To ask about your experience of eBay - as a seller

[Pearplum12]

Is it a good base for selling things?
Has anyone here successfully sold lots of stuff?
Any tips? Thanks

Yup. Be organised, check the price of your items against those that have sold before, keep postage low or waive it, and make sure you bother to put up decent photos and write decent blurb. Always mention brand names if item is branded. And respond quickly to questions. Once sold get the item to the post office - you’ll need that good feedback from your buyer.

Make sure you always send items signed for, although it does cost more.
Otherwise there are buyers who will claim it never arrived, eBay always side with the buyer so will automatically issue a refund from your PayPal account. Buyer gets to keep the item and gets a refund too
In fact, eBay will automatically issue a refund even if the buyer signs for their parcel... ridiculous policy.

Yeah I have decent experiences & will carry on. Probably sell 2-5 things a month for last 16 yrs. Had a buyer collect a bed tonite. Am selling some stuff for a charity, too. I don't sell any women's fashion clothes or shoes or makeup type things. Ebay is drowning in unwanted women's clothes.

Ebay expects professional standards from sellers. It isn't very casual any more. I only send signed for if value > £12 or so, though.

I sell mine DD and DS clothing, footwear, handbags etc
I keep money in PayPal account and use it to pay for things I couldn’t normally afford like holidays, cost of Xmas, new phone etc and also more clothes!

I would avoid for high value items. I started a thread about this with a scammer trying to pretend my item was used to get a discount. I have been buying and selling on eBay for years and would only ever sell low value items now.

I started out selling bits and pieces from around the house to raise a bit of money, after DC 1 and 2, XH left and I sold anything not bolted down to pay for basics. I remarried and carried on ebaying. When my DD (DC3)was born she had lots of pushchairs over three years. I'd buy, repair and tidy up, clean really thoroughly or replace covers use for a while and sell on.

I then sold some bits of jewellery and found that higher value stuff resulted in no more hassle than the sub £10 that I'd mainly been selling. A couple of years ago I started running an eBay based online jewellery business.

Now VAT registered and expanded to several other platforms.

My tips are be honest and work out if it's worth your time to sell items. Not every pound is equal.

If you've time to kill and £5 cash in your pocket would make a difference, you can get to the post office or be in for a courier collection then go for it. If you're getting various benefits selling your second hand and unwanted items isnt income so doesnt effect these so £5 is £5.

If £5 would be nice but you'd have to taxi to the post office it includes eBay, paypal and postage fees and you really don't have the time because you're already flat out with life, then work out if after the actual and emotional cost that £5 is really £5 profit.

Sometimes it's better to bundle and batch stuff so you sell bigger lots (three dresses as one bundle but only one postage overhead rather than three separately listed ones and three lots of postage) have all auctions finishing on say a Friday and pack over the weekend to post out/ get collected on the Monday. Most people should have paid by then. Doesn't work as well for buy it now because that can go at any stage.

EBay like tracked postage services and don't acknowledge signed for ones. So whilst a signature on receipt means a buyer is less likely to try and scam you, if they do try, eBay will most likely accept their claim of non receipt as there is no automatic tracking.

It depends on the category you're selling in but many buyers expect fast free delivery now and so you need to factor accurate costs into your starting price or buy it now price. On your sale you have your ebay final value and paypal transaction fees.

It's worth looking out for free listing and fixed or low final value fee offers for higher value items. If you have a £100 pram to sell and can get a £1 final value fee listing thats a good few extra pounds in your pocket.

To price things search broadly what you think the item is and click on sold listings from the menu on the left hand side on the desktop version. You can filter by highest price plus postage and work out where your product would likely fit in. If five similar have sold I'd discount the top and the bottom price and average the three left as a guide.

I make a living at it, so think it's worth it. There are scammers but they are rare and you can follow tips left in this thread to help minimise the risks.

Thanks so far! Any more advice also welcome 👍

Think about when your auctions will end if using auction rather than buy it now. I find Sunday evenings are best. Avoid times of popular TV programmes, bank holidays etc.

Can I also ask - if you make a reasonable living or fair amount from it , what are the best items to sell? Thanks

I stopped selling on there was they would not let me charge the P&P I needed to send the items recorded. When I sent via normal post I kept getting the 'it didn't arrive' excuse then having to give refunds and there is no way to prove they are lying.

I’ve had nothing but hassle selling things so I gave up.

Also the app is getting far to complex to actually list and it’s taking forever to put one item on, I’ve gone back to Facebook and gumtree.

I sell lots but I only sell things that I'm happy to sell for 99p if that should be the case. Often they sell for more

Ebay have an automatic rolling relist now, you need to use the desktop site to remove it from each listing. If you use a 'free listing' offer, auto renews don't count (eg I get 100 free listings most months, but not auto renews- they are charged). Be mindful of this if you are selling items for 99p.

I charge 3.40 postage, I never send recorded unless someone pays silly money for something and then I cover the extra £1 myself. Post office receipts have postcodes and proof of postage now so you don't need to record. I've never had an item go missing.

If you charge the recommended £2.90 postage (Ebay not caught up yet With the recent price increases) and sell for 99p, your fees will cost approx 10%, your postage £3, any packing materials etc... you'll make about 50-60p per item which doesn't really seem worth it but I guess if you sell a lot then you can get a small 'lump' sum which is better than getting up at 6am to do a car boot sale.

My FB is over 3500, although I rarely sell these days. I use Hermes and never had a bad experience.

Be prepared for silly questions. Cup of tea, sense of humour, and a bucket of patience.

I mainly sell clothing. I include every single measurement on the item: as a buyer, it bugs me when someone describes a garment as "knee-length" and I've no idea if she's 4'11" or 6'. Anyway.

Nevertheless, I still got asked "What kind of size medium is it?" of a size medium coat whose every. single. measurement I had put in the listing.

(I was patient, and wrote a short essay about what kind of medium it was, after rolling my eyes so far back in my head that I could see my spinal column.)

The prize for the stupidest question goes to my friend, who sells records online. Someone asked of a 7" record, "Will this fit through my letterbox?" :D

If selling clothing, put in actual chest, waist, hip, length measurements and a request for buyers to measure themselves to ensure fit.

Describe brand and features and suggest what it could be used for eg. "Perfect for weddings, party, beach" etc. Sell them a dream.

Lots of good photography on neutral background with bright natural light. If possible, arrange clothing on floor. Most stuff looks crap on a hanger. Arrange skirts to look nice and full, pinch in waists to look flattering, put a padded bra (hidden) underneath the boob part if selling a dress.

Include photos of zips and other fittings, close ups of fabric and prints.

I know that all sounds a bit mad but trust me I have sold a lot of clothing and always get good prices! Also attention to detail makes you look a bit more professional/fancy to buyers.

Oh yeah and if you get a scammer claiming something is damaged or worn and clearly angling for a discount, remain polite and tell them they are welcome to send it back for a full refund. They wont.

Always send recorded. Oh and cash on collection only if they ask to pick it up. That helps to weed out the scammers.

Thank you !
I don’t understand the automatic rolling relist - does that mean I get charged after a week if the item hasn’t sold and they are relisting it ?
Also , how do I remove an item if I decide to give it to charity instead if it’s not selling . Is it simple to remove an item ?Thanks ...

Rolling relish is just a click box to untick within the listing on a desk box. It's something like automatically relish my item if it doesn't sell. If it automatically relish you are automatically charged.

If you decide to give up on a listing (in auctions it's not unusual for bidders to wait until two minutes before the end to bid) it's called end the listing.

In your items for sale list you select the item and from the drop down click end item.

EBay will ask you why you wish to end it. It's considered very bad form to end an item with bids on it. There are restrictions on what you can do with an item in the last 24hrs of its listing time.

Thanks -so if I’m going to be automatically charged for relisting , how much do they charge?
And it sounds like I’d be better to end the item before the auction ends(if no bids) if they are going to charge me?
I don’t have anything on my Paypal account, so how do they take the money?
Thanks again!

Depends. I think it is shit if you are looking for a wider audience than the UK.
The postage costs to Ireland are ridiculous.
You don't get individual reviews on products, whereas on Amazon you get individual reviews on the products but the same products are more expensive on Amazon.
I used eBay to sell before, the costs are quiet high too.
I love independent sellers, you find on FB adverts etc not sure if you'd make much money though.

I sell quite a lot of clothing on eBay and have rarely had a bad experience

I would like to find a way to post that isn’t Royal Mail - is it easy to set up a Collect + or Hermes account?

I sell a lot, mainly just stuff lying around the house and kids' stuff they've grown out of. I always use BIN as I find I get better prices than auctions,sometimes stuff takes ages to sell but that doesn't bother me. I pay online for the postage and print labels at home, and always reuse packaging. I've had 2 parcels go 'missing' in about 10 years. Helps that I live practically next door to the post office though.

Always send things with a signed for delivery service as people will try it on, retain your proof of postage for 6 months as buyers have 180 days to open a dispute with PayPal

Try not to be too accommodating to buyers, this might sound odd, but you’ll again have scammers trying it on. Eg various scams, ridiculous price haggling, unfounded complaints etc. It’s better if you try to remain as professional as possible.

If someone wants a refund, ask them to open a case in eBay rather than just refunding them to make it official

I find it helpful to think of it as a way of constructively decluttering and recycling. I sell clothing and household items and just see it as a way of recouping the value of what I spend.
My tips are:

• spend time on descriptions, listing every flaw or peculiarity
• characterise the item, specify what occasion is it useful for
• list several items in one go, then hopefully you only have to go to the post office once!
• double-check the item before you buy postage. This is to check that you have described it correctly and also offers a chance to make sure that the buyer really wants the item. I often message the buyer to make sure that they are definitely aware of a flaw at that point.

I think the hassle is also dependent on what you are selling. Used Boden kids teeshirt - unlikely to get problems. I wonder why? Brand new pair of high-end jeans, electrical appliances or a higher-end handbag - far higher likelihood of chancers.

I'd personally say not. I've just had a very annoying experience where I had to send a quite heavy item, had to pay well over the amount I was allowed to charge the buyer for postage, and couldn't in any way afford to pay for tracked delivery, but I got an email from PayPal saying that my funds were "on hold" until they had got confirmation from the buyer that the item had arrived. Now, I understand they're trying to make it more reassuring for people to buy from their site, but it seems stacked against the seller now. Hopefully my buyer will be a nice, honest person, but they could easily claim that the parcel never arrived and I would have no way of proving it, and all because I couldn't afford to have it tracked. It's a lot of money to place on trusting somebody that I don't know, who could be planning to scam me.

This is apparently standard practice for new or occasional sellers, and I certainly haven't been encouraged to make it a more frequent thing by this experience.

I sell on ebay as a business mostly vintage/antiques collectables
if you buy the postage on ebay you automatically have a tracking number which feeds into ebay system if tracking says it has arrived the buyer will not win a not received case
small parcels are 10p cheaper bought on ebay rather than post office but you do need to be able to print labels I use Royal mail and Hermes have had only 1 parcel go missing in 400 and a few late
set postage as a maximum of 10-30p more than cost; a plastic bag bought on ebay costs 5-10p boxes bubble wrap etc cost more
do not try to make a profit on postage you will get marked down for it as you will if you charge for signed for on a 99p item. second class automatically covers you for £20 so even if buyer claims not arrived you can claim back off post office
it does not matter whether you start listing at 99p or 4.99 or £99 as a private seller the first 100 a month are free
if things generally always sell at same price use BIN if they are more unusual or you are unsure of value use an auction but end things about 8-9pm at night ( not Fridays or Saturdays as people go out)

post promptly next day preferably ( 2 days max) if you can only post on tuesdays finish your items on Sunday
as said before decent photos at least 4 always mention faults repairs etc measurements

on average prices on ebay are 40-50% higher than on facebook / gumtree but gumtree is better for bulky collection only items

NEVER EVER accept paypal for collection items only cash

if you are new to selling you will only be allowed to sell about 5 items to start with until you start getting feedback so sell a few small things as soon as you have feedback you can ring ebay to get selling allowances increased

leave feedback as soon as they pay " thank you for prompt payment" is fine