BlogsToDieFor

A little over two years ago I began selling used retail clothing and electronics on eBay. At the time I knew little about the buying or selling world of online auctions. I first started out selling gently used Abercrombie & Fitch clothing to free up closet space.

Did I really need to know that much about eBay to sell a few pieces of clothing? come to find out…YES!

My idea to list a few pairs of A&F jeans on eBay didn’t turn out so great. A $200 pair of Ezra Fitch jeans sold to a buyer for less than $25! That wasn’t the profit I was looking to make.

Over the next two years I watched “Top Sellers” and others in my market to figure out how to draw in traffic, sell quick, and receive positive feedback from my buyers.

The following is my guide on: “How To Effectively Sell On eBay”

1. Do some background work- In recent months I decided to list some very pricey “Rock & Republic” men’s jeans on eBay. My first order of business was checking out what other sellers were offering in terms of quality and price. Check the competition, are they selling a product similar? Are there any differences in the item you are offering? Also remember to check out what other sellers list their ”shipping costs” as. You do not want to scare potential customers off with high shipping dues so make sure to check out either USPS.com or UPS.com for shipping rates.

2. Gather your information – One of the most important parts of setting up your “items description” is gathering the correct information to include for bidders. 9 times out of 10 you will receive a message from a buyer interested in more details than the ones you have provided. Start off by writing down a detailed list of the product you are listing. For example —- color, model, serial number, make, condition, size, flaws, retail price, etc.     * Be specific so you won’t end up having to repeat yourself over and over to pushy bidders!

3. Be specific! - As stated above it is very important to provide your bidders with detailed information about the product or service you are selling. When you fill out the “description” be sure to fill out each specified criteria, this will allow bidders to understand exactly what it is that they are looking at, or if maybe this wasn’t the product they were necessarily looking for. And remember, it would be very wise of you to take photos of what your selling. With each item that I list on Ebay I always remember to include photos of what I am offering. When I talked about “pushy people”, this is usually the one area in which buyers do not let you slide. Buyers want to see photos of what they are looking to purchase, including photos of any problems or flaws that the product might have.

* Please remember, when you are filling out your “description” there is an option to select from called “Gallery Plus”, this option enables you to include a thumbnail photo with your items description once your item is indexed in the eBay search engine. This small thumbnail can be clicked to view larger photos of the items that you are selling. From personal experience this really makes a difference with buyers because generally when they search the eBay listings, they tend to skip over results that do not include a photo of the item being offered. If you haven’t already realized, almost all sellers include the “Gallery Plus” option so don’t miss out! Gallery Plus is an additional $0.35 so don’t forgo this great tool! Read the rest of this entry »