Need help with selling and shipping online

[CharlieJ]

Hello everyone,
I have a lot of old toys, cards, hot wheels, action figures, and other "collectables" from my childhood that I would like to sell on Ebay or Amazon for some extra cash. I am looking for advice and suggestions on the best way to sell and the most cost effect shipping methods and an open to new ideas and tips from those with experience. I have no clue how the transaction works when a buyer purchases an item listed for sale; do you get a notification that a user has purchased an item and where to ship? I'm open to other suggestions for platforms to sell on as well.
However, I have never sold anything online nor have had to ship anything in my life. I'm not sure where to even start, other than having an active user account.
Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[vavavroom]

Ebay is a buyer's market. The Final Value Fees have become high between 12.9 and almost 16%. EBay charges you a selling fee on the shipping charges you charge, people don't leave feedback. You usually get much less than what you expect and for low-priced items the effort involved in making auctions isn't with the hassle. Selling higher-priced items is a gamble because of fraud. For example, you sell a watch. The buyer swaps out the movement for the defective one from their watch into yours and asks for a return because the watch he received was defective. You get stuck with your watch that has now a defective movement in it. If you have an overseas buyer I advise you to ask your international buyer to hire a US-based agent who will ship the item overseas. I did this when I sold a pricey watch to a Japanese buyer. Too often overseas shipments "get lost." Shipping insurance is useless if the shipped item "got stolen" after it has been delivered - as in thrown over a fence, dropped in front of a door, etc. Best to demand Signature Confirmation upon delivery. Also, most customers expect free shipping.

If you decide to sell on eBay, make sure to open a bank account separate from your checking account because eBay will be able to take money out of your linked account for refunds and whatnot. EBay also enjoys withholding payments. When you make the sale you are of course notified and are given the buyer's shipping address and shipping options. Ebay will give you a small discount on shipping costs but as I said, you will pay a Final Value Fee that is calculated on the total of the sale plus shipping cost. After about 26 years on eBay, I have long given up selling this there. I still buy something occasionally. Most of my purchases are hardware and small tools from China and I have not had any problems with those transactions.

EBay also collects and remits sales tax. You may receive a Form 1099K.

Don't know about selling on Amazon. Don't care to. I just donate or make a bonfire.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Great advice @vavavroom. If you don't end up selling on eBay, you should still open an account so you can use their discounted shipping rates through paypal.shipstation.com/orders. It's like having stamps.com but for free, I use it all the time and its cheaper than the USPS. Print the label, put it on the box, drop it off at the USPS and you're done.

 

[Lubener]

Hello everyone,
I have a lot of old toys, cards, hot wheels, action figures, and other "collectables" from my childhood that I would like to sell on Ebay or Amazon for some extra cash. I am looking for advice and suggestions on the best way to sell and the most cost effect shipping methods and an open to new ideas and tips from those with experience. I have no clue how the transaction works when a buyer purchases an item listed for sale; do you get a notification that a user has purchased an item and where to ship? I'm open to other suggestions for platforms to sell on as well.
However, I have never sold anything online nor have had to ship anything in my life. I'm not sure where to even start, other than having an active user account.
Thanks for the help in advance!

With the fees, shipping and other nonsense with e bay, I would try selling locally.

 

[KCJeep]

Selling on eBay can be effective, I had a store for years along with my own free standing website.

Most people are fine but all my problem “customers” came from eBay. Fees are pretty high and they do a good job of hiding them, I had competitors selling below cost after fees and they didn’t even realize it.

Honestly OP based on your level of experience that you shared I wouldn’t recommend eBay for you personally I think you’d be very frustrated.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

Do some research on what you have. Are they sealed up collectibles or heavily worn and abused. If your Babe Ruth card was used as a bike spoke noise it won't be worth too much.

Once you search some on the item and condition, there are guaranteed to be some card/collectible/memorabilia stores around you. They need to make money if they buy from you like used cars. It depends if that amount is acceptable to you. My friend collects Hockey stuff and had many original and replica goalie masks. He goes to many "signing" events where the players to go to have them authenticated through one of the auction houses.

I have sold and bought many things on ebay. The fees definitely creep up. I sold a couple expensive (to me) things but they were niche type items. Many horror stories with the mail drops, porch pirates, swaps as said. People buying/selling new electronics and sending you a brick that weighs the same and disappearing with your money. Many scams out there.

I prefer local through craiglist or facebook market place. Cash when I see them. I do it at local Police precinct or my firehouse in the parking lot. All on camera. I tell them it's for my safety and theirs. Yes, I had 2 people back out of buying items when I gave the location to meet and the reason and it wasn't very expensive stuff.

 

[alarmguy]

Hello everyone,
I have a lot of old toys, cards, hot wheels, action figures, and other "collectables" from my childhood that I would like to sell on Ebay or Amazon for some extra cash. I am looking for advice and suggestions on the best way to sell and the most cost effect shipping methods and an open to new ideas and tips from those with experience. I have no clue how the transaction works when a buyer purchases an item listed for sale; do you get a notification that a user has purchased an item and where to ship? I'm open to other suggestions for platforms to sell on as well.
However, I have never sold anything online nor have had to ship anything in my life. I'm not sure where to even start, other than having an active user account.
Thanks for the help in advance!

I vote for E-bay. I have hundreds of transactions both buy and sell.
Your protected.
If you sell something, you will be notified when it sells and where to ship. E-Bay deposits the money (after eBay charges) into your bank account. Really failsafe system.

When you list an item you select either free shipping (at your cost) or buyer pays shipping, I always select "Buyer Pays Shipping" when you do, EBay will have you fill out items such as package dimensions and weight. When a buyer buys the item, EBay calculates the shipping price to the buyer based on their location. The shipping cost gets added to the buyers purchase. Completely nothing for you to do.
By selecting buyer pays shipping, your not caught with a large shipping bill on the other side of the country, the buyer knows ahead of time what he/she will have to pay and if its worth the purchase.

Once you are notified of the sale, all costs to the buyer are already paid, you print out the shipping label that Ebay provides, slap it on the package and bring it to the Post Office. Since I print my own labels it's not a big deal but I think there is a way to have USPS or UPS print it for you. Ebay includes the instructions.

You can also offer a buy it now price and a bid price. Or a bid price and make an offer price.
There are many options, just take it slow with an item as you get used to it. One thing for sure, try to impress with your service, meaning make sure your descriptions are correct in regard to the condition of the item and make sure to ship right away. You want good feedback to make buyers feel comfortable in the future.
Everything I sell I make sure is better then I describe/and or 100% accurate. I dont accept returns and as stated buyer pays shipping.

Example I recently sold something, buyer paid $200 including the shipping cost and taxes to them. My Ebay fee was $25. Not cheap but well worth it for me. Look at it this way, no hassle, Ebay makes sure you get paid, no danger of meeting anyone, no road trips to meet anyone, drop it off at post office and what you are offering for sale goes nationwide for best price instead of just your local area.
I do agree with others, their fees has gone up but still delivers a value to me and they no longer charge to list an item to the best of my knowledge.