Selling online

Anyone here sell on ebay or anything? I've been thinking about signing up as a seller on either play or amazon.co.uk as I have a lot of spare DVDs I don't watch, in good condition and thought it'd be useful. But, what are the main precautions? I've heard you have to set up something with the post office, and you have to pay something for postage or something? Anyone care to give me a few pointers?

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Reply 1

Hurricane_Herd

on ebay. you jsut sign up for it. list things and then sell them. when you have recieved payment you post the item. you dont need to sign up with the post office i have no ieda what that is.

if you want to create an ebay store, then you have to pay a fee, i believe its 5pounds a month, then you have an online store, you get free listings and so on. maybe consider that

but on ebay there are no real problems. its pretty user friendly. and there are adequate fail safes, to make sure no wrong-doings occur

Reply 2

Kate.

I hate selling on eBay, to be honest. The listing costs add up to a fair bit sometimes. I think for smaller things it's hardly worth it usually. You could try selling them all as a job lot, but you'd probably get more seperately, on different sites.

I sell body jewellery on BME and some Livejournal communities, but not sure what the communities are like for selling DVDs.

I'd check out Play or Amazon then, or there was a site posted on here recently that looked good - cex.co.uk. See what you're likely to get from each site and see how much they charge to list them.

Once the buyer has sent the money (set up a Paypal account if you haven't already, a lot of people will only use Paypal now), you package the DVDs (use plain brown wrapping paper or bubble envelopes), and take them to the post office, where they will weigh them and tell you how much it is. If you're posting outside the UK, you might need a customs thing, but they'll give you that in the post office and it's easy to fill out.

Reply 3

louisedotcom

I sell on Ebay, but like the poster above me said the fees really do add up.
Not only do you have to pay to list the item, you have to pay to add pictures (if you dont know enough HTML to be able to code them yourself anyway)
pay to add the option of buy it now etc etc. It goes on and on.

And on top of that if you recieve payment via paypal they then take a cut aswell so you end up not making as much money as you thought you could.

When you have been using it a while though, you get to know how it all works and start to learn how to avoid costs and fees and there is money to be made if you do it right.

Reply 4

AntiLearner

Wow, ebay sounds like it sucks to sell dvds on. I'm expecting to sell mine for around £4 and under.

Anyone know about play.com or those kinda sites? I remember buying off of a seller before on there and there weren't any extra postage fees. So does this mean buying p+p stuff or whatever will be free? In other words, does anyone know how much it will cost for each item I want to send off to the buyer, so I can figure out a decent amount to make profit from?

Reply 5

soulofanewmachine

I've been selling on Amazon Marketplace and I like it better than eBay because they don't charge you anything to list your items, so if nobody buys it, you don't lose any money. But if someone DOES buy it, they take quite a large cut of the money. I can't remember exactly how much, but it'll tell you on the website.

Amazon charges the buyer a set amount of P+P which gets added to the price at which you've sold the item, but again they take a cut of this as well.

The cost of postage will depend on the size/weight of what you're sending, but a DVD should count as a "large letter" and I think it costs about 83p to send one second class, which is what I've been doing.

Reply 6

Vesta

You don't need to set up anything with the Post Office?

When you sell an item just head on down to your local PO and post it.. That's what I do anyway.

Reply 7

The Hitchhiker

Just a tip if your selling online too...

Always send your items recorded delivery so you can prove they have been received by the buyer! I've had some buyers on ebay try to gain a refund by saying the items never arrived. If the buyer pays with paypal and you can't provide a proof of postage the buyer is automatically given a refund even if you sent the item! Sadly you need to cover your back on ebay and keep a record of all your postings.... I usually email the buyer the tracking/parcel number to just to keep safe too.

Reply 8

paperclip

yellowtruck

thats wrong
dont send it recorded, you pay an extra 66p for a crap service
whenever sending something send it second class (first class is also usually a waste of money) and ask for a certificate of posting
the certificate of posting will insure you (up to £32) if the buyer does make an item not recieved claim, in which case you just claim it back off royal mail

you'll maximise your profit this way; when searching for an item people have a maximum price, they factor in the postage to this price

Reply 9

Richy_Boi

I think ebay fee's are going too far nowadays.

They're cheeky bunch of *****. I wish there was an established alternative.

Reply 10

The Hitchhiker

paperclip

Sounds like a good idea altho it was my impression, correct me if I'm wrong, that paypal usues an automated system to check if you have mailed the item or not. So if thats true a certificate of posting would not suffice as it has no tracking number...

Not trying to be pedantic with you just want the truth about ebay :p:

Reply 11

flipshot

Play.com seem good for selling on, I haven't sold anything on there yet but thats mainly because its probably the wrong time of year to try and sell A-Level books. The fees are less than amazon but you need to make sure you factor in the price of postage as this is meant to be included in the price you are selling it for.

Amazon is also good for higher value items but the fees can be quite steep but you only pay them if the item sells. I've just sold a Lego Mindstorms set on Amazon for £110 and they were selling for around £50 on eBay. By time I take fees and postage into account I still have made £30 more than I would have on eBay.

Reply 12

Richy_Boi

yellowtruck

correct me if I'm wrong, that paypal usues an automated system to check if you have mailed the item or not.:

No. Postage is down to the seller.

Reply 13

soulofanewmachine

flipshot

Play.com seem good for selling on, I haven't sold anything on there yet but thats mainly because its probably the wrong time of year to try and sell A-Level books.

Hate to break it to ya but I've sold quite a few on Amazon recently :cool:

Reply 14

The Hitchhiker

Richy_Boi

No. Postage is down to the seller.

I know postage is down to the seller. Thats why i suggest posting things recorded mail.

I'm saying if the buyer files an item not received complaint with paypal then they decide who wins the case by asking for a valid tracking number i beleive.

Unless I've misinterpreted anything.

Reply 15

paperclip

yellowtruck

a certificate of posting wont protect you against a paypal claim but that doesnt matter because you can just claim the money back from royal mail

Reply 16

flipshot

soulofanewmachine

Hate to break it to ya but I've sold quite a few on Amazon recently :cool:

I would try Amazon but the current low prices are so low for the ones I have by time I have paid the fees it wouldn't be worth it. Play.com has less competition so I can set a higher prices but that obviously isn't working so I think I will just give them to a Charity Shop.

Reply 17

Richy_Boi

yellowtruck

Paypal and ebay keep out of disputes, once they have your selling fee's they couldn't give a crap.

Basically, if you said "I sent it recorded" but didn't and it gets lost, chances are you'll get a neg rep.

It's all about the rep.