Can someone please talk to me about selling on Ebay?

big bear

A bear on a mission!
I've got about 6 pairs of my son's Clark's shoes & thought I should sell on Ebay & make some money. They are all in really good condition as basically every 2 months he's a new size.

Also I've got loads of his clothes that are in good condition & thought I could sell in bundles. Also got some maternity jeans to sell too.

I thought if I can get a little bit of cash it can go towards my driving lessons or even pay for 1...

What I want to know is do you have to pay Ebay to advertise?

If so, how much?

Also can I put over a certain amount i.e I would want £3 or more on the shoes as they were £28 new, how do I do this?

I'm a Ebay selling virgin so any tips/advice greatly appreciated XXX
 
Hey. With ebay, if you have a starting price of 99p and under, then it is free. Starting price of £1.00 - £4.99 is £0.15, £5.00 - £14.99 is £0.25, £15.00 - £29.99 is £0.50 and £30 - £99.99 is £1. You will also get charged if you place a reservation on an item. Buy It Nows are 40p each.

Your first 100 single-quantity auction-style listings in a calendar month won’t be charged an insertion fee if:
You are a private seller
The item is listed in an eligible category
Your starting price is between £0.01 and £0.99
You are not a PowerSeller on any eBay site.

You will also get charged a final value fee, £0.99 - £49.99 is 9.9% of the final selling price up to £49.99.

You also get charged to receive money Via Paypal, unless you have some kinda business account. It's a flat fee, then a percentage.

So basically, you get charged to list it. If it sells, you get charged again. And if the buyer pays via paypal, you get charged again! The following site is useful for working out profit margins

ecal | eBay UK Fee Calculator
 
You pay an insertion or listing fee, which is a small fee for ebay to list the item. This fee can vary from nothing, up to a couple of pounds depending on how it's listed. Eg, adding more than one photo could add 10p, adding a minimum price could add another 10p, and so on and so on. These costs also vary depending on the item and category, and sometimes there are free listing periods too.

Then once the item is sold you will have to pay a small percentage to ebay for the sale price.

If you sell through paypal, they will also take a very small percentage for processing the payment.

The fee's are generally very small, but can add up so you need to make sure it's worth it for the effort of sorting everything, packaging everything up, traipsing so the post office etc. I often find for the price that clothes go for on ebay (ie, very low), and for the amount of effort it takes, it's often easier to go to a boot sale and get the lot shifted at once. Especially as kids stuff and clothes seems to sell really well there (and only the gate fee rather than lots of listing and sales fees).
 
And when charging postage, always try and factor in the cost of packing materials, as you cannot always recoup this from the items selling price.

So say if you listed an item for 99p, and it sold for 99p, and you charged £2 postage, and that was the actual cost at the post office, you would come away with 59p. This is before you deduct packing costs, petrol costs etc.

Listing - free (as it is 99p)
Final value fee - 10p
Paypal fees - 30p

Also, if your item doesn't sell, you only pay the insertion fee and reserve fee (if you have set one).

Any questions, feel free to ask me. I've been selling on ebay for about 6 years now :D
 
I've noticed a lot of areas setting up their own local For Sale message boards on Facebook to avoid 'Fee-Bay'. Might be worth checking. I know kids clothes are one of the main things on the Cambridge one.
 
it's often easier to go to a boot sale and get the lot shifted at once. Especially as kids stuff and clothes seems to sell really well there (and only the gate fee rather than lots of listing and sales fees).

and such good fun. It also gives you the opportunity to clear out all those unwanted items cluttering up the cupboards and draws in the house.

But a word of warning.......it becomes addictive lol both selling and buying.

I am sure there is someone who would have the 2 babes for a morning.

I've noticed a lot of areas setting up their own local For Sale message boards on Facebook to avoid 'Fee-Bay'. Might be worth checking. I know kids clothes are one of the main things on the Cambridge one.

My sis uses one in her area and it works.

Good luck B.B.
 
I have sold lots of baby and maternity stuff on ebay and it really is barely worth the effort by the time everyone has taken their cut. Why don't you try listing on your local netmums site, it's free and people can give you cash on collection rather than lose more money to paypal. I'm going to start doing that now for clothes bundles and toys which are expensive to post - fingers crossed it pays off!
 
pre-loved is another good second hand site, just free-ads so no fees.
 
You are all amazing thanks for the ideas. I completely forgot about netmums & gumtree is another one I just remembered.

I had a look at the sold items on ebay & you're right hardly worth the effort.

BBxx
 
I sold a couple of things on ebay last night (my leftover VLCD food) and then got talking to my dad and his girlfriend - I think when the boot sale season starts up we'll have a bit of an epic boot sale! I'm already thinking of what i've got to flog (and hopefully some clothes that are too big by then!)
 
I always wait for their no fees for listing weekends. It depends what you sell, all the monsoon stuff I sold I got more back than when I bought it off there!
 
I sold a lot of stuff recently on ebay and I actually worked out what I made once all selling fees and paypal fees had been deducted (I listed on a free listing weekend) and I lost a third of what I made.
You do need to make a fair old bit of money on your items.

It doesn't matter to people what you bought things for, they will only pay a certain price for things and unless you get a bit of a bidding war on you don't seem to get much these days.

The money seems to be made on Monsoon, Coast, Radley and also Next jeans have been big sellers too!

I would rather have a car boot sale or give things to charity than get 99p less fees for something in really good condition!
 
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