My 12 tips for selling on eBay are designed to help you make as much money as possible. It’s all too easy to make what many would consider a minor mistake that could end up taking a heavy toll on your profits.
Although my list is compiled with the home-based business person in mind, they apply equally if you’re just cleaning out unwanted items around your home.
12 tips for selling on eBay
- Always try to start your eBay career by selling personal items that are superfluous to the requirements. You will quickly learn to take and upload photos, compose titles and write good descriptions.
- Branded items always sell better than unbranded items. ‘Sony 50” TV’ is more powerful than just ’50’ TV’
- Getting the title right is absolutely vital and could mean your item sells instead of the competition. Don’t waste characters on words that no one will search for. People rarely put model numbers or adjectives like nice, pretty, comfortable, etc. But include product-related keywords if you have the space.
- Your description must be complete. Please include everything you would like to see there, including colors, dimensions, weight, etc. Be honest and use the spell checker.
- Find out why you should sell it by completing the eBay search box with your item description, then click ‘finished items’ in the left sidebar to find out why they sold.
- If you need to save space in the title bar, there are abbreviations that are commonly used on eBay. BN: New, BNWT: New with tags, BNIB: New in Box, BIN: Buy It Now, and VGC: Very Good Condition. Use them only if absolutely necessary.
- Be careful with auction end times. You don’t want them to end in the middle of the night. This sometimes happens when trading in a country other than your own.
- It may seem obvious, but don’t sell things out of season, barbecues in December, it happens!
- eBay sometimes has ‘free listing’ weekends, be careful with this.
- I cannot advise on taxes, but please remember that if you are running an eBay business, you should seek professional advice.
- Feedback is everything. Do everything you can to protect it by providing outstanding service. If a refund is needed, please do so promptly and in good faith.
- Advertising free delivery is a powerful marketing tool.
I hope you find my tips for selling on eBay helpful, there are many more, but if you get all of the above right, you’ll be well on your way to becoming the next eBay power seller!