Where do I start?
This website was created to give you as much information as possible to help you succeed as an eBay seller using the methods that have worked for us. This page will continue to be a work in progress. As this website is HUGE, we understand it may be difficult to navigate until you are familiar with it. We invite your questions and suggestions to make this work best for you.
Set up your PayPal account.
We recommend setting up a Business account with PayPal. This gives you access to a Business Debit card with monthly cash back bonuses, reporting, and even working capital loans. This will allow you the greatest flexibility as a seller and as a customer, in our opinion.
You will need to have your bank account routing number and account number in order to complete the set up with PayPal. It can take a day or two to get the account confirmed, so the sooner the better.
If you already have a PayPal account, go through all of the account settings (e-mail and address, etc.) and money settings (bank account, credit cards) to make sure they are current. These are important related to protecting yourself as a seller. I also check my permissions (of where money backs up if there is a transaction exceeding the PayPal balance) to make sure there are only the ones I want active. Note that it is necessary to allow eBay shipping and invoicing backup payments to complete automatically.
You will need to have your bank account routing number and account number in order to complete the set up with PayPal. It can take a day or two to get the account confirmed, so the sooner the better.
If you already have a PayPal account, go through all of the account settings (e-mail and address, etc.) and money settings (bank account, credit cards) to make sure they are current. These are important related to protecting yourself as a seller. I also check my permissions (of where money backs up if there is a transaction exceeding the PayPal balance) to make sure there are only the ones I want active. Note that it is necessary to allow eBay shipping and invoicing backup payments to complete automatically.
Set up your eBay account.
You have to have a PayPal account to sell on eBay. After that is set up, enter all the account information or go through and make sure everything is current.
Do I need a store?
Probably not at first unless you have a huge inventory to start with. eBay has a handy calculator that can help you decide what type of store, if any, will be most cost effective for you.
Do I need a store?
Probably not at first unless you have a huge inventory to start with. eBay has a handy calculator that can help you decide what type of store, if any, will be most cost effective for you.
Start keeping records.
You will need to track your income, expenses and mileage for tax purposes. For a detailed discussion of what to track and report, please refer to the Bookkeeping page.
Set up your workspace.
If you have room, a dedicated space will allow you to be most efficient as well as make determining your home office expenses easier. You will need a workspace with computer (unless you plan to list with a smartphone), well-lit area for taking pictures, shipping surface, and storage areas. We actually transformed our master bedroom suite into our workroom. The bathroom is convenient for cleaning items. It's our largest room, with a large, walk-in closet. We have a computer desk, small chest of drawers where we store packing tape, receipts, camera, ink, etc. My rectangular dining room table was hijacked for the photo/shipping surface. The room is filled with shelves along the rest of the walls. The open space in the middle of the room is where we unload stuff to be posted. After it is posted, it gets put on the shelves. Small area for storing boxes and envelopes (we only store a small amount of shipping materials and purchase as-needed).
Some of the items you may need are listed on the Equipment You Will Need page.
Some of the items you may need are listed on the Equipment You Will Need page.
Get your feet wet.
If you are a new seller on eBay or have not sold for some time, there is a trial period during which you have limits on the amount of items you can sell each month, along with a waiting period to receive payments (last time I was aware of it, it was three days after the item shows received; money is released for shipping purposes). The sooner you can start selling a few items on eBay, the sooner you will be over that hurdle. We started out selling things from around the house - my hoarded thrift store purchases and old toys, mainly. This will also help you get accustomed to using eBay's sales system. For tips on posting, click here.
If you're not sure what might sell, you could take a look through the Thrifter's Field Guide for ideas or contact us for personalized help (take pictures of your attic/garage or other stack of stuff hanging around and we can point out what to start with).
If you're not sure what might sell, you could take a look through the Thrifter's Field Guide for ideas or contact us for personalized help (take pictures of your attic/garage or other stack of stuff hanging around and we can point out what to start with).
Prepare to go shopping.
There are two parts to preparing to shop. One is figuring out where you are going to go. We live in a large urban area, which is where there is typically the largest concentration of thrift stores. If you don't live within reasonable access to pockets of thrift stores, you will need to get creative and shop in a variety of places. For tips on planning your shopping routes, click here.
The next part is figuring out what to buy. Here are some general picking FAQs. Many of the how-to-eBay guides I have seen suggest determining your niche. It is helpful at first to start shopping for the items you already know about (I didn't start buying clothing for a while because I knew nothing about fashion). You can become familiar with your routes, looking things up, sales patterns, common items, etc. while not being overwhelmed by all of the available stuff. However, if you want to make a living off eBay like we do, you will probably want to adjust to learning to spot as much as possible that makes money.
The Thrifter's Field Guide is set up to help you learn what to buy to make money. There are items you might not even think to buy because they don't look like much of anything often or don't realize people are willing to buy used or flawed. It is categorized by type of item, because that is how the thrift stores organize things. So, if you'd like to learn more about selling dishware, for example, you can navigate to the dishware page to get an idea of the types of things that sell, with a visual reference of photos of items we have sold to help you recognize them, and a list of actual sales we have made. Some pages include additional tips about buying and selling categories of items and/or pre-formatted research links to help you get even more familiar with the category (e.g. on the Cameras page: Click here to view recent sales of film cameras sold for parts. If you cannot test cameras, you can still research what cameras might be worth buying to sell as-is). You can research one area at a time or look through the sales photos and amounts to see which categories we frequently sell in and items that sell for the most money. If you're getting ready to walk into a store, you can pull up the page for the area you are shopping in and take a quick look to refresh what brands to look at or what the high dollar items look like.
The biggest part of making money on eBay, in our opinion, is just buying the right stuff. We are sharing our years of experience with you to shorten the amount of time it will take for you to become a full-time seller too.
The next part is figuring out what to buy. Here are some general picking FAQs. Many of the how-to-eBay guides I have seen suggest determining your niche. It is helpful at first to start shopping for the items you already know about (I didn't start buying clothing for a while because I knew nothing about fashion). You can become familiar with your routes, looking things up, sales patterns, common items, etc. while not being overwhelmed by all of the available stuff. However, if you want to make a living off eBay like we do, you will probably want to adjust to learning to spot as much as possible that makes money.
The Thrifter's Field Guide is set up to help you learn what to buy to make money. There are items you might not even think to buy because they don't look like much of anything often or don't realize people are willing to buy used or flawed. It is categorized by type of item, because that is how the thrift stores organize things. So, if you'd like to learn more about selling dishware, for example, you can navigate to the dishware page to get an idea of the types of things that sell, with a visual reference of photos of items we have sold to help you recognize them, and a list of actual sales we have made. Some pages include additional tips about buying and selling categories of items and/or pre-formatted research links to help you get even more familiar with the category (e.g. on the Cameras page: Click here to view recent sales of film cameras sold for parts. If you cannot test cameras, you can still research what cameras might be worth buying to sell as-is). You can research one area at a time or look through the sales photos and amounts to see which categories we frequently sell in and items that sell for the most money. If you're getting ready to walk into a store, you can pull up the page for the area you are shopping in and take a quick look to refresh what brands to look at or what the high dollar items look like.
The biggest part of making money on eBay, in our opinion, is just buying the right stuff. We are sharing our years of experience with you to shorten the amount of time it will take for you to become a full-time seller too.
Sell. Ship. Repeat.
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