Guest Post - This Mama Works It! Talks Children's Clothes

Today I am featuring a guest post by Tammy from This Mama Works It. She has been a seller on eBay since 2005. Her specialty is selling kids clothes, specifically name brands such as Gymboree and Gap. Her blog offers advice on purchasing name brand kids clothes cheap and then how to successfully sell them on eBay and other online venues. Her post today will talk about what she wished someone told her, when she first started selling on eBay.


Back when I started selling on eBay in 2005 I thought all I needed to do was purchase items on sale, list it on eBay, then just collect payment. I thought it was easy. Well I was wrong. I made a lot of mistakes and lost money when I started out because I was completely backwards in my thinking when it came to selling. And now looking back I really wish people (not sure who those people are) would have told me these 5 things.

1. Do lots of research and educated yourself before jumping in head first. It wasn't until I was losing money and totally confused that I actually went out and bought a couple eBay books and started looking up more information on the Internet. Now there is a lot of junk and "get rich quick" crap out there so you need to be careful. But there are some good resources as well. I have started to compile a list of legit resources that I think are very helpful for new and seasoned eBay sellers. I look at selling on eBay like starting a new job. I could have saved myself a lot of stress and tears if I would have just taken a little time and money to educate myself. My motto is "An Educated Seller is a Power Seller!"

2. Just because it is on sale does not mean you will make money. When I first started out I bought anything (child related) that was on sale. I had no idea if I was getting a good price or what the market was for it on eBay. I just saw it on sale and bought it. My advice again goes back to research. Research items on eBay before you invest in inventory. I talk about researching items a little bit more in this post.

3. For the love of Pete get a postage scale! Sometimes I feel like a broken record with this but it is so important. For the first year of selling on eBay I did not have a postage scale.I lost so much money because I did not calculate shipping charges correctly. Even if you do not sell on regular basis it is still in your best interest to take $20 and get a scale. You can purchase them right off eBay.

4. Pictures do matter. Again, this is an area I did not take seriously and I paid for it. I would not make the time to take professional looking pictures. Well one day, after I finally started educating myself, I realized my pictures were awful and affecting my sales. I went out bought a white and black trifold for $15 and learned to use a free photo editing program and poof I had professional looking pictures. It made a huge difference!

5. Make it a priority to advertise your eBay items on non-eBay sites. I am embarrassed to say that this notion really just clicked with me within the last year. Learn to use social networking to your advantage. Also join forums, groups, communities where your customers hang out. Of course you don't want to be spammy but it will boost your sales so much if you become a part of the community you want to sell to. Make sense? Honestly, the topic of advertising is so in-depth. This is just scratching the surface. I will be talking much more about it on my blog in the future.

These are the 5 top things I wish someone told me when I started selling on eBay. I hope these tips help you avoid some common mistakes made by new sellers. Good luck and thank you Elisa for having me guest post today.