I have had a lot of people ask me about selling stuff on Ebay. I should start by telling you I have sold about 35 items on Ebay so I am in no way an expert; However I would be more than happy to share with you what I know. If you already use ebay for purchases go ahead and skip to step 4.
Step 1 You will need to set up an Ebay account. It is fairly simple just got to ebay.com and hit the 'my ebay' tab in the top right corner. You will then be given the option to sign in or register. You want to register. Fill in the required information and just like magic you have an ebay account.
Step 2 Open a paypal account to send and recieve payments on ebay. Paypal is a secure third party who processes payments. Somewhat like an online bank. You will link this to a checking account and if you choose a credit card. As part of the verification process you will have a couple very small deposits placed in your checking account and you will have to report the amounts back to paypal. If you have internet banking this is simple enough, if not just call or stop by your bank. You will recieve an email from Paypal asking you to verify your account, when you do so you have to report these two small deposits.
Step 3 ebay ranks buyers and sellers on 'feedback' scores. Feedback is left by buyers or sellers of yours to let other potential buyers or sellers if you worked well with them. You will start out with a score of zero. This does not inspire confidence in buyers. I would suggest finding some cheap stuff you can buy to get some feedback before you start selling such as some 1 cent cd's or my latest craze has been $0.99 ties with free shipping from Hong Kong. This is not necessary but helps.
Step 5 Find something to sell. I have sold a variety of products. I sold an old broken laptop for parts, some old video games ect. Some of this stuff you can find by cleaning out a closet or addict. I suggest starting with stuff you have to get a feel for it.
Step 6 Setting prices is fairly difficult. I generally look at other similar or identical products on ebay. I check what they are generally selling for, not what they start at. Check the "buy it now" price, and the shipping cost. This is a good time to get familiar with your product, market, and verbage being used to sell your product. Does a $2 product with $4 shipping sell better or a $6 product with free shipping? The answer is that it depends on the product.
You want to sell for a little lower than the other guys, but don't place a minimum bid you are not willing to take. Reserve amounts can be set as a minimum sale price. If the auction does not pass up your reserve price the item does not sell. This is important because it is always possible that only one person bids the minimum and gets whatever you are selling for $0.99.
Step 7 Write your ad. It is important to be honest. If you are selling a broken laptop you need to put in your ad that the laptop does not work. However, it can be presented in a more appealing manner. Instead of saying "broken laptop for sale" describe the laptop and then list the issue. In my case I put something to the affect of "Laptop does not turn on any longer, It could be the battery, switch, something else. I did not take it to a computer repair place and I do not know much about computers. If nothing else it will be great for parts" I think this is better because it is completly honest but leads the buyer to believe that it could be something small and simple. They could get a great deal from this idiot that doesn't know anything about computers.
Be honest, but write your ads in creative ways that catches the eye and gets people interested. Read other ads to get an idea what people are interested in.
Once you have sold a few things and feel like you are getting the basics down move on to finding a product source.
Step 8 There are plenty of product sources out there. You can hit up a second hand store and find products for cheap you can sell for a profit. I bought some decent books from one thrift store and made about a buck on each of them. We went to garage sales, storage unit auctions, and estate sales to pick up large amounts of junk to sell on ebay. In the end we made our money back plus some profit. It takes some time, and you have to deal with shady online people but its easy and can bring in some extra cash.
These are simple quick explanations. If you want more details I am more than happy to share my limited experience with you.
