If it is something that is rare that doesn't have a lot of liquidity I would do 'Buy It Now'. Otherwise, auction is still a pretty good way of getting rid of stuff. Really not a whole lot of tips. In general, you always have a few bad apples, but eBay is a very efficient process to moving product.

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Lots of photos! Can't have to many pics.

Too many sellers don't put themselves in the seat of the buyer and give too little information. You scan skip the copy-and-paste from the manufacturers website, too; if they're shopping for your item they've already seen that.

Determine what has your item actually sold for: Use the completed listings search to see what your stuff has sold for in the last 90 days.

There is no way around fees anymore. Final Value fees are based on what the purchaser pays all together, so there is no minimizing fees by hiking shipping price and lowering your selling price. On the upside, listing an item is generally free now.

Ship with insurance and tracking.

IME, if you're going to get screwed around on eBay, it'll be someone purchasing your item then not paying, or making outrageous demands post-sale. Not very frequent, but now that you as the seller can not leave a buyer negative feedback, they sort of have you over a barrel (at least if you care about your feedback rating).

Finally, remember you're loosing 10-15% of your sale price in the form of paypal and eBay final value fees. If someone offers you $1000 locally or on slowtwitch, but you hold out for $1150 on eBay, all you've done is lined eBay's pockets. Having said that, eBay has a much larger audience, and has a built in adjudication system.

Yeah, when did they change it so that I can't leave feedback about a buyer who doesn't pay?? That's happened multiple times recently. It's total BS!

That policy changed years ago. At one time I ran a small eBay store, and that policy change was one of the reasons I gave it up.

Multiple times I had people win auctions and not pay, seemingly with impunity. That policy change is also one of the reasons eBay is now the last place I list (I give an item 1-3 weeks on CL or Slowtwitch before listing on eBay).

One of the rationales eBay gave was the habit of sellers not leaving feedback until they had received positive feedback. If they received neutral or negative feedback they would leave retaliatory feedback. I never experienced this, but in all my eBay transactions as a buyer or seller, if I got dicked around it was when I was the seller.

While a sellers feedback is still relatively indicative of their selling practices, a buyers feedback is meaningless. Every last non-paying douche bag I encountered had 100% positive feedback - and it stayed that way so long as they never sold on eBay (not that I'm bitter :)

Yeah, I've been on Ebay a LONG time but not very active, and just recently started selling a few things and didn't know how biased to buyers it is now. I have the same thing with the guy I'm dealing with now, 100% positive feedback, and recent too! Guess I'll try slowtwitch!

You gave lots of good suggestions, but this part above is not entirely correct.
You can get a good discount (20%) on final value fees if:

- you get great feedback
- you accept returns (if there is no problem with the item, the buyer pays for shipping)
- you have very few issues with your buyers
- when they happen, you resolve any issues with your buyers promptly
- you ship fast, usually within 1 day for at least 90% of your items

More info here:
http://pages.ebay.com/.../top-rated.html#what

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To clarify what I meant when I said no way around fees: Once upon a time you'd see sellers list an item for $0.01 (or similarly ridiculous low price) but the shipping would be a huge amount. As an example; if you were buying a used power meter that was worth $300, you'd see it listed for $10 with $290 as the shipping price because eBay didn't include shipping price when calculating final value fees. Final Value Fees now include shipping, so this practice has pretty much disappeared.


Sounds like you're more up on things than I am (as I said, I try to avoid eBay); though I would suggest those sales numbers on the page you linked to look like they're high enough that most of us casual eBay-ers won't hit them.

Good advice. Photos, photos, and more photos. People have very different ideas of what great, good condition mean. Show any imperfections in photos.

Decide what you want to do about returns. I generally do not accept returns. If the photos are good and you're very detailed in your description the buyer should know what they are getting.

Why do you recommend insurance?

I recommend insurance so that in the event that your item sells and you mail it but it doesn't arrive at the buyers address, or is damaged during shipping you're not out the item and having to refund the buyer.

It's never happened to me, but for the relatively low amount that shipping insurance costs, I always feel it's worth it to protect yourself. I'm not sure about other services, but Canada post includes the first hundred dollars worth of insurance.

If you choose the "no returns" option on eBay, the buyers will simply file a SNAD complaint so that you have to pay for return shipping and they get a full refund.

The thing is that when selling on eBay, insurance can't protect the seller.

If an item is damaged during shipping, the buyer will file a SNAD complaint with eBay. This process requires that the buyer ship the item back at the seller's expense. When the tracking shows that it was returned to the seller, the seller is required to issue a full refund.

By shipping the item back to the seller, the insurance then becomes void.

From my perspective and the perspective of my friends, the sales and number of bids on E-Bay are WAY down. No reason not to put your stuff on there, but the old adage of starting a $0.99 auction with no reserve to make the most money can be a little more risky now.

There are a lot of classified groups on FB that can have thousands of members that are free to join you may want to look into.

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I would only use Ebay as a last resort. I've sold a few things recently and I've had to relist every single one of them multiple times because the people who won the auctions didn't pay (which then requires filing a claim and then later closing the case in order to get your fee final value fee credited).

If you do fixed price listings with immediate payment required, you won't have any non-paying bidders.

Great post and good points allround.

One teeny tiny nitpick, 1150 minus 15 percent is less than 1000 ;) You'll have to hold out for 1177 to break even with classifieds ads here.

Great advice, everyone; thanks for all the replies.

Wondering if any updates on this. I have pile of stuff need to move out of my basement some used and some new but never used (older stuff) all still useable. I just want to get a reasonable price for my effort. The effort to organize it, take photos and list seems to keep it sitting there. I've only sold 1 or 2 things on EBay over the yrs. Noticed now it appears I need to have upc or equiv. and provide free returns which seem to be another demotivated. Am I wrong or what makes it easy and simple as of 2018?
Thanks

If you have Facebook use Facebook marketplace. That has exploded in the last year or so. On most things I’ll dual list on Craigslist and FB marketplace. I may get one message on Craigslist for every 20-30 on FB.

It’s free, you don’t have to deal with shipping and the prices for everything have been very fair.

You do not need to have UPC and you don't have to pay for remorse returns.

However, if the buyer files a SNAD complaint, you will pay for return shipping unless you issue a full refund and allow the buyer to keep the item.

Thanks for digging up this thread. By coincidence, I just moved and have a bunch of stuff to sell, so I'll be giving FB Marketplace a try.

don't sell frames or wheels on eBay. if you run into a douchebag buyer, you might be out a good chunk of change. if they pay with paypal, they can dick you around through ebay, paypal and finally their credit card.

side note - also avoid listing ladies bags or perfume. the buyers for that stuff are literally the worst human beings ever.

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