time selling items and found a process that works for you), you can open an Ebay Store, which is a virtual storefront where you can list all of the items you have for sale. This is great if you have a big inventory and want to encourage loyal customers to check back and see what’s new in your listings. There are fees involved, of course, so check Ebay to learn what the cost of running a storefront would be for you.

Don’t expect a smooth or easy process, at least at first – My husband has bought items on Ebay for years, but he just recently began selling items there. He’s had his share of frustrations – buyers who made a purchase but then asked to change something; buyers who complained about his shipping costs even after they agreed to those costs in the auction; buyers who regretted their purchases and tried to manufacture damage to the items in order to force a return; etc. Simply put, there are many buyers out there who are difficult to work with, and some who are downright dishonest. You have to be willing to get past the bad apples if you want to really make a business out of Ebay.

And of course, you won’t make a fortune overnight! Your first few listings might be lessons in what to charge for shipping (you might be surprised how much it costs to mail something), how to adjust for Ebay’s fees, and how much work is really involved in listing, packing and shipping items (especially heavy ones). You’ll probably also have plenty of listings that get no bids at all! You might not make much money at all at first, but if you stick with it, you might just make a business out of Ebay. Good luck!