How to Save Money Selling on eBay

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By cyclegirl98
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Save Money Selling on eBay

Some people may avoid using eBay to sell their items because they think that it is too expensive to do so. With the cost of shipping items, eBay fees, Paypal fees, etc.. one may think it is a waste of time and money. It doesn't have to be all this. All you need is a little advance preparation to sell your eBay items the most cost effective way.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

empty cardboard boxes - various sizes
weighing scale
good raport with local businesses
good raport with your post office

Step 1

Save money on shipping your larger eBay items by using free cardboard boxes. For goodness sake do not purchase boxes from retail stores. Many free boxes can be found by looking around at stores like Wal-Mart, Dollar General or Dollar Tree. These stores restock on a daily basis and all you have to do is ask for their empty boxes. Or just grab them if they are still on the floor. Find out when these stores restock and make one trip to pick up many boxes. This will save you on gasoline as well.
Step 2

Pick an appropriate size box for your item to ship in. Many UPS or FedEx locations measure the boxes and determine the shipping cost according to the dimensions of your box. Of course, weight is a factor as well. Don't choose a box that is too large for your item.
Step 3

If you are selling individual tee-shirts, blouses or other non-fragile items, ask the post office clerk about sending that item in a priority mail envelope. I have sent many USPS priority envelopes at just $4.80 each. Of course, you need to weigh the options here; sometimes finding a free small cardboard box to send these types of items is cheaper. Work with your post office to determine the cheapest route.
Step 4

If priority shipping is the way you want to go, log on to USPS.com and order free priority shipping boxes or envelopes. The description will state what the mailing fee is for each envelope or box.
Step 5

Make sure you are asking your bidders for an appropriate shipping amount. You don't want to be short-ended on shipping. You have the item you are selling on hand, you now have free boxes from retail stores, select a box and use eBay's shipping calculator tool to figure the cost of shipping per the box dimensions and weight. Ask for enough from your bidders to cover that amount.
Step 6

Begin your eBay listing at the lowest amount you are willing to accept. Insertion fees for listings are determined by your beginning price. For instance, for a starting price of $.01 - $.99 the insertion fee is $.15 while a beginning price of $1.00 - $9.99 is $.35. You can already see you need to begin your bids at a price that ends in $.99, otherwise the insertion fee jumps to the next level.
Step 7

Pictures sell items on eBay. However, they allow for one free picture and then they begin to charge for each subsequent photo. A solution to this is to upload your item pictures to a photo hosting site such as Photobucket and then paste a direct link to the photo into the description section of your listing. Using the description area is very important. Trying to use another area will not work!
Step 8

Often eBay will run specials on listing fees. Be sure to take advantage of these opportunites. You will see messages in your inbox stating the effective dates.
Step 9

Be sure to save time on eBay listings as well. Time is money right? If you are selling similar items, be sure to use the eBay option on the listing page called "Sell Similar Item". The page will pop up with the information already presented from your previous item. Just make the appropriate changes and click "List my Item". This way you do not have to retype all the information, just make changes.
Step 10

Save even more time on your listings by saving inserts to use for future listings. You can do this right in the description area. Click "inserts" then "create insert" and save the insert. For example, one statement I always make in my description is "I PREFER PAYPAL, BUT WILL GLADLY ACCEPT A MONEY ORDER OR CASHIER'S CHECK." I set this up in my template and don't have to re-type this for each listing.
Step 11

Saving time these ways will allow you the time to list more items. We know more items mean more $$! Have fun selling on eBay. It is a little addictive, just like eHow.