“Where are you going with that?”, I asked my wife as she was carrying some boxes out of our daughter’s room. “Taking it to the Salvation Army” was her reply. “Um, not so fast Speedy Gonzales, let me take a looksie.” Turns out she was about to give away some barely worn clothing plus a ‘Classic Winnie The Pooh’ crib bedding set that included a comforter, dust ruffle, and bumper pad. My wife, so young, so naive. Now I knew the bedding set was in great shape, so I snapped a couple nice pictures of it, wrote a clever little description and put it up on eBay. Seven days later it sold for $135 plus the buyer paid all the shipping costs. Turns out the bedding set was not being produced any more and apparently still quite popular.
Now it is not always this easy to sell stuff on eBay but I have had a lot of success selling stuff that many people (um….my wife) would assume to just give away. Here are a few tips I have learned:
1- Brands, brands, brands. Let’s face it, we live in a very brand conscious society. I have had great luck selling not only brand name kid’s clothing but some of my own clothes and electronics on eBay for way more than I thought they were worth. In my experience brands that really sell well are Levi, Gap, BabyGap, Gymboree, Hanna Andersson, and American Eagle Outfitters. NOTE: Never get rid of an old pair of Levi jeans, especially if they have holes in them. I sold a couple pair of Levi’s for $36 a few months ago. The more trashed the better in many cases. Crazy!
2- Take a nice picture. Take a little time and get a nice picture of what you are selling, better yet, take a couple different pictures from different angles. People like to see what they are getting. When I started doing this I noticed a big increase in the number of bids I was receiving.
3- Write a clever description. Don’t just write, “pair of jeans, 32×34, nice shape”. Instead write something like, “I was cleaning out my over-stuffed closet the other day and found this pair of slightly worn Levi 501 Jeans, size 32×34. They are a little loose on me now thanks to my new treadmill. So my loss is your gain!” You get the idea, be clever and people will take notice of your auction listings.
4- Be honest. Along with being clever, be honest about what you are selling. If the pair of jeans has a small paint stain on them, say so in your description. Better yet, take a picture of the paint stain so the bidder knows exactly what they are getting. People on eBay appreciate honesty and will buy from you again and give you glowing feedback. All of which increases your selling credibility.
5- My junk, somebody else’s treasure. A few years ago, just before Halloween, we were heading out on a Saturday morning to the pumpkin patch to let our son pick out a couple pumpkins to carve. We pull out onto our street and I am accelerating the mini-van (oxymoron there), all of the sudden out of the rear view mirror I see something fly off the top of the van and bounce around on the street. All at once I realize that I left my Nikon digital camera on the roof. I set it up there while I was buckling our son in his car seat. Felt like the biggest loser in the world…..so I turn the van around and go back for it. The camera was in its case so I am praying maybe it landed on some road-kill or something and survived the fall. Turns out it was still in one piece but wouldn’t turn on and when I shook it, it sounded like a baby’s rattle…not a good sign. Figure it is a goner so just for the heck of it I put it up on eBay. A guy buys it for $95!! Turns out he is a camera repairman and buys cameras and fixes them and then sells them himself for a profit. Moral of the story: Never set your electronics on top of your car. Oh, and also just because something has no value to you doesn’t mean somebody will not pay you a lot of money for it.
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4 responses so far ↓
This is a great post! I have a ton of stuff I would like to sell but I have been reluctant because many of the items are in less than perfect shape. I guess it is worth a shot. Thanks for the info!
Melissa, thanks. Yeah it is worth a shot indeed. I have found that stuff that is a little more worn sells better if it is in a bigger lot.
Can I also add (being an experienced Ebayer myself), that you have to be CLEAR in the rules of the auction? That way, if anything goes wrong you can point to the auction and say: Look, I told you if you didn’t pay or respond within 7 days with SOMETHING, I’d report you.
As for clothing and other such things, I always try and get someone to model it for me (or take a picture of me in it), I make sure I take many many many pictures to post on there, and measurements if necessary.
Great post
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Fab. Broke - excellent points. Definetely the more info you can have in your description about payment and how long you have to pay the better. Glad you mentined that.