Clearing out junk with Ebay
Learning to use Ebay is a great investment in clearing junk out of your house. I first decided to make the jump into Ebay a few years back after Staples had a sale whereby the rebate would pay you more than you spent on the purchase. I ended up with a bunch of Norton and McAfee software that I had no use for. So I decided to put it on Ebay. Since then I found lots of other stuff that I didn’t use that still had value on Ebay.
The first thing I had to figure out is, was it worth anything. The boxes all had their UPC’s cut out, so I found that there was actually a good market for software that was out of box but still had all its accompanying paperwork (most importantly CD key). Next I searched through completed listings for the software packages. It’s very important to search completed listings to determine prices and also volume of sales. For something that has a pretty good volume of sales on Ebay, don’t bother with reserve prices or high minimum bids as they are a waste of listing fees. There will probably be some idiot bid on your item with 6 days left for only a penny but don’t worry as your end date approaches the real buyers will show up. In fact, do not be surprised to see that the item gains most of its bids in the last hour or less of bidding.
For items that don’t have a huge volume or are unique items, I usually just set a minimum bid rather than reserve. A reserve might be useful if want you to go fishing for the price range your item is valued at and want to have the option of not selling but if you’re pretty sure you can set fair price just use a minimum bid.
It’s important to take pictures of your items (if they are a physical item, unlike software) and describe them well. Figure out what it will cost to ship your items as you don’t want to get burned on shipping. I actually bought an item once where the seller paid more to ship the item than I even paid him for the entire auction. Apparently he didn’t bother to get a shipping quote before setting his price. Be sure to investigate different shipping services. Sometimes offering overnight shipping, no matter the cost, will sell items. In America, the land of instant gratification, offering a Buy It Now with overnight shipping will entice a certain class of buyers. Also be sure to investigate budget shipping services, first class mail for items 13oz or less and media mail for books can offer you an edge in the shipping department amongst yet another class of buyers who are looking for rock bottom prices.
Another important detail is return policy. If you are offering brand new, sealed items, or software I highly recommend specifying “no returns.” You don’t want them to them to open your software, make a copy, and then return it saying it doesn’t work with their computer. I once sold a brand new, sealed wi-fi card only to have the buyer claim it was defective after opening it. I had him return it and refunded his money. It worked fine in both my Dell and IBM laptops… The reality was he probably got a better deal on one at BestBuy and had buyer’s remorse. I take more time specifying my return policy now.
I am about to delve into yet another area of Ebay: clothing sales. My fiancee has some old prom dresses and some barely used ski boots she wants to sell. I have no idea how much she will get for them. I’ve had alot of success selling her used college textbooks on Half.com, but we’ll see how clothing sales go. At the very least the result is a cleaner closet.
