Ebay Selling Tips For Beginners

I don’t know about you but nothing makes me happier than organising and decluttering. And there’s almost always a pile of things in my house that I no longer want or need. Over the years I have bought way too many things – especially clothing – but nows the time to cleanse my house. I did a post not that long ago about how to sell clothes online where I mentioned eBay. But I wanted to do a post dedicated to eBay selling tips for beginners as it’s the most used selling website.

Plus it’s a site I use quite often myself and selling on eBay can help declutter your house and make you some money. A few weeks ago I listed quite a lot of items and even after postage and fees I made about £240. I’d rather have that money in my pocket than items cluttering up my house.

eBay selling tips for beginners

Keep an eye out for max £1 selling weekends

eBay usually charges a 10% fee on every item that you sell. But every couple of weeks eBay will do a deal where you will only pay a maximum £1 fee for each item sold. Usually, this is capped at 100 items but it’s a good time to sell, especially if you have bigger items to list. I pretty much only list my items during these weekends as otherwise, the eBay fees can be a bit of a pain. Just make sure to activate the promotion if you see it on your app or the website.

It doesn’t matter when your list sells, just as long as it was listed during the promotion.

eBay selling tips for beginners- Take light and airy photos

The photo is one of the most important things about your listing. If you can’t see the condition of the product close up or the image is blurry it’s unlikely you’ll maximize your selling potential. You can add up to 12 photos per item without paying extra so I always make the most of this. You can show off items, tags on clothing, boxes of things, etc. Just think would you buy an item where you couldn’t see what it looked like properly before?! It’s unlikely!

Write up good descriptions

The more details and item specifications you can add the better. Sometimes people filter items such as by colour, material, or fit if it’s clothing so make sure you fill in those specifications in your listing. Think about what you’d want to know about an item before you bought it. And be really upfront about any damage to the item both in photo form and in the description.

eBay selling tips for beginners- Make the most of the app

You can do pretty much everything you need to via the eBay app including taking your photos and filling in all of the sections of your listing. I find it much easier to do as I go as I can snap a photo, open the app and get the item up in a matter of minutes. If you like to be prepared in advance you can create your listings and leave them in drafts and then just activate them when you get a £1 max selling fee, or when you want them to go live.

Check out what items have sold for before

You can head onto eBay and check out completed listings so you can see how much an item you may be selling has gone for before. This is especially good for branded and higher-value items such as technology. All you have to do is search for the item, click ‘advanced’ next to the search bar and click to see recently sold items. This will help give you a guide as to what to list your item for, or if you get an offer what to accept.

eBay selling tips for beginners- Know your postage costs

Don’t just assume postage or take eBay’s suggestion every time. Check the costs beforehand to know you won’t be out of pocket. I have had a few times where I thought something would be a large letter but it was a small parcel instead changing the cost from about £1 to £3 with Royal Mail. I wouldn’t restrict yourself to Royal Mail who charges based on both weight and physical size. Check out Hermes, because although they do get some stick they can be good for items that Royal Mail would class as larger.

Get your items to finish on a Sunday evening

Even though this is a post on eBay selling tips for beginners, we can all learn something from the end times of our actions. Sunday evenings are the busiest times on the app so you want your items to end then to maximize on bids. You can either list on a Thursday evening for 10 days or list on a Sunday evening for 7 days. Either way, make the most of the busiest time of the week on eBay.

Do you have any more eBay selling tips for beginners?

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