Is it profitable to sell on ebay?

[Christmascardsontheshelf]

Trying to earn a little extra on the side selling books I've read, clothes etc.
It says ebay takes 12% of your sale.
Plus the cost of postage and packaging. Is it worth selling anything? I do have a couple of watches I never wear, but for books. Is it worth it?
u have listed loads of things on shock and only sold 2 things, clothes and books just aren't going.

Yabu - don't bother
Yanbu- try it

I've sold a couple of big ticket items on there - rattan garden furniture and a Segway-Ninebot - both sold for more than I paid originally due to demand (way above the reserve I put on them)
The fees are high but I would have got far less selling local

Clothes and books I just CBA for the small return on time invested

[quote Lex345]@maximist how have you found the last couple of months? Hope the category problems and indexing havent been a trouble to you, they changed the books specifics earlier didnt they?[/quote]
Tbh I've barely noticed it - I always assume that buyers are looking for specific titles/authors and will just search for them. Sales were good in December, hopefully they'll stay that way, but it's always up and down, I just save in the good times and if sales are thin assume they'll pick up again, they always do.

I find Vinted much friendlier for sellers, items sell lower than eBay but no sellers fee, and you receive a printable label at buyers cost when an item sells. You can sell books/toys/household items etc not just clothes. Their fees as a buyer have gone up a lot since I started using them, but as a seller it's much easier than eBay.

I thought I'd try vinted after reading this thread, how do you get the money? Is It held in the account on there for you to buy from or do you get money in bank account/on card? I can't see where it goes but it's probably me! I'm a dinosaur I'm afraid

I used to sell a few unwanted items on there but it stinks now.

I think eBay is chasing business customers and trying to discourage people like me doing an occasional declutter. It's working.

You’re better doing a car boot sale to be honest. Profit is very meagre unless you have specialist items. Even very run of the mill things attract chancers and weirdos. And get one of those and your profit and ratings can be wiped out.

I’ve found it good for specialised antique things because you can reach a bigger audience; but it useless for everyday items.
I do however buy practically all of my clothes from eBay as there are some real bargains on there.

We sold off books, games, tech, etc through a mix of MusicMagpie, Ziffit and WeBuyBooks. Lined up the items, scanned the barcode, put them in the box for the company offering the highest price. As they pay the shipping made no difference to us. All paid up within days. Very efficient.

I sell far more stuff on eBay than Vinted

If you sell on eBay you need to accept that you're a seller rather than a customer. Sounds obvious but a lot of sellers don't seem to understand that as a vendor they have less rights.

The fact is the goods you send are your responsibility up until the point the buyer marks them as received. If you can't prove the buyer received the item, in the condition described, you have to swallow the loss of the item and try to claim a refund from the courier. Something like a signature is next to useless when it comes to proving the item arrived. All it does is show it was given to someone somewhere.

When setting prices, people often make the mistake of not factoring in all their costs. You have to think like a business. You have the obvious costs like P&P and eBay fees, but you have to factor in a certain percentage of your stock getting lost, damaged or stolen. As a rule of thumb you need to accept maybe a third of your profits will be taken from you in some way, so you need to price your items accordingly.

Honestly, eBay isn't worth the hassle for most people. People who have a genuine business proposition and price things accordingly might get along OK, but for individuals it's really only two types who use it - the needy, and the greedy.

I just checked all recently sold listings for childrens clothes this evening and there were bids for about 1 our of every 50-60 items. Quote depressing really, I wonder if eBay has had it's day, or if it's just slow sales and over saturated market because it's January.

Try Facebook marketplace. It’s free and they come and collect it (or you can choose to post)