Selling on eBay anyone?

[Fuddy1952]

Over the years I've bought lots of things on eBay, and sold some but not much stuff.
Recently I was looking at junk (and I mean junk) I had laying around the shop and decided to list it.
Now is the time to sell, probably because people are bored staying at home.
A few tips if anyone is interested: you'll need plenty of boxes, you can easily cut larger one down to size. Digital Scales are cheap.
How can you beat making room, getting rid of junk collecting dust I'll never use while making money?

 

[bunyip]

I used to until they upped the rates and included postage in their commission, it makes it an expensive way to sell now and I won't use them.
Maybe it is different there and use alternate methods such as gumtree and facebook marketplace sites.
Having said that I still buy from them but always check the sellers score before committing.

 

[/pine]

This about buying on e-bay...If your state now has an internet sales tax (regardless of the state where purchase is made) e-bay now charges the sales tax...this payment is separate and goes directly to e-bay (check your CC statements)...but e-bay refuses to send statements saying how much they have collected from buyers...there seems to be no way of keeping e-bay from skimming from "tax" funds they charge buyers...

 

[Industrial Toys]

Interesting. As a long time buyer, I keep meaning to get into the selling. Since most of the market is south of the border, it complicates things for me. Plus, I am allergic to many of their totally automated process and systems, that don't accomodate me, time and time again. Like Feedback time, expiring before I ever get Chinese shipments!

I'm actuall impressed how quickly stuff has always been shipped to me. I could see me doing it. I'll do it tomorrow, no Friday, ooops, I forgot, sorry, maybe tuesday.

 

[tallyho8]

I don't throw things away. I sell them on eBay. Usually, I am too busy in the Summer months, cutting grass, etc., to take time out to sell so I wait until winter on a cold rainy day when I have nothing else to do and write up a pile of listings. Everything from used blue jeans to that what-not I ordered and never used. There is usually someone looking for it. When I remodeled my house 2 years ago, I cleared the attic out of things I have not used in years and made about $2500.

Yes, eBay and PayPal fees might cost you as much as 20% of your sales but if I have the spare time its so much better than throwing away the junk and one man's junk is another man's treasure. I've been selling for over 21 years and sold more than 1000 items so it averages out to about 1 item a week and they are usually things under $50 so it is not a business but I have been vey satisfied with the way eBay operates and have no complaints. Before internet, an ad in the classifieds might wind up costing me a lot and then the item not even selling. At least with eBay you pay nothing unless it sells except in a couple of rare categories.

I use Craigslist when I am selling something large that would be expensive to ship or that I think will sell locally but to make the sale I have to sell it a little cheaper than I would have to on eBay.

And besides, you can sell that left handed monkey wrench on eBay but it is practically impossible to sell locally.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The selling fees can't be that bad considering the enourmous market it reaches. I have seen that trend of "buy now" becoming most prominant, whereas before it was all auction. I used to like clicking at the last seconds of an auction and getting the item.

 

[Fuddy1952]

One example. I have these Burroughs alpha-numeric vacuum tubes I got free many years ago. Saved because I thought they were interesting. I listed a few, starting at $6, no clue what they were worth, no idea if good or bad (which I explained). People were fighting over them and they went for a lot.
Years ago I met a smart guy who all he did was sell on eBay. Many years ago, claiming he was making $200+K/year.
What he did was list stuff for sale, already with sellers in place he could order from, so he didn't even have to repackage...just re-label !
Other things he bought in bulk, then resold, getting free boxes from stores.
One thing he did was weigh then list for higher postage, so he made some on shipping.

 

[TractorGuy]

I keep meaning to try it. My problem is a lot of my junk is bulky. I have 3 sets of exhaust headers boxed up and ready to ship that I never got around to listing.

I sold my mom's old Monte Carlo to a guy that claimed he was making a living selling key chains he soldered hot wheels cars to. He gave me one with the same model and color of the car I was selling him when he picked it up.

My wife's step mother lives in a retirement home where she sells stuff she doesn't even have. Her supplier drop ships everything she sells. She just sits in her room and does the computer work. Never touches a box.

 

[4570Man]

It’s a lot of hassle plus the shipping and fees is ridiculous. I sell a lot of stuff on Facebook market place.

 

[Fuddy1952]

It’s a lot of hassle plus the shipping and fees is ridiculous. I sell a lot of stuff on Facebook market place.

I don't see that, stuff I've sold. Odd things I'll have an auction, otherwise buy it now if other things like it are already there.
Shipping I make money on as well.
I'm thinking eBay reaches more people than Facebook but I could be wrong.
I'm just happy getting rid of stuff I'll never use, making room, money is secondary (but nice also).
Here's something I bet everyone has, will never use and brings money...these 70s-80s stereos, VCRs, etc.
The eBay seller I met would take pictures, box it, write size+weight+description in pencil on bottom. Sold...print a label, load in his van, off to post office.
Large heavy things you could say local pickup only.
It all goes to my PayPal account, I press the my bank account option it transfers into no charge (2-3 days to post).

 

[grsthegreat]

I sell stuff all the time on ebay. Especially after closing my business. Ive been selling off extra electrical Items and Generator parts. Sometimes i get more than i oaid, sometimes less. But its freeing up my shop space and i glad to get rid of it. Beets throwing it out.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I seem to remember someone was selling their SOUL on EBAY. Curious if that was Buy Now or Auction.

 

[GeneV]

I've sold on ebay, craiglist, offerup, and fb marketplace. By far my favorite is fb marketplace, my least favorite is ebay.

 

[Ford850]

I've looked into setting up a selling account on ebay a few times, but each time I backed out after it seemed like too much work to sell a few things. What is really required, as a minimum, to set up and start selling on ebay?

 

[GeneV]

I've looked into setting up a selling account on ebay a few times, but each time I backed out after it seemed like too much work to sell a few things. What is really required, as a minimum, to set up and start selling on ebay?

You just need to set up an ebay and paypal account, they make it easy to do all that, you'll figure it out.

As far as selling, just know that ebay will charge you around 10% (+/- depending what you're selling) of your sale price, paypal another 3% for domestic sales (5% intl). Plus, don't believe ebay's estimated ship rate, I always get burned by a few bucks that way.

 

[JamesHW]

Haven’t sold anything recently but found a extremely rare book (1914 - family history related) that I had been searching for decades. It was a bit more than I wanted to pay for it so I hesitated and on a whim checked ABE.com and sure enough it was listed for $50 less than the buy it now price on eBay. Likely could have gotten it for less by bidding, but decided to splurge considering I had been looking so long. People sell CDs and PDF of the book based on National Archive photocopies, but the many photos reproduced in the book are inferior photocopies.