What you need to know before selling on Ebay
I have been selling on Ebay practically full time for the past year…member since 2012! However I only just found out about yet another fee that I have been paying on each sale!
Read on to find out how to not loose money when you sell.
1. How to easily list your items?
I recommend using the phone app to all my friend. There are two reasons for this:
- It shows you suggestions on how to price your items (which it doesn’t on the desktop version of the website)
- You can take photos and edit them right inside the app — snap and list!
- It will alert you when you sell. Fast dispatch is key to getting your ratings up.
At the moment, every 2nd or 3rd weekend Ebay offers a flat fee of £1 on anything you sell. This is great for any items that will sell for more that £10, I list only when this comes up.
2. How to set the price?
It took me a while to understand exactly what I get after the sale
- Ebay will bill you for 10% off your item’s sale value
- Ebay bill you for a further 10% off the postage amount that the buyer pays you (when you use the app it lists the cost of different postage, with royal mail and others, don’t let this fool you, they take their cut from this…)
- PayPal (which you will need to use if you are not using cash) will take 3.4% +20p. You can check their policy here
So lets do an example… lets say, you sell a dress for £10 and charge £2.90 for postage.
12.90–1.29–0.65–2.90 (postage) = £8.06 left for you (less if you pay for packaging)
This, combined with my love for our planet leads me to re-use packaging and shopping bags to post the items I sell.
Hint to help you decide whether you want to spend the time to list: If you know how, you can do some market research in just a few clicks.
There are lots of people trying to make a quick buck from home on Ebay — it is tempting to assume that they are doing this because it works… but this is not the reality. Search for your item as your potential buyer would. Then look down the left and tick ‘sold listings’ this will show you what people actually bought. Use price categories to
If you decide not to list, use Freecycle to give it a new home rather than leaving it out in the rain. The people who have picked up items from me have always been nice, appreciative, even made a new friend once! https://freecycle.org
3. What to pay attention to?
Timing
Ebay’s own research says that “the most important times in an auction are when it’s newly listed and the final hours (or minutes) of the final day. These two periods do more to determine the final outcome than any of the middle.”
10-day Auctions starting on Fri-Mon had the greatest profit (125%)
While 7-day Auctions starting Sun-Sun had the worst profit (43%)
Everyone agrees that it is best to start and end your listings at a time when most people will be at home and browsing the internet. There is less consensus about when that is…
- Sunday evenings
- Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings between 7–9pm
- Payday weekends
I personally sell children’s goods on Sundays and clothes for weeknights but I have also seen Ebay go through seasonal ups and downs (January was ultra busy)…so who knows.
Your words
You of course know that it is important to chose the right category for your listing — otherwise only part of your potential buyers will find it. What is less understood is the effect that the adjectives you use in the title of your listing. I was surprised myself to learn that missing out an apostrophe in ‘women’s’ has a direct effect on my bottom line. Birmingham City University did some interesting research on this, they revealed that:
Fragrances described as ‘’authentic’’(£34) sold for more than ‘’genuine’’ (£21)
Shoes labelled ‘sneaker’ fetched £32, those labelled ‘trainer’ just £21.
Listings mentioning ‘thong’ brought in £41, and those mentioning ‘knickers’ £10.
Results of the analysis showed that grammatical errors, e.g. missing apostrophes and internet speak had a negative impact on the pricing of items. — Birmingham City University study
Good luck!
We can do this.
