Question about starting selling on Ebay

[InNeedOfSense]

Hi there, I'm thinking about selling some stuff on Ebay, and I've just been looking at their 'how to get started' pages, but I've still not got much idea of how much the selling fees are likely to be. So I thought I'd ask on here! :) For example, how much might it be to sell a dress by Coast that had originally cost (I think I remember rightly) around £180? Or an old bike to sell as a fixer-upper? I'm trying to work out if it's actually worth selling on Ebay. Thanks!

Listing fees are usually anything from free (keep an eye out for eBay sending emails about free listing in certain categories) to tens of £'s for cars and such. Clothes, household bits and bobs and bicycles will probably be about £1 to list, depends which options you choose. And if you're being paid via PayPal they will take a cut of the winning bid too. It usually works out ok if you can sell things for a good sum, I made about £100 just from having a clear out of books, clothes and toys from my bedroom when I still lived at home.

Go to Advanced search, type in a search phrase you would use to advertise the item, and click the "completed listings" box. Then sort by price (may have to subselect for category) and you can get an idea of median selling price for your type of item. Check condition is similar to what you have to offer. That's how I would find a reasonable starting price.

Look out for free-listing weekends, when you skip listing fees, these help a lot. The only time it's worth paying usual listing fees is if you do a Buy-It-now listing for 40p, probably for 30 days. You can repeatedly reduce the price every few days and you'll pick up watchers on the way waiting for you to reduce the price to what they are willing to pay.

Ebay takes 10% of the selling price plus paypal take another 3-5% of the postage+selling price.

Beware this is a lousy time of year to sell, prices will be low until September for most types of goods (summer clothes, school items & summer sport items may go well, though).

Thank you. I'll have a play with it later when the dc are in bed.