Although I buy a few things per year on eBay, I haven't sold anything on eBay for a little more than two years. I had eight items that I needed to sell so I logged into my account today and found that posting an item for sale is much easier than it was two years ago. Creating the description (some items can be automatically built from a stock description) is easier, making your posting look professional and clean is easier, adding pictures is easier (first picture is free, then only fifteen cents per picture after that), and working through pricing your item (hint: always start at $.01 to lower your listing cost AND generate interest in your item).
I was able to post all eight of my items in under an hour. Do remember to resize your pictures to no bigger than 1024 X 768 before uploading them to shorten the process and make your listing load quickly.
To list all eight items with multiple pictures and all the description I could muster cost under $10! To list those same items in my local newspaper with only a four line description and no picture would cost me $12 PER ITEM and reach less than 50,000 people for seven days! With my $10 combined cost with eBay, I get ten days of exposure to more than 150 MILLION PEOPLE.
OK, if the items sell, I do have to pay another small fee to eBay based on the final selling price which amounts to 5% on the first $25 and 3% on any dollar amount above that. This doesn't bother me a bit for many reasons:
- I can't get any better exposure for my unwanted items anywhere else
- Even with seller's fees, the cost of my "ads" are far cheaper than any other medium
- No where on the planet can I sell something as easy to people who are reputable (TIP: watch feedback ratings and you won't have problems)
- My descriptions, including pictures, are not limited in any way
- eBay provides an amazingly simple way for potential buyers to find my items and track them through the auction
- Collecting payment couldn't be easier (TIP: use PayPal)
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