My journey as an eBay seller…
After my 5th child was born back in 2005, I discovered and fell head over heels in love with a brand new trend – baby wearing. Yes, mothers have been wearing their babies for ages, but it wasn’t until my last baby was born that I started seeing women in the US wearing anything other than a Baby Bjorn.
I was fascinated by the idea of freeing my hands and wearing my baby everywhere without killing my back. Yes, I owned a few Baby Bjorns and a name-brand sling which I never liked. But when I happened to find something about making wraps, my parenting life was revolutionized. I wore AJ everywhere I went and became obsessed with shopping for fabric.
Everywhere I went, people asked me where I had gotten such an amazing baby carrier, and so I decided to go into business selling them on eBay.
My Mom and Roo Wraps were a hot seller. When I started selling my wraps on eBay, there weren’t any other homemade baby wraps on the market, so my cheaper-than-name-brand wraps with unique fabrics sold out faster than I could shop for new fabric. I loved it.
For several years, the profits from my eBay store funded all of our holiday shopping. I loved having a small business that I could run, not only with my kids by my side, but promoting mother-child bonding. And I loved having my own income coming in.
I eventually stopped selling wraps, but I have continued to buy and sell on eBay over the years. Of course, my years of selling on eBay has taught me a few things about what works and what doesn’t work.
My top 5 Tips for selling on eBay
- Photos – Bright, clear, and uncluttered photos often make or break a sale. When taking photos of your items to sell, use a clean, uncluttered background with plenty of light. Take multiple shots of the item, showing different sides and angles if appropriate.
- Description – Leave a detailed products description. I try to think of all of the questions I would ask if I were looking at this listing.
- Communication – Send your sellers a quick note at the end of the sale thanking them for making a purchase and pass along the tracking information so they know when their package will arrive. Always remember to leave feedback.
- Simplify shipping – One of the things that held me back from selling at first was the thought of having to go to the post office with little kids (holy torture). I took care of that hurdle by purchasing padded envelopes and stocking up on the free flat rate boxes from the post office. Anytime I make a sale, I simply print off a USPS shipping label on my printer, attach it to the package, and leave it with the rest of my out-going mail. No trips to the post office!
- Use eBay’s Mobile App to list items quickly – back “in the day” when I started selling on eBay, smart phones didn’t exist, and I admit….sometimes it would take me a while to list items for sale. Now, I use the mobile app, which I downloaded to my iPad and my Android phone. Last month, I listed about 20 books and DVDs in about 10 minutes while sitting on the floor in my family room. It couldn’t have been easier!
How it works: With the eBay Mobile app, you can easily scan a product and the app will pull up product information and photos, research competitive pricing, and take additional photos with your mobile device. It was all so seamless and smooth I wanted to search the house for more things to sell!
Join us for a Twitter Party with $500 in Prizes!
I’m excited to join Splash Creative Media as a panelist for the Sell on eBay twitter party on Thursday. We’ll be sharing a ton more eBay selling tips and giving out a ton of prizes. Here are the deets:
Date: Thursday, November 15th
Time: 3-4pm ET/ 12pm-1pm PT
Prizes: We’re giving away $500 in eBay gift cards! (20 $25 eBay gift cards)
Where: The party is being hosted by Bumebox on ebay.com/sellonmobile. You must tweet from this location to be entered to win a prize. (Please note, this link will not be live until the day of the party!)
Hope to see you there!!
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post through Splash Creative Media on behalf of eBay. All thoughts, opinions, and eBay selling experiences are my own.
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