Make Money Selling Items on eBay
Making money online can be a challenge, but with your own eBay business, that doesn’t have to be the case! All you need to get started is a decent digital camera, a computer with Internet (high speed is ideal), and items to sell.
Items can include makeup, clothing, electronics, video games, music CDs, books, crafts, collectibles, toys… you name it! People sell just about anything on eBay, and you can, too.
To get started, start looking for items to sell. Ask your parents, friends and family to donate things they no longer want. Check Freecycle to see if anyone will donate items. If you have transportation and storage space, you can even drop by yard sales and let people know you’ll collect their unsold items free. Then you can sort through them, choose what you want, and donate the rest to the Salvation Army.
It will be easier to run your business if you’re organized. Find some sturdy cardboard boxes. Mark each one with a category of items such as clothing, books, etc. Be sure everything is clean before storing. You might want to invest in some zipper bags to store items in to keep them clean, though it’s not mandatory.
Take one to two clear photos of each item with your digital camera and upload them to your computer. Crop if needed or use them as they are. Photobuckets.com is a good place to upload them for free storage if you don’t have room on your hard drive.
Now, you are ready to get started! Go to the eBay website and create an account. After you confirm your registration, login to begin setting up your first auction.
Write auction titles that include keywords for the items you’re selling. For instance, if you’re selling sweaters, you will want to put that in as a keyword. eBay offers a list of category choices. Just choose the most appropriate for each item.
Decide if you plan to sell your items for a fixed price or if you want a standard auction. If you have more than one of the same item, you can set up a “Dutch auction” by listing the total quantity of that item you have to sell. Setting up an eBay auction isn’t difficult. Just read the instructions and follow them as best you can.
Offer as many details about your items as you can, and include any flaws such as a stain or crack. Add at least one picture for each item. Buyers want to see what they’re buying. And the first picture is always free.
Set a reasonable price. And remember that just because an item is name brand, it’s still used. For new items, you can charge a little more, but keep in mind that people are looking for a bargain, and a better price will help your item sell more quickly.
eBay does have fees, but they’re reasonable. When you post the auction, you’ll see how much the fees are. There are small insertion fees and optional fees for adding features such as additional photos, or Buy It Now.
Buy It Now lets you set a price for your items and the buyer doesn’t have to bid, they just click and buy, as if they were in a store.
PayPal is the best way to accept payment through eBay. Set up a PayPal account, if you don’t have one. Or ask your parents to help you with this. You can even decide to donate some of your profits to one of the charities eBay recommends.
Set your policy on returns and refunds and write them out. Then copy and paste that information into every auction you create. Be sure you communicate with the buyer before, during and after bidding. This will encourage more buyers to buy from you.
You’ll get a feedback rating every time you make a sell and customers respond. In order to keep a positive rating, send the item as soon as the money is received and leave good feedback for your buyers if they pay promptly.
Selling on eBay is simple and fun! You can meet a variety of people through email and sell any number of items from the safety and comfort of home. Who knows, once you gain some experience, you might even want to start selling for others and charge them a percentage of profits (50 percent is typical). Being a teen can be a hindrance to owning some types of businesses, but that’s never the case when you’re selling items on eBay.
