subject: How to Make A Fast Buck On eBay and Get Your eBay Business Started [print this page] How to Make A Fast Buck On eBay and Get Your eBay Business Started
It is no big secret that the majority of eBay sellers start their selling experience by selling items from around their house that they no longer use and with the worlds financial woes in full swing the time has never been better to start selling your redundant items. Start by having a clear out of the attic, garage, shed, cupboard under the stairs or where ever you have stored it away, one area at a time.
As you are clearing each area sort the items into categories, starting with two simple ones:
Can be shipped
Must be collected
Clean the items, check for breakages or damaged areas, take a good photo of each item and be sure to capture all the detail and include any damages in the photos. Try to use a white back ground so that the focus is on the item and not what is going on behind it, placing the item on a bed sheet usually works wonders. As you are photographing each item put them into smaller categories:
Antiques
Collectables
Furniture
House hold
Garden
Tools
Toys
Car Spares
Jewellery
Books
Music
Movies
Then visit eBay and carry out an advanced search of completed listing for items similar to yours. If your items are Antique or collectables seek additional advice from a specialist website such as Millers Antique Guide. This will enable you to get an idea of the prices your items may fetch in your eBay auctions.
Next you need to get the shipping costs of the items that can be shipped. If you don't have any scales to weigh them on take them along to the post office and use theirs. You can also refer back to your eBay advanced search and see what the other people charged for shipping of similar items.
Having completed your research and got the shipping costs it is time to create your listing, but don't list them on eBay just yet. Write the titles and adverts in word, or a similar program, as it will spell check your listing for you. Loads of people are making good money off of the backs of people that make mistakes in their spelling, so make sure you have checked and doubled checked your spelling. Try to build desire for the item within the advert and highlight the benefits of each feature, remember the trick is to sell the sizzle not the steak.
Set yourself up a PayPal account so that you can collect payments from every method available, as well as being able to accept foreign currencies and exchange them to your local currency. There is a small charge for accepting payments via PayPal, but it is very small and well worth it when you consider that you can now take payments from across the world.
Now start listing the items on eBay and schedule them to finish when your potential customers are most likely to be at their PC. Sundays are a good day for selling most things.
Once your listings are live spread the word about them on Social Media sites like Twitter or Facebook and include the link to your item, many of the Social Media sites will also allow you to upload pictures so you should also show people your items in this way.
Twitter will allow you to include up to 140 characters per tweet, so make as many tweets as you can detailing different aspects of your item, keep plugging your items and be ready to answer any questions.
When answering questions try to do so as quickly as possible, you do not want your prospective buyer going else where because you did not answer their question quickly enough. Always try and give a full answer in a polite manor and finish it by telling them that if they need further assistance just ask.
