Post Punk Kitchen Forum

(I know, welcome to the year 2000, vegetalion.)

My mother had a gift shop that closed a few years ago, and she still has a couple boxes of inventory that never sold. After a recent bout of cleaning, she decided she was tired of shuffling these boxes around the house and asked if I'd sell the extra stuff on ebay for her, since I know more about ebay than she does. However, I've only used ebay to buy two things ever, and it was so long ago that my account no longer existed there and I had to start a new one.

I've looked around the ebay's help sections, especially stuff about being a seller, but I am still a little lost. Sometime in the next month or so my parents are going to bring over the boxes of stuff, and then I'll really have to figure it out.

Any advice, suggestions, helpful links? One thing I find especially daunting is shipping and estimating shipping costs.

A shipping scale can be bought for about $20-30 and is a great investment. Ebay has a shipping calculator you use for adding your shipping prices. So if you get your box and item together, weigh it up on your scale and then you only have to plug in your shipping option (priority, parcel, post, etc) and weight (you can do custom weight for light things or 1-2lbs, 4-5 lbs, etc) and it will auto calculate for each person who wins an auction. I find it best to make sure I add in the box and packing material when weighing, because that stuff weighs more than you think. It doesn't have to be exact because a box 3 lb. 5 oz is the same as 3 lb 12 oz. USPS prices go up by the pound.

For USPS postal, anything 13 ounces or less can ship first class, which is usually the cheapest solution. Over that and it's a toss up between priority or parcel post. Priority will sometimes be only 30 cents or so more and has 2-3 day delivery. If you are doing media you can ship media mail but they do x ray boxes to make sure no one is shipping things other than books, magazines, etc.

For very heavy small things you can use flat rate boxes, but those are only economical if it is heavy enough and far enough.

Priority and flat rate boxes are free at your PO and can be ordered for free through their website and will be delivered to your house.

The USPS website has a shipping calculator should you need it. You put in two zip codes and it gives you the options.

Other than that, take a good picture and put up an honest description and hope it sells. Stuff the title with any important key words like new, with tags, brand names, etc.

It's very easy to do but can be a bit time consuming. I've sold a good bit over the past year, so if you have more specific questions shoot me an email.

Thanks, all-knowing pandacookie! I'm sure I'll have more questions as I set up my "seller account" or whatever; I'll let you know.

I started selling a few things last year. I wouldn't do it for a business, but it's a good way to get stuff out of the house and get a little money for some of it. Since I don't do a whole bunch of sales, I use the flat rate shipping because I can just print the label on my computer.

So you have to print the labels from Ebay you can't get a shipping label at the post office?

I never print out labels. I take 'em to the Post to mail.

Ah! That's what I'd like to do...but I couldn't find anywhere on Ebay that said I didn't have to print out labels. Thanks Pandacookie!

One more question you might have the answer to...for the seller's fees I want to just have it deducted from my Paypal balance but it wouldn't let me set it up that way. I just made a Seller's account so is there a waiting time? Or is it just because I don't have any money in my PayPal?

Yeah, they want to sell you postage but you don't need it.

There's no waiting time, and you don't pay seller's fees until you sell something. They invoice you monthly for it, and it'll automatically bill your PayPal account which will then automatically deduct the invoice value from your bank account or debit card or whatever.

As far as selling stuff goes, my advice is to take really good pictures-- in-focus, with close-ups of anything the buyer might want to know. If what you're selling is damaged, make sure you mention it. This probably won't be a big deal since you're selling new old stock stuff, but just be sure the buyer won't be surprised when they receive what you're sending.

If stuff will fit in USPS flat-rate boxes, definitely use those.

Cool, I'm pretty clueless about this and while the help section is large on the EBay site, it's not extremely helpful...thanks.

Yeah, it auto sets up to deduct from your paypal. You get invoiced at the start of every month if you have incurred fees. I always pay manually but if you don't do that, it will take it from your paypal. You will of course need a paypal balance for that to work.

Also, check out their new policies. As a new account I don't know if it is the same, but for us old timers they no longer charge listing fees for the first 50 listings per month (if your feedback is at a certain rating). They are, however, charging the eBay 7-9% fee on both the selling price and the shipping price. If you want to keep your fees down, don't use flat rate shipping unless it is actually the cheapest method. I do as much as possible with first class. Also, a lot of buyers appreciate when you don't inflate the shipping fees. Priority boxes are always free at your local po and also on their website. You can use free boxes you find as well, or buy a box of shipping envelopes if you have a lot to sell. I have a small 40 cent handling fee now that I charge that covers my supplies and takes a bit off that 7-9% shipping cost.

Also, take note that they charge extra for more than 1 picture, etc. The 5 cents and 10 cents start to add up. You don't want it to be more expensive to list the dang item than what you can get from it when you take into account all the fees you pay (paypal also takes 3-5% per transaction).