Link to My Store - Nica's Style House, LLC

Hello all!  Are you a Buyer thinking about getting into the Selling side of things?  Maybe you are already selling but are not doing as well as you would like.  If so, I'd like to offer some humble words of advice and share some things that have worked for me.  Successful, honest and trustworthy Sellers are the key to the continued success of eBay.

First things first - Do not be afraid to try something new!  Success is always possible if you try hard enough!  Just be patient!  When you first begin to sell, start out listing just a couple of items so you can familiarize yourself with the functions of selling.  In the meantime you could be searching for things to sell.

It is very important to have a working knowledge about the items you are selling.  If you are thinking about selling used items from around your house - that should not be so hard.  After all they are your items, so you probably know a lot about them!

If you really want to get serious about selling and are wondering where to buy inventory and what kinds of inventory you should sell - again - sell what you know!  If you know a lot about fashion and designer brands, then selling clothing, shoes or handbags could be the right fit for you. If you have children and are up on the latest "crazes" in kids' toys and clothing - then children's items is where you should be.  For example, you may see Sellers with successful jewelry or electronics store - but if you know nothing about these products, then you shouldn't try to sell them - how will you answer customers' questions if you don't know your products? 

I find this next bit of advice to be the most important - it was the most important aspect of my success.  Once you know what kinds of items you want to sell, you have to find the inventory, don't you?  Well, research is KEY.  But, again, you need to have patience.  I do other things besides sell on eBay, like I just finished law school, work full-time for a trial lawyer, and am taking the Bar exam in a couple of months - but I somehow find the time to spend locating inventory because it is something I want to do.  I also love buying on eBay - in fact, I have purchased almost everything I own over the last two years from fantastic eBay Sellers.  And, I've made some good friends on eBay too.  I have a lot of fun buying on eBay, so one day I decided I would try selling.  So, here I am, with a successful eBay business, that I have a lot of fun with.  But, back to locating inventory - even with all of the other things I do, I managed to find the hours and hours and hours to sit on the Internet and locate reputable wholesalers.  No kidding, I would spend my entire weekend (about 20 hours a pop) for a several weekends straight) on the computer searching for authentic items to sell.  I did find it.  Now, when I'm looking for new things to sell, I'll do that again, spend a weekend searching and searching until I find what I want.  There are other ways of course to find inventory to sell, aside from the Internet.  Popular avenues of acquiring items for sale for Sellers are going to yard or garage sales and shopping huge sale days at major department stores and Designer Stores.  You need the time to do this, but it can also be a lot of fun!

Next, another extremely important part of selling (which goes hand in hand in deciding what to sell) is knowing at what price your items will likely sell at and how much demand there is for such items.  You don't want to list too low and lose money, nor do you want to price your items too high and lose money by failing to make a sale.  This step again, takes research, but you can do it right from eBay's site.  Just check what other similar items have sold for in the Completed Listings Section.  Check if the market is already flooded with the items you want to sell, or if it looks like you will have a good niche and less competition with your items.  Remember when coming up with a price to take into consideration your eBay fees...

Knowing the optimum times to sell is also important.  I have found that prime time for selling my clothing, shoes and home decor items is Sunday through Wednesday nights - between 7:30 PM EST and 11:30 PM EST.  Those are pretty much the only times I ever have auction-style listing ends.  Buy it Now is a good feature, because those items can sell at any time.  Other types of goods may sell better at other days and times, but you would have to research it by testing it or checking completed listings -again - patience!

In my opinion, having a Paypal account is key.  Most people pay with it and there are many Buyer and Seller protections with Paypal.  You don't want to cut off a huge portion of the Buying population by not offering the most widely-used payment method.

Finally, incredibly essential to your Selling success is your Customer Service!  Be friendy!  Communicate well with your Buyers, answer their questions in a timely manner, package their items with great care, ship promptly, and don't charge excessive shipping and handling charges - it's just not fair and really angers Buyers - you will likely not have repeat business if you charge excessive S&H.  Sometimes, a nice little free gift or note of thanks in your package to your customers works wonders with creating repeat business.  If your customers feel that you care about them, they'll be back!

I hope you found this Guide helpful in some way.  I wish you the best of success in your selling endeavors!

Nica's Style House, LLC