eBay fails.

ebay fails.
Okay, so I wanted to do a post on eBay…which there will be more to come of in the future…

I have to date, over about a year and a half, sold 60 items, worked my way up to 100% feedback, and made just about 1,000 dollars. Not too shabby considering I do it in my free time, and for fun-it really is my hobby…

What I really want to talk about right now are ebay fails, and ebay successes. If anyone thinks they will be a pro at ebay right off the bat, unfortunately you’re probably wrong. I’ve sold enough things now to know what the drill is, and how it works, but I am definitely still learning.

I’ve sold many things that sold for way more then I thought, then I sold things for way less than HALF of what I even paid for it….so it just depends. My knowledge on products and selling grows day-to-day, and that’s kind of what you have to do for yourself.

ebay might look intimidating to people, but in actuality, it is very user friendly to use. You also have to be realistic, and if you’re expecting bidders to go over and beyond for you, you should as well, that means taking the extra time to:

•Take nice photos
•Answer all questions about the item up for auction in a timely manner
•Package nice and neat, and ship in a timely manner
It may sound like common sense, but alot of people sell it and are done, and sometimes forget people can still leave you negative feedback…

The main fact of the matter is this, just because you have (what you think) is an amazing product or piece of junk you want to sell on ebay does not mean you will cash out. It depends on so many different things. Do your research! :)

Go searching around ebay itself…see what’s selling, view its number of bids, how many bidders, the shipping costs, the companies feedback, other items, and google special ebay tools that help track demographics that you can use for your own personal ebay market research.

It’s really not that hard, and as with everything-it’s not completely free, there are insertion fees, gallery fees, and listing fees, but most of the time they don’t go over a couple of bucks, if not under $1 if you start your bids at a low price…however, alot of people forget these days, in order to make money, you have to spend some!

All you need is a paypal account, and you’re good to go…so get ebaying and email me about how you’re making tons of money :)

Above all don’t get discouraged, learn from your mistakes. And if something doesn’t sell right away, take a look at what could be changed and try it again. If you end up having too many problems, don’t worry too much..it happens. You can always use craigslist as your backup, or put it in your next garage sale.

I hope this helps ;)

Until next time, fellow financial swaggers

Lita