This guide is designed to give you a simple basis for selling your cards, that will help you maximize your sales and profits.  There are many great avenues to sell your cards, but Im going to focus strictly on selling on ebay.

Before The Transaction:

1. FEEDBACK! - Quite possibly the most important and simplest fact when it comes to selling your cards.  If you dont have at least 50 positive feedback ratings, and a positive feedback rating of 99.5%, you will lose a percentage of sales.  Customers have repeatedly stated that they wont buy from someone they dont feel comfortable with, and since ebay is such an impersonal sales portal, feedback is the BEST and MOST effective way to earn trust with your potential customers.

2. DO YOUR RESEARCH - Many potential ebay sellers dont know quite what to expect when they sell their cards on ebay, however they quickly learn that Price Guide value often is way off of what the card well actually fetch on ebay.  You may have an $80 BV (If you dont know what BV means, check my other guides) Patrick Roy insert card that your particularly fond of, but you need to pay some bills so you decide to sell it, you may assume it will sell for about 1/2 of BV.  If you take advantage of some of the great tool's ebay has to offer (completed listing search is my favorite) to research the value of your item prior to selling, you will have a much better feel for how much, or little, it will sell for.

3. GET A NICE SCAN - This is where a lot of veteran and rookie ebay sellers make their biggest mistakes.  Buyers demand a quality image of the item they are purchasing, without it, you will see a remarkably lower final value.  Some sellers include an image of the item for sale along with 8 other cards they are selling, which reduces the quality of the scan of the item the customer might be interested in, and it can confuse them and create a negative experience.  Some people take digital photos, which if done right, can substitute for good scan, but in most cases they arent done right.  The best, and in my opinion the ONLY way, is to get a medium resolution scan or higher of ONLY the card you are selling.  One scan for One auction.

When it comes time to list:

4. THE TITLE MATTERS - A simple clear title stating what is in the auction, and nothing more.  If you are selling for example a Steve Yzerman autograph card, your listing should include the year, brand, name, condition, and any other pertinent information.  For example, a good listing should look something like this...

"02/03 UD Premier Signatures Bronze Auto YZERMAN Autograph"

I have noticed that people prefer years to be formatted like "01/02" and NOT "2001/02".  Most experienced buyers search both, but its worth noting that the first option is more common.

5. DETAILS - Some may place too much importance in the details section of the auction, but in my opinion its actually not as important as you might think.  You want to include everything like the year, brand, insert name, serial number, and condition.  Outside of that however, there isnt much else that needs to be added.

6. THE FINE PRINT - This is important, this is where you want to make your policies known.  You should specify your return policy, shipping and handling policy and charges, and of course any other informaiton you need your customers to be aware of.  The MOST IMPORTANT aspect of the fine print is to be CLEAR AND STRAIGHT FORWARD.  By being clear, you are setting your customers expectations before the purchase, and managing the transaction afterwards becomes much much easier.

7. TIMING IS EVERYTING - There is a lot of debate out there as to what the best time to start your auctions is.  Some say you should do it in the late evenings on tuesday - thursday, since people typically are at home (I have my most success this way).  Others say Sunday evenings are the best.  I havent had much success then, but others swear by it, so that decision should be up to you.  I will tell you the times NOT to sell something.  When your auctions end is very important, remember these few things.

- Dont end your auctions at the same time the athlete is playing, chances are his fans are watching him and not his auctions.

- Dont end your auctions at a time when people are unlikely to be online.

- Try to avoid listing your items when numerous of the same item are running on ebay, as demand may be overmatched by supply.

8. LISTING UPGRADES - When it comes to selling cards, you are dealing with a very savvy group of buyers who know how to find what they want.  There are very few listing upgrades that will benefit your auctions final value.  The ones you can use are Gallery, Bold, Subtitle, and MAYBE Border... but the rest are pretty much useless for selling cards.  My advice, dont waste your money... ebay's fee's will take enough of it as it is.

After the Item has sold:

9. ACCEPTED PAYMENTS - Now Ill be honest, Paypal is a terrible service that had all kinds of problems, but it is ESSENTIAL to be successful on eBay!  Accepting money orders and cash are a given, and its up to you if you want to risk personal checks, but if you do, MAKE SURE THEY CLEAR before you send the item.

10. PACKAGING YOUR ITEMS SAFELY - This is SO unbelievably important that if you dont do it, you risk losing both the money and the card.  Shipping your cards with any less care than what Im about to describe is absolutely inexcusable and will eventually cost you.  The card needs to be placed in a penny sleeve, then put into a top loader.  The top loader needs to be sealed at the top, preferably a team bag, however a piece of tape works.  Then the item MUST be shipped in a BUBBLE mailer.  A white envelope or any envelope that offers no additional padding is completely unacceptable.

11. FEEDBACK - When you leave it is up to you, but make sure you LEAVE IT!!!

Now this is just from my humble experiences, but Ive been successful using these tips, so I hope they help you!  If you have any experiences you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them!  Thanks everyone and happy ebaying!