|
Auction Selling Tips
by Monica Resinger
Selling items at auctions is a fun way to bring in extra
income and reduce clutter in your home. If you're like me and peruse
yard sales and thrift stores, you can add even more to your income. Most
of the time, you'll get more for an item up for auction than you would
selling it at a yard sale. Sometimes it is very surprising and exciting
to see how much you get for an item!
I recently began selling at eBay and have learned quite a bit about
auction selling through trial and error. This article will teach you the
most important things I have learned so far.
1. Shipping and Handling: You'll need a good scale - mine is a modern
food-weighing one (not the old ones that you can barely balance anything
on). This type can be found at your local Target, Big K or Wal-Mart.
When you weigh an item be sure to also weigh the box/package it will be
shipped in or estimate for it so you get a correct weighing and charge
enough. I use U.S.P.S. and they have a website where you can figure
shipping here: www.usps.com/
When figuring what to charge for shipping, we also add in other
shipping expenses like the cost of boxes, envelopes, shipping tape, etc.
Some eBay sellers like to add these expenses into the price of the item.
2. Packaging items: This can be a personal preference, but we use
newspaper because we have lots of it. Just be sure the item is packed
tightly in the box with whatever packing material you are using. You can
also use shredded paper, packing peanuts, or bubble- wrap.
We purchased shipping boxes that are movie (VHS) size because we sell
a lot of movies and another common size box. These are great because you
don't have to wrap them with shipping paper - just tape the seals with
shipping tape. Here's where we get our boxes:
www.papermart.com/
This site has a huge variety of different sized boxes for good
prices. If you plan to sell for a long time, I recommend you get a
common size box for the type of items you are selling because it will
save you a lot of time and hassle.
advertisement
|
