Money Making Monday ~ Mama Sells It On Ebay Series ~ How I Started and Beginner Tips

First let me say this. I am by no means an eBay "expert". All I know is what works for me and my situation. I decided to give you, my readers, tips and advice on what I have learned from my eBay selling experience. Because I feel that I do have knowledge to share and that it can be useful to you. But remember it is my experience and what works for me may not necessarily work for you. However I do feel that what I have to share in this series will help increase your knowledge of selling on eBay. And my motto has always been "An Educated Seller is a Power Seller". Cute right?

As I mentioned in an earlier post I have written an e-book covering the topic of selling on eBay. It is almost 100 pages and specifically geared towards moms. I am pretty proud of it...it is good. I am updating it now and hopefully it will be available in the next couple weeks. It will be good for those of you looking for more in-depth knowledge on this topic. When it is done I will be offering it as my first giveaway.

I started selling on eBay in 2005. Before then I heard about eBay a little but never bought anything and certainly never sold anything. But one day someone I knew brought up how her grandma sells stuff she finds at garage sales, thrift stores, good wills, etc and makes an extra $1000 + a month. I was like what the hell if a grandma could do this I sure can. And at that time I was so desperate to work from home I needed to try something. So ebay it was.

Well I made great extra money, not enough to quit my job, but enough to help out a little. And it was a nice hobby I could call all mine. I will talk more in future series about the different levels of eBay selling. I do think you can make some real good money selling on eBay but it takes a lot of hours and a ton of work. So stayed tuned.

You may be wondering what I sold on eBay and what I continue to sell. The answer to that is kids clothes. Specifically Gymboree, Gap, The Children's Place, Janie and Jack, and other name brand lines. I use to purchase a lot off season and sell on but that was way to much work for me. Now I just sell primarily my kids outgrown clothes and my friends kids clothes. I will talk more about this in a later series. Also, once I get my items listed on eBay I will share with all of you my link. Hopefully by next weekend.

So in the last five years I have learn a lot about eBay. I actually have many lessons learned.

In this first post of the series I just want to talk about some general eBay selling knowledge. I guess I will assume you know nothing but that you at least have an eBay buyer account. For those that do know something I apologize if this is real general.

Here are some steps to get you started with selling on eBay.

1. If you have never sold on eBay before you need to start a seller account. Go to that link and it will give you step by step what you need to do.
2. Decide what you want to sell. Like I said I primarily sell my kids outgrown clothes. But I am always going through my house looking for stuff we no longer use to sell on eBay. I hate clutter. So if we don't use it and it is in good selling condition then off to eBay it goes.
3. Research all items before listing. This is a step that many new sellers miss. And it can cost you big. You need to know how much items are selling for and if they are even selling. And you need to know how many of the same item are already listed on eBay. So the first thing you should do is type into the eBay search engine the item you want to sell. See how many are listed. Then do a completed items search. You just put in the item you are searching then click completed listings. All items that have closed in the last two weeks will come up. Green equals sold and red equals unsold. To me this is one of the most important steps when deciding to sell because you don't want to waste you time with items that are not selling.
4. Get your items ready to sell. Wash and iron clothes. Clean dust off stuff. Pretty much just make the items look as nice as possible. The nicer the items look for pictures the more likely the items will sell and sell for more.
5. Take good pictures. Use good lighting and crop out any background images. Try to take the pictures on a solid color surface. White or black preferably. Sometimes a good picture can make all the difference.
6. List the item. I have a whole section on this in my e-book so it is hard to just sum it up. Basically, you can list an item in auction format or fixed price. You can have an ebay store but that is a whole other post. Pretty much it depends what your selling. And this is when the research comes in handy. See what other like items had sold for and the selling format they used. I personally like fixed price listings. I only list at auction when I just want to get rid of something and I don't care what it sells for.
7. Get a postage scale. I think it is so important for anyone who wants to sell on ebay to get a postage scale. This way you know how much an item weighs and you know how much to charge for shipping. Most people who guess on shipping always lose money. My postage scale cost make $25 and it is very small. Totally worth it. You can buy postage scales right off ebay.
8. Ship items in proper packaging and in timely manner. I sell clothes so I buy polymailers right off ebay. Cheap and sturdey. I always make sure to ship out within 48 hours of purchase.

Well there are some basic eBay tips for you. I hope they are helpful. I have so much more to talk about with this series. I love selling on eBay. It is definitely one of the ways This Mama Works It!

If you have specific questions or topics you want me to cover with selling on ebay then either leave me a comment or send me an email tmwi@thismamaworksit.com.

What has been your experiences with selling on ebay? Any more general tips you would like to add to this list? What are your thoughts on this list?