eBay Seller Newbie-Questions for the Pros Please

**pecunierrant** · 08-22-2009, 02:05 PM

DH & I have only bought items from eBay, never sold anything before. We're interested in selling some of our stuff for extra cash so I have a few questions for the many eBay sellers here. Thanks in advance for reading and any info!

Account Questions-

DH has a Personal eBay account, since we were just buying. Should we upgrade to a Premiere account to sell our household items?

DH has a PayPal account, we used his credit card for purchases. We plan to attach our checking account to it in order to accept payments from any eBay sales.

Both the eBay & PayPal accounts are only in DH name, checking is a joint account me/DH, does that matter? Can we use the current accounts with no problem?

Is it worth it to accept credit card payments via PayPal (not sure if this is even doable, just curious).

I have a few questions about items I'd like to sell also.

I have some vintage perfumes to sell. Would you offer a return policy on these?

How would you ship fragile items, like perfume or porcelain dolls?

Finally, is it still worth it to sell on eBay? Thanks very much for any input

**Nana2two** · 08-22-2009, 02:41 PM

Account Questions-

DH has a Personal eBay account, since we were just buying. Should we upgrade to a Premiere account to sell our household items? NO YOU DO NOT UNLESS YOUR SELLING OVER $500 WORTH OF STUFF.

DH has a PayPal account, we used his credit card for purchases. We plan to attach our checking account to it in order to accept payments from any eBay sales.

Both the eBay & PayPal accounts are only in DH name, checking is a joint account me/DH, does that matter? Can we use the current accounts with no problem? NOT A PROBLEM OURS IS ONLY IN HUBBIES NAME.

Is it worth it to accept credit card payments via PayPal (not sure if this is even doable, just curious).YOU HAVE TO HAVE A PREMEIR ACCOUNT TO ACCEPT CC.

I have a few questions about items I'd like to sell also.

I have some vintage perfumes to sell. Would you offer a return policy on these? YES THEY REQUIRE U TO HAVE RETURN POLICY IN WRITING, EVEN IF YOU DON'T EXCEPT THEM. I WOULD NOT .

How would you ship fragile items, like perfume or porcelain dolls?BUBBLE WRAP. USPS DONT FORGET DELIVERY CONFIRMATION ALL PACKAGES SAVES YOUR BUTT.

Finally, is it still worth it to sell on eBay? Thanks very much for any input THIS IS A HARD ONE. ALOT DEPENDS ON THE BUYERS MARKET. WE BUY ANTIQUE CLOCKS ON EBAY RIGHT NOW THEY ARE DIRT CHEAP. WE WOULD NOT SELL THEM BECAUSE OF THE LOSS OF MONEY.
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**mauimagic** · 08-22-2009, 06:10 PM

Mahalo pecunierrant - you've brought up things I want to know about too. Let's bump this up to get more assistance from those with more experience!!

**ladytoysdream** · 08-22-2009, 09:20 PM

Checking account attached to a paypal account....
I strongly suggest a second account that will only be used for online. I have two checking accounts. The one is our personal one for this household and no way would I let paypal / ebay any where near it.

I have seen perfume sell really well on ebay. I would suggest double boxing it. Make the insurance part of the shipping amount. Do some research on it first.

Is it worth it ?.....maybe, maybe not. Depending on what you sell and if you can find 2 or more bidders at the same time on the same item bidding it up. Sometimes you just have to put the lowest you can accept and experiment. It may get bid up...it may NOT get bid up. Don't start something at .99 that you can't let go for less than $ 50 for example.

Don't start something at 10.00.........use 9.99 instead.
If you use the $ 10 starting...then you are paying extra for the listing fee because you are now in the next pricing bracket.
Check out the listing fee page on ebay.

Do a little buying on small stuff if you can, to build your feedback up a little. Don't put a diamond ring up for example for your first item, if you have 0 feedback and are a newbie.

Check out other sellers that are selling something you want to sell. See how they do their ad, and how they take pictures.
Look for patterns in how they do things.....especially a high feedback seller.

Make sure your spelling is correct....especially in your title....
you may have a rare item and if you spell it wrong....you may only get one bidder at the last minute....who will be smiling all the way to the bank, after they get your treasure in their little hands........

I use delivery confirmation a lot. CYA .......
I print postage online and do the DC for .19
Makes it easier to do the post office....your in and out ...quickly.

Good luck

**Nana2two** · 08-22-2009, 09:47 PM

We have had our ebay and paypal connected with pur checking and never had a problem. We have been with ebay since 04.But our bank notifys us when paypal wants to pull money. So we have to ok it. But i have heard horror stories .

**ladytoysdream** · 08-22-2009, 09:59 PM

I have been doing ebay for 10.5 yrs now.
I have never had a problem with my paypal account.

I have however, read quite a few horror stories.

So I got a second checking account and keep things seperate.
I sleep better this way....

**Nana2two** · 08-22-2009, 10:46 PM

I agree nothing is ever now.

**gratitude** · 08-22-2009, 11:51 PM

I did quite a bit of selling on ebay this summer. For me, the fees really killed me...I used auctiva auction site for a while because you could post as many pictures as you wanted rather than ebay charging extra, that only lasted so long though, and auctiva switched from free to having to pay. I sold over 500/mo so had to have a business acct w/ paypal which equaled more fees taken out..so all in all I had ebay fees, paypal end of auction fees, auctiva fees that really reduced my proffit enough to where I didn't feel it was worth my time to continue...I think it really depends what you are selling too....some days I had great luck and my auctions would sell sky high, other days I went into the red after fees imposed......dont mean to discourage you at all.....my advice would be that if u are using ebay to get rid of stuff u have around the house (meaning free), go for it, but if you are going to have to invest money in the product you intend to sell be careful and take your time with it, learn about what your costs are goingto be before you get started!
Good Luck!!!!

**mauimagic** · 08-23-2009, 01:13 AM

Good advice - mahalo.

**tervsforme** · 08-23-2009, 10:17 AM

Lots of great advice! One more thing though, E-bay has a promotion going on now where you get 5 free listings a month. So you can try it and it won't cost you anything, unless you sell your items. Then the final fee is a bit higher. I also have a separate checking account for my paypal account, just eases my mind a bit. Printing your postage through Paypal will save you in postage and delivery confirmation, especially if you use Priority Mail, then delivery confirmation is free. Oh one more thing, invest in a good postage scale so you can weigh your items to figure out the postage, it will save you in the long run!

Have fun, I love E-bay, I'll be listing some items tonight!

**savvy_sniper** · 08-23-2009, 10:49 AM

I would suggest you start VERY slowly. eBay is not as simple and easy as it was when I started out! I started selling in 2003 and opened an eBay store in 2004. I now sell on Amazon and my own website also.

Setting up selling account http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/seller_account.html. I would also suggest you read read read the eBay Discussion Boards - Seller Central, Packing & Shipping, PayPal, etc. There is a wealth of information there.

PayPal account:

I would get a separate checking account to use with your PayPal account.
You MUST you an online payment option (PayPal is one of them) OR your own credit card processor (expensive).
You CANNOT state you don't accept credit cards.
You CANNOT state in your listings that you accept checks, money orders, cashier's checks. IF a buyer contacts you and asks if you will accept you can CHOOSE to if you want.
Return policy - eBay now requires that you have one. Plus if you accept PayPal, if you don't accept returns, the buyer can simply file a claim with PayPal or their credit card company.
Shipping perfume - check HOW you are allowed to ship perfume in the U. S. AND internationally (if you plan to ship internationally.
Fragile items - LEARN to pack. Use bubblewrap, peanuts, double box, etc. If you ship a fragile item and it is broken, the USPS can (and will) deny an insurance claim if the item was not properly packed.
Coming soon you cannot make insurance optional or charge separately for it. You either calculate and add insurance into your selling price or shipping price.

Since you haven't sold before, I would advise you to start off selling inexpensive items you have around the house to learn the ropes and get some feedback as a seller. If you make a mistake, you won't be out a lot of money this way. Once you get some selling feedback and have learned the ropes, buyers will be more like to bid/buy from you.

Selling in some categories on eBay is riskier than others - electronics, porcelain dolls (expensive ones).

Start off slow and easy. GOOD LUCK!

**CouponShelle** · 08-23-2009, 12:09 PM

Everyone has such great advice! I have recently started using eBay to sell more. A few things that seem to work.

If you can, offer FREE SHIPPING. I only do this on light/small items though.

Pictures, take good pictures. If you think your photo is good enough, go back and take better ones. Items with good pictures sell better. No one wants to see your dogs mug in the picture when you're selling that expensive Gucci purse, LOL. Crop/edit/think about lighting/staging, etc.

Really SELL in your text. Talk the item up, find reviews on your item if its sold in stores and include text from there or the description from a store. For example, I have an item up for auction that is from Target, I included some of the verbage off their site (giving them credit, of course). The more info you include, the more bids you're likely to get.

And last, pictures, LOL. TAKE GOOD PICTURES. think like a photograph on this one. It's so important, I listed it twice.

Good luck, I've had fun, haven't made tons but since I need to both declutter AND make a few extra $$, its been win-win.

Shelle

**pecunierrant** · 08-23-2009, 01:31 PM

Thank you all for sharing, I feel like I hit the mother load of smarts with you all.

I'm copying & pasting the posts!

Worry-wort question- I signed up our regular checking account to PayPal yesterday. It's not final as they are waiting for the confirmation info from me on a working day.

Is it possible to change that to another checking account (have to create a new account first)?

Thanks again for sharing

**ladytoysdream** · 08-23-2009, 03:36 PM

Yup, you can change the checking account

Yup, get a second account first before you try to change anything.

**savvy_sniper** · 08-23-2009, 05:04 PM

Take pictures and use pictures as if you couldn't type ANY description and write your description as if you had NO pictures!

Once you get listing regularly, if you get the same question twice or more then you need to change the information in your listing. It is either unclear or the information is missing. Many potential buyers will just move on to other listings rather than ask a question and wait to get an answer back.