Your First eBay Listing
One of the toughest things to do is actually click “List Your Item” on your FIRST eBay listing. The next toughest thing is to keep repeating the process to establish more and more inventory on eBay. Make listing a habit and choose a goal for yourself. Do you want to list daily? How many items? Then go for it! You can do it!
A simple philosophy on eBay is:
The more you list, the more you sell!
Nothing gets a eBay seller more excited than to sell something. Anything! The sound of the “cha-ching” on the mobile app is rewarding and contagious to boot!
Most sellers don’t find listing items as exciting as finding items to sell, so I will suggest a ways to make it so:
Make a Listing Goal
Make a goal of how many listings you want to create by day, week or month and try to stick to it!
- One Listing Per Day up to Ten Per Day
- 10 Listings Per Week up to Fifty Per Week
- 50 Listings Per Month up to One Hundred Per Month
If you have a number goal in mind, it can be like a game to see if you can reach it. Nothing bad will happen if you don’t, but making a committment to reach a certain number does work for some people! How many listings do you want to try for? You can do it!
List Similar Types of Items Over and Over Again
When creating new listings it is often simplier to try do list a few of the same type of item back to back. You can make a template for shoes, or for DVD’s or for record albums or anything at all.
Let’s say you have a stack of record album LP’s you’d like to list. Start with one and often you will be able to use some of the same info, like weight and shipping info in each new listing. You can “sell similar”, once you have posted the first one and change the title and other details as needed. It will be a speedier way to list, once you get the hang of it!
Here’s an example:
- Listing #1: The Beatles Abbey Road 12″ Vintage Vinyl Record Album
- Condition: Good overall, some writing on back of cover.
Next step…..
- Make a copy, paste and then change to this for the next record:
- Listing #2: The Rolling Stones Some Girls 12″ Vintage Vinyl Record Album
- Condition: Good overall, light scratches. AS IS.
Keep going from there!
- Listing #3: Bob Dylan Lay Lady Lay 12″ Vintage Vinyl Record Album
- Condition: Very Good overall, played very little.
In no time flat, you will have three record albums listed, in the same “music => record albums” category and your shipping information remains the same for most records.
Next step…..
Try it for shoes, or toys or stamps, or any other similar types of items! The more familiar the listing process becomes, the faster you will be!
Sell the Same Type of Item You Just Sold
I like to play a “fun little game with myself” to make listing a bit more entertaining (listing can be somewhat dry unless it goes fairly quickly!) If I sell a Disney pin one day, then later that day I will try to list as least one more Disney pin. If I sell a hat, then I try to list another hat. If I sell a book, then I’ll list another book!
When something sells on eBay, it can renew your interest in particular categories and your “listing” energy goes up! Try it, it really does work!
Find Items with Bar Codes
The easiest listing of all is an item with a bar code. Type the UPC or ISBN (books) number from the package into the eBay search bar and it will most likely come back with the result of your exact item. Click on the product, fill in the condition and price and take a photo if necessary. You may also see a stock photo from the eBay catalog. If your item is new, it’s okay to use it and not take your own photo! This method of listing is often the quickest!
If you sell DVD’s, they all weigh about the same. eBay draws from it’s media catalog to populate the decription with all the pertinant info about the movie and it’s cast and director. It is very simple to list items with a bar code, that’s in the eBay catalog.
Select “sell one like this” and most of the listing is already completed for you!
Warning: One of a Kind Items Take Longer to List
Of all the tasks you will do on eBay, listing items is one of the more time consuming, especially if you list one of a kind items. They need special attention in their description and possibly custom shipping info, too.
If you sell an unusual or vintage item, there may or may not be another like it on eBay already, so you may have to start from scratch with your listing. That’s not a bad thing, but you don’t want to spend a super long time creating your listing. Put the important description info into a bullet point list, include an honest assessment of condition along with a fair price and you are almost home.
A short cut on shipping cost is either to use a flat rate box (small, medium or large) with a set price or use “calculated” shipping. Enter the box size and weight and eBay will give the buyer (by zip code) an estimated cost on their end. You will not have to know how much to charge on shipping. It works pretty well, though sometimes under charges the buyer. It’s all part of selling on eBay.
Recap
Tip #12
- Goal: Get comfortable with creating eBay listings
- Task: Set a goal number to list: daily, weekly, monthly
- Task: Find similar items to list to make things go more quickly
- Task: List the type of item you just sold on eBay
- Task: Find items with bar codes to use the eBay catalog to pre-fill some information
- Task: Try to avoid too many unusual, one of a kind items. It may slow you down and take away your motivation at first.
Have fun as you get more items listed on eBay!
Remember: The More You List, the More You Will Sell!
