How to Sell Stuff on Ebay for Beginners

there's a lot of people that sell stuff on eBay but to be honest most of the listings totally suck because the sellers are missing out on the most money that they can get because they're not optimizing their listings correctly so in this video I'm gonna teach you my five steps on how to sell stuff on eBay so that you can get the most money from your listings even if you're a beginner and if you stick around to the end I've got a cool little bonus tip that'll teach you how to get more feedback from your buyers so just stick around and you'll find out how you know I've sold stuff on eBay for about five years now so that doesn't make me an eBay guru by any means but I can say that I am an expert when it comes to selling normal items to normal people because overall I've sold hundreds of items on eBay just as a normal seller so I dunno what I'm talking about so whether you're a beginner if you've done eBay for a while I want you to watch this video because I'm gonna teach you how to optimize your listings so that you can make the most money you can on eBay now if you just stumbled across this channel I'm Jason with honest finance and I make a lot of videos on different topics that'll give your life and your finances more value so if you are interested in this type of content feel free to subscribe or atleast give this video a like and now on to optimizing your eBay listings now I'm gonna break up a base selling into five different parts so that you can follow along I've broken it down into research title and description the photography the selling format and then the shipping and I'm gonna teach you how to optimize all of these different areas so pay attention and we'll start with the first one which is your research now I don't need to elaborate much here but you do need to do a little bit of research before you decide to list an item you need to get an idea of what the items selling for so that you can tell if it's even worth listing the item a few months ago I found a Marilyn Monroe doll in its original box so I instantly thought that it was gonna be worth a ton on eBay well I quickly did some research and found out that it was only worth like 15 to 30 bucks so in my opinion that really wasn't worth very much at all I mean 30 bucks is just easy cash but you've still got to understand that it takes time to list an item and eBay is still gonna charge their fees so just do a little bit of research before you list an item that way you can actually tell if it's worth it or not as a general rule if I'm listing stuff on their own I'm only gonna do that if they're worth about $40 or more because then it's worth it to me and if they're worth less than the 40 bucks then I'll just wait till I have a bunch of that kind of stuff so that I can group them all together or I'll just wait until I can um at the same time so for instance if you've got a bunch of DVDs that aren't worth very much money then it's probably better to just group those together and sell them as one listing and if you're batching stuff that just means that you're gonna list a bunch of different separate things at the same time so that your time management is a lot more efficient batching items will also make shipping a lot easier too because if you run them all as auctions then they're gonna end at the same time therefore they're gonna ship at the same time now once you've done your research and you know for sure that you want to sell the item then it's time to work on my next step which is the title and the description this is really easy to do but I still need you to pay attention because I feel like there's a lot of listings on eBay where people do not follow any of these rules I'm gonna be using this older Apple watch 1 as an example so that you guys can make sense of what I'm talking about if it were me I'd listed as an Apple watch series 1 42 millimeter sport in space gray that's in fair condition so why exactly did I title it like this well I titled it on purpose like that because you want the viewers to know exactly what they're buying before they actually have to click on the item I mean think of it like this if you were looking for a TV wouldn't you want to know the size of the TV before you had to click on it to find out if you're looking for something on eBay it just sucks to have to guess what certain specs are because the last thing you want to do is to go into the description only to find out that it's not even the size that you wanted in the first place trust me you'll get a lot more bids and traffic on the item as long as you title it with the specs that are important now you can also list the specs and all that kind of stuff inside of eBay and I would recommend doing that because that way if the buyers using a filter then he can find your stuff as well and that's just because the more information you have in your listing the easier it is for eBay to serve it to those people that are looking for it now as far as the description goes you're gonna want to put your title in that again and then you're gonna want to give an honest description of the condition that the items in I'd say something like it's a used Apple watch with plenty of scratches from normal use but it works just fine you can elaborate as much as you'd like about the item but just make sure that you're being honest about it and tell it like it is and I'd also list exactly what's going to be shipping to the customer so that they know what they're going to be getting so in the case with the Apple watch I just tell them that I have a charger but I don't have a box and that's exactly what's gonna be shipping the watch and the charger and then if you do have the serial number I'd write that in the description as well that way you can protect yourself and the buyer from any scams if you want to add in the description from the manufacturer go ahead and do that but just make sure it's from the manufacturer and not a reseller so if you were selling a GoPro you can't just hop onto Cabela's website and steal their copy you have to make sure to go to GoPros website that way you get the correct copy that you can use on your eBay description now on to the photography which is so easy but I feel like a lot of beginners on eBay don't do this right now you don't need to be a fancy photographer to sell stuff on eBay but you've just got to make sure that your photos aren't underexposed and that they're not blurry either basically your photos just need to show everything that's going to be shipping to the customer without a distracting background just remember that a lot of the stuff we buy on eBay is used so you don't want to get the vibe like the jacket you're buying was used on a farm all because the photo was taken on a bale of hay just make sure to take all of your photos on a white or a neutral background and then give it enough light so that everybody can see what you're trying to sell you also need to take pictures of every single angle of the item that way the buyer can see exactly what's on each side if that matters to them now once you've taken all the photos that you need for the item just make sure to take a picture of the serial number if you can find it because that's gonna protect you against scams because trust me it's a lot harder to get scammed on eBay when you have authenticity proof in your photos and your description because if you bought my Apple watch and then you sent me back a broken one I'd have proof that you were full of crap because the serial numbers wouldn't match and buyers also like to see the serial numbers too because that way they can check the date when it was manufactured and all that kind of stuff eBay has both a cropping feature and an exposure feature so feel free to use those if you're not too savvy with Photoshop now I'm a professional studio photographer and I will tell you right now the eBay does not care about fancy photos for the type of stuff that we're selling you actually want to leave the images pretty candid on purpose because if you take too nice of a photo people are gonna think that you stole them and that they're not the real images here's what my main photo would look like and just make sure to crop it in as tight as you can because what you're selling should take up all the space and the photos the buyers just want to know exactly what they're looking at and that is it so just remember to take the photos on a white or a neutral background make sure the exposure is good and make sure that they're not blurry and then crop in the image as tight as you can and that is all you have to worry about and make sure not to fix anything in Photoshop because you're selling a used item so you need to show it in as is condition so that you're not lying to anyone and now one of the selling format which is really not that complicated if you just take this advice there's basically two ways that you can sell your stuff any of it because you've got to buy it now and you've got the auction and they're both really good in their own ways but if you want to get the most money that you possibly can from your listings then you're gonna want to do a seven-day auction because statistically that one's gonna get you the most cash and just for kicks I want to know which format you guys prefer to sell with so just answer the question right here or go ahead and comment down below now if you're in a hurry to sell your stuff then I would use the Buy It Now option but if you want to make the most money then I would run the seven-day auction which is what I'm gonna be talking about plus the good thing about running an auction is that if you list a bunch of different items they're all gonna end at the same time which if you have a Buy It Now you have no idea when they're gonna be selling and now here's the important stuff about running an auction so pay attention if you want your listing to get the most money and the most bids then you're gonna want to list the item for a dollar with no reserve and trust me because this strategy does work but only if the item is going to get bids so if the Apple watch for an example I know that that's gonna get the bids that I need so I would 100% list that at $1 with no reserve because if you end up with zero bidders because your starting price is too high or you've got way too ridiculous of a reserve price then that means that nobody is gonna get notifications from eBay you've got to understand the eBay gives automatic notifications to all of your bidders and watcher so you've got to have as many of those as you can to get all of those notifications out because how in the world are you gonna end up having a bidding war if you only have one bidder on your item trust me you want a bay to send out those notifications to the bidders and the Watchers because that's free advertising for you so like I said before if you want to get as many bids as you can and you want to make the most money on your item then start it at a buck and don't have a reserve now if you'll admit leafy like the item you're selling is not gonna get very many bids and it's not gonna get very much traffic then I would just start it at a fair price that you're willing to settle with if that's all it sells for so basically if you end up with only one bidder on the item then at least you'll get paid something because I actually had to sell a few items for just a buck because they only got one bid and that totally sucked because they were worth a lot more than that so what I'm trying to say here is that if you list an item for $1 just make sure it's gonna get enough traffic and if it doesn't just list it for a price that you'd be willing to settle for now if you want to get the best results on your auction then you're gonna want to be listing your auction on Sundays between 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. across the entire United States I live in Utah so I always list my stuff at 7 o'clock that way in California at 6 and then New York it's 9 o'clock so it makes it even now the reason Sunday night is the perfect time to start your auctions is because it's gonna end the next Sunday night which is statistically the time when the most people are on eBay because think of it like this if you've got a pair of shoes on eBay that's gonna end at 3 a.m. then nobody's gonna be bidding on those shoes because most of the people that actually want them are probably asleep and now under shipping which is so simple but I still need you to pay attention and if you guys have made it this far under the video could you please give it a like because that's gonna help me out tremendously thanks now when it comes to shipping stuff on eBay all you've got to do is have a fixed rate and then have it go economy now the reason you want to go with a fixed rate shipping fee is because that way the buyers know exactly how much they're gonna be paying and shipping nobody likes to guess how much they're gonna have to pay for shipping so just stick with a fixed rate fee and it makes it easier for everyone and the cool thing about using the economy shipping is because you can go with any carrier that you prefer using so that way if FedEx ended up being cheaper than UPS then you could just choose them instead also I've done some testing on running items for free shipping and I am not convinced at all that it's any good for normal sellers like us I've just found that running free shipping on your items just means that you're leaving money on the table because most people are willing to just pay a reasonable amount for shipping so all you're gonna want to do is just charge a fixed rate amount that's gonna be easy to go anywhere in the country because on eBay you have no idea where the buyers gonna live when you actually ship it so you just have to have a fee that's gonna be fair for anywhere in the country sometimes you'll make some money when you ship stuff and other times you won't but the goal here is that you're just close now you can get shipping prices from eBay by giving them dimensions and weight and stuff like that but overall it's just gonna take a little bit of practice to know how much to charge now the next thing about shipping is that you're gonna want to put the item in the smallest box possible but still keep it safe for the item because you're gonna be charged by size and weight so just make sure to keep it as small as you can and also if you buy a lot of stuff online I keep those boxes and shipping materials because you can use those on eBay and that's gonna save you a lot of money eBay does a great job at providing boxes and shipping materials and stuff like that if you want to buy them on your own but if you've already got boxes at your house because you've ordered stuff online then just use those instead because it's a lot cheaper because at the end of the day eBay is gonna charge you about thirteen percent and fees so you're gonna want to keep things as cheap as you can so that you can make the most money now here's the bonus tip on how to get more feedback from your buyers and it is so easy all you have to do is put a physical note inside the box asking them to give you some feedback just say something like hey I'm new on eBay and I could use some feedback if you had a good experience with me and if you didn't just try to resolve it with me first trust me leaving a note in the box is so much better than trying to get a hold of them online because it's real so try this out and I guarantee you're gonna get more feedback from your buyers and it's so easy to do once again I'm Jason with honest finance and I make a lot of videos on different topics that'll give your life and your finances more value so feel free to subscribe if you want to or at least give this video like that's all

Channel: Honest Finance

Views: 1,431,413

Keywords: honest finance, financial advice, how to sell stuff on ebay for beginners, how to sell on ebay, how to sell on ebay 2018, ebay selling formats, ebay shipping, ebay auction, ebay selling explained, ebay for beginners, ebay autions explained, how to sell things on ebay, how to sell items on ebay, selling on ebay, how to sell on ebay for beginners, ebay selling on phone, ebay selling on mobile, mobile ebay selling, desktop ebay selling, ebay auctions

Id: XWHcCfl_m2U

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 05 2018