E-bay Information.
Help pages index http://pages.ebay.com/help/index/A.html
You must have a credit card or debit card to open a seller acct. I suggest having a paypal acct also. There is a charge for accepting paypal payments, but it is not a large fee and is well worth providing people with a way to pay you immediately. I advise against accepting personal checks. Only paypal or money orders. I also don't advise selling outside the US because of currency conversion, customs and the length of shipping time.
Fees - http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html
The insertion fee gets determined by what you charge as the starting price of your item. The final value fee is based on what you sell your item for.
Most importantly, as you are going through the item listing page, be careful to make sure that you are putting your item in a correct category. Describe your item perfectly. If there is a mar, describe it. If it is a book and there is writing in it, say so. Pictures will cost you 35 cents a piece, but are well worth the price. People like to see what they are buying. Measure the item, give all details as well as you possibly can.
Wrap the item safely. You can get bubble wrap from moving supply companies at a better price than you can get it at a store. Don't use bubble wrap with small bubbles on fragile items. You can order free parcel post and priority boxes from the post office, or you can round up free boxes from stores like walmart.
Set a time limit for the time that you expect payment. Some people will be pokey about paying. I always set a limit of 5 days if using paypal and 10 days to receive money orders.
If you do not have an ebay acct set up, I would set one up and order a few things and pay for them immediately to get some feedback. Buyers are wary of brand new sellers with no feedback. Feedback is very important for both buyers and sellers to be able to tell who they can trust.
Also, set up a paypal acct ahead of time. There is a way to link your paypal acct to your ebay acct through paypal's help pages.
Mostly, be as specific as you can in everything while you're selling.
The ebay listing pages are easy to follow. I can't go into detail because they have recently changed the setup and I'm not very familiar with it. For some reason the pages flow easier through Internet Explorer than Firefox.
Before you list an item, research that item on ebay. That will give you ideas on what to start the selling price as, along with ideas on how to describe and list it. Also, check completed listings to see what the item sold for.
If you use paypal, you can print your mailing label directly through them. tracking comes free with priority mail. I always gave my customers a choice of parcel post or priority. If I was selling a book I added media mail to those choices because it is must less expensive to mail media. If it's an extra heavy item I gave the choice of UPS. Insurance comes free with UPS up to $100.
I always, always stated in my auctions that I do not give refunds on a broken item unless either insurance was purchased (which is a royal pain in the butt through the PO) or the item is returned to me. I have received negatives because of this, but some people will try to take advantage and will want their item for free.
You can order PO pickup directly from the PO website and the mailman will pick up your pkgs for you.
I can't think of anything I didn't cover, but if you have any questions just e-mail or give me a call.
dlee
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