Selling things on Ebay... but how? « on: May 06, 2017, 07:32:53 PM » Author: suzukir122
I'm making big plans to save up money for something big, which will have a major impact on my profile here on Lighting-Gallery, and also my YouTube channel as well. It's a little embarrassing to admit this, but due to the amount of bills I have to pay, which ultimately exceeds the amount of income I receive from my job, I've decided that I want to sell stuff on Ebay. This unfortunately includes some lighting equipment. My question is... how do you sell stuff on Ebay? What exactly do I have to expect in terms of charges for uploaded photos, item descriptions, etc? And then also, how exactly do I box/ship the products I'm selling? This is all stuff in which I have no clue about or what to do, and it also seems like selling things on sites like Ebay or Amazon, requires a lot of math.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

	Re: Selling things on Ebay... but how? « Reply #2 on: May 06, 2017, 08:39:09 PM » Author: suzukir122
I thought about doing that as well, but I know nothing about how most users on here do it. I've always thought they just post links to Ebay or Amazon, or other websites regarding products they're selling. Either that, or they plan a date/place to meet up to buy/sell the products face to face.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

	Re: Selling things on Ebay... but how? « Reply #4 on: May 10, 2017, 12:30:10 AM » Author: xmaslightguy
I sell stuff on eBay from time to time (not fluorescent lights though), its fairly easy to do. Its getting late/I'm too tired tonight, but if I remember tomorrow I'll try & give the basics, and what their fees are.
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ThunderStorms/Lightning/Tornados are meant to be hunted down & watched...not hidden from in the basement!

	Re: Selling things on Ebay... but how? « Reply #5 on: May 10, 2017, 07:26:22 AM » Author: suzukir122
@xmaslightsguy, sounds good. I want to try to sell ballasts I don't use, a couple of my desk lamps (which are HPF trigger start) and a couple of my HID track lights as well. (Although I use those heavily.) So far the only non lighting related thing I want gone is my UHD Smart TV. @Lodge, that is also something I have to be aware of... internet scams seem to be really really outgoing nowadays. But if it's anything through this site, with a member of LG, I feel like I can trust them a lot more than an Ebay member.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 07:30:14 AM by suzukir122 »		Logged

Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

	Re: Selling things on Ebay... but how? « Reply #6 on: May 10, 2017, 10:12:39 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
@suzukir122: Most important thing to me with eBay is to make a good description of the item... lets just use a ballast as an example: Instead of a simple description of "Advance F40T12 Ballast" with a out of focus pic (and I do see listings for items that are so poor/simple), Put a bit of time into it, list the exact model, and all its specs, plus its condition... and ofcourse goes without saying, good clear pictures (Ideally on a plain background) As far as shipping costs, you can set it up so eBay will calculate that based on the buyer's location. What you want to do is weigh the item *including a shipping box and packing*, then in the listing there is a place to select calculated shipping, & put in item weight / box dimensions(only need for large items) / and your choice of shipping services. (and if you want you can add handling charge) You can also choose to have "local pickup only" which might be good for something large & fragile like that TV. ---- Making a listing is fairly easy (or atleast it used to be, they just recently "upgraded"ie:DOWNGRADED their system so now I can't even get in to list or re-list the stuff I had on ) (If you didn't do it when you registered as a buyer, you'll first have to set up as a seller account - no fees or anything for that, and it was easy to do when I did it years ago) Fees are as follows.... A listing fee (I believe it varies by item cost, but you should get some free listings each month) eBay: 10% of whatever the item sells for -and- 10% of the calculated shipping (in other words you WILL lose money on shipping unless you decide to include a handling charge! (personally I think this fee should be outlawed)) PayPal: 30 cents plus 2.9% of the total sale So you're basically giving 13% of whatever you sell for in fees. --- Hopefully that helps some, but feel free to ask questions ------------------------------- Personally I wish there was another good eBay type thing out there. I have stuff I want to sell
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ThunderStorms/Lightning/Tornados are meant to be hunted down & watched...not hidden from in the basement!

	Re: Selling things on Ebay... but how? « Reply #7 on: May 10, 2017, 10:44:10 PM » Author: suzukir122
Great explaination But a lot of confusion still lingers in between me and math. This may not be too much of a problem if the fees automatically get taken out of the price I charge each buyer. If I have to manually figure out anything regarding each fee math equation in order to sell each product, that's when I'll have significant trouble. I guess that might be my biggest issue right there. It's very tough for me to explain without sounding like an idiot. haha And then of course, there's where to get it shipped, (which shouldn't be too complicating for me) and then how to get it shipped extremely securely to make sure there are no defects or damage.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 10:46:39 PM by suzukir122 »		Logged

Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

	Re: Selling things on Ebay... but how? « Reply #8 on: May 10, 2017, 11:25:06 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
@suzukir122: The fees are all done automatically, Only time you'd have to calculate things out is if say you said "I want $10 profit from this item" then you'd need to account for the fees and sell it for whatever amount more. But if you instead are saying "I'm going to sell this item for $10, but know I won't actually profit $10", then no need to calculate it. For shipping, like I say pre-weigh the items and put in the full weight so eBay will calculate the costs. Once the item sells, you can print shipping labels right from eBay (which is cheeper too in many cases), then just drop off the package at the postoffice (or fedex/etc). If the item's not real fragile, its easy to securely pack. I personally wouldn't ship something like fluorescent lamps or a TV (though I have sold sets of C9 Christmas lights in the past)
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ThunderStorms/Lightning/Tornados are meant to be hunted down & watched...not hidden from in the basement!

	Re: Selling things on Ebay... but how? « Reply #9 on: May 11, 2017, 12:40:32 AM » Author: suzukir122
Yeah I've made it a rule that I will only receive/buy fluorescent lamps. I won't ever sell fluorescent lamps, nor will I include the fluorescent lamps inside any of my modified desk lamps, once I sell them. (Which will very likely happen once I sell on EBay or Amazon.) I read somewhere that ebay also charges for uploading of pictures...? Is that true? And selling my TV, will likely prove to be the absolute most difficult. It's pretty light-weight, but it's 47". (Although I remember the box advertising it to be 49", which is not true.) I no longer have the box, because I threw it away after buying it... which was a big mistake. I hope I don't have to charge a high amount for the lighting/ballasts I want sold though, because if the overall amount that EBay automatically deducts comes to an amount that may be too high, if I sold the products for a low price, I may not get much back, I think. lol
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

	Re: Selling things on Ebay... but how? « Reply #11 on: May 13, 2017, 10:58:34 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
@suzukir122: Having one picture has always been free, but eBay used to charge for each picture over one. They don't do that anymore. Your TV was probably advertised as '49" Class' which in reality means something less than 49" Something like that is so large/fragile that I wouldn't risk shipping it....that's probably a better Craigslist item, but I wouldn't expect to get much out of it
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ThunderStorms/Lightning/Tornados are meant to be hunted down & watched...not hidden from in the basement!

	Re: Selling things on Ebay... but how? « Reply #12 on: May 14, 2017, 06:58:57 AM » Author: suzukir122
I'll have to try to find a way to sell that TV at some point. I'm not really a fan of craigslist in general lol... especially if its a situation that involves meeting up with people who are buying or selling. If Ebay no longer charges for pictures, and if there's no manual mathematical equations I have to face in order to sell, then the chances of me finally selling on Ebay just went up.
		Logged

Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend