Do you have things around your house that you never use anymore, but that you are convinced are worth something? Does your place feel cluttered, but you just don’t want to trash your stuff or drive it out to the Salvation Army? Do you want a little extra cash for that project you have been meaning to start, or that cool new toy, or that fancy pair of blue suede shoes?

Then gather up all that old stuff and sell it on eBay! This article is a result of my doing just that. The initial motivation came from publicly joining Steve Pavlina’s Million Dollar Experiment. But the extra dollars are a good motivator for anybody, especially when you have a purpose in mind for them. And trust me, there is a lot of value hidden in the junk you have lying around. I am almost at the $500 mark in eBay revenues, and my room feels a lot cleaner

I am by no means an expert eBayer, but I have been a newbie long enough that I have good insights into the process, especially if you are just getting started. It is actually quite a simple process, and it can be a lot of fun. I have made an effort to write a clear how-to below, but let me know if something needs further explanation or if you have any questions or comments.

How to get good money for your old stuff on eBay

1. Signing up for an eBay and a PayPal account

2. The gathering and picture-taking process

3. Doing a little research

4. Writing your listings and posting them to eBay

5. Answering questions and waiting for payments

6. Following through and counting yo’ $$

1. Signing up for an eBay and a PayPal account

If you don’t already have accounts on both these sites, what are you waiting for?!? Open them first. It’s a painless process, and it’s free. You just provide your information, and you’re set to sell your stuff and receive online payments.

Open an eBay account

Open a PayPal account

2. The gathering and picture-taking process

The way to get really motivated is to do a little spring cleaning. Go through all the drawers and rooms in your house and take out everything you no longer need or want. Scared of your garage? Go there too, it’s about time. For now, grab everything, don’t judge whether you want to sell it yet. Once you have all this stuff together, divide it into two piles: “Things you want to throw away” and “Everything else.”

Everything else, my friend, is going on eBay. If you don’t own a digital camera, borrow one. Or why not finally get one? Prices these days are great. The next step is to find some open, well-lit space and put down a sheet to provide a simple background.

Next, go through every one of your items, taking multiple pictures of each one. Photograph them from every angle, photograph any features or tags, photograph defects, photograph groups of things you plan to sell together. The trick here is to take as many pictures as possible, and then take some more. You don’t want to have to come back to this step in the middle of writing your listings.

This is also a good time to make sure you are going to have all the packaging material you will need. Bubble wrap? Foam Peanuts? Boxes? Packing tape? You don’t want to be rushing around for these once your auctions are over.

3. Doing a little research

Like any business, you don’t want to just blindly jump in. What I mean by doing a little research on eBay is that you check out how well items similar to yours did, how they were sold, and when they sold well. The best way I have found to do this is to do an advanced search on eBay where you select “Completed Listings Only” There are dozens of other options that you can use to focus your research, but a clear search string, checking the “Completed Listings Only” box, and maybe excluding some obvious keywords will suffice for now.

I suggest taking notes in a separate document (Wordpad is fine) and answering each of the following questions about each of your items:

• Is it going to sell for enough to make it worth my time?


• What keywords must be in the title?


• What is special about the listings that seemed to do the best?


• What are the features included in every description for these types of items?


• What are the prevalent shipping and payment policies for these types of items?


• What day of the week, and what time of day, seems to be most profitable for ending my auction?

4. Writing your listing and posting them to eBay

Once you have done your research, putting together your listings should go relatively quickly. You can easily use the online interface for creating your auctions (I did for my first few months), but if you have more than three items, I strongly recommend downloading and using eBay Turbo Lister. It is a free utility from eBay that makes managing your listings and creating multiple ones much easier. It will take a little while to download it, set it up, and learn it, but the time you save in the long run is worth it. You can find all the documentation you need right from the Turbo Lister home page.

Next, design your payment and shipping guidelines. This should be a short paragraph at the end of every listing that indicates your policies. What kind of payments do you accept? (PayPal, certified check, and money orders are standard) What are your shipping options and costs? Do you provide (or require) shipping insurance? Will you ship internationally?

Now you can go through and write the listing for each of your items. The first few steps are simple housekeeping. Make sure you title uses all the necessary keywords people might use to find your item, and that it makes sense. Go easy on the caps. Choose an appropriate category (in my opinion, one is enough) and if they are available, list some of the item features (works for clothing, electronics, etc.)

I like to have the item right next to me while I am describing it. The basic idea behind writing your item description is that you want to be honest and thorough. Don’t mislead your buyers or leave out any details. I have found that it also helps to be conversational, and to give more background for your item. Remember, you are not Best Buy or Walmart, so don’t try to sell like them. Your value is in that you are a trustworthy person and you know a lot about the item you are listing. Where did it come from? How did you like owning it? Why are you selling? etc. This helps to build trust between you and your buyers, and makes them more likely to bid. The description is where you make your case for the item, so the more memorable you can make it, the better. Many people have been very successful using humor to sell things on eBay, so if you think you can take this route then please do!

At this point, you also add pictures. I usually use eBay’s picture tools, and pay the $0.15 per picture. If you have a lot of listings and pictures though, you can use an external picture hosting service and link to them from within eBay. At $0.15 a picture, I like to err on the side of too many pictures. Also, I always post a gallery picture (this is the thumbnail that shows up on the search page). eBay states that listings with gallery images get 25% or more bids (but they also charge $0.25 for it).

The last steps involve defining the auction itself. I almost always use a seven day listing. I also always schedule my listings as opposed to having them start right away. In choosing the start time, remember that it is the same as the end time (and your research should have revealed the most profitable day & time combinations) As for the start price, the initial bid, and the Buy it Now options, there are many different opinions.

If your research revealed that a particular item is a popular seller (they get a lot of views and bids), I recommend letting the auction process take it’s course. Don’t set a Buy It Now or reserve price, and set a low starting bid (I usually go with $0.99). This encourages early bidding, and since buyers often click on items with lots of bids, it will lead to even more views and more bids.

If the item is not a popular one, then I like to set the starting bid at a price I find acceptable, and I don’t worry about the reserve or Buy it Now options. Again, these are my preferences, and I am sure people have found better strategies for different items.

Your listings are all done! If you were using Turbo Lister, make sure you upload your listings to eBay. Now, if you log into the site and check the My eBay page, you will see all your listings set up and ready to go. Sit back and give yourself a pat on the back.

5. Answering questions and waiting for payments

During the time that your auctions are running, your primary task is to be responsive. Chances are good you will be checking your “My eBay” page every day anyway. So make sure you answer any questions from potential buyers by the next day, and if it’s a relevant question, click the box that makes the question and answer get posted to the listing.

Promotion is also not a bad idea. Do you know someone who could want what you are selling? Do you think your listings are funny enough that they would get forwarded on? Feel free to email your listing to friends and colleagues.

If your items still seem to be selling for too cheap by the last days of your auction, don’t freak out. Most eBay bids happen in the last 5 minutes of a listing (which is why it’s good to end your auction during a computer-busy time of day).

When your auctions are over, relax! Most eBayers will use the immediate payment option through PayPal, and you should see their payment clear your account within a couple of hours. But there are always a few eBayers who are either newbies, or don’t check their email often, or had some kind of problem. To these people, send an invoice and a message with an offer to help, but don’t rush or get worried. If you haven’t heard from them in three days, then use eBay to look up their contact information and give them a friendly phone call.

6. Shipping, following through and counting yo’ $$

As payments start going through, Buyers naturally tend to get curious and even nervous, so you are bound to get some more questions and messages from them. Make sure you answer all of them, and if you have to, make conservative estimates as to when they will see their packages. This is also the time for you to start leaving feedback. Once they have paid, they kept up their end of the bargain and you should give them positive feedback to that effect. Always leave feedback, but don’t leave negative feedback without first contacting the person to try and solve your problem and giving them a week to reply.

Also, it’s time to work on shipping. Since you already have all the packing material together from step 2, packaging your items should be a cinch. Make sure your packages are safe and tight; you want them to arrive in one piece.

You can print your shipping labels right from ‘My eBay.’ For each item on which payment is complete, you should see a “Print Shipping Label” link. This link will take you to a PayPal page where you choose a carrier (I usually go with USPS because of price) and answer a few questions about your package. Shipping insurance is a good idea on delicate and expensive items. Once you are done buying the label, you can print it to any regular inkjet or laser printer and tape it to the box. Make sure not to tape over the bar codes.

Try to take all the packages to the Post Office or UPS in one run, preferably within three days of the end of your first auction. Since they are all packaged and paid for, this is a painless trip.

Finally, when all your packages are off, your feedback has been left, and all is said and done, it’s time to open your PayPal account and wallow in your earnings. Congratulations on a job well done!