I'm thinking about selling, what are the most important tips you can give.

[spiritdreams-4]

I use to sell on Ebay years ago and stopped because of the not so friendly policies toward sellers. I’ve been thinking about selling again. I thought I would test the waters by starting out with some not so expensive stuff and would like as much advice and tips from skilled sellers and even new sellers. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[castlemagicmemories]

Read the Seller Updates for the last few years, and research this Board daily.  Updates come out with every season.  The latest ones this year were the Spring and Summer Updates.  Next one will be the Fall Update, I believe.  

You can't be successful without knowing policy.

Know how the Buying Protection Policies work, what scams to look out for, and become familar with selling on Ebay today, because it is very different from years ago, and what you don't know can and will hurt you.

I don't want to scare you, but have seen many fail because they did not know policy or did not understand it.  

[rixstuff]

Dont spend money on merchandise.  Sell what you have around the house first.

[grayirongolf]

Policy's have only gotten worse.  I'll put it to you this way,  buyers will have the best Christmas ever & the sellers will be paying for it.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

BUY it for no more than peanuts...less pain IF something goes wrong...it's a mindfield here these days. 

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Don't sell anything you cannot afford to lose.

Be gracious about returns, they're going to happen anyway.

Describe as if there were no pictures and take pictures as if there are no words.

Look at alternate shipping packages. I make full use of Flat Rate envelopes and Regional Rate boxes. 

[emerald40]

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@spiritdreams-4 wrote:

I use to sell on Ebay years ago and stopped because of the not so friendly policies toward sellers. I’ve been thinking about selling again. I thought I would test the waters by starting out with some not so expensive stuff and would like as much advice and tips from skilled sellers and even new sellers. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

__________________________________

It has only gotten worse.  So if it stopped you then from selling, you may want to rethink twice about starting up again.

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[spiritdreams-4]

Thank you very much for the advice. I thought I would start out here first to see if I'm even up to the challenge. I know there was a lot of scams from other countries so I would like to limit my sells to only US buyer.  I use to know the policies inside and out when I sold but that was back before Ebay started holding the funds. I have no idea what they are like now. Ebay also started making PayPal mandatory which I didn’t mind too much but I started hearing that PayPal would access bank accounts and automatically withdraw funds without permission, I minded that a lot. I thought I would start a new bank account just for Ebay selling, keeping my money separate just in case. So much to think about but I got to start somewhere.

[duggmills]

Testing the waters with some inexpensive stuff is telling us you recognize eBay has taken on some of the similarities to that game where people stand around this table called a pit and one person throws dice to try to match a particular number while others bet he does or doesn't.

As I observed last week in Las Vegas, the fact there are four casino employees around the table the house must be making good money.

Well as they say, good luck.

[spiritdreams-4]

Thank you for your advice, I thought I would just get some clutter out of the shed from back when I sold before. Heck, I don't remember what I paid for most of it and to me it don’t have much value but to others I know it’s still pretty collectable. I might have to do some rethinking on it and start with the least valuable stuff… Researching prices is now on my to do list. Can sellers still start auction out at $0.99 and  if so does it help with the listing cost?

[myescape]

You get 50 free listing a month.And do not start for less than you would be happy w if you only get 1 bid,bidding wars are rare so don't count on that happening

[ersatz_sobriquet]

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@spiritdreams-4 wrote:

Thank you for your advice, I thought I would just get some clutter out of the shed from back when I sold before. Heck, I don't remember what I paid for most of it and to me it don’t have much value but to others I know it’s still pretty collectable. I might have to do some rethinking on it and start with the least valuable stuff… Researching prices is now on my to do list. Can sellers still start auction out at $0.99 and  if so does it help with the listing cost?

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Don't do it. The site is so over-stuffed with listings your items may never be seen but for one person who bids and it sells for that 99 cents. Do the math on fees and packing/printing and you will probably come out in the negative, not to forget to mention the value of your time spent. 

[spiritdreams-4]

Thank you for your advice, out of all the years I sold beforehand, I only had one lady who was extremely difficult to work with, we both ended by calling a truce with both of us leaving each other negative feedback.  Right after I quit sellers I heard sellers were unable to leave appropriate feedback for buyers, is that still the case?

[retrose1]

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@spiritdreams-4 wrote:

Thank you very much for the advice. I thought I would start out here first to see if I'm even up to the challenge. I know there was a lot of scams from other countries so I would like to limit my sells to only US buyer.  I use to know the policies inside and out when I sold but that was back before Ebay started holding the funds. I have no idea what they are like now. Ebay also started making PayPal mandatory which I didn’t mind too much but I started hearing that PayPal would access bank accounts and automatically withdraw funds without permission, I minded that a lot. I thought I would start a new bank account just for Ebay selling, keeping my money separate just in case. So much to think about but I got to start somewhere.

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As has been said - it has only gotten worse here.  Search for scam on the boards and you will see it in action.

Personally I would rather ship a $1000 item to certain countries with no tracking than ship a $100 item to a US ebay buyer.  While International has it's own set of risks, all buyers know that ebay has only one consistant seler protection - that if you have tracking that says delivered to the address that is on the payment, a seller will win an Iten Not Received dispute by imputting the tracking into the case.........but the seller will not win anything else.

Also know that scammers will target newer/low recent feedback sellers.  Especially if they list high dollar/high risk items.  Experienced scammers know that returning sellers that haven't sold on ebay in awhile are probably unaware of the rule changes and the redundant processes that ebay demands sellers go through in  dispute - and they cash in on it.

If I were you, I would start small - $30 or less items and not electronics/computers/cel phones, cameras, jewelry, designer anything, legos, musical instruments and anything quick flippers are looking for.  Once you get some history of selling and dealing with attempted/real scams, you will not have lost much and can decide how you might proceed.

[rixstuff]

You can do 99 cent auctions but they arent worth it these days.  Just start the bidding at the price you can live with with a BIN or fixed price with best offer.  Do a couple of searches to see what the range is.