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Since its launch, eBay has grown rapidly from an online auction site to a powerhouse ecommerce marketplace.
Today, you can find (and sell) practically anything on eBay.
We drill down the ways that you can turn the marketplace into a profitable side hustle.
There are two pathways you can take as a seller on eBay: be an individual “hobbyist” seller or open up an eBay Store as a professional seller.
Both require you to open up an eBay account.
This is available to anyone with a credit card, is free and can be done by hitting the “Register” button on the eBay website.
If all you plan to do is make some money back off old clothes and unwanted presents, then selling as an individual is a more fitting option. It won’t be a side hustle exactly as you probably won’t churn out much of a profit, but it is a nice way to get some extra cash into your pocket.
Selling as an individual
eBay store
The right option for you will depend on the number of listings you have and the main categories you sell in. Use eBay’s fee illustrator to work out whether opening an eBay Store or selling as an individual will help you save on fees.
You can sell virtually anything on eBay, as long as it’s legal and ethically sound. Items you can sell include clothing, electronics, toys, memorabilia and even cars.
Like any good business, sourcing the right products to sell on eBay is key.
If you’re considering selling as a small business or store but aren’t quite sure what to offer, take a look at what’s currently trending on eBay. It’s a good indicator of what customers are currently purchasing.
Another option is to look for gaps in the market – that is, items that have very little competition on eBay. Then consider if it’s a profitable business item for you to sell.
There are four main costs to consider when selling on eBay: subscription fees, insertion (listing) fees, final value fees and PayPal transaction fees. The fees below are accurate as of 30 July 2020.
With all these fees to consider, it’s easy for an item that sells for €50 to return you only €43. I’ve had moments where I’ve dropped the price of my unwanted threads to €0.99 (plus postage) for a quick sale and wound up at a loss due to all the fees. Before you put a price tag on an item, enlist the help of an eBay calculator (there are stacks of apps and online calculators available) to see whether you’re pricing your items suitably.
If you want to open an eBay Store, there are three paid subscription tiers to choose from: Basic, Featured and Anchor.
| Basic Store package | Featured Store package | Anchor Store package | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription fee | €21.73/month | €60.86/month | €391.30/month |
If you’ve run out of free listings or the item you want to sell doesn’t qualify for a free listing, you’ll need to pay an insertion fee. It’ll vary depending on your store subscription, type of product and whether you’re adding a fixed-price or auction-style listing.
A final value fee is charged whenever you sell an item on eBay.
Fees are calculated as a percentage of the total sale price (including postage and handling), but the percentage amount varies depending on your store subscription and the category the item is listed in.
Fee amounts range from 5–8.7% and you can find a full list of the final value fees for different categories on eBay’s site.
Another fee to be wary of is a PayPal transaction fee, which applies to the total sale price (including postage and handling):
Let’s find out what your fees would look like on eBay if you sold a coffee machine for €500 (including shipping costs) to a buyer in the US. For this example, we’ll assume you have a Basic Store package.
You’ll need to consider the following fees:
However, you’ll also need to consider:
Before we get stuck in, here’s a little background about me:
You can set up an eBay Store by following a handful of simple steps:
There are a few factors to consider when working out how to price items on eBay:
After a little trial and error, you should be able to find the perfect price point that represents a decent profit for you and good value for shoppers.
There are a few different ways to accept payment on eBay. The main option is PayPal and you’re required to offer this as a payment method in most listing categories. PayPal allows shoppers to pay you straight from their PayPal account, from their credit card, debit card, with an eBay voucher or gift card.
Other payment options you may choose to accept are:
When you make an international sale and the buyer pays with foreign currency, you’ll need to find a way to convert those funds to euros. While PayPal offers an easy and convenient currency exchange option, it’s not cost-effective – when you want to withdraw funds to your bank account, PayPal converts them to EUR at a rate 2.5% above its base exchange rate.
If you’re a high-volume seller, it might be worth opening an online seller account. These multi-currency accounts allow you to receive payments in multiple currencies, so you can avoid PayPal’s poor exchange rate. You can then hold funds in your account if you need to pay overseas suppliers in their local currency or take advantage of superior exchange rates whenever you want to repatriate to EUR.
Check out the table below for details of the features and fees of a range of online seller accounts.
There are a couple of eBay shipping options available:
Whichever option you choose, make sure to compare quotes from a range of shipping providers to find fast and cost-effective delivery options.
There are multiple ways to promote products on eBay, including:
Something to keep in mind is that some products won’t sell. This is the nature of the marketplace game. Here are a few tips I’ve learned from my time flogging my unwanted wares on eBay.
eBay has a healthy list of services for sellers to help protect them as much as possible in the online selling space. This includes the following:
However, there are a few potential issues every new eBay seller should be aware of:
You can find more info on the pros and cons of eBay in our comparison of selling on Bonanza vs eBay.
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