Ebay is a very good starting place if you want to buy or sell just about anything on the internet. There is a feedback system in place enabling the vendor to earn an excellent reputation and build a list of regular customers. This is especially useful for someone looking to open their own shop on the internet.
You can actually run your own Ebay shop. With the shop you get all the tools you need to manage your shop in a professional manner. If you set things up correctly you can list your items as normal in auction, buy it now, or both and they are also automatically arranged in your shop at the same time. I myself have an Ebay shop and I only 6 pounds a month for it's use (on top of the listing fees).
If your not interested in making a business out of it, just spend a couple of hours searching the categories to see how inexpensive the items can be. Think of something you want or need, then type it into the search box below and see where it takes you. Compare the prices, click on a few items and read the content. Take note of the time each item is due to end, is there one ending very late at night or early in the morning. If you find one that is, try to go back and check on it as it sells and compare the selling price with that of one that sold earlier in the day. It doesn't always work out but you usually get a bargain late night or early morning.
How much do you know about antiques and collectables ? Ebay is not only a good place to buy and sell them, but you can also learn a lot about them just by browsing the categories and sub categories.
So you see, ebay can be a place to buy, a place to sell, and a place to learn.
Why not give it a try, go on type something in now, but don't forget to come back.
Selling on Ebay.
Lets say you now have an Ebay account and want to sell some items. It doesn't matter what these items are but to attract potential customers you need a Paypal account. This is not essential as you can accept cheques or postal orders. There are a few other methods of receiving payments but assuming you are just beginning I prefer to keep this simple. The problem with not having Paypal is that most existing buyers are used to this method of payment and can't be bothered with sendin out cheques or postal orders. Some may not have a cheque book or don't have a nearby post office.
You can list an item in an auction, place a low starting price on it and just see how things go, or you can also place a reserve on it if there's a lowest price you are willing to accept. If you have a price in mind that you are willing to accept, then you can add a buy it now price to the listing. With buy it now you can insist on immediate payment, but only if you have a method of receiving immediate payment such as Paypal. I should point out that when setting high starting prices or reserves there are higher Ebay charges. On some categories there is a minimum reserve that you are able to set. For instance, you may want to list an item that you feel is worth 20 pounds, but when you enter a reserve of 20 pounds you are told the minimum reserve for that category is 50 pounds. My advice here is to set a starting price close to what you feel is it value. Remember, if the item is sought after then you may get a number of bidders determined to but it and you could end up with a nice little bonus. On the other hand if you place a low starting price and it's really not all that sought after you may not have any bidders, or worse still, just one bargain hunter comes along at the last minute and snatches it for next to nothing.
Buying on Ebay
The first rule in my book is do not be hasty, take the time to compare items for sale. If you see something that looks a bargain, click on it and study the contents. Read the description carefully, if the item is not described as in " good condition" or " good working order" don't assume that it is. Contact the seller and ask for more information, ask them politely if they could edit the listing and place those details in there. If they won't do that and you still want to but it make sure you have not deleted their reply to your message before bidding, at least then you have some sort of evidence that you were told of the items condition should it not be as stated. Check that the postage costs are fair, remember this will also include a small amount for postage materials and sometimes, but not always, the service itself. If this charge seems far too high, rather than get into a dispute over it just look elsewhere for a similar item with more reasonable postage. It is against Ebay rules to charge over the odds for postage and packing, but some still do it, and there's always someone who falls for it. Especially be wary when the postage costs aren't mentioned in the listing. If its not there you should ask the seller why and if possible get them to remedy it. Also check the country of origin, its possible the item may be shipped from another country and the winning bidder could be in for a shock when they realise the postage. All this this information should be in the listing, if it's not, then tread carefully.
Another very good reason not to be hasty is that not all items are shipped. These are normally larger and/or heavier items. In this case the listing should state " local pick up only", but sometimes it just says "free". So if it's something like a car or a large item of furniture, make sure you have the means to collect the item and that you have allowed for your expenses. If you are looking to buY the larger items I suggest you set the listings page to "nearest listings first", this will show the closest items to your post code at the top of the list. To the right each listing you will see just how many mile you will need to travel to collect the item.
Click on the sellers Ebay name/ID and check out their feedback. This is generally a good way to find out if they are trustworthy. 100% positive feedback is ideal, but you really need to compare this figure with the number of items they have bought or sold. There are bound to be the occasional hiccups so if some has a slightly lower rating but has high volume transactions then you should give them the benefit of the doubt.
Posting your items
When I first started selling on ebay I used to pack the items, make my own hand written labels, stick them on the packages and go down to the post office to pay for the postage. Since I never had a reliable set of scales I never really knew exactly what to expect when i got there. You can do calculations through Ebay or even at the royal mail website, but unless you know the exact weight of the package you can end up paying more than you expected to. Since then I have found a much more efficient method.
First of all it pays to invest in a decent set of digital scales, let me think now, where would you buy one of those, Ebay of course, and at a reasonable price too. Before you list the item, weigh it and allow an appropriate amount for the packaging, or even pack it first and then weigh it. If your selling several items do remember to put the item name on the box as you won't want to mix them up. By the way if your wondering where to get your packaging materials from why not try Ebay, you might have heard of that place by now. Now that you have a note of the items packaged weight you can either use ebays postage calculator or go to the Royal Mail website and use their calculator. Add your materials/service cost on and list your item (keep these as low as possible, but don't leave yourself out of pocket).
You can customise your postage options within ebay whilst listing an item. If you are selling several items it pays to add combined postage rules, this is an excellent good will exercise. What this means is that if you sell more tham one item to the same buyer within a set period you can offer a discount for each additional item. This encourages them to check out your other items rather than look elsewhere and at the same time makes you look more professional and customer freindly. I normally charge full postage for the highest priced postage item and give a 25% discount on each additional item. This is placed into your list by ebay but it is well worth re-stating this in the listing yourself. make absolutely sure you say the full postage is on the highest postage price item and not just the first item. you don't want to be giving discount on the heaviest item when it is not the first item bought!
Once you have sold your item/s you can either wait for the invoice to be sent automatically, or you can do it yourself. In the case of multiple items to one customer I you need to do it yourself. That isn't a must do, more a best to do for the following reason: even Ebay can make errors, or just maybe you have set up the postage intructions incorrectly. Once in the invoice section you will see your list of items. make sure you tick them all and then click the "recalculate" button, you can now adjust the total by applying your discount ( don't click the recalculate button again or it will delete the discount you just put in). When thats done, rather than just sending the invoice, click on the "preview "button. This will take you to a preview of your invoice, if all is well click on "send", if not then click "edit" and start again. A common error is failing to place a dash(minus) in front of the amount discounted. Assuming you now have Paypal set up to send and receive payments, you can now just sit back and wait for a payment confirmation message from Paypal.
When you have received your payment you just need to go to "My Ebay" "items sold" to the right of the listing you just sold there is a drop down box which shoul display "print postage label" ( I should point out you do need a printer connected to your computer, if you've not got one, I think you know where you can get one at a knock down price). If it's not displayed then just click on the arrow and select it. if you've not opened that menu before you will see there are a number of useful options there. Anyway, moving on, this will take you to Paypal where having signed in you will have a form to fill in. This form will already have most of the information filled in for you. All you need to enter is the items weight and the postal service you prefer to use. Don't assume that a large package is cheaper to send as a parcel rather than first class post. It all depends on the weight, for instance at the moment any thing up to 2kg posted via standard parcels and taking 3-5 days to reach its destination will cost 4.20gbp, whereas a 1.5 kg first class packet is only 3.08gbp and takes 1 day and second class taking 3 days is a mere 2.49gbp. Don't confuse the words "packet" and "parcel". ( prices may vary, these prices are for at the time of compiling this information).
Once you have completed this form you need to submit it. You will then be transferred to the payment page where the cost will already be calculated and you just need to click "pay now". Paypal will deduct the postage from your account balance and then you will have a copy of your receipt pop up on your screen. Just click "print", wait for the print out, check it and the slip that comes with it and if all is well you can affix it to your package and its ready to post. The slip you get with it is for the post office assistant to sign and you should keep this as proof of postage. This will have the customers address on it but I normally just make a little note on it as to the item involved for future reference. Well that's it, done, but if you check the Royal Mail charges against the amount you just paid, you will see there is no difference. Paypal do not charge for this service, and look at the hassle it saves.
