Selling Options

Quite recently I was having a clear out and came across a box of old vinyl albums in a box at the back of a cupboard. The obvious question arose; Now what shall I do with all this stuff? Now Im a pretty altruistic kind of guy and quite often Ill take things down to a charity shop rather than just dumping them. On this occasion Id earlier been looking for some books on ebay and the obvious thought occurred to me, why not sell the albums on ebay? Now by and large vinyl albums dont sell for a fortune on ebay, but rarer and more unusual ones – in good condition – can have dedicated fan bases eager to buy up original recordings. So, armed with my collection of some way-out 60s vinyl albums I needed to find out how to sell on ebay.
The first thing to do is register with ebay as a seller. Nothing could be easier as the ebay website takes you through this procedure in small and simple steps. Before starting this there are a few things to think about. First is how do you want people to pay you? Youll be offered several options by ebay for how to pay and be paid on its website. Using PayPal is a great way to finance things, for both selling and buying over the internet. So you might want to register with PayPal first, the alternative to that is youll have to register a debit or credit card with them. Also, itd be a good idea to think about the trading name you want to use. You can of course alter this later but you might consider; do you want to use your own name or a nick-name or something to do with what youre selling or whatever? A hint here is – have several names ready, regardless of how original you think yours might be youd be amazed at how many seller names are already taken. Youll also need to have a password ready. When the on-screen instructions offer you a choice for the level of seller you want to operate at, initially Id recommend creating a personal seller account.
Having completed the registration process, youre ready to open your account and start selling on ebay. Again, before starting this Id do a bit of preparation; what are you going to write about the item(s), have you got a photograph of it/them ready, how much will it cost you to dispatch the item(s) to a buyer, etc? When you are ready, select the Sell tab and the category/sub-category for the goods you want to sell. You then go to the Create your listings page. Make sure you accurately and clearly name and describe your item(s). Id always recommend having a photograph ready; it helps reassure potential buyers that youre on the level. The photo needs to be either a gif or jpeg file and ideally 300×400 pixels, ebay can/will automatically resize images – but its best if you edit the picture yourself to ensure it really shows off the item(s) to maximum effect.
The next stage is to determine the selling format. You need to set a starting price for bids and, if youre confident that the item(s) have a minimum retail value, you can set a reserve price – hidden or shown – that must be met or exceeded for a sale to be made. Dont forget that once youve made a sale youll owe ebay a fee or some commission. Upload the information and wait for all the bids to come in. You may well get some queries from potential customers, be polite and patient with them – one of them might well be the person who buys from you. Finally, youll automatically be sent the winning bidders email address by ebay, contact them within three days and close the deal.