How Can I Sell My Stuff Online?
So you want to sell your stuff on the Internet? Lots of people have great ideas for selling their own products, be they handcrafted goods, print on demand items, or a beanie baby collection. Here are some tips for using online marketplaces, or easily creating your own storefront on the Web... |
How to Sell Your Products on the Web
You don't have to build your own online store from scratch in order to sell your handmade goods or other unwanted items. The various tasks required - registering and hosting a domain, graphic design, website creation, installing and configuring a shopping cart - are daunting for most people. But fortunately, many online venues exist to help you advertise and sell your stuff with a minimum of investment and hassle.
eBay is the prototypical online marketplace. It makes selling as easy as taking pictures and writing a description of an item. Originally a pure auction site, eBay now pushes fixed-price listings. eBay gives you a worldwide marketplace, but it's one of the pricier ways to sell online. You pay a listing fee whether your item sells or not, plus a percentage of the selling price. You even get dinged on shipping fees because eBay wants to encourage sellers to offer "free" shipping. Every eBay listing must offer Paypal as a payment option (although other options can be included), and Paypal takes a cut of whatever money you receive through it.
eBay has hundreds of lesser-known imitators in the auction arena, such as Ubid.com, WeBidz.com, and others. You'll find auction sites that offer lower fees (and smaller audiences), product-specialized auction marketplaces, and geographically organized auction sites.
In contrast, Craigslist charges nothing. It's basically free classified advertising in dozens of local markets. Craigslist is great if you want fast cash; just advertise, meet with a responding buyer, hand over the goods and pocket the money. But be careful! Always meet in a public place, like a police station parking lot. Don't accept checks from strangers. I would encourage you to read Scammed on Craigslist! before you engage in this marketplace.
Other Options for Selling Online
Gazelle actually buys your used electronics, then sells them through other venues. Gazelle buys used cell phones, cameras, camcorders, GPS devices, gaming consoles, laptops, tablets, video games and other gadgets. You may get less money from Gazelle than if you sold the item yourself, but many people don't want to search for a buyer or haggle over the price. A few months ago, I sold my 2-year-old Motorola Droid smartphone through Gazelle, and was happy to get $35 for it. At least it's not sitting in a drawer now.
If you've come up with a blockbuster idea for a graphic design, there are sites that will help you sell it on shirts, hats, coffee cups, calendars, mouse pads and other items. CafePress, Zazzle, VistaPrint are a few examples. Upload your design, pick the product(s) on which it will appear, and set your price. You can set up your own online shop within these sites, and list multiple items for sale. When an item is purchased, the company produces it on demand and then ships it directly to the customer. They deduct the wholesale cost of your shirt, mug, etc., and send you the balance.
The beauty of this type of online store is that you don't have to manufacture the items, or even ship them. You also avoid the hassle of collecting payment, which would involve getting a merchant account to accept credit cards. Merchant accounts can be expensive, requiring you to pay both upfront and monthly service fees.
High-volume sellers are often found on Amazon.com, offering new and used items at prices that may beat Amazon's own. Etsy is a site for crafters who want to peddle their handmade jewelry, clothing, ceramics, and similar handicrafts.
Of course, if you're a techy (or willing to learn) you can register your own .COM domain, put up a website, take payments by credit card, and handle order fulfillment on your own. You might want to check out my article on How to Buy a Domain Name and Inexpensive Website Design for some pointers if you're a do-it-yourselfer.
But for most people who are interested in selling their own designs or hand-made items, one of the full-service options mentioned earlier in this article will be the best and easiest route to selling your stuff online.
Are you selling online? Tell us how you do it! Post your comment or question about this topic below...
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Posted by Bob Rankin on 2 Feb 2012
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Most recent comments on "How Can I Sell My Stuff Online?"
Posted by:
Jon
02 Feb 2012
Yes we did it and have a really big bit of advice.
Many people think that selling and paying TAX are not connected....
They are. In the UK eBay hand over all their records to the TAX man regularly, and don't think that pretending to be a private seller only getting rid of their 'overstock' of household goods will work - it DOESN'T.
I am not sure about the IRS but as herself is Californian and an accountancy type person, she recons that anything HMR&C can do the IRC will do even more nastily.....
Get everything sorted up front. Remember that Tax people are used to nastyness but totally unnerved by politeness and good humour.
Posted by:
L Vogue
02 Feb 2012
Good info. Just a FYI on Etsy: It is not just for crafters. Vintage goods are also allowed and there is a large community of vintage sellers on the site. Vintage on Etsy is defined as 20 yrs+ (before 1993). An Etsy shop is easy to setup and fees are reasonable.
Posted by:
Robert
02 Feb 2012
Superb alternative to eBay is Bonanza:
www.bonanza.com
Easy to use and reasonable fees (only when you sell).
Posted by:
Jeremy
02 Feb 2012
Arguably the easiest way to get started is selling your old books, CD's, DVD's, and video games on Amazon, Half.com, and barnesandnoble.com. Everything you list on half.com that is over $0.99 will automatically be listed on eBay as well.
Posted by:
Ed
02 Feb 2012
Another one I like is onlineauction.com or ola.com They charge a monthly fee of $8 but you can list as many things as you want for that fee. I think there is a limit but it is in the thousands? Unfortunately it doesn't have the traffic ebay does but is growing. I have quite a few thing listed under vermonter53 and it works for me because you can set it to auto relist if you want as well. Can take just about any kind of payment you want.
Posted by:
Susan
03 Feb 2012
Artfire.com is a great alternative to Etsy for arts/crafts/vintage/design sellers. Right now they're the David to Etsy's Goliath, and they don't quite have the market share or reputation of an Etsy yet, but they're growing and there are some advantages to selling there as opposed to Etsy. For one, there are no listing fees or final value fees, just a monthly fee for a Pro account (I believe right now it's $10.95-11.95/mo or something close?). You can freely promote your business on Artfire wherever you conduct it--you can promote your own Web site, your Facebook page, even your shop on Etsy or other similar venues, because their philosophy is one of helping the artist succeed in business and giving them the tools to do it.
There are extensive articles in the forums to teach you about search engine optimization and the like, and how to write your product descriptions to best advantage. And the staff really stays on top of things--while everyone else was still reeling from the Google Panda hit, Artfire was steadily addressing the problems and meeting them head on.
Posted by:
Joanna
03 Feb 2012
Beginning in January 2011, eBay, Amazon, PayPal (and probably Etsy and others) are required to file a 1099-K form with IRS if you sell more than $20,000 and 200 orders. Even if you sell less than this amount, it is best to play it safe and report your earnings - (LESS your expenses, of course).
You should also register with your state sales tax office. If you have only one location, I think you are only required to pay the sales tax on those items that you ship within your home state. You can either collect it from the customer, or consider it included in the price of the item(s).
If you have items that already have a page in the Amazon.com "catalog", it is easy to become a "personal" seller, and list your items under the Amazon heading. I haven't really done a price comparison with eBay, but Amazon sure makes it easy on the seller. Amazon collects the money from the buyer, deducts a commission (of course), and transfers the money to your account once you confirm shipment. You can have the funds disbursed to your bank account - automatically every 14 days, or whenever you request disbursement (no more than once in a 24-hour period).
Posted by:
Sharon McBain
03 Feb 2012
There are many ways to sell on-line and there are lots of free ad companies to sell personal items, also Kijiji (Canada) Ebay.com.
It may seem easy to do Internet Marketing but there are regulations against spamming. There are free ad boards, forums and blasting programs but do people actually see your ads.
There are a lot of bad people out there trying to exploit their products, phishing and steeling identities.
Some companies advertise how to sell Amazon.com which is a good company, but there are scammers undermining Amazon's reputation to get money for webhosting and other expenses as a way to make money.
I have been using Shareasale (which seems to be reputable as affiliate marketing for the past few months. I signed up for all the products I could and developed a website to sell the products.
My problem is still how to advertise the website without spamming and getting people to get to my website. I have lots of email lists, blasters, free and paid advertising companies but does my site actually get seen?
Posted by:
SamG
03 Feb 2012
Didn't see any mention of Ebayclassifieds here. FREE for now, ever? Much more eye pleasing than Craig's. Although not well known for what reason? Selling on Ebay is my last resort. Sure you can list something forever but you're charged a monthly fee until the item sells. And sellers can rip you on Ebay and not be reprimanded. Half.com is better to work with if you're unloading books,cds,games,dvds.
Posted by:
SamG
03 Feb 2012
Anyone have experience selling on Ioffer?
Posted by:
Bruce
05 Feb 2012
There is also Lista.com which uses the tag "Free Stuff". You don't get money for your 'stuff'. What you get is 'credits' which you then use to 'buy' other things on Listia.
Posted by:
Sharon
05 Feb 2012
Yes, I have tried IOffer - very poor results. It's free to list but I feel lucky if I get 5 views in a month. I am a "Top Seller" on eBay (selling mostly estate sale items), but have had NO sales on IOffer in 6 months. I also sell vintage items on etsy with good success.
Posted by:
Nadine
07 Feb 2012
Ecrater is another great alternative. It is not an auction site. You have a store and name your own price. It's just like having a store. If I would put more into it I would probably make more. But I like they don't charge anything. I've had items in my store for 2 years. You only pay google checkout and paypal when you make a sale. Although you can't add any html and other things are limited on your store, you get 2 feeds a week to google search and it's free, so, why not?
Posted by:
jerry
26 Jan 2013
You can sell your stuff online through SFI. If you are a business man see more details here
http://www.tripleclicks.com/9668301/ECA
If you have to sell some used stuff or just new items other than business man. sell it here
http://www.tripleclicks.com/9668301/go