Any tricks or tips for selling on eBay in 2019?

I've bought on eBay for over twenty years but I've only sold a couple things there and those were several years back. I know things are always changing at eBay and the buyer is better protected than the seller. I'm no where near being up to the current expectations there as a seller, ideas? Thanks.

Depends on what you are selling and a bunch of other things. You'll need to provide a little more information to get any helpful information.
Let's start out with the basics. Clearing out your closet or starting a business?

I used to sell some surplus stuff there. The fees have gotten so high, I don't mess with it. They also steer buyers to PayPal (more fees).......

High fees, pro buyer in disputes, maddening bureaucracy if there’s an issue. Beyond that be smart about who you deal with, acknowledge you may get boned, move your funds out of pp ASAP. If it’s a few sales it’s no biggie. If it’s a new business venture take more care.

quote:

Originally posted by heathtx:
I used to sell some surplus stuff there. The fees have gotten so high, I don't mess with it. They also steer buyers to PayPal (more fees).......

Can you sell without using PayPal?

Paypal only protects the buyer. They can claim (scam) pretty much anything and paypal will back them.

I have sold quite a few extra things on ebay. Gun parts, bicycle components, boat stuff. Only had a problem once, I did not use a tracking number on the item sent. Lost $25 to a scammer. However two months later PP gave me my money, apparently the buyer had been scamming other people as well.

I always sell using "Buy it now", and post lots of photos and a good description. Probably 99.5% no problem in my experience.

Miscommunication led to an unwanted pair of shoes under the tree. And yep, no fan of PayPal but as long as it's eBay, maybe the most confident I'd be on getting some money back on a sell.

I'll admit to wanting to test the eBay waters to move out some other junk so there's that. Seller horror stories surely have my attention.

I've sold a few things lately, not high dollar, sales went OK. I do buy on occasion but mostly from Ebay storefronts, no problems.

Ebay is not what it used to be if you are a seller. You can't leave negative feedback on deadbeat buyers but they can leave all kinds of negative feedback about you as well as dispute the purchase for any number of reasons. When they do, PayPal will freeze your funds or even reverse them and it can take months to get the money back if at all. Marking your item as "no returns" means nothing. If the buyer disputes your purchase Ebay will tell you to refund their money including shipping and hope they ship the item back to you. For all these reasons, I have pretty much stopped selling anything on there and rarely buy any more. It's a shame but I came way to close to getting ripped off buy a lying buyer one time too many.

Been selling on eBay for 20+ years.

Lately the format has been redesigned by someone with the mental capacity of a four year old who likes really big buttons and not having to think much.

Along the way there have been good and bad. Never got ripped off worse than what I could manage at a loss. Had a few buyers that bought so much of my stuff, they would send me a list of other items they needed but haven't found yet. One guy who builds store displays is always looking for old shoes and boots for making scarecrows. With an advertising budget like that, I can sometimes sell my old pair for more than what I paid for them. I managed to get $250+ for a GM 8-Track player.

Stick with selling something you know and are familiar with once you have sold all of your extra stuff.

I used to sell tons of stuff on ebay, mostly muscle car related stuff I got from junk yards. I got burned a few years ago. I sold a brand new Garmin GPS (Rino) unit. Buyer claimed it was not new and sent it back to me. He sent me back a different unit than what I sent him. I had pictures of the serial numbers and everything. Ebay still took his side.

I still buy and sell stuff, but only low dollar things. My wife sells our kids clothes that they outgrow in sets. usually 3 or 4 shirts along with 2 or 3 pairs of pants. This works out well. Most stuff goes for under $20.

I also buy and sell their snowboard boots (< $50) as they only get 1 season out of them.

The secret seems to have 10 thousand of the exact same item and to list them all.

If you can ship direct from China, that's a bonus.

I quit selling on ebay for the reason's mentioned.

No protection for sellers.
Fees are too expensive.

We earned a living on Ebay for a few years after I retired. We were shipping 25K a month out of our garage. Back then is was all about the selling community. Everything changed.

I sold new designer clothing, shoes and accessories from a well known NY based brand. My partner was that designer and owner of the brand. He provided the inventory, I did the work and we split the profits.

All sales were final with us unless we made a mistake in the listing. We provided tons of pictures and every measurement we could think of. These garments were true to size.

Customer bought a sweater. A month later she contacted me to get her money back because it didn’t fit. I didn’t have another one in the size she wanted but offered her a different style. Nope.

She filed a grievance with EBay and PayPal that I was selling counterfeit merchandise. Remember THE designer was my partner and provided the merchandise. I found out about the claim when my EBay account was frozen and all 200 or so listings were cancelled. We swept our Payoal account nightly. PayPal went into our checking account and grabbed the customers money.

All this was without contact. My partner had to write a notarized letter on his letterhead stating he was my partner and provided the merchandise. We were out of business for about 10 days.

That was it for us.

eBay didn’t want smaller sellers. They wanted brands and wanted to compete against Amazon.

It’s really tough to make money selling on eBay.

Wow. I didnt know Ebay went this far down hill. What a shame as I used to enjoy buying there often. Reading these posts pretty much determines I not buy there again.

I sold hundreds if not a thousand items on ebay from 1997-2014. Now not so much. The cost of shipping kills it, not to mention the competition.

I recently had a near-new camera lens to sell. Rather than deal with all the stuff others have mentioned, I just sold it to KEH Camera; did the whole process online.

I still buy stuff off ebay.

I sold for a while, back when I had a lot of military surplus, WWII and earlier. But I got tired of it and sold almost all my collection just about the time the place seemed to go to the dogs.

I still use them to buy and they still hound me to sell. One of the buttons deletes those messages.

I must say that Amazon is usually within a dollar of two of Ebay and with their free Prime shipping (my wife wants it so...) I tend to buy more from them than Ebay.

Bob

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Any tricks or tips for selling on eBay in 2019?
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Hurry?

Seriously had lots of good ideas that have been covered.

Skeptics aside I’ve had good results, but won’t sell anything above $100 without a signature delivery.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

Seriously had lots of good ideas that have been covered.

Skeptics aside I’ve had good results, but won’t sell anything above $100 without a signature delivery.

Yes, thanks all. What does a signature delivery get me as a seller?