A couple of years ago, I tried making money on eBay by buying clothing in bulk at cheap prices and then “flipping” that clothing on eBay. I probably made a couple hundred dollars this way, and then I got too busy to pursue it anymore.
One of the bathing suits I'm selling on eBay
Recently, though, we had the opportunity to buy a box of bathing suits at a wholesale price, which we figured we could recoup by selling on eBay. (We were also able to dress our daughters in brand-new bathing suits, which was a real cost saver right then and there. For the amount we would have spent for almost two bathing suits at retail, they got two new bathing suits each.) In addition, my daughters recently cleaned out their closets and provided some tween-friendly clothing worth selling on eBay.
Which is why I decided to dedicate today’s blog posting to tips I’ve found to be helpful for making the most money when selling on eBay.
- Always search completed transactions before posting anything. You can do this kind of search using the “advanced search” tool. Not only does this allow you to see what similar items actually sold for, but also it gives you a good sense of where to start your bidding and in which category to post your item so shoppers will actually find it.
- Make sure that if you’re selling used clothing, they are freshly laundered. No one wants a foul-smelling bargain, even if it is at a good price. If you expect people to bid on your used clothes, note that they’ve just been washed. It can’t hurt. Also, when you end up shipping the goods, you know you won’t get negative feedback because the clothes smelled dirty.
- Be as descriptive as possible in your listing. I talk about sizes, brands, colors, any sayings on shirts, if a bathing suit has padded cups or lined bottoms or whatever it takes so that a potential bidder feels that he or she is well informed about my item.
- Pictures really are worth 1,000 words. On eBay they are a must. Bidders tend to pass by any listings without pictures. Just as the descriptions above will inform someone about your item, the pictures will let that person actually see it, too. And that’s important in an auction scenario.
- Give yourself some wiggle room with shipping. I don’t believe in over charging for shipping but don’t rip yourself off either. Too many times I’ve miscalculated the shipping weight on an item I was selling, and then any profit I may have pocketed on the sale I ended up spending on shipping because of my mistake.
Do you have additional tips for successfully selling on eBay?
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I am by no means an expert but these are additional thoughts I’ve had in the “charity vs garage sale vs consigment vs craigslist vs ebay”….
1 – if you haven’t done a lot of Ebay, realize that doing the sold-item search (which I agree is vital) you may not make that much money if people don’t trust you. Sometimes you may see two items, one sold for quite a bit and another didn’t sell at ALL. Seems confusing until you see the sold seller has 1,000 buys/sales and the second seller has only sold two things.
2 – The more particular, the better Ebay is. I think of it like: how many women, right now in the next 7 days, who wear a size 10, are in need of this particularly style of expensive, barely used shoe? You want the highest VOLUME of eyeballs… Ebay.
3 – I have been completely unashamed when selling things on Ebay or on half.com to say “I’m a stay at home home” as in if you’re going to throw your money somewhere, give it to the mom, not the big corporation. Hey, can’t hurt =)
4 – I also explain why I’m selling something if there could be a question on it – movies in the wrapping or other items someone may not trust you on. I think it makes more sense for people if you say “I was going to work out but my pregnancy killed me so I’m selling this Yoga for Pregnant women videos so someone else can enjoy it. Brand new, never opened.” Maybe that’s just me being reverse-nosey but I always want to know why someone is selling something.
Good points, Elizabeth. When my kids were into selling their toys on eBay–and I was writing the listings for them–we always talked about how they’d grown out of these loved toys and so on. They made quite a bit of money, by the way.
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