I've been thinking about trying selling some stuff on ebay. From what I hear, they've put the charges up and it is much harder to make money. I'm also wondering if it is worth the effort! I figure I could make it fairly efficient if I keep items under the weight of a post satchel, so that postage is standard. We also have a very good feedback record as buyers and I'd hate to have difficult customers mess that up.

Anyone selling small volumes on Ebay and having  good results?

What are you planning to sell?

 

 

A few books, a couple of DVDs, and I have a fairly good computer graphics card that wasn't quite compatible with the old computer, so I took it out and put the old one back in. I always have some good kid's clothes, too - there's some that are barely worn at all so they usually go to goodwill.

A couple of years ago, I was selling books and clothes off and on on Ebay. I found that some things sell and some things don't. I can only suggest that you look on Ebay to find a sampling of what you want to sell and watch to see how many of the auctions are sold and for what price.

 

 

Thanks Gigi. Its surprising, isn't it. I think there's actually a site that lists the 99c nearly-ended deals for you - I know some people snag great bargains that way. Never works for me though, I always get outbid on stuff or pay too much!

I think I'll take Brandy's advice and research what these items are going for (here in Australia) and see if it is even likely to be worthwhile. Actually the graphics card I could probably advertise on the University for-sale board, I'm sure some computing student would want it. 

Helen - we have been selling on ebay as a hobby for several years now.  We mostly sell books and usually sell between 50 and 75% of what we list.  Some things that we think are quite ordinary will sell for big bucks and things we think we sell well won't sell at at.  It seems there is no real rhyme or reason for it.  However, there are times that you shouldn't bother listing things unless you really want to sell them cheap.  The slow times we have found are the month of January and around any holiday that people will be traveling.  You will generally get your best prices in October through early December when folks are buying Chrsitmas gifts.

I've sold a number of things on e-Bay - stuff my mother left me, or had not been able to sell in her older way of postcards and dealers back and forth.  Some of the items I've done really well on, and some have just sat there.  If you don;t think it's something that is worth the listing fees, check into Craigslist.  There are sites for this one site around the country, it's free to list and you can sell locally so that the goods are either picked up or not shipped major distances. You may also have local sites - we have one here called listitri.com, so check that as well.  And if you just want to get rid of it, sign on with Freecycle.  I've gotten rid of clutter, and picked up the odd items as well, for nothing.

 

Liz

I've sold books at an online bookshop, but to be honest: most money went to postage stamps...

We have a national holiday next week (Queens birthday) which is the only day that everybody is allowed to sell goods on the street, but locally it's often forbidden or regulated. So we hired a booth for € 25 (which is about $ 35) in the centre of our village. I'm a bit nervous about it, never done anything like this before! But hopefully will sell all my books or at least earn back the costs. I will also sell the CD's  I bought 5 years ago, and never listened to (the complete works of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and Mahler. I guess I don't like classical music...)

Are there carboot markets or garage sales in Australia ?? (not allowed in our country)

I've had very good selling experience with Ebay but for books and dvd's and such, Amazon is where you want to be!  It's so easy to sell there, just create your account and enter the ISBN or barcode of the item.  Be sure to undercut the lowest price if you want it to sell quickly.  They give you a shipping credit so it costs a lot less than Ebay.

Go to amazon.com and look around.  I really enjoyed raking in the money there on things I no longer wanted.