Question About Ebay

[Davyjones]

Hi gang,

I was just wondering how difficult it is to start selling stuff on Ebay. Have any of you sold anything, and if so, have you had any problems? Have you heard of any problems from friends? I need to sell some, okay, a lot of my old sports jerseys, and instead of giving them to Goodwill, as my wife suggested, I would like to try to sell them on Ebay.

Any input is greatly appreciated!

[mickey&missy]

I've sold quite a bit of stuff on ebay. Things I've made and things I didn't need anymore, like maternity clothes. Make sure you note in the item description when you expect to be paid, shipping etc. Take a look at other items similar to the items you want to sell to get an idea of price and also look at a few descriptions to see what other sellers general say in their description.

I've only ever had a good experience selling on Ebay. I hope you have the same experience!

[merlinmagic4]

It's easy once you get started. I have sold many, many things and do pretty well!

Remember your title is everything. Think of all the words a person would use to search for your item and try to get them into the title (i.e. New England Patriots Football Jersey Size L Large Brady 12). That way someone searching for New England Patriots, Brady, football jersey, L or large, etc. will find your item. Take a good picture and try to describe as accurately as possible the condition of the jersey. Buyers don't like to be surprised by stains or tears that they weren't aware of.

Starting at a lower price encourages bids but don't start lower than you are willing to take because sometimes you do only get one bid (although I have no experience with sports jerseys).

Your shipping needs to be fair to get more bidders. I tend to calculate the shipping based on weight. You can enter the weight of the item when you do your listing. Most sellers add a small handling fee (1-2 dollars) to cover fees and any packing supplies.

You can get priority mail packaging free (the tyvek envelopes would work really well for jerseys) from the post office but make sure you enter priority mail as your shipping method when you do your listing.

Good luck!! Any other questions?

[Davyjones]

It's easy once you get started. I have sold many, many things and do pretty well!

Remember your title is everything. Think of all the words a person would use to search for your item and try to get them into the title (i.e. New England Patriots Football Jersey Size L Large Brady 12). That way someone searching for New England Patriots, Brady, football jersey, L or large, etc. will find your item. Take a good picture and try to describe as accurately as possible the condition of the jersey. Buyers don't like to be surprised by stains or tears that they weren't aware of.

Starting at a lower price encourages bids but don't start lower than you are willing to take because sometimes you do only get one bid (although I have no experience with sports jerseys).

Your shipping needs to be fair to get more bidders. I tend to calculate the shipping based on weight. You can enter the weight of the item when you do your listing. Most sellers add a small handling fee (1-2 dollars) to cover fees and any packing supplies.

You can get priority mail packaging free (the tyvek envelopes would work really well for jerseys) from the post office but make sure you enter priority mail as your shipping method when you do your listing.

Good luck!! Any other questions?

I've heard that I might have problems with buyers not trusting me because I am new and do not have any feedback ratings. Did you find that to be true? How much does Ebay take from your sale? If I have an account with Paypal but have only bought things using it, can I also use it to receive payments?

Thanks!!!!!

[BigRedDad]

Starting with eBay is not too difficult. You may want to buy a few things to get your rating up to about 5-10 before selling. The good news is that you and the buyer are protected if you use PayPal. The downfall to PayPal are the fees. Between the seller and PayPal fees, you can pay over 10% for your items. It gets insanely excessive now.

[pixiesmimi]

There have been a lot of changes to the rules on EBay lately and that will go into effect in October so it would be best to go to the boards on EBay and read as much as you can about how to do it and all the rules. Of course, they are going to try to get you to use their services as much as possible for pictures and templates, etc. but if you plan to sell more than just one or two things, I would find an outside picture host (I use Sellersourcebook) for your pictures and to do your templates and listings. To begin with, you don't need this though. Unfortunately, one of the new rules is that you HAVE to use Paypal only now because they no longer will let you accept checks or moneyorders, which in my opinion, is ridiculous. It has gotten more and more complicated since Meg Whitman left the company as CEO but I have been selling on EBay for a long time and have a store on there. I have always done well on there. Be sure and take good pictures to post because most people will not even look at your auction without pictures. But research, research, research before putting your auction on, as stated previously. The lower the price you start the auction, the less the fees will be but, like said before, never start it lower than what you are willing to take. Those who start theirs at .99 do so if they are selling something they know will be popular and will have bidding wars for. And it is a good idea to get your feedbacks up by buying some things first (maybe packing supplies, etc.) before listing just for the insurance that more people will look at it. Good luck and go for it!

[Davyjones]

So feedback ratings from when you buy things also count for you when you are selling things?

[Wells]

What are the tax implications of selling (and hopefully profiting) on E-bay. I mean like income tax, not sales tax........

[Hull-onian]

Be honest about your description to the best of your ability. Everyone who is on E-bay is like you and me. On occasion, you will get some one who is persnickity. All my feedbacks have been positive. I have even had to refund money on some items. Items that I sent with a delivery of confirmation receipt, the people would tell me that they did not receive the item. It only happened once. So rather than try to go through the post office, I just said, "Forget it". I do insure most of my items if breakable. All in all, it has been a good experience for us. We have two accounts set up, and do nicely. Make sure you take good photos and use a photo tent. It really helps. We do accept paypal and money orders as well.

[lebo]

I have sold quite a bit of items. Once Earnhardt passed we ended up selling our entire Nascar Collection, and one thing that I would recommend, is to pay the extra money to track the package. I found this out when someone told me that they did not get something and they actually did. So if you got the proof that's their problem!!!!!!

[pixiesmimi]

We do accept paypal and money orders as well.

After the 10th of this month, I think that is the right date, you will no longer be able to take any form of payment except PayPal. You have to change all of your auctions to reflect this or they will take them off. That is so Ebay (who owns PayPal now, I think) will get all the fees instead of people getting around them by accepting checks and money orders. I don't like that but there isn't anything we can do except complain. They have been known to change their policies after a lot of people complain.