web analytics

Get Rid Of Your Junk In 3 Simple Steps!

 Blogging, Reviews
May 312012
 

Several months ago I bought an R/C helicopter for the kids myself to play with around the house. What I didn’t realize was how easy it is to break those little blades. It didn’t take long before I was online searching for replacement blades after one too many crashes. Unfortunately, the blades that I received were the wrong ones. Of course, the proper thing to have done at this point would have been to return them, right? Well, you’re talking to Mr. Procrastinator. Being the diligent procrastinator that I am I waited until it was too late to return them. Had I returned them within the eligible window I would have received my money back but wouldn’t be a good procrastinator. See how this works?

Anyway, I was about to just toss the suckers (they were under $10) but realized I can do one better. So, I grabbed my iPhone opened up my eBay app and in 3 simple steps <insert Special Agent OSO music here> I had the blades listed while sitting on the couch.

Step 1

 

                    

When you first launch the app you’re asked if you want to view the tutorial. There is a text tutorial that is really great. It even shows you how to search for items like yours which helps expedite the entire process! If you want to watch a video tutorial instead you can do that as well.

So your first step is going to be searching for the item you’re selling. You can either enter in the keyword of the item you’re selling or scan the barcode using the camera on the phone. I typed in the model number of the blades and it quickly showed other blades for sale. I tapped on one in the list and clicked on the “Sell one like this” button. The beauty of this is that it enters all the pertinent data into fields you’d otherwise have to fill out manually.

 

Step 2

Now that we’ve searched for the item we’re going to sell, we’re ready to create our posting. The following screen shots show how detailed you can be with your listing. Most fields are already filled out as a result of clicking that “Sell one like this” button in the previous step. However, you can go in and change any field you’d like simply by tapping on it. The layout is super simple and very intuitive.

                    

         

Step 3

The third and final step is to submit your post! Once you do, you’ll be presented with the fees your posting will incur and that’s it! In literally minutes you can post anything you want to sell right from your phone!

                    

I am a member of the eBay Parent Panel which is a paid sponsorship between eBay and DadStreet. The views and opinions expressed on this site are mine and cannot be bought. However, I may want to buy yours if I run out of my own.

Simple Tips For First Time eBay Sellers

 Money Matters
Mar 312012
 


Before becoming a member of the eBay Parent Panel I hadn’t had much experience buying and/or selling on eBay. Since partnering with eBay I have definitely had some success selling nearly $800 worth of product. Not bad for things that were literally sitting around the house, right?

Selling on eBay can be a great experience and it’s relatively easy. However, there are some things you want to make sure you’re aware of before you start your selling experience. Today I’m going to cover two mistakes I made that would have yielded me more money and I wound up learning the hard way. Looking back what I’m about to talk about might seem like common sense but I got wrapped up in the excitement of selling.

Confirm Your Shipping Fees!

Now this isn’t really such a big deal with smaller items since you’re going to have minimal variance (generally speaking) with lighter/smaller items. However, when you’re shipping larger items things can have quite a bit more variance. I was selling my stroller with accessories. This was a relatively large item and with all the accessories certainly weighed a bit. To be honest I suppose I just felt lazy at the time so I used the tools eBay has to estimate shipping costs. Now you can use the tools they have online to calculate costs but like I said, larger items deserve more research. After I sold my stroller I took it down to my local UPS store to ship it out. I was expecting some slight variance perhaps. When all was said and done I was a good $60 off though! Yikes! It would have taken 30 minutes out of my day to have taken the stroller down to UPS FIRST! Had I done that, I would have saved quite a bit of money and frustration. To make matters worse, I actually left a vital part of the stroller in my car and had to ship that separately! That added another $20 loss to my shipping saga.

So, if you’re shipping a large item on eBay go to your local shipping company FIRST. Also, take the time to make sure you have ALL the parts of the item you’re selling together before shipping. Again, these things seem like common sense and in a way they are. However, sometimes you just want to get rid of whatever you have and/or you’re just wanting to get that extra cash in your pocket. Take a few more minutes to make sure you have solid ship numbers and I guarantee you’ll end the transaction with the most money in your pocket.

Test Before You Sell!

This was another lesson I had to learn the hard way. I was selling an older Wii System I had. I hadn’t used it in over a year and thought I could use the money instead of something else to collect dust. I placed the Wii for sale with all the accessories and someone won the bid. Just before I sent it out I decided to make sure everything worked. Everything worked the last time I used it but that was a year ago. As it turns out my kids (2 and 3) had gotten into some of the game disks and they were scratched beyond operation. I also found out that one of the controllers didn’t work. It turns out that the batteries that were in there leaked after being in there so long and destroyed it. I felt so horrible that I had already sold what was advertised as a perfectly working Wii only to find these problems. I emailed the winner and explained what I found. She was pretty disappointed and I actually wound up giving her back $50.00 as a gesture on my part to make amends.

So, even if you “know” something works make sure you test it out BEFORE you post your item for bid. My other advice has to do with accessories like the games I included. I would offer those for free in your listing. If an accessory doesn’t work great or is not in great condition it’s much easier to deal with it if it’s advertised as free. Had I advertised my games as free it would have been easier to claim that a refund wouldn’t be in the works. Of course, your integrity is the most important thing and going back to my original point as long as you’ve honestly tested everything and advertised the item as it is you’re in a good place. I made the mistake of not testing first and I was honest at the end and then made amends. Unfortunately, my amends cost me $50.00 extra bucks I would have kept had I done my due diligence.

Selling on eBay is fun and can yield you some great extra cash for items that might be just sitting around your house. However, as easy as it is to sell online it’s also easy to make costly mistakes. You may feel anxious to get the show on the road and get that product sold. That’s completely understandable and taking just a few extra minutes before and during the transaction will certainly pay off.

Happy Selling!

I am a member of the eBay Parent Panel which is a paid sponsorship between eBay and DadStreet. The views and opinions expressed on this site are mine and cannot be bought. However, I may want to buy yours if I run out of my own.

Virtual Yard Sale on Dad Street Starts, Finally!

 Money Matters, Technology
Nov 302011
 

So, last month I posted about how I was going to have a Virtual Yard Sale. I told you I’d have my item(s) sold before November was out. According to iCal, November is out after today. Oops?? In fairness, I also honestly told you I’m a procrastinator and a damn good one, I might add!

Well, it’s clear I’m not getting anything sold by the end of today but I did get my first item posted!! Finally! The truth is, I have put off selling on eBay for fear it would just be too much work. This is coming from someone who knows his way around the internet! Wait, I have a blog that I built myself! LOL

Okay, so now I feel a little stupid being intimidated for selling on eBay when I’ve built this blog! Okay, so yes I am on the eBay Parent Panel but I’m a regular parent like the rest of you. I’m not an eBay Selling Expert and I won’t claim to be one! What I will do is show you what I did so you can give it a whirl yourself!

My Bugaboo stroller has been sitting in the trunk of our car for almost a year now, unused. We’ve wanted to sell it for sometime and I’m glad to say that as of last night it’s on auction. So here’s how I went about putting it on eBay:

I created an account on eBay which was super duper easy. eBay makes it very easy to show you how to navigate and with big, bright buttons like this it wasn’t hard to see where to go next!


One thing that I really loved was that eBay gave you the choice to actually search for your item. I typed in, “Bugaboo Cameleon” and it came up in a list of choices. Once I selected it, I was taken to another window where I would fill in all the details of my listing. One of the things that’s so daunting about having to list an item to sell (usually) is that you have to write up this whole big description for your product, BORING!

Well guess what? I didn’t have to do that!

eBay automagically put a description right in there! Of course, I had a choice to use it or not but how cool is that? It had all the specs and details of the stroller! Further down I was given another option to add my own details about the sale.

Next up was to add pictures. I had several options for adding pictures, including keeping the pictures on my own server which I obviously could have done. Instead I opted to keep the pictures on eBay’s servers. What does this mean? Basically I clicked on a button to upload pics, browsed to them on my hard drive and viola!

You could argue either way about whether this is a good thing or a bad thing but either way eBay has a ton of options! Even though there are so many options they do a great job of providing you with information. One thing that started to confuse me were the fees associated with selling. There were fees for starting prices, fees for reserves, fees for “Buy it Now” options, and many more fees. Now, let me point out that the fees are very nominal but you’ll want to read about what you think you’ll need and weed out the things you don’t need. Like I said, eBay does a good job about giving you the required resources to make your decision.

One of the biggest things I was concerned about was the shipping. Now normally if I had a smaller item it wouldn’t have been a big deal but I was selling a stroller and had some accessories. There were some tools that showed me what shipping costs would be based on package sizes and weights. Honestly, I just wound up estimating the weight so I could get the post up knowing I might just have to cover the cost of a few bucks if I was off. I didn’t really care too much since this was a higher priced item. Had I been selling something for $20 I probably would’ve spent more time nailing down the costs so I didn’t lose anything. Again, I’m guessing with smaller items this is much easier and less confusing.

All in all, it took me about 20 to 30 minutes to go through the form. Of course this was my very first time doing this and I know the next time I post something it will take minutes. In fact, eBay let’s you save your listings as templates so you can knock them out the more you do! All in all I’d say it was a much easier process than I had anticipated. I think this goes back to the saying, “Anticipation of fear is worse than the fear itself” or something like that. Anyway, the point being that eBay makes it super easy to post items and they have really thought of everything.

This is the first time I’ve ever listed and it is an expensive item so we’ll see how I do. Once my stroller sells I’ll give you more details about how I set my pricing, my reserve, and my “Buy it Now” pricing. I’m expecting this first run might not go as smooth but that’s okay, it’s a learning experience. At this point I’m actually less concerned with something going wrong and more concerned with getting addicted to selling stuff! You know what? That might not be a bad addiction to have!

Check out my listing here!

I am a member of the eBay Parent Panel which is a paid sponsorship between eBay and DadStreet. The views and opinions expressed on this site are mine and cannot be bought. However, I may want to buy yours if I run out of my own.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

 Older Entries