How to Sell on eBay for Beginners (in 2023)

Chances are, you’ve bought at least a few things on eBay in the past. Maybe you’ve even sold some things from around the house.

But have you ever considered starting a side hustle of buying used items and reselling them on eBay?

If you’re looking for a way to make some extra money in 2023, this is an option that you might want to consider. This beginner’s guide to selling on eBay will give you all the information you need to get started, even if you don’t have an existing eBay account.

Related reading: 150+ Side Hustle Ideas to Make Extra Money in Your Spare Time

A Real-World eBay Seller Success Story

Nathan Clarke, 25 years old, works from his home in Georgia full-time as a systems engineer. In his spare time, Nathan buys used items and resells them on eBay. He started this side hustle because he and his wife are trying to save as much as possible in the pursuit of financial independence, with a goal of $1 million in net worth.

About 11 years ago, Nathan got his first taste of selling on eBay. He said, “I sold my first item on eBay using my mom’s information when I was about 14 or so. Throughout my teens, I used eBay to make money on items I wasn’t using anymore. I got serious about turning eBay into a steady income stream back in April of 2018 and have kept adding items to my inventory ever since.”

What to Sell on eBay?

There are a few different approaches that can be taken with eBay. Some sellers take a general approach and will sell just about any product that gives them the potential to make a profit. Other sellers choose to specialize in a particular niche and try to brand their eBay business.

Nathan takes the general approach. “I will sell just about any item I can make a decent profit. One of the reasons I love selling on eBay is that you can just about sell anything! I sell a lot of clothes and hats and mostly unique vintage items that you wouldn’t think much of. I want to sell smaller items on eBay that aren’t easily broken because it’s less of a hassle to ship.

“The most profitable sale I’ve had so far was some vintage CB radio equipment I got at a yard sale. The people at the yard sale had this box of stuff they were going to throw away and since I seemed interested in weird stuff, they asked me if I wanted it. I ended up profiting over $700 off that box of products that was headed to the dump.”

Finding Items to Sell on eBay

Although Nathan started selling items on eBay from around the house, when he got serious about making more money, he started looking for items to buy and resell.

He said, “Finding the items is my favorite part! I get virtually all my items from thrift stores, yard sales, and estate sales. Auctions and flea markets are other great places to find things, but I haven’t gone to many.

“It’s all about finding the good spots in your area and looking through everything they have. You might walk right past a $500 item if you don’t take the time to look through every nook and cranny.

“I go to Goodwill sometimes, but the thrift stores I like are the small independent shops, usually run by a church. Goodwill has become more and more expensive, but you can still find underpriced items. There are also Goodwill outlets that sell items by the pound. I’ve heard those are good sources but don’t have one near me.

“Since America is so abundant with consumer items, finding a place to source your items is one of the easiest parts of selling on eBay. You can even find products in the trash if you’re willing to look there! You can also check the free section of Craigslist and see what items people are giving away.”

You can create free listings (eBay’s selling fees only come into play when an item sells), so feel free to create a lot of listings to test. There’s no reason not to list a product on eBay.

Selling on Other Platforms like Amazon

Although there are plenty of selling apps, Nathan’s primary focus is eBay. When asked if he sells on other platforms as well, he told me, “The only other platform I sell on is Facebook Marketplace. I sell larger items like refrigerators if I come across them at yard sales for cheap. I’ve have made several hundred dollars doing that. A lot of people have had good results on Etsy, Amazon, and Poshmark, but I like keeping it simple and sticking with eBay. If eBay stops being a place where I can make a profit, I’ll look elsewhere.”

Time Investment and Income

One of the reasons selling on eBay is a great side hustle is because it can be as big or small as you want it to be. You could use eBay simply to declutter and make some money from things you no longer need. Or you could invest a little bit of time each week and make some extra money consistently on eBay. And you could even turn it into a full-time business if you wanted to.

Related reading: How to Make Money by Selling Your Stuff

Nathan sells on eBay as a side hustle, so he is continually looking for items to sell and investing time each week outside of his full-time job. He said, “I haven’t been good about keeping track of the time I spend selling on eBay, but I’d guess somewhere around 5-6 hours a week. The more time you spend, the more money you’re going to make. I feel like I could be doing this full-time if I were to lose my job and start putting in 40 hours a week on my eBay store.”

With the extra effort that Nathan has put in throughout the past year, he’s seen his income from his eBay seller business rise. He said, “I’ve been consistently earning over $500 a month for several months now and that’s profit after all expenses. I’ve made over $1,000 in a month before. People shop less during certain times of the year, so income from eBay varies.”

Spending 5-6 hours per week to make $500 – $1,000 is a very realistic side hustle that could have a huge financial impact for most people. An extra $6,000 – $12,000 per year can be a gamechanger when you’re saving aggressively and trying to increase net worth, like Nathan and his wife are doing.

Although it’s a great side hustle, Nathan actually has bigger things in mind. He told me, “I am trying to scale by simply listing more items. The good thing about it taking a while for some items to sell on eBay is that you can build up an inventory quicker. I might list something, and it takes 3 months to sell. During those 3 months, I’m able to keep listing things, and eventually, I will have a huge inventory where something sells every day.

“I’ve currently got about 450 items listed and want to have close to 1,000 by the end of the year. I think I should be making a couple thousand a month at that point.

“I’ve heard of some people hiring out the parts of eBay they don’t like. If you can pay someone to take all the photos for your listings, that’s a huge time saver! I might hire someone eventually, but it’s just a one-man show for now.”

Related reading: Poshmark vs. eBay vs. Mercari

How to Sell on eBay for Beginners

If this sounds like an opportunity that may be a good fit for you, here are some steps you can follow as a newbie to get started. By following along, you’ll know exactly how to sell on eBay, and you’ll be ready to create your first listing and make your first sale.

Step 1: Create an eBay Business Account and a PayPal Account

If you don’t already have an eBay account, go to eBay.com and click on “register” to create an account so you can sell on eBay.

You’ll have the option of creating a personal account or an eBay business account. If you’re only going to sell an item here or there, a personal account is sufficient. However, if you plan to be listing products on a regular basis, go with a business account.

Once you are logged in, go to the “account” tab. There you will see an option to open a PayPal account or link an existing PayPal account to your eBay account. If you already have a PayPal account set up, simply click on the button to link it to your eBay account and follow the directions. If you don’t have a PayPal account, click on the button to create a new account.

This article from eBay has some good and basic information about using PayPal as a seller on eBay – PayPal – Accepting payments guide for new sellers.

When you’re logged in to eBay, you can click on “seller dashboard” to see all of the options related to selling.

Now it’s time to start selling on eBay!

Step 2: Find Your First Product to Sell

Ok, so now that you have your eBay and PayPal accounts set up, it’s time to find products to sell on eBay.

There are all kinds of products you could sell. Clothes, electronics, and toys are all possibilities. As Nathan mentioned, things that are light and not likely to break in shipment are ideal for eBay.

Step 3: Take Photos

Photos are extremely important to your ability to sell on eBay. You don’t have to be a professional photographer, and you don’t need to hire someone to take the photos for your listing (although that is an option). But you do need to put in some effort to get decent photos so you can sell the item.

A few years ago, when my wife and I were selling on Amazon I got a lot of practice and experience with product photos. The process is the same whether you’re selling on eBay, Amazon, or some other platform.

Natural Light is Best – Photos on your listing will generally look best when they are taken in natural lighting. Most cameras have a flash, and you can also use lightboxes, mini studios, or other types of lighting. Although flash and other lighting are options, the results will usually be better if the photo is taken in good natural lighting.

Flash and other lighting can create glare or hotspots that take away from the photo. If you’re experienced with lighting you can avoid these things, but if you’re reading this section of the article, I assume you are not a lighting pro (I’m not either).

Although natural lighting is best, not all conditions are equal. General, cloudy and overcast days will make it easy to get quality photos for your listing. Bright, sunny days are usually not very good. You don’t want shadows to ruin the photo, and too much sunlight can create some of the same challenges as flash or artificial lights.

For Amazon product photos, I would take the items outside on an overcast day. If there is too much sun you can go to a shaded area to avoid the harshness of the sunlight.

Take Photos from Different Angles – Most products should have multiple photos for the listing. This is especially true with used products where the buyer may be concerned about the condition of the item.

Don’t just take one photo of the front of the product and call it a day.  Take photos from several different angles to show all sides of the product. If it’s relevant, you can also take close-up shots of specific parts or features of the item.

Multiple photos that show everything will give the buyer more confidence.

If the item has some wear and tear, you can also use photos to show these blemishes so buyers can get an accurate understanding of the item’s condition.

Use a Clean Background – In most cases, it’s good to photograph an item on a clean background. You can buy mini photo studios that give a white, black, or another colored background to your items. I have one of these, but to be honest, I usually like the results better without it.

A cheaper option is to use a simple roll of white paper that you can place behind and below the item you’re photographing. The white paper is a good background for items that have some color. Glass or clear items tend to look best on a dark background, so you can use a roll of black paper.

If you’re photographing a larger item, pay attention to things that are in the background. Try to put it next to a wall that will give it a clean, solid background. Make sure that there are no other items, clutter, or junk shown in the photo.

Not every photo needs to be on a solid background. Depending on the item, other backgrounds can work well too. For example, a wood floor can be an ideal background for some products. Other products may work well with a lifestyle photo that shows the item in use.

Crop the Photos, if Needed – After you’ve taken the photo, you may want to crop it so the image is as large as possible. You can use any number of different programs or apps for cropping photos. GIMP is free photo editing software that you can download.

Another option is to outsource photo editing. You can go to Fiverr and find someone who will put your photo on a solid white background or do any other type of editing.

Step 4: Create the Listing

Now it’s time to complete the listing for your product. There are a few basic keys that you should keep in mind to sell on eBay.

• Keywords – Think about the words and phrases people will search for when they want to buy an item like this on eBay. Use the most relevant and most important keywords in your product title and your product listing. More keywords in your product’s description will give it a better chance of being found through a search on eBay.
• Details – Be sure you’re giving enough details in the listing and description to help buyers make an informed decision. The specifics you should include will depend on the product. Still, it could be things like size, age, condition, type of material, color, brand name, and other important details that a buyer might care about when buying online.

Some items will have a lot of different competing listings, and others will have virtually no competition. Nathan said, “A lot of times, I’m the only person with a certain item listed. I’m not afraid to list something and have it sit for several months without selling. When a person comes by that is searching for an item, and I’m the only one who has it, they’re willing to pay a higher price for the item due to scarcity.”

You’ll have the option of listing a “buy in now” price, which is a fixed price if a buyer wants to avoid an auction. Otherwise, the auction uses a starting price and bidders will compete to see who wins.

After the Sale Step 1: Get the Payment

After your item has sold, it’s important to ensure you receive the payment. When the auction ends, the winner will be notified so he or she can make the payment. Of course, eBay also notifies you. Ensure you don’t ship the item until that payment has been made.

After the Sale Step 2: Pack It and Ship It

Next, you’ll need to pack the item you sold on eBay and prepare it to be shipped. Ensure it is packed well and protected, so it does not break or get damaged during the shipment. After it’s shipped, be sure to mark it as shipped in your eBay seller dashboard so the buyer knows that it is on its way.

After the Sale Step 3: Leave Positive Feedback for the Buyer

As the seller, you can leave feedback for the buyer. Assuming there were no issues, leave positive feedback for the customer. Some sellers wait to do this until later, but once the buyer has made the payment, his or her job is basically complete and you can go ahead and leave feedback.

Your seller feedback will be critical to your long-term success on eBay, so it’s good to try to get some positive feedback early on. If the buyer doesn’t leave seller feedback within a few days of receiving the item, you can follow up with an email and ask them to leave feedback.  If you’ve already left positive feedback on eBay for the buyer, you can mention that.

I asked Nathan about the importance of seller feedback. He said, “It’s pretty important to have nearly 100% positive feedback, but anything above 98% is good. There’s always going to be a person or two who leave you negative feedback just because they can. You’re able to get eBay to step in and possibly remove negative feedback if you didn’t do anything wrong.

“You also need to meet certain standards to become a top-rated seller. Top-rated sellers get more exposure in the searches and get a discount on their eBay fees. When I started getting serious about selling, I actually fell below standard for a little while but was able to climb to top-rated within a couple of months.”

Scaling Up to Grow Your Business

After you’ve sold a few products and you have some experience selling on eBay, the next step is to work on scaling up and growing your business. If you want to make money on a consistent basis you’ll need to continually find new items to sell on eBay via auction or buy-it-now pricing.

You can source products for eBay at places like yard sales, thrift shops, flea markets, auctions, estate sales, and Craigslist. Find an approach that works for you and continually buy products that you think are underpriced. You can see our list of the easiest things to flip for profit if you need some ideas.

You’ll also need to decide if you want to take a general approach and sell all different types of items on eBay, or if you want to take a niche-specific approach. A general approach is a little bit easier for beginners because you’re not limiting yourself to certain types of products and it’s easier to find items that are underpriced and easy to sell for a profit.

Tips for Selling on eBay Today

Here are a few specific tips you can put into action to have success with your eBay selling business.

Check Completed eBay Listings for Prices

Above anything else, you must know the value of your item before you can sell it on eBay. Check completed eBay listings to get a feel for the going rate and sale price. With the right price, your listing will get more visibility and will be much more likely to sell.

One of the best and most accurate ways to determine how you should price an item is to check listings that have recently been completed to see what people are actually paying eBay for the same product or very similar products. Thankfully, eBay makes this pretty easy.

To find completed sales, all you need to do is search for the product on eBay, and then use the filter and check the box in the sidebar to show only “completed items”. Now, you’ll see a list of the relevant products that have sold recently, and you can see how much the customer paid. This information is incredibly valuable for sellers who are unsure what an item is worth.

Allow Buyers to Counteroffer

Another way to increase the chances of selling your product on eBay is to allow buyers to make offers. This is a great way to gauge interest in your product and to determine how much people will pay. They’ll tell you exactly what price they are willing to pay.

When you create your eBay listing, be sure to select the “make an offer” checkbox. This will let buyers know that they can make an offer on your product. You might be surprised at how many eBay buyers will submit offers. As the seller, you have the right to accept or reject any offer, so there’s really nothing to lose by allowing this option. If you’re not currently allowing offers, we recommend that you start.

Optimize Your eBay Listings for SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving the visibility of a website or web page in search engine results pages (SERPs). In other words, optimizing your eBay listings for SEO will help them show up higher in relevant search engine results (including searches on eBay and from search engines like Google). This means that more people will see your listing and are more likely to buy your product.

The first step in optimizing your listing is knowing the keywords that potential buyers will use to search for your product. You can look at the titles of other similar products on eBay to see the keywords other sellers are using. You can also use the Google Keyword Planner or the free SEO Surfer Google Chrome extension to see how many people are searching Google for the keyword or phrase.

Once you’ve identified some keywords, be sure to include your most important and most relevant keyword in the eBay listing title. Include any and all keywords that you’re targeting somewhere in the listing description.

Make Sure You Have Great Photos

One of the most important factors for selling on eBay is having great photos. In fact, listings with great photos are much more likely to sell than those with poor-quality or no photos at all.

When you’re taking photos of your product listing, be sure to use good lighting and to take lots of photos from different angles. If possible, use a white background so that the focus is on your product and not on the background. Finally, make sure that your photos are high resolution and uploaded to eBay in .jpg or .png format.

Consider Starting an eBay Store

If you want to make money selling products on eBay, consider starting an eBay store. An eBay store gives you a number of advantages for selling products online.

First, an eBay store gives you a professional-looking storefront where you can list all of your products. This can help increase the trust of potential buyers and may lead to more sales.

Second, eBay store owners receive discounts on fees and other perks.

Third, an eBay store provides you with valuable statistics and data about your online sales. This information can help you better understand what products are selling well and may help you identify new opportunities for selling products on eBay.

Offer Free Shipping

While it’s not 100% necessary, one of the best ways to increase sales on eBay is to offer free shipping. This is because many buyers are reluctant to pay for shipping, especially if the product is small and lightweight. Some buyers will filter the search results to only show eBay product listings with free shipping. Surprisingly, some customers will pay more for products with free shipping just because they feel they’re getting a better value.

When you’re setting your shipping rates, be sure to factor in the cost of shipping materials as well as the cost of shipping. Don’t forget to add in a reasonable profit margin so you can make money from your eBay sales.

Offer Free Returns

Another way to increase sales on eBay is to offer free returns. The customer may be hesitant to buy products online because they’re afraid that they won’t be able to return the product if it’s not what they expected. Listings with free returns encourage the customer to trust the seller knowing they can buy with confidence.

When you offer free returns, you’re essentially removing this risk from the online buying process. This can lead to more sales and may encourage buyers who were on the fence about purchasing your product to finally make a purchase.

Improve Your Feedback Score

Feedback is incredibly important on eBay. This number represents how reputable you are as an eBay seller. Having a high feedback score will give buyers more confidence that they can trust you.

Do whatever you can (within eBay’s terms) to get positive feedback from your customers. Provide excellent customer service and go out of your way to deliver an amazing experience for buyers. It will be worth the effort in the end as you’ll have better feedback scores and people browsing will be more likely to trust you.

Of course, pricing matters when you are trying to sell on eBay, but trust is equally important, if not more important. A customer may be willing to pay a higher price for an item if they expect the seller will provide better customer service. eBay sellers should always reply as soon as possible to any questions or inquiries from shoppers.

Selling from Your eBay Store: Final Thoughts

If you think that selling online may be a good side hustle for you, what are you waiting for? Look around your house, find a few items to sell, and follow the steps in this article to get your account and listing set up.

Selling on eBay is a side hustle that involves learning as you go, and as you learn, you can scale up and start to make more money. We hope this overview of eBay has been helpful so you can start right away.