A Fashionista’s Guide To Cashing In On Ebay (Part2)

Written By: Emma Goganovski

In Part 1 of out fashionista’s guide to cashing in on eBay (you can catch up on Part 1 here), we discussed the topic of WHAT to sell, with some important tips to know for maximising your time invested. Now that you know what to weed out and donate to charity, here in Part 2 we’re looking at the all-important STRATEGY of listing. Giddy up, and get ready to see those bids flying!

If only Miranda Kerr would list her enviable wardrobe on eBay!

1. WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Now it’s time for our chapter on deception where we slightly embellish the title of our listing through forms of brand trickery. It’s harmless really and if you look at it from an objective point of view, we are simply aiding the search of our buyers who may be looking for a particular item and just don’t know that they actually need ours instead. Lead with the brand name and follow with a description of the item making sure you highlight any hot points that buyers are searching for. Include colour and condition if you think it’s a selling point: BNWT (Brand new with tags), BNIB (Brand new in box), BNWOT (Brand new without tags) etc and here comes the trickery, include any related brands that may be top of mind right now and have released similar items:

STEVE MADDEN White Leather Footbed Slide Sandals BNIB Birkenstock Celine

Because when your buyer is searching for Celine slides and finds your listing for a fraction of the price, my bet is her bid is going to be on yours!

2. PHOTOS

Equally as important as the title, photos are the eyes to your listing’s soul. So for the love of GOD, refrain from posting bad quality, poorly styled images that are going to make buyers run screaming for the nearest shopping center. The best way to get around this is to source images of the item currently available online whether it be from the brand itself or via its other incarnations online ie/ department stores and fashion e-tailers. If you’re sticking with our tip on current trends then this shouldn’t be too tricky, but if, alas, there is no image to be found online then make sure your items are neatly pressed and well styled (you may consider investing in a dressmaker form), the photos are high quality and taken in good, natural light.

Finally, don’t be cheap and not pay the extra 35 cents to include a Gallery Image in your listing, because if you can’t afford a 35 cent Gallery Image then stop reading this article.

3. PRICE REALISTICALLY

Be realistic when pricing your item because I’m here to tell you that your perceived value of what you’re selling and a buyer’s perceived value of what they’re bidding on is completely different. Don’t attempt to recover the full price you originally paid because chances are if it’s still in-store I can buy it at my local Westfield (and get some instant gratification); OR it’s on sale somewhere else online, OR it’s just not worth that price any more. Accept that while you may be taking a loss on the price you paid, you are, in fact, adding funds back to your bank account to be reinvested in your wardrobe once again – the circle of life.

And don’t forget the classic pricing strategy of using $49.95 instead of $50.00 to dupe your buyers into a false sense of savings. Genius! Get’s me every time.

4. UPSELL!

Admit it, you’re a pretty savvy lady if you’ve taken the plunge and started a small ecommerce career on eBay. So why not take the opportunity to up sell all items you currently have listed by simply adding into the body of your listing:

‘CHECK OUT MY OTHER ITEMS!!!’

Capital letters and 3 exclamation marks are key here but in all seriousness if a buyer likes the jib of your game then the likelihood of them seeing what else is on offer is high, which bring me to my next point…

5. GROUP SELLING

There is no science behind this tip, but the times wherein multiple items are listed it would appear watchers and bidders grow exponentially. Oh wait…if tip 4 is anything to go by, maybe there is a little science behind it.

6. END AT THE RIGHT TIME

It seems simple, end your listing at a time when a) people are awake and b) people are on eBay, but consider that the time in which you create your listing will be the time in which it ends. Word on the street is that Sunday night around 7pm & 8pm is when most people are online and not (shock) watching 60 minutes. So if you are in fact watching 60 minutes on Sunday night and not listing items on eBay then the ‘schedule listing’ function should be your BFF. Use it to ensure your items end at a time when people are in the mood to buy, are online and are waiting until the last 5 seconds of a listing to get in there and out bid the pants off everyone else!