Brief-Lived Ebay For Dummies
September 28, 2021 8:00 AM Subscribe
So I have a finite collection of random stuff I want to sell on eBay - a graphic novel series, a couple of other collectible books, a couple of random collectible doodads. I have never sold anything on ebay before and am looking for advice - but all the sites I'm finding are geared more towards someone who's going to set up an ongoing storefront as a side hustle. I don't want to do that, I just want to sell off four or five things that could potentially make some money, and then be done. What's a good guide to help me do that?
I don't know of a guide, but I'll add +1 to all of the points above. Few other thoughts of a very occasional seller...
* If there's anything like an active market on the stuff you're selling, it really helps to watch a few of those items before you list your own. You can get a sense of how many bids to expect & therefore how easily they'll sell - maybe also start to see the differences between a good listing (sells first time at a decent price) vs a bad one (doesn't). I sold my kids' old bikes, and probably got 25% more than if I'd thrown them on there without any thought - just by tweaking the descriptions & the photos slightly towards the style that buyers seem to go for.
* Setting a reserve price will cost you money in fees - think about whether you really need that. You can set the starting price higher to compensate for no reserve.
* Few things I've sold had a decent upside potential on their price, so I've never set a buy-it-now price. But, every single time, someone has asked me what my buy-it-now price is, or straight out offered me a certain price to end the auction & sell direct to them. I've never bitten on that - just politely invited them to feel free to bid whatever they think it's worth. There are obviously plenty of scammers out there, but my experience has been (99% of the time) that if you follow the process and you're clear & direct in your messages with buyers, you'll get real bids from real people who pay on time.
* Just one time, a winning buyer claimed to have entered their bid "accidentally" & asked me to cancel it. Obviously it was bullshit, they just had buyer's remorse. It was a PITA to re-list it, but I don't want the bad karma of forcing the thing through against someone's will. So, I did what they asked. I want good feelings only on both sides of the transaction.
* All your bids will come in the last 2mins of the listing. That's normal.
Good luck!
posted by rd45 at 9:22 AM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
* If there's anything like an active market on the stuff you're selling, it really helps to watch a few of those items before you list your own. You can get a sense of how many bids to expect & therefore how easily they'll sell - maybe also start to see the differences between a good listing (sells first time at a decent price) vs a bad one (doesn't). I sold my kids' old bikes, and probably got 25% more than if I'd thrown them on there without any thought - just by tweaking the descriptions & the photos slightly towards the style that buyers seem to go for.
* Setting a reserve price will cost you money in fees - think about whether you really need that. You can set the starting price higher to compensate for no reserve.
* Few things I've sold had a decent upside potential on their price, so I've never set a buy-it-now price. But, every single time, someone has asked me what my buy-it-now price is, or straight out offered me a certain price to end the auction & sell direct to them. I've never bitten on that - just politely invited them to feel free to bid whatever they think it's worth. There are obviously plenty of scammers out there, but my experience has been (99% of the time) that if you follow the process and you're clear & direct in your messages with buyers, you'll get real bids from real people who pay on time.
* Just one time, a winning buyer claimed to have entered their bid "accidentally" & asked me to cancel it. Obviously it was bullshit, they just had buyer's remorse. It was a PITA to re-list it, but I don't want the bad karma of forcing the thing through against someone's will. So, I did what they asked. I want good feelings only on both sides of the transaction.
* All your bids will come in the last 2mins of the listing. That's normal.
Good luck!
posted by rd45 at 9:22 AM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
As a very occasional seller, I found the Ebay phone app to be easy to use; just click sell and follow the instructions. Did I completely maximize the sales price? Probably not. But the process took me about 3 minutes, and because it was an auction, I know the price was reasonably fair. Unless this is an unusually valuable item or you care about every last penny, it's probably not worth spending much time on it.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 10:01 AM on September 28, 2021
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 10:01 AM on September 28, 2021
Response by poster: One quick note that may help indicate how much of a newbie I am:
Setting a reserve price will cost you money in fees
....What is a reserve price?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:12 PM on September 28, 2021
Setting a reserve price will cost you money in fees
....What is a reserve price?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:12 PM on September 28, 2021
A auction item's reserve price is the "no-sale-lower-than" price; you tell eBay "don't sell it for less that X", X is the "reserve price."
Other lingo that might be helpful is here.
posted by adekllny at 12:20 PM on September 28, 2021
Other lingo that might be helpful is here.
posted by adekllny at 12:20 PM on September 28, 2021
A reserve price is the minimum amount you're prepared to accept for an item.
Another rule: only accept payment via PayPal. If someone asks to pay via a different method such as a direct transfer or a cheque, decline.
posted by essexjan at 12:21 PM on September 28, 2021
Another rule: only accept payment via PayPal. If someone asks to pay via a different method such as a direct transfer or a cheque, decline.
posted by essexjan at 12:21 PM on September 28, 2021
If you can find a limit on geography, do that. As a seller in the US I try to limit to only buyers in the lower 48 states. It makes shipping much less variable.
eBay allows for international shipping and acts as intermediary for freight forwarding tax etc but if anything goes wrong you are on your own.
I once sold a computer on eBay and the winner was in Canada. I forgot to put the power supply in the box. I shipped the power supply on my own and without the eBay freight forwarding, the international shipping costs used up all value of the sale. Then the seller was charged Value Added Tax by the shipper at time of delivery and I had to refund that to the buyer. Bad times.
I always say no refunds or exchanges on the listing and then honor them anyway to make angry people leave me alone. Some buyers do the equivalent of haggling after the sale, claiming that there is some imperceptible difference. These people love to argue so I try and offer a one sentence reply offering a partial refund. It usually makes them go away. Only one in about twenty sales has an annoying post sale issue.
posted by sol at 2:07 PM on September 28, 2021
eBay allows for international shipping and acts as intermediary for freight forwarding tax etc but if anything goes wrong you are on your own.
I once sold a computer on eBay and the winner was in Canada. I forgot to put the power supply in the box. I shipped the power supply on my own and without the eBay freight forwarding, the international shipping costs used up all value of the sale. Then the seller was charged Value Added Tax by the shipper at time of delivery and I had to refund that to the buyer. Bad times.
I always say no refunds or exchanges on the listing and then honor them anyway to make angry people leave me alone. Some buyers do the equivalent of haggling after the sale, claiming that there is some imperceptible difference. These people love to argue so I try and offer a one sentence reply offering a partial refund. It usually makes them go away. Only one in about twenty sales has an annoying post sale issue.
posted by sol at 2:07 PM on September 28, 2021
you will want to have an ebay account with a reasonable feedback number, in order to not scare off buyers. I would say 20 minimum? If you don't have that, maybe a friend will let you list on their account. or they have a service called ebay Valet, which i have not tried.
posted by katieanne at 8:55 PM on October 2, 2021
posted by katieanne at 8:55 PM on October 2, 2021
Response by poster: Redirecting again to remind people that I'm looking for a web site that will hand-hold me through the process, rather than individual nuggets of advice.
But if no such site exists, then I'm going to start adding supplementary questions, like:
* Do some research to set a reasonable price (either an initial bid or a reserve a bit under the going rate, or a buy it now price at what you really want).
What are some rules of thumb that would allow me to ascertain the definition of "reasonable" in this instance?
you will want to have an ebay account with a reasonable feedback number, in order to not scare off buyers. I would say 20 minimum?
I have never sold anything. Does that affect this?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:14 PM on October 3, 2021
But if no such site exists, then I'm going to start adding supplementary questions, like:
* Do some research to set a reasonable price (either an initial bid or a reserve a bit under the going rate, or a buy it now price at what you really want).
What are some rules of thumb that would allow me to ascertain the definition of "reasonable" in this instance?
you will want to have an ebay account with a reasonable feedback number, in order to not scare off buyers. I would say 20 minimum?
I have never sold anything. Does that affect this?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:14 PM on October 3, 2021
You don't have to choose a reasonable price; you only need to know what it's worth to you. That's should be the reserve price. (Ask yourself: If it ended up selling for $X, would I be disappointed that I couldn't keep it for that price?) That's the point of an auction site: It discovers the price for you. Yes, there's a small risk if it's a very niche product and you know that somewhere, out there, there's someone willing to pay $100 but that person didn't see it on Ebay and instead it went for $20, but the point of Ebay and why you pay the fees is that it reaches a lot of people, so chances are very good that you'll find the target audience for your niche item. If you really want to get a sense of the value in advance, you can search Ebay and make sure you filter by "sold," to know what someone actually paid.
On average, people with good feedback get somewhat higher prices than people without, because the buyer is (correctly) assuming that there's higher risk with a new seller. So you might make a few dollars less. You could try to start by selling the less valuable items so your feedback would be higher by the time you sold the more valuable items, but it's a tradeoff: How valuable is your time?
Remember, you can always relist something if it doesn't sell. There's no fee for listing, only for selling. If I were you, I'd just open the app and give it a shot.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:06 AM on October 4, 2021
On average, people with good feedback get somewhat higher prices than people without, because the buyer is (correctly) assuming that there's higher risk with a new seller. So you might make a few dollars less. You could try to start by selling the less valuable items so your feedback would be higher by the time you sold the more valuable items, but it's a tradeoff: How valuable is your time?
Remember, you can always relist something if it doesn't sell. There's no fee for listing, only for selling. If I were you, I'd just open the app and give it a shot.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:06 AM on October 4, 2021
Response by poster: On average, people with good feedback get somewhat higher prices than people without, because the buyer is (correctly) assuming that there's higher risk with a new seller. So you might make a few dollars less.
Apologies if I wasn't clear - I have good feedback as a buyer. Does that count?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:24 AM on October 4, 2021
Apologies if I wasn't clear - I have good feedback as a buyer. Does that count?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:24 AM on October 4, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
* Do some research to set a reasonable price (either an initial bid or a reserve a bit under the going rate, or a buy it now price at what you really want).
* Take multiple high quality photos. Not like professionally done, but put down a sheet, make sure the lighting is good, images aren't blurry, etc. As an example, for the graphic novel series, at least one of the complete set together, one where you can see the cover of each, one where you can see the back of each, etc. If there's any damage, wear, stains, etc. make sure you get photos of that.
* Be honest and thorough in your description. You don't really need to worry about fancy HTML and whatnot, but be clear about what you are offering and the condition it is in. People are more likely to bid if they are confident they know exactly what they are bidding on.
* It may cost more, but I recommend USPS Priority mail (or equivalent if you aren't in the US). At minimum, you need the tracking, but I would also suggest signature confirmation for anything remotely valuable. It's extremely easy for someone to say they never got an item and leave you empty handed without it. (I had it happen once and being able to show exactly who signed for it and when ended the dispute immediately).
posted by hankscorpio83 at 8:45 AM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]