12 Suggestions For Selling On eBay

In this text I would like to provide you my 12 suggestions for selling on eBay you can use and address the query of how do beginners sell on eBay.

On eBay from 2013 through 2019, on a part-time basis of about 5 hours every week, I sold 3,618 items for a complete of just over $105,000.

To this present day, after only selling 60 items in 2021, I still maintain a 100% positive customer feedback rating from 1,852 customers.

About half of my customers have left feedback and all of them have given me a positive rating. That could be a remarkable feedback rating and I don’t take it calmly.

Take a look at my current items on the market on eBay below

I don’t say any of that to brag or be boastful. I say it because I’ve been in a position to achieve some success on eBay, and I would like to provide you keys to the formula for achievement on the eBay platform.

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Whether it’s Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, Alibaba, Shopify, or whatever platform you select, this information will aid you.

12 Suggestions For Selling On eBay

1. Write down your goals

What do you would like and what do you ought to change into on this process? Be specific, make them measurable, keep them visible, and visit them often.

Take a look at this text about goal setting

What I do:

I keep an inventory of my sales goals and profit margin goals in a spreadsheet that I visit once a month after I do my monthly accounting.

Despite the fact that I now sell only about 5 or 6 items a month, I spend about half-hour a month completing my books for the month

2. Sourcing

Not only do it’s good to know what are you going to sell, you alsl must know where are you going to get it from?

Start with what you’ve around your home, or perhaps with what you want. If you’ve extra clothes, extra shoes, or baseball cards, it really doesn’t matter.

Just make sure you understand how you’ll source moving forward. Some eBay sellers source from actual stores like Marshalls or Wal-Mart.

Work out where you’ll get your stuff from and go for it.

Click HERE to get your detailed version of the 16 Tricks to Construct a $100K eBay Business

What I do:

I source from thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales, and other consignment form of shops. Unlike many eBay seller, I don’t keep unlisted items laying around. Items are akin to money.

3. Take good pictures

You will want a camera. You could possibly use your phone to take pictures or buy digital camera. That’s your selection.

But good pictures are essential. Lighting and cameras nowadays are fairly inexpensive.

Have good lighting, imagine what pictures you’d wish to see for those who were a buyer, take pictures of various angles, and using a contrasting background color.

What I do:

I take advantage of a $100 camera from Wal-Mart that I’ve had for a several years. I replaced my camera one time. Yes, I sold $100,000 on eBay with two different $100 cameras from Wal-Mart.

I don’t have a elaborate lighting arrange. I take advantage of only natural lighting from the skin since it shows essentially the most natural colours of an item. Sometimes while you add artificial lighting, the colour of your item doesn’t translate well to an image.

Speaking of images, make sure you answer all your potential customers questions and be honest with full disclosures. You’ll get questioned about things like size, color, or fit. Be forthcoming and responsive.

Check out my current items for sale on eBay

4. Know Your Items

I’m not saying you ought to be an authority at whatever you sell, since you will change into an authority as time goes on.

But I’m saying do just a little research concerning the items you sell by learning concerning the items, how they’re normally priced, and so forth.

There are items and types that you’re thinking that are beneficial that the remainder of the world sees little or no value in. Know this.

What I do:

I started off by doing research on eBay and Amazon. I at all times check what similar items have sold for on the platform previously. Unusually high pricing will result in frustration because your items won’t move.

5. Get a Good Accountant

My eBay business was audited and I ended up owing the IRS about $18,000. You should account for the cash earn. Stick with it on the up and up.

Work out how you’ll keep track of your expenditures and sales. This may very well be a spreadsheet, QuickBooks, or a ledger or whatever.

Your accountant will aid you with this. Just make sure you be as organized an as possible, don’t throw anything away, and follow the foundations.

What I do:

I keep a ledger book and still do it old-fashioned by hand with a pencil. Call me old fashion however it works for me. I also have an accountant that I seek the advice of with quarterly, or less often infrequently.

For every sale, I take a small amount of money from the sale and put it to the side for tax purposes. I don’t have an LLC, however it’s definitely okay to accomplish that.

I’ve also adjusted my withholding on my major job to account for the possible tax bill at the top of the yr for my sole proprietorship. Again, an accountant is critical. Work out what works for you after consulting an accountant.

Whether you dropship (don’t keep the inventory you sell in a location you manage) or for those who actually hold inventory, there are rules to know!

6. Hold Inventory or Dropship

You’ve got to make a choice whether or not you propose to maintain inventory or drop ship, which suggests you don’t keep inventory in stock. You sell the items however it is shipped to the customer from elsewhere.

This obviously is dependent upon a variety of aspects that you’ve to make your mind up.

If you happen to do resolve to carry inventory, then it’s possible you’ll wish to utilize a storage unit, your basement, garage, or whatever you choose.

What I do:

I hold inventory. I take advantage of a bedroom in my home for everything of my eBay business. For a few years I kept a desk, inventory, and shipping materials on this room. Today, I keep inventory in my garage/storage area.

I account for my total inventory firstly of yearly and at the top of yearly. I actually do that monthly after I figure my Cost of Goods sold (C.O.G.S) for every month. Do you’ve to go to this level of detail? Possibly not.

Nevertheless, after I was audited, it forced me to take my business serious and learn to actually treat it like a business.

7. Shipping

Shipping is a serious expense. You would like to be as efficient as possible. In 2020, 70% of all items on eBay offered free shipping. Depending on what you’re selling, this may very well be very necessary. Take into consideration your customers, but don’t overthink it.

You don’t need to include a handwritten thanks note in every item you ship. I realize it sounds good, but your time is crucial, and you’ve to be efficient!

At the top of the day, your customers want quality items, not beautifully wrapped items.

I even have 100% positive feedback and plenty of return customers. The secret is to not be sloppy or inconsiderate with shipping. As an alternative, simply be certain you’re placing a much bigger emphasis on the standard of what you’re selling.

What I do:

For the primary 5 years, I purchased a box of 100 large plastic mailers for around $50, which cost between $1.50 and $2.50 each at your local UPS store.

I shipped my larger shoes in these. And I’m going on to the USPS website and order 200 or 300 bubble mailers for FREE.

Nowadays I get all of my shipping from USPS FREE! For larger shoes I take advantage of their “shoe box” size, and for small shoes I still use the free bubble mailers. In others words,

Click HERE to check out all of the U.S. Postal Service FREE shipping supplies

I spend $7 on tape and that’s it. All the pieces I ship in is 100% FREE. I wrap my shoes neatly within the plastic bags you get while you go grocery shopping.

Once we grocery shop we at all times get a couple of extras and store them within the kitchen drawer like everyone else. Sometimes I stuff the shipping with the free newspaper advertisements we get within the mail.

I’m at all times sure to remove our address from anything I’m using to ship items. My eBay shipping is all the way down to the bare bones. I ship all of my items Unites States Postal Service (USPS) since it’s been cheaper for me.

I’ve change into a master shipper. and with 100% feedback, I do know the best way to do it very customer friendly, and intensely economically.

8. Fees

Read and understand what the fee structure is for whatever items/categories you’re selling in. Different items have different fees related to their sell. Must you open a store on eBay?

That is dependent upon the amount you propose to do. Just be keenly aware of the eBay fees, because they will affect your profits.

What I do:

I figure my fees in after I do my monthly accounting. eBay has great sales reports to aid you do numerous this.

Explore the web site thoroughly, use the platform to it’s fullest, and absorb the data and the tools that they’ve designed for sellers.

9. Test items to start out

Like every website, eBay has algorithms. Algorithms determine who, how, when, and what items of yours get seen essentially the most. Algorithms play into any search engine on the web, and eBay isn’t any different.

There are specific key words you set within the descriptions that help push your items to the highest of a persons’ search. And people algorithms change repeatedly.

Learn the algorithms. Understand what are the most effective things to list, the most effective times to list, and the vital information and key words that it’s good to include in all your listings.

What I do:

10. Have patience

Be mindful that there’s a learning curve, and it should take time so that you can develop your personal flow.

Remember back while you began your profession, or your job, and recall that sense of patience and resolve you needed to have with the intention to keep the job.

Don’t get down on yourself or discouraged. You may do that.

What I did:

I made a choice very early that I wasn’t going to quit. I had strong “why” that kept me going. My “why” was the need to get my child through college with no debt. Work out your why and force it to motivate you.

11. Know your audience

Understand who you’re selling too, what varieties of items they need, and the ancillary upsells they could need to go with whatever you’re selling. Study them.

That is why it’s necessary to kind of start selling what you already know something about. It helps quite a bit.

What I did:

When I began selling back in 2013 I quickly fell into my area of interest of selling shoes. I did so because I used to be a shoe salesman 12 years earlier and knew just a little something about them.

Ultimately, I settled on men and girls’s shoes. I selected women shoes because they shop greater than men, and purposely selected middle-aged women shoes, resembling flats and luxury shoes, because these shoes sell for more cash.

I selected men’s shoes because, as a person, I do know men shoes. I’ve only worn all of them of my life, and after I was a shoe salesman, I specifically sold men’s shoes.

It was my specialty. So I ultimately dove into selling something that I had a level of comfort with.

12. Know your numbers

Of all of my 12 suggestions for selling on eBay you can use and address the query of how do beginners sell on eBay, this would be the most significant.

Understanding sales, profit margins, average sale price, price evaluation, and price evaluation, is crucial if you ought to scale up your eBay business.

These are business terms it is best to get to know because they shall be what you employ to grow profits and increase your efficiencies.

What I did and do:

In 2017, after being audited by IRS, I spent every week teaching myself some basic cost accounting principles. YouTube and Google were super helpful.

I learned the First in, First out (FIFO) approach to accounting for inventory and the best way to figure my costs, and commenced keeping books like a bookkeeper. It was top-of-the-line things I’ve done.

There you’ve it, These are my 12 suggestions for selling on eBay you can use and address the query of how do beginners sell on eBay. I hope the following tips aid you.

If you ought to ask a couple of questions or talk further, please contact me.

I’d love to listen to from you and aid you as much as I can.

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