Ebay Newbie Wants Sales Advice

Q: I've been told to use EBay to sell my handcrafted beaded jewelry. I'd like to avoid the pitfalls of the uninitiated seller. Can someone recommend a good source of advice for me before I begin setting up auctions? What about an Ebay store? I'm a website designer so I can probably create some nice pages, but I don't want to waste my time/resources on something that won't get good results. I already have a PayPal account. Should I also get a merchant account with my bank?

A:I see a lot of items that I know had to have taken days to make, with high quality materials, selling for a few bucks, certainly not what it's worth. The exception to handcrafted items not selling are those who have spent the time and money to build a following on Ebay. I've sold hand made beaded jewelry along with a range of polymer clay items on Ebay on and off for years. I've finally gotten serious about it this year. I opened an Ebay store about a month ago. I've almost got it stocked to the max of my budget and I run weekly auctions to lure people to the store. My budget is $50 a month for Ebay fees. In the month I've had the store I've sold one item, and that was from auction, not the store. But I'm not worried. I can't sell if I'm not out there to be seen and given the state of the world lately, I'm not surprised I didn't sell anything. I'm going to stick with it, keep my store open and run the weekly auctions whether I sell anything or not. It's the only way I know of to build a following. As long as I keep a careful eye on my budget, it doesn't matter if I sell or not. And eventually, as I start to make money, I can raise that budget and add more items. If you decide to go the store route, check out the ebay store message board on Ebay. It's full of ideas of how to promote your store within your auctions.

Discuss It!

Most Popular Articles

More