I finally overcame the eBay / selling jitters. There's a lot of uncertainty that comes with your first sale. How do you do this ? Where do you get that ? How does this process work ? Am I ready ?
I'm very excited to have gone through the process of my first sale (YaY) so that I can know share the knowledge with you all. Here are the things I'll talk about / explain:
At the end of it all I'll also provide a comprehensive TuT (tutorial) that will guide you to a worry-free selling / shipping experience.
Choosing the Right Listing Type
If you look on eBay's website, they list out the listing formats they offer. You can read through it and see which fits you. I tried that and failed to have a "successful" listing. As an example: I listed my item with the 'Auction-style' and I chose to add the 'Buy It Now' option which will make you enter the amount you'll accept for the item (as seen below)
I'm very excited to have gone through the process of my first sale (YaY) so that I can know share the knowledge with you all. Here are the things I'll talk about / explain:
- Choosing the right listing type
- Shipping made easy; overcoming the fear
- Getting USPS boxes and scheduling a pickup
- How to determine your shipping costs
At the end of it all I'll also provide a comprehensive TuT (tutorial) that will guide you to a worry-free selling / shipping experience.
Choosing the Right Listing Type
If you look on eBay's website, they list out the listing formats they offer. You can read through it and see which fits you. I tried that and failed to have a "successful" listing. As an example: I listed my item with the 'Auction-style' and I chose to add the 'Buy It Now' option which will make you enter the amount you'll accept for the item (as seen below)
So I did that and entered a starting amount of $XX.xx. After about a few days, I then went back to remove the 'Buy It Now' for whatever reason then later I get an email that my piece had sold .... but it had sold at the "Starting Bid Amount." Apparently, if you do as I just described, your listing will sell for the amount you entered, so if you entered $0.99 as a starting bid, then removed the 'Buy It Now' option after you list your item, your item will very well sell for that "$0.99" even if you had intended it to sell for much more.
Lesson learned ! After clarification, this is what you want to do;
Sell Auction-style with a Reserve Price
Lesson learned ! After clarification, this is what you want to do;
Sell Auction-style with a Reserve Price
How it works
Until the bidding reaches your reserve price, the listing will display Reserve not met under the current bid. You aren't obliged to sell to the highest bidder until the reserve is met.
eBay will never reveal your reserve price to potential bidders. But sellers often receive inquiries from bidders about the reserve price. This is allowed on eBay. Likewise, revealing your reserve to a bidder is allowed, but not required. If you don't want to reveal your reserve price, you can politely let the bidder know that they can bid what they like and if the bidding meets the reserve price the item will be sold.
A few things to remember about reserve prices:
- The reserve price option is only available for auction-style listings. It's not available for fixed price or classified ad listings.
- All auction-style listings with a reserve price are subject to a reserve price fee.
- You can lower or remove your reserve price after you receive bids on the item.
Basically, this means that you'll have a minimum sale price ("Starting Price") and a maximum sale price (the Reserve Price) which will ensure you at the very least get paid the very minimum that you have set for your piece and everyone's happy.
Shipping Made Easy; Overcoming the Fear
After I bought everything I thought I needed to package and ship my piece and actually went through the motions of packing it, buying and printing the eBay shipping label, I realized I made this process much bigger than it actually is - don't do it. For your sanity's sake :-)
I am in the process of creating a packaging TuT which will make everything seem and feel very doable and uncomplicated.
Stay tuned.
Getting USPS Boxes & Scheduling a (free) Pickup
Super-easy ! It's all free. So you can go online (or on USPS' mobile app) and order free flat-rate shipping boxes - there's many sizes. Order what you need, and it will ship to you for free. In the TuT I'm creating I'll explain how to determine what size boxes to get based on the dimensions of the piece you're selling. Once you package your piece and print out the shipping label, you can go online (or on their mobile app) and schedule a free pickup of your package !
How to Determine Your Shipping Costs
When you sell a piece and you decide to use eBay's Label Printing service, it'll ask you to choose a shipping method which will have the dimensions of your box next to it. When I was going through that process, I used a "Regional Rate Box C" which has dimensions of 15"x12"x12" which was not on their list of options.
After speaking with eBay they stated "- just choose the option closest to your package dimensions. It doesn't have to be exact. The prices are generally the same" in regards to the prices for the "Regional Rate Box A" & "Regional Rate Box B" as those were the only two Regional boxes listed, which was good to know. But it was kind of backwards, I thought, to do it that way; to ask you to set a shipping price when you're creating your listing and after you sell it, to choose the shipping option which has a pre-determined price. I guess it wasn't really geared for the beginner in mind.
So rule of thumb, if you sculpt pieces from 4 - 8" in size, the Regional Rate Boxes will do you well and the shipping costs there are approximately $13 (to be safe) so when you're setting your price for your listing, figure in the shipping cost "$13.00" and the shipping label cost which is approximately $10.00. Giving you a subtotal "shipping cost" (shipping & shipping label) of about $25.
Shipping Made Easy; Overcoming the Fear
After I bought everything I thought I needed to package and ship my piece and actually went through the motions of packing it, buying and printing the eBay shipping label, I realized I made this process much bigger than it actually is - don't do it. For your sanity's sake :-)
I am in the process of creating a packaging TuT which will make everything seem and feel very doable and uncomplicated.
Stay tuned.
Getting USPS Boxes & Scheduling a (free) Pickup
Super-easy ! It's all free. So you can go online (or on USPS' mobile app) and order free flat-rate shipping boxes - there's many sizes. Order what you need, and it will ship to you for free. In the TuT I'm creating I'll explain how to determine what size boxes to get based on the dimensions of the piece you're selling. Once you package your piece and print out the shipping label, you can go online (or on their mobile app) and schedule a free pickup of your package !
How to Determine Your Shipping Costs
When you sell a piece and you decide to use eBay's Label Printing service, it'll ask you to choose a shipping method which will have the dimensions of your box next to it. When I was going through that process, I used a "Regional Rate Box C" which has dimensions of 15"x12"x12" which was not on their list of options.
After speaking with eBay they stated "- just choose the option closest to your package dimensions. It doesn't have to be exact. The prices are generally the same" in regards to the prices for the "Regional Rate Box A" & "Regional Rate Box B" as those were the only two Regional boxes listed, which was good to know. But it was kind of backwards, I thought, to do it that way; to ask you to set a shipping price when you're creating your listing and after you sell it, to choose the shipping option which has a pre-determined price. I guess it wasn't really geared for the beginner in mind.
So rule of thumb, if you sculpt pieces from 4 - 8" in size, the Regional Rate Boxes will do you well and the shipping costs there are approximately $13 (to be safe) so when you're setting your price for your listing, figure in the shipping cost "$13.00" and the shipping label cost which is approximately $10.00. Giving you a subtotal "shipping cost" (shipping & shipping label) of about $25.
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