Selling novice needs help getting started...please

[sassy]

I have finally gone through the piles of junk oodles of preloved usefulnesses and earmarked certain things to ebay. They are generally on the large side (tripp trapp chair, rebounder trampoline thingy, mountain bike etc). Any tips for how to go about listing/couriers etc. I have done a fair bit of ebay buying but have no clue how to sell.

Any help gratefully receieved!

For the bigger things, you could state "collection only"? I imagine it would be quite hard to parcel up a mountain bike?

Frankly, for bigger things like bikes I have always advertised locally - local paper, supermarket noticeboard and also Gumtree. I have also had success through AdTrader which has a website and newspaper.

Check completed listings to see how much they go for. Tripp Trapp chairs generally go quite well -- I sold one for about £80 a couple of years ago, pickup only.

Generally, items that are pickup only will go for a bit less than equivalent items offering shipping, so you'll have to make a judgement call ifyou can be arsed with the packaging and couriering (I don't in general). If buyers are collecting in person, make sure they pay you cash on collection rather than paypal, as you won't have proof of postage if they query it later.

Some items sell surprisingly badly on ebay, so check listings for bikes -- you may find it's not worth your while. If you think it will sell but it's more of a niche item, it may be worth doing Buy It Now rather than auction listing, for the longer listing period. I've just sold a cello this way, having failed to sell it in auction format despite having loads of watchers.

And we sold an entire garden shed the summer before last, though we had dismantled it first. If you're selling something really big, do mention the size in the listing IN BIG LETTERS with an indication of the kind of transport they might need (estate car, van, etc). And put in your listing where the item is located (obv don't give your actual address, but give an idea of what part of town you're in). Otherwise you will be bombarded with people asking you stupid questions, and run the risk of selling to a buyer who hasn't actually thought through the transport issue.

Never underestimate the doziness and stupidity of people ebay -- some are great, but some are so slow you wonder how they managed to use a computer at all. But when it works it is great.