Any advice for the relatively new and amateur sellers?

[bert.05]

Hello,

Any advice for people who have relatively recently started participating in the selling endeavor?

Thanks.

[cherry*fizz]

Familiarize yourself with all the policies, the MBG, etc... 

Always log in to your Paypal account to verify payment has been received before shipping. 

Read the boards, particularly regarding scams, to keep yourself educated and up to date. 

If anything feels strange or off, come here and ask questions first. 

I know others will have much more advice for you, these are just a few things I can think of that helped me. I've been selling off and on for nearly 20 years and I still learn things here on the boards regularly. 

Good luck! 

[postingid2017]

What @cherry*fizz said, it is exactly how I learned the ropes.  

[atikovi]

Start selling the stuff you already own that you would have thrown out or donated. Don't be tempted to buy stuff just to resell. That rarely works well for new sellers. And avoid listing wearables. Clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc. The market for those is saturated.

[robot-hands]

As best you can, stick to selling what you know.

Learn how to pack with the minimum while protecting the maximum.

Read up on buyer/seller protections. Then go and do it again.

This is the most important lesson you can possibly learn:

Profit is made when you buy, not when you sell.

[penguins_dont_fly]

@bert.05

For your CDs, DVDs and Blu Rays .... Put the Region in your title. You are selling Region B  items that may not play in Region A devices.

Work on your titles a bit ... look at sold similar items to see what keywords other sellers used.

Check your pricing, it's a bit high.  Search sold listings to see going rates.

On used items, condition is everything. Be specific as to any flaws ... note them all in the Condition Description Field.

[juststuffisell · Accepted solution]

As noted by Cherry, read the eBay seller policies.

Make sure you understand what you can and cannot list on eBay (do not assume that just because someone else is listing something it is OK to list - especially in military/weapons categories) If you are unsure, contact the Trust and Safety department of eBay for guidance.

Use caution when selling more expensive items. Especially as a new seller. People will try and take advantage of you. When shipping, if you cannot afford to lose money on the item, insure it. Both FedEx and USPS offer shipping options that require a direct signature and photo ID of the actual recipient. These are expensive services, but if you are shipping a $300 on up item as a new seller - you want to make sure you are delivering the item to the actual buyer. Don't be afraid to call the buyer to verify a purchase on eBay. I have caught a number of fraudulent transaction by making one phone call.

Be prompt on your shipping.

Don't skimp on packaging materials. Whenever possible, ship your items in a box. Bubble mailers should really only be used for books, with few exceptions. You will cut down on your damage rate significantly and mitigate issues with buyers before they happen just by properly packaging your items. Unless you are buying a truck load, eBay is the least expensive place I know to buy bundles of boxes and bubble wrap. I personally use a lot of 12" x 175' rolls of small bubble's bubble wrap. My most popular boxes are 6x4x4, 9x6x3, 10x10x4, 13x10x4, & 14x12x6. Your will depend upon what it is you are selling.

Invest in a good camera or a very good phone camera. Good images are important - and I still struggle with this issue myself. You're allowed up to 12 pictures - use as many as is reasonable for the item. You will never go wrong with more, but to few can cause you problems.

Adequate descriptions. Make sure your description highlight the good things about what you are selling and make sure they pin point the issues with the item.

Pick the right category!

Take time to research what you are selling. You don't always have to be the cheapest when selling. Condition, quality and uniqueness of the items can make a huge difference in what you can get.

Use good titles with adjectives - again, I stink at this... You will have more success on your Click through and conversion if you use a good title to draw the buyer in and a good description to close the deal. Keywords are important. Learn a little about SEO and Keyword relevance for search.

Decide how you want to sell; No Return, 14 day return, 30 day, 60 day. Understand the cash reserves you need to have for returns and make sure you have them. Just because an item sold, does not mean the money is yours no matter what the return policy is.

You will get returns. Decide how you will handle them ahead of time by item. You will even get them on no return items. Understand, just because it is no return, the buyer can still return it. Be prepared. The general rule you will find in the community is, if a buyer wants to return something, you might as well accept the return as they will get to return it regardless of what you say in MOST instances.

Free Shipping: Decide whether free shipping works for you. Make sure you account for your cost of goods, ebay fees & paypal fees. No the postal zones as shipping will vary by zone starting next year. Free shipping on anything over 16oz is risky. People in Alaska and Hawaii LOVE that, but you will not love the price you have to pay to ship it there.

Guaranteed Delivery - consider whether this works for you. It requires being on top of your shipping and knowing delivery time for the your items to various parts of the country. Test USPS locations. Delivery times can be impacted just by which postal location you drop your packages off at.

International shipping - very risky, but can be profitable. Decide if the risk is worth it based upon what you sell.

I'm sure there is a bunch more I could list, but my brain is old and tired....lol

I will close with what CherryFizz said; Read the boards and keep yourself educated and up to date.

Cheers

[penguins_dont_fly]

@juststuffisell wrote:

Free Shipping: Decide whether free shipping works for you. Make sure you account for your cost of goods, ebay fees & paypal fees. No the postal zones as shipping will vary by zone starting next year. Free shipping on anything over 16oz is risky. People in Alaska and Hawaii LOVE that, but you will not love the price you have to pay to ship it there.

Guaranteed Delivery - consider whether this works for you. It requires being on top of your shipping and knowing delivery time for the your items to various parts of the country. Test USPS locations. Delivery times can be impacted just by which postal location you drop your packages off at.

International shipping - very risky, but can be profitable. Decide if the risk is worth it based upon what you sell.

OP is in Cyprus, listing on .com with shipping from outside the U.S..

All of the above about Guaranteed Delivery, USPS and International shipping does not apply. 🙂

[juststuffisell]

lol, oops....maybe it will help someone else then ... lol

[lewisburggold]

Great advice from everyone.  Looks like you should be in good shape.  Best regards

[swenson8781]

You've gotten excellent advice so far!  And I wish you the best luck in selling, it can be both stressful and rewarding.

I'm going to add... be professional and fair to your buyers, with your response, and how you handle situations that may arise in the future.  Sometimes, you will 'feel' insulted, if you receive a low offer, or offended, or if someone tells you an item arrived broken.  That is natural and human.  But do your best to remove your feelings, and respond professionally, and fairly.   

[gracieallen01]

Very good advice in the above posts.  One more thing - if you have one, don't give up your 'day job' to sell on ebay until you are sure you can, and are ready to, commit 110% to it.

[castlemagicmemories]

A few things I don't see mentioned here.

NEVER change the shipping address just because the buyer asks you to.  You are required to ship to the address on the Paypal payment, and if you don't, you lose your seller protection.  If a buyer asks you to send to another address, you can cancel with problem with buyer's address, no defect for you, and ask them to repurchase when they have updated the address they wish to ship to.

NEVER ship just on a buyer email.  You ship when Paypal says it is ok to do so.  And ALWAYS check to be sure you have received payment in Paypal.

[greatpartsgooddeals]

It seems like the OBVIOUS ELEPHANT in the room is being ignored here so ...Just know going into this platform that YOU WILL GET SCAMMED and YOU WILL LOSE YOUR ITEM AT TIMES SO NEVER SELL THAT WHICH YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO GIVE AWAY. It is that simple. You can make money here but you wil need THICK skin because EBAY, LIKE LIFE ITSELF, IS NOT FAIR and ALL DISPUTES WILL NOW 100% GO to the BUYER'S FAVOR NOT THE SELLER REGARDLESS OF ANY EVIDENCE THAT YOU MAY PRESENT.

[lv-deals-direct]

If you are selling a few items go for it.  Take the advice here and be careful, make sure you use tracking and DO NOT offer returns. Describe your items very accurately and I repeat do not offer returns. Trust me on this.

Also, If you start an auction (versus a buy it now sale) NEVER start one at 99. cents  Start it at the lowest price that you would be willing to accept.  As a newbie you will not get much exposure but the ebay opportunists will seek your postings out and you do not want to let your items go for .99.  Be wary of zero feedback folks as well as even accounts that are long-timers but have had no recent activity. Many of the times those are hacked accounts. 

Do not offer free shipping. Charge for shipping.  As a newbie the ebay vultures will try to take advantage but are less likely to target you if you do not offer free shipping.

Don't ship internationally at first and perhaps not at all. You would have to decide that later. With the new preferred ebay standards in place you could really lose a lot of money depending on what you are selling.

Also check out the feedback rating of anyone that makes you an offer or bids on an item.  Look at the feedback they have left others.  If you have someone that leaves negative feedback for nearly each and every transaction, cancel the sale and block them.  You have to list a reason and be honest - say something like "Out of the past 10 feedbacks left by this customer 9 were negative so I do not feel comfortable going through with the sale". They are likely ebay opportunists or just extremely hard to please folks and will take advantage of you.

Also, go to your site preferences in your summary and set your preferences - set them as restrictive as the pulldowns allow so you minimize being taken advantage of.

If you are looking for a profitable sideline verus a here and there seller I am not too sure -- I'm inclined to say No -----unless you have deep pockets ---- that ebay is the way to go.

The ebay of yesteryear was really awesome for small sellers.  A great marketplace for individual sellers. Times change, of course, and ebay has grown and evolved (off the backs of the little guys)  and is now really great for the big folks. And it is really great for the Chinese sellers who have some deal with the government and can offer items at 99 cents and lower with free shipping.  It would cost you $30 or more in shipping to ship there.

As a sideline the only way you will get on the road to more sales and views is to get to top rated seller status - which takes awhile and, once you get there, to get the benefits you would actually need to do things that would make you top rated plus.  Top rated is really nothing it just makes you eligible for the top rated plus and to use the top rated plus seal if you do certain things.  That is a way down the road but to maintain that you would need to offer at least 30 day free returns for any reason with you paying the return costs and same day or one-day shipping. That top rated plus carrot does get you some more visibility but to get more visibility and be competitive, you'd also need to pay for promoted/sponsored listings which is a newer ebay program that has you basically paying an additional chunk of you sale ( 5 to 15% on average) to them in order to give you a boost in visibility. You would get a 10%  discount of your fees which, in essence, is equal to (or less) than what you paid for the sponsored listings.

The other things to understand is that at least twice a year the guidlines change so do not think that if you achieve something that it will stay that way for long.

And do not forget you also pay fees to paypal to process the money so that is another cost. Paypal has been dropped and soon a new payment processor will be in place so those fees will likely increase too.

Again, for selling here and here --great. If you are Target or best buy or overstock.com and the likes.  Great. If you are a seller from China - great. If you are a seller with a unique type of inventory - can be great.  If you a small guy selling preowned items or even new items like clothing ----just OK.

I do not want to come across as negative.  I've been on ebay for over 15 years as a small sideline. I just think it is important for a new seller to understand how it works! My advice is that if you are really committed to selling is to also explore some other opportunities as well. 

Good luck!