You have heard the stories, or more likely, overheard. The lady behind you in the checkout line who chats casually with a friend about how she sells on eBay and makes a very good living. The whispers in front of you at a theater about how they sold a piece of trash for $100. You’ve heard them. But are they true?
The fact of the matter is, yes, those stories are true. You can sell on eBay and make a career or just an extra bit of cash from doing it.
Now, I am also here to tell you that eBay is not a get rich quick scheme as many people would have you believe. It is work and hard work at that. If you want to make a career out of it, you can, but it will be a 40-50 hour a week career, just like any other. The bonus is, though, that you can do it entirely from home.
Follows is a few tips on how to learn how to sell on eBay:
- Register. If you don’t already have an eBay account, you will need to register for one. Since you want to sell on eBay, you will need to do a full seller registration. They will ask for identifying information, like your name, address, phone and credit card number. When you sign up, it may seem like a lot of information but it is all to ensure the security of both the sellers and buyers on eBay. Go here to register for a seller account.
- Buy something on eBay. The best way to learn about how to sell on eBay is to buy something on eBay. Take a look at a few auctions. Look at what terms the seller has. What they charge for shipping. What their description look like. How they communicate with you. Take notes about what you do and don’t like about what the seller is doing.
- Decide what you would like to sell. Some things sell on eBay, some things do not. Before you invest any money in things to sell on eBay, look at how those things are selling on eBay. Ebay also has a feature that is on the right hand navigation after you have done a search. It is called “Completed Items”. Use this to see how the items you would like to sell have sold in the past. If they haven’t sold well, find something else to sell. Try to focus in on one type of thing. For example, perhaps you could focus on only children’s books or only maternity clothes. Once you have mastered one type of item, then move on to include another group of items. This will make it much easier to identify items that are worthwhile to sell.
- Find places to buy what you would like to sell. Finding a supply is easier than it might sound. Many people take advantage of auctions, yard sales, flea markets and thrift stores to find the type of items they would like to sell. But you dn not need to be limited to that. Look around you for some worthwhile and surprising places that you can use to supply your eBay business.
- Learn basic HTML. This one may have caught you off guard but eBay accepts HTML pages for posting an ad on their site and they have been proven to sell better than the text pages. To learn more about HTML, visit our article about HTML. To learn more on how to use and write HTML, visit htmlgoodies.com for their HTML Beginner’s 7 day Primer.
- Buy a digital camera. A digital camera is also essential to selling. You don’t need a good digital camera, just one that takes a picture. Having a picture on your listing assures a buyer that the item does exist. You can buy a digital camera that is sufficient for selling purposes on eBay for between $10 and $30. Click here to search for digital cameras on eBay.
- Be patient. This last step is very important. At first, you will not sell as much as you will and you will not be able to sell them for as much as you can. This will be due to the fact that you have not established a decent seller rating yet. The rating is comments left by buyers about you. It helps to establish your credibility and reliability. The more you sell, the higher your rating will be and the more people will come to trust your ads, which then means more sales and higher final sales for you.
eBay has been a wonderful thing for thousands of enterprising people who were willing to devote the time to selling on eBay. You can take advantage of this too, if you follow these few tips.
To learn more about how to sell on eBay, visit eBay’s Official Seller Tutorial.