Have never sold anything on ebay but need money and have lots of clutter. Any ideas on what to sell?

[dollydoughnut]

Wonder if anyone can help. I don't know very much about ebay. DS has used it to buy games but we have never sold anything on it. Really need money now and would like to get rid of household clutter etc. kitchen bits and pieces such as teapots and glassware, kids clothes, books and other miscellaneous stuff. Where do I start and what sort of thing should I start with. I would really appreciate any help. Thanks.

Look at what you have then search completed listings
Then you can see what similar items have sold for which will give you an idea

The Blonde is giving you good advice
Good quality new and second hand kids clothes go very well in my experience.
Make an effort with your photos and your descriptions, be accurate and enthuse
I imagine books don't go brilliantly unless rare or special/collectable - postage costs will be quite high so it adds to the overall purchase price.

Also if you don't smoke or have pets put this on your listings

Yep, most books don't go for much due to the high postage but do check completed listings to se if you ahve any worth anything.

I would also add be fair with your postage charges and say you make a point of doing that in your lsitings- a lot of people are getting fed up with paying through the nose for postage and packing. I use old padded envelopes that I have been sent to me - that saves a lot on your costs as those things can be very expensive. I posted bundles of clothes in heavy duty bin bags - nice and cheap and do the job well. You can check postage costs on the royal mail website.

List your items so that they finish at a time when most people will be online (Evenings after the children are in bed etc etc). Make sure you give a title that will be likely to be picked up by a search - for eg BabyGrow could also be Baby Grow, Baby Gro. Once you have listed your item, search for it using simple phrases and see if you can find it (give it time to get on the system first though)

You'd be suprised what some items go for. Things you think might make loads don't sell, other things sell very well so do your research and take tips from good listings you come across.

Also, if you're talking about clothes, don't sell winter ones in summer and vice versa.

I just missed out on a waterproof all in one for DS1 at about 6 quid in a sunny week. The next week when it was rainy, i couldn't get one for 15 quid.

I do my listings on auctiva, as then you can add as many photos as you want and schedule auctions for free. This works well for me as I can list whenever DS2 is asleep to start at a good time.

Offer collection in person, as local people will bid higher as they won't have to pay postage costs. This bumps up your overall sale prices.

Offer courier delivery if possible on large items. You can get DHL couriers for about £7, often cheaper than Royal Mail.

I'd get some feedback as a seller by selling a few low value items first. I tend to look at feedback in the two sections - seller/buyer, and don't like to buy high value items from new sellers, even if they have 50ish feedback as a buyer.

I just bung everything on thats of a postable weight and size. I find that things I was sure would be worth something go for not much, whereas silly bits of tat go quite well! Its like a lottery. So don't put things on expecting a certain price, just bung things on in batches and look at the total amount you make, not individual prices.
Oh and plan ahead - I once listed a ton of stuff one Monday afternoon and hardly got any bids - they all ended on the following Monday which was a bank holiday and I hadn't realised....

I like all of my listings to finish on one day, so I often spend a week listing, and schedule everything to start on a Thursday evening between 8.30pm and 10.30pm on a 10 day listing. If you've got unusual things to list, this gives people a chance to find them. Also, if you've got lots on together, people often bid on a few things. (Might be a good idea to offer reduced P&P if people win more than one auction).

Alternatively if you don't want to use Auctiva or similar, or pay Ebay for scheduling, you can start on a Wednesday, and list everything for 10 days to finish on a Saturday, then on the Thu you do the same, then on the Sat, list for 7 days, Sun list for 7 days, Mon list for 5 days, Tue list for 5 days.... then everything finishes on the same two days. This also helps as people then pay for everything together, and you could post probably 90% of the stuff on the Monday or Tuesday.

Sorry for all the detail. I think I'm a bit addicted to Ebay!

Thank you all so much for all your ideas. I will print these out and refer to them on Saturday afternoon when DH and I will register as sellers on ebay and sort everything out.

I am going to spend this afternoon going through my clutter to see what I want to get rid of, though interesting to note that the things you think will sell don't and vice versa. I've only ever done one car boot sale and I found that then. The thing that everyone went for was stacks of old plastic plant pots that we wanted to get rid of as we had just bought lots of plants for our new garden. I was stunned!

Thank you all again. I will let you know how I get on and no doubt will have more questions on Sat!