A graphic of a computer, some packages with a sign for ebay and facebook and some £ signs

Episode 24 – Is it worth selling my stuff on Ebay?

In this podcast, Lesley talks to Liz Law, from Let Liz Clean Up your Clutter. Liz is a professional Ebay seller and manages the Ebay sales process for clients from start to finish.

When we declutter our homes, often we have certain items that still have value and could potentially be sold. Ebay is often the place that people go to sell their stuff but is it worth it?

Lesley talks to Liz Law from Let Liz Clean Up Your Clutter to work out whether it is worth selling your stuff on Ebay yourself and if so, how to manage that in the most efficient, effective way.

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Transcript of this podcast episode

Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The Declutter Hub Podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host of professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen, and Lesley Spellman.

Lesley  0:29  
Hello, listeners and welcome to Episode 24 of the Declutter Hub Podcast. I'm Lesley and today I'm talking to Liz law from let Liz clean up your clutter. Now Liz and I met about nine years ago, when both of us decided to build a business from other people's clutter. I've got to say it was a bit of a risk. But I'm glad to say we are both still here today still standing and still thriving in our own businesses. Less is got a different take on clutter from me. I'm a professional organiser, as you know. And Liz is a professional eBay seller there to clear up and clean and sell your clutter. Less works in Manchester not far from me. But there are lots and lots of other professional eBay sellers out there around the world and the country. So let's welcome Thank you. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your business and how it's evolved over those nine years yet? 

Liz  1:16  
Well, I started selling other people's stuff on eBay about knowing well, about 15 years ago, in total, when my children were little, and the moms and dads from school wanted me to sell the item for them for a cup of coffee and a slice of cake. Then they started coming to me with carrier bags full of items and told me how to charge them how I decided to work out what to charge friends and families. It was a huge question. But it evolved from there. And about 10 years ago, I'll get made redundant from my day job. And I said to my boss, it was an opportunity I needed to see if I could actually make a living from selling other people's items.

Lesley  1:51  
I could remember seeing you outside as I was dropping some eBay stuff off. And I can remember that week when you're like this is it. This is it I've made been made redundant from my job. And I'm trying to do this full time because I think when we first met you were still doing it. You still work part time. Absolutely. And I can I can honestly I can remember it so vividly. But you're still here. And you are the lady. Yeah, Liz Lee Bay lay there and Manchester. So that's brilliant. So we've got a different take on decluttering. So the first thing that I want to say my my take normally when I'm decluttering with clients is that the decluttering is the most important part of the process. And what people should be focused on is the decluttering. And not necessarily too focused on selling the stuff because I think for a lot of people, not everybody, it is a little bit of a barrier sometimes and people become too fixated on the amount of money that they're going to get back from the stuff and not focusing on the decluttering of the stuff, which is the primary focus. But obviously you and I are coming at it from very different angles. So it'd be interesting to hear from you today, some hints and tips, and to hear about, you know, what kinds of things do sell well, whether people are realistic with the kinds of things that they expect to get money for, and the nuts and bolts really of how you actually do it, because you've been doing it, obviously, you're doing it professionally. And I guess you've got well, I know that you have fantastic processes and really slick systems to make sure that you can do it very effectively and very efficiently. But a lot of our listeners are going to be wanting to do it for themselves. So this is really all about giving them a little bit of insight into the into it so that they can go out there and do it themselves if it's the sensible thing to do. So, straight to the important question, what sort of things can you make money from on eBay?

Liz  3:31  
Well, I would say once you've done your declutter, and you've got your pile of items, ideally, you should be looking at putting them into things that you might be able to get some money from other things that probably won't sell on eBay. And you can either look for alternative sites to sell them on. Or it may just be that they need to go to the charity shop because they they might only sell for pennies, if at all. When I'm looking to sell items on behalf of clients. The key thing I'm looking for is brand names. When people are buying on eBay, they're going to be looking for Laura, Ashley Marks and Spencer, high street names that they recognise and they know that it's quality items, as well as more quirky and unusual things that people might be searching for on eBay.

Lesley  4:11  
Okay. And so things that I've got sort of tags on, obviously, they're gonna be better than things without I guess. Yeah, it doesn't make a difference. Yeah, if things are

Liz  4:20  
new, then if it's got the tags and things have never been worn, or things haven't been taken out of the box is definitely a lot more appealing than something that's been used and some of its shelf life has already been used up. Okay,

Lesley  4:32  
so just I mean, obviously we've got global listeners, but just talking about UK brands now. So is there anything that you think you know what you just, it's just not worth it's, in my head. I'm thinking things like Primark

Liz  4:45  
clothing there. What has happened over the years is that more and more people are turning to eBay to sell their items. So the market is flooded, so it's a buyers market rather than a seller's market. So again, personally, I don't tend to sell the high street brand And, but if you've got a bundle of items of high street labels, all the same size, UK 12, UK 18. As long as they're the same sizing, you can sell them as a bundle. And

Lesley  5:12  
that's an interesting point. So you know, if all your stuffs not really expensive actually, if your bundle, say 10 dresses together from next door, whatever, yeah, then that's probably going to be a better way to sell them. Yeah, to sell them to try and sell them individually, or coordinating tops and skirts and tops and trousers. i Okay. Okay. And I think you know, a lot of seen a lot of people do that with baby items as well. There's always a lot of bundles on baby clothes as well, isn't that

Liz  5:36  
yeah, now baby clothing can be difficult to sell. Again, personally, I don't sell it on behalf of clients anymore. Because people can buy a lot of baby items quite cheaply brand new from some of the high street shops on some of the supermarkets. So I tend to say pick out the cute little outfits that really appeal to rather than the baby vests, which sometimes get marked in STEM because of being used all the time. So it's really, as a guide, I would say to somebody, would you be prepared to pay money for that and use it on yourself? Or

Lesley  6:05  
your child? Yeah, rather than just go to the shops and buy, you know, COMMBUYS things so inexpensively these days, can't you? And so would you prefer to buy something secondhand? Yeah, etc. So it's going to, it's going to need to be a good brand. Before you're going to make that leap really, isn't it? Yeah. So so that's kind of clothing that gives us a good idea with clothing. And right across the range of sizes, is that Yep, fine as well. So all the way from,

Liz  6:29  
from personal experience, I found that for example, shoes, popular sizes are UK five, six and seven smaller sizes UK for in smaller for ladies or larger I struggle again to sell, right. So if you do have that particular size, I would say maybe try a few items, rather than listing your whole wardrobe in one day or over the weekend. Just sample a few different items and see if they sell and if they do then carry on selling.

Lesley  6:55  
So from what you're saying really, it sort of almost mirrors the High Street, doesn't it? Because the sort of popular sizing from 10 to 14, you're gonna be the ones where there's more of them in the shops. And it's the same, so the less popular size is not not popular, popular is the bad word. Yeah, you know what I mean? So that back, perhaps it's better to do to bundle those up or something like that? Oh, that's a really good idea. So we talked about clothes. And it's really important to talk about clothes, because we're in a kind of wardrobe month for the declutter podcast at the moment. But there are lots of other things you can sell as well. So what kinds of things sell really well, in your opinion,

Liz  7:31  
furniture contemporary tends to sell quite well. I have a lot of clients who either happen houses knocked down, rebuilt, or they'll have fixtures and fittings. So even if you have a new kitchen, or a new bathroom is worth considering putting it onto eBay, contemporary furniture tends to sell quite well. But the more traditional charcoal brown furniture that our grandparents might have, tends to be a little bit more difficult to move, I will try on behalf of clients to sell those types of items. But if you've got them be prepared, either for them not to sell or not to sell for a huge amount of money.

Lesley  8:05  
Right? Okay, what about electronics and things like that? Yeah, again, another

Liz  8:09  
popular area, a lot of items. Now people don't need because we stream a lot on our phones. So DVD players, and high fives can be again, difficult to sell. But occasionally, there are certain pieces of equipment that collectors will want. So before you ditch the Hi Fi into the dump, have a look at the model number, have a look on eBay and search on that particular make and model number to see if similar items have sold. And then you can make a decision as to whether or not it's worth trying to sell it yourself or just finding somewhere else that will take it.

Lesley  8:40  
Yeah, I think that's I think that's interesting, but it's just doing that doing that research, but not getting bogged down with that research as well. But you know, it's so quick and easy, isn't it if we had to go on eBay and see whether there is any value in that before you because some people get think that there is all the time was or somebody told me or you know, I believe you know, my beanie babies, millennia, we're gonna sell us and money but you know, you can easily find that information out. And if something's on eBay and sell them for 99 Pence, then perhaps it's not worth your while to do that. Because there's a lot of time and energy goes into eBay selling and if

Liz  9:11  
you have the app on your phone, if I'm out with a client and I'm not sure about whether or not it's worth selling, I can log on within 30 seconds. Now whether or not it's sold on eBay and whether or not it's worth trying to sell.

Lesley  9:23  
Okay. And what about some of the more unusual things that you sell? Well,

Liz  9:27  
I have sold a forklift truck. And I have sold a life sized statue of Laura Croft. To name a couple of things at the moment. I have got a swimming pool heater, which I'm not convinced that eBay is the right marketplace for that but it was it was worth trying to see if we might find somebody who might want that. So again, a huge piece of electrical equipment which has got plenty of life left in it.

Lesley  9:52  
Brilliant, brilliant. That's always all good for and I'm sure you never quite know what's coming through the door the next day. So talking a lot about eBay. Obviously your professional eBay seller and have been for a number of years. Do you ever go into any of the other selling sites? Would you recommend it? You know, I'm thinking things like gum tree pre loved Depop is that I know, I know my daughter certainly sells quite a lot on Depop but I think it's, you know, that kind of very cheap end fashion that she sells on Depop vintage, but that kind of

Liz  10:21  
shock. Yeah, it's worth having a look at them. I've tried different ones, but I keep going back to eBay just because it's the easiest one for me to use. Personally, I would say that the Facebook groups or local Facebook groups are quite useful if you've got cheaper, bigger sorts of items that you don't want to be posting that people would have to collect like bookcases or or, or big children's plastic toys, Gumtree and some of the others you need to know what price you want in advance. The benefit of eBay is that you can put items on with the stock price. In an ideal world if you get a couple of people interested in that they'll keep out bidding and push the price up with Gumtree you've got a set price and people will try and knock you down. So you need to have a good idea of what price you want before you go on to those websites.

Lesley  11:09  
Okay, so your normal sort of methodology then would be to try eBay first which has got the bigger sort of more slicker I guess systems behind it or more flexible perhaps more flexible and then possibly use Gumtree and pre love that cetera et cetera afterwards? Yeah, yeah. Okay, brilliant. Well, so just just jumping back to the to the clothes again, what sorts of returns might you expect to get realistically on let's say, it's a karen millen dress that's originally cost. I'm forgetting how much dress but 150 quid so how much might you expect to get return or return on that with

Liz  11:49  
with new items? What a sale as a general rough rule of thumb a bit like a car. Once you've bought something whether or not you've worn it, it's obviously depreciated in value. So if you'd bought a karen millen dress for 150 pound last year, haven't worn it, it's still got the tags on, I would say probably lifted around 50 pounds to begin with, to Virtus owl, realistically. But the beauty of eBay is, if you want more than that, you can always put it on, for example, at 100 pounds. If it doesn't sell the first time, you can always relisted it takes a few seconds, reduce the price. And then you might find somebody that buys it at a slightly reduced price.

Lesley  12:26  
Right. Okay, yeah, it's just keeping going on it really, sometimes I'm not thinking that it's just a one hit option. And the other thing that I was really interested talk about, because this is some one of my Achilles heels when I'm working with people is gadget boxes. So my go to thing is, you know, I see houses up and down the land with gadget boxes, from TVs from high fives from iPhones from just gathering and all night, sell it one day. And that's fine. But normally, people don't end up selling those things. And those boxes are just cluttering up people's laughs. And so I try if I can to convince people to get rid of a lot of gadget boxes, if they can, there are some that where it's a no brainer when you absolutely need to keep them of course, and I know recently, I bought something from jet, I bought new TV from John Lewis. And the delivery driver said to me, you need to keep the box for 28 days. And so I thought that was really interesting. So John Lewis, if you want to return something because it's faulty, or obviously think 28 days is a realistic amount of time for you to then have a have the box, original box and packaging. So what's your thoughts about but I've said what I think is now what do you think about boxes? Well, I'd

Liz  13:34  
agree it depends on the sort of item with a TV, I would say probably not as long as you keep the manual and the remote control. The remote controls are really important if you're selling gadgets that that were sold with one originally, because people tend to be lazy and they want to buy everything together, they don't want to buy a TV and then have to go and buy a remote control. And if they do, they expect to get your TV app quite a lot less because they're having to do some work. However, smaller items like iPhones children's toys, I would say it probably does help to keep the box

Lesley  14:08  
that's on the right hand side.

Liz  14:11  
I'm sorry, but it's a smaller items, not the big array, okay. And what I've found is a lot of people, the kids will open the presents on Christmas Day, and then they won't get played with and a month or so later it gets stitched into the pile of things to sell. So maybe keep the boxes for the 28 days, and then review as to whether or not that item is going to be played with

Lesley  14:31  
rag. Okay, that's given us a thank you. That's fantastic. That's given us some really good insight into what kind of things do and don't sell on eBay. So going now a little bit more into the nitty gritty of the process of selling and I know you've got tonnes and tonnes of hints and tips and you know what's fantastic as you're gonna write a blog for us as well with all of your best tips about eBay selling so that should be about hopefully that should be available when this podcast goes like. So I've got some questions and about the process of Sell. And so people talk a lot about, you know, when you're doing an auction listing, but what is the best day to end that listing?

Liz  15:07  
Traditionally, people will look at your Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening. From my experience, I tend to list most things to finish Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday evenings, and throughout Saturday and throughout Sunday at the weekend, and also on bank holidays throughout those days as well. I think there is a bit of a myth that if it's going to sell Sunday evening is the best time but not everybody works. nine till five, not everybody has the weekend off. So there are lots of people nationally and internationally because I spend I spend quite a lot of items abroad. So I don't think it's as much of an issue now as it was previously. Right. Okay,

Lesley  15:44  
now, that's good. But it's definitely got to be a time when people tend to be at home, I guess. So evenings, weekends, bank holidays, right. Okay. And so obviously, you've got lots of choices when you go on to eBay as to how long you can list something for. So how long? What's the best time? I know there's, I know you can't answer that question. But what would your what would your suggestion be for that from

Liz  16:05  
from my experience, I would say that if it's a higher value item, if it's a kitchen or an expensive wardrobe or piece of furniture, put it on for 10 days to cover two weekends to finish on a Sunday afternoon or evening. If it's a lower value item, people tend to be quite impatient, and they want to buy it and have it now. So I tend to put a lot of auctions on for five days.

Lesley  16:27  
Okay, five days brilliant. And what about reserve prices and things like that you set a reserve price on things. And these things tend to add to the fees.

Liz  16:36  
If you put a reserve fee on it has to be an item with a stock price of around 50 pounds, they'll charge you a few pounds for that privilege. So again, what I tend to advise people to do is initially start it off at around the price you would ideally like for it. And if it doesn't sell, then keep relisting it each week and reduce the price slightly. So it saves you the reserve fees. And it just saves you some time as well. I suppose you've

Lesley  17:02  
got that, haven't you with your stock price, but it's just all about that psychology of buy in? Isn't it as to whether people will if you go in with a high stock price whether people will buy that or not. So tell us it was we were talking about fees now. So can because some people might never have sold on eBay. So can you tell us a little bit about how much in terms of fees that you're likely to have to spend? Yeah, well,

Liz  17:23  
there's two different sets of fees for the the individual on the high street, you're probably going to get charged around 35 Pence for every item that you list, regardless of whether it sells or not. Once it sells, you then have to pay eBay, a final value fee of 10% plus VAT on the item and the postage.

Lesley  17:42  
So that's the set the set the 10% of the selling price, yeah, and postage,

Liz  17:46  
and then also pay pal if a client if somebody's buying something, and it has to be posted or carried and they're not collecting it. They use pay pal who charge I think is about 3.4% plus 20 Pence on the total value of the item and the postage. So as a very rough guide again, before you make anything 15% will be deducted from the final value fee.

Lesley  18:08  
Right. Okay. And talking about fees them for you as a professional eBay seller, what sorts of fees, would you charge somebody then to list something I know it's probably gonna be different per item. But in general, if someone was wanting to sell a dress or sell something like that, what what do they expect to pay a professional seller? Yeah,

Liz  18:26  
I mean, I say as a guide, my clients tend to receive regularly between 55 and 65% of what an item sells for. And if it's a more expensive item to get an even better rate of return, because my I've got sliding scale. And the more an item sells for the lower my cash and obviously,

Lesley  18:43  
obviously, yeah, so that makes sense. So yeah, I noticed years ago, I used to do some selling as well. And I think, you know, I would say to the client part, if you if you outsource that selling to someone else, you can expect to get half of what it's worth, which is you know, and somebody like you as well as you're going to have better systems, better photography, you know, the time is, you know, the listing, you know, so the return will probably be much better by outsourcing that to a professional than it will to do it yourself when you try and sort of make it up as you go along. You know, so I think you know, there's definitely something there or be gained from that. I mean,

Liz  19:16  
there are key words that people will search on. And also I have a lot of followers. I've got a lot of groupies that follow me. Yeah. And there might be things that I wouldn't normally think of putting on eBay, but I'll go do you know what barrel would buy that? I'm sure she bought that for grandsons. I might put some things on with actual buyers in mind. Yeah,

Lesley  19:35  
I think that's it, because, you know, depending on how you get power seller kind of listed and that kind of thing. So things like that do do make a difference and make a difference to the people because people don't want people to mess them around, do they? So they choose their sellers carefully as well as their buyers really. So talking about we've talked about sort of some of the processes so there's obviously some downsides to eBay. It's not all like yeah, this is amazing. sell my stuff and make loads of money, that will be the ideal. But there are some things that are really difficult about eBay that cause people problems. Obviously, you're a professional, so used to dealing with that, and as part of your professional life to deal with that, and you've probably factored that into your return and your commission and so on. But for somebody, what kind of negatives are that, what sort of things if things don't go according to plan? What sort of things might people expect? Well,

Liz  20:23  
for a start, you've got to think that you, you're going to have to sit down either after a long day at work, or a long week at work, and you're going to have to get your items, you're gonna have to photograph them, you're gonna have to measure them, you're gonna have to describe them in detail, because it's really important that buyers receive exactly how an item was described. So you could be spending your Sunday afternoons one week listing, spending a few hours sorting out until you get into the process of doing it yourself. And then the following Sunday, assuming you put it on for seven days, all those items that you're listed are hopefully going to be selling. So then the following Sunday afternoon, you're going to have to be writing out your labels, parcelling things up finding boxes, getting bubble wrap, and then on the Monday, pop into the post office, and dropping them all off. And as well as that once the item arrives with the client, if they're not happy, that wants to return it and have a refund, or there might be somebody out there who says you didn't mention that there was a mark here, or there might be people that don't pay and you have to go through the process of opening an unpaid item dispute. So there are awkward customers as well. Unfortunately, some of the general public can make life difficult for you. Of course,

Lesley  21:32  
I was just thinking while you were talking that there's nothing more exciting about that, then that's Sunday night when everything I'm sure you've got over after 15 years. But when all the lights off, somebody bought your item and somebody bid on your I got another bid. I've got another baby really exciting stuff. But then the hard work comes the following day, doesn't it? Well, yeah. So yeah. So there is quite a lot to factor in, you know, it's all about time versus money, isn't it really. And I suppose you have to put a price on your time that you're spending. And if you've got all the time in the world, then there's no problem with that. But if you're tight on time, then perhaps outsourcing it to a professional is going to be a better way of doing things. Perfect. So is there anything else that you'd like to talk to us about loads about eBay and anything that I've missed out, that's really important for you to explain to our listeners,

Liz  22:15  
I think it's just really a case with eBay, making sure that you are 100% honest about the items that you're selling. So if there are any flaws, make sure you point them out, because there's nothing worse than having a sofa delivered to Glasgow only to find that there was a wine spot under a cushion and they want to return it because then you will be out of pocket. Also make sure that when you are listing your items, you check on the postage, because I've heard of a number of people that have lifted items, but not check the postage and it goes up in April every year, and they've been out of pocket and just enjoy it. If you've got the time to do it, it can be quite addictive. And when the money starts rolling in, it's it's quite a good feeling. But on the negative side, as we've discussed, it can be difficult if you if you've got problems, and I hate confrontation. So I will do everything in my power to avoid those problems occurring. But unfortunately, no matter what you do, something will turn up to

Lesley  23:10  
us. Of course, that's just human nature, sadly. And then we also deal with that. Oh, that's brilliant. Ladies, thank you so much for enlightening us are all about eBay, I'm sure our listeners will absolutely love it. Because there's so many people who out there who do want to make money from their clutter. And far be it for me to say that you shouldn't be doing that. I'm a big advocate of sending things to the charity shop. But it's about being realistic about what kind of stuff that you've got enough for me Nothing is good enough not to send to the charity shop. But obviously, you've got to think about budget and your own money and things like that and recouping things. And if you have been an over buyer, and you want to make that change, and it's really important to sort of, you know, to make that money back as well. So listeners, we hope that you've all enjoyed listening or inspired to take some action that's think about what the action might be. Think about what you might have around the house that you can sell. But also make sure that whether it's the most sensible thing for you to do with your time to sell for yourself. Or you can possibly find somebody like Liz to do that for you a professional eBay seller, you can find details about less. I mean, obviously she she works in Manchester, but I'm sure there are some people that you work for that are outside of Manchester as well. But you're definitely not global, I don't think at this moment in time. But anyway, so you can find details about Liz at WWW dot clean up your clutter.co.uk. And she will be on that website selling and but what's your What are you on eBay as well, you got to

Liz  24:36  
clean up your clutter to that clutter with the finger too. All right, okay. And if people want to have just got queries, they can always message me via the website. I could have a

Lesley  24:45  
lot of really good stuff on there. How many listeners might might be worth people trying to seek you out on eBay and becoming one of those groups that you talked about? So thank you so much for taking the time to listen, listeners today. If you'd like to see more tips and advice follow us on D clutter help.com And you can find us on social media on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And we've got a fantastic lively Facebook community where you can share all your wins and successes and potentially share your problems too. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you've enjoyed this episode. If you don't want to miss the next episode of The declutter hub podcast, please subscribe to us on Spotify, iTunes and Stitcher. Thanks for listening.

Outro  25:29  
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Want to hear more tips and advice from Liz about selling on ebay? Check out her guest blog here...

TOP TIPS FROM A PROFESSIONAL EBAY SELLER – A GUEST BLOG BY LIZ LAW

Here are some top tips from Professional Ebay seller, Liz Law, from Clean up your Clutter to help you decide how to begin Ebay selling.

Many old items you have sitting around at home can be worth serious cash, but to really get the money rolling in on eBay, you need to know the etiquette and shortcuts.

Selling on eBay isn't just for those in the first flushes of a major declutter – continually selling things you no longer use can provide regular ready money.

When you catch the eBay bug, it's almost addictive watching the bids flow in; the pounds can quickly add up, especially as you're profiting from stuff that was just picking up dust.

Not used it for a year? Sell it.

Companies stock check to value their assets, and you can do the same – walk through your home to find items of value you no longer need, then sell them.

Use the 12-month rule of thumb to help decide what to offload. Haven't used it for a year? Sell it.

Here's what sells best; if what you're selling doesn't fit into any of these categories, the pounds can still add up, and you'll benefit from a more orderly home.

New items. Cellophane-wrapped items and clothes with tags fetch a higher price.
Branded goods. People trust a 'Black & Decker drill' over an 'electric drill'.
Items with keywords. Ask yourself "will someone search for this?" People are more likely to search for a Ted Baker shirt than a plain shirt.
Rare commodities. Rare or difficult-to-get-hold-of items can sell well.
Job lots. If you've little time and heaps of similar items, consider selling them as a bundle – this works especially well with baby clothes. But sell expensive branded goods individually – don't bung Prada in with Primark.

Don't bin it, 'Bay it

Buy first to build your profile and ensure you can sell at a decent price

Before selling your cast-offs on eBay, buy a few small items you need; you can buy everything from tights to toothpaste on eBay and may well save cash to boot

This will give you an insight into how the site works and build up your feedback rating. Few buyers will do business with sellers who have no feedback, and even if they do, it means your item is unlikely to fetch its market value.

The worst mistake you can make is log in for the first time and try to sell a pricey item, such as an iPhone, when you've no feedback.

Spy on what others do to get tips on how to sell your stuff

The joy of eBay is you can see exactly how much other items have sold for and how other sellers have described their wares. Search for the item you want to sell, then on the left-hand grey bar, tick to show only 'sold listings'. You'll be able to see how many bids similar items attracted and how much the winning bids were for.

Spotted a product identical to yours? Click Sell one like this, which automatically fills in a lot of the listing form for you – don't copy descriptions or pictures wholesale from another listing though.

Know your fees and listing costs

eBay charges sellers two fees for basic listings.

Insertion fee. This is the basic fee to list an item – normally a flat 35p per item.
Final value fee. If and when an item sells, you have to pay a flat 10% of the final sale price, including postage. This applies to every item, including those listed for free. The final value fee is capped at £250, ie, you pay 10% on items up to the value of £2,500.
Paypal fees. If the buyer pays by PayPal, it usually takes 3.4% of the total sale price, plus 20p per transaction.

Watch out for special promotions and free listings

Often eBay will offer a certain number of free listings so do check out the details.

Every so often eBay runs promotions where you pay final-value fees at no more than £1 on all items you list over a certain period. The promos usually runs for two or three days, over a weekend. These are a great time to get selling, particularly if you have expensive items you want to shift. For example, if you sold an iPhone for £200, you’d usually pay £20 in final-value fees. With these offers, you’d pay just £1.

The promotions are targeted at individuals, so keep an eye on your emails for updates.

So, ready to get started and see that cash start rolling in? Go for it! Let us know how you get on!

If you want to know more about Liz, you can follow her on Facebook, Linked In or take a look at her website. You can also listen in to our podcast with Liz. Is it worth selling my stuff on Ebay?

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