Selling stuff on ebay. School me…

I’ve got a whole load of stuff that I need to get rid of. Some bike bits, some general life stuff. Bike bits either haven’t sold on here/PB or its the wrong market (eg elderly/vintage road kit)

I’ve bought stuff for donkey’s years on ebay – mostly from “stores” – carparts, tools, fasteners and the like, rather than auction stuff, although there’s been bits of that (prefer a sensible BITN price rather than last second sniping, even if the latter is a bit cheaper).

The things that have stopped me selling:-

I don’t want to deal with dickheads.

I don’t want to have to have a Paypal account. I want money transferred straight into my bank account (or cash on meet up). I’m an adult, so won’t try and **** you over. If you’re an adult, you won’t try and **** me over and we can have a mutually beneficial exchange. In the unlikely event of a real problem, we can both be adults together and work out a solution – just like the STW classifieds, but reaching a bigger audience (a bit like it used to be in other words). Bringing a third party onto the scene just overcomplicates the issue, and being a business, they want their cut of the deal. Yes, it may add a layer of “security”, but see comments above about dickheads and adulting.

So how  do I go about turning my stuff into cash most efficiently? I can take decent photos and write accurate blurb, but auctions/BITN/starting price/reserve price etc – what’s the best way?

Thanks!

It’s been a few years since I sold anything but I do know Paypal isn’t needed now. Google handle the payments and send to your bank account.

So how  do I go about turning my stuff into cash most efficiently?

By using Paypal!

Limiting yourself to cash payments only reduces your market massively, surely.

You don’t need PayPal anymore. EBay will pay you directly. They will take credit card, PayPal, Google pay etc on your behalf. You just need to verify your bank account with ebay

The easiest way to avoid hassle is to sell stuff buy-it-now. Pick a price you are happy with and see how it goes. If you are unsure go a bit high, allow offers and drop the price if it doesn’t sell.

You can insist on instant payments and block people with no paying history as well to weed out the idiots

Good pictures, detailed and honest description helps a lot. I err on the side of too negative about damage and wear so hopefully the buyer is happy when they actually see it.

First step is probably update your currently what? Ten years out of date facts?

You haven’t needed paypal in years.
Ebay don’t charge a fee anymore.

You always get more with an auction generally. Check the sold filter in a search for item aee find a high value one that matches and “sell similar”

As for dickheads… I don’t know what everyone does but i have sold loads of stuff over loads of genres and never EVER had an issue. I’m kind of at the point i suspect the people complaining of dickheads are probably atleast partially part of the problem.

Be prepared to have a massively reduced group of interested buyers and to accept significantly less money if you insist on daft nonsense like your rant above?

As for dickheads

Had probably over 1000 sales over 20yrs & recon the dickhead interactions are about 1% of transactions.

Check sold prices, list as buy it now, describe accurately, plenty of decent photos and jobs a goodun.

If you do auctions, list on Thursday with 10 day auction to end Sunday evening 8/9pm (so long as it’s not bank holiday w/e).

Be prepared to have a massively reduced group of interested buyers and to accept significantly less money if you insist on daft nonsense like your rant above?

+1 any ranting on ebay listings & it’s a red flag for me too.

You always get more with an auction generally.

I usually start stuff off at a pound. People seem to get excited about the possibility of a bargain, but then get invested in whatever they are bidding for. Got £90 for a pair of second hand boots, £30 for an Alpkit bar bag and actually made a small profit on an AliExpress watch. Best result was £1850 for a 12 year old, non running Fiat 500.

Lots of pictures and a detailed, honest description help too.

Don’t use the ai listing description option. It’s as shit as you’d expect and for me pretty much guarantees I stop looking at that item.

If you are meeting in person then make sure you scan the buyers collection code. This protects you from them saying they did not recieve it.

I’ve just starting selling a few things (Dinky cars mostly). All of the above, plus I take aload of photos of the item as I pack it, so I have a record of how I packed it, also a photo of the final box with the shipping label on it. Not sure if this will ever be needed but costs nothing.

Just be aware that from this year eBay must disclose any seller moving more than 30 items to HMRC. Whilst you may well not be liable for any tax it will mean that the taxman could request you fill in a self assessment form which if you don’t fall into self assessment already can be a ball-ache and remember the onus is on you to prove you don’t owe any tax (i.e selling at a loss) rather than them to prove you do!

Now obviously there will be so many people falling in to this that don’t owe tax that its going to be a right mess but there will be people caught up in it who don’t realise or don’t know and they will end up being fined for late return of the form even if they own no tax.

Joy.

Also beware there’s a lot of baseless scaremongering about HMRC targeting genuine private sellers.

I’ve just starting selling a few things (Dinky cars mostly).

How’s that going? I have a load of toy cars that my father had collected, mostly unremarkable and well-used.

i suspect the people complaining of dickheads are probably atleast partially part of the problem.

Yeah, what’s that saying about if you’re meeting too many arseholes then maybe you’re the arsehole?

I find ebay the most painless way to get rid of stuff. Lots of plain background, daylight, good photos. Careful description. Photo/description of any damage or wear.

Don’t use the ai listing description option. It’s as shit as you’d expect and for me pretty much guarantees I stop looking at that item.

Yes its truly awful and I click away as soon as I see its been used

Just be aware that from this year eBay must disclose any seller moving more than 30 items to HMRC

Its actually 35 items or £1760 total sales in a calendar year. Although they must need NI number for this and dont think they have collected that data yet.  HMRC require a self assessment if sales of private items exceed £1000 in a tax year, but AFAIK unless you are trading (ie buying to re-sell) it isn’t subject to income tax.

First step is probably update your currently what? Ten years out of date facts?

You haven’t needed paypal in years.

You need to update too. Noticed a story in the news that Ebay are going to start charging sellers a small fee when they buy something.

.

Ebay’s greed factor has increased exponentially since they took over from the original owners. First the new payment system meant they would receive interest payment of all purchases, and now this charging both seller to sell and buyer to buy.

It’s been a few years since I sold anything but I do know Paypal isn’t needed now. Google handle the payments and send to your bank account.

Ebay actually have the money sitting in Ebay waiting for you to replace the stuff you just sold that you didn’t need with more stuff you don’t need. 🙂

Another improvement along with the no fees. Which is great cos if you have something on auction that isn’t selling for as much as you want, you can have a friend bid on it and no-one is out of pocket 🙂 (Someone told me this… I, of course, wouldn’t do such a heinous thing)

I have just sold a bunch of old iPhones – all bar one went very smoothly and the option to organise the postage directly from the app makes it so easy – just print off a label (or get a QR code if you prefer) and drop it off at your local Evri/Royal Mail etc point.

Ebay’s greed factor has increased exponentially since they took over from the original owners. Fist the new payment system meant they would receive interest payment of all purchases, and now this charging both seller to sell and buyer to buy.

I don’t agree with that – the new system means sellers don’t pay a bunch of fees (this is why I chose to sell the above phones). Had I done that before, the £400 I made would have had something like £100 in fees deducted. I have not heard anything about charging people to buy and sell – where did you read that?

Its actually 35 items

Its 30 according to eBay

HMRC require a self assessment if sales of private items exceed £1000 in a tax year, but AFAIK unless you are trading (ie buying to re-sell) it isn’t subject to income tax.

No it isn’t but as I clearly pointed out, the fact you might get lumbered with self assessment for flogging a few bits of tax free junk is irksome and could (will) lead to some people being fined for late submission. I think there will be more caught up in this as systems become integrated and yes probably for the first couple of years you’d be very unlucky to be selected as a private seller.

now this charging both seller to sell and buyer to buy

They don’t charge a seller to sell. And you’re saying there’s going to be a buyer’s fee when you buy. Sounds like bollocks to me. Although it’ll still be cheaper than buying on Amazon, where most people pay a subscription already

If it is

charging sellers a small fee when they buy something

Sounds a bit crackers that! But hey, just get someone with an account that doesn’t sell to buy things for you.

You need to update too. Noticed a story in the news that Ebay are going to start charging sellers a small fee when they buy something.

Got a link for that? Because it sounds like nonsense. I’m as uptodate as i can be having sold a fair few items in the last week. And not been charged any fees?

Bought and sold a fair bit of stuff, (100’s?) over the years.

Only had 2 bad experiences, 1 was a car selling as spares or repairs, which seemed to attract a load of nutters. Never would sell a car on their again.

The other was a fairly high end Rega Cd deck.

It was in perfect working order, sent it out and then the buyer claimed the coaxial out wasn’t working but if I bought them a high end Toslink cable they would be happy!

It was all very strange. I asked her to send it back and I would refund. She did at her expense. The thing was working perfectly and she paid the return postage. I was still very confused what she had hoped to achieve?

DickyboyFull Member
As for dickheads
Had probably over 1000 sales over 20yrs & recon the dickhead interactions are about 1% of transactions.

I tried to sell a watch (Tudor) on ebay a couple of weeks back, my first sale in >10 years. Was going swimmingly, until the person who won it decided to cancel the order and then deleted their ebay account. Fortunately I hadn’t posted the watch by then (was awaiting payment), but it didn’t fill me with confidence.

That said I have heard ebay is less scammy/ dickheady than it used to be.

Its 30 according to eBay

Oh you are correct! Pretty sure it was 35.  https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/account/regulatory/sales-reporting/uk-digital-sales-reporting?id=5454#:~:text=When%20prompted%20to%20do%20so,will%20be%20provided%20to%20you

the fact you might get lumbered with self assessment for flogging a few bits of tax free junk is irksome and could (will) lead to some people being fined for late submission.

Yes completely agree. It sucks.  Dan Neidle has done some analysis;

In the last few years, HMRC charged 420,000 people with £100 late filing penalties when they earned too little to pay tax. People earning under £6k received twice as many penalties as people earning more than £83k.

(2019-2022) Its almost as if HMRC are using this as a revenue stream.

I’ve just starting selling a few things (Dinky cars mostly).
How’s that going? I have a load of toy cars that my father had collected, mostly unremarkable and well-used.

Ok, sold a couple, over £200 for two so far, but I didn’t try to get the most, just a reasonable buy it now price.

Got a link for that? Because it sounds like nonsense. I’m as uptodate as i can be having sold a fair few items in the last week. And not been charged any fees?

I only glanced across the article and didnt read beyond the headline. But a quick google brings up this –

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/EBay-plan-to-add-fees-for-buyers-hurts-businesses-even-further/td-p/7685312

Hopefully it will work both ways with HMRC I sell most things on eBay for less than I paid I’m expecting to be able to offset this against my income and reduce my tax burden.

I’ve sold over £100k running a professional ebay store and several hundred items personally and the method I use is as follows. First off, if you’re selling lower value items, wait until you have a pile worth a fair amount and deal with it in one chunk.  It feels less hassle to deal with lots of listing/posting in one hit, if you get a decent total at the end.  It’s best not to focus on the price of individual items, but accept you win/loose some and focus on the job lot value.

Only bother with items worth at least £15.  Below this the time/effort isn’t usually worth it.

For lower value items (under £100), I usually focus on many photos (ebay app makes this easy) and little description.  Usually list with a buy it now price that’s a bit lower than other similar items.  Use the ebay search for completed items to gauge value.  This approach sells items quickly at the cost of a tiny bit of profit.

High value items either list with a buy it now price and play the waiting game (this can take many months).  Or use the ‘cry price’ auction method – start the auction at a price which would just about start to make you cry for selling at.  This should provoke interest and get bidding moving, but it’s not a disaster if it sells for the start price.  I’ve used the cry price method to sell items like a track day crash damaged motorbike, it ended up selling for £1k above my expectations.  High value items need time invested to write a good description as well as good photos.

I never give out my address for safety, if someone is collecting I provide a postcode and get them to call.  This is to avoid fake no show buyers trying to find my address.

Out of over 2000 transactions, I’ve only had one complaint (selling damaged wheels).  The buyer had a fair complaint so I refunded them.  I’ve never experienced a dick head or had any issues with paypal.

I only glanced across the article and didnt read beyond the headline. But a quick google brings up this –

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/EBay-plan-to-add-fees-for-buyers-hurts-businesses-even-further/td-p/7685312

Er, you’ve linked to a single ebay forum post from a doughnut a few months back, who seems to completely misunderstand the story he’s quoted:  which is the old news that

“eBay selling fees are scrapped to boost to reselling”

There is a single link in that story though, which says “However, buyers are set to face a charge”  Must be a fact then.

Only bother with items worth at least £15. Below this the time/effort isn’t usually worth it.

I used to think like that but devided enough was enough. It was quite a nice little sideline hawking my old crap each sale bought a coffee, i only dropped parcels off with larger parcels or on a Saturday morning.

I need to prempt the tax thing. Its going to be a ballache for me. I quite often buy a job lot of photography stuff for something i want then make my money back selling the rest. I definitely make a profit but not much but it is easily plus 30items

Must be a fact then.

It may or may not actually happen (depending on the reaction to that part of the quote and the devil in the detail behind the words), but the source of the quote is the President and CEO of eBay:

eBay Announces Free Selling in the UK