As a reseller, you can't but love eBay. It's quite difficult not to be a fan because of its simplicity and efficiency. It's quite easy to use, all you need to do is come up with a listing, create exposure all over the world for your listing, and that's basically all the hard work, with little effort your listing can sell at any time.
However, there is a part that I always advise people to take seriously, and that is the part where you create your listing because it will go a long way in making sure that your listing gets sold as quickly as possible. It is quite easy to get a listing to sell quickly on eBay, and you can follow the tips below to make it easier.
- Make sure that your title is cool and precise. It should be detailed, add the exact thing that you are willing to sell and make it catchy without capitalizing every letter.
- Make sure that your pictures are clear; this point is one of the major factors that will decide whether your listing will be on the top of others or below. Make the pictures appealing and attractive, it will push your listing above someone else, if I'm finding it difficult to view what I want to buy, then I will look for someone else that has a clearer picture.
- Make your description as straightforward and open as possible. Do not hide anything. If there are imperfections in the product, make it clear in the description.
- Always remember that the world is now mobile, most people are using their phone to check out your product, nobody wants a long story, the shorter, the better, keep your descriptions short and don't look like an amateur.
- Make use of bullet points. It makes information to be easier to comprehend by breaking it down.
- Get in touch with your friends and ask them to review and watch your listing. The higher the number of activities on your item, the better the chance it has on being pushed to the top of search results.
Tips on Taxes and Fees
This is another important point that we need to talk about because I've realized that most people don't really pay attention to it. You really need to pay attention to seller fees because it can directly affect how much you make on an item. When you sell an item online, you are losing around 10% of your sale to the platform that you are using to sell, and that's just the truth.
But there is a way to bypass this, and what you can do is to sell your item using PayPal gift, or through groups on Facebook or better still, you can sell locally. However, before you make up your mind on that, there are platforms like eBay, GOAT, StockX that are quite okay because they promote your item to a large base of customers.
If the international sales feature is active on your eBay account and you are also using the international shipping center option, then you have a better advantage than selling locally. This is because you have a whole new market for your item that resellers don't. In such a situation, you can't really complain about the 10% because it is worth it.
Another important thing that you need to think about if you are selling on eBay is opening an eBay store. This might not be advisable if you are just starting, but if you are selling enough items to conveniently pay the $20 a month fee that is required for using an eBay store, then you will be able to get some reduction of your fee total. There are also some other advantages that you will get like $25 worth of free supplies every few months as long as you are paying the monthly fee.
Besides the seller's fee, do not forget that you are removing your shipping fee out of your profit so whenever it's possible, always pick the most economically reasonable option for the product that you are selling. Ensure that you have your signature confirmation for every product, your USPS shipping details, and all relevant details that will get you to the cheapest shipping fee possible. Personally, I prefer using priority shipping to make sure that my buyer gets the product as quickly as possible. By doing this, it ensures that I've avoided a lot of scamming chances and it gives me peace of mind.
The next point you need to think about is taxes. Maybe you are not aware, but you are legally mandated to report all your earnings to the IRS. By the end of every year, it is mandatory that you pay taxes on all the profits that you made throughout the year. Now, this is where it gets interesting, PayPal saves all your transactions from January to December, and at the end of the year, they report it to the IRS. Then at the end of the year, if you made over 200 transactions or a 20k gross income, you will receive a document of how much you will need to report to the IRS at the end of the year.
What you can do is always to monitor your sales that you are getting out, your gross income, and your profit. This information is very important for you to have a claim, if you feel it is too complex or boring for you, you can hire a financial consultant to help you take care of it because it is not something to joke with.
However, if you are making just a few thousand a years from reselling items online, then you don't really need to worry because the risk is of getting caught is quite low, and you don't really need to worry about reporting anything to the IRS. But, if you are making up to 20k and above in a year and you do not report, it can lead to an audit of your account, and if they find you guilty, then you are in a big mess.
Endnote
I know we all want to make money, and we want to make it big, but sometimes it's better to be on the safer side so that you can actually enjoy your money so always make sure that you pay your taxes. In summary, find ways to reduce your fees, reduce the cost of shipping your items, always ship with signature confirmation, take note of your sales, pay your taxes, and you will be fine.
