ComputerSUKI’s eBay Selling Guide
August 10th 2009 – Adam Bauman

 

It’s amazing at how much sellable junk the average person has lying around, with services such as eBay and Craigslist it becomes fairly simple to turn some of this into cash. The basics of selling on eBay are pretty simple, this guide should provide some simple insights on the common options and we’ll try to mention the common pitfalls as we go. To be successful you’ll need to have a proper eBay and PayPal account, both accounts must be verified in order to sell but the verification process is pretty simple and you’ll be guided through it during account creation.

 

The auction process begins far from the eBay website, one of the two most important things you can do to boost the popularity of your auction is to give the item a good cleaning and take a couple of quality pictures that give potential buyers a good idea of what they’re purchasing. The cleaning process varies from item to item, the most important thing is that you get all the gunk out of the nooks and crannies and remove any imperfections you can through simple polishing. Be careful while cleaning, use clean cotton clothes dampened by nothing more abrasive than soap and water and turn them regularly to avoid scratching the item’s surface with dust and dirt the cloth has picked up while cleaning. If your item has a LCD screen you may want to consider purchasing an inexpensive (typically ~$10) screen cleaning kit which should include a spray bottle and a microfiber cloth. Follow the directions included with the kit and you should be able to avoid scratching up the screen while removing dust and fingerprints.

The pictures are a little more complicated, you want to make sure your lighting is sufficient to pick up on the item’s details and you want to avoid messy, cluttered backgrounds. For small items I like to use the top of my desk or even my floors for pictures, just make sure the surface is clean and all clutter is removed. For larger items I’ll typically place them on the floor and cover the background with a cheap black blanket so the item isn’t lost in the background. Take pictures from multiple angles and try to get some close-ups of any special features the item has (such as a special design, a unique label or sticker, etc.) as well as any major defects. The latter is very important because truth in listing ensures that you don’t piss off any buyers and maintain a good reputation. There are far more tricks to photographing your items for auction, I won’t list them here but you check the stubs to the right to find a compilation of basic photography resources I’ve put together.

Here’s a huge auction fee saving tip, pick a few pictures that really show the item off (I rarely go over three pictures unless it’s a really intricate and/or expensive item) and upload them to a photo sharing service such as Flickr. If the item comes with any accessories or essential equipment (like a camera with it’s charger and lens caps for example) make sure to include a picture with the contents of the entire package shown. Once you upload your pictures (you’ll have to go through creating an account if you don’t already have one) you’ll need to open the images one-by-one, click on the “All Sizes” button, then Right-click on the “Download Large Image” link and choose the “Copy Link Address” option. Open up trusty old Notepad and paste the URLs for each image. Save the file because we’ll need it a little later. If you choose to use a service other than Flickr you’ll need to ensure that you can link remotely to the images.

 

With the preperation of the auction complete we can move on to doing some pricing research. The series of images below should guide you through the process, if the image doesn’t have anything written within check the caption below it.

1. Initiate an advanced search

2. Enter our search parameters

3. Narrow it down a bit

4. Further refinement

 

This is one of the harder parts of the process, we need to sift through the results and figure out how we want to price our item. This takes a bit of practice, but what you usually want to do is find a few auctions that offer items very similiar to yours that are a close match in specifications and included items. Take a look at how much these items sold for, how long they were offered for and under which circumstances they were sold (highest bid, Buy It Now, Best Offer, etc.) Scribble down these details from a few auctions and use that data to determine how much you want to get for the item and how you want to list it. If you performed a good clean-up, took some top-notch pictures and your item’s condition compares favorably I would lean towards the higher end of the pricing spectrum.

Let’s continue on and create an actual listing.

 

1. Hit the Sell button	2. Sign in, than hit the Start Selling button	3. Enter some item information	4. Select a category
5. Select product information if desired/available	6. Cleaning up some clutter	7. Entering title, subtitle and condition	8. Add your listing's main picture

 

Let’s stop here because the description is another one of those vital components in a succesful auction. It’s here that you’re going to let potential buyers known exactly what you’re offering up for auction and what condition it’s in. You have a couple of options here, you can use the plain-Jane default template, pay 10 cents for a fancy designer template, or you can get crafty and create your very own HTML template. I prefer the last option and create a large number of auctions so the time it took to create a custom template was well spent. No matter which way you go the description needs to be accurate and honest. List every last piece that will be included with the item (in this case I listed “Nintendo DS (Electric Blue, NTR-001) with stylus and charger (NTR-002)”) and the condition of the item (our DS was in “perfect working order, screens are in excellent condition but there are a few minor scratches on the unit’s exterior from normal use.”) If there are any problems with the item or any major imperfections you MUST list them, don’t dick around with your buyers.

Remember those images we uploaded to Flickr and their URLs? We’re going to use those in our description since eBay charges an additional 15 cents for every additional image past the first. Place the images in your description is dead simple, just add <img src=”theurlofyourimage”> where you want your image to appear. If you don’t see the images when you hit the preview button make sure you have the URL correct and try hitting the “HTML” tab to switch to straight HTML editing mode. Use the preview link at the bottom of the description window regularly to make sure everything looks proper.

 

9. Entering your description

10. Optional listing designer

10-1. Traditional Online Auction options

10-2. Fixed price listing options

As you can see eBay offers a variety of ways to sell an item with a wide variety of listing fees. What works for me might not work for you and the options usually change with every item. My best advice would be to try a few different options and see what works best for you. I’ve found myself using Fixed Price listings far more often than traditional auctions because they’re very easy to setup and you have a solid idea of how much your item is going to net. As a buyer I also prefer purchasing from sellers that offer a Buy It Now option, you may pay a little more than you would in a straight auction but you get the item much faster and don’t have to worry about getting sniped (out-bid at the last minute.) Whatever option you choose make sure to triple-check your settings so you don’t end up selling Grandma’s $1,000 wardrobe for $10 because you didn’t set a reserve or botched the starting price.

If you do set a reserve on an item you stand a much better chance of buyers hitting it if you list it in your item’s description. A fair amount of research has been done that suggests listed reserves attract more buyers and I’ve had enough positive personal experiences to back it up.

 

11. Enter payment information	12. Setup your shipping options	13. Sales tax and return options	14. Adding Gallery Plus and optional upgrades
15. Triple check your listing and review your fees	16. Review one more time, than hit the Listing button!

Once your item is listed you’ll want to login to eBay at least once a day and view your “My eBay” page to check the status of the item. It’s not uncommon for a potential buyer to contact you with a question or two about the item, prompt and professional answers will put them at ease and possibly lead to better prices or quicker sales. When answering a buyer’s question you will be presented with the option of having the question and your answer shown on your auction page, if you feel that having the exchange posted would be beneficial to other buyers it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Once your item sells you’ll want to make every effort to ship it as quickly as possible, I typically package items once they’re listed and use PayPal’s shipping service to create and print shipping labels. To access this feature you just need to click the “Print Shipping Label” link listed alongside the item on your My eBay page. When packaging an item make sure you do a good job of padding and securing it and triple check that the addresses and shipping options are properly set before printing and attaching the label. Once the item has been shipped you should contact your buyer with a little “thanks for buying” message and the tracking number of their package.

 

That’s it, your item has now gone through the entire process from preparation to shipping! After an item has been shipped off I still like to check for any questions from the buyer (in case they don’t know how to operate the item or have any concerns) and usually leave feedback after the tracking data shows that the item was delivered. Don’t forget the feedback, it’s only fair that you leave appropriate feedback once the transaction is complete. A quick word on disputes, occasionally buyers don’t read descriptions properly (or you weren’t honest in which case you should be shot) and can overreact when they recieve the item. As long as you were honest in your listing and handle these disputes professionally the system should work in your favor.

 

Good luck and happy listing!