1. How to Open a Seller Account
To begin the process, click on the Sell Tab at the top of every eBay page. Then select Sell your Item and Create a Seller's Account.
Step 1:2. How to Prepare your item for sale
To get an idea of what to expect to sell your item for, review the sales prices of similar items using eBay's Completed Items search. To do a Completed Items search click on the Search link at the top of an eBay page and select Advanced Search.
A. The Category the Item was listed in: particularly helpful if you're not sure where to list
B. Auction or Buy It Now Format: depending on your feedback level you have two ways to sell your item. How others have sold their similar items should give you an idea of which format works best for your item.
C. The Starting Price: the level at which you start your item can have an affect on the bidding activity and final sales price. For example, many sellers find that with a very low starting price and no reserve, they can experience higher bids and higher sales prices
D. The Final Sales Price: this indicates the price you could expect to get for your item
E. How to write an Item Description: In order to get the best price possible, you can gain great insight into how to write a successful listing by understanding why a listing from one seller got more bids than another.
F. Payment & Postage Details: Buyers want a safe and secure way to pay for your items. Many sellers offer PayPal, a free service for buyers. Many sellers also accept personal cheques. Always remember to include postage costs as buyers like to know what they are paying for up front.
On eBay you can sell practically anything, however there are a number of items that are prohibited from sale on eBay. Check our prohibited items policies if you are unsure whether your item is permitted.
It's true what they say; a picture paints a thousand words. No matter how well you describe your item, buyers like to see what they are buying and including clear photographs in your listing could mean the difference between a sale or not!
Before you start to list on eBay, make sure you have taken clear photographs indicating all of the features and highlighting any flaws, if relevant. You can save these on your computer, naming them clearly so you can locate them later when you start to list. The simplest way to do this is to use a digital camera. However, if you have a traditional camera, use a scanner to save them in a digital format. Most photo processing services now offer this service. With eBay Picture Services is it simple to add photos to your listing and the first picture you add is FREE.
3. How to List your item
Now you've completed your research and taken photographs of your item, you are ready to submit your listing to eBay. The Sell Your Item Form guides you through the steps to a successful item listing. This is where you will enter all the important details about your item including price, payment methods, postage costs and photographs. Select the Sell link to start the listing process.
The first option is to decide what format you want to use to sell your item, auction-style (highest bidder wins) or fixed price (Buy It Now), where you set the price and the buyer can purchase instantly without bidding. Remember, you will need feedback of at least 10 or direct debit mandate on file in order to list in this format.
Think about how buyers would search for an item. From your earlier research you should have a good idea of what categories similar items have previously sold in. However, if you are still unsure, there are a few ways to determine which categories to list your item in.
A. Browse the categories - simply select the main category you want to list in and the process will guide you through the lower level categories until you find the most suitable one.
B. Suggested Categories - type in a few key words relating to your item and eBay will suggested a suitable category for your item
C. List in Two Categories - to get greater exposure for your item and to reach more buyers, consider listing in two categories. For example, a mirror could be sold in Antiques and Home, Garden & Family. There is a small fee to add this feature.
A. Choosing a Title: Imagine you are the buyer - what information would you type in to find your item? You only have a limited number of characters so make sure you include all of the relevant key words such as make, colour, size, new, history etc. Avoid using words such as 'wow' or 'fantastic' as buyers do not search on these. Also make sure you have spelt everything correctly - many sales have been lost through incorrect spelling!
B. Item Description: Make sure that your description provides buyers with all of the information they need. Include information such as brand, age, condition etc and be honest - don't withhold information that may lead to misunderstandings later. Some buyers also like to know the reason for the sale, so, if there is a story or history behind the item, include that here.
C. HTML Editor: in order to make your description more visually interesting, use the HTML editor to add bold, bullets, change font, colours etc. Alternatively, if you're comfortable with HTML, add your own to create an identity for both you and your listing.
A. Decide the Start Price: If you're selling using the Auction-style format, many sellers find that starting their items at a low price with no reserve encourages a greater number of buyers. If you qualify you can also include a Buy It Now price for a small fee. As long as no bid is placed you can sell instantly at the price you set. Click here to find out more about Pricing your items
B. Decide the duration of your listing. You can list items from 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. Many sellers list items for 7 days and include a weekend to capture weekend shoppers.
C. Item Location: Remember to include details of where the item is located. Many buyers like to search for items locally, especially if it is something they would like to see before they buy, such as a piece of furniture or a car. Also, eBay's Search by Distance feature will pick up your items giving you more exposure to buyers.
D. Adding Pictures: Using eBay's Picture Services is the easiest way to upload your photos to your listing. The first picture is FREE but using additional photographs is advised if you want to showcase a number of features. Please note that when you save your photos to your computer, they must be either a .gif or .jpg format. Learn more about Adding Photos
E. Adding Optional Features: For a small fee you can add a number of enhancements to your listing to make it more attractive to buyers. For example, the Gallery feature adds a picture next to your listing in search results and could increase your chance of a sale by 11%! Bold and Highlight options are also popular amongst sellers. Learn more about Optional Features
4. Pricing, Payment & Postage
As detailed in the previous step, the price at which you start your auction could determine the number of bids you receive and ultimately the final sales price of your item.
Be realistic about what to expect. The research you have previously done should give you a good indication of what your item might sell for, as well as showing you the start prices other sellers have used to encourage buyers to bid.
If you're selling using the Auction-style format, many sellers find that if they start at a very low price with no reserve, it encourages a greater number of buyers. If there is a minimum you are prepared to sell your item for, consider using a higher starting price. Alternatively, consider using a reserve. There is a £50.00 minimum reserve price on eBay.Reserve prices can put off prospective buyers as they're less likely to believe they have a chance of winning the item, so we would suggest you only use this feature if you are selling a high value item.
Payment options are one of the most important steps in the listing process. Your choices here could influence a buyer's decision to bid on your item or find an alternative. You can choose how you would like to accept payment e.g. cheque, credit card or PayPal.
Buyers want a safe and easy way to pay so consider accepting an online payment system such as PayPal. It's free for buyers and allows you to accept online debit card, credit card and bank account payments immediately without having to wait for cheques to clear. This means you will get paid faster and also have a record of the sale. Find out more about PayPal
Buyers want to know all of their costs up front, including postage and handling. To avoid any misunderstandings later, be sure to include all of the associated costs, including any returns policy you may have. If you are only making your item available to buyers within your country, be sure to state this clearly in the listing. Many buyers bid on items without realising the seller is not willing to ship internationally. This could lead to misunderstanding and could result in non-payment.
If you are making your item available to eBay buyers outside your country, be sure to also include international postage costs.
Once you have completed these steps you can preview your listing to make sure all the details are correct. Once you are satisfied the listing is complete, you can submit the listing live to the eBay site. Now you know how to list an item, why not give it a try?
5. How to Manage and Complete your sales
The simplest way to keep track of all our activity is by using My eBay. This is really useful if you have more than one item for sale or if you are both selling and bidding on several items.
A. The Scheduled Items view shows you items that you scheduled to start at a future time.
B. The Items I'm Selling view shows all your items that are currently for sale on eBay include all information about your items, such as the current price, number of watchers, number of bids, and current high bidder.
C. The Items I've Sold view shows your items whose listings ended in a successful sale including information about your items, such as the buyer, sale price, sale date, and quantity sold.
D. The Unsold Items view shows your items whose listings did not end in a successful sale. Remember, you can chose to relist that those items from this view.
At the end of a successful listing, both you and the buyer will receive and end of auction email from eBay, detailing the final price of the item and payment instructions. If you didn't include payment details in your listing, make sure you contact the buyer to arrange payment and delivery details.
If you have opted to receive PayPal payments, you will receive a "You've got cash" email from PayPal once the buyer has paid. Simply click on this email to sign into PayPal and review the details of the payment. Remember to only post the item once you have received payment.
Once the sale is complete, leave feedback for your buyer and encourage them to do the same for you.
Please note: If for some reason your item doesn't sell, don't forget you can relist for FREE.