Section 124. About Selling on eBay

124. About Selling on eBay

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Just jump right in.

SEE ALSO

161 Set Up an eBay Store

171 About Selling Cars and Vehicles

For many people, there's no quicker way to make money than to sell on eBay. Trudge up to your attic, find some items that are doing little more than gathering dust, fill out some forms, and wait for the money to start coming in.

Well, it's not quite that easy for most of us, but the truth is that it can be easy to sell and make money on eBay, and it is a great way to get some extra spending money.

Don't expect, though, to start selling and making a living on eBay. Many people do it, but frequently they already have a physical store, are selling in some other way, or have slowly built up to a full-time income over time.

Before you can sell on eBay, you have to register as a seller. Simply registering on the site isn't good enough; you must specifically register as a seller. To register, click the Sell button at the top of any eBay page, and from the page that appears, click the Seller's Account link. Registration is straightforward, but you are asked for credit card or debit card information and bank account information so eBay can be guaranteed to collect seller fees from you.

After you register to sell on eBay, selling your item is easy: Start by filling out a form on the Sell Your Item page.

If you don't want to provide credit card or debit card information to eBay, you can instead become ID verified . This classification of user lets you sell on eBay, allows you to buy using eBay's Buy It Now feature, and lets you bid above $15,000. You'll have to pay a $5 fee, however.

KEY TERM

ID verified An eBay certification that allows you to sell on eBay, use eBay's Buy It Now feature, and bid above $15,000 for an item. It costs $5. However, if you provide credit card or debit card information to eBay, you don't need to become ID verified to do all that.

WEB RESOURCE

http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/idverify-login.html

To get ID verified, go to this site and follow the directions.

Selling an item requires a good deal of preparation. You need to know how much you want to charge, how you'll ship the goods, and how much shipping will cost. You also have to prepare a description of the item and probably take photographs of it. But as you'll see in the rest of this chapter, a little bit of work will pay big dividends .