eBay has consistently been one of the most popular websites for reselling, flipping, and so much more. We recently made a guide on flipping as an online business, but if you’re curious on how to get started with selling on eBay, this guide should help you get started right away.
Why Should You Sell on eBay?
You’re probably wondering why eBay is so popular or why it’s worth selling on eBay. There are many other ecommerce websites where you can resell items as well, including Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, and CraigsList.
However, eBay is consistently one of the most popular for a reason. From a financial standpoint, eBay has over 142 million worldwide buyers and over 1.6 billion listings. People constantly purchase products both new and used from eBay.
You don’t need any technical expertise or skill to figure out how to sell on eBay, and you can start right away. There’s no stringent requirements and there’s no fee to list products, so it’s a great way to earn some money on the side.
There are so many options for selling on eBay, including auctions where buyers can bid for a certain product. You can also set a fixed price, adjust your shipping prices, and figure out the best way to rack in profits from your listings.
Step 1: Identify What Products to Sell
When it comes to eBay, there’s no limit to what you can sell (keep it legal though, please). We recommend looking around your house and identifying what products you don’t need anymore.
For example, if you’ve got some old video games, check to make sure they still work and sell them if you don’t want them any longer. Obviously, you don’t just need to sell video games. You can sell clothes, books, old technology, and so much more.
Basically, if there’s a market for it, you’ll definitely be able to sell it on eBay. You may not think about it, but even the most arbitrary of products will have someone looking for them out there.
Start looking around your house and gather whatever items you think you won’t be using any time soon. It’s also a great way to reduce clutter and make some money while doing it.
Step 2: Open an eBay Account
If you don’t already have an account, you’ll just need to open one. It’s super simple and doesn’t require much effort on your part.
You don’t need to open a business account on eBay if you’re just starting out. You can sell either way, however.
Open your new account
Once you sign up for a new account, you can ither input the information manually or you can use Google, Facebook, or Apple to sign up instead. This way, you have the convenience of choosing your way to sign in to eBay.
For the purpose of this guide, we used the option to sign in with Google.
Provide Contact Info
From here, you need to provide your contact information to eBay. This is pretty basic, and you’ll need to have the following:
- Your address
- Your mobile phone number
Welcome to your page
Now that you’re in, it’s time to start listing your first product. As you can see, this is what your home page on eBay looks like:
Step 3: List a Product
Now, you just have to click on the “Selling” tab on the side of your screen. This will take you to your seller dashboard where you can select “List an Item” to begin listing your first product.
At this point, you’ll be prompted to another screen where you just click “List an Item” again and then you’ll land here:
Now, you can type in what you want to sell and be specific so you can find the product you’re listing. This way, it’ll be easier to get your listing going.
Tips and Advice
When you list an item, ensure you know the price you paid for it, the profit you want to make from it, how much eBay will take in fees from you, and how much you want to charge for shipping.
From here, you can determine how much each product will make you. This is a vital step, as you may lose money if you don’t know what your costs are.
Remember to put photos that showcase the item’s condition accurately so buyers won’t leave you negative reviews!
Conclusions
Now that you’ve listed your first item, you can choose to market it or just leave it as a passive source of income. Once you make your first sale, note how long you have to ship the item and package it so that it doesn’t get damaged.
From here, you’re on your way to making eBay a great source of extra money for you!
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
