How does one start selling on eBay?

I’ve looked through eBay. The suits aren’t worth it, but I think the shoes are. They were very expensive. How do I start?

It is easy peasey.
Take several good pictures of each item. The phone app is the best place to start a selling listing so you can get your photos in. I then go to my PC and update all the details in a browser.
You can have the buyer pay the postage. The app walks you through various shipper options and pricing options. When you get a buyer and accept you can then print out the shipping label all prepaid that comes out of the buyers funds and give it to you mail carrier or the shipper of choice.

Key things here are set your price and don’t do auction. Know what you want for it and set the minimum bid. Most people try to ask a lower price at the minimum, but you can counter offer or deny. Read the reviews of the potential buyers.
Never ship the item until the buyer pays for it.
Ship it promptly and you will get a reputable score.

I did it when my daughter was in private school and I sold her school books which were previously purchased at the schools used book sale. (Selling them at the used book sale was ridiculously low price.

DM me if you have any questions. Good Luck

The thing that made me decide to stop selling on eBay is the requirement to link my checking account with my eBay account. I’m banned from selling but they allow me to buy stuff now (for a while I was completely band from selling or buying). I was thinking about setting up a checking account just for eBay with minimal fund in it. But decided it’s not worth the bother.

I always offered free shipping. Everyone loves that. Also satisfaction quarantined. Money back if not satisfied.

Good idea not to ship until paid. Got cheated that way a couple times. I’m far too trusting. I actually couldn’t comprehend that some people would receive my stuff and then refuse to pay. One guy kept telling me that he sent the check. I realized that he was playing a sick game with me. Creeped me out.

Sellers have screwed me too. And had the gall to write a retaliatory negative response about me.

There’s plenty of problems with craigslist. But at least you don’t have to ship items or pay tax when you buy something.

Good luck to you.

@Forever_Free @gondwanalon Thank you very much. I will not link my checking account, so eBay is out. I really appreciate the very good answers. I’ve tried to sell the shoes on Craigslist, but the market for dress shoes in Hawaii is just too small.

There’s really only one pair of shoes that I think are worth anything large. I’ll ask my daughter in NYC if she’s willing to take them to a consignment shop there.

I’m going to donate all the rest.

You may try FB marketplace. I sell stuff all the time there. I sell on Ebay but use Paypal, I have not used it in a long time because marketplace is better because it’s local, all the money goes to you and there is less chance of fraud. Craigslist is a fraud cesspool.

My brother buys and sells used Apple computers; he repairs them and uses FB Marketplace but all contacts are “Local” maybe 50 miles. He lives south of Boston, MA.

This might give you ideas:

https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/best-websites-for-selling-your-stuff/

I think POSHmark is pretty good, especially for quality items. It seems so from their commercials anyway.

@all

My daughter said she’s delighted to take items to a consignment shop. It’s settled.

This is by far the simplest solution. I’m going to donate most things that aren’t worth the postage to mail across the globe and send her just a few things that are possibly of decent value.

Solution is what works for you !

I was going to sell stuff on Ebay about two years ago. I got the idea that since I have all this stuff in my house that I really can get rid of, I’d sell it on Ebay.

First you have to have a PayPal account, so set that up if you don’t already have one. Then think of a name for your business and set up a profile on Ebay. You have to connect the PayPal account to it. I made business cards on VistaPrint. I was debating whether to have return address labels with my real name or the business name.

The shipping is tracked, so the buyer can check at any time and see where their item is.

I put some things up on the site and then decided I didn’t want to do it. The thought of having to go to the PO within two days to mail something was the deterrent for me, just like it was for you, @Hawaii_Jake.

I heard that with their algorithm, the more you post and sell, the higher up your profile moves in your category.

A friend sells a lot successfully on Ebay but he has a business (unrelated business) and so UPS or whoever he uses for shipping is stopping by his workplace every day and for him it’s no extra effort. He’s got scales and labeling machines and all kinds of stuff readily available, whereas for me, I don’t have that stuff and I really don’t have room in my house for it.

Easier to sell on a buy sell trade site on FB.

Been selling and buying on Ebay for two decades now. They take a cut from my sale. The cut seems big to me.

I stay on because Ebay was the only place I get to sell things online. I tried Facebook and just had one sale.

Buyers like me tend to trust Ebay sellers with 100 percent positive rating. Lots of them there.

And I feel you can find almost anything at that website. Things I like to collect. Cheaper too.

For example, in a Swarovski store a certain collectible is 750 bucks but on Ebay it sells for 550.

I rarely make profit. Sometimes I break even. Most of the time I take a loss but what’s really more important to me is to be able to unload the item.

Selling via Facebook
No fee
No shipping
You can meet the buyer
They can try it on

What @mazingerz88 said, plus

To build up my positive feedback I bought small items and emailed the sellers, “Thanks for the great service, I gave you a positive rating, it would be much appreciated if you did that for me” with a link to the feedback pate.