Tips for Selling on eBay - Better in Bulk

My journey as an eBay seller…

After my 5th child was born back in 2005, I discovered and fell head over heels in love with a brand new trend – baby wearing. Yes, mothers have been wearing their babies for ages, but it wasn’t until my last baby was born that I started seeing women in the US wearing anything other than a Baby Bjorn.

I was fascinated by the idea of freeing my hands and wearing my baby everywhere without killing my back. Yes, I owned a few Baby Bjorns and a name-brand sling which I never liked. But when I happened to find something about making wraps, my parenting life was revolutionized. I wore AJ everywhere I went and became obsessed with shopping for fabric.

Everywhere I went, people asked me where I had gotten such an amazing baby carrier, and so I decided to go into business selling them on eBay.

My Mom and Roo Wraps were a hot seller. When I started selling my wraps on eBay, there weren’t any other homemade baby wraps on the market, so my cheaper-than-name-brand wraps with unique fabrics sold out faster than I could shop for new fabric. I loved it.

For several years, the profits from my eBay store funded all of our holiday shopping. I loved having a small business that I could run, not only with my kids by my side, but promoting mother-child bonding. And I loved having my own income coming in.

I eventually stopped selling wraps, but I have continued to buy and sell on eBay over the years. Of course, my years of selling on eBay has taught me a few things about what works and what doesn’t work.

My top 5 Tips for selling on eBay

Photos – Bright, clear, and uncluttered photos often make or break a sale. When taking photos of your items to sell, use a clean, uncluttered background with plenty of light. Take multiple shots of the item, showing different sides and angles if appropriate.
Description – Leave a detailed products description. I try to think of all of the questions I would ask if I were looking at this listing.
Communication – Send your sellers a quick note at the end of the sale thanking them for making a purchase and pass along the tracking information so they know when their package will arrive. Always remember to leave feedback.
Simplify shipping – One of the things that held me back from selling at first was the thought of having to go to the post office with little kids (holy torture). I took care of that hurdle by purchasing padded envelopes and stocking up on the free flat rate boxes from the post office. Anytime I make a sale, I simply print off a USPS shipping label on my printer, attach it to the package, and leave it with the rest of my out-going mail. No trips to the post office!
Use eBay’s Mobile App to list items quickly – back “in the day” when I started selling on eBay, smart phones didn’t exist, and I admit….sometimes it would take me a while to list items for sale. Now, I use the mobile app, which I downloaded to my iPad and my Android phone. Last month, I listed about 20 books and DVDs in about 10 minutes while sitting on the floor in my family room. It couldn’t have been easier!

How it works: With the eBay Mobile app, you can easily scan a product and the app will pull up product information and photos, research competitive pricing, and take additional photos with your mobile device. It was all so seamless and smooth I wanted to search the house for more things to sell!

Join us for a Twitter Party with $500 in Prizes!

I’m excited to join Splash Creative Media as a panelist for the Sell on eBay twitter party on Thursday. We’ll be sharing a ton more eBay selling tips and giving out a ton of prizes. Here are the deets:

Date: Thursday, November 15th

Time: 3-4pm ET/ 12pm-1pm PT

Prizes: We’re giving away $500 in eBay gift cards! (20 $25 eBay gift cards)

Where: The party is being hosted by Bumebox on ebay.com/sellonmobile. You must tweet from this location to be entered to win a prize. (Please note, this link will not be live until the day of the party!)

Hope to see you there!!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post through Splash Creative Media on behalf of eBay. All thoughts, opinions, and eBay selling experiences are my own.

About Lolli

Lolli has written 2183 posts on this blog.

I became a mom in 1996, and in 2005 I had my fifth. Yes, 5 kids. In 2007, this blog was born (my 6th baby that will never grow up) and I've been sharing recipes, photography tricks, parenting tips, and everything in between. You can also find me writing at Home Made Simple, Famous Footwear blog and P&G Everyday. *Add my posts to your Google Reader today!*