Handy eBay Selling Tips - Part 1

To Get Started You Need The Following Basic Items:

These are the very basic things you need to get started.  There are more things you can do to enhance your listings.  I'll write about these in another post.

1. Items to Sell - I sell clothing.  It started when my daughter was in kindergarten.  I had saved everything from her babyhood- just in case I had another baby!  Well, I did have another baby...but not until much later.  I decided that in the meantime, the clothes she had outgrown as a toddler would be moth-eaten and crumbly by the time her sibling would have a chance to use them... Besides, I wanted to turn her outgrown clothing into $$ in order to purchase the latest Kelly's Kids and Ragsland fashions to put on her! I needed to feed my habit of having a well-dressed child!  :)  This well-dressed child is on her way to college this fall!  (wiping away tears here.)
2. An eBay account - Free of charge for an account. A nominal fee is charged to list an item and a percentage of the final selling price is taken by eBay.  These fees vary.  Many times, eBay will run a "special" for sellers to list their items for free.  Easy.  (My tip:  Use an email address that is not your main one.  It needs to be one that you check often, but not one that you use to communicate important family and business matters.  If you don't have an extra email, get one!  Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail... all free.)
3. A PayPal Account -  Free of charge to open an account.  This is to keep, save and spend your millions!  There is a charge for sending & receiving money, usually a nominal percentage of the amount.
4. Digital Camera - Of course, you could list items on eBay without photos...but I don't think items like clothing, decor, etc. would sell.  Perhaps, if you are selling books or software, actual photos would not be necessary.  Most folks have a digital camera now.  When I first started on eBay, not many people did.  I currently use a Canon Powershot for my listings.  I like this camera because the quality of the images is very good, but the camera is small and can easily fit into my purse for everyday use!
5. Photo/Auction Hosting Site - This is a site that you use to upload and host your pictures.  It stores the photos online and makes them accessible online to appear on your eBay listings.  EBay has it's own photo-hosting server, which is free.  I have never used it.  It's kinda like the old saying, "You get what you pay for..." or, in this case, what you don't pay for.  I use and recommend a site called Seller Sourcebook.  This site hosts your photos, provides templates for your listings, saves your eBay seller information and automates a lot of stuff.  There is a monthly fee of $8.00, but I find it to be well worth this cost.