How to Sell on eBay For Beginners

eBay is one of the best platforms to resell items on. Some people do it as a hobby, while others sell on eBay full-time. In today’s article, I will review how to sell on eBay for beginners. It should answer many of your questions about eBay if you want to get started.

Get Started

You want to sell on eBay, but you haven’t made a move yet. It’s time to make a move. The first thing that you need to do is sign up for an account.  Signing up for an eBay account is free. You need to include your name, email address, and password to get started. Follow the instructions, and you should have your account live within 10 minutes.

Sign Up for PayPal

The 2nd thing you should do is sign up for a PayPal account. A PayPal account is an online service that allows you to send and transfer money electronically. You can use PayPal to pay for items, but eBay doesn’t pay you through them anymore. I’ll get to that in a second. PayPal is also free to register with. Make sure you add a checking account or credit card to your PayPal account so that it gets verified.

eBay’s Manage Payments

In 2018, eBay started a payment management program, which means the platform handles the transaction from start to finish, only for a certain percentage of the final sale, this depends on the final sale price and the item sold, but it ranges between 12% to 15% of the final price plus 30 cents.

Implementing this program has many benefits, one of which is that it allows the buyer to pay in many different ways, giving the seller a higher opportunity to make a sale. Also, the seller can have everything needed in one place, such as fees, customized reports, protections, and support. eBay is always looking for ways to improve the experience of both parties, seller and buyer, so this program simplifies everything related to the transactions that are done on the website.

How does it work?

When you register on the Manage Payment program, you will link a bank account or a Payoneer account, which is a payment platform like Paypal. Payoneer teamed up with eBay in 2021. You can choose to receive payouts of available funds daily, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. The company only sends payouts on business days. 

eBay deducts the fees and commission before transferring your funds when a sale is made. If you have a Payoneer account, you will have access to those funds within minutes. But If you want those funds in your bank account, it will take more time to access them. eBay usually takes 2 business days after confirming the buyer’s payment, and your bank will take 1 to 3 additional business days. You will find all the details of your payouts in the reports section of My eBay or Seller Hub.

Learn more about eBay’s fees here.

What Do You Want to Sell

Next, you have to decide what you want to sell. There are thousands of things that you can sell. I tell people to start with what they know. If you know shoes, start with shoes. I know sports, so I started selling sports-related items. People are making money on all types of crazy items. Below is a list of a few things that I’ve sold.

• Shoes
• Sports Jerseys
• Bobbleheads
• Coffee Mugs
• Tools

That list can go on forever. Figure out what you want to sell, and then start listing.

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Before you list your items, make sure you do your research. This will let you know whether you have an item that will sell. There are items out there that sell, but the seller doesn’t make a profit. That’s not why I’m on eBay. The goal is to make money. The main way I research an item is by searching for it on the eBay website. You want to make sure that it’s an item worth selling. I made a mistake in thinking that some items would sell, but they didn’t. Taking an “L” isn’t fun. My eBay flops, as I call them, can be viewed here.

Take Good Pictures

The next tip on how to sell on eBay for beginners is to take good pictures. This is arguably the most important thing to do. Potential buyers will see your pictures and title first. You want to make sure that they buy, so have great pictures.  Your pictures should be clear and have plenty of lighting. You can also add up to 12 photos for free on eBay. For most of my listings, I post between 10-12 photos. That should be more than enough pictures for prospective buyers to know if they want to buy your item or not. I typically use my cell phone light or lights in the house. If you want to get to the next level, you can use a lightbox like the one in the highlighted link. It will help your pictures look more professional.

Auction or Buy it Now

The next step is to decide how to sell your item. Do you want to list it as an auction, or do you want to sell it for a fixed price (Buy it Now)? If you list your item as an auction, people get the chance to bid on it. The highest bidder wins the item. With a fixed-price listing, you choose the price. The person can then buy it without bidding. Auctions can be listed for 3, 5, 7, or 10 days. Fixed price listings are listed for 30 days. If the item doesn’t sell, it will be automatically relisted for another 30 days. Most of my items are “Buy it Now.” I like getting my money sooner than later.

Before setting a price for your listings, check the sold listings to see what your items are currently selling for. Below are a few pictures that can show you how to do that. The example that I used was Air Jordan IV sneakers.

I typed “Air Jordan IV” in the search bar.

Next, you can click on sold items and you can see what the items have sold for.

As you can see, most of those Jordans sold for over 100 bucks. You can compare any item this way. Once you do that, you gauge your starting price.

Shipping

This is where a lot of eBay sellers get frustrated. Hell, I used to get frustrated a lot with shipping too. When it comes to shipping, you have two options. You can either charge a flat shipping rate or calculate the shipping. If you are a beginner, I highly suggest you ship everything flat rate. You can find more information about this on the USPS website.

Related Reading:  eBay Shipping Tips

If you plan to calculate shipping, research that you get a scale. In the past, I used to estimate some of my shipping prices. That was not a smart thing to do. I lost money on several occasions. Below is a scale that is similar to the one that I have.

Shipping boxes can be hard to come by if you don’t know where to look. You can get some from the post office for free. Believe it or not, you don’t even have to go to a physical location. You can order them online at the USPS website. You can also purchase them from a store like Walmart. I get most of the boxes I ship shoes and bobbleheads from there.

I hope this post on how to sell on eBay for beginners answers some of your questions. If you need specific help feel free to join my Facebook group, My Money Chronicles, Inner Circle. We talk about eBay in there all the time.

This post is pretty much a beginner’s guide for eBay. I know that you may need more info. I recently recorded a webinar titled eBay for Starters. In the 30-minute webinar, I go into more detail on how to sell on eBay for beginners. The webinar is free. Go here to view it today.

I hope you enjoyed this post on how to sell on eBay. I believe that you can make money today. You just have to start.

Below, I have a few more eBay resources for you.

eBay Resources

Boxes

I get a lot of my boxes that I use for shipping at the Post Office. They don’t always have the right size. If I need a different size box, I usually get it somewhere else. You can purchase them from a store or order them from Amazon. Below is a good pack of boxes.

Bubble Wrap

If you sell certain items like mugs or glass, you will need to get some bubble wrap. Here is some bubble wrap that is priced reasonably.

Tape

Tape comes in handy. You can never have enough of it. Here is an example of the shipping tape that I use.