New EBay seller

The Buster

In the 80's and 90's I built up a collection of toys that have become quite valuable. Looking at what I have they have sold on eBay for between €10 and €2,000 depending on the character. Some are rarer than others

I have never sold anything on eBay but have bought hundreds of items. I would like to try and start cashing in on what I have and sell them over the coming few months

Any advise on a sales strategy? I am guessing that as I have no selling rating it will be harder. I was thinking of trying to sell some of the cheaper items now to build up a rating and then try and sell the more expensive ones in a few months? Does that make sense

Anything else I should think about as a new seller. I have shipping costs and have packaging.

All advise appreciated

CantGetNoSleep

Make sure everything you send is registered post. This can be prohibitive in Ireland but the number of people who see that something isn't signed for and just claim they never received anything is huge.

Calculate eBay and PayPal fees (and probably a certain number of returns) in your costing.

A Dub in Glasgo

Accurately describe your items with plenty of photos

Ebay take about 10% fee and Paypal take another cut as well

You can also build up feedback through buying on the account so I would just use your existing account. Most people do not even check if the feedback is for buying or selling. Feedback received for sales is running at about 80% for me so do not expect every buyer to give you feedback

Ebay now make it easy for the buyer to return an item and in some cases you will be hit with the return costs

Buy a load of bubble wrap and mailing bags

You are responsible for ensuring the item is delivered and are required by Paypal to have proof of delivery. For low value items, I take a punt and just send it in the normal post

Consider how quickly you can turn around the item from sale to dispatch. I put 1 day in my listings and I generally do not buy from sellers who put 3+ days

You will need to decide if you are offering free delivery or add delivery to the price (makes no difference to the fee)

Research the sold items on ebay to decide if you are to put it as a Buy It Now or Auction

If an auction, decide if you want the ebay market to truly set your price (ie very low start price to encourage bidding wars or start the auction at the price you are happy to sell)

I would build up a rating and sell the expensive / sought after items this time next year as the Christmas time is the peak for selling

Unearthly

Just in regards to your comment about starting off selling low valued items to build up feedback then selling high I wouldn't advise that. It may set off some fraud triggers that you are trying to con buyers.

Kamili

Video yourself packing up the item too, just in case there is a dispute and the seller claims you sent something different to what you auctioned. Keep your pics on file and describe absolutely everything about the item in detail on the listing. Keep a record of this yourself too.

I know it sounds silly, but ebay tend to side with the buyer regardless unless you can prove otherwise. Weigh the packages also and make a note of this. An Post have a scales in their offices anyway so just make a not of the final weight when you send. A recent scam is to guy a genuine item and request a return then send back a counterfeit instead.

Never refund a buyer if they wish to return and item until its in your hands. And weight it, and compare to your vids and pics to make sure it is actually the item you sent. Always ask the buyer to submit a dispute through paypal before you offer a refund.


More often than not everything will run smoothly but there are a lot of scams out there!

Conservative

If you have decent feedback as a buyer I wouldn't worry about how you start off. A very important note is if a buyer opens a dispute on Paypal for damaged, undelivered items Paypal will side with the buyer and refund them 99% of the time and refund so make sure everything is packed extremely well and registered post where viable.

If you live anywhere that's accessible to the border RM registered post within the UK is much cheaper than sending via An Post. We send all our items midweek from Newry at roughly half the price of sending via an Post. Obviously it's depending on how frequently you are sending your items.

We sell high demand electrical items so we have to compete with the UK but as your items are more specialised the postage cost might not be as relevant.

Take note of Ebay and Paypal charges as they take a decent percentage of the sale price. It varies by category of item.

I'd suggest starting a few auctions at 99c for the cheaper items. It might get your other items noticed by people who are collectors etc.