I love my job as an Ebay Reseller, but when I talk to people about it they seem to think I just sell bits and pieces I have lying around the house and that it’s just a hobby.  I’ve been reselling for nearly three years and over that time it’s become my main income. I probably spend about 40 hours a week, sometimes more, to make a living I’m comfortable with. (I’m not going to tell you what I make per month as a comfortable living means different things to different people). My hubby also works part-time in the Ebay business and part-time in his decorating business (he’s gradually working less and less on decorating jobs and hopefully will be able to work full-time on Ebay soon).
So if you’re wondering what being an Ebay Reseller entails then here’s what we do on a day to day basis.
Sourcing
Finding items to sell is the fun part. We spend time visiting various places, looking for used or new items we can sell for a profit. Sundays are car boot sale days, so we’re usually up and out by 6am and may not get home till 3pm (we can get around three car boot sales if the weather is good). Weekdays usually involve browsing around charity shops or local high street shops, and at least once a month we’ll spend a few hours in the local auction house. We very rarely come back empty-handed and we’ve found supermarket ‘bags for life’ come in very handy when sourcing stock.
Cleaning & Testing
When you buy used items there’s always cleaning or testing to be done. Clothes may need to be put in the washing machine (sometimes they have that ‘charity shop’ smell), and toys usually need a clean. I find baby wipes are ideal for cleaning toys and sometimes use them to give soft toys a wipe over if they don’t need the washing machine. Battery operated items always need testing so I have a large stock of different sized batteries and a selection of screwdrivers in my testing box. Sometimes it’s not possible to check battery compartments before you buy so it’s advisable to do this as soon as you get the item home. If the battery compartment is slightly corroded you can use bicarbonate of soda or vinegar to try and clean them up. Unfortunately there has been a few occasions when the battery compartment has been corroded to the point where you can’t fix it so it usually goes in the bin.  I also check all the functions on an electrical item to make sure it’s working they way it should be.
Photographing
When the items have been cleaned and tested it’s time to photograph them. My Ebay photography kit includes a professional photography lighting set up, a female mannequin, a white cloth (for the table), a backdrop screen and my mobile phone. I find clothing easy to photograph, especially with a mannequin. I take photos from front, back, side and then any special features or problems (if they have any). I love photographing little toy playsets (brings out my inner child!), but hate photographing games (too many pieces to lay out) so I leave these to hubby (he enjoys it). Once everything is photographed and on my phone I upload the photos to Dropbox (a cloud based storage site that means my phone or computer isn’t clogged up). Then I use Windows Photo Gallery on my desktop computer to edit them – e.g. brightening, cropping etc.
Measuring
I sell a lot of clothes as an Ebay Reseller, mainly women’s and mainly dresses and tops. It saves a lot of time if you add measurements of clothing to the description, then you don’t get tons of questions. The measurements I include are: length, pit to pit, waist and hip. My equipment for this includes a tape measure and a piece of paper – I like to do the measurements for all the clothes I’m listing in that session all at once.
Researching & Listing
Next comes the research. I usually have an idea of keywords I’m going to use in my Ebay listing and what price I’m going to list at, but I like to research what the item has sold for recently and what keywords other sellers have used. This can take quite some time but the more experienced you become and the more knowledgeable about the items you sell, the quicker the research becomes. If I’m listing a toy for the first time I usually Google it so I can find out all the features and details I can, to add to the description.  I try to do 10 listings per day (weekdays) so it might take me an hour or so depending on how complex the items are and I always list using my desktop computer – it’s just easier for me than listing on my phone.
Packaging & Shipping
When an item sells it obviously has to be posted out. That means packaging it up and this is hubby’s domain. If packaging was down to me I’d only sell books and clothes! But hubby loves a challenge and when we’re out shopping he’s usually looking at boxes and bubble wrap he can pick up free. As we have an ebay shop we get a £10 packaging voucher every month to spend on selected Ebay packaging materials so that usually gets spent on poly mailing bags and packaging tape. Our dispatch time for sales is two working days so there’s usually quite a few parcels to do on a daily basis. Hubby packs and I print the labels. After the items are packaged up, and have the shipping labels applied, hubby takes them to the local MyHermes drop off point for the courier to pick them up.
Bits & Bobs
There’s also a few ad hoc things an Ebay Reseller has to take care of on a daily basis. These include customer questions/offers/returns, re-listing items when their cycle ends and brushing up listings that have been on a while.
So there you go, that’s a day in the life of an Ebay Reseller … busy isn’t it? Although there is a lot of work involved, I absolutely love it. It’s not like any job I’ve ever done, it’s a lot of fun and it means I can fit my work around other things I want to do … like spend time with my grandson or even go to the cinema in the middle of the day 🙂
If you’re an Ebay Reseller I’d love to know what your favourite (or worst) part of the job is – let me know in the comments below. If you’d like to try your hand at making money on Ebay then an introduction to reselling would be a good starting point.
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