by Stephanie A. Smith

Created on: April 15, 2009

Millions of products are sold by hundreds of thousands of people every year on Ebay. About half of all listings never get bids. Here are some tips that I have learned will help you sell more, get all positive feedback, and spend less on listings.

What to sell your products for:

The three most common problems with Ebay are sellers loosing money, those people who charge ridiculously high shipping fees, and those sellers who try to make a high profit on every little thing.

To get the best price that you can and sell without loosing your money in Ebay fees, add:
Item cost to you (if not new, add depreciated value)
Ebay's fee to sell that item
Fees from Pay-Pal ( personal accounts have no fees)
The resulting total should be your starting price or your reserve price.

Many Ebay sellers charge everything above plus what it costs to ship as their shipping price then charge for the product itself. This is very wrong in my book. To find out what you should charge for shipping, you should add actual shipping costs plus packaging costs.

The best way to charge for shipping is to use the shipping calculator that Ebay provides in the Sell Your Item form. Just enter the weight of the item to be shipped, the size (if large or irregular shaped package), and the costs of the materials that you use to pack the item.

People also like to see the calculator. It tells them that you are charging an appropriate amount.. The calculator also helps keep me from guessing the shipping costs wrong.

Many sellers try to sell everything for high profit, but they wind up re-listing many unsold items. This can be very expensive, time consuming, and will eat up all profits from selling when the item does get sold. People who sell for low profit sell a higher amount of merchandise. The more you sell, the more feedback you get. The higher your feedback, the more people are willing to pay for your items.So selling for less helps you make more in the long run.

Your listing and items:

When listing something, never list anything that you don't have in you possession. If you are selling for someone else, you should you should have the item because after you sell the item, the person who had you sell for them might not give you the item to ship. This can result in bad feedback, disputes, and even being kicked off of eBay.

People also sell things pre-order on Ebay.When the PS3 came out, people were selling it pre-order and they didn't even know if they could get one.

Always put at least one picture in your listing. People like to see what they are bidding on. Make your best picture your gallery picture. I find that the gallery picture actually does drive more attention to your listings.

Getting your listing shown in bold also attracts more visitors, but most of what I sell doesn't warrant the $1 fee on bold-especially since most of what I sell is worth less than $1. I also find that those listings that have the pop-up picture are very annoying.

In your description, state all facts about the item that you know.Be honest with your description, or you may get bad feedback from your buyers.When deciding what to put in your listing, put yourself in your buyer's shoes and make your listing in such a way that would make you buy that item.

After the Sell:

Never send something without payment first. Some people never pay and there are scams.

When you get your pay, ship the item as soon as possible. Your buyer could be buying a present for someone and need the item soon.

Always leave feedback, good or bad.

If you do all of these things, you will spend a lot less money and make more overall. You will also have happy customers who may come back in the future.

Happy Selling!

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