Im rubbish at ebaying, what am i doing wrong?

[gigglepin]

I put on a load of kids clothes. Only at low prices, £2-5 each item.
I got a couple of watchers but havent sold anything, and i have a listing bill of £6, so its cost me!
I describe them and price them fairly, also the postage costs are fair..not inflated or anything.

Should i just list a couple of items at a time?

How do you actually make money out of it?

For clothes, unless it is something very striking, or a brand name that is expensive/sought after like Boden then list in large bundles of 10 outfits or so.
Photos are key to selling clothes- close up shots, nicely arranged or hung on hangers and clearly washed and ironed.
I sold some Mini Boden dresses for more than they cost originally- also sold a girls Next coat for £25 so it can be done.

my best bargain was a Boden anorak I bought for 30p and sold for £35 :o

I still think that it is worth listing everything, even if it isn't joules or boden.

I've had bundles of Sainsburys, next, mini mode go for high amounts. Ive also had boden t-shirts that have gone for 1.04 each.

Boden trousers will always get good money. Joules fleeces, dresses etc, always good money. 2 pairs of Sainsburys pjs got me £8. Small bundle of next/Sainsburys etc got over a tenner.

Some people will only look for boden etc, but plenty of people are looking for cheap second hand in good condition.

You need to do them seasonally too to get good prices. All my best bargains have been stuff that is out of season. eg: The big chunky maternity cardigan I am wearing right now = £4 in heatwave in May. Same goes for kids clothes.

As a buyer, if the total cost including p&p is more than a fiver then I pass on it. Only one thing have I paid more for. As a seller, only the new with tags stuff has been worth my while.

Yy to seasonal. I bought the kids' winter coats back in April. Brand new Boden anorak age 13-14 with tags still attached, £6. If you have summer stuff, save it till March/April/May.

Disagree re selling stuff that isn't BNWT, btw - if it's a desirable brand and well-described and photographed, they generally go well, and sometimes for silly prices.

I'm a business on ebay and i sell kids clothes really well. List them at 99p, good clear photos, describe well, good descriptions etc.
Ive sold things for good money from Primark and got buttons for boden so sometimes its sods law.
Me doing ebay pays for my summer holidays every year so its well worth it in my opinion

Queenebay - I'm thinkging about starting an ebay business, do you have any pointers? If you can be arsed please can you PM me?

x

Actually I find BNWT stuff sometimes does really badly, I think people you assume you have bought it cheap in a sale. Sometime I list BN stuff as 'immaculate only worn once' it sells much better.

Totally yy to seaonal, as a buyer I only really buy out of season as you get everything so ridiculously cheaply. I do sometimes feel guilty though, I feel I should message the seller and point out where they are going wrong.

I have had most success selling things in very small bundles- usually 2 tops and 2 co-ordinating bottoms (trousers, dungarees, skirts etc)... but the key word is co-ordinating.

Buyers seem happier to pay a little more if they know they will get lots of use out of the items. Again- I do loads of photos (pasted in, not ebay paid-for) and list any defects (only on items like Boden, wouldn't list supermarket items with defects).

Outfits (3 piece usually- like top, trousers, and pullover or cardi) often go well when they're nicely co-ordinated.

I also list only items of the same size in each auction (eg all auctions will be for girls 2-3y clothing, or all for boys 12-18m)- that way buyers are far more likely to bid on more than one item, and of course I always offer to combine postage costs. I have had bidders buy all (14 or 15) auctions on occasion which is great- they pay far less postage, I only need to do 1 parcel. So much less faff.

Yy to listing same-size stuff at once - even if the same buyer doesn't purchase the lot, you get more traffic to your other auctions if you say you've had a big clearout.

It also makes you look like a genuine parent selling one child's outgrown stuff, rather than a trader.

Yes- complete outfits sell really well- eg trousers and tops, or a dress with cardigan and tights etc- or better still a mix and match small bundle which are from the same collection like Next sell.
When I buy, I sometimes bear in mind if it will sell well when dd finshes with it.

Also, you need to sell in the time leading up to a season, eg I sell summer stuff in the very early spring/late winter and winter stuff in September. If you wait until August to sell summer dresses you have missed the boat.

CaptainNancy, how do you paste photos into listings? I've always wondered how it works.

sorry- in the listings editor, switch to 'HTML view', then you can paste in image anchors with the pictures in:

I use photobucket (I think...) there are other free photo hosting sites available (though flickr dont allow you to use for auctions in T&C)

Make sure you put a tag or 2 after each image so they will appear one below another.