When you think about what to sell

There are a few things to consider. The most important of these is to always sell what you know. If you try to sell something that you just do not know anything about then you will never write a good description and sell it for a good price.

You might think you are not especially interested in anything, but if you think about what kind of things you usually buy and which websites you go to most often, you will discover some kind of interest. If all else fails mention it to your friends and family, they will almost certainly able to tell you. Out of the things you know enough about, you should then consider which things you could get for a good enough price to resell, and how suitable they would be for posting.

If you can think of something of that you are knowledgeable about and it is small and light enough for postage to be relatively cheap, then that is great. Do not worry if you think the thing you are selling is too obscure, it is not. There is a market for almost everything on eBay, even things that would not sell once in a year if you stocked them in a shop.

You will probably do even better if you fill a niche than if you sell something common. If you earn enough money, you should be aware that you are going to have to start paying tax, and this will not be done for you. If you decide to sell on eBay on a full-time basis, you should probably register as a business.

There are going to be ups and downs when you sell on eBay. Do not give up if something goes a little wrong in your first few sales. The sellers who are successful on eBay are the ones who enjoy it and stick at it no matter what happens.

Anyone can sell on eBay if they believe in themselves. And if you do decide it is not for you, then the start-up costs are so low that you will not really have lost anything. Your eBay reputation is everything you are on eBay.

Without it, you are nothing. Your reputation is worth as much as every sale you will ever make. Buying from a seller with a low feedback rating makes you feel a little nervous and insecure, while buying from a PowerSeller with their reputation in the thousands does not require any thought or fear, it feels just like buying from a shop.

In fact, a bad reputation will lose you almost all your sales. If someone leaves you negative feedback, you will feel the pain straight away, as that rating will go right at the top of your user page for everyone to see. Your next few items will need to be very cheap things, just to push that negative down the page.

You might have to spend days or even weeks selling cheap stuff to get enough positive feedback to make anyone deal with you again. It is even worse if you consistently let buyers leave negative feedback. Once you get below 90% positive ratings, you might as well be invisible.

Besides eBay's rules about only having one account, there are far more downsides than that to getting a new account. You literally must start all over again from scratch. You will not be able to use all the different eBay features.

Your existing customers will not be able to find you anymore. Your auctions will finish at a lower price because of your low feedback rating.