eBay selling tips

[AndrewZachary]

Hey all, I recently decided to start selling individual cards and some lots on eBay to make space and make some money to buy boxes. Out of 40+ listing so far, I have sold just one card. They are all cards that have sold recently, all under $5. Not only are they not selling, but they aren't getting any views either which tells me I might be listing them wrong. I'm looking for some tips from seasoned eBay selling to move this stuff.

Some questions:
- Any methods to get more views?
- Is it worth the time to post base cards?
- Do scrub autos/gu actually sell?

[Topps Gold Label]

One tip for you: start all of your listings on Sunday night (10 pm EST) and offer free or heavily discounted combined shipping. For low end cards, combined shipping makes all the difference and Sunday night seems to be most popular for bidding.

Good luck ;)

[87sluggo]

Ok! You might think I'm a little out of my mind, but for what it's worth.............


Your cards, if they're not for your personal collection, are WORTHLESS. If you start from that basic principle, that the cards you're trying to sell are nothing more than annoying squares of cardboard that you're willing to sell for a piddling amount in order to buy better little squares of cardboard, then you can sell effectively on eBay.

Three weeks ago I took advantage of Free-Listings week and put 890 singles up for auction, all of them base and inserts of Paul Kariya, Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Roy, Cujo and some really cheap rookie cards. Starting bid was 39 cents, with $3 flat shipping to Canada, $4 to the USA and $6 to Europe, no matter how many someone won.

Remember, all base cards and inserts, from 90/91 to 06/07ish.

I sold 340 of them for $330 minus fees. 99/00 Victory singles, a 91/92 ProSet CC insert, UD MVP singles, better inserts with maybe decent BV but who cares? I don't want them so isn't ANY amount of money better than no money?? Most of them went for the 39 cents but a few sold for $3 or $4 or even $5. Average all of it out and the cards sold for 99 cents apiece :)

The cheap-ish starting price draws attention and the flat shipping draws multiple purchases. What I lose by having to spend $12 to send 55 cards to the Czech Republic I make back from the guys who only buy a couple cards, it all evens out.

I'm not here to get rich from eBay but if I can make a bit of cash by blowing out the stuff that's just taking up valuable space in my room to spend on stuff I actually want, then it's allllllllllll good.

[Powerforward]

You might try Buy It Now; I've read that more items on eBay now are sold through Fixed Price or Buy It Now than regular auction. These are the people who don't want to wait for a 7 day auction to end and would rather have the item right away. Check out completed items to get an idea of what Buy It Now price to use.

One other tip: make sure to write the player's team in the title, to get views from team collectors.

[CincinnatiKelly]

I've found that starting an auction 7-8pm so it ends 7-8pm helps. People are off work, have eaten dinner and are sitting on the couch browsing ebay.

[Drewk86a]

Ok! You might think I'm a little out of my mind, but for what it's worth.............Your cards, if they're not for your personal collection, are WORTHLESS..

Lot of truth in that!

I will list 100 cards (inserts and parallels) and be lucky to sell 4 - 5 of them. Starting price, for me, is always 99 cents and most cards sell for that price. Cards that I thought were tough pulls and sought after have gone with no bids at all!

Sometimes you get lucky. I have had good fortunes selling Red Prizm and Red Pulsar Prizms, but even that market is drying up and 40 - 50% of the Reds do not get bids. I end up putting several together as lots to try and move them.

I agree with 87Sluggo, I know I am not going to make substantial $$ selling on eBay. But the money I do make funds the purchase of the cards that I want!

Player lots are one way you might try. I may see a PC card that I want, but I'll pass on it because the starting price (or shipping price) is too high. If you make it a package deal and I can get 3 or more card for one price, I might jump on that.

Whatever you choose, good luck! If you find something that works for you, be sure to share it with us!

[AndrewZachary]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm not looking to make big bucks, I'm just looking, like Sluggo said, to make some bucks off the cardboard I have no interest in to get some boxes of something I actually want. When I first started collecting not to long ago, I would just bust product aimlessly and now I have a lot of crap taking up space, I'm just trying to move it to get cards I actually want.

I've posted some lots of YG and other inserts, those always get watchers but no bids, same with anything Gretzky/Crosby. I think I have to lower my expectations in terms of my prices.

[87sluggo]

Thanks for the tips guys. Like Sluggo said, all the cards I am selling, I have no interest in keeping and would take any amount for them, but I feel like putting up a game used or auto for a buck is low balling myself. For example, I have a Matt Duchene Game Jersey from the last two years of UD up at $3 each

Yes........but........you're only low-balling yourself at FIRST!

I had almost 400 Paul Kariya cards up for bids, and thankfully on eBay you can reach the world. I had four guys bidding on the cards, 2 of them would only go as far as 39 cents but the other two bid the cards they wanted up. People see a cheap price to start and then they get emotionally invested in winning the card........"Hey, a Duchene jersey for a dollar, cool! Uh oh, someone outbid me, I'll bid it up to $2." Because 2 bucks isn't too bad either right? Etc and son on,

Not every card will go like that in that way. But some will.

[centrehice]

If you sell low-end cards that you don't need for .99cents you will be successful about 12-14% of the time if you are fortunate. If the cards are just complete 3rd line bums, then you will sell about 4% or less.

Now if you start a $4.00-$6.00 card at .50 cents with a BIN at $1.00, you may net as much as 18% sales rate. The rate of sales from 2004-2014 for me is down about 30% or more.

In 2004 with the same logic, I sold at a rate of between 32% and 42% of all my cards listed. Now around 16% consistently.

[sjw241]

when were you trying to sell? I checked your ebay completed items and there werent any. If you can provide an item number I'll have a look at the listing and see if I can give you some pointers.