I’ve been selling on eBay for almost 10 years now. So far so good. Each year, my income from eBay has gone up. I am now up to almost $45,000 in sales. Part-time. I hope to hit $50,000 in sales this year. Although my income has increased, the time I spend on the computer has not increased that much.
I spend on the average (I’m guessing) 5-10 hours a week doing my business. That includes posting auctions, packing and shipping and research. The amount of time thinking about how to increase my income is much more though….
I have about 3700 feedbacks. 99.9% are positive. I have 4 negative feedbacks. All four of them are from buyers that never paid and gave me negative feedback. I don’t know why they did that. Maybe they anticipated me giving negative feedback to them?
Here’s some “common sense” tips that you might find helpful. It will increase your selling price and have your customers coming back for more!
1. Take Clear Photos. Take photos that have good lighting, centered, and clear. Learn how to use the macro setting on your camera. Often times after uploading my photos onto eBay, I end up retaking photos because it just doesn’t look right.
2. Write clean and concise descriptions. Be polite and positive in your description. Be professional even when selling something for $5.00. Make sure to use paragraphs and spell check. Remember, you are selling your product with the description and photo.
3. Ship in a timely manner. I usually ship within 48 hours after payment is confirmed. If for some reason I cannot ship within 48 hours, I send an email to the buyer letting them know that their package might be delayed.
4. Pack your items well. Put the tape on straight. Don’t make it looked rushed. Write the address legibly. If you have messy handwriting, take the time to print it out on the computer. Better yet, just print your postage out on the computer. That’s what I do. I pay a little more than if I were to stand in line at the post office, but it looks cleaner and I save a ton of time not having to write out labels or stand in line.
5. Answer emails quickly. My experience is I can answer eBay emails in about a minute. Be polite and gracious when answering emails.
There are many more things I can write about but these are what I call my “pillars” when selling on eBay. Whether you just want to sell some of your junk or thinking about being a full-on eBay seller, the bottom line is you want to get top dollar for your item.
Without sounding like I am bragging, I’ve compared other sellers selling the same things that I am. Time and time again my items sold for more because I practice what I’ve just preached. Aloha!
