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I wish I knew this before I started selling on ebay — Transcript

by The Aussie Flipper · 4,453 words · 596 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00So, I've been selling on eBay for almost
0:025 years, and if I could go back and
0:03speak to my beginner self and give them
0:05some advice on how to improve their eBay
0:07business quickly, this is what I would
0:09say. Lesson number one, a couple of
0:10years ago, I went out and bought a
0:12massive private pick. So much so that
0:14when I brought it back to the house, I
0:16was just completely overwhelmed by how
0:18much stuff that I had bought. And I
0:20actually didn't list anything up for a
0:21couple of days. I sat back and looked at
0:23everything and I thought, geez, where do
0:25I actually begin? It was at that very
0:27moment that I set myself a golden rule.
0:29It was the 48 hour rule. So basically
0:32for myself, if I was to buy anything out
0:34in a thrift store, flea market, or
0:35garage sale, I would have to go and list
0:37up those items within a 48 hour window
0:40of having purchased it. If I didn't get
0:42it done within 48 hours, I was to ban
0:45myself from sourcing until I was able to
0:47draft up the listings that I bought from
0:49the previous hall. This actually sped up
0:51the process in me being able to get
0:52things listed and live onto eBay. It
0:55allowed me to make more money and
0:56obviously getting sales to come through
0:58and it meant that I was able to not be
0:59stressed and overwhelmed by buying too
1:02much and creating horrible death piles.
1:04Lesson number two, I used to think that
1:06if I was to list more, I would sell
1:08more. And to a degree, I was kind of
1:10right. But what I found was I was
1:12ultimately spinning my wheels because I
1:14was going out and buying anything and
1:16then feeling like if I was to play a
1:17volume game, that would generate a
1:19volume return of sales. Now,
1:21unfortunately, it wasn't as profitable
1:22as it could have been because I was
1:24wasting so much money of that profit
1:26that I was making by sinking it into
1:28stock that I should just never have been
1:30purchasing. So, for lesson number two,
1:32when you're out there sourcing, just
1:33really stick to quality items only and
1:36just say no to the bad stuff. Say no to
1:37that slow selling bread and butter stuff
1:40because it's the quality items that
1:42actually turn over the money for you.
1:43Lesson number three. A couple of months
1:45ago, I had the opportunity to buy a
1:47large amount of Pokémon cards, but I
1:49didn't have the cash flow to be able to
1:51go ahead and spend the thousands of
1:53dollars that this haul was actually
1:55worth. The seller that was selling it to
1:56me, they knew how much the item was
1:58worth as well, and we were really just
2:00caught at a loggerhead. We didn't know
2:01what to do from here. She wanted to
2:03sell. I wanted to buy, but I didn't have
2:06the cash to do it. We came up with the
2:07agreement of consignment. And for lesson
2:09number three, when you've got a really,
2:11really expensive item that you're not
2:12sure how to go about purchasing, always
2:14opt for consignment. What I like to do
2:16on the deal is a 50/50 split of the
2:19profits. I'll take the item at zero
2:20cost. I will list the item up and then
2:22when the item goes on to sell, I will
2:24split the profits 50/50 with the
2:26original owner of the item. Now, if
2:28you're wanting to build the relationship
2:30and continue on this relationship, I
2:31think 50/50 is a fair number. If you're
2:33doing it as a bit of a one-off, you can
2:35push it to a 70% share in your favor and
2:38a 30% share in the original owners. But
2:40consignment is a great way to go about
2:42sourcing stock that is incredibly
2:43expensive. Uh you don't need to
2:45obviously put the money down to get your
2:47hands on it. Lesson number four, I was
2:49on the phone the other day to one of my
2:50mentoring clients and I asked them to
2:52show me their analytics and they jumped
2:55on to eBay and they showed me what they
2:56had and there was no seller hub. they
2:58didn't access the seller hub and they
3:00had never um I said to them that this
3:02was very easy to do and I showed them
3:04the process of going up to the help bar
3:06clicking on help and then searching up
3:08seller hub and then enabling the seller
3:10hub for their account. You don't need a
3:12business account for this. This can be
3:13done on the personal account as well.
3:15Unfortunately, when you do sign up
3:17initially, eBay doesn't just give you
3:18the seller hub. You do need to enable
3:20it. It's a very simple process and it
3:22unlocks all of the analytics required to
3:24understand your business numbers. So,
3:26it's a very simple step. Lesson number
3:28four, access your seller hub. You'll be
3:30amazed at what you'll see. Lesson number
3:32five, for the longest time, I have
3:34always scheduled my listings with a
3:35certain time and day. So, it's always
3:37been the next day at 9:00 a.m. This was
3:39until I went away on a 5-day holiday,
3:42and I realized that my sales were
3:43starting to plummet. I wasn't getting
3:45the natural turnover of sales like I
3:47normally would. And I thought to myself,
3:48why would this potentially be? And I
3:50realized that it was actually the save
3:52for later button that I should have been
3:54selecting to draft up my listing. There
3:56is a slightly extra step to this. On the
3:58particular day that you want your
4:00listing to go live, you do need to
4:01manually go into your draft bank and
4:03physically hit list now on the items
4:06that you want to go live that day. But
4:08in the eyes of the eBay algorithm, for
4:10some reason, it still generates you
4:12great return in sales for that
4:14particular day. So for lesson number
4:16five, no longer select that scheduled
4:18button. Always click save for later.
4:21Lesson number six. Why is LeBron James
4:24considered the best basketball player in
4:26the world? It wouldn't be all based
4:28around his very first game of
4:30basketball, would it? Because he didn't
4:32perform very well. And you couldn't
4:33really say that over the next 20 to 30
4:35years he was going to turn into being
4:37the best basketball player to ever
4:38exist. We need to think about this in
4:40the terms of an eBay seller as well. We
4:42can't look at things in days or hours
4:45like we often do when we start an eBay
4:47business. We need to think in months and
4:49years. What's it going to look like if
4:51you consistently listed for the next 5
4:53years straight by closing your eyes and
4:55just sticking to a game plan? You would
4:57be amazed. You could potentially be the
4:59LeBron James of eBay. Lesson number
5:01seven. I was always so baffled when I
5:03first started selling on eBay. I I
5:05noticed that in their in the listings,
5:07you would look at the photos and you
5:08would see these gray panels down the
5:10sides of the photos. And then in other
5:12photos, you would see really nicely laid
5:14out squared images of the product. And I
5:16thought to myself, "These look so much
5:18better than the gray panels. How is
5:20this? So, and I realized that it was the
5:22sellers with the square boxes that were
5:24putting their camera on a 1x one aspect
5:26ratio. This would immediately produce a
5:29square shaped photo when you go ahead
5:31and put it up onto eBay. So, a very
5:34slight change, a very simple change, but
5:36it had a dramatic effect in the cover
5:38photo on eBay. So, for lesson number
5:40seven, turn your camera on the aspect
5:42ratio of one by one. It'll improve your
5:45photos like crazy. Lesson number eight.
5:47I was at an eBay event a couple of years
5:49ago and I I vividly remember them saying
5:52that 70% of eBay sales over the last
5:55quarter have been generated from
5:57listings that have free postage. And for
6:00lesson number nine, free postage does
6:02not mean free postage. This is one of
6:05the biggest questions that I get asked
6:07as a YouTube eBay seller. And they'll
6:09say to me, Matt, why are you sacrificing
6:11profit by having free postage as your
6:14setup for postage payment? And I say to
6:16them always, and I'm out of breath by
6:18the time I keep speaking about it
6:19because I have to say it so much. It's
6:21not free postage. It's purely a
6:24marketing tactic. And a really great
6:26example of it is a $50 product. If I
6:28sell a $50 product for $50, that could
6:30be marketed in two ways. It could be $50
6:33free postage or it could be $40 plus $10
6:37worth of postage. So once you get your
6:39head around that example and that
6:41understanding, you'll see that whether
6:43or not you choose to list it for a
6:44postage charge or choose to list it with
6:46free postage, at the end of the day, it
6:48means the exact same thing. But in the
6:51eyes of eBay and eBay's data that
6:53they're giving us as sellers, 70% of
6:56global sales, and we're talking millions
6:57of sales, are coming through with the
7:00free postage offering. So as soon as I
7:02heard that, I've been free postage ever
7:04since, and my sales have been looking
7:06great. Lesson number 10. I've always
7:08been daunted by the private pick. Reason
7:11being is because I'm buying a lot of
7:13things and I'm also spending a lot of
7:14money. But how is this going to be
7:16eventually a profitable exercise?
7:18Because every single item I buy and add
7:20to my pile in these situations, it's
7:22always going to be a really stressful
7:23experience to know exactly whether or
7:25not you got a good deal or not. Even
7:27more so when I turn the camera on and
7:29I'm telling millions of people what I'm
7:30up to as well. So, what I want to be
7:32doing is I want to be making sure that
7:33I'm tripling my money. So, if I'm buying
7:35something for $100, I want that product
7:38in my mind to at least be selling for
7:40$300 on eBay. Now, the same goes for
7:42when you're buying big bulk deals. If
7:44you spend $1,000 on product, in my mind,
7:47I would want that to at least go on to
7:49sell for $3,000 on eBay. Reason being is
7:52you've got to take out those extra fees.
7:54You got to take out the postage card uh
7:56charge, and you've also got to take out
7:57that initial investment of $1,000. By
8:00the end of that, you've typically
8:01doubled your money or very close to
8:03doubled your money worth of profit. And
8:05I think that's a nice place to start. If
8:07you can four, five, six, 7x times your
8:10investment on a purchase, well, even
8:12better. But I always like to triple my
8:14money. Lesson number 11. My return rate
8:16on eBay after 5 years of selling on the
8:19platform is 0.98%.
8:22Now, even when you're first starting
8:24out, what you'll come to realize over
8:25time is that the return is always a very
8:28nasty experience that we don't want to
8:30have. But by turning returns off, we're
8:32actually doing oursel a disservice as a
8:35seller because we're losing the
8:36opportunity to generate as many sales as
8:38we possibly could be if we're giving the
8:40buyer the confidence to say that, hey,
8:42if there's a problem with this item, I'm
8:44as a seller going to pay for the postage
8:46for you to send it back to me and we're
8:47going to be all good. I'll send you a
8:49full refund. Now, that only happens
8:510.98% of the time, but I get a ton of
8:54sales because I offer it. So, the net
8:56result is a really great return in your
8:58pocket for offering the returns. So, for
9:00lesson number, what are we? 11. Make
9:03sure your returns are on. Lesson number
9:0512. Did you know that there is an
9:07opportunity for you to be able to
9:08customize the overview page and your
9:11active listings page on the eBay seller
9:13hub? Remember how we were saying that we
9:15could enable the eBay seller hub? Well,
9:17once you've done that, you can actually
9:18tinker with the layout. And I've done it
9:20where I only have six squares that are
9:21showing on my overview page. And all of
9:24the other useless information like
9:25advertising spends and promotional
9:27offers that eBay like to give you. All
9:29of that to me is just clutter and it
9:31doesn't need to be in the eBay overview
9:32page. Um, so I go ahead and I click the
9:34customized table and I toggle off all of
9:37the necessary ones that I don't want to
9:39be seeing. And then I get a nice clean
9:40look at just the six core pieces of
9:43information that show me all of the
9:45necessary information for my eBay
9:46business. I do the same on the active
9:48listings tab and I get rid of that
9:50clutter and I simplify the game when it
9:52comes to looking at the data. Lesson
9:54number 13. If I asked you this question,
9:56are you profitable on eBay? Could you,
9:59and you don't have to say yes or no in
10:00the comments, but could you say whether
10:02you are or you aren't? Do you actually
10:05know what your bottom line is? I've
10:07always believed in tracking your
10:09finances even from day one when you're
10:11very first starting out. And over time,
10:13we've been able to build a piece of
10:15software that actually alleviates the
10:17stress of this. There's just a template
10:18which we call Flipped it. And you can
10:20add in all of your information, and what
10:22it does is it tracks your actual profit.
10:24So, eBay will show you all of your sales
10:26volume, but Flipped it actually shows
10:27you what your profit is. It takes into
10:29consideration everything, all of your
10:31eBay expenses, including the death pile,
10:33all of that stock that you bought in
10:35that big haul that you got overwhelmed
10:36about that we were speaking of earlier.
10:38Well, that's represented in Flipped It
10:40as well. So, for lesson number 13, I
10:42really think you guys should be checking
10:44out the Flip It app. We've got it up for
10:45grabs. It is linked in the description
10:47below. Lesson number 14. Researching
10:50items to sell on eBay can actually be a
10:53pretty stressful and tricky old time,
10:55but there is actually a really nice and
10:57easy way to go ahead and customize your
10:59filters on the eBay app. So, you can get
11:01a really nice, easy representation of
11:03the product that you're searching up.
11:05The the way that I like to do this is I
11:07click on filter and I scroll all the way
11:08down to the button that says customize.
11:10And then from there I'm searching via
11:12the highest price first so I can get a
11:14good look at the comps on what the most
11:16expensive item is when I go to search
11:18it. The lockable filter allows you to
11:20get this search every single time you
11:22type something into the search bar. The
11:24other two things that I like to filter
11:26out is one obviously solds but two
11:29condition and three is item location
11:31within my own country. Once I've
11:33filtered out and locked those settings
11:35in place, researching becomes a breeze.
11:38So, for lesson number 14, customize your
11:40filters on the eBay app. Lesson number
11:4215. I used to be so scared to get on my
11:45mobile phone in a thrift store and think
11:47that every single eye suddenly turned on
11:50me. I had that feeling when I first
11:52started out. Over time, I didn't get as
11:54stressed about it because I realized
11:55that, hold on a minute, people actually
11:57don't really care. When I go into a
11:58thrift store and I see somebody on their
12:00phone, do I think anything of it? No.
12:03So, the chances are they're not thinking
12:04of it or anything either. So, if you've
12:06got these filters locked out on your
12:08phone, you can actually go in there and
12:09pretty quickly search up for something.
12:11And that is the secret, not buying just
12:13because it's cheap, actually spending
12:15time in these locations with your eBay
12:17app and the e-profit calculator to go
12:19ahead and do your research on the items
12:21before you go ahead and buy them. Now,
12:23sell through rate and average sale price
12:25are two of the most important things for
12:27your research. I've created an ebook for
12:29you guys that really explains all of
12:31that. It's totally free. It's linked in
12:33the description and I think it's going
12:34to help the newbies out there a lot.
12:37Lesson number 16. Here's something else
12:39that you can grab for free that's going
12:40to help you when you're outsourcing in
12:42the thrift stores. It is the e- profofit
12:44calculator that I alluded to in the
12:45previous lesson. This is a great tool
12:47for you to type in your postage cost,
12:49your buy price, and what you think the
12:50item can go on to sell for. And then
12:52this app, this free app that you can
12:54download will give you all of the
12:56removal of the eBay fees, and it will
12:57give you your complete net profit
12:59expectation. So you can go to the
13:01checkout, you can go ahead and say,
13:02"Yeah, I'll buy this item for whatever
13:04it is because I know that I've done the
13:06research to see it sell through really
13:07well and also for a price that I'm going
13:09to be able to profit on." So for lesson
13:11number 16, grab the e-profit calculator.
13:13You'll thank me later. Lesson number 17,
13:16I was at the flea market, I reckon about
13:182 or 3 years ago, and I saw this Batman
13:19figure. I'll vividly remember this
13:21story. I saw this Batman figure, and I
13:23said to him, I said, "Would you take 50
13:24bucks for it?" And he instantly said,
13:26"Yes, absolutely." Now, I knew that this
13:28item, the reason why I said $50 was
13:30because it was worth $200. It was a $200
13:32figure. I was going to be stoked to grab
13:34it for 50 bucks. But what I was shocked
13:36about was that he said to me after I'd
13:38bought it, he goes, "Can I ask why you
13:40wanted to pay $50 for this item?"
13:41Because I'm trying to sell it here for
13:43$10. I'm just curious. Is it a really
13:46rare item that I didn't know about? And
13:48I just died. I'm just thought to myself,
13:50my god, I've just lost $40 more than I
13:52needed to spend. So, for lesson number
13:5417, I want you guys to be asking the
13:56vendors for their price first. Because
13:59in that situation, when you get their
14:01price, it could be a great result, like
14:03a $10 action Batman action figure, or it
14:06could be $150 in that example, and you
14:09step away because, you know, it's only
14:10worth $200 and there's no opportunity
14:13for for profit. So, a huge lesson that I
14:15picked up a while back and I've never
14:17set my price. I've always asked the
14:19vendor for theirs. Lesson number 18.
14:22Look, I like to think that I'm Iron Man
14:23and I don't get the flu and I can punch
14:25through every single day of the week and
14:27I love to work. So maybe I'll just spend
14:29all of my time doing that and I won't
14:31have any worries. But a couple of weeks
14:33ago, I got the flu and I was knocked out
14:35with the man flu of all things as well.
14:37I was a big crybaby and Kate, my
14:39girlfriend, knew it. Um, but I basically
14:41said to myself, I am really, really
14:43fortunate that I have a draft bank of
14:45listings that can go live while I'm in
14:47bed being a sukie crybaby. So, she said
14:50to me, "Look, don't work on eBay today.
14:52Just put your draft listings live and
14:53that's actually all you need to worry
14:55about, apart from anything that goes on
14:57to sell." So, for lesson number 18, I
14:59think that's a really crucial one to
15:00have a draft bank that's built out. I
15:02always love to cap it at 2 weeks. If
15:04I've got a 14-day draft bank worth of
15:07active listings to go live, I could go
15:09away on holiday. I could be sick again.
15:11It doesn't really matter. You've
15:12obviously got the time up your sleeve.
15:14So, never be stressed and be on the
15:15hamster wheel of day-to-day listings.
15:17Always get two weeks out ahead of the
15:19game and you'll be so stress free.
15:21Lesson number 19. Whenever I'm speaking
15:23to the people that I'm mentoring, I'm
15:25always speaking to them about their
15:26sourcing and they're all saying that
15:27they're out in their local thrift stores
15:29every single day. And it becomes so
15:31monotonous that you start to think that
15:32that's the only place that you can go
15:34out and source items. There's also a
15:35real gripe around thrift stores being
15:37priced up too high, at least here in
15:39Australia. Anyway, let me know if your
15:41country is got a really bad process of
15:43thrift store pricing. But I always like
15:45to say to people when I'm mentoring them
15:46to just look at alternative ways to be
15:48able to go ahead and source items. We
15:50spoke of consignment in one of the
15:52earlier lessons. That's fantastic. But
15:54even sourcing off eBay itself that can
15:57provide some great opportunity that not
15:58a lot of us are doing. You can freely
16:00just go up and search for an item, find
16:02a misplaced listing, secure it at a
16:04price that they can ship it to you, and
16:05you can go up and list it back onto eBay
16:08and actually get the profit of what it's
16:09actually worth. So, you can go through
16:11all the other traditional routes, um,
16:13flea markets, garage sales, friends and
16:15family, you name it. Just my big lesson
16:17here is don't think that the be all and
16:19end all is the thrift store because it
16:21isn't. Lesson number 20. Remember how I
16:23was saying that I was at that eBay
16:25event? I found out about the 70% free
16:27postage. Well, I've also found out
16:29another statistic here. It was the t the
16:31title team at eBay. The title team said
16:33that you cannot use bold letters in your
16:36title. And I was shocked by that. I'm
16:38not talking about the just the single
16:40letter. I'm talking about the entire
16:42word. So, you can have the front letter
16:44capitalized, but don't have the entire
16:46word capitalized. Don't actually know
16:48the reason why, but eBay's title team
16:50absolutely stress. So, that was a big no
16:52no. So, for lesson number 20, don't use
16:55bold letters in your titles. Lesson
16:57number 21, seeing is believing. Guys,
17:00there is some massive research around
17:02putting your goals on paper. Uh, and one
17:04of the best things that I have ever
17:05done, which is hiding behind this light,
17:07is create myself a little whiteboard of
17:10my daily goals that I'm pushing towards.
17:11So, I like to look at it on a monthly
17:13basis. And I like to break my monthly
17:15goals out into daily uh achievements.
17:17And by writing all of this out and
17:19seeing your results on a whiteboard,
17:21visually seeing what you're trying to
17:22aim towards, you're more likely in the
17:24research, you're more likely to achieve
17:26that outcome. So, pick a goal, grab a
17:29whiteboard, plaster it on the
17:31whiteboard, put it on your laptop, home
17:33screen, whatever the case may be. Just
17:35get things visual because that is a huge
17:37way to go ahead to achieving your goals.
17:39Lesson 22. If I want to be a lawyer, I'm
17:43going to have to go to law school. I'm
17:44going to have to sit down. I'm going to
17:45have to learn everything. And then maybe
17:47one day, if I'm lucky, I can be a
17:49practiced lawyer. Now, I'm not saying
17:51that that needs to be the case for eBay,
17:53but it also makes sense. Before you get
17:55started, you want to go and learn all of
17:57the theory behind how this thing
17:59actually works. How does this machine of
18:01eBay actually go about generating your
18:03sales? So, for lesson number 22, spend
18:05some time in the early days to actually
18:07grab some learning material. And I've
18:09I've actually gone ahead and created
18:10this for you. I've got a starting from
18:12scratch um set of modules that you can
18:14go ahead and instantly access and learn
18:16the fundamentals of how to sell on eBay
18:18from start to finish, including strategy
18:21on how to actually get it done. That
18:23again is linked in the description below
18:24and I really think that'll help a lot of
18:26people out. Lesson number 23. If I think
18:29about all of the uh little achievements
18:31and big achievements that I have made in
18:33my life, it all comes down to the daily
18:36monotonous tasks that I am just ticking
18:38off and eBay is a big one for that. For
18:40you to be the LeBron James of eBay, like
18:42we spoke about earlier, there's one way
18:44that you can definitely not get there
18:46and that is to quit. So for lesson
18:48number 23, just simply don't quit. That
18:50is my biggest piece of advice that I
18:52wish I'd told myself. Well, I didn't
18:54need to tell myself because I knew that
18:56if I didn't quit and I was consistent
18:58every single day with the little steps
19:00that it takes, you actually look back
19:01and you've got the big picture ticked
19:03off. You've got the result that you're
19:04after. I'm still here after 5 years as a
19:07full-time eBay seller because I just
19:10never quit. I continue to learn. I
19:12continued to educate myself and I
19:14continued to put in the reps and go out
19:15and find those items, research those
19:17products, sit down and crush my
19:19listings. Everybody has the potential to
19:22take eBay to wherever they want to take
19:24it to. It's just a matter of putting the
19:25knowledge up here and then putting the
19:27workload out out on show to get the
19:29results done. I know that you can do
19:31this. They're my 23 lessons. I hope
19:33you've had a good time with these. Let
19:35me know if I've missed any lessons if
19:36you're a seasoned seller.

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