What sells well on eBay?

[TheGander]

I’m a seller but not super experienced. I usually do clothes but maybe I should branch out. For example I have an old model Magimix where the engine has finally given up the ghost, it’s occurred to be I could sell the jug, plunger, blades as spares. Anything else worth selling ( it would be household generated stuff ). Any suggestions welcome!

I doubt any sellers are going to give their competition good tips. I suggest you come up with some ideas and research selling prices on the advanced options. You should then get an idea how this compares to the price you can source the items at.

Thanks, that’s a fair point. I’m never going to do it professionally, it’s just nice to make a few pounds here and there. So far I’ve only sold clothes.

Hi OP, I've read that electronic items sell the best so things like satnavs and iPhones but most of us don't have a lot of those! You certainly could sell the jug, plunger and blade of your Magimix. I don't have a lot of success with clothes unless they are new, preferably with tags. Saying that, my greatest clothes successes on eBay have been vintage Boden pieces - I sold a swimming costume which was about 20 years old and I'd worn it every summer for about 10 of those years and got £18 for it!

I've been surprised what I have managed to sell on eBay - in the last year, other than clothes, I've sold some single duvet cover sets of my DDs, GCSE and A level textbooks, some notelets which were an unwanted gift, some stationery bits - packs of pens/highlighters etc., an old-fashioned steamer saucepan, an old empty iPhone box, some sealed bandages and a box of wood screws. To get an idea of what you should charge, set the filter down the sidebar to 'sold/completed items' and you'll see what similar items to yours have sold for.

I've discovered it really is the 'long game' on eBay and so do BIN for nearly everything, an auction has such a limited timeframe to attract sufficient views. I sold a Christmas baby hat last week which has been up for a year!

I stopped selling on eBay years ago, they changed the fee structure so that a personal seller pays far higher fees per transaction than a large corporate seller does. Plus it then became flooded by sellers from China who can undercut prices too. It simply became not worth the effort (I sold mainly old DVDs).

Do the clothes you list sell? If not, I've heard good things about the Vinted site. As for anything else - no idea.

What I would say regards your Magimix - Magimix changed the bowl and blades designs a couple of years ago, as I found out when I tried to find a replacement bowl (cracked it). I couldn't get a new old-style one from Magimix, couldn't find any on eBay at the time either. You might be able to sell yours - you'd have been able to sell it to me a couple of years ago! - but it's just as possible there's no market for them now if everyone's moved to the new design.

Thank you @Fantasea and @WhereYouLeftIt that is the kind of real life advice I was looking for! Will certainly do BIN and have a session tomorrow taking pics of my Magimix parts and some dresses I never wear. As an aside, I just bought a new Magimix and was happy to see they are still made in France!

Tomorrow would be a good day to list your items. I've read that Sunday evening is the slot which has the most traffic on eBay all week!

Don't bother with clothing, your listing will get lost in the sea of huge business sellers. Try Vinted instead.

I have just completed a declutter of the house plus a flat. The item that has reliably sold the best has been DH’s old Ron Hills. Black with a white stripe or blue with the red piping. Always snapped up.

No, I have no idea either.

Still, £7k up so whatever floats their boat.

I’ve been on eBay 20+ years (and Vinted) and in my experience the following sells best:

• trainers (Nike in particular but anything good quality really)
• coats (good quality like Barbour waxed jackets etc)
• kids clothes (esp on Vinted)
• collectibles like toys and figures etc
• LEGO sets boxed or with all pieces

i have found what doesn’t sell so well is household furniture (table, chairs etc) maybe people buy from new or charity. Art also doesn’t sell fast neither does fancy stuff like watches. Bikes and car stuff can sell ok if a good price point.

obviously seasons are massively important so time listings around these and payday

the trick with eBay and Vinted is little but often …2 or 3 a week rather than 30 all at once

hope this helps :) thanks

Maternity clothes did well for me though it was years ago. Got more for a pair of maternity Top Shop jeans than I had paid for them.

Perfume, especially partly used bottles and high end samples

Very high end skincare and makeup from gift with purchase (think Liberty) and expensive beauty advent calendars that you open up to sell (well before 1st December before the market floods with the unwanted items

You may already know this but you can see what other people have sold said items for. You just search for the item, add filters like new/used etc, then turn 'completed' on in the filter bar.

Perfumes! Yes definitely. I sold some french perfume a while back and it went in a flash. I wasn’t asking for crazy prices, one of them had been discontinued and the buyers seemed v happy ( excellent reviews).
Today I listed a couple of Whistles dresses and spare parts from my Magimix. Already had an offer on the jug lid!
DS has been using my account to sell his old Lego minifigures and they seem to be going like hot cakes.

I'd forgotten about perfume. I've sold empty perfume bottles as well as ones with only half or so left. I was amazed people wanted them but they did!

They're probably refilling the bottles with dupes and displaying those/taking them out with them etc rather than the dupes.

Its weird how different people's experiences are! I can sell sweet FA on vinted. The prices seem to be much lower than on eBay.

I sell loads of clothes on eBay.

I gave up on vinted.

I also don't like how people can email you offers on vinted, whereas at least on eBay if you don't have "make an offer"; most ppl won't message you with offers.

Also I get around the volume of items by only doing BIN.

I learned that auctions occasionally go your way but often don't. It's too short a period for the item to be seen by buyers. Esp small/big sizes etc. They need time for the right buyer to see them.

Sorry OP no divulging of secrets from me HOWEVER here’s how to maximise your eBay listings….

1. take excellent well lit pictures with no clutter or mess in the background.

2. make sure your camera lens is clean before taking the pictures to avoid blurry images

3. Use up your whole picture allowance for each listing, every angle

4. I DO MY TITLES IN CAPITALS AND MAKE SURE ITS RELEVANT TO LISTING

5. Be thorough in your listing description, size, weight, colour, any damage, condition, age, fabric type, measurements

6. fill out all item specifics

7. have a reasonable turnaround time for delivery and stick to it

8. send out offers

9. keep your account up to date for paying your tax on sales

make sure spellings are correct in your listing

Quick question about this - do you use Royal Mail to post them? I thought you weren't allowed to post perfumes unless unopened?

You can send perfume via Royal Mail but I do recall there are some restrictions which I looked up at the time. I remember having to take it to the Post Office rather than posting in a parcel box myself.

Just coming back to this thread, thanks to all the contributors and your sound tips @Onand . For perfumes I just wrapped securely and took to the post office, declared it as perfumes and there were no issues. I think a while back it was forbidden to send but that’s changed.
My Magimix lid went in a flash for £38! The dresses though are languishing with just a handful of views. I’m telling DH not to get rid of his bottle of Eau Sauvage when he’s done with it.

One tip to everyone about perfumes dont sell them to overseas buyers as royal mail wont take them because they get destroyed at the airports i learned this when an overseas buyer bought one off me, evri wouldnt let me input it either , so future sales of perfumes now get declared as gift sets by the way i sell for a charity not someone who has lots of perfumes