Finding items to sell on ebay for extra cash

One could go as far as making each listing more attractive by using templates. Selling on eBay can be fun and rewarding. Z and I had been Power Sellers by maintaining an eBay store with over 200 listings a week. Our eBay Username is adxpress_mercantile and our eBay Feedback rating is 1599. It’s exciting to see that item you bought for 80 cents sell at auction for over $10.

Listing items can be easy or hard depending on how much time and effort you choose to put into the listing. When I first started, I used a photo and a basic listing. To see an example of this check out my friends eBay listings his username is: knifejim (http://myworld.ebay.com/knifejim/). He does pretty well. His strategy is to keep it simple and list 20 items or less.

As we got into eBay more, we bought a template from the user peepers_76 (Store at: http://stores.ebay.com/originaltemplatedesigns). Peepers_76 is a great example on how descriptive a listing can become. We felt that a snazzier listing was more pleasing to the eye and helped us sell more. We could use the listings over and over again and create a brand for our eBay listings.

Before an item is listed, one has to choose carefully on what item to sell on eBay. On the surface eBay wants everyone to believe that everything can be sold on eBay. Not all items can be sold on eBay and other items aren’t at all practical to be sold on eBay. There are items that are banned on eBay. I would recommend you reading the eBay Policies to get an idea what those are.

When I choose something practical to sell on eBay, I mainly consider:

Can it be shipped by UPS or the Postal Service?
Can it be packaged so it can be shipped anywhere in the world without being broken?
How much do similar items sell (not list for) for on Ebay?

I usually like shipping everything by the postal service. Domestic shipping rates are reasonable and insurance is inexpensive. For international shipping the postal service has easier custom forms and there are less custom hang-ups. As a beginning eBay seller you should familiarize yourself with the rules and regulations of the postal service. You can go to the USPS website and read about them. You can also visit your local post office and ask questions at the counter. I would recommend asking any questions when it’s not busy.

Because your reputation is at stake (through your feedback rating) you want to make sure your item arrives in one piece. I found a great article on packing eBay shipments at:

http://ebay.about.com/od/completingtransaction1/a/ct_packing.htm

It wouldn’t make sense if you bought something for $50 somewhere and then couldn't sell it for even $20. You have to do some research. You do have to know about the items you are planning on selling. So look at items you already know about. Then, go and search for those items on ebay and see what people are selling them for. More importantly, on the upper lefthand side of the page of all the items there is a light blue bar and under the Show Only category there is a check box to choose Completed Listings.

Once checked the listings change and how this helps is that the prices on the right that are red are on the items that didn’t sell and the items that are in green did sell and for that amount. With this, you can determine if the item will sell for what similar items are going for.

With a little research you can find items to sell and get some extra cash.