?selling stuff on Ebay?
 

Hola. i have never sold anything on Ebay before and need to unload a crankset. Is it pretty self-explanatory or are there some things i need to be aware of before i make newbie mistakes and what not. Thanks. Ashe.
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mostly self explanatory. The only advice I could give is that the items that make the most money have no reserve, several good pictures, are named correctly and place in the correct category. Try looking up "the best way to sell item on ebay" for even more good advice.

+1 You can set a minimum price (but not too high) if you're worried about it selling for $2. Look at completed listing so see what actual sale prices have been recently. Don't overcharge on shipping. I usually allow international buyers, especially on low priced items (less than $200 or so).

Don't fill your description with BS about how this is the greatest product ever, handed to you lovingly from a retired Italian racer on his deathbed ..... just the facts, # teeth, crank length, threading, approximate usage ... point out the good & bad .... blemishes, closeup of tooth wear .... Don't give the buyer a reason to complain.

throw a couple extra bucks on the shipping....just to cover yourself, as well as covering your seller fees

^^ another good point I have had to pay out of pocket for shipping because I didn't charge enough. Plus, people rarely care about shipping prices.

Emphasis on "described correctly".

I suppose its not really nice, but over the years my wife and I have made some very good purchases of things that were mis-spelled, mis-categorized, not identified correctly, etc, and one trick to getting bargains is to look for things that are listed poorly.

A recent example is a pair of Sidi Genius 5's, which turned out to be about new, I got for $68. They were just listed as "Sidi Shoes, size 46", and the photo wasn't very good. Nobody wants to pay much for stuff that might not fit, or might not be what they think it is, or that they have to research and guess about; so you get the best prices when you're selling by doing the homework yourself and making everything clear.

Most important - Research.

Make an account and log in to look up previous auctions of the item you're selling. Find out what they sold for. Look at the highest ending price auctions and find out what their longevity, starting price, reserve price, buy-it-now price, and ending day/time were. Generally you want your auction to start at $.99 with no reserve price and have it end on a Sunday evening around 6-8pm EST.

It's been said already but pictures are VERY important. Use a digital camera and set the white balance correctly. Use daylight white balance and some nice soft window light if possible. Clean up the item and the area around it so everything looks clean, new and professional. Basically, you want it to look like it does on the manufacturer's website because it subliminally fools people into feeling like it's new and perfect.

Really ? I look at shipping cost right away. Total cost is what matters. I agree about adding a couple of bucks to make sure you don't lose money on shipping, but a big turn-off as a buyer is seeing an item with $15 shipping that I know costs $6 to ship. I will bid that much less.

Weigh the item and packaging, round up an ounce or 2, and the shipping calculator should be pretty close. For me, shipping USPS is cheaper than UPS.

I try to list my items for sale with an objective eye as if I was going to buy it.

Good advice so far. I would also make shipping insurance mandatory. I think is about $1.70 from USPS.

as long as the shipping is reasonable that is fine. If you expect to not only get the shipping cost AND the ebay fees out of the shipping then that becomes obvious quickly.

I say that because of research that I have read about on ebay. The basic idea is that people will generally add up the shipping cost to the total and if they were willing to pay 150 for an item and shipping is 10 dollars then the will only bid up to 140.

I think people have a general understanding of what shipping cost and are willing to pay it. I do not believe it is good to over price shipping in a ridiculous fashion. like buy it not $5 and shipping is $15.

Also, lots of people believe it is smart to factor in your time or gas that it cost to go to ups and ship it.

Be honest. Describe any flaws. Take good picture - the more the better. I like to end my auctions on Sunday night when most people are home. Fair shipping costs.

+1 on nice pictures... see my "sample" http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=110380435079 of my like new Polar S725.

Be Honest, Accept paypal, Big high quality pix works for me

agree.........but if you are buying a bike through ebay. $75-$80 MAX INSURED is what should be charged to BREAK EVEN. I shipped mine at that price.

Free Shipping gets a special logo on your auction and helps it stand out in listings. Just add the shipping to the minimum amount of opening bid and do free shipping. A crankset shipped USPS Priority is gonna be $11 or less. Be sure to ship it immediately and pack it well so you get good feedback on your first eBay sale :)

And this is how NOT to list your items:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2009-New-Campagn...3A1%7C294%3A50

Keep in mind you will make MUCH less money if your account has like under 5 feedback. I've seen super expensive items sell for very low prices because the person had no feedback.

Without feedback, experienced buyers know they are just taking a risk. It might work out for you if the item is $50 or less, but selling a whole bike on Ebay with 0 or 1 feedback is going to get you hundreds of dollars less then someone selling it with feedback in the hundreds or thousands.

In summary, if you are selling a high price item and you don't have the feedback numbers then find a friend who does because it could cost you a lot of money in the final value.

Somebody tell me what's wrong with this listing? 100% positive feedback, 20 watchers, a few questions, but no takers. I'd like to sell this set and try silver hubs / spokes. (And yes, they were built by a pro at my shop).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=130302988390

Looks ok. A bit wordy ... maybe use bullets to break it up. You still have 3 days left, and some people like to wait until the last minute. Consider putting your opening bid a bit lower than your BIN ?

I've had wheels that didn't sell, waited 2 weeks, relisted and then they sold .....

Thanks for the tips. I don't have a lot of profit built into them, so I can't lower the price that much but I've thought about it. Maybe I could put a "or best offer" on there.

Your opening bid and BIN are so close there's no point in having the BIN. Take off the BIN, because if anyone uses it, you'll pay a lot more in fees than if they just do a regular bid at about the same amount.

IMO the best indicator of what an item will sell for is by check the results of other completed auctions.

So long as your item is in similar condition, with a similar description and pictures listed in the correct category it should sell for a similar amount (ending on a similar day/time of course).

I've also noticed that with bike stuff, less popular items may sell for less as there will be fewer bidders. I had some tiagra stuff listed, and while the shifters fetched far more than I expected, the derailleurs sold for very little. For those items, BIN would be useful especially with the 30 day option. I rarely provide the option for a best offer since I get too many low-ballers.

For higher priced items (complete bikes etc.) don't be afraid to spend money on the listing itself. Lots of good pictures, full honest description etc. I recently sold a bike on eBay and was quite happy with the final selling price. I also did a lot of background work taking decent pictures, putting on a matching saddle/handlebar tape to make it look better etc. I can't believe the number of people who try to sell a bike over $500 and have a few low-res pics and inadequate descriptions.

Although if you're buying on eBay, spelling mistakes, incorrect categories, oddball auction end times, low-priced BINs, and crappy descriptions can all be to your adavatnage :)

Done. Thanks again.

Also ending time makes a HUGE difference in price. There are MANY more people on the internet on a Sunday night at 7PM vs. a Tuesday at 1PM. Have your items end at key times:

Monday - Friday 8PM or later
Sunday 7PM or later

Get it ending the key times when the most users are online.