eBay selling: 20 handy tips for making more money

If you start your auction at 99p, you will attract more potential buyers because many people search for items by lowest price. What’s more, this will also keep your fees down – which means more money in your pocket.

Of course, there is some risk here. It’s possible that even a valuable item happens to only have one interested buyer, who, through sheer luck, gets your item for 99p when it’s worth much more!

There’s a tradeoff here, so never put something at 99p if you’d be gutted to sell it for that much. Use your own judgement and do research to see what similar items are selling for.

Items can be listed as an auction or a fixed price. In addition to following eBay pricing recommendations, you can also search completed eBay listings and look at other similar items to help you choose a starting price for fixed-price or auction-style listing.

 

Auction listings are great if you’re unsure of the value of your item or you have unique and hard-to-find items that could attract demand and spur a bidding war.

Although the final price may be unpredictable, if you get several people who really want your item, they may try to outbid each other, raising the final price.

Remember never to put a starting price that’s lower than you’re willing to sell for! But if it’s something not too valuable that’s just lying around anyway, an auction may be the way to go.

Make sure you’ll be around when listings end to post the items within the timeframe you’ve agreed to.

If you want to make a certain price on something, though, go for a fixed price sale.

This is a safe option if you absolutely don’t want to sell your item for less than a certain price. You can tick the ‘allow offers’ button if you might be willing to negotiate, or leave it off if your price is firm.

Some sellers prefer buying through fixed-price listings because they don’t have to wait for an auction to end. Just make sure you’re available to post the item within the time limit you’ve agreed to on your listing. With a fixed-price listing, it could sell at any time while it’s live on eBay.

 

When starting an auction, you can choose whether it lasts one, three, five, seven or ten days.

It’s generally agreed that Sunday is the day of the week that attracts the most bidding activity – so listing on a Thursday and opting for a ten-day auction means that you will cover two of these prime-time selling days. Aim to have your items end between the hours of 7pm and 9pm to get the most bidders.

Alternatively, get into the habit of listing your seven-day auctions each Sunday night to maximise your bids on an ongoing basis.

You can even schedule your listings to start at a certain time. So if you’re writing up your listing at 3am, you can have it start at a better time so it ends when more people are browsing.

 

Whether you’re selling a couple of items or dozens of boxes of stuff, you’ll need to stay on top of everything. Use a calendar to mark when auctions are ending, and make sure you’ll be around to post items promptly.

If you’re away from home a lot or maybe too busy to always go to the Post Office, schedule listings to end when it suits you. For example, if your only free time is Saturday morning, have listings end on Friday evening so you can post them the next day.

Fixed-price listings have certain advantages, but as they can sell at any time, you’ll need to make sure you’re always available the next day to post things.

If you need more flexibility, you can adjust the postage settings on your listing to say it will be dispatched within a couple of days instead of one day. But this might turn some buyers away, especially as most people are used to fast deliveries these days.

This is the most important advice I can give. If you send an item recorded delivery you can track its whereabouts.

This prevents any sellers claiming they have not received an item. And if it is lost, you are covered by insurance.

10. Keep your ebay postage costs under control

It’s important to choose the correct postage options so that a buyer knows how and when they will receive the item.

When posting a listing, eBay has a handy tool which provides postage recommendations based on how other sellers have posted items like yours.

If there’s no recommended postage option for your item – or you’d rather set your own price – you can choose your own postage method. To get an idea of what you should be charging, use eBay’s Postage Estimator. Royal Mail also has a Price Finder tool for figuring out the costs, both for the UK and abroad.

CollectPlus

Also worth a look are parcel and postage comparison websites such as Interparcel.com, Parcelmonkey.co.uk or MyParcelDelivery.com. These sites buy postage slots in bulk from big courier firms such as UPS or DHL and sell them to the public – saving you a bundle in the process.

But bear in mind that you’ll be dealing with a middleman company, not the courier itself. So if things go wrong and need sorting, you will have to go via the comparison site which will deal with any inquiries, but can be more time consuming than you might think.

Underestimating Postage Costs

While cheap postage may attract more buyers, always remember that underestimating postage costs can quickly eat into your eBay profits.

If you’re flogging larger items that aren’t feasible to post, select ‘local collection only’ and the buyer will need to collect the item in person.

13. Choose the right category

It’s also important to make sure you list your item in the right category; if you don’t, the chance of a good sale goes down.

For an extra fee, you can list your item in two categories to maximise your item’s visibility.

14. Build your ebay reputation

Building your eBay reputation as a trusted seller is very important in making cash on the online marketplace.

To build your eBay reputation, you need to get positive feedback from customers so that you can get at least 95% rate as a trusted seller. The best way to do this is to be the kind of seller you would want to buy from yourself. So, offer good customer service, describe the item accurately, reply to queries within 24 hours, and make sure you mail packages within the advertised period.

Establishing and maintaining buyer satisfaction helps you build a solid reputation as a trustworthy seller on eBay, and ultimately helps drive your sales activity.

 

16. Respond to people ASAP

When you get questions about things you’re selling, reply as soon as you can. If you take days to reply, you might miss out on a sale. Ideally respond within 24 hours.

Once your listing goes live, don’t just sit back and hope for the best.

Promote your items on your social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Use relevant hashtags and get the word out there. Also, let your friends and family know so they can spread the word too.

18. Don’t forget bigger items on ebay

Just because something seems too large, impractical, or expensive to ship, it doesn’t mean you can’t sell it. Simply offer the “collection in person” option – this means that the buyer and seller can find a convenient time for the item to be picked up.

 

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. So even if you think some of the things you’ve got lying around are useless, think again!

Even broken or not-working items can sell for parts or to enthusiasts. Sometimes if you sell a bundle of broken electronics you can make good money on them. Just always be honest about the condition of the item.

 

 

Check out our quick-start eBay guide for more tips, and share your best eBay selling tips in the comments below.

Also, check out our Sell Your Stuff hub for more ways to sell your unwanted goods!