I normally like to wear clothes about 2 times & then I get sick of them. When I was little my hangers would run out so I would go through my clothes and get rid of things to make room for new clothes. My mom sold mine and my sister’s old clothes (Abercrombie & Limited Too… although we did save some for posterity) on eBay & had a lot of success ($21,952.97 to be exact).In college I took my clothes to Plato’s closet/designer second hand stores – always disappointed with the return. The stores took about 1/4 of what I would bring, gave me only 30% of what everything would sell for, & the rest of the clothes I’d just take to goodwill (not saying good will is bad…just not going to help me get new summer bikinis :)).
In January of 2018 I downloaded the eBay app and decided to start selling my clothes on eBay – mostly so everything would fit into our new closet lol. Well, 228 items and $1,884.32 later & I am OBSESSED.
Here is my Guide to Selling on eBay in 16 Steps. . . including all the supplies you need and my tips about what I learned along the way to success!!
1. What brands should I sell? I had the most success with Kate Spade earrings and athletic apparel (Lulu Lemon and Zella… I am sure Alo and other name brand athletic apparel will sell…I just didn’t sell any :)). Other brands that worked well, Tory Burch, Nordstrom (I know this is not a brand… but pieces from here sell), JCrew, Michael Kors, Rebecca Minkoff, Burberry, Coach, Banana, Free People and Ann Taylor. Jeans and mens clothes are more difficult to sell. Shoes were ok for me, but I am also a 7…so if you are a 9 it may be more difficult.
2. Go through your clothes, ask yourself (if the answer is NO to any of these questions, add these to the eBay pile):
- Does this fit me?
- Have I worn it this year?
- Am I excited to wear this?
3. Download eBay app & create an account.
4. Stage your photography. Shoot during the day for the best lighting and use a neutral or white background – a wall, door, or a poster board on the floor propped on the wall make a great background. I keep clothing on the hanger & use my steamer to hang them. I actually found it easiest and saved time to take the pictures within the camera option in the eBay app when doing a listing. You don’t have eBay pictures all over your phone and you don’t waste time looking for the images when you are trying to list!
Here is my set up:
5. Take multiple pictures! Front, back, is there a pattern? Take one of the tag showing brand & size. That one is basically so you can list your item with just using the pictures… I like to be efficient. You can even use pictures of yourself in the clothing if you already have them 🙂 People wanna buy your stuff if they see you are cute, normal and probably don’t smell bad. lol.
6. Find a location to store all of your clothes. Organize by type so you are able to find things when they sell!
Here is me with my eBay storage dresser:
7. List your items on Sundays. Most people are at home during this time and can be online to put in that last minute bid. List up to 30 a week to space it out and keep the work manageable. If you have 100 items that end the same day it will be a lot of work to package and ship them all in one night.
8. List vs. Buy it Now: I listed all of my pieces under bidding vs. buy it now. With buy it now its hard to tell if you are pricing things too high or low. With listing if the price is too high, no one with bid. If the price is too low lots of people will bid and jack up the price. I listed a Tiffany necklace at $42.17 and it sold for $121!
9. Use the eBay app to list your item (I find this to be easier than online). Your listing title is the most important part of the post! You want your title to stand out & come up in people’s search when they are looking for something. Brand name, size, store it was from, color, type, is it new with tags (NWT)? If you can use all of the 80 allowable characters. Here are some of my titles:
- Women’s NIKE PRO Dri-Fit Shorts Black and Blue Size S
- Kate Spade 12k Gold Plated Square Small Stud Earrings FREE POUCH
- ABERCROMBIE & FITCH SHERPA-LINED TWILL PARKA JACKET W/FUR NWT SZ S Olive $200
- Jeffery Campbell Velvet Black Platform Shoes Booties Heels Sz 7 Beautiful $120
10. Use the crop feature in the eBay app for your pictures. Remember, the first picture is the one everyone will see when they are scrolling through eBay… so make it look like, hey I want that & I want to click on it.
11. List Price: Use the recommended price from eBay, unless it seems way too high or low. eBay uses hundreds of other listings to determine where you should start the bidding. The starting bid price is based on the title/brand… again your bid title is very important.
12. USPS Priority Mail 2-3 days for clothes and jewelry was the cheapest for me. The only thing I would maybe use a flat rate box for shoes or something really heavy. I used two different shipping bags for everything (yes, even shoes I put in the plastic pouches). I linked all of the supplies at the bottom of this post.
13. For the description, note any discrepancies, stains etc. People will notice if you don’t note the small stain, they will message you after the item is received, and they will want their money back! Speaking on behalf of a friend.
14. Let the bids come in! Answer any questions quickly and try your BEST be nice even if the question is dumb obvi 🙂 People also want random measurements…get a tape measure.
15. Before I leave for work I print all of the labels using my my laptop – this was was easier then the app. Go to >eBay>selling>sold>click X items ready to be shipped. You can click multiple orders and print everything at the same time. Print the packing list as well, much easier to get stuff packaged up. Also, BEWARE don’t close more then one bag at a time!! I sent leggings to someone who orders a blouse and the blouse went to the legging gal! Even eBay PROs like me make mistakes 🙂 Use sticky shipping label holders…these are MON$EY.
16. Remember, eBay is a FOR PROFIT company so you do have some fees. But, you get 50 free auction-style and fixed price listings. Each additional listing is $0.30. eBay also takes 10% of your final value. Still much better than Poshmark who takes 20%. You can buy 250 listings for $24.95 per month or just wait until eBay sends you 100 FREE listings for the weekend. I got 3 I think during the 3 months I have been selling.
Here are some links for my mailers, mailing pouches and some other supplies.
Let me know if you have any questions! I would be happy to help you start your eBay SUCCESS 🙂
xoxo E
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