eBay Tutorial Part 3: Photography

                        Part 3: Photography

This is part 3 of my tutorial all about selling on eBay. Part 3 is about photographing items. Before you start photographing items, I'd recommend keeping a notebook or word document where you write down all the items you're going to sell so you can keep track of them. Include the name of the item, how many you have and other info. You may want to write descriptions here too.

Taking Photos
 

You can see my tutorial on taking photos here. For photos, use the same tips you would for taking Etsy photos if you run an Etsy shop. It helps to use a nice digital camera, but you don't need anything too expensive. Have a solid color as a background. How you take photos will depend on your item and size of it. If you're taking photos of small items, use the macro feature. If you're selling clothes, having a model or mannequin can help show how the clothes look and make the item look better.



For media (such as books, DVDs and CDs), eBay has stock photos for a lot of media items that you can automatically put in your listing so you might not need to take a photo.

Editing Photos



You can see my photo editing tutorial here and how to organize photos here. Crop out any unnecessary information so the viewer is focused just on the item. Adjust levels, brightness and contrast to make your item stand out. Depending on the item, have a couple photos that show the item at different views (e.g. front side, back side, close up, from a different angle). I like to have 3-5 photos for each listing. You need at least 1 photo and can list up to 12 photos.

You don't have to have amazing photos for your item to sell, but it helps if your photos are nice. The important thing about photos on eBay is to have a good clear photo that shows the quality of the item. If an item has an imperfection, make sure your photos clearly show that. It's better to be honest to avoid negative feedback.

Check back next Tuesday for part 4 of my eBay tutorial with tips on listing items and pricing.

Gift Wrap Studio Photos

Here are some in the process photos of items I sell in my Gift Wrap section.

This gift wrap uses painted mull. Mull has a rough texture and is usually used in bookbinding.

This is for the Pink Fabric Gift Wrap I sell. The fabric comes from some pink scarves I had that I was originally going to sell on eBay.

Do you buy gift wrap from Etsy shops?

Leopard Print Inspiration

I love looking at leopard print. Here is some leopard print inspiration:

What's your favorite animal print?

Random Photos from the Internet

These are some random photos I found around the internet that I liked.

What sites do you look to for inspiration?

Random Personal Photos

These are some random photos I took recently:

What do you like to take photos of?

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. Earth Day is an event held worldwide to show support for environmental protection. I have some upcycled items in my shop. Upcycling means I am taking an item no longer needed or wanted and using it to make new items. Upcycling items is great for the envrionment because you are not using new materials.

Newspaper Gift Wrap



Wavy Fudge Ice Cream Vintage Greeting Card Listing Stats



Wavy Blueberry Pie Vintage Greeting Card



How do you like to celebrate Earth Day?

eBay Tutorial Part 4: Listing Items and Pricing

              Part 4: Listing Items and Pricing

Starting a New Listing



To make a new eBay listing, either click here or do a search for the item you're selling and click "Sell one like this".

Choose a good category. You may want to choose two categories for your item to reach more viewers. It costs a little extra to sell in a different category.

There are different opinions on when is the best time to list items. Usually, it is better to end your auction on a  Sunday night. People shop the most on Sundays and Mondays. If you do a 7 day auction, your listing will end exactly a week from when you list it. If you don't have time to list items on Sunday, you can schedule them to start at a certain time for $0.10. If you list your items in the middle of the night, no one will see it.

Descriptions


Keep your listings simple and professional and have good photos. Describe items clearly and mention any flaws. Some information to include (if applicable) is:

- condition
- size
- color
- style
- manufacturer’s name
- year of manufacture (if vintage)
- material
- any damage to the item
- that you have stored it in a clean, dry free place

In your descriptions, you can link to an additional page that gives further info about item you’re selling or more photo. However, it's against eBay policies to link to another website where you’re selling/trading merchandise.

Accept returns. You will more likely get positive feedback if you accept returns and you will be able to clear up any problems.

How to Price


Pricing is important on eBay. The standard way to pay and accept payment on eBay is PayPal so make sure you have an account set up. You can also offer other methods of payment though so don't feel like you only have to use PayPal.

Research to see how much your item sells for. Some sellers begin the bidding at the price they paid for the item and additional amount to cover fees to protect investment. Search completed auctions on eBay. You can sort by price at the top of the page. Also look online at other sites, such as Google Shopping and Amazon, to see how your item is selling on other places.

Buy it Now and Fixed Price

The "Buy it Now" feature allows you to set a fixed price. I like to have the "Buy it Now" price for a higher price (about twice as much as the auction price) in case somebody wants to buy the item right away. You can also set a "Fixed Price" which means you will only have a fixed price and not an auction. This is good to do if you want to sell at an exact price or if you have a lot of one item.

eBay and PayPal Fees


Consider eBay and PayPal fees when pricing your item. You can use this online calculator to calculate eBay fees. You can learn about eBay fees here. You can use eBay's official calculator here.

Fees vary depending on how long you list an item for and any extras you have. Insertion cost per item is never more than $4.80. Your first 50 listings are free each month for standard 7 day listings (or 1 day and 3 day listings).You can choose how long your listing will last for.  If you have an item listed for 10 days or more, it's costs a fee for each listing.

If you add any eBay listing options, such as making your title bold or putting your item in the Featured Plus category, consider those fees. Extra features are usually only good to use if your item is more expensive than $100. Make sure your shipping price is accurate so you don't have to aside extra money for shipping.

If your item doesn't sell the first time around, relist items if you want to try selling them again so you won't be charged a second insertion fee.

Easter Egg Decorations

Happy Easter! Here are some ideas for decorating Easter eggs.

Do something different and make an Easter tree.

Add glitter to your eggs to give them sparkle. 

These 3D Easter eggs have polka dots. 

Use gold leaf on your Easter eggs to give it an elegant look. 

Why not use a marker for a simple way to decorate Easter eggs? You can also try using different colored markers.

How do you like to celebrate Easter?

Artwork from My Childhood

I thought I'd post some older artwork I've done from my childhood.

I made the sketches above when I was younger. This sketch below is from around the time I was in high school:

If you have older artwork you've done, I tag you to do a blog post about it. Leave a link to it in the comments.

eBay Tutorial Part 2: Choosing What to Sell

                 Part 2: Choosing What to Sell

Now that you're registered for eBay and at least somewhat familiar with the website, it's time to sell some items.

Choosing What to Sell

You can sell anything you want on EBay. Start by looking around the house for items you don't want anymore. Think about your hobbies and what interests you. You can sell handmade items (such as items you sell on Etsy) or used items. I've found I've had more luck with used items on eBay because people are looking for a deal.

eBay has a section called Popular Items section where you can see the trends on what is selling. You can sell popular items or find your own niche. To see if an item sells well on eBay, enter the item and then click "Completed Listings". See what percentage of listings sell and how much they sell.

Things that sold for me well are skincare, makeup, media (CDs, DVDs, etcs), samples (especially free makeup samples), eBooks (you have to put them on a CD though and mail them to sell them on eBay) and electronics (even broken ones). Popular brands of anything like makeup, clothes and electronics always sell well even though it also means there is more competition. Electronics and electronic parts are good to make money. Even if they are broken, people will buy the electronics at a reduced price for their parts. Outdated electronics are also good to sell if you have old electronics you don't use.



Items that didn't sell well for me are Beanie Babies, old clothes that have rips or stains and stuffed animals. You might have better luck though! You can try selling anything on eBay since there is somebody somewhere that might want it and there are a large number of visitors on eBay. Sometimes weird items you don't think will sell do well. If you look up "junk drawer", you will see people sell a bunch of unwanted items in their junk drawer. I got a bunch of animal rights CDs for free from the animal rights organized PETA. I had hundreds of extras and was able to sold those on eBay.

When deciding what to sell, also think about how much it will cost to ship. Smaller items cost less to ship and you can use bubble envelopes. Larger and heavier items are more expensive to ship. Even though the buyer pays for shipping, you'll want to keep this in mind. If an item is cheap to ship, you can offer free shipping and calculate the shipping price in to the price you sell your item. If an item costs a lot to ship and the item is cheap, people might not want to pay the extra shipping costs.

You can specialize in one type of item or sell a variety of things. If you're new to eBay, I'd recommend experimenting with different items and seeing what sells the best. You can specialize in one (or a couple) items if they sell really well.

Finding Items

Once you've tried selling items you have, you can ask friends or family if they have any items they want you to sell. You can become a trading assistant where you help sell items for other people, but you have to be an experienced eBay seller. You can also buy items and resell them. You can buy wholesale or liquidation which means you buy a bunch of items in bulk for cheap and sell them individually for a higher price. Here are some places you could consider buying wholesale or discount from:

- Google:  Try googling whatever you want to sell and add keywords such as "wholesale", "dropshipping" and "liquidation" at the end.
- Garage sales:  Garage sales are good to buy items for cheap and you can negotiate the price. Look on Craigslist or in the newspaper for garage sales in your town.
- Craigslist: Craigslist is a good place to find items and resell them. Look under the "free" section" for items that might sell well on eBay.
- Freebies and Coupons: Save any samples you get from stores or in the mail. Coupons also sell well on eBay, but make sure they are not expired.
 -Resale shops: Look at resale shops like Goodwill and Salvation Army.
- Discount clubs and dollar stores: Discount clubs, such as Sam's Club, and dollar stores are other good places to find items for cheap.
- eBay: Buy in bulk on wholesale. Use these keywords when you do your search - liquidation, wholesale, resale, resell, "case of", "case quantity", "lot of", "pallet of", closeout, surplus
- Salehoo: This site has a big list of companies that sell wholesale. You have to pay a one time price of $67, but you get a lot of valuable information and hopefully you will make that money back quickly.

Since it costs money to buy and then resell, I recommend setting a limit to how much you can spend. It might be a good idea to put 50% of whatever sales you make on eBay back in to investing to get new items.

Now that you have some items, it's time to photograph them and get them listed.