Please tell me your top tips for flogging clothes on ebay!

[Pannacotta]

Need to sell a whole load of things as we are moving house in the new year and we need to declutter.
Have sold before on ebay but just wondering if any of you had any good tips you can share?
TIA

I've done quite well recently, but I only really do kids clothes, and occasional other items/adult clothes.

1. Iron them and take good pictures.
2. Do a good description in a nice coloured font that's big enough to read and looks funky.
3. Be scrupulous about describing any defects.
4. Put in a gallery shot, but no other fancy special effects.
5. List on a Thursday for 10 days to finish on a Sunday evening.
6. I sell higher-value brands like Mini-Boden (particularly), GAP and Next individually, all the rest of the stuff I do as bundles. You make a lot more if you sell stuff at the appropriate time of year, ie. winter clothes in late Sept onwards, summer clothes from April onwards. I'm not planning to put any more on until after Christmas now as I reckon everyone will be concentrating on Christmas presents rather than clothes.

Everything frogs said, plus I've found selling children's clothes in small bundles (e.g. 3 pairs of Gap jeans) works VERY well - they usually sell for a lot more than they would as separate lots because people get a better deal on postage and save themselves the hassle of bidding on several individual items.

It's also good to have a lot of auctions running at the same time, for similar sorts of things, as people who are interested in bidding on one of your things usually have a look at your other items to see if there is anything else they like. I've sold a lot of things for a pound or two to be sent out with other stuff, which might not have otherwise sold. I usually list 50-60 items at a time, then have a few weeks' break before listing another lot rather than keep feeding in 10 items at a time (which I used to do).

Thanks - lots of useful advice...

Be fair on postage - I never bid if I think the seller is overcharging on the postage.

Ladygrinning -- I presume you use turbolister to list 60 items?

But doesn't it drive you mad to have to deal with that many payment records and postal trips all at the same time?

I still do the 10-15 related items at a time route, and even then it sometimes drives me a bit scatty. But I don't take paypal, so probably a bit more faff.

50-60 things at a time! No way could I do that without losing the will to live!!

I find that Buy it nows often sell better than auction.

Try auctiva or something similar to help with listing. With services like this, you can schedule listings for free, so you can do the work whenever you like, and get them all starting on Thursday evenings for 10 days.

If you are organised, it doesn't matter how many auctions you have finishing at once. I have 100's finishing every week at the moment, without too many problems. I have a 'filing' system in my email - awaiting payment, awaiting wrapping, awaiting posting, and the items get moved through as they progress.

Taking Paypal does help speed things up. I don't like the extra fees, but hate the faff of cheques and waiting for payment to arrive.

Every time I do a run to the PO, I email the buyer to tell them their item has been sent, and update the 'my ebay' section to show it's been sent, so I can keep track of everything.

I have found average prices for my items have increased since I started using Auctiva as you can include as many photos as you like for free. Photos are much better than descriptions IMO.

Offer lots of postage options - if you can courier, then people could potentially buy lots of things, and only pay £4.99 P&P. I always say on my listings that the maximum P&P I will charge is £6.99 regardless of number of items won (providing I can get them all in a box). I also state that people are welcome to collect in person. I think it makes everything seem more genuine, and also local people bid as they will save on P&P, which pushes up overall prices. Remember to list your cheapest P&P option first, as that is the one that shows up in the search.

Frogs - yes, I use turbo lister. It is a busy few days but I find there are economies of scale, so packing and posting 60 items does not take 4 times as long as packing and posting 15 items - more like twice as long, with the same number of trips to the post office in all.