I have sold things on Craiglists before but a friend of mine told me to sell on Ebay and that I could possibly make more money that way because it reaches out to people everywhere. I have also been told that Ebay can be a waste cause it eats away your money by how many things you post on there.....and that you have to give them a percentage on what you make? I havent dont my homework and just wanted to get your thoughts.
your better off running them at a buy now price. at christmas stuff should sell. its hit and miss some months I don't do real well and other months I do way better than I ever expected. I have 151 listed right now at one point had 250 listed.
While you do PAY to list items based upon asking price, you stand to make more per item, especially high end stuff--IME, that's not what people are looking for on craigslist.....
If you're looking to sell handmade or vintage items, (over 20 years old) you might consider Etsy. Listing fee is only $0.20 per item.
What are you thinking about selling? The economy is not yet back up to true impulse-buying standards. But some things seem to sell well. When it comes to clothing, I really like to know what I'm getting, so on eBay I only look at brand names I have some experience with. I think that's the case with many people.
On the other hand, I like eBay very much! I buy and sell, and although business is as slow as a hibernating turtle right now, it's rather fun to be mailing things all over the world! There are charges for listing and selling (as well as for using PayPal), but they don't really amount to much in the long run. Get on the site and read slowly and carefully through all the instructions and all the fine print.
You want to be sure what you want to sell on eBay is worth listing. I double-check against the same items that are already listed - that is, if I have an old book I'd like to sell, I check the title on the site right now. If it isn't selling for anyone else, it's not likely to sell for me. If there are too many copies of that book listed, my copy is probably not going to get much attention unless I can ask a v-e-r-y low minimum bid. If I didn't pay anything for the book - say, if I found it in the basement - it might be worth a try. But I don't want to earn less money than I have to pay in fees.
Craigslist is best, I think, for items that are hard to ship. My son and his wife use Craigslist to find furniture and other big items; they also just bought a second-hand Wii game for their family (shh - don't tell!) as a Christmas surprise. They were able to drive over to the seller's, look at it, and check it all out first, so it was a good transaction for them.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems! Have fun doing your homework!
Huge ebay buyer/seller here ... generally you'll make more on Ebay. I've sold tons of kids stuff on Craigslist (I really only sell high-end clothing on Ebay) and people want it for dirt cheap prices. I'm okay w/ that because mailing children's toys is pricey and a pain. What are you selling? If you are selling kid's clothing, a word to the wise: higher-end name brands do best (such as Gymboree, Baby Gap, Baby LuLu, Cake Walk, Mimi & Maggie -- you get the picture). Even some of the darling things that I've listed, in excellent condition, sometimes don't sell and then I've spent time photographing, listing, etc. plus spending money listing it.
Also, Ebay revamped their listing fees and it's pretty cheap to list something. I'm selling some clothing from Anthropologie and w/ two pics it was only 40 cents to post it. But then they do take a percentage of your proceeds. For instance, I just sold $230 worth of clothing items last week and my Ebay bill afterward was $20 -- just to give you an idea.
Have fun!
I've had much more success on ebay than on Craigslist. The few things I've posted on ebay sold pretty quickly - often for more than I thought they would go for (not every time). But I've never been able to sell even one thing on Craigslist - and I live in the metro NY area - so it's not as if it's a rural community with few buyers. Personally I've also found ebay to be a more pleasant buying experience - it's more user friendly, better visual page arrangement, etc.
Try it for a few things and see what your experiences are.
I like ebay I think it's good for sell, For example I sold a car for 600.00 with 20 pictures it ran for 1 week. My ad fees plus their take was a total of 60.00 dollars. I tried running a ad online and the local paper-nobody called. And like everyone has said you reach alot more people with ebay!
