How to start selling on ebay for beginners

So you have decided that you want to start making some extra cash for whatever reason, and you have chosen eBay as the place you want to start making money, but you don't know where to begin. 

I am going to layout this article as simply as possible.   There will not be any frilly pictures, just links to the places you will need to go to get your basics setup.  Follow my list and setup, and prepared to go on to learning the best way to sell profitable products online.   You may have already started some of these steps, if so, feel free to skip ahead.  Unfortunately there are no anchors on blogger so you will have to just scroll down.

1. Setup an ebay account
2. Setup a paypal account

These two accounts are the minimum accounts needed to start selling on eBay.   

The next thing you are going to need are supplies and hardware.  Some of these things you may already have, and other you may need to purchase.  I will provide links to recommended products as we go through this.  Any products I recommend are recommended because they are actually useful to the internal processes of running an eBay business.    

Let's go over the basics of what you will need.

1. Computer - Preferably a modern computer with at least Windows 7 on in it.

                                         

1. Smartphone -  A smartphone is one of the most important tools to have when sourcing product to sell on ebay.  Technically if you have a smartphone, you don't really even need a computer.  You can list directly from your phone while you are at the store.    I have another article on scanning software as well as a great scanner.

1. Printer -  Thermal printers are the best, laserjets would be the second best, and at the bottom of the list would be the ink jets due to the cost of ink.  That stuff is worth more than gold.                                                        
   
2. Shipping scale - Depending on what you are shipping you may need two scales.  One for lighter objects and one for heavier ones because the heavy ones don't read light objects accurately. Here are a few recommended models to consider.                                                            
   
   
   
                                          
3. Shipping tape - Buying shipping tape anywhere other than eBay is going to cost you an arm and a leg.  It isn't the greatest tape in the world, but it gets the job done, and I have not had any issues
4. Boxes - Boxes can be purchased on ebay as well, but it is much easier to head over to your local dollar store.  They will have all the boxes you need and will be more than happy to give them to you.
5. Filler - Packing paper, bubble wrap, and packing peanuts are all types of acceptable forms of fill.  I wouldn't recommend skimping on the filler because these things keep your items safe.  I personally purchase all of my 
6. Box cutter -  There is nothing better than a nice sharp box cutter to cut cardboard for those special cardboard configurations.   I have had to use this many times for lamps, and mirrors.
7. Shrink wrap - This is a personal preference, I like to wrap my products nice and tight.  I usually purchase my shrink wrap at home depot, but it may be cheaper on eBay.
8. Shelving -  New shelving can run between $40-$90 depending on the quality, but you can probably find shelving cheaper on craigslist.
9. +++++++Optional products that I would recommend+++++
10. Tape gun - I personally love using a tape gun for packaging.  Mother picker prefers to just cut directly off the roll of tape which seems much slower to me.                                                                                    
    
                                                        
11. Cardboard reducing tool -  This tool is great for resizing boxes when you just don't have the right box.  

So you have your ebay account, and all of your equipment.  Now what?

This is the part where you have to decide what you want to make money on.  If you already know what you want to sell on ebay that is awesome, you are already ahead of the game.  If you have absolutely NO idea what you want to sell there are a few options we can go over here.

1. Start out by selling thing that you already own.  This will keep you from having to spend money to make money, it will teach you how to use the ebay completed listing system, and might help you come across some other things you might realize are worth money.   Did you know that most households have over $30,000.00 worth of clutter in their homes?  Selling your own stuff first is a great way to start.
2. Check out my eBay bolo list where I share items that can bring huge profits, and you can find them relatively cheap at garage sales, thrift stores, and flea markets.
3. Check out my article on finding free stuff to sell dumpster diving.
4. Check out this video where I show off some vintage kitchen products that sell pretty well and I have an entire what to sell on ebay playlist which will be dedicated to items that you should look for to sell on ebay.  

 

                                                                                                    So now you have all of your equipment setup, you have some stuff to list, now it is time to start listing your products on ebay.

 Writing about how to list on ebay is an entire post in itself so I am not going to get into listing, but I will leave my ebay Cassini search engine optimization video that will give you some good recommendations on selling overall.

                                                                                        

Thats all for this article, I will continue this in my next article where I will talk about how to find new products through research, shipping methods and options to ensure your products arrive safely, and customer service.  

I hope this article has been helpful.  If it has, please leave a comment, and follow my youtube channel.