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George Michael's Range Rover On ebay

2017-02-28T22:15:00.000-08:00

George Michael's Range Rover That he crashed in A Photography Shop's Window has reportedly been sold on eBay. The full story is Here

eBay Sellers Feel Abandoned As The Older Selling Tools Will Be No Longer Supported

2016-11-05T15:12:00.001-07:00

I came across this story today. eBay have decided to hang up some of their older selling tools such as Selling Manager & Pro as well as Turbolister. Their area a lot high volume sellers are not happy about it. You can read the full story HERE

The 8 Top Places Where eBay Sellers Can Get Great Stock From & Make Massive Profits.

2016-11-03T06:02:00.002-07:00

Car Boot Sales, Flea markets & Swap Meets

When most eBay Sellers start selling they will usually sell things that they have laid around the home that they no longer use. They get bitten well and truly by the money bug want to keep selling but have nothing left that they don't use. Getting stock can be can be one of hardest things for eBay sellers to over come. However there is a good number of options.

Car boots sales are where I get the vast majority of my stock. If you do get to go round the boot sale buy as ethically as you remember these are ordinary people that are having a clear out or they may need to get cash fast to buy food. In the past I've given more than the stall holder has asked for, especially when the seller maybe a child who has come along with their parents and they have given their son or daughter a small section of the stall to sell some of their old toys. One time in particular springs to mind when I asked a little girl how much the Nerf Recon I was told 50p this particular gun is worth about £15.00 I told her I would pay her £2.50 her parents were happy & the little girl was ecstatic to say the least. This has happened on a few occasions if I think there is a good profit in the item then I will give what the seller has asked without haggling.

There are eBay sellers however who will stop at nothing to get to the good stuff first and have no qualms rifling through box's going into the back of cars, they're like a lot vulture around a carcass. Don't go down this road you can still make plenty of money without lowering your morals to what is nothing more than a pack of hyenas fighting over scraps. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with haggling to get the price a lower to make a profit which has to be decent enough for the work into researching, listing & packing the item. Also for me personally if I know the seller is a dealer who is there each week, the gloves come off. If they can't be bothered to do a little research on the items they're selling that's their tough luck and I will always haggle with any dealer to get the price down.

Always arrive early in the morning to a car boot sale, they usually open to the public about seven a.m. Getting there early means you get to the best bargains first, however there will also be a couple of hundred other resellers doing exactly the same and you'll all be usually looking for the same things. There is a sort of unwritten law while you've get it in your hands you get to refuse it first and no one else can buy it. Have a look at the whole stall, see if you can put together a collection of things you want to buy and sort a deal out for all of it. Get into every area on the stall there will usually be box's under the table that have just had a load of stuff dumped into them, go through every single thing, don't overlook anything which can make you a profit. Not so long ago I grabbed quite a dirty cardboard box that was buried under a pile of stuff underneath a pasting table. I opened it up and there was a Asus net book. The seller she explained that she couldn't get it to work. I thought it had be worth £12.00 as spares or repairs. We agreed on £3.00 I took it home charged it up, it worked fine. It sold it a few days later for £58.00. I picked it quite late in the morning, which meant a number of resellers had missed it. All because they couldn't be bothered to look hard and dig in the dirt a bit. There is a Yorkshire saying "where there's muck there's brass." (brass: Yorkshire slang for money)

Local Auction Houses

Auctions are fast and furious and great fun to boot. You need to have your wits about you. You really can't rest even for a minute. However if you prepare properly you can get some really good stock at fantastic knock down prices.
Auctions usually work on fortnightly or weekly schedules. They put out a list on line a few days before the auctions takes place. The vast majority of auction houses will also email you the list. Have a good read though it and mark down any items that interests you on the sheet. There is always a viewing day before the auction go have a look at what you've marked down. You need to add up what you think you can get for the item and decide what your willing to pay. What I personally do is divide it in to three and one third is what I'm willing to pay to get this item. You may need to spend some time doing this I've spent all day at auction viewing days but the rewards are well worth the effort.

The day of the auction get there early I like to sit at the back of the room so I can see who is bidding against me. You have to watch every item that's coming through the auction I've picked up some really good buys this way but you have to think on your feet and act fast. Auctions can move at a furious pace and that's how the auctioneer likes it. It's easier for people to make mistakes and run the bidding up which means more commission for the auctioneer. When the items you've marked come up for auction its personal preference when you make a bid. I wait until there is only one bidder left and it looks like they've won before I jump in. This is where you need to be really disciplined and stick to your maximum limit DO NOT! go over it. It's so easy to think just one more bid, just one more, just one more, before you know it there is no profit left in the item and you've won it. For buyers there is also a buyers premium to pay which is usually between 10% & 15% of the winning bid which you must factor in when your working out how much your maximum bid will be. All that's left is settle the bill and pick up your goods.

Friends & Relatives

A friend of mine just asks people if they have any stuff they don't want that she can sell. She gets a really good amount if quite high quality stock. She'll go through it all, sell the good stuff on eBay or Amazon. Anything that's got questionable quality or has bits missing she'll save them up and take them to the local car boot sale. This is a system she has been using for years and she does really well out of it.

Charity or Good Will Shops

Only a couple of things to remember here check everything is complete and if its possible that its
working. Sometimes people have done a car boot sale and this is stock that hasn't sold for one reason or another. It maybe because it broken or has parts missing. The goods you can get at charity shops is now not as good as it once was. The big players such as Oxfam, Bernardo's & The Red Cross the all having eBay accounts and have dedicated teams looking for rare or vintage goods for eBay or Amazon. There is still stock that gets overlooked and a lot of the smaller local charities don't have eBay accounts or the resource to start one. Don't haggle in charity shops its there for a good cause & most of the colleagues are volunteers so don't give them a hard time. Ask what the price is if its not priced up and pay up. Go to charity shops on different days and different times there is always stock coming in so no two days will be the same.

Retail Arbitrage

This is very new to me and its something I've just started dabbling in.

Retail arbitrage is when you buy from a retailer an then resell for a profit. You can buy this stock in bulk usually after seasons have finished. So end of summer for such things as camping and outdoor and after winter for toys and games. Retailers need space and it maybe not worth shipping back to the local depot to hold onto as it won't be next years hot item. The retailer still needs to make as much out of the stock as they can but they also need the space for the next promotion. So goods are marked down to a fraction of the price and as time drags on the lower the price will go. Like all things eBay and Amazon there are a lot of resellers who are looking out for deals just like this. It's a case of who is willing to hold out the longest and get the best price before committing to buy. Once you have the goods list them as one lot in quantity. Put them on a BIN & good until cancelled, they'll then trickle out until you've sold through and hopefully made a good profit on each one.

Nic Hills who I've mentioned on the blog before is a master of retail arbitrage. Check out his video's. He talks about it at length in a few of them.

eBay & Amazon

These are an obvious but so many people over look them. I'm seeing more and more auctions set up for "collection Only" in other words "cant be bothered to post it" this type of auction attracts very few bids and are a great place to get stock from. You can also complete a search for auctions in your local area and drill this down to as close as you want. Complete the search using lowest price at the plus post and packing first start with a category that you already sell in. Don't forget to go through the wholsesale and joblots category. You can get some really cheap lots which can be broken down and sold separately.

Finding items on eBay or amazon to flip on can be time consuming and tedious but it can also pay off really well and like everything you'll only get out what your willing to put in.

Local Advertisements

By this I mean supermarket notice boards, Local papers, Facebook selling Groups & Gumtree. Again here speed is essential. You need to make very fast decisions whether there is profit left in it. Don't

forget your probably going to have to go pick the item up. Its no good if your going to make £10.00 profit but its going to cost you £11.00 in fuel to go get it. If you can, try and negotiate a better price before you go see the item. When I get in touch with the seller I'll say something along the lines of "you've got it advertised for £10.00 I'm coming a bit of a distance if its what I'm looking for would you accept £8.00?" they'll say either yes or no you can then make a decision whether to go anyway and probably pay £10.00 or give it a miss. I'll usually give it a miss but leave them my phone number and see if they get sellers remorse. I've had a few calls back saying they've thought about it and £8.00 is fine. Even if you don't get a call back you can still call them later and say something along the lines of "I've had a look round there is nothing else as good as yours is it still available?" This is all about he who blinks first "pays!"

By the side of the road

You can pick up some amazing items that people have
just thrown out for the trash man. You do need to make sure that it really is trash and its not just sat there while the the owner pops inside for a minute.
www.Scavengerlife.com is a website that's run by a couple in the U.S. They go round and pick up a lot of other peoples trash and turn it into good money, really good money. They do some fantastic pod casts and have done for a few years. Infact at the time of writing eBay sellers can listen to pod cast No 282.

Three Five Pound notes sell on eBay for £460.00

2016-09-23T12:56:00.001-07:00

'I sold three new fivers for £460' on Ebay - BBC News

Pair jailed for total of 18 years for 'sophisticated and cunning' eBay conspiracy (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

2016-08-20T22:18:00.001-07:00

A pair of crooks are each starting a nine year prison sentence for selling £1.25 million worth of stolen and counterfeit goods on eBay. You can read the full story HERE

EBay & The Taxman

2016-07-29T21:46:00.000-07:00

I added a post to the blog some time ago on declaring any earnings you make on eBay, Amazon or even just selling at the local car boot sale.

I found this story in a local paper about and eBay seller that thought he could cheat the system. Wrong answer Taxman and his buddy Vatman are really good at finding dodgers. If your buying and selling on eBay for a profit its very easy and simple. Register your business with Revenue & Customs, they will even help you complete the forms. Then keep up to date accounts of your earnings and pay any Tax & Vat due.

DeLorean DMC-12 Back To The Future Time Machine For Sale On eBay

2016-07-27T13:31:00.001-07:00

Although this wasn't the car used on the film it is an officially licensed product by NBC - Uninversal and comes with all the correct paperwork. The vehicle has also been signed by most of the film's cast and crew, including the guy who designed original movie car. The bidding currently stands at $50,500.00 its ends in a few hours so you better be quick if you fancy it.

Sellers On eBay Cash in On The Pokemon Go Craze

2016-07-25T11:58:00.001-07:00

I'm really not a big lover of Pokemon Go. It appears in the short term at least to be sending otherwise intelligent grown adults into fits of excitment as they scream "there's a Pikachu nearby!".

I found about this game when my 14 year son came downstairs still in dressed in his night clothes holding his smart phone like he was tracking something. He said "I'm going outside, I won't be long" I asked my wife if he'd got the part of Captain Oates in the school play. He came back a few minutes later saying he'd found a Weedle and went back upstairs. I looked at wife and said "what's going on". She said "its a game they're all playing". On a positive note I suppose it gets him outside and a dollop of exercise, sort of.

On the back of this latest phenomenon sales of Pokemon related items have gone through the roof with a sale on eBay every 12 seconds. Some people have even sold their Pokemon go accounts for some quite substantial amounts of money. So if you have anything Pokemon laid about I would suggest you get it on eBay pretty sharpish, I really can't see this latest fad being about too long.

Fox business picked up on this story you can read it HERE.

Police Get Involved Over The Sale of Three Dinky Cars!!

2016-07-18T12:19:00.004-07:00

These sort of stories never cease to amaze me. It was originally wrote in the Daily Mail. If you want to read the full story its HERE

Great Video on How eBay's Search Priorities Auctions.

2016-07-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

Although it's now three year old this video is a great example of what you need to do to your auction to get it moved up the results. Listening to the lecture right the way though is tough going. However if you stick with it there are some real gold nuggets in there.

$8000.00 A Month Selling Used Phone, Laptop & Tablet Cases.

2016-07-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

I love stories like this. There is so many people buying online and returning items that they don't want that there is a huge market buying and selling many of the returns.

When companies get the returns back for what ever reason they usually sell them off in lots which can be purchased cheaply by anyone. This is a story of an entrepenuer who has found himself a fairly big slice of the action. He buys these lots breaks and then breaks them all down and sells them individually using eBay. The best bit is he makes around $8000.00 a month for his efforts. Not bad for stuff that would have once ended up in the bin.You can read the full story HERE

One of The Funniest Most Honest eBay Item descriptions I've Ever Read

2016-07-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most honest descriptions of an old, bright yellow Nissan Micra I've ever read. The car has SOLD aswell, proving honesty is always the best policy. However what the seller has done is to add a good dollop of humour into the listing, which includes how his day is going while he's writing the description. He's also taken a good clear photo of the car, which the vehicle looks pretty good in. If you want a laugh you can read it HERE

Pieces of Material From Christo’s Floating Piers In Northern Italy for Sale on eBay

2016-07-05T05:31:00.001-07:00

I found this article about Christo's Floating Piers in Northern Italy. The story and photo's went viral on Instagram and during the sixteen days the attraction was open it was visited by an estimated 1.2 million people. The local police said the true figure was even higher.

Some of the golden material that covered the pier has found its way on to eBay (no surprise there.) The price is a bit of a surprise through, 1000.00 euros is the opening bid which is about £840.00. There are no bids at the moment and with only fours to go I doubt its going to sell. This is the Auction if your interested. Building the floating piers was a pretty big task, I found this video showing the construction. It's now all being dismantled, an amazing story.

Angelyne 2008 Corvette Sold on eBay $14,100

2016-07-05T01:55:00.001-07:00

Angelyne has sold her 2008 Corvette on eBay.com it managed to bring $14,100 which for me is a pretty good deal considering a private purchase can be upto $15,000 for a similar age and milage auto. This one is pretty pink which may have affected the price. However the car has a pretty good celeb pedigree and has been seen on TV and in films. The Corvette is also set to be in Jame's Franco's "Masterpiece."

Not the best video of the celeb "socialite" but you can see the car pretty well. For my Two penny's worth, great car but it desperatley needs a respray with a diffrent colour. You can see the closed Auction HERE

BOLO Children's Dress Up Clothes & Accessories

2016-06-29T14:13:00.001-07:00

Dress up clothes and accessories are great items that can be picked up dirt cheap and sold for what can be quite a large profit on eBay. The best ones to look for are from TV shows or from movies so any super heros like Batman, Spiderman, Transformers, characters from Star Wars, Fireman Sam & Bob the Builder. Stick with well known manufactureers such as Hasbro, Marvel & Kenner. Stay away from simple face masks with the elastic strand at the back. Make sure it's in good condition and any electronic sounds work well.

Good quality super hero masks are always a big hit. This is Venom mask from Marvel's Spiderman movies. Ths one is collectible as it's a Marvel mask from 2006. This one should bring approximatley £25.00 to £30.00. There is also a matching web slinger that squirts a foam type spray. These are a little harder to come by and should bring just under the £20.00 mark.

Transformers are always going to be a big hit. This one is Hasbro Optimus Prime. It can change the wearers voice. There's also a button on the side that plays some pretty awesome voices and sounds. This one was one of my six year old's favourite dress up toy's. He now has some other favourites so this went onto eBay. It sold pretty much straight away. This type of mask will bring about £20.00.

Hats from TV shows such as Bob the builder and Firmean Sam are really popular with smaller children and can be picked up second hand really cheaply. They can be found at virtually every boot sale, charity shop, garage sale or auction. While these sort of dress up items won't bring in massive amounts of profit these are the bread and butter sort of items that any eBay business relies on. They sell really well in either winter or summer when parents are looking for cheap ways to entertain their kids. Buttons on top of the helmet play appropriate music and phrases from the programmes. These hats bring bout £10.00 to £12.00 each but can be picked up as cheaply as a £1.00 each

There are some great dress up accessories that will also bring good money online. These are Wolverine claws if you can find a pair they are worth much more than having just one. If you can get one it will bring £13.00 to £17.00 but two can realise anywhere from £34.00 to £40.00

Some Great Funny eBay Stories

2016-02-17T22:03:00.001-08:00

http://ppcorn.com/us/2016/02/17/ebay-15-tips-and-tricks-you-didnt-know-part-2/

How To Sell Absolutely Anything On eBay The Ultimate Guide!

2016-02-06T01:31:00.004-08:00

How To start off With eBay The Right Way

If you want to buy and sell on eBay it is very simple. You register for an eBay and Paypal account and that's it your basically set. A Paypal account isn't strictly required but it makes the process a lot simpler.
To start with you should purchase a few items off eBay. This also allows you to see the whole process from a buyer's perspective. It also allows you to build up some feedback on eBay so people can see that you a trustworthy person to deal with.
Once you've bought a few items off eBay you can then move on to selling. Again the process is very simple. Start with a title, add a picture, a good honest description, set your price, work out the postage costs. Click on submit. That's it your done
eBay has now turned into a totally different animal than the early days. eBay now has over one billion transactions every day and thousands of businesses around the world rely on their eBay account for a source of income.
So how easy is it to make money off eBay? Well if your considering using eBay as a full time business model then you need to look at a few things: -
1. Competition. What ever it is you want to sell on eBay I guarantee someone will be there and probably selling it cheaper than you can buy it. China's introduction onto eBay has been meteoric and the Chinese have totally embraced it.
2. Fees: - eBay makes its money by charging fees for every item you sell these fees can add up to a substantial amount depending on what features you want your auction to have.
The Final Valuation Fee (F.V.F) varies a great deal on what the final selling price of your item is. Paypal also charge fees and take a cut of the money sent to your account. As a matter of fact eBay owns Paypal which is why it's difficult to operate an eBay account without a Paypal account (eBay Paypal are now separate companies)
3. What to sell: - One of the most asked questions on the eBay forums is "what sells well on eBay?" What I do is to sell items that I have a lot personal knowledge or a passion about. For example I was in the Army for quite a number of years. So I have quite a lot of personal knowledge about military clothing and equipment. I'll purchase these virtually anywhere I can find them and then sell them for a really good profit. I'm a massive kid at heart so also sell a lot of games and toys which are really easy to pick up from Car Boot Sales.
What I suggest you do to start is start selling some items laid around your home. Everyone has some clutter that can be sold on eBay & you can sell virtually anything. Don't try and sell anything illegal eBay have very got very good at finding these, closing the auction and suspending the seller so don't even try. I'll go into depth with eBay again in a later post with a few do's and dont's when it comes to selling and how to get the best possible price.

Getting The Right Category

When you're ready to start selling on eBay. Choosing the right category you would think would be a fairly simple process. But I have seen so many auctions listed in the wrong category that either didn't sell or sold for far less than they should have. This is how I make sure I get the right category when I sell anything on eBay.

Choosing a category is the very first thing you do when you start to list your item. When you open the first page there is an entry box that says, "Enter a few keywords or a title to describe your item." You want to enter a very broad search term, so if we go back to our leather jacket example. The search term I would personally would be simply "leather jacket." You could enter a descriptive i.e. "women's leather jacket" but I personally choose not to. I want to see how many categories have the words leather jacket in them. The categories are listed in popularity order so the category with the most items with that search term in it is at the top and so on.
The leather jacket example brings up: -
Clothes, Shoes & Accessories
Women's Clothing > Coats & Jackets
Men's Clothing > Coats & Jackets
Vintage Clothing & Accessories > Men's Vintage Clothing > Coats & Jackets
Women's Clothing > Dresses
Kids' Clothes, Shoes & Accs. > Boys' Clothing (2-16 Years) > Coats, Jackets & Snowsuits
Women's Clothing > Tops & Shirts
Women's Handbags
Vintage Clothing & Accessories > Women's Vintage Clothing > Coats & Jackets
Vehicle Parts & Accessories
Clothing, Helmets & Protection > Motorcycle Clothing > Jackets
Clothing, Helmets & Protection > Other Clothing & Protection
Clothing, Helmets & Protection > Motorcycle Clothing > Leathers & Suits
This is where you get to choose which category best describes the item you're selling. You can add a second category if you want. So for example if your selling a ladies vintage leather jacket you could list it in:- Women's Clothing > Coats & Jackets. As well as:- Vintage Clothing & Accessories > Women's Vintage Clothing > Coats & Jackets. However remember doing this will have the effect of doubling your listing fees for the item. Try and stick to one category if at all possible, its expensive enough to sell on eBay. Put a tick in the box on the category you want to use, click continue, close the listing variations pop up screen (I'll go into detail about this in a later post) click continue and your ready to add a title, item description, photo's and postage.

Item Specifics

When you've got you title sorted you can move on to some of the fairly easy stuff. It's little tedious but needs adding and can make all the difference. Adding things like - Subtitle, Condition, Condition description, and item specifics will make a difference to the sale of the item. I'll take each one in turn.

Item Sub-title
If you just need to many words in the item tittle and can't reduce it you can also add a subtitle to your item. This gives you another 90 characters. It can be a great idea but remember eBay gives you very little for free. So you pay to add a subtitle. I've never personally used a sub-tittle. I have come close on a couple of occasions and I' wouldn't shy away from it if I really thought the auction would benefit from it.

Condition description
This is where you get to put in your own words what the condition of the item is. This should part never be missed, especially if the item is used. You don't need to go into much detail at this point, its just sort of a summary that prospective bidders can read quickly. The most important thing to remember BE HONEST! If there's marks and scratches say so. If its in new you could add, "still factory sealed" or "new but missing box" "never worn missing tags." You can use a bit of salesmanship here. Writing things like "used marks and scratches but does not affect the operation of the item" is fine. Try no to use ambiguous terms such as "like new" or "mint." Using terms like these are open to personal interpretation. What you might think looks "like new" someone else may have a different opinion and that's how problems start.

Condition
This is in a form of a drop down box. You have a number of choices you can add. The best advice pick one! Don't leave a little line through it. Buyers either want new for a quality item or used because they want to save a few quid. Leaving a small white line means yours is unspecified and wont fall into either category. There are some categories, which have some additional item conditions for you to choose. The most common alternatives are refurbished, or seller refurbished, ideal if you're selling automotive or computer parts.

Item specifics
You can add item specifics for the item your selling. Each category has it own set of item specifics. These item specifics cover such areas, as manufacturer, weight, size and a number of other areas. I do use this part but I'm not a slave to it, I sometimes I find the specifics can be a bit generalised (if that makes any sense)

eBay's catalogue
eBay's catalogue is now vast and covers ton of items that eBay already have the details of and places them in your listing. I've used it loads of times and find it invaluable. Especially if I'm selling anything like video games consoles where there is lot of variants of basically the same item. All you have to do is put in a search term and put a tick in the box of the item your selling. You can also use eBay picture catalogue for the item. I don't use this, as I like to take a picture of the item I'm sending to the customer then there can be no argument.

The All Important Title

If you want to sell something on eBay the title is one of the most important parts that you must get right.
When a buyer searches for any item they will be quite specific with what they want. So you have to think like a buyer. "What search term would I use to find the item I'm selling." If your lucky enough to get your item listed in a search you only then have a second or two to get them to look at your title, read it and get them to want to investigate further by clicking on your auction
You only get a few characters to give a name to your item that will catch the bidders attention and make them want to investigate further.
eBay is responsible for over 1 million auctions per day ending in the U.K alone and your one item is out there among it all.
Don't waste letters make sure you get the best possible exposure you can. You must make a perfect description of you item in only 90 characters spell check everything you can and then spell check it again.
There are lots of people out there that are more than happy to search for your item through websites like misspelled words and can save an absolute fortune. If it saves the buyer money its coming out of your pocket not eBay's they get paid whether it sells or not. Make sure you use as many of the 90 characters as you can but don't do stupid things like putting "L@@k" or "great bargain" nobody searches for either of these, so don't use them. It also really does put a lot of people off even clicking on your item.
We'll look at an example we'll use the example of my old favourite "a leather jacket" (it's still a sore point with my wife.) Have a look at this title "Girls Leather Jacket" its just doesn't say anything about the item whatsoever. The seller has given no thought to the title and the buyer will look at this and think "what a lazy seller, am I even going to get the jacket and how bad is it really going to be." Now look how the title could be improved with just a little thought. "Girls Next Black Waist Length Leather Jacket Size 12 To 14 Years Very Good Condition." That is a lot better title. It gives the seller a lot better chance that someone is going find their item, click on it to see the picture and read the description and more importantly make a bid.

The Item Description

This is the real meat content of any listing for an auction on eBay. You really need to take your time here and make sure you get this bit right!
There are thousands of different ways you can write your item description not one of them is right or wrong. I'm going to go through the way I write an item description. If you want to you can then use this as a starting point and then build you're own style of writing.
At the top of the page I'll write a title of what I'm selling. This is not necessary, its something I've always done. I personally think it's a good way to start the description. Also anyone looking for your item may have possibly looked at hundreds of the same item, so it makes yours stand out a little from the rest. I then start on the meat of the item description. I always start the same way and say something like "this is a great widget that's in very good condition. There are some faults and these are..." This is where I list the faults of the item especially if the item is second hand. I always get the bad news out of the way first. However I do use a bit of salesmanship and will down play any faults writing things like "none of the marks and scratches affect the operation of the item." Or "the widget is missing a wigwam however these can be easily and cheaply picked up if the new owner wants to and the widget still works absolutely fine without it"
Before I ever come to list anything on eBay I always test & clean it fully. This helps the item look a lot better in the pictures. If I'm selling a video games console I go to the trouble of deleting any stored game information on the HDD or memory card.
I will then list all the good points but I also say how this will benefit the buyer. If you just sell features of the item your prospective bidder can say "so what?" So sell a feature and then back it up with how this will benefit them. So if for example your selling a printer, a feature would be the printer has it own email address. The person looking at the printer can say "so what." But if you follow up, with "this means you can print your pictures from anywhere in the world and is ideal for sending pictures straight home to the family". It sounds a lot better and that's a feature and a benefit. When I'm writing my description I'll add as many of these as possible. You can write these in a form of bullet points. I prefer not to and write them in long hand. I finish with a summary of the description and another reason why the prospective bidder should become the buyer. Right at the very end I always finish with "Thanks for looking and good luck."
Things you should avoid when writing an item description.
I see a lot of people writing an item description like they are the auctioneer and start with something like "right then here we have for auction" Don't do it looks really corny. Another thing you should avoid writing is "you are bidding on" " NO! I'm not bidding, I'm just looking." Don't use all capitals for your item description it looks like your SHOUTING. Spell and grammar check your work. Minor mistakes will usually be over looked but you should try an avoid any.

Terms Of Sale.

Something that is very near and dear to my heart is Terms of sale (TOS) that sellers put in item listings. I regularly see auctions with terms and conditions so long and complicated that you would need a degree from Oxford University to understand them. You do need to set out a few of your expectations such as payment time, delivery surcharge area’s & your return’s policy but that’s it. This is your opportunity to tell prospective bidders that you’re a responsible seller and a trustworthy person to deal with.
eBay & Paypal set their own rules for sellers and they're very simple.
1. The item must be received within 7 days of the seller receiving cleared funds.
2. If the item gets lost in transit it’s the seller’s fault. It’s then the seller’s responsibility to get the money from the courier and they must refund the buyer or send a replacement.
3. If the item gets damaged or doesn’t meet the buyers expectations then you the seller, has the right to ask for the buyer to send the item back at their cost, however you must state this in the auction. The buyer is entitled to a refund on its return including the original postage cost.
That’s about it, three fairly simple rules that eBay and Paypal use. However when I’m looking to buy anything on eBay I see T.O.S such as:-"If it gets lost, tough." Or "If it gets lost the buyer has to claim from the courier." Or " I package my items really well if its gets broken it’s the buyers responsibility." Or "I only post on a Monday so if your payment reaches me after this, you'll have to wait." These are examples of terms of sale that I have seen on people’s auctions. Nothing has a buyer hitting the back button faster than unfriendly, long-winded or unfair T.O.S. Using T.O.S that go against selling by distance laws is a waste of time anyway. Paypal have the power to reach into your account and refund the buyer, if they don’t receive the item they’ve purchased. Below is the T.O.S that I use in every auction I have on eBay.

PLEASE NOTE: - We insure all our packages against loss or damage by our courier. We also take full responsibility to get them to you safely and in a timely manner. All our items can be tracked on line and we will inform you of any problems that could affect the delivery date. If you would like to add a phone number at checkout we'll inform you ASAP. To try and keep Postage & Packaging charges as low as possible we do re-use packaging items (e.g. boxes, jiffy bags etc). In the unlikely event you don't receive the item we'll offer you an identical item, if this is not possible we'll give you a full refund.
It’s short, to the point and I try to put he buyer’s mind at rest and within it’s The Selling By Distance Regulations.
When anyone walks into a store and makes a purchase, there is usually only two people involved, the buyer and the seller so very little ever goes wrong. On eBay however the people involved in the sale are:- Buyer, seller, courier, eBay & Paypal. This is at the very least. This means things will go wrong from time to time and unfortunately it’s the seller that has to foot the bill when they do.

Taking Good Pictures.

At the time of writing this post, eBay U.K has just given sellers up to 12 photos on all their listings totally free of charge. But as with everything else, as one hand giveth so the other hand taketh away. Shortly eBay are going to start applying the F.V.F to the postage charged by sellers. I personally think this is a real cheap shot by eBay to grasp at a few straws for the shareholders. As usual there is the sounds of revolution in the forums, but as usual it will amount to nothing and sellers will just put up with it and soldier on.

Until there is another equally strong selling platform on line, eBay hold all the cards. eBid is up and coming, but its got a long way to go and at the moment its just a shadow of eBay.
Right that's the bit of a rant out of the way. Moving onto how to take good photos. As I've said you now have up to twelve photos to put with your auction totally free of charge, so use as many as you need.
This is what I do. If my item has several parts, I'll take a group photo and use this as the gallery shot. I'll then take a close up picture of each individual part. I may even take more than one close up and capture all four sides. If you take lots of photo's especially using profiles, any prospective bidder gets to see every angle and this will help cut down on any problems when the winning bidder receives the item.
So to take a good photo. The photo is only going to be as good as the weakest link in the chain. Cell phone's now have some great quality cameras on them and are more than adequate to handle a picture for an eBay auction. You don't need a 14MP digital SLR. That said if you have one, use it. The pictures it takes will be so much better than a camera phone.
Choose a well-lit room. The best light to use is natural light. So unless its totally unavoidable do not take your photo's at night using artificial light, it gives them a soft orange appearance and never, ever use the flash on the camera, your item will look really washed out. The best type of area to use is one with a very plain background. Stay away from areas with busy backgrounds, this takes focus from the item you’re selling. Put a sheet or drape up if necessary. I personally use an old red velvet curtain or an old white cot sheet. I also sit small items on a box that's under the cover it produces a really nice picture especially when selling jewellery. If your selling clothes put them on a dummy or get someone to model and have stand in front of a plain background. Crop their head off after you've settled on which photo to use. If at all possible have the natural light coming from the side this often gives great result.
Take a number of photos from different angles. When you’re happy with the photo's you’ve taken. Choose the ones your going to use for the auction and delete the rest. Crop and adjust the pictures to clear as much of the background as possible. This will make the item look as large as possible in the listing. Do not artificially adjust the image by copying and pasting over faults that are actually on the item. This will ultimately lead too not as described claims. Upload your photos and your all set.

Your Work Really Starts When The Auction Ends!

OK, so you've had a clear out of the garage and decided to sell the widget you found at the back that no-one’s used in years. You've given the widget a really good clean made sure its working. You've got the category right. You've added a great title with some good keywords. You've got the description nailed whether it be fully written or in bullet points. Worked out a fair price and put the cost the cost of posting the widget. The photos look first rate and the auction has run for 7 days. Success you have a winning bidder and your item's sold for more than you were expecting, Fantastic well done!

This is where you need to make sure it all goes really well. To start with immediate action and send an invoice to the buyer ASAP. Don't give them chance to get buyers remorse and cancel the sale. I use the invoice generated by eBay. You can if you want to write one yourself and save it as a template for future, it really doesn't matter just get it off soon as you can.

Give the buyer as many ways to pay as possible make it easy for them to pay you. I still receive cheques & postal orders in the post from senior citizens that still want to conduct business that way. Discourage sending cash through the post. It still amazes me how many people put a £20 in an envelope, stick a first class stamp on it, drop it in the mail box and expect everything to be fine. I guarantee if it goes missing it will be your fault, you stole it. Really discourage this

Once you've being paid and every thing's cleared. Get the widget packed and posted ASAP. The buyer should receive it within 7 working days of payment clearing. When you send the parcel ask for proof of delivery and have it traceable on line. This will protect you in the event of a scam and them saying they didn't receive it. That said everything at the post office costs money, so its more to get as signature on delivery. I've set myself a limit of £10.00. I'm willing to loose anything below this amount and won’t bother paying the extra. To date Royal Mail have lost only a handful of the thousands of parcels I've sent out. I can't remember a time when I got scammed down to postage. I lost more money to Paypal in the early days when they just sided with the buyer regardless of what happened.

Leaving feedback has always been a bit of a bone of contention on eBay forums with 50% saying sellers should leave it first when the buyer pays and 50 % saying buyers should leave it first when they receive the item and are happy with it. I'm firmly in the second camp. The buyer should leave feedback when they've received the item and they're happy with it. If they're not, the transaction hasn't completed and its up to the seller to put it right. Finally something I do, just send and email in few weeks to make sure everything is fine with the widget and the buyer is still happy.

eBay Get to Decide How Much UK Tax They Pay

2016-01-26T20:03:00.001-08:00

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/google-facebook-amazon-ebay-apple-7251746

BOLO Scrabble & Risk

2016-01-23T08:14:00.002-08:00

Like Monopoly these games has been around years and are still very popular but also still easy to get hold of from flea markets and car boot sales.

Scrabble is a great thinking, learning game. It also a great game for kids to learn new words and makes them think how words are formed.The 1955 version looks pretty much the same as the modern version and the tiles are scored exactly the same. The only real face lifts to Scrabble have been to the design of the box.

Vintage Scrabble
this edition came out in 1955. This board game is another thing that people collect with a passion. When released it had wooden tile racks and a black cloth linen tile bag. I sold one of these a few days ago it sold on a Buy it now for £12.49

Deluxe Scrabble
This edition of Scrabble actually belonged to me. I bought it in the mid 80's when I was in the Army, probably to relieve the boredom at that time. Quite hard to come by now I sold this for £27.99. Which if I remember rightly was a bit more than I paid for it new

Large Print Scrabble
Like the deluxe version this one is quite hard to come by but if you do come across one "buy it". I paid £3.00 for this one at a car boot sale and it was in immaculate condition and didn't look like it had been ever played. I think I under priced it sold within a few hours for £23.99.

Modern Edition Scrabble
Scrabble is one of the few games I will buy a modern used edition. It has such a good following they're still really easy to sell of and usually bring about £10 to £11.50 depending on the time of year, board games will sell a lot better in the winter months.

Travel Scrabble
Still Really popular This edition is from 1955 and is in amazing condition. These usually sell for £8.00 to £10.00

Risk again has had a few face lifts over the years and there are a lot of different variations for the game. Transformers Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars Risk has also gone on line and some of the Dawn of War 40K games are variations of the Risk board game.

Risk is an amazing game the more that play the better the game is. Its played like a strategy game by completing the missions you have on the card you draw at the beginning of the game. You might get "own 24 territories" or "wipe the blue player from the game". When I played it it was beat up the kid no one liked. He would fend off one attack only to be hit from somewhere else on the next go and as the saying goes "you can't win em all" (never mind its all Character building stuff)

Original Risk
This is the game I remember playing there are two sets of rules. One for long games and one for quick games. Risk is still hugely popular. The last one I sold managed to bring £27.99 which I paid 50p for at a car boot sale.

Modern Risk
Another game I have no problem with buying the modern version. Even when used the game still sells really well. This one sold on a buy it for £17.99 within ten days.

Transformers Risk
This is one of the Risk Variants I struggled a bit with this one to sell it and it stuck around for a few months. I paid £2.50 for it and It sold a month or so later for £14.49 so not the greatest mark up but it did O.K and I still made some money.

Great Guide on How to Sell Your Junk on eBay

2016-01-12T21:49:00.001-08:00

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/guides/article-3396530/Earn-fortune-selling-junk-guilty-hoarding-things-don-t-use-not-turn-cash.html

BOLO Board Games Monopoly & Cluedo

2016-01-10T07:29:00.001-08:00

One of the easiest items to pick up really cheaply second hand are board games. Most resellers pass these by without second thought thinking they are totally worthless. However these are still really popular and you can make a really profit off them.

Even of they're not complete you can still make a good profit by selling the parts that you have. You have to be a little bit selective about which board games you buy. Just stay away from the common mainstream stuff that you see in every toy and discount store. I've listed some of the board games I've sold in the past and what money they realised.

Monopoly

One of the best loved board games of all time. Monopoly has had more face lifts than the average Hollywood actress (or actor come to think of it.) I've lost count of how many different types of this board game I've sold n the past. Unless its a really rare and in excellent condition I rarely pay over £2.00 for a Monopoly game.

Monopoly Boutique

A dressed in pink the whole set comes in a really nice presentation box you can buy boutiques and shopping malls you can go on a spending spree. The chance and community chest cards include paying your mobile phone bill and getting text messages. This one was in excellent condition and looked like it had been opened up shut back up and never played with. I paid £3.50 for it at a local car boot sale and sold it for £24.99

Monopoly City
This board game will show children what it takes to be a great property developer and what it will take to build their dream city. Only you one player can own the prestigious Monopoly towers. I've sold a few Monopoly City's I usually pay £2.00 to £2.50 dependant on condition. I usually sell this game for for about £15.00

Simpson's Monopoly

One of my All Time favourites. I buy this game whenever I see it regardless of condition. It always sells really well and I can part this game out no problem. Plays exactly like the traditional game but all the Springfield addresses and character's are here. usually buy for £1.00 to £4.00 sells for up to £20.00 with out much difficulty

Monopoly Parts
There is always someone who has a board game that's got missing parts. I always have quick look at a game whenever I buy it to make sure the majority of parts are there but its very difficult, if not impossible to buy a board game at say a boot sale and check virtually every single part. Especially when its a game like Monopoly city that has over 80 unique buildings, chance and community chest cards, game movers & dice. If you have a bought a board game and there is some parts missing there is a couple of things you can do. You can hold on to it hoping that you will pick another one up and you can make one good one out of the two of them or you can break the parts downs and sell them off. Monopoly is great for this. There is always someone who wants more hotels, houses or money to make their game better or to replace missing parts. Monopoly is also becoming quite collectible especially the original red box game so these parts can be sold off. You can even make more money if you break a complete game down into parts but it can sometimes take a while to sell them and can be a bit of a pain to list them all. However the listings can be saved it as templates in eBay's Turbo Lister and just list it from that time after time.

Cluedo

Like Monopoly Cluedo has stood the test of time and is still as popular now as it always was. Again the variations of this game is unbelievable. As with Monopoly stay with the variants and you'll make a good profit on each one. The early editions are now becoming quite collectible again these games have lots of parts so are easy to part out . The early ones especially as these lead pipe as a murder weapon was actually made of lead. Health and safety for children hadn't really been thought about then.

Cluedo S.F.X

Cluedo Comes to the 21st Century. This edition is 3D and has sound effects and voices of the suspects. I thought this was going to be a winner however I paid £2.50 for the game it managed to bring £20.00 which is good but it stuck around for a while before it sold, its not that popular.

Harry Potter Cluedo

If you find one "BUY IT" I came across this one at a car boot sale paid £2.50 and it managed to bring nearly £30.00 and sold within a day or two. Really popular game, tons of bits and pieces with the game making it ideal to part out.

Vintage Cluedo's
Again like the red box Monopoly the vintage Cluedo's are very collectible. this one is from the mid 80's and was like new I paid £1.00 for it which was an absolute steal. I sold it for £15.99. It went really quick as well

Big Bang Theory Cluedo

Same rules as Harry Potter Cluedo apply. If you find one "BUY IT" it will bring about the same price as the Harry Potter Edition as well maybe a little more

How To Write A Winning Auction Description That Turns a Looker Into A buyer

2016-01-05T00:04:00.002-08:00

This is one of, if not the most important part of your auction listing. If you get this wrong it can cause you so many headaches, lost sales and buyer disputes than any other part of the listing.
There are a couple of ways to write and item description. You can either write either write a full description or use simple bullet points. Either way is fine and both have their pros and cons.

If you going to go to the trouble and expense of listing an item for sale on eBay, when you get to the the item description part you actually need to put a bit of effort in and actually write something of substance. Simply writing one sentence won't cut it unless you selling something so simple it doesn't even warrant an description. When I'm looking for anything to buy on eBay nothing has me hitting the back button faster than a poorly written or incomplete description. To actually sell an item on eBay is quite expensive. so do yourself a favour, separate yourself from a number of lazy sellers on eBay and write some substance in any description.

Every Good item description on EBay has these 6 Attributes

Overall condition
Describe the condition of item honestly. You don't have to point out every little mark, dent or scratch. However if there is a fairly large scratch or mark don't try and hide it be honest about it. Add a couple of measurements if you think it will help. If the item still works fine even with the large scratch, write that as well. Something like "there is a large scratch along the bottom edge however this has no effect on how the item works." If there is anything missing make sure you add this. While missing parts will affect the final price people are sometimes just looking for parts to make their own complete and want to keep the price down. Games consoles are prime example of this. I rarely sell a full games console package I break them down into component parts. I always make more money this Way

Describe a feature then sell the benefit.
As an example "This Satnav is equipped with blue tooth, which allows you to safely make hands free calls while driving from a blue tooth enabled phone." This sounds so much better than just writing the feature i.e. “it’s got blue tooth." Adding a feature and selling the benefit also touches the persons emotions by painting a picture. A prospective buyer may see themselves talking to their partner ion the way home or thinking about the last time they got pulled over by the police for using their phone. Write and as many features as you can about your item and then sell a benefit for each and every one of them.

Any unique points
These can be anything from a limited edition to a celebrity signed copy or it has historical value. However if your going to state anything like this you must have good evidence to go along with your statement.

Spelling and grammar.
Put your description through a spell checker and make sure it reads easily and flows well. While spelling and grammar errors will usually be overlooked major errors in the listing can put people off buying.

Independent reviews.
eBay will let you put links in your item description to item reviews sites. I use quite a lot as it adds weight to what I'm saying. My personal opinion with this, the more the merrier. These are best used at the end of your description, just add them as a list

First the bad and ugly then the good.
Get the bad & ugly points of your item out of the way first. Be honest about them but don't linger on them by going into minute detail. Then go onto the good points of your item and why the looker should become a buyer. List as many features of the item as you can then sell the benefit of each and every feature. When someone is looking at your item they are sort of weighing everything and you need to add as much weight to the good side as possible so they click on "Bid Now" button. The more weight you add to the good side the more bidders you'll get and the more money you'll make.

When To Use a Bullet Point Description and when & When To Use a Full Description
You will usually come across two types of description, either a full description or one written in bullet point form and either one is fine. Some sellers will use one or the other for all their auctions and wont deviate. However I've personally found that using both styles for different types of items is the best way to make the most money

This is the way I write the bullet point item descriptions

From 1985 so over 30 Years young
Contents are 100% complete
Small amount of damage to the plastic liner but nothing serious
The contents are all in very good condition with only a few played with marks and some fading
Comes complete with 2 X stickers which have not been applied to the board
Tiles all easy to read with no flaking or cracked tiles
The box lid and base has a few marks, scratches and wearing but again nothing serious.
For up to four players
Instructions printed on the inside of the box lid
A great fun game for the whole family.

Full item Descriptions are more suited to more expensive and complicated items that have a lot of parts

This is a great game controller for the PS1 I've tested the controller fully and it plays really well. There are some played with marks and scratches but nothing serious and certainly nothing that affects the operation of the controller. The lead is also free from kinks or breaks. These Official Sony PSone controllers are now getting quite hard to come by and this item would be great to to add to any PSone console bundle.

Writing a great auction description takes time and a good bit of effort, however you will only get out what you to put in. If your looking just to put no effort in all you'll get out is buyer disputes and not a lot of sales. The more you write good compelling item descriptions the easier & faster it will become. Just remember these points when writing a description for any auction site. Over all condition including any missing parts, Describe a feature then sell the benefit of that feature, any points unique with supporting evidence, run a spell and grammar check, link to independent reviews, start with the bad points then finish with the good points, use bullet point descriptions for simple items & use long full descriptions for more expensive complicated items. Till next time have a great week and eBay hard.

How To Turn This Years Spring Clean Into Cold Hard Cash

2016-01-01T03:34:00.000-08:00


you've completed your spring clean and the Family car resembles this!

You’ve been round your home and decided to have a mass de-clutter of junk that you’ve bought in the past and didn’t need in the first place or that you just don't use any more. Don’t just send it all to land fill or give it to charity. The stuff you think is trash could be worth a small fortune. As the saying goes “one’s mans rubbish is another mans gold mine.” Sell as much of it as possible on eBay or Amazon. You don’t have to sell it all in one go, its marathon not a sprint. Spread the work out and take your time to get it right this way you will earn more money from your auctions and have less complaints from buyers.

Not only do you get to spend the extra cash you make as you like your also helping the environment. We’re all so much a part of the throw away, buy new society, we have to reduce this as much as possible and every bit counts. Also some people can’t afford to buy new so your also helping people that maybe are not as well off as yourself.

If you want to sell on eBay you will need to set up a seller account. It’s simple process to set accounts up with both eBay and Paypal and there are plenty of great guides around to show you how to do that. These are a couple of good Hubpages I’ve found that will show you how to set up an eBay account and how to set up a Paypal account. Once you’ve completed the account set-up process your good to go and can start selling pretty much whatever you want straight away.

If you’re selling your own personal stuff and not making any profit you don’t need to register as a business. However if you’re looking at making a profit out of what you sell, I strongly recommend you register as a business and pay any tax on the profit. Ivan the taxman is starting to look in depth at eBay, Paypal and Amazon as well as a lot of other selling web sites. The taxman is demanding to know who has sold what and for how much. Don’t get caught out, register as a business and pay what’s due on any profit to Ivan.

When you’ve got all your items together go through each one and value it. This process does take some time but the results will be well worth it. You’ll need a load of post it notes. Once you have the value of an item, write it on a post it note and stick it to the item. You won’t remember how much its worth when you come to list it and you’ll have to do it again. If you’re not sure how much something is worth do a sold listing search to see what similar items have sold for recently. DON'T do a live auction search i.e. what people are trying to get for these items. I could ask for a £1000.00 for a modern plastic biro pen, it doesn’t mean I’m going to get a £1000.00 for it.

You can save time and quite a lot effort with some of your auctions by breaking some of the items into bundles. For example if you have a lot of CD’s first go through each one to find out if you have any that are valuable, sell these individually. However the vast majority of your CD Collection will be worth very little. In this case bundle some of these CD’s together (I use bundles of at least 6) Put them in artist order first of all so if you’re a big Madonna fan, bundle all her CD’s together. Once you’ve made the bundles up by artist go into genre types i.e. Country, folk, pop, rock & electronic. Finally if you have any left, bundle mixed artist and mixed genre but increase the bundles as you'll get less for them ( I use bundles of 16 or 17). The same can be done with books, DVD’s & old console games. There are a couple of exceptions. If you have a full set DVD’s such as all the films for the Harry Potter series or Star Wars. You may have full or part set of Grand theft Auto games on the PS2. These can do really well sell them together as a bundle. The full set of Grand Theft Auto games on the Sony PS2 is really popular and always fetches really good money; even a part complete set does really well. That’s it enjoy, eBay hard and have a great healthy, wealthy New Year.

Nic Hills Full Time eBay Reseller

2015-12-28T21:31:00.002-08:00

Up until a bout a year ago I was quite happy to sell on eBay when I had a few spare minutes. I enjoy it and it brings a bit of extra cash into the home (never a bad thing). Then I came across Nic's Youtube channel and it was a major game changer for me. I now will be making the leap in about twelve months to eighteen months from part time to full time. Nic goes through everything from what to buy, where to get it & how much you can get from it. In some of his video's he also goes through the problems he's had and how he's got around them. if you serious about making selling on eBay you should subscribe to his channel. Enjoy!

8 Alternatives To selling On Ebay.

2015-12-17T09:16:00.002-08:00

I’ve listed all the major players that are alternatives to eBay. So if you fed up of high eBay fees or just want to see what else is out there to make a bit of extra cash. Some will perform better when selling high volume and some are best suited to niche and personal listings for the occasional seller. I’ve put a link to each one so you can have a look or sign up.

Amazon

The fees that Amazon charge are higher than eBay. However eBay charge you a listing fee to actually start an auction Amazon don't charge you anything until your item sells and it’s incredibly easy to get your items onto Amazon. You put in a bar code and with a few clicks if a mouse your items up for sale. Amazon also has a huge catalogue of photo’s so even that’s taken care of. Before you list on Amazon complete a bit of market research to see which platform will give you the most money. Believe it or not you can get more money from one site over the other for the identical item. There are people that buy on Amazon to flip on eBay and visa verse.
Then there is FBA (fulfilment by Amazon.) You send what you’re selling to amazon and they will ship it for you. Amazon also have tighter control over sellers than eBay you must adhere to amazons policy's are you could find yourself very quickly suspended or booted off the site for good.

eBid

I’ve personally used eBid to sell on a few occasions and I was sort of testing the water. The main problem with eBid is traffic. The site a lot less than eBay. I used the site a while ago and found it quite difficult to actually list an item and navigate the site. However I did have some success with it and made quite a few sales. The team that run eBid are also making constant improvements to the site and seam putting real effort in to getting more traffic. Another problem is the initial £49.99 you have to pay to sell on eBid. However once it’s paid that’s it for life. For your initial fee this is what you get:- Free T-shirt, Zero Listing Fees, Zero Final Value Fees, 5 Free Photos, 5 Free eBid Stores, Uploads to Google Shopping, Import from eBay, Unlimited Listings, No more monthly store subscription fees, No more monthly selling fees. If eBid can keep increasing traffic it could be a major rival to eBay.

Etsy

Etsy is for the sale of craft supplies, hand made and vintage goods site. Etsy’s is doing really well and there seems to be a lot of buyers about on the site. The only down side is you can only sell hand craft style and vintage goods. However the buyers that are going there are into quite a niche area so I suspect this is why the site does so well. Also Etsy only charge commission of 3.5%, a 13p-listing fee & a small transaction fee. Etsy is the ideal place to sell anything to do with art and craft including craft supplies and vintage goods. If I was supplying these I would go here rather than eBay for the two main reasons, buyers actually looking for this niche and the low seller fees.

Gumtree

Gumtree has been on the go since September 2004. The site initially started as local classified ads for the London area. It’s now grown to national size and also offers ads to businesses to promote them in their local area. Businesses can also sell and Gumtree which have to be paid for. For joe public It’s totally free to list on Gumtree. You can sell virtually anything including yourself in the personal ads. There are some tips to increase your sales chance and make your ad stand out a bit more such as including a phone number, providing an honest description. Gumtree also has 200K followers on twitter and 15K on Facebook they use social media to send out news updates as well as competitions

Facebook

There are Facebook selling community pages in almost every part of the world in my own experience they are a great place to buy and sell. I don’t think we've seen this type of selling peak yet and social media sites such as Twitter and Face book continue to go from strength to strength. Like Gumtree there is no selling fees just find a buying and selling community close to you join it, upload your pictures, description & that’s it your done. To help increase sales use exactly the same tips as you do on Gumtree. Also if people are coming to your home have someone with you and complete the sale in a fairly simple setting the kitchen is ideal. Be prepared to negotiate on the price your will to accept. People love to haggle

Car Boot Sales or Flea Markets

Other than eBay this is my favourite type of selling. With a bit of prior preparation and planning you can make a fortune and get rid of a whole ton of clutter in one go. My wife also loves me doing these as she gets to have a major clear out. The cost of the pitch can vary greatly at car boot sales and flea markets it pays to look around and get the best value. Also be prepared for a hard days work. If you do these right you will make a heap of cash to spend exactly how you like. I did an article on Hub Pages with some hints and tips from myself and other seasoned boot sellers. You can read the full article HERE

Your Own Website

You could of course open your own web store. This is nowhere near as hard as you might think there are a ton of out of the box options. If you can navigate your way around eBay or Amazon you can probably get a web store up and running. The great thing about this is your building your own brand and not someone else’s. You hear it all the time I got it on eBay or I bought it on Amazon there no mention of the seller. You also get to choose a host of other stuff like what to sell what payment methods you take. For your own web site you really need to be niche specific don't try and generalise. If you do you'll quickly find you’re up against the big boys who have very deep pockets for advertising and building their brand. But if what you sell is quite niche go for it

Craigslist

A Classified ad’s like Gumtree in the UK this site started in the U.S and has now turned global. Craigslist in just about every country and area. You can sell just about anything for free. There are no listing fees or FVF's at all but its really basic. If you and up in a dispute you’re on your, own Craigslist won't get involved. The problem with Craigslist is there are a lot of bogus sales and buyers just looking to rip a new seller off so you need to exercise a bit of common sense. Anything too big to send with a courier is ideal to sell here.