The pluses and minuses of selling on eBay. You've heard the old adage, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Or if at first you don't succeed, try try again. I could keep going on and on with the sayings to convince you to sell on eBay. But the truth is, there is some risk. I don't think there's too much risk.
After all, you're given a certain amount of free listings every month. And the fees you'll be paying on the item that you sell, or what we call final value fees on the back end. There are lots of reasons not to try selling. It takes too much time. I don't know how to ship. I don't know the hours of the post office.
What kind of supplies do I need? I could go on and on. But the truth is you're watching this video so all those questions are going to be answered for you. On the plus side, you have a chance to get rid of stuff that has been lying around the house unused and unwanted Plus, you have a chance to make some extra money to other reasons On the plus side. It's fun, and I can attest to it's rather addicting. One excuse that I've heard from many of my former students is that I don't like selling on ebay because my fees are too high.
Let me put another spin on that. If you have high fees on eBay, given the fact that you're given many free listings per month, it will be because you're selling a lot of items. If you have a store, you're going to be given more free listings. You still will pay the final value fee on the backside. Those fees will vary depending on category but I like to just round it off and not do the math between eBay and PayPal, which is your collecting money service. You'll pay about 15% in fees, so for every hundred dollars that you sell $15 will go to eBay and PayPal Now, it really might not be that much.
But I like to round up so that you're realistic about what money you're making. That $15 is the cost of doing business. And it's all about location, location, location. Where else can you get millions of sets of eyes, looking at your items and possibly buying them. ebay.com is the place. There are many safety and trust securities put into place when you use eBay, and PayPal as well.
Within minutes, you can talk to a real person at eBay customer service. They'll either call you back, or you hang on the line for just a few minutes, and they'll answer any questions that you might have or concerns about a particular transaction. On the negative side, people are often disappointed when their item sells for less than what it's worth, or for what they paid for it. But the truth is, you sold it, move on. Next item, please. Your Going to sell some items for more than what it might be worth.
You'll sell some for less, you win some you lose some. The idea is to practice and to get rid of your unguided items, you will make some money along the way. One trick to making more money is to list items that have a higher value. Now without experience, you may not know what those items are. And frankly, I would start on less valuable items anyway. So if you make a mistake, it's not a high risk proposition.
I think the pluses outweigh the minuses for sure.