How to start selling on ebay

I know - ebay has been around for a long time, and everyone should be online selling things! Well that is not the case, and there are still tons of people out there looking for information about how to start selling on ebay. There are many sites out there that discuss this topics, and there are also tons of ebooks you can buy to try and help get you statred. I am going to give you the tips I have about getting started on ebay for free.

If you want to try out ebay and see how it works, sign up for an account. It is free, and there are no obligations. Most people start by selling junk from their attic, basement, or garage. When I got married, my wife went through all of my stuff, and basically told me it all needed to go. I instantly had a bunch of stuff to sell on ebay. Maybe this same situation is familiar to all of you.

People also collect stuff from friends, relatives, and neighbors. They also searhc free sites for free stuff like freecycle and craigslist. I have even hear of people going down to swap meets, salvation army, second-hand stores, and other they buy charity shops to stock up on inventory. They buy stuff cheap, and mark it up on ebay!

Selling stuff on ebay is not as easy as it looks, as it requires that you keep an inventory of products, that you write descriptions about your products, that you photgraphy your products, and that you upload all of this information to ebay for other people to see and bid on. It takes some time and effort to craft a message and an ad that is appealing to people and makes them want to purchase your item.

However, you are certain to make a profit because the initial items were effectively free if you collect in the ways that I describe above. Once you are into the swing of it you'll want to specialise. One of my tenants exclusively sells computer goods on ebay, and one of my neighbors goes to local auctions and buys pottery to sell on ebay.

This is where the skill comes in. You need to build up your knowledge of what things are worth and where/how to sell them for maximum profit. You need to set your shipping charges realistically so they cover your costs without ripping-off buyers and pricing your items too high to be competitive. Many people set a low selling price, but a high shipping price - this is not a good idea, so avoid doing it.

I recommend that you check out some auctions and charity shops to see what is available that interests you and could be sold online for a profit. Anything that might have a favorable niche market is a great idea to sell! You might be able to tie this in with selling new products but the profit margin tends to be smaller and the competition is fierce for selling new products, so I would recommend that you stay away from that for a while. Perhaps you have a local factory that sells sub-standard products cheaply. "Slight seconds" used to be common in the clothing industry and even in home improvement industry products.

Whatever you choose, the work will be hard, so it ought to be something for which you can develop a passion. There are millions of eBay sellers but there are still lots of possibilities that they haven't thought of yet! Selling on ebay is not a way to get rich quick, but a good way to establish a long-term income stream. Of course every good business idea gets copied so, when that happens, you write an ebook about it, sell that and move on to something new!

At the same time as selling on eBay you should create a simple web site. Create an eBay "about me" page and put a link to your web site from that page. (eBay does not allow you to put your web site link in your auction pages). On your web site you can put lots of information about you and about your products. This will attract visitors and you can either direct them to your eBay auctions or set up your own "shopping cart" on your web site.

I recommend using paypal, google's shopping cart, Mal's E-commerce, or shop-script as they are some of the best ecommerce platforms available, but they all require some basic understanding of HTML.

One more suggestion: make your auctions memorable! I remember when this guy put this wedding dress online, and it spread so fast around our office, and to everyone I knew because it was funny and uncommon. I can guarantee you that guy sold that dress. Take a look at this auction page here(PDF document).