OK, I'm ready to take the plunge and start selling on Ebay. I have never done this before, although I've thought about it for years, and don't really know where to start. Does anyone have any suggestions for complete newbies?

*How do you pack things? I mean do you use packing peanuts, bubble wrap, what? When mailing clothes do you wrap each piece in tissue or just put it in a box? What if what you are selling is already in its own box? Do you just wrap it or put it in another box? Do you ever use the big envelopes- for maybe one outfit- what else? Where do you get all your boxes and packing materials- are they expensive?? Can you reuse boxes from other places?

*What about invoicing? Do you do this for everything? What do your invoices look like? Is there a template or do you just make up your own? Do you also email these to the buyers or just put it into the box that you're mailing?

Anything that I haven't asked that might be helpful? Any info that you could give would be great. I have never even BOUGHT anything off of Ebay so I really know NOTHING!

TIA!!

__________________

[quote=ssusan2971]OK, I'm ready to take the plunge and start selling on Ebay. I have never done this before, although I've thought about it for years, and don't really know where to start. Does anyone have any suggestions for complete newbies?
I would start by actually buying something off ebay. Something small just so you can get an idea. This is how I started before I started selling.

*How do you pack things? I mean do you use packing peanuts, bubble wrap, what? When mailing clothes do you wrap each piece in tissue or just put it in a box? What if what you are selling is already in its own box? Do you just wrap it or put it in another box? Do you ever use the big envelopes- for maybe one outfit- what else? Where do you get all your boxes and packing materials- are they expensive?? Can you reuse boxes from other places?

I sell mostly clothing. The individual items I ship in the bubble mailers but if I have lot I ship them in the flat rate boxes. You can get the flat rate (priority mail) boxes from the post office. I think you can also order them online and have them delivered to your house. They are free to order and there are 2 or 3 sizes, I believe. I dont usually wrap anything in tissue paper or bubble wrap unless its breakable.

*What about invoicing? Do you do this for everything? What do your invoices look like? Is there a template or do you just make up your own? Do you also email these to the buyers or just put it into the box that you're mailing?

Once I sell something I send an invoice. I just use the ones that ebay has. You will get an email saying that your item has sold and it gives you a place to click on to send an invoice to your winning bidder. Its alot less complicated than it all looks and sounds its just a matter of doing it.

Anything that I haven't asked that might be helpful? Any info that you could give would be great. I have never even BOUGHT anything off of Ebay so I really know NOTHING!

Like I said it sounds and looks harder than it really is. I thought when I first started looking at selling that it was going to be so complicated that I couldnt do it but it really is pretty staight forward. Try buying an item off ebay first and just work your way up to selling or just jump right in. Also, if you havent set up a paypal account yet you might want to do that. It takes a few days or week (cant remember which) for them to verify everything. I find using paypal is the easiest way to either pay for your items won or receive payment for items sold, although there are other ways as well but I find paypal the easiest to us I hope this helps!!

__________________
SAHM to Elias 3/00, Camdyn 7/03 and Teagan 5/08

I would also like to start selling some of my girls' clothing on ebay, as well as my old maternity clothes. (and anything else I want to get rid of!) My question is, do you guys take everything to the post office to get it weighed? Or do you have your own scales at home you use? (and if so, where did you get them and what did you pay for it?)

Thanks!
Amy

First of all clothing does not have to be shipped in bubble wrap. I use the poly envelopes. I have shipped hundreds of items in them with no problems. It cuts down on the weight of the product which in turn reduces the shipping cost which makes customers extremely happy. I ship all my items through Paypal online shipping. On priority packages the delivery confirmation is free. It is only 14 cents or something like that for other packages. While Priority mail boxes are free at the postoffice most people don't want to pay the extra shipping and are willing to wait to get first class or parcel post. The envelopes can be purchased off ebay. Just type poly mailers in the search. Most clothes will fit in a 10X13 envelope. You can get all sizes I even ship lots of 4 or more in the larger envelopes.

__________________
Homeschool mom

for clothes as long as they are small enough i juts use the big vanilla envelopes, and send first class. other then that i think priority is the best way to go, you can order all the boxes, stickers, lables, on usps.com and they are free. one thing i would recomend buying is a postal scale so you cna be more accurate on the shipping. people are not going to want to pay high shipping unless it is actually costing that. use bubble wrap if the item is fragile or breakable. be sure to put good, clear pictures on the item page and describe as best you can, with shipping and payment details. and offer combined shipping on multiple items purchased. you can reuse boxes, i always doo, anything to keep your costs down. the invoices are automatically done for you, you just have to fill in the shipping, and the payment and shipping instructions, and specify whether or not it can be returned.

i prefer to buy stuff sent priority and to ship it, it is so much faster. and most of the time there is not a big difference, usually the only time there is a big difference is when the item is heavy, and if the box is very big it is sometimes cheaper to ship priority then parcle casue parcel can have a surcharge, i bought my postal scale on ebay for a round a few dollars, type in postal scale there is lots of them on there for great prices, it is one thing that is very good to have when selling so you can put in the weight and size of the package and it calculates the shipping for oyu so you dont ahve to guess on it you will get the hang of it after a while and be better at it.
i started buying way beofre i ever started selling, i think that might be the best way to go, so you can get the hang and feel of what it si like as a buyer so it might help you as a seller. look around, type in what you are planning on selling to see how much they are going for or look through the want it now posts, you might have something that omeone is really looking for.

Thanks for the input on the scales, I'll have to check out ebay to get one! That's a great idea to check the want it now posts... I'm off to do that now!

Thanks again...
Amy

I'm hoping to get back into selling shortly, as soon as I find some time around here. LOL I mostly sell my kids clothes. And I keep my costs down by mailing small/individual items in a ziplock bag inside a yellow envie. So far no issues and no complaints about that.

As far as scales go, I keep a kitchen scale on my desk, it wieghs up to 5 lbs. Then I can input all my shipping info right into paypal, and print my shipping label out at home. The Postal worker will usually pick it up for me, no need to even visit the post office anymore.

__________________
~Missy~Mommy
Meghan8.Samantha7,Cameron4