My girlfriend has been looking for things to fill my day since I am no longer able to do much physically. She has suggested setting up an e-bay account and doing some selling, she owns a frame shop and has a lot of prints, pottery, etc, that she said we could play around with. I also have a few friends that said they have some stuff they would like to put on e-bay but don't have the time to bother with setting up an account and handling the details such as shipping. I am interested in doing this but am hesitant to set everything up until I have a better understanding of how it all works.
I have taken the little e-bay online tutorials and checked out the pay-pal site but am wondering if anyone here has any suggestions, experiences, or opinions they would like to share before I seriously pursue this little project.
Thanks in advance,
David

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Don't take life too seriously -- you'll never get out if it alive.

My main advice is, look at the message boards. Look around in the seller's, feedback, and any that include stuff related to what you sell. You can learn a lot from people's mistakes.

I have been selling on ebay since i was 14 im now 16 so ive been selling for about 2 years. I have sold dishes, toys, games, collectables, motorcycles and cars. The main thing people worry about is shipping. Shipping is super easy! I have shipped motorcycles through UPS, and the buyer always pays shipping cost. I have made huge profits. Example: We bought 2 old buggys from the 1800's for 200 dollars. We listed them on ebay and sold 1 for 1200 and the other for 800. Another, i got a old motorcycle for free. Listed it on ebay and got 125 dollars for it. And i have done this tons of times, selling well over 20k. So, you may be asking where i get the time and items? Im homescooled, and part of our homeschooling goals is to be well educated and be financially free by age 20. I go to locker auctions and buy lockers and sell the stuff from the lockers. Anything sells on ebay, you just have to KNOW YOUR PRODUCT!

Ask me questions and i will try to answer them to the best or my ability.
Shipping?
Where to get items?

quote Originally posted by fierokid1985: I have been selling on ebay since i was 14 im now 16 so ive been selling for about 2 years. I have sold dishes, toys, games, collectables, motorcycles and cars. The main thing people worry about is shipping. Shipping is super easy! I have shipped motorcycles through UPS, and the buyer always pays shipping cost. I have made huge profits. Example: We bought 2 old buggys from the 1800's for 200 dollars. We listed them on ebay and sold 1 for 1200 and the other for 800. Another, i got a old motorcycle for free. Listed it on ebay and got 125 dollars for it. And i have done this tons of times, selling well over 20k. So, you may be asking where i get the time and items? Im homescooled, and part of our homeschooling goals is to be well educated and be financially free by age 20. I go to locker auctions and buy lockers and sell the stuff from the lockers. Anything sells on ebay, you just have to KNOW YOUR PRODUCT! Ask me questions and i will try to answer them to the best or my ability. Shipping? Where to get items?

Got plenty of experience with shipping, ran a warehouse for 5 years and handled all the incoming outgoing freight and more recently sold a ton of parts in the mall a couple few years ago. Have shipped fiero parts via FedEx, USPS, and Greyhound (facias). Plenty of items here and from friends that I could post, not really concerned about what to sell. Really interested in the process itself and associated costs of selling through e-bay. Also interested in the pay-pal thing, I'm sure I would need to set this up and have visited the site to try to get familiar with their policies and rates but am still a little confused. I guess I just need to go back to the sites and print out some of the data.

Don't use paypal for anything higher than you want to lose. I made that mistake once, and now it came back to bite.

Buyers can reverse their payment up to 30 or 45 days after they make it, for no reason at all. Then you're out that money until you can prove you sent it or whatever their complaint is. Keep records of everything, just store it in a file somewhere.

Go to ebay and set up an account if you havent already. Selling and listing is really easy to do and it guides you through the whole process http://cgi5.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SellHub3Visitor

Here are the selling fee's http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

Paypal is really easy to use and its the only payment method i accept. If it is local pickup I take cash.

I hope this helped.

quote Originally posted by ryan.hess: Don't use paypal for anything higher than you want to lose. I made that mistake once, and now it came back to bite. Buyers can reverse their payment up to 30 or 45 days after they make it, for no reason at all. Then you're out that money until you can prove you sent it or whatever their complaint is. Keep records of everything, just store it in a file somewhere.

According to PayPal's site there is a procedure to dispute chargebacks, is this procedure just a sham or is it effective? I have seen a lot of mixed reviews from individuals concerning PayPal and it one of the reasons I've not already setup an account.

Like I already mentioned earlier I dont do cashier checks or money orders because 1. Scams 2. you have to let them clear first. 1-3 weeks.
Paypal is instant thats why i like it.

quote Originally posted by DRA: According to PayPal's site there is a procedure to dispute chargebacks, is this procedure just a sham or is it effective? I have seen a lot of mixed reviews from individuals concerning PayPal and it one of the reasons I've not already setup an account.

When a buyer issues a chargeback, paypal's money is gone. They then take your money back. There's a procedure to get your money back, but you may not get it back for 30 days while they review what happened, request shipping documents from you, etc...

I'm in the middle of a buyer dispute right now for $700. That's different from a chargeback - paypal just keeps your money until they review it. It'll be a month next week.

We have done Ebay for a 6 years now.
If you plan on doing a lot of auctions and using Paypal, I would recommend opening a seperate account at a bank.
This way if someone does try to scam you they won't have access to your personal accounts. We have never had a problem.
You can also get a credit card from Ebay (with a low line of credit) as well so they can be linked together and limit your risk.
Some other helpful things is the U.S. Post Office will deliver all your shipping boxes for FREE. (they do charge for the tape).
The catch is you have to use the USPS priority mail as your shipping.
So if you buy a postal scale, you can sign up at the USPS website and do all your shipping from home. They deliver the boxes, You weigh the item, package it, print out the postage from the computer, then place the item(s) at your door and they will pick it up.

If you want to do this as a part time business, you can PM me and I can give you some other pointers as well.

quote Originally posted by fierokid1985: Like I already mentioned earlier I dont do cashier checks or money orders because 1. Scams 2. you have to let them clear first. 1-3 weeks. Paypal is instant thats why i like it.

We sell stuff on Ebay from time to time, and I'd say that about 95% of our buyers pay us through Paypal. I also prefer Paypal, as the payment is instant; and we don't have to wait for a payment to come in the mail. (Also, I'm more inclined to big on an item as a buyer; if the seller accepts Paypal payments, as it saves me a trip to purchase a money order) For those that do prefer to send us a payment, we only accept money orders. No checks, or cashiers checks. (Although we have had a handfull of people send us cash).

Regardless of whatever payment method they use, we always print our shipping labels through Paypal for two reasons:
1. Paypal emails the bidder a confirmation that a shipping label has been issued for his package, and he also has a tracking # for that package.
2. We have records (and a tracking #) proving that we did indeed send the bidder his item. If he disputes that he never received his item, we have proof that we did send it; and it almost guarentees that we will win any dispute between the bidder and us through Paypal. (We've never had a dispute, but have had heard of others that claim that Paypal stands behind the sellers who have purchased the shipping labels using their service).

Ebay is as safe or risky as you allow it to be. We only ship to the USA, (and Canada if the seller requests it and has great feedback); and we only accept payments by Paypal or money order. Also, check your bidders feedback! For smaller items, we don't impose a limitation on feedback, so long as they're feedback rating is not in the negative. However, if you're selling higher dollar items; you'll definatly want to state that you'll only accept bids from bidders with a feedback rating of "xx" or higher.

Do your homework, and you'll be fine.

quote Originally posted by Oreif: Some other helpful things is the U.S. Post Office will deliver all your shipping boxes for FREE.

Oh yeah, that's a BIG help!

Boxes get spendy. I bought 2 of their cartons in different sizes a few months ago, and I'm still going through them. If I need to send something UPS, I just cut down the seam and turn it inside out. A little glue and some extra tape make sure it doesn't come apart. When you're normally spending $2 or $4 for a box, it starts to add up!

quote Originally posted by ryan.hess: Oh yeah, that's a BIG help! Boxes get spendy. I bought 2 of their cartons in different sizes a few months ago, and I'm still going through them. If I need to send something UPS, I just cut down the seam and turn it inside out. A little glue and some extra tape make sure it doesn't come apart. When you're normally spending $2 or $4 for a box, it starts to add up!

highly illegal !!!! use at your risk . it is a 5,000 fine for miss use of govement stuff . it is the united states poat office after all

Thanks for the advise/suggestions so far, probably be setting up the accounts on e-bay and paypal in the next few days, till then I'll keep checking this thread and doing a little more research.

quote Originally posted by fierobrian: highly illegal !!!! use at your risk . it is a 5,000 fine for miss use of govement stuff . it is the united states poat office after all

Ha!

I think it becomes my property once it arrives at the door.

quote Originally posted by ryan.hess: Ha! I think it becomes my property once it arrives at the door.

When you order the boxes online you do have to electronically sign that the boxes will only be used for USPS shipping.
We've found out it is actually better to use the USPS for most things. We have sent items out UPS but generally it was due to size/weight and we had to get our own box for it.

To be effective using e-bay you need to set up a process. I have sold about 200 items in the last few years. I do it in spurts, usually listing about 15 items at a time.

The short version of my process is:

1) Take digital photos
2) Edit digital photos (crop and resize image to get below 50k file size)
3) Prepare item summary in MS Word. This is crucial. You must describe the item and condition in detail.
My summary includes: Title, description, shipping cost, and listing price all in one file.
Wording in the title is critical also, because users search on the title to find items to bid on. If you don't have the correct
words, the bidders will not find your item. Do not make mistakes in spelling in the title.
4) List auction in e-bay using the MS Word file to paste in the information
5) When the auction ends, send a e-mail to the winning bidders with item cost and shipping cost.
6) Prepare the items for shipping
7) When payment is received, ship the item. Send e-mail to buyer to show when item is shipped.
I ship primarily USPS for small items and UPS for larger items. I like to use the $8.10 flat rate USPS boxes when
I can to quote one shipping rate for anywhere in the US.
8) Leave feedback in e-bay. You do not want negative feedback. It will greatly hurt your sales. Do what it takes to make
buyer happy atter the auction closes, even it you have to give the occasional full or partial refund.

Right or wrong, this is my process and it seems to work.
I accept payment and pay for items with paypal and have had no problems.
Good luck. Ebay works, but it does take time to list items for auctions and close the deal.
Paul

Just a couple of other suggestions... you can sell stuff on Half.com (part of Ebay.com as well uses the same feedback system and your user info) with a set price, no auction type bidding, or you can do the same thing on Amazon.com, or you can set up a Sellers Store on Ebay with set pricing. I don't think either of the first two charge fees like Ebay does, not sure on the fees for the Ebay Store, but I could be wrong since I haven't sold thru either of them... both sites have set prices for shipping, they pay the seller a set price for media mail shipping (like $1.75 to ship a game or dvd) now the seller can upgrade it and get paid for priority mail shipping... but most just choose the cheaper shipping. You actually get your money from Half.com or Amazon.com, not the customer, and have to ship out within 3 days of receipt of sale or the sale is canceled....

Oh, and a little side note... when you pay for shipping thru Pay Pal, you're paying almost twice as much for it.. same way with shipping thru Ebay... they charge you twice as much to ship something than if you just shipped it from home and printed out your own postage label... Check it out yourself... you can calculate shipping costs at any of the sites... (USPS, UPS, Pay Pal) Now don't get me wrong, it is convenient to just do it all from one site... and I wouldn't mind them getting a small fee for providing that... but to almost double the amount is blatantly wrong...

Just think how much money those sites are drawing in from inflated shipping prices... they are making more than $5 per item shipped for what? To provide you with a printed label that uses your printer and your ink...you can do the same thing from USPS or UPS's web site... and your customers aren't asking why is shipping so much???

Anyway... hope that helps somewhat...

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quote Originally posted by Amethyst: Oh, and a little side note... when you pay for shipping thru Pay Pal, you're paying almost twice as much for it..

I would disagree with that statement. When I sell things on Ebay, I usually ship via Priority Mail which costs $4.05 for small packages. It doesn't matter if I drive to the post office, or print the label from paypal's site; my total is always $4.05. Also, a few months ago, I sold an old mixer we had on Ebay. I checked UPS's site to estimate shipping costs, and knew what I would pay if I went directly to them to have it shipped. I ended up printing the UPS shipping label on Paypal's site, and paid exactly what the UPS site estimated for shipping costs. (Pretty conveniant too, as a UPS driver is always stopping by our office; and I just gave the package to him to have it shipped).

So yes, on all packages that I don't know what shipping would run; I do check the prices online, and I end up paying that same price on Paypal's site.

quote Originally posted by Deabionni: So yes, on all packages that I don't know what shipping would run; I do check the prices online, and I end up paying that same price on Paypal's site.

Certainly wasn't with the one I tried to ship via Pay Pal here a couple of months ago... it was totally twice as much to ship as USPS's quote. Sure, it'd be so much easier shipping via Pay Pal because it comes right out of the account where you've just been paid... but not when it costs twice as much as doing it myself thru USPS's site, means you lose money on your item unless you've charged your seller extra to cover it, in which case then it really doesn't matter... if they are fine with it..

Have you noticed the inflated shipping costs when you use Ebay's calculate shipping? Now you can't tell me they aren't hiking that up....

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