Pro tips from 15 years of reselling on eBay

Maybe I should have written an ebook instead and charged $2 for the wealth of information I’m about to unleash on you with this post.  These are tips I’ve gathered over 15 years of selling on eBay.  I’ll keep this updated if someone has more pro tips that I haven’t shared already.  I’m not going to post noob stuff like, “Hey, upload a picture instead of no picture.”

Sign up for a basic store

If you plan on doing any kind of volume, pay the $16 to be a basic store to save yourself on fees.  If you sell a tablet for $100, you’d pay $10 in fees.  If you had a store, you’d pay $4.  Uhhh doesn’t take a math genius to realize if you sell more than $400 in tablets a month, you’d save on fees if you have a store.  There’s no reason to pay more for a premium or anchor store, so don’t do it.  Use this handy fee calculator.

Also the basic store gives you $25 of credit quarterly to stock up on their supplies like padded envelopes or tape.

Don’t mess with auctions; stick to BUY IT NOW

Look at completed listings.  Pick a price and set it.  If it doesn’t sell 30 days later, lower the price a bit. Unless you just really like rejecting lowball offers all day. Plus, when you accept an OFFER, the buyer doesn’t pay right away.  In theory, they could NOT pay and there goes a day wasted.

Use your own photos!

I’ve had probably a dozen listings over the years taken down because I used a manuf’s picture.  For instance, North Face will flag your posting if you use their stock photo.  Saks will take you down too.  Nutribullet will.  And so on.  While you may love that stock photo, don’t use it.  I mean, you can try to, but don’t be surprised when they take you down.  I considered building a light box, but that was too hardcore!  Plus, I think buyers like to see the actual box instead of stock photos these days. 

List using the app vs desktop 

For decades, I only listed via the desktop, but now 95% of my listings are in the app.  Easy to take photos, etc.  The only time I list on desktop is when I need to make a listing with variations (so 1 listing that sells multiple sizes.)

Is a Roomba a vacuum cleaner or is it an ‘other consumer electronic?’

The answer is a 3% difference.

USPS PADDED Flat Rate Envelope

These are hard to find in USPS stores, so buy it online.  They will cost you $7.xx to ship using Ebay shipping with delivery confirmation.  I’ve shipped mini iPads, cameras, jeans, down jackets, Fire TV’s, basically ANYTHING that you can squeeze in there.

Ship using Ebay’s Shipping

Don’t go to the post office.  Set up a mini-USPS office at your house.  USPS lets you buy Priority Mail boxes for free and delivers for free.  You’ll get cheaper rates and makes things smoother when buyers claim they haven’t gotten their item. UPDATE – You can use Pirateship to get more insurance and it feeds into Ebay so you may want to go that route.

USPS or Fedex Smartpost or Fedex ground?

This is probably the best tip of all on the page.  Here’s how I decide to ship:

• If it’s <= 15.9 oz, use USPS First Class!
• If it’s between 16 oz to 2lb:
  • Does it fit in the padded flat rate envelope, use that for $7.xx w/ delivery confirmation!
  • If not, use USPS Priority Mail (Smartpost may be cheaper, but the extra dollar is worth the 2 day shipping)
  • If it’s technically 1lb & 2 oz, this rounds up to 2lbs.  Use a lighter box maybe?
• If it’s over 2lbs, destination matters at this point.
  • I once shipped a 20 lb item from WA to OR using ‘regular’ Priority Mail and it was like $10.  Yes, CHEAP!
  • If it’s from WA to CA, I may use a Regional Rate Box A if the item fits in the box(remember there are rectangular sized ones and square sized ones)
  • If it’s 4 lbs and can fit in a Medium Flat Rate box, use that instead.
  • If it doesn’t fit in a USPS flat rate or USPS regional rate box, USE FEDEX SMARTPOST.  Usually if something is 3 lbs and can’t fit in one of those boxes, ship it Fedex Smartpost, which should cost you ~$9 from WA to FL instead of $15 using Priority Mail.
• Once you get to the oversize items, just use Fedex Ground.  If you want to print UPS, you have to print label from Paypal instead.  Fedex Ground will pick up from your house for free; UPS will charge you. 

Pick the right shipping service!

I once listed a 3 lb item that didn’t fit into Regional Rate box or Flat Rate box.  I had the item listed as USPS PM.  I was saving on shipping and shipped it Fedex Smartpost.  The buyer angrily filed a case against me saying I misled him on the shipping times.  I got dinged on it.  So put 5 seconds of thought before selecting your shipping service on the listing.  Will this item fit into a padded flat rate envelope?  This item is 4 lbs, but does it fit into a Regional Rate or Flat Rate box?  If not, pick Smartpost on your listing! Or save you the headache and pick ‘Standard Shipping.’

Start learning how much things cost to ship.

Let’s say you’re out and about and found some shoes for $20 and notice they are going for $40 on Ebay.  You think, “Great, I’ll double my money here.”  Then when you sell the item for $40, you realize shoes in a shoe box weigh 2.5 lbs, rounded up to 3 pounds.  That means if you have to ship it coast to coast, you’re looking at ~$13.  Then factor in Ebay and PP fees of about 15% and now your $40 gross sale – $6 fees – $13 cost = $21 and you essentially lost money on the deal once you factor in time and effort.

Be careful with fragile or collectible items

If you are selling a Funko POP, don’t put it in an envelope.  Collectors expect the box to be almost pristine.  For that, I’ll use a box.  For a stuffed animal though?  I’ll use one of those big Amazon padded envelopes and just pay 12 oz for shipping versus 1.5 lbs if I had put it in a box.  Starbucks cup?  Padded envelope, but I’ll add extra bubble wrap around the cup.

Exclude PO Boxes, Alaska, Hawaii, PR, APO

Selling a heavy item and shipping via Fedex Ground?  Make sure to exclude shipping to those places since Fedex Ground can’t ship there.  I’ve had to cancel numerous orders because someone from PR bought a heavy item that I intended to use Fedex Ground.

Buy USPS insurance?

I’ve never bought extra insurance, but that’s just me.

Should you accept returns?

For me, I don’t.  As soon as I sell something on Ebay, I want to be done with it.  The only reason to accept returns is if you want to be a Top Seller and get the 20% off FVF discount.  I just don’t think the FVF savings is worth the headache of accepting returns.

What if someone said an item doesn’t work and wants to return?

Unfortunately, Ebay is very buyer friendly, and even if you know the person is lying, you basically HAVE to take the item back.  When you get the item back, then you can call up Ebay and then plead your case; they may reimburse you for the return shipping cost.  In Ebay’s mind, it’s a cost of doing business.  

When to get signature confirmation

Technically only required for over $750 items, but you should know that USPS only keeps tracking for 4 months and Paypal has 6 months of chargeback.  Sold a $500 item – does the person have high feedback?  Probably not needed.  Sold a $250 item to a dropshipper in OR or DE, BUY IT!  These guys know better than normal USA buyers about this loophole.

Selling high value electronics

When I sell an Ipad or a video game console, I take a picture of  the shipping label next to the serial number and I message that to the buyer before  I ship out the item. This way, the buyer KNOWS I have recorded the serial number. This won’t block all scams, but it definitely  deters a lot and also Ebay has proof of what you sent.

Item Descriptions

Lately, I’ve learned not to put much in the description box and just say, “New in box.  Fast shipping.”  The reason for that is if you copy and paste all the specs and one of the specs say “Comes with USB cable” or “1 year manuf warranty,” then that gives the buyer a reason to return the item for free since you did not describe the item correctly.  There is NO manuf warranty when people buy from eBay, but they think it does anyway, so better to leave it out so you can at least argue that you never explicitly said there was.

Global Shipping Services

I thought  this was the best thing ever until one day I accidentally sent a size L jacket instead of M to Australia.  I offered the guy a 50% discount and he wouldn’t take it.  I basically had to ship the right jacket a 2nd time using Global Shipping, and then I had to refund him $25 for him to ship me back the jacket from Australia to the US.  My coworker shipped a Nutribullet to Australia, and the buyer said the jar wouldn’t come off.  She paid something like $50 to ship it back to him, which he then took all of 5 seconds to remove the jar.  Ever since those incidents, I’ve decided to no longer ship globally unless it’s something small and light and have nearly 0% chance of being returned.

Buyer feedback extortion

I once sold a brand new shitty Kohl’s tablet to a customer who wanted to return it.  I mailed her the receipt so she could exchange in store.  She took it to the store and wanted merch credit instead, but oh oh, I paid less than what she paid.  She and I went back and forth over Ebay messages, and in one of them, she said something to the effect of, “I”ll leave you negative feedback if you don’t take it back.”  Well, I didn’t take it back and she left me negative feedback.  I called eBay who said she extorted me, and so they removed the feedback.

Never cancel an item

I once sold a phone case, and on the way to shipping it off, it went into the trash by accident.  I refunded the buyer (who was happy with it).  I then filed a case to cancel the xaction to get my FVF back.  It went against me and messed up my Top Rated Seller Status.  So just eat the FVF loss if it’s a small item because the 20% FVF savings may be worth more than the one-time hit you’re taking.

If you do need to cancel, send the buyer a message saying, “Hey I ran out of XYZ, do you want ABC instead?  If not, I’ll happily cancel the order and refund your money.”  When they say YES, you can now pick the option ‘Buyer asked to cancel order.’  This doesn’t ding your record like if you chose ‘I ran out of stock on an item.’

In regards to pricing

Say you have 100 widgets you want to sell.  The average sold price is from $90 to $110.  You price it at $110 and you haven’t sold a single one in a month.  In month 2, drop your price down to $100.  You may start selling 1 or 2 a week.  When this happens, your listing moves up on the search order (This matters a lot!)  Once you start selling 1-2 A DAY, slowly raise the price.  Raise it to $105 and then $110 and eventually even $115 or $120.  If people see that you’ve sold over 50 of these things, they think you are trustworthy and will pay the extra amount vs someone else selling a single item listing.

Selling digital items

Technically you can’t sell digital items, but you sort of can.  If you sell a digital item that is $10, I would just risk it.  If they charge back, you’ll lose 99% of the time.  If the item is over $10, I’ll usually buy a label on Ebay and ship out the code on a piece of paper.  This will protect you from “unauthorized chargebacks” since you shipped out SOMETHING.  It won’t protect you from “item not described” claims like if they tried to redeem the code and told you you sent them an invalid code.  It’s rare people do that.  I’d say 95% of my chargebacks are unauthorized chargebacks vs ‘item not described’ claims.

Having an active listing with quantity 0

This is important when you have a hot item. The default setting on Ebay is you’ll have to re-list items when sold. You can change the setting to keep your listing active but at quantity 0. This way when you restock, you can change the quantity and your item is back up high on the algorithm versus being back at square one.