I have been an eBay seller for the last four years on eBay. During this time, I see the business grows and flop, nasty competitors came and went, eBay policies changed and more changes. I’d like to share with you some tips I’ve learnt along the way on maximizing your success and income level.

1. Never sell single small ticket items. Selling individual small ticket items like a skirt, tshirts, accessories ain’t gonna fetch very much. But you end up doing much more, because you may be packing and sending them to different buyers. You can group multiple related items together in a ‘lot’. Be creative!

2. Know what you are selling. When you are writing the description for you items, include every bit of details that you know and buyers should know. If you are a seller who sells something based on popularity of items, chances are you do not know about the niche much yourself. Try to learn more about your own niche so that you can communicate well. What are the terms used, market price, materials name and so on.

People do feel much more comfortable making a buy when they have all the details and you get lesser emails asking you for more information. And half of the time, buyers are lazy to click the ‘contact’ buttons. They’ll just click the back button or search for another sellers instead.

3. Never sell junk. You can make money selling junk, yes. But may be not a lot. Do you have that many junks that you can list everyday to make a comfortable income? Junks are as good as scrap. Would you do not buy something which is beyond repair, smells, rusty and has less than the value you intend to get? It incurs listings and final value fees from eBay everytime you list something and you need to be honest with your items. Quick bucks just doesn’t work that way.

4. Value your feedbacks. Try to resolve any and every issue before feedback is posted. We never bid or buy anything on eBay before checking on the sellers feedbacks, do we? So, the feedback is truly your reputation, it says who you are as a seller, your services and the quality of your items. Be sure to follow up on feedbacks if they are not what you expected.

5. Research what people are willing to pay. You may thought you have got a fair deal for that bunch of MP4 players for $150 each. But is that what buyers are willing to pay – on eBay?

6. Make full use of your listing title. What are the keywords people used to search for your items, colors, conditions and size? Pretty much what you’ll put in your description but in very much shorter version, that is 55 characters maximum.

7. Time your listings. It is possible for some sellers have 90% items sold in any given day. The secret? Be smart when to start your listings. You can prepare your listings up during the day, even in bulk and schedule them to start automatically in the evening. I found that 6-10pm and lunch time are best for starting your listings. But then, that also depends on your niche market. You have to study what time your niche really log in to eBay for purchases.

8. Take more than one photos. If you are selling an item which is of high value, branded or antiques, you will get faster sale by having multiple photos. eBay do charge extra gallery listings fees for more than one photos, but you can always upload them in some free hosting site. And most of the auction management services comes with free picture hosting. So that’s not really a problem.

Buyers like to see multiples photos like the authentic markings on a piece of Tiffany and Co jewellery, original labels of a pair of Nike shoes, the inside of the LV bag, and so forth. Buyers do love to see as many photos as possible.

9. Use an auction template. Find and save a template that you can use over and over again. Most of the details like payment, terms and conditions are already saved in the template that you can use without writing them again. Saves you time and you keep your listings look more professionally done.

10. Use Paypal. Over 80% of eBay sellers now accept Paypal. Paypal do charge a fee for each transaction, but it’s safe, hassle-free and secure to the buyers.

11. Consider buying items in bulk from reputable wholesaler. Many a full time earners and Power Seller was actually born this way.

Selling on eBay has been a wonderful experience! Over the years, I’ve made many online contacts through buyers who’ve turned into loyal customers and friends.

This could also be your step to a financially independent career. Just like me, it has opened up much more opportunities than I thought.