Saturday 29 July 2017

I need tips for selling on Ebay please

Hiya!
I've been having a little de-clutter. Not what some would call a de-clutter, but I've made a start with the smallest bedroom aka junk room.
All the fabric, clothes etc has gone to the Air Ambulance. They pick up from the door regularly and I fell lucky with a pick up last week. A few boxes of bric a brac, books etc have gone to the charity shop, but there are some items that I think are worth selling. So how to start? I have never sold anything on ebay and bought very little (and always with the help of my daughter or granddaughter) so I don't really know how to go about it. Do I do lots of photographs,? Do I do a thorough write up?
 My granddaughter says I might do as well on a local facebook selling site. Has anyone found this better than ebay?
One of the reasons for the clear out of the small (which we call the Heidi room because it is snook up into the loft) to make more room for my granddaughter who is currently living with me and is "bottom drawing"  - they don't use that term anymore do they? I remember David and I starting our bottom drawer. For some reason I thought that red and white would be a good theme. My first purchase was a "Domino" coffee set! Really useful! I have no idea where that went but it would fetch far more now than I paid for it then, well over 50 years ago.
Said granddaughter doesn't appear to have plans for a wedding as yet, she is though (with her partner) saving for a deposit on a house. Their long term plan is to have a smallholding and they plan to buy, "do up", move etc until they reach their goal. With the price of property especially with land they have a steep hill to climb, but she's a determined (not to say stroppy and sassy) young woman and they might just do it!! Nothing ventured eh? I know that Sue from the Cottage at the end of the lane did exactly that.
I can feel a theme coming on here - "Who can afford to buy a smallholding and how?" - Next post methinks.
I'd love to hear of your experience of Ebay/facebook selling.
Love Gill x
PS A warm welcome to Debbie Amber, Modern arts and crafts and Hannah Coe on Blogloven.


31 comments:

  1. Don't forget to allow fees in your price estimate. Making it a little higher but say "post free" may attract more customers. Check out similar items before you post your ad to see what's the usual return. Aim to start and end at weekends. Since moving to Dorset we have found local sales website to be excellent for both buying and selling. The customer usually collects which works well. Go for It! But don't expect too much, you're unlikely to make a fortune quickly. Books dvds and cds check out Ziffit. I am decluttering these and make around £5 a month for half an hour's effort.

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    1. Thanks for that Angela. A very useful reply.
      Gill

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  2. Local Fb selling pages don;t charge for selling, do they? Personally I'd try there first, give something a go and see what happens.
    J x

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    1. I'm beginning to think that that is where I should start. Dip my toe in the water as it were!
      Gill

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  3. I treat eBay as gambling, so I always (or almost always) put up items with a start bid of under £1, no matter how much it is worth. Most of the time I make money, sometimes I break even and sometimes I lose, but I have learned that - because everyone cannot resist a bargain - if you try to sell an item which is worth £20 and put up a start bid of £19, more often than not it will not sell.

    A couple of weeks ago I put on a thing which cost me £15 for 99p and it sold for £127. Everyone cannot resist bidding on something with the prospect of getting it for under a quid, and if two people really want it, the price goes up and up as they wage war on each other, seeing it as already theirs by rights.

    Moral: Be brave.

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    1. Crikey that IS like gambling! In see the sense in not asking to high a starting price.
      Gill

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    2. Re your comment below. That person has left comments on lots of my posts. I am gradually deleting them all. Should I report them as spam or not bother?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. No need for the above comments now.

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  5. Tips for selling on ebay - don't!
    unless you have lots of time and patience!

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    1. Plenty of patience but very little time! Looks like I might be trying facebook first

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  6. Can't give you any advice as I have never used it - sorry

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  7. Over a ten year period I have sold around 600 items. My experience has been good. An evening's work, say a couple of hours photographing and listing, can yield £100 quite easily which I reckon is a good return. I have mostly sold clothes. Good photos are an essential. There is an online utopian if you set yourself up with an eBay account.

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    1. Sounds like you can do well if you apply yourself. I have started taking photographs, but find that I want to take more than one to properly show the item!

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    2. You can add up to twelve photos at no extra cost. The more the better! Take a good look at those items similar to yours which are attracting bids and ask yourself what it is about the advert which is generating interest. It may, of course, be that the item is much sought after and would sell easily, but it may be the way it is presented.

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  8. Should read "online TUTORIAL" above!

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  9. I'm reading the above advice for info'. I desperately need to get rid of so much stuff.

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    1. I suspect some of it is the sort of "stuff" I have. I wonder if selling locally is the same in France?

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  10. I don't like Ebay so I've been selling on Gumtree, recently, with some success. Even a friend is asking me to list some of her stuff too.
    Carolx

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    1. I've never looked at Gumtree. Is it the same as ebay? You must be good at selling if you have people asking you to sell for them

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  11. I certainly have enough to sell. My husband and I are verging on hoarders (he is worse than me!)
    Gill

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  12. We've sold a few items on eBay, sometimes more successfully than others, they do take their chunk as well as the PayPal percentage, at least a f/book page would be free xx

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  14. I use eBay a lot. I've been selling on there for 15 years and find it a very useful platform for me because I don't feel happy inviting strangers to my home to collect stuff. I've never used FB selling so can't comment on that except that I know of people just not turning up to pay for stuff they said they wanted. EBay is time consuming and you do need dedication to keep checking and re-listing if the item doesn't sell first time, but I like it. Good luck with your decluttering Gill :) x

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  15. Even a friend is asking me to list some of her stuff too.


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  16. Hi I sell on ebay all the time. They do take a large chunk of your profit. Fb is great for selling you get all the profit. I collect domino I would be interested in your coffee set if you haven't sold it. Good luck with the decluttering Donna x

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