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eBay is an eCommerce platform that caters mainly to small scale sellers. Founded in 1995, the platform is one of the oldest and largest eCommerce marketplaces in the world with over 187 million active users around the world. Anyone can create an account and start selling their new and used items on eBay. The platform offers multiple options for selling, including Buy It Now and auctions.
Pros
- High user traffic – with over 187 million users worldwide, it is highly likely that you will be able to find a willing buyer for anything you sell.
- No listing fees for small scale sellers – it is free to list on eBay, but there is a $0.35 fee per item if you list more than 250 items per month.
- Promote your listing from as little as 1% – you can choose how much you want to spend on marketing and will only be charged if your item sells.
- Quick processing time for payouts – receive funds in your eBay account within 2 days after the buyer pays. Withdrawals to bank take 1 to 3 days.
Cons
- High seller fees – the fees vary based on category, but for most categories, the fee for each item sold is 12.55% of the final sale price, plus $0.30.
- Negative feedback can worsen sales – just 1 to 2 negative reviews can decrease your sales greatly, even if the problem was not caused by you.
Jump to: Full Review
Compare to Other Sites to Sell Stuff
Decluttr
Over 3 million products sold in 12 months with a year limited warranty
Sell smartphones, tablets, laptops books, watches, video games and Lego
Get a free instant item valuation, ship your item for free and get paid
Swappa
No fees for sellers – buyers pay no fees up $50 items. $5+ thereafter
Sell computers, home tech, cameras, phones, watches, laptops and tablets
Sell your item directly to buyer and get paid the next day via PayPal
How Does eBay Work?
eBay is an online shopping platform that’s best known for its auctions and allows everyone to sell their items – even used goods – to the large, worldwide audience eBay has acquired over the years.
How eBay works is simple. The platform allows you to;
- Create listings: create listings for your items, upload product descriptions and photos, set pricing, and special payment and shipping options.
- Sell Your Stuff Directly: When you sell your stuff through eBay, you’re selling directly to customers. There are no middlemen in the process, meaning you’re the only person responsible for every process related to selling on eBay.
Price your stuff: This means you need to price your stuff yourself, manage customer communications and handle shipping independently.
How Much You Can Earn with eBay?
Who is eBay Best For?
eBay is best for individuals who want to sell real estate, cars, sporting goods, clothing, toys, pet supplies, home decor, entertainment items, and more and earn extra income.
What Can You Sell with eBay?
eBay allows you to sell almost anything, from homemade goods to used or unused items from your closet. The company restricts items that violate any laws, or infringe on intellectual property such as drugs, firearms and other weapons.
eBay Benefits: What Does eBay Offer?
Global Marketplace
eBay serves customers globally. This presents retail sellers to list their products targeted towards multiple nationalities.
Great SEO Benefit
By listing your products on eBay, you’ll enjoy their SEO benefit for your products.
Fixed Price Listing and Auction Listing
eBay allows you to use fixed-price listing if you have a bulk stock of products and benefit a lot from the auction listing while selling on eBay if your stick is limited.
Lower Fees
eBay usually charges 10%, meaning you’ll generally make a bigger profit per sale there. Plus, you can drop your fees even lower by becoming a Top Rated Seller or subscribing to an eBay Store plan.
Shipping Assistance
One of the benefits of selling on eBay is that you can access remarkable savings on shipping, even as high as 52% off. These lower shipping costs will make your listings more attractive to buyers.
By adding videos to your listings, you can engage more with potential buyers, answer most common questions, and showcase your products.
eBay Fees: How Much Does it Cost to Use eBay?
There are 2 types of fees associated with your eBay listing: insertion fee and selling fee.
Both fees vary from product to product, but setting up your first 200 listings per month is typically free. After this threshold, you’re required to pay $0.35 per listing.
On the other hand, you’re charged a selling fee every time your product sells. A selling fee is a percentage of your item’s final value.
Standard selling fee for most categories is 10% (max. $750) of your product price.
Here’s the table of eBay fee rates for each product category:
| Category | Insertion fee | Selling (final value) fee |
| Musical Records Motors Parts & Accessories Automotive Tools & Supplies |
Free for the first 200 listings per month. Then $0.35 per listing. | 10% (max. fee $750) |
| BooksDVDs & Movies Music (except Records category) |
12% (max. fee $750) | |
| Musical Instruments & Gear > Guitars & Basses |
Free | 3.5% (max. fee $350) |
| Select Clothing, Shoes & Accessories categories:Men > Men’s Shoes > Athletic ShoesWomen > Women’s Shoes > Athletic Shoes |
Free if starting price is at least $100 | 0% if selling price is $100 or more10% if selling price is less than $100 |
| Select Business & Industrial categories: Heavy Equipment Parts & Attachments Printing & Graphic Arts > Commercial Printing Presses Restaurant & Food Service > Food Trucks, Trailers & Carts |
$20 | 2% (max. fee $300) |
eBay Payout Terms and Options
After confirming that the buyer’s payment has been received, eBay will send payments directly to your bank account, Monday through Friday. The funds are typically available within 1-3 business days depending on your bank’s normal processing time.
eBay payout options include;
- PayPal – is the easiest option
- Credit or debit card – requires you to open a merchant account through credit card companies
- Payment upon pickup
- PayPal credit
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Bank-to-bank transfers (also known as bank wire transfers and bank cash transfers)
- Checks
- Money orders
- Online payment services (e.g., Escrow.com, Allpay.net, CertaPay, Fiserv, Nochex.com, XOOM)
eBay Reviews: Is eBay Legit?
eBay is a very legit place to sell stuff online. Having a rating of 1.3 on Trustpilot and 3.3 on Sitejabber, most consumers on Sitejabber are generally satisfied with the platforms. Some of the attributes they liked included great customer support and selling through auction-style.
Sellers were also pleased with its customer protection feature. But even with this, most reviewers on Trustpilot think eBay values buyers, more than sellers. Other users were also not happy that eBay restricted their accounts and withheld their money 60 days after. Otherwise, eBay is a legit platform that allows you to sell and make money.
What are the eBay Pros & Cons?
eBay Pros
- A worldwide audience of 182 million active members.
- The platform allows you to list and sell any product you desire.
- Gain new customers for your online store.
- Fairly straightforward to use
eBay Cons
- High seller fees.
- High competition in some niches.
How Good Is eBay Support?
eBay customer support includes customer service, sellers policies, and community where you can get most of the information you need. You can also contact them for any queries.
eBay Review Verdict: Is eBay Worth it?
eBay is an eCommerce platform that caters mainly to small scale sellers. Founded in 1995, the platform is one of the oldest and largest eCommerce marketplaces in the world with over 187 million active users around the world.
Anyone can create an account and start selling their new and used items on eBay. The platform offers multiple options for selling, including Buy It Now and auctions.
eBay Selling Format
When eBay was founded in 1995, it was purely offering only auction-style selling. Later on, the platform incorporated the second selling format – fixed-price listings.
Nowadays, you can choose the best selling format for yourself and sell your item either at an auction or for a fixed price.
Let’s review how each of these formats work.
Fixed-price Listing
Fixed-price listings are also known as the “Buy It Now” format of selling. This allows you to set the fixed price for your item, enabling the shoppers to know the exact price up front and buy it immediately.
This format of selling is efficient and convenient because there’s no waiting for an auction to end.
Auction-style Selling
Auctions are usually open for a specified number of days.
When you list your items on an auction, you’re opening a bid, i.e. setting the starting price. The buyers can bid up from the opening price within the auction time frame and when the auction comes to an end, the highest bidder wins and gets your product.
Auction-style sales usually work great for unique items, antiques, or collectibles. These categories typically have passionate fans that are ready to bid up the pricing and don’t mind paying more to win the competition and get the desired item.
Pro tip: set the lowest price you’re willing to accept for the item as the starting bid. This way, you’ll ensure you’re getting fair value for your item.
How to Sell Stuff on eBay
Step 1 – Find Your Product
Finding what to sell is obviously the first step to start selling online. Whether you’re selling something you own or want to produce items for sale, you need to do the thinking and choose the product first.
Step 2 – Create Listing
After you have a product to sell, it’s time to create an eBay listing. Creating an eBay listing is a straightforward process.
No matter if you want to participate in an auction or sell your item for a fixed price, you need to upload images and descriptions for your item. Don’t forget to indicate shipping costs and times in your listing as well.
Just go to eBay.com/sell to start creating your first listing.
Step 3 – Ship Your Item
Once you receive an order you should ship your item to the buyer.
Here are all the steps you should take:
- Pack your item – safety is important, so make sure you secure the box with the tape and use bubble packaging, packing peanuts or newspapers to pack delicate items.
- Print your shipping label – you can find discounted shipping labels in your eBay account.
- Ship it – just hand your package to the mail carrier or drop it to the post office.
Step 4 – Get Paid
eBay stores your funds in escrow until the buyer receives your item. And they will release your money after the delivery is confirmed either by the shipping company or the buyer.
eBay Seller Protection
Selling on eBay, you’re protected by policies, transaction monitoring, and data systems allowing you to sell with confidence.
Here’s how eBay seller protection works:
- Report a buyer if he/she violated a buying practices policy
- The eBay Resolution Center is an easy and secure way to solve problems with eBay transactions. eBay can step in to help even when you’re just communicating with your problematic client.
- The Unpaid Item Assistant helps you resolve unpaid item cases and make sure you’ll get paid for sure.
- Automatic Defect Removal corrects your transaction records in case they get beyond your control.
How to Sign Up with eBay?
You can sign up for eBay using Facebook, Google, and Apple.
How to Sign up Using Facebook
- Go to the Registration page
- Choose to Continue with Facebook.
- Sign in to your Facebook account.
- Allow eBay to access your public profile and email address.
- Confirm the email address you want to use for your eBay account.
- Select Create account.
How To Sign Up Using Apple
- Go to the registration page, select Continue with Apple.
- Enter your Apple ID and then select the arrow.
- Enter the password for your Apple account and then select the arrow.
- Select Allow in the pop-up.
- Enter the 6-digit Apple Verification code sent to your Apple device.
- Select Trust this browser.
- Select Continue.
How To Sign Up Using Google
- Go to the Registration page
- Choose to Continue with Google.
- Sign in to your Facebook account.
- Allow eBay to access your public profile and email address.
- Confirm the email address you want to use for your eBay account.
- Select Create account.
Sites Like eBay
| eBay | Decluttr | Swappa | |
| Items Sold | Almost all items include real estate, cars, and household goods. | cell phones, tech, CDs, DVDs, games, and books | Sell computers, home tech, cameras, phones, watches, laptops and tablet |
| Selling Process | Sell directly to the buyers | Get instant valuation item valuation | Sell directly to the buyers |
| Fees | Listing and selling fees depending on the item | Non | Non |
eBay vs. Decluttr
Decluttr Summary
- Next-day payment upon delivery of goods
- Get the best prices for your used tech
- 2 different payment options available
- Get extra cash if you are a student
Decluttr is an app that allows you to price and sell almost anything, including books, games, electronics. Like eBay, Decluttr allows you to price our items and sell them directly to the customers. While Decluttr mainly deals with used electronics and other media stuff, eBay allows you to sell anything, including real estate, cars, sporting goods, clothing, toys, pet supplies, home decor, entertainment items.
More so, you can list your items on Decluttr free of charge compared to eBay that charges insertion fees $0.35 per listing and selling fee of 10%. Overall, eBay can be a better option for sellers because of its market share.
eBay vs. Swappa
Swappa Summary
- No fees to list and sell your products
- Optional featured listing for just $5
- 2 days to ship the item after getting paid
- Instant payments via PayPal
Like eBay, Swappa allows you to create a listing and wait for the customers. Both platforms also submit the payment as soon as the buyer pays and pays through PayPal.
While Swappa is a website that allows you to sell cell phones, laptops, watches, tablets, video games, cameras, and smart home devices,eBay can sell anything. In terms of signing up and listing, Swappa is free, while eBay charges both insertion and selling fees based on different items.
eBay vs. Craigslist
Craigslist Summary
- Posts are anonymous
- Quick and easy listing in a matter of minutes
- Little to no seller fees, most auctions are free
- Sell within your local area
Craigslist is a classic alternative to eBay when it comes to selling used stuff. However, eBay offers more advanced services, including secure payment processing and customer service. On Craigslist, you cannot set up an auction, nor can you communicate with your buyer or turn to customer service to assist you to resolve a problematic case.
eBay vs. Listia
Listia is the biggest alternative to eBay when it comes to selling your items on an auction. Just like eBay auctions, Listia allows you to easily set up your auction listings and give shoppers an opportunity to offer their bids. Although Listia offers a lower selling fee than eBay (a fee of 3.5% vs. 10%), eBay can boast a larger audience – 182 million users worldwide while Listia has 10 million.
eBay vs. Amazon
While both eBay and Amazon are the world’s largest marketplaces, there’s a huge difference when it comes to selling your products on each platform. The biggest downside of selling your items on Amazon is that Amazon itself competes with third-party sellers like you.
Amazon has its own products, which most of the time outperform the products sold by independent sellers. And it’s logical, people ultimately trust Amazon.
On the other hand, eBay doesn’t compete with you and also lets you sell literally anything, whether it’s your private label, collectibles or used items. Overall, both platforms allow you to sell stuff online.
Other Sites Like eBay
eBay FAQ
What is eBay?
What’s the best way to ship an item on eBay?
While eBay provides recommendations, you can choose a preferred shipping carrier.
How can I choose my listing price on eBay?
eBay provides recommendations based on recently sold, similar items for most prices. How you price your item can depend on how you prefer to sell it. To create interest, choose a lower starting price for auctions.
What should you avoid on eBay?
While using eBay, you need to avoid counterfeit goods, payments outside eBay, and fake customer service, among more.
What are the top-selling categories on eBay?
The top-selling categories include jewelry, home and garden, clothing, cameras, photos, shoes, and other accessories.
Does eBay protect the seller?
eBay protects all sellers from abusive buying behavior and events outside their control. However, you must deliver on your service promise and provide a good buying experience for the platform to support you.
eBay for Business on Social media allows you to Get connected and stay in the know with daily updates, inspiration, and guidance on Facebook.
