Now that you’ve mastered the art of Ebay buying, you have to learn how to sell. This is the best part about Ebay.

The beauty of Ebay is that what is junk to you is valuable to someone else. Before Ebay came along, this was a very difficult task. Now, it’s easy to make money while getting rid of your junk.

Someone give you a hideous gift? Ebay it. Are you envying the newest, greatest model of whatever? No problem, ebay the old version to offset the cost.

I’ve mostly sold electronics & computer stuff on Ebay. I usually find a great deal on the newest things, and then sell the old versions on Ebay for a little less (or sometimes more!) than what i paid.

First off, make sure you have a Paypal account. It is essential for various reasons.

Ebay selling basics

• Reputation Before doing any real selling on Ebay, you need to develop a reputation through the feedback system. The more positive feedback you receive, the more likely that people will buy from you. What if you don’t have any feedback yet? Make some Ebay purchases to build up your feedback rating.

• Take a picture. Pictures tell a thousand words. And people will trust a real picture of your item a lot more than some generic stock photo. Even better, include in the photo a piece of paper showing your Ebay ID so that people know it’s really your item rather than someone else’s photo that you stole. I find 1 picture is usually sufficient for my listings.

• Pick the right title for your listing. This is very important. You want to make sure people can find your item. Pick basic keywords that you think people might search for. Include model numbers if applicable. Include relevant specs. Say it’s new if it is. Avoid filler words (i.e. “and”) as they are a waste of space. Above all else, spell it correctly!

• Give an honest description. Describe the condition (new, used, like-new, etc). State any imperfections. State what the warranty is if there is one. State whether original packaging and/or accessories are included. I don’t bother giving any specs as I assume that people know them already if they are searching for the item on Ebay.

• Fixed-price or auction style? I usually have better luck with Fixed-price auctions. If the item you are selling is very popular with lots of potential buyers (like iPhone and Wii early on), do an auction-style as you will be more likely to attract a bidding war.

• Starting Prices. Know what the going rates are. Search “completed listings” to see what the selling prices are to get an idea of what you can expect. For popular items for that I do an auction-style acution, I just start the price at $0.99 since I know it will get bid up. For fixed-price auctions, determine the price range of completed auction and set it based on how desperate you are to sell (depends on market forces and timing of product upgrades).

• Be Safe. You don’t want to sell to a scammer. You can set options to sell to people from certain countries (U.S. only is safer), with certain feedback levels, etc. I always set my options to take full advantage of safety.

• Other listing options. Ebay has lots of options to modify your auction. These are all require extra fees which I don’t think are worth it. It depends, though, on what you are trying to sell. Experiment to see what works for you.

Once you’ve listed your item, you can sit back and relax. Or maybe not. I get very excited watching the bids on my items.

What do after your item actually sells? Stay tuned for my next installment..