By popular demand...
Lorelei’s hot eBay selling tips!
Okay, let me say up front, I have never taken an eBay selling course or online seminar. Nor have I read eBay for Dummies, or eBay for Idiots, or even eBay for Fucktards. But most everything I list sells. When I’m being lazy, I average a $300 profit per month from eBay. When I really work at it, I can make twice that amount. I got the mad ‘Bay SKILLZ, baybuh! (Yeah, I know that isn't exactly "quit your day job" money. But it helps a lot with gas and food and shoes for the kids, whose feet get bigger every time I'm not looking.) So here it is, my deathless knowledge.
The title is bigtime important. Jam as many adjectives as you possibly can into those 55 characters. To hell with conjunctions. Cram in another keyword. To hell with good grammar too. Be sure to include related keywords that don’t directly describe the item but might describe the feel or "genre" of the item, like “goth” or “rockabilly.” If I had a silver bat necklace to sell, I’d title it something like:
Silver bat necklace goth vampire pendant sexy
Pick unique or unusual items to sell. If you’re trying to sell a Nokia cell phone, good freakin’ luck. There are about five zillion of them on eBay. Put it on Craigslist instead. Things that fall into a niche sell well. I sell goth stuff, rockabilly stuff, old science fiction magazines, fabric with unusual prints, and like that.
This is obvious, but take a good picture of your item. If it’s something with details, like a bracelet with jeweled links, show a close-up of one of the pretty links in your gallery picture. Show the entire bracelet in the secondary picture. The close-up of the link will look sparkly and pretty from the gallery. The entire bracelet, crammed down into a gallery picture, will look like a worm. Extra photos cost only 15 cents per shot, so sometimes they’re worth it.
If you're selling clothes, try to take a picture of the clothing ON somebody. It's hard for people to tell what they're looking at if you just post a picture of a dress hanging on a doorknob. If you can't put the clothes on somebody, drape or hang them over a padded clothes hanger to give them more volume, and make them look more like they would on an actual human. ALWAYS give full measurements for clothing, not just "size 10" or whatever. Sizes vary wildly.
Start your bidding price at the lowest possible amount you would take for the item without actually crying. Too many people put up something they think is really valuable, and start it at a super-low price, assuming it will get bid up. Guess what, you might just sell your granny’s tea set for the three bucks you listed as a starting price. OUCH! But let's say you would have been okay with it if Granny’s tea set sold for $20.00 or more. So start it at $20.00 already.
Avoid reserves. Bidders don’t like them, and eBay charges more for them. Like I said, just start your item at a price you can live with. For example, I recently sold two pieces of fabric, both very cool and interesting. I set the starting price at $5.00 for each piece. One of them sold for $5.00. Kewl. That’s all I was expecting. The other piece, for some unknown reason, got bid up to $27.00. I have no idea why, and I could not have predicted that. Lagniappe! So hope for the best when you list an item, but price for the worst.
Make your description as interesting as possible. Talk up the item. If you can find some way to make it “special” without actually lying about it, go for it. I once had a big Tibetan skull-shaped bead made of bone up for auction. I described as dramatically as possible. It went something like this:
“This big skull-shaped bead was hand-carved in Tibet. The details are wonderful. Check out his grin! The bead measures 3” long by 1” wide. The center is bored out, top to bottom. The hole is ¼” in diameter.
This bead feels wonderful when you hold it in your hand-it warms with your skin. I’ll tell you right now that I don’t know what kind of bone it is. Could it be human? Maybe. Making beads from human bones is an ancient tradition in Tibet. This piece is truly unique. Don’t let him get away!”
Okay, so let’s break down the description. I start out with the facts; the shape of the bead, the fact that it was hand-carved, and where it was made. Then I drop in a little puff about it. ("The details are wonderful.") Next I give the exact dimensions of what I’m selling. ALWAYS give the exact dimensions. The last thing you want is somebody buying something from you, then sending it back because “it looked so much bigger/smaller/longer/wider in the picture.”
Next I add in some special description. The bead gets warm in your hand! Well duh, anything carved from bone will, but I made it sound cool. Now, after looking this bead over carefully, I was pretty sure it was carved from a cow bone, due to the porosity of the material. But I didn’t know that for sure. So I just SUGGESTED that MAYBE it was human. Not a lie! Not even an embellishment! Just a speculation. Y’dig?
I have a tendency to anthropomorphize items that can conceivably be described that way. I referred to a Goddess sculpture as “she” throughout the description, not “it.” I called my skull bead “him.” I’ve described gargoyles and things as “this cute little fellow.” I don’t know if that actually helps or not, but it entertains me. And it possibly endears your item to fourteen-year-old goth girls.
Sometimes, if it’s appropriate to the item, I add a little humor into the description. I recently sold some VERY old plastic Nightmare Before Christmas watches on the ‘Bay (and a friend bought them so I know they’re happy, yay!). Anyway, I stated, quite correctly, that their batteries were dead, but not corroded. (I could see the batteries through the transparent backs of the watches.) Then I went on to say something like “I don’t know if the watches will work if you change the batteries. They might. They might not. But dude, these are collector’s items. You should put them in a shadowbox and gaze at them from afar. Don’t come whining to me for a refund if you change the batteries and they don’t work. I won’t give you one. But I might call you a waaaaaaahmbulance.” People love that shit. I got a lot of hits.
Combine similar items for sale if it’s possible and it makes good sense. People feel like they’re getting a deal if they get two or more items during an auction. I’ve sold rhinestone jewelry in lots of two or three. I’ve sold erotic horror anthologies in lots of six or seven. (Yes, I really did have that many of them.) This works best with low-dollar items-the type you wouldn’t sell for more than two or three bucks on their own. If somebody sees a starting price of $7.00 for seven books, they’re going to dig it.
If somebody sends you a question or a comment that is pertinent to the item, include their comment and your reply on your listing. I recently listed a little pillbox for my mom, and I described it as “millefiore,” because, um, it had melted beads on the top of it. Well, somebody sent me a friendly email letting me know that technically, that style of beading was called mini-mosaic. I replied with something like “Great, thanks for the info. Shows what I know!” Not only are you clarifying the description of the item, but you’re showing yourself to be honest.
Be careful with shipping costs. They are WAY more expensive than they used to be. (Use eBay's shipping calculator. It works.) If I am planning to mail something in a container I already own, like an old Amazon box, I set the shipping price for the actual weight of the item, with no additional charges. But if I’m shipping the item in something I had to buy, like a bubble mailer, I include the cost of the bubble mailer in the shipping price. Most small pieces of jewelry I sell cost 95 cents to ship. I set the shipping price at $2.00, because I buy bubble envelopes from Staples in ten-envelopes-for-ten-bucks packages. Remember, even if you’re only selling a few things, eBay is a business. You shouldn’t have to eat your shipping costs. Your customer should.
Of course, don’t overprice shipping. There are people on eBay who will list an item very cheaply, then try to charge a huge amount for shipping, hoping you don’t notice until you’ve already agreed to buy the item. They are asshats. Do not be an asshat.
Always mention that you will combine shipping if someone purchases multiple items from you. That doesn’t mean you have to gouge yourself on the shipping costs. Just cut the cost down as much as possible without getting it in the shorts from the post office. Your customer will be very happy.
This is stone-cold obvious, but ship your items no later than two or three days after you receive payment. People on eBay assume you have nothing better to do than to race to the mailbox the instant they send their payment, and they start getting agitated if their item doesn’t show up right away. If you live in a rural area and you can only get to the post office on Saturdays or something like that, say so in your description.
Finally, never relist an item with a starting price of under five bucks. It’s just not worth it. Give it to a neighbor kid, take it to Goodwill, include it in a garage sale, use it as a doorstop, or whatever. But don’t relist a two-dollar item three times. Cuz that would be a doof move.
The end! Go forth and sell.