Those of you who sell on ebay, do you actually make a decent bit of money after all the time and energy and faff and post office trips, etc?

[MadreInglese]

We are about to embark on a serious clear out as we are infested with Too Much Stuff.

I'm pondering whether to freecycle stuff or charity shop it, or whether to have a go at selling on ebay. I've bought loads on ebay but never sold before.

Is it worth it after you've got all the bubble wrap & brown paper, etc, and faffed about photographing it all and emailing and posting, blah blah. Just wondering if I'm going to spend hours listing and sorting stuff just to make 50p or so.

What do you think? What kind of stuff sells well?

I'd look each item up on the completed listings first. if it looks like you will struggle to sell an item or you will only get 99p then I wouldn't bother. 99p sales actually only make you a few pence after all the fees and costs are deducted.
You may have some items that will fetch quite a bit, so give it a go - good luck

that's a good idea, thanks

I would agree with slm - only worth it for bigger value things.

I found it very time consuming and quite stressful and didnt really make much money at all once fees etc had come out.

I would do an advanced search on completed listings to see what you could realistically expect and then choose the items that will sell well.

I have to say that as a seller now as well you cannot leave negative feedback for buyers anymore but they can for you so I have had a bad experience with this which has really put me off.

From now on I am just freecycling and charity bagging and offering things on here.

Sorry if I have put you off!

I haven't. People always want something for nothing on there - including me. When I want something it seems like the world and his wife are after it too

I sold some soapnuts on there recently. The amount I had would of cost around £18 in the shops. They sold for 99p with £3 ( fair postage). Now if I wanted soapnuts I bet I wouldn't of got them as cheap

not at all, it's good to hear about other people's experiences

I think I'll see what we end up with in the 'out' box and check what seems to sell well and maybe give it a go

Dp and I have made about £500 this week getting rid of stuff that we didnt need anymore.

I have bought and sold quite a lot before, this week I listed some clothes that were all new with tags that I had never got round to wearing. Most of them sold for less than £2, so by the time I have taken listing fees and paypal fees off I'll be lucky if I made anything on them.

Have decided that unless something is going to sell for more than £10 I'm not going to bother.

As a rough guide if you are interested we have sold - xbox, old dvd & surround sound system, travel cot & mattress, few bits of clothes, a decent mobile but with cracked screen, some sample sized clinique stuff, a new changing bag and a sheepskin pram liner.

Boden stuff goes well, always. Also GAP and Next, for some reason.

I triage all the outgrown stuff into:

ebay individually: good condition Boden stuff, mainly, or designer/brands.
ebay as a bundle: eg. sets of clothes in the same size and good condition, or bundles of eg. M&S vests etc
Freecycle/charity shop: things that have defects, or are a bit dated or knackered or just random. There's no point trying to ebay a single plain H&M T-shirt, for example. If you wouldn't buy it yourself, it may not be worth the trouble. Ditto for things that will be heavy to post.

With practice, you can get a feel for what will sell. I don't start at 99p now, I tend to start at £1.99, or for bigger things, at the lowest price I wouldn't be completely gutted to see things go for.

Finish at a popular time (Sunday evening is a good one) and sell stuff in season (ie. winter clothes now, summer clothes in April/early May, unwanted toys in the run-up to Christmas.

Hoard packaging. You can get unfranked special delivery plastic envelopes in a range of sizes from the Post office, then turn them inside out.

It is worth it once you get it right -- I've just sold a bundle of dd2's outgrown clothes for £122, which was more than I'd expected. Do be very accurate about describing items, and honest about any defects. Do nice colourful listings in a large cheerful font and good pictures, including blurb about how you've washed and ironed it all before putting up for auction, and how you have a pet- and smoke-free house.

And yes, second the checking completed listings thing. You get a v. good feel for whether it's going to be worth your while or not. Just be honest with yourself!

Also it's important to work out what people's search terms are going to be, and put those key words in the title of the listing.

Crikey frogs - how big was your bundle of clothes - I have never bothered doing clothes as they never seem to fetch much

Here.

In fairness we'd inherited tons of clothes that dd2 then refused to wear, so there was loads of it, and most was in good nick. But it was a good result.

Poundland's good for envelopes & packing stuff cheap. The do packs of jiffy bag style envelopes in 3 sizes, tape and bubblewrap (though supermarkets are good for wrap and it's free)

Personally I don't get rid of anything til I've checked ebay. And sometimes the weirdest things make the most bonkers money!

I do quite well from putting things in our local paper, an ad is free if it's only one week, you get the money up front and people can see what you're buying so you don't get the disputes etc. I had thought of trying ebay but to be honest the packing etc, paypal and other people's comments have put me off.