In this article I want to give you my 12 tips for selling on eBay that you can use and address the question of how do beginners sell on eBay.

On eBay from 2013 through 2019, on a part-time basis of about 5 hours a week, I sold 3,618 items for a total of just over $105,000.

To this day, after only selling 60 items in 2021, I still maintain a 100% positive customer feedback score from 1,852 customers.

About half of my customers have left feedback and all of them have given me a positive rating. That is a remarkable feedback score and I don’t take it lightly.

Check out my current items for sale on eBay below

I don’t say any of that to brag or be boastful. I say it because I’ve been able to achieve some success on eBay, and I want to give you keys to the formula for success on the eBay platform.

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Whether it’s Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, Alibaba, Shopify, or whatever platform you choose, this information will help you.

12 Tips For Selling On eBay

1. Write down your goals

What do you want and what do you want to become in this process? Be specific, make them measurable, keep them visible, and visit them often.

Check out this article about goal setting

What I do:

I keep a list of my sales goals and profit margin goals in a spreadsheet that I visit once a month when I do my monthly accounting.

Even though I now sell only about 5 or 6 items a month, I spend about 30 minutes a month completing my books for the month

2. Sourcing

Not only do you need to know what are you going to sell, you alsl need to know where are you going to get it from?

Start with what you have around your house, or perhaps with what you like. If you have extra clothes, extra shoes, or baseball cards, it really doesn’t matter.

Just be sure to understand how you are going to source moving forward. Some eBay sellers source from actual stores like Marshalls or Wal-Mart.

Figure out where you are going to get your stuff from and go for it.

Click HERE to get your detailed version of the 16 Tips to Build a $100K eBay Business

What I do:

I source from thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales, and other consignment type of shops. Unlike many eBay seller, I don’t keep unlisted items laying around. Items are equivalent to money.

3. Take good pictures

You will need a camera. You could use your phone to take pictures or buy a good digital camera. That is your choice.

But good pictures are essential. Lighting and cameras nowadays are fairly inexpensive.

Have good lighting, imagine what pictures you’d want to see if you were a buyer, take pictures of different angles, and using a contrasting background color.

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What I do:

I use a $100 camera from Wal-Mart that I’ve had for a several years. I replaced my camera one time. Yes, I sold $100,000 on eBay with two different $100 cameras from Wal-Mart.

I don’t have a fancy lighting set up. I use only natural lighting from the outside because it shows the most natural colors of an item. Sometimes when you add artificial lighting, the color of your item doesn’t translate well to a picture.

Speaking of pictures, be sure to answer all of your potential customers questions and be honest with full disclosures. You will get questioned about things like size, color, or fit. Be forthcoming and responsive.

Check out my current items for sale on eBay

4. Know Your Items

I’m not saying you should be an expert at whatever you sell, because you will become an expert as time goes on.

But I am saying do a little research about the items you sell by learning about the items, how they are normally priced, and so on.

There are items and brands that you think are valuable that the rest of the world sees very little value in. Know this.

What I do:

I started out by doing research on eBay and Amazon. I always check what similar items have sold for on the platform in the past. Unusually high pricing will lead to frustration because your items won’t move.

5. Get a Good Accountant

My eBay business was audited and I ended up owing the IRS about $18,000. You must account for the money earn. Keep it up on the up and up.

Figure out how you are going to keep track of your expenditures and sales. This could be a spreadsheet, QuickBooks, or a ledger or whatever.

Your accountant will help you with this. Just be sure to be as organized an as possible, don’t throw anything away, and follow the rules.

What I do:

I keep a ledger book and still do it old school by hand with a pencil. Call me old fashion but it works for me. I also have an accountant that I consult with quarterly, or less frequently from time to time.

For every sale, I take a small amount of cash from the sale and put it to the side for tax purposes. I do not have an LLC, but it’s certainly ok to do so.

I’ve also adjusted my withholding on my main job to account for the possible tax bill at the end of the year for my sole proprietorship. Again, an accountant is critical. Figure out what works for you after consulting an accountant.

Whether you dropship (don’t keep the inventory you sell in a location you manage) or if you actually hold inventory, there are rules to know!

6. Hold Inventory or Dropship

You’ve got to make a decision whether or not you plan to keep inventory or drop ship, which means you don’t keep inventory in stock. You sell the items but it is shipped to the buyer from elsewhere.

This obviously depends on a number of factors that you have to decide.

If you do decide to hold inventory, then you may want to utilize a storage unit, your basement, garage, or whatever you decide.

What I do:

I hold inventory. I use a bedroom in my home for the entirety of my eBay business. For many years I kept a desk, inventory, and shipping materials in this room. Today, I keep inventory in my garage/storage area.

I account for my total inventory at the start of every year and at the end of every year. I actually do this monthly when I figure my Cost of Goods sold (C.O.G.S) for each month. Do you have to go to this level of detail? Maybe not.

However, when I was audited, it forced me to take my business serious and learn to truly treat it like a business.

7. Shipping

Shipping is a major expense. You want to be as efficient as possible. In 2020, 70% of all items on eBay offered free shipping. Depending on what you are selling, this could be very important. Think about your customers, but don’t overthink it.

You don’t have to include a handwritten thank you note in every item you ship. I know it sounds good, but your time is crucial, and you have to be efficient!

At the end of the day, your customers want quality items, not beautifully wrapped items.

I have 100% positive feedback and many return customers. The key is to not be sloppy or inconsiderate with shipping. Instead, simply be sure you are placing a bigger emphasis on the quality of what you are selling.

What I do:

For the first 5 years, I purchased a box of 100 large plastic mailers for around $50, which cost between $1.50 and $2.50 each at your local UPS store.

I shipped my larger shoes in these. And I go on to the USPS website and order 200 or 300 bubble mailers for FREE.

Nowadays I get all of my shipping from USPS FREE! For larger shoes I use their “shoe box” size, and for small shoes I still use the free bubble mailers. In others words,

Click HERE to check out all of the U.S. Postal Service FREE shipping supplies

I spend $7 on tape and that’s it. Everything I ship in is 100% FREE. I wrap my shoes neatly in the plastic bags you get when you go grocery shopping.

When we grocery shop we always get a few extras and store them in the kitchen drawer like everyone else. Sometimes I stuff the shipping with the free newspaper advertisements we get in the mail.

I’m always sure to remove our address from anything I’m using to ship items. My eBay shipping is down to the bare bones. I ship all of my items Unites States Postal Service (USPS) because it’s been less expensive for me.

I’ve become a master shipper. and with 100% feedback, I know how to do it very customer friendly, and extremely economically.

8. Fees

Read and understand what the fee structure is for whatever items/categories you are selling in. Different items have different fees associated with their sell. Should you open a store on eBay?

That depends on the volume you plan to do. Just be keenly aware of the eBay fees, because they can have an effect on your profits.

What I do:

I figure my fees in when I do my monthly accounting. eBay has great sales reports to help you do a lot of this.

Explore the website thoroughly, use the platform to it’s fullest, and soak up the information and the tools that they’ve designed for sellers.

 

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9. Test items to start

Like every website, eBay has algorithms. Algorithms determine who, how, when, and what items of yours get seen the most. Algorithms play into any search engine on the internet, and eBay is no different.

There are certain key words you put in the descriptions that help push your items to the top of a persons search. And those algorithms change regularly.

Learn the algorithms. Understand what are the best things to list, the best times to list, and the vital information and key words that you need to include in all of your listings.

What I do:

Every listing I do, I always do a search on eBay for the same or similar items. This way I can gauge exactly what pops up at the top of the search for that item.

I model my listing off that listing. In business it’s not called “plagiarism”. Instead it’s called “not trying to reinvent the wheel”.

I also NEVER undercut a competitor’s price by more than a dollar or two at the most, because that drives prices down lower than any of us sellers want it.

I always think of us sellers as a community. Yes, we are competing, but it’s the integrity of the competition matters.

10. Have patience

Keep in mind that there is a learning curve, and it will take time for you to develop your own flow.

Remember back when you started your career, or your job, and recall that sense of patience and resolve you had to have in order to keep the job.

Don’t get down on yourself or discouraged. You can do this.

What I did:

I made a decision very early that I wasn’t going to quit. I had strong “why” that kept me going. My “why” was the desire to get my child through college with no debt. Figure out your why and force it to motivate you.

11. Know your audience

Understand who you are selling too, what types of items they want, and the ancillary upsells they may need to compliment whatever you are selling. Study them.

This is why it’s important to sort of start selling what you already know something about. It helps a lot.

What I did:

When I started selling back in 2013 I quickly fell into my niche of selling shoes. I did so because I was a shoe salesman 12 years earlier and knew a little something about them.

Ultimately, I settled on men and women’s shoes. I chose women shoes because they shop more than men, and purposely chose middle-aged women shoes, such as flats and comfort shoes, because these shoes sell for more money.

I chose men’s shoes because, as a man, I know men shoes. I’ve only worn them all of my life, and when I was a shoe salesman, I specifically sold men’s shoes.

It was my specialty. So I ultimately dove into selling something that I had a level of comfort with.

12. Know your numbers

Of all of my 12 tips for selling on eBay that you can use and address the question of how do beginners sell on eBay, this may be the most important.

Understanding sales, profit margins, average sale price, price analysis, and cost analysis, is crucial if you want to scale up your eBay business.

These are business terms you should get to know because they will be what you use to grow profits and increase your efficiencies.

What I did and do:

In 2017, after being audited by IRS, I spent a week teaching myself some basic cost accounting principles. YouTube and Google were super helpful.

I learned the First in, First out (FIFO) method of accounting for inventory and how to figure my costs, and began keeping books like a bookkeeper. It was one of the best things I’ve done.

There you have it, These are my 12 tips for selling on eBay that you can use and address the question of how do beginners sell on eBay. I hope these tips help you.

If you want to ask a few questions or talk further, please contact me.

I’d love to hear from you and help you as much as I can.

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