How to make loads of money on ebay

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Jenny Edited by Martin. Many old items can be worth serious cash. But to really get the eBay cash rolling in, you need to know the etiquette and shortcuts. This is a crash course on how to sell. It explains how to cut fees, the best time to close auctions, profit from bizarre items you never thought you'd sell and more.

Also see our Facebook Selling Tips guide to flog stuff for free. After all, people are reusing your goods rather than flinging them into the tip, so everyone gains. For those who've got the eBay bug, it's addictive watching the bids flow in. The pounds can quickly add up, especially as you're profiting from stuff that was just picking up dust. For more ways to bring in extra loot, read Boost Your Income. Walk through your home to find items of value you no longer need, then flog 'em.

Use the easy month rule of thumb to help decide what to offload. Haven't used it for a year? Here's a list of what sells best. Of course, if it doesn't fit into these categories, the pounds will still add up, and you'll benefit from a more ordered home. For all the latest deals, guides and loopholes - join the 10m who get it. Don't be quick to cry "that's rubbish". When it comes to eBay, one man's junk is another man's treasure, and it's astounding what people will fight for.

Faulty electrical items, for example, shift well, as clever bods fix or use them for spares. Always be upfront about an item's condition. MoneySavers have made a quick buck selling used carrier bags, magazine cosmetic samples and even a broken Game Boy that had fallen down the toilet.

For more bonkers sales, read the forum's classic Things you never thought you could sell thread. You might not want to go as far as this Money Saver did Before flogging cast-offs on eBay, buy a few small items you need. You can buy everything from tights to toothpaste on eBay, and may well save cash to boot see the eBay Buying guide. This gives you an insight into how the site works and builds up your feedback rating. Few buyers will do business with zero feedback sellers, and even if they do, your item is unlikely to fetch true market value.

The worst mistake you can make is logging on for the first time to sell a pricey item, such as an iPhone, when you've no feedback. Whether they're offering designer sofas, dishwashers, Wiis or children's books, sellers on eBay often specify items must be collected in person. As this often means fewer bids, there are bargains to be had.

Yet you can't search for "pick up only" on eBay, so we built tools to speedily track and map gems near you. The joy of eBay is you can see exactly how much other items have sold for, and how other sellers have described their wares. Just fill in the search box and tick "completed items" on the left-hand grey bar. If the price is listed in black, it means it did not sell. Spotted a product identical to yours? Click "Have one to sell?

Sell it yourself" to automatically fill in most of the details. Never copy descriptions or pictures wholesale though. You'll still have to give eBay a cut of every item you actually sell though. If the buyer pays by PayPal, it usually takes 3.

Regular sellers can find they use up their 20 free listings fairly quickly. To avoid paying a 35p insertion fee for each item, keep an eye out for 'free listing periods', when you can list as many items as you want without any insertion fee.

But, crucially, any items listed over free listing periods do not count towards your monthly allowance of 20 free listings. Also check the Free Listings thread on the forum to keep track of these promos. If you want to earn more on eBay, tweak your vocab. In May boffins at Birmingham City University trawled over 68, completed UK eBay listings to find the keywords most likely to entice buyers.

The researchers used computer software to analyse over 15 million words in the listings of the items most recently sold when they started their study. They worked out an average sold price for each word. The study also showed that spelling and grammar mistakes lower items' values, probably because they suggest a 'don't care' attitude.

Some innocuous words aren't safe either. Car sellers should avoid 'timewaster', 'honest' and 'reliable'. Check the list of keywords in your category below.

Of course, some of the most effective words describe items that would fetch higher prices anyway, eg, 'Apple' in the tablets category. Yet many terms are interchangeable. Here are some of the best and worst words to use for 14 of eBay's most popular categories. The data is an average of both buy-it-now and auction listings that included those terms. Want inspiration on what to sell? You can quickly research potential markets with a handy Most Popular Items tool. Type in a search term and it generates a list of the relevant auctions with the most watchers and bids.

As an example, type in 'games console' and you'll get a list of the most popular gaming items on eBay. Got a top eBay selling tip that we haven't listed? Feed back in the eBay Selling discussion. These are useful for cramming extra info into titles without exceeding the character limit. Don't go overboard though, or newbies won't have the foggiest what you're on about. Now it's time to sell and market your product. To write a good description, think about what you'd like to know if you were buying the product yourself.

Include information such as brand name, condition new or used , item specifics, model numbers, size, precise dimensions, style and colour. While you want to big up the product, ensure the description's accurate. It might be tempting to describe a shirt as "like new". But if it turns up with kebab stains down the front, the buyer will leave bad feedback.

And if it's not as described, they may be able to demand their money back. Always run your description through a spellchecker, especially the title. To show how important spelling is, tools such as Fatfingers , BayCrazy , Goofbid and BargainChecker are dedicated to profiting from people's slip-ups.

44 different ideas to make extra money

Listings with spelling errors, especially in the title, go for lower amounts. As everyone who works for a web business knows, there is no point in creating fantastic content if nobody can find it. When buyers search, eBay automatically looks for words in the listing's title only, so every word counts although buyers can opt to search the title and description if they want. Imagine what you would search for.

Take "stylish plunging neckline plum dress". No one's going to search for "stylish", "plunging" or "plum". Instead, try "new size 10 purple silk Whistles dress", and you'll cram in tons more search terms. Even better, Goofbid's nifty free eBay Pulse tool shows the most popular search terms buyers use, by category.

As an example, perfume is the second most popular search term in Health and Beauty, after Dior. An auction titled Dior Perfume is more likely to get noticed than Dior Fragrance. A decent picture's paramount. You might get away with not including a Paddington DVD's image, but no one pays good cash for a painting they've never laid eyes on.

If it's an expensive item, take shots from different angles, as well as close-ups and distance shots. Use a plain background. Buyers won't be enticed by a mirror reflecting you in your Y-fronts.

They might be more likely to buy if the flaw's not as bad as they thought, and may leave you good feedback for honesty. It's a delicate balance. Set the start price too high and no one will bid; set it low and there's a risk it will sell for the knock-down price.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON EBAY: Tips for the casual seller

Consider lowering your start price to attract more attention. Boffins at London University did some research on this topic, and found auctions with modest start prices sparked more bidding and fetched higher final prices.

The exception is products you expect little interest in. The petrol cap on a special version Beetle may be niche, but someone who wants it could be willing to pay. Set start prices higher for items only a few specialist buyers may be after. Avoid ending auctions at 4am, when nobody's about. Often bidders prefer to swoop in in the last few minutes, hoping others won't fight back.

According to eBay, its busiest time is Sunday evenings, so aim to end your auction then. If listing an expensive item, check TV listings to ensure you don't clash with the Game of Thrones series finale. Remember though if you're aiming to sell to another country, such as the US, you'll want to tweak your end time accordingly.

You can schedule 20 of your listings for free, so you can choose when your auction begins and ends. There are more tips on the Best time to close eBay auctions forum thread.

Sell stuff at the right time of year. Few will search for Christmas crackers in July or barbecues in December. The more precise, the better. If you're flogging an air-conditioning unit, wait for a hot spell to pump up the price. Don't pay the council to collect old sofas or broken washing machines. Put them on eBay for 1p or see Freecycle later and people may collect them. People with fixing skills often buy broken washing machines and TVs. Selling to overseas buyers boosts the number of potential bidders.

When expanding your empire abroad, you have two options: If you think an item will be more popular in a specific country, such as the US, it may be worth listing on that country's eBay site. This way locals take it more seriously, as the item appears in their currency and come higher up in searches.

Whichever you choose, always add a higher postage charge, or the extra cost eats your profits. This isn't worth it for big bulky items, as high postage costs outweigh buyers' gains. The easiest way to start exporting is by allowing overseas buyers to bid on your eBay UK auctions. To do this, when creating a listing, simply say you'll send worldwide in the postage section.

This will make your listings appear when people outside the UK search and tick to view international sellers. There may be different charges if you're selling overseas though, so check first. To do some hard cost comparisons, search for completed items on eBay UK, to reveal exactly how much similar items are selling for. Then repeat the process on the local eBay site, comparing closing prices. If it's fetching more dosh there, just go to the local eBay site, sign in, and start your listing as usual.

To get you started, the other main eBay sites are in Australia , Canada , France , Germany , Spain and the USA. There's more on eBay's international selling page. Bear in mind that this way your item will be sold in the local currency. PayPal will do the conversion for you, but use our free Travel Money Maximiser tool to get a rough estimate first.

Some scammers claim an item hasn't arrived when it has. They then claim the money back through PayPal, meaning you lose your cash, particularly with high value items such as iPods. Some MoneySavers will not sell to foreign buyers for this reason. The only way to protect yourself against 'item not received' claims is to get proof of delivery.

To qualify for eBay's seller protection, you must use a service that comes with 'online trackable proof of delivery'.

The economics of trading are fascinating. The fluidity of eBay as a marketplace means stuff often moves quickly and at a reasonable price. This has a bizarre effect on some purchases. Imagine you're intending to keep something for a limited time.

Your flat needs a small TV for a few months or you want a computer game for three weeks. In the past, renting was cheaper than buying. With eBay, buying it, using it, ensuring it stays in good nick, then flogging it can actually undercut renting.

In fact, more powerfully, buy something for the cheapest possible amount see the Cheap Online Shopping and eBay Buying Secrets guides , then re-flog when you're done. It's perfectly possible to get as much as you paid for it, so the period you used it doesn't actually cost anything. The standard way to pay on eBay is using online payment system PayPal.

This works well for buyers, as it's free and affords extra protection. When selling, the argument's reversed. PayPal wallops sellers with a fee of 3. Add this to eBay's fees, and it's a fair whack.

Unfortunately, eBay requires all sellers to offer PayPal as an option, but if anyone does pay you by cheque, you save. If you're selling a bulky item that must be picked up in person, say you'd prefer cash on collection. Instead, download a free photo editing suite , where you can crop, resize, touch up and polish your pictures before sharing them. Be careful not to mask any flaws and scratches. When listing an auction, you can choose whether it lasts one, three, five, seven or 10 days.

The longer your item is advertised, the more chance of people seeing it, so unless it's time-sensitive, pick 10 days. For buy-it-now listings, you can choose three, five, seven, 10 or 30 days.

They cost the same, so plump for If you're flogging old unwanted stuff such as cast-off clothing or second-hand stereos, there's NO tax to pay. But become a trader, making or selling goods bought with the intention of resale, and it IS taxable. There are some grey areas, so read this HMRC guide to work out if you need to tell it about income made from online sales.

Two new tax breaks, which were supposed to have applied to earnings from 6 April , have been quietly axed by the Government. This applies to both new and second-hand items. See the Consumer Rights guide for more info. Traders are also required to register as business sellers with eBay. If you're a trader and sell using the buy-it-now button, rather than just a standard auction format, then Consumer Contract Regulations apply. Under the regulations, buyers have 14 days after the item is received to let sellers know they'd like to return the item.

They then have another 14 days to return it. It's worth reading eBay's returns guide for more help. With private sellers it's caveat emptor , or "let the buyer beware".

Buyers' only rights under law are that the product is fairly described and the owner has the right to sell it.

Under eBay's own rules buyers are also eligible for a refund if the item's "not as described", ie, it doesn't match the seller's description. This means your goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, and as described. Therefore you need to be more careful with your descriptions than private sellers. To build a sparkling feedback profile, you need to deliver goods speedily and in the condition advertised. While not a legal obligation, offering good customer service will boost feedback and protect you from problems.

So how can you get top-notch marks? Describe the item accurately, reply to questions promptly and try to dispatch within 48 hours. Let the buyer know when you've dispatched, email them the postal tracking number and include an invoice in the package.

Another nice touch is to email a message along the lines of: It's illegal to push up a price artificially by bidding against yourself or by getting family or friends to do so.

Hoard all brown envelopes and packaging materials. Big brown carrier bags are a good substitute for brown paper. Make sure the items are secure and nicely packaged. Often traders like to add a personal touch by including a business card, or wrapping designer clothes in tissue paper.

Some eBayers even use popcorn instead of polystyrene to pack around fragile goods buy kernels in bulk, cook the popcorn without oil and let it cool. If you're sending internationally, watch out as some countries have tight controls on importing food, so always check this before you package this way. The buyer pays for postage, and when listing goods, you must specify a postage cost.

Try to be as accurate as possible, as if the price specified is too low, you'll have to make up the difference. If it's too high, the buyer may leave bad feedback.

How to make lots of money on selling on Ebay! | eBay

Don't forget to factor in packaging costs when calculating postage charges. Buyers often don't expect to pay much more than the stamp price, so you may wish to factor postage into your sale price. To get an idea of prices, weigh the item and use Royal Mail's price finder. If you're posting anything weighing more than 2kg, it may be cheaper to use a courier. Read the Cheap Parcel Delivery guide for full details. Postage costs are included in eBay's final value fee see eBay sellers beware: Its fees now eat into postage costs MSE news story.

To qualify for eBay's seller protection, you must use a service that comes with "online trackable proof of delivery". You must also have sent the item within the number of days you promised in your listing, which eBay calls your "handling time". Read eBay's full postage rules. Always post to the buyer's address provided in eBay's postage label.

Otherwise, you won't be covered by eBay's seller protection. A common scam is a buyer who claims to be in the UK, but wants the item to shipped to a friend or relative in another country. Only send to the address listed by PayPal.

Discourage dodgy buyers by adding a requirement that you'll only accept bids from buyers with a certain feedback score. To do this, in My eBay, under Account, click the Site Preferences link. In the Selling Preferences section, scroll to Buyer Requirements. You can also block specific buyers. If you get enquiries from a buyer before your auction ends and don't like the cut of their jib, just add 'em to the blocked list. Of course, much negative feedback is justified.

But one issue is buyers who casually leave negative and neutral feedback for sellers most people would consider decent. To check if you're dealing with a cranky curmudgeon, go to their feedback profile and click "feedback left for others".

Sometimes an item will arrive broken because you packaged it poorly or the buyer'll be disgruntled by an inaccurate description. If you're in the wrong, it's fair to give a refund, whether or not you're legally obliged to. If payment was made by PayPal in the first place, be sure to refund that way too. Consider setting up a specific bank account to pay your eBay earnings into. That way you'll see the cash pile up, rather than just disappearing into your current account. Some MoneySavers then spend the fund on Christmas or a holiday.

See the Top Savings Accounts guide for best buys. Their advantage is they charge sellers less than eBay, which means some prefer them. On the downside, your auctions are likely to get less exposure than they would on eBay, so could get fewer bids. Comparing charges is tricky, because all auction sites have different fee structures.

With local classified sites, the buyer usually collects in person and pay cash on collection.

The king of local classified sites is Gumtree , which covers 50 big UK cities and lets sellers list for free. Interestingly, Gumtree is owned by eBay, but thankfully this hasn't affected its free community-based operations.

Plus try local online forums, Loot and your local paper. Local Facebook selling groups are fast rivalling eBay as the place to earn cash by flogging unwanted stuff. The best bit is there are NO fees, so you keep the profit. It tells you how to find the right local groups and get the best price, plus make sure you stay safe when selling.

Your listing will stay up until it sells. If you need speed and ease, trade-in website WeBuyBooks. However, prices are usually lower than selling them yourself. See Get max cash for old books for a full list of trade-in sites. For convenience, trade-in sites pay quick cash for your old CDs, DVDs, computer games and Blu-rays plus some tech and clothing items.

See the Quicker cash for old CDs, books, etc section for a full list of trade-in sites. Ever watched Storage Hunters, the U.

Now you can do it yourself, with lost luggage auctions. You don't always know what's inside the cases, but pick a winner and profits are possible from eBaying them on. For a full guide, including which auction houses do this, see Lost Luggage Auctions. It's also worth checking out Police Auctions , where forces in England and Wales use an eBay-style site to sell lost property or goods seized from criminals when they can't find the rightful owner.

It's cracking for bicycles, among other things. Like forumite Happypig , you could strike, er, gold: For tips on how to safely get max ker-ching for your bling, see Gold Selling. Top-quality goodies are available daily across the country for FREE.

It's all about web communities, and the big names are Freecycle and Freegle. Instead of binning goods or trying to eBay them, people offer them to their local community. In return, they often hope they can grab back something when they want. NOT YET A FORUM MEMBER? If you go through it, it can sometimes result in a payment or benefit to the site.

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Worst keywords for men's fashion Lowest value terms Average sold price Etc. Brand new with tags. Brand new in box. Want to know more? Here's our full how-to Sell to overseas buyers via eBay UK The easiest way to start exporting is by allowing overseas buyers to bid on your eBay UK auctions.

Sell via international eBay sites To do some hard cost comparisons, search for completed items on eBay UK, to reveal exactly how much similar items are selling for. Always get proof of delivery Some scammers claim an item hasn't arrived when it has.

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