How to sell something in ebay
How to Sell Stuff on Ebay for Beginners
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there's a lot of people that sell stuff on eBay but to be honest most of the
listings totally suck because the sellers are missing out on the most
money that they can get because they're not optimizing their listings correctly
so in this video I'm gonna teach you my five steps on how to sell stuff on eBay
so that you can get the most money from your listings even if you're a beginner
and if you stick around to the end I've got a cool little bonus tip that'll
teach you how to get more feedback from your buyers so just stick around and
you'll find out how you know I've sold stuff on eBay for about five years now
so that doesn't make me an eBay guru by any means but I can say that I am an
expert when it comes to selling normal items to normal people because overall
I've sold hundreds of items on eBay just as a normal seller so I dunno what I'm
talking about so whether you're a beginner if you've
done eBay for a while I want you to watch this video because I'm gonna teach
you how to optimize your listings so that you can make the most money you can
on eBay now if you just stumbled across this channel I'm Jason with honest
finance and I make a lot of videos on different topics that'll give your life
and your finances more value so if you are interested in this type of content
feel free to subscribe or atleast give this video a like and now on to
optimizing your eBay listings now I'm gonna break up a base selling into five
different parts so that you can follow along I've broken it down into research
title and description the photography the selling format and then the shipping
and I'm gonna teach you how to optimize all of these different areas so pay
attention and we'll start with the first one which is your research now I don't
need to elaborate much here but you do need to do a little bit of research
before you decide to list an item you need to get an idea of what the items
selling for so that you can tell if it's even worth listing the item a few months
ago I found a Marilyn Monroe doll in its original box so I instantly thought that
it was gonna be worth a ton on eBay well I quickly did some research and
found out that it was only worth like 15 to 30 bucks so in my opinion that really
wasn't worth very much at all I mean 30 bucks is just easy cash but you've still
got to understand that it takes time to list an item and eBay is still gonna
charge their fees so just do a little bit of research before you list an item
that way you can actually tell if it's worth it or not as a general rule if I'm
listing stuff on their own I'm only gonna do that if they're worth about $40
or more because then it's worth it to me and if they're worth less than the 40
bucks then I'll just wait till I have a bunch of that kind of stuff so that I
can group them all together or I'll just wait until I can
um at the same time so for instance if you've got a bunch of DVDs that aren't
worth very much money then it's probably better to just group those together and
sell them as one listing and if you're batching stuff that just means that
you're gonna list a bunch of different separate things at the same time so that
your time management is a lot more efficient batching items will also make
shipping a lot easier too because if you run them all as auctions then they're
gonna end at the same time therefore they're gonna ship at the same time now
once you've done your research and you know for sure that you want to sell the
item then it's time to work on my next step which is the title and the
description this is really easy to do but I still need you to pay attention
because I feel like there's a lot of listings on eBay where people do not
follow any of these rules I'm gonna be using this older Apple watch 1 as an
example so that you guys can make sense of what I'm talking about if it were me
I'd listed as an Apple watch series 1 42 millimeter sport in space gray that's in
fair condition so why exactly did I title it like this well I titled it on
purpose like that because you want the viewers to know exactly what they're
buying before they actually have to click on the item I mean think of it
like this if you were looking for a TV wouldn't you want to know the size of
the TV before you had to click on it to find out if you're looking for something
on eBay it just sucks to have to guess what certain specs are because the last
thing you want to do is to go into the description only to find out that it's
not even the size that you wanted in the first place trust me you'll get a lot
more bids and traffic on the item as long as you title it with the specs that
are important now you can also list the specs and all that kind of stuff inside
of eBay and I would recommend doing that because that way if the buyers using a
filter then he can find your stuff as well and that's just because the more
information you have in your listing the easier it is for eBay to serve it to
those people that are looking for it now as far as the description goes you're
gonna want to put your title in that again and then you're gonna want to give
an honest description of the condition that the items in I'd say something like
it's a used Apple watch with plenty of scratches from normal use but it works
just fine you can elaborate as much as you'd like about the item but just make
sure that you're being honest about it and tell it like it is and I'd also list
exactly what's going to be shipping to the customer so that they know what
they're going to be getting so in the case with the Apple watch I just tell
them that I have a charger but I don't have a box and that's exactly what's
gonna be shipping the watch and the charger and then if you do have the
serial number I'd write that in the description as well that way you can
protect yourself and the buyer from any scams
if you want to add in the description from the manufacturer go ahead and do
that but just make sure it's from the manufacturer and not a reseller so if
you were selling a GoPro you can't just hop onto Cabela's website and steal
their copy you have to make sure to go to GoPros website that way you get the
correct copy that you can use on your eBay description now on to the
photography which is so easy but I feel like a lot of beginners on eBay don't do
this right now you don't need to be a fancy photographer to sell stuff on eBay
but you've just got to make sure that your photos aren't underexposed and that
they're not blurry either basically your photos just need to show everything
that's going to be shipping to the customer without a distracting
background just remember that a lot of the stuff we buy on eBay is used so you
don't want to get the vibe like the jacket you're buying was used on a farm
all because the photo was taken on a bale of hay just make sure to take all
of your photos on a white or a neutral background and then give it enough light
so that everybody can see what you're trying to sell you also need to take
pictures of every single angle of the item that way the buyer can see exactly
what's on each side if that matters to them now once you've taken all the
photos that you need for the item just make sure to take a picture of the
serial number if you can find it because that's gonna protect you against scams
because trust me it's a lot harder to get scammed on eBay when you have
authenticity proof in your photos and your description because if you bought
my Apple watch and then you sent me back a broken one I'd have proof that you
were full of crap because the serial numbers wouldn't match and buyers also
like to see the serial numbers too because that way they can check the date
when it was manufactured and all that kind of stuff
eBay has both a cropping feature and an exposure feature so feel free to use
those if you're not too savvy with Photoshop now I'm a professional studio
photographer and I will tell you right now the eBay does not care about fancy
photos for the type of stuff that we're selling you actually want to leave the
images pretty candid on purpose because if you take too nice of a photo people
are gonna think that you stole them and that they're not the real images here's
what my main photo would look like and just make sure to crop it in as tight as
you can because what you're selling should take up all the space and the
photos the buyers just want to know exactly what they're looking at and that
is it so just remember to take the photos on a white or a neutral
background make sure the exposure is good and make sure that they're not
blurry and then crop in the image as tight as you can and that is all you
have to worry about and make sure not to fix anything in Photoshop because you're
selling a used item so you need to show it in as is
condition so that you're not lying to anyone and now one of the selling format
which is really not that complicated if you just take this advice there's
basically two ways that you can sell your stuff any of it because you've got
to buy it now and you've got the auction and they're both really good in their
own ways but if you want to get the most money that you possibly can from your
listings then you're gonna want to do a seven-day auction because statistically
that one's gonna get you the most cash and just for kicks I want to know which
format you guys prefer to sell with so just answer the question right here or
go ahead and comment down below now if you're in a hurry to sell your stuff
then I would use the Buy It Now option but if you want to make the most money
then I would run the seven-day auction which is what I'm gonna be talking about
plus the good thing about running an auction is that if you list a bunch of
different items they're all gonna end at the same time which if you have a Buy It
Now you have no idea when they're gonna be selling and now here's the important
stuff about running an auction so pay attention if you want your listing to
get the most money and the most bids then you're gonna want to list the item
for a dollar with no reserve and trust me because this strategy does work but
only if the item is going to get bids so if the Apple watch for an example I know
that that's gonna get the bids that I need so I would 100% list that at $1
with no reserve because if you end up with zero bidders because your starting
price is too high or you've got way too ridiculous of a reserve price then that
means that nobody is gonna get notifications from eBay you've got to
understand the eBay gives automatic notifications to all of your bidders and
watcher so you've got to have as many of those as you can to get all of those
notifications out because how in the world are you gonna end up having a
bidding war if you only have one bidder on your item trust me you want a bay to
send out those notifications to the bidders and the Watchers because that's
free advertising for you so like I said before if you want to get as many bids
as you can and you want to make the most money on your item then start it at a
buck and don't have a reserve now if you'll admit leafy like the item you're
selling is not gonna get very many bids and it's not gonna get very much traffic
then I would just start it at a fair price that you're willing to settle with
if that's all it sells for so basically if you end up with only one bidder on
the item then at least you'll get paid something because I actually had to sell
a few items for just a buck because they only got one bid and that totally sucked
because they were worth a lot more than that so what I'm trying to say here is
that if you list an item for $1 just make sure it's gonna
get enough traffic and if it doesn't just list it for a price that you'd be
willing to settle for now if you want to get the best results on your auction
then you're gonna want to be listing your auction on Sundays between 6:00 and
10:00 p.m. across the entire United States I live in Utah so I always list
my stuff at 7 o'clock that way in California at 6 and then New York it's 9
o'clock so it makes it even now the reason Sunday night is the perfect time
to start your auctions is because it's gonna end the next Sunday night which is
statistically the time when the most people are on eBay because think of it
like this if you've got a pair of shoes on eBay that's gonna end at 3 a.m. then
nobody's gonna be bidding on those shoes because most of the people that actually
want them are probably asleep and now under shipping which is so simple but I
still need you to pay attention and if you guys have made it this far under the
video could you please give it a like because that's gonna help me out
tremendously thanks now when it comes to shipping
stuff on eBay all you've got to do is have a fixed rate and then have it go
economy now the reason you want to go with a fixed rate shipping fee is
because that way the buyers know exactly how much they're gonna be paying and
shipping nobody likes to guess how much they're gonna have to pay for shipping
so just stick with a fixed rate fee and it makes it easier for everyone and the
cool thing about using the economy shipping is because you can go with any
carrier that you prefer using so that way if FedEx ended up being cheaper than
UPS then you could just choose them instead also I've done some testing on
running items for free shipping and I am not convinced at all that it's any good
for normal sellers like us I've just found that running free shipping on your
items just means that you're leaving money on the table because most people
are willing to just pay a reasonable amount for shipping so all you're gonna
want to do is just charge a fixed rate amount that's gonna be easy to go
anywhere in the country because on eBay you have no idea where the buyers gonna
live when you actually ship it so you just have to have a fee that's gonna be
fair for anywhere in the country sometimes you'll make some money when
you ship stuff and other times you won't but the goal here is that you're just
close now you can get shipping prices from eBay by giving them dimensions and
weight and stuff like that but overall it's just gonna take a little bit of
practice to know how much to charge now the next thing about shipping is that
you're gonna want to put the item in the smallest box possible but still keep it
safe for the item because you're gonna be charged by size and weight so just
make sure to keep it as small as you can and also if you buy a lot of stuff
online I keep those boxes and shipping materials
because you can use those on eBay and that's gonna save you a lot of money
eBay does a great job at providing boxes and shipping materials and stuff like
that if you want to buy them on your own but if you've already got boxes at your
house because you've ordered stuff online then just use those instead
because it's a lot cheaper because at the end of the day eBay is gonna charge
you about thirteen percent and fees so you're gonna want to keep things as
cheap as you can so that you can make the most money now here's the bonus tip
on how to get more feedback from your buyers and it is so easy all you have to
do is put a physical note inside the box asking them to give you some feedback
just say something like hey I'm new on eBay and I could use some feedback if
you had a good experience with me and if you didn't just try to resolve it with
me first trust me leaving a note in the box is so
much better than trying to get a hold of them online because it's real so try
this out and I guarantee you're gonna get more feedback from your buyers and
it's so easy to do once again I'm Jason with honest finance and I make a lot of
videos on different topics that'll give your life and your finances more value
so feel free to subscribe if you want to or at least give this video like that's
all
