I love that eBay is my job. You can work when you want, ship when you want, you don’t deal face-to-face with customers, you can make amazing profits, you set your own schedule, and (my favorite) you are flexible with your day. I have been a full-time eBay seller for about five years and I definitely recommend you to start selling on eBay immediately. (It’s so fun and rewarding!)
Let’s find out how you can make a full-time income on eBay. If you are new to eBay, read this first: Learn how to start selling on eBay in 12 easy steps!
- What exactly it takes to make a living on eBay
- How to treat eBay like a business
- How to sell everything and anything
- What to invest on the initial buy
- How to keep your overhead low
- Why you should be a customer service superstar
- When to buy an eBay store
Treat it like a true business
The number one reason why people fail at eBay is because they don’t treat it as a true business.
You have to list stuff to last on eBay. When you have more items listed, more items sell. Treating eBay as your true full-time job will alone make you succeed. When you are constantly listing, you are constantly selling. You aren’t going to make a full-time income on eBay if you have less than 500 items for sale. (Depending on your prices.)
Don’t be picky with what you sell
I learned early on in my reselling business that you cannot be picky with what you sell. Sometimes to make a profit you have to sell ugly, big, outdated, and weird items. My favorite things to sell are clothes and shoes. But if I am at a garage sale and I see anything that I will make a profit on, I invest in it. Sometimes, if you want to make money, you have to sell things that aren’t fun to take pictures of, store, or ship.
If you are just starting out, you should start by selling everything around your house. I am constantly recycling my closet! When you sell items around your house, you don’t have anything invested in it to resell. Think of everything. You can sell printer ink, vacuum cleaner parts, and even TV remotes. (Interesting, right?) You can sell things weird things (for more than what you would think) because eBay is known for being able to buy things you can’t find anywhere else.
Don’t invest too much
You make money at the buy. Investingtoomuch is the best way to waste your time and make no profit on what you are selling. When you buy something for less than $1 or $2, you know you will be making a good profit no matter what you sell it for.
The key to reselling is to find free or cheap items to sell. Most people selling on eBay think that thrift stores are perfect for finding cheap items to sell (and they kinda are), but you want to try to find extremely cheap items to resell. My local Goodwill has recently gone up to $9 for dresses, $5.35 for shirts, $5.35 for sandals, and $5.35 for purses.
With the right brands, $5 isn’t a bad investment price, but for the maximum profit you need garage sale prices. Garage sales are definitely my favorite because I can find $1 clothes. With only $1 invested in it, you can even sell it for only $10 with free shipping and still make $5 profit. (That’s a great profit margin if you spend 10 minutes listing it and 5 minutes shipping it! That’s $20 an hour.)
Keep your overhead low
Starting an eBay business is perfect for you if you want to start an online selling store for less than $100. To be successful at eBay, there are things that you will have to buy. (Click here to find out the top 5 things you should buy.)
This is key: To make more profit, you need to keep your overhead low. Your overhead is anything that you minus from your sales. PayPal fees (2.9% + $0.30), eBay fees (10%), shipping costs, eBay store fee, the amount invested in item, and shipping supplies.
You can really overspend in shipping costs. Here are a few tips to keep your shipping costs low:
- Use eBay.com or the eBay app to ship and print your labels. (You get an awesome eBay discount!)
- Order free shipping supplies from www.usps.com.
- Take advantage of the free eBay branded shipping supplies you get as an eBay store owner.
- Check all shipping options before you buy the label. Many times, depending on the weight and the destination, a flat rate box or envelope is less expensive than a regular box.
- Anytime an item is under 16 ounces, ship it out first class. You will save a tremendous amount in shipping costs this way!
- Recycle all air bubbles you get from Amazon packages!
Buy an eBay store
This has really motivated me to keep a certain number of listings at all times. When you own an eBay store, you pay a monthly fee of $5, $22, or $60, depending on which you choose. When I am paying monthly for a store, I’m going to try to get as much out of it as I can. The point when you upgrade stores is when you are paying more in insertion fees than the next store costs. (You can find this information by going to eBay.com > my eBay > account > invoices.)
I pay for the Premium store for $60 a month. This means I need to keep about 650 items listed at all times to keep my insertion fees above $60. (If my insertion fees are under $60 each month, I am overpaying and I should go with the $22 basic store and then pay $0.35 for each listing that is over the 500 free listings with that store.)
You can read more about buying an eBay store here.
Customer service
This is a business. And all businesses thrive on excellent customer service. When a buyer asks you about the sizing on your blue sweater, they send the question then continue shopping. If you don’t answer it that same day, they could have already bought another blue sweater. Make answering eBay questions your top priority each day. Start viewing each question asked as a potential sale.
Your 5-star feedback does matter. I have been selling on eBay for over six years, and I have 100% positive feedback. It has been a struggle sometimes trying to keep the buyer happy to maintain my positive feedback. Your great customer service will make for a happy sale and maybe a return customer.
Final thoughts
Selling full time on eBay isn’t for everyone. But I definitely recommend you try it out. There’s nothing more exciting than making $50 off something you bought for $1. It is work, and you have to have lots of self-discipline to be a good eBay seller.
Don’t give up. Sometimes you will get upset because an angry buyer wants to return an item, or you may not make as much as you wanted on an item that sold. The more you sell, the more you figure out what works for you. Keep listing! The more you list = the more you sell = the more money you make. So don’t give up! Because eBay works.
What do you love about selling on eBay?
Are you a full time seller?
Comment Below!
I was not sponsored or gifted any of these products. Some of the links are affiliated, which means that by purchasing I make a small amount at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting me!
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