[damage]

A few weeks ago I decided to get rid of some childhood toys. I put a first batch on ebay and they flopped so spent a bit of time experimenting and doing some research, and now that Ive finished here is what I found out as the best way to sell - might be obvious to people, but wasn't to me.

The first toy I sold was my scalextric set. I read a few guides saying the best time to finish (sunday) and hints on listing, but the major mistake I made was to put everything in one big lot. After a week it sold for 15 quid with 15 quid postage (12kg of track plus two cars).

I imagine these big lots scare people, as the postage is a lot, and if they are only interested in a small part, then the price is not going to rise too high.

I believe I did an excellent job with the remaining items, selling my Subbuteo and Lego. I broke everything into as small lots as possible - so with the subbuteo this was individual sets. I had a lot of loose lego, and this I sold in lots as small as 200g (rather than a bi 10kg pack).

While the scalextric had finished on sunday, it had ended about midday - whereas the best time to finish is definitely between 7 and 9. I had a few identical lots, so I was able to set this on different days. These seemed to suggest friday night was the best day for Lego, and wonder because kids have more access to computers on this night (not that I think much went to kids).

Also try and avoid times when identical items are being sold - though this is very hard to check.

As for listings, obviously good clear english is a must. I used a consistent theme, composing the words in frontpage then copying across the html I used a title in the body as well as the main title to get a few more keywords eg common misspellings of main title words.

As I have my own webspace, I was able to host the pictures there, then insert them in the text as links. This not only saved me the individual picture listing fees, but meant I could link them in the text as large as I liked - I went for 800 pixels wide (should fit on most monitors) and is twice as large as ebay's largest.

I think my items sold very well. I had made a note of the most they had gone for in the past month, and 90 % had sold for this much or more. I had no selling feedback when I started, (only 8 buying) so I put a few links to my website and to my cv to add credibility (whether this help??).

However on the other hand, one item was unsuccessful - a pirates ship, which went for about a third what I hoped, and probably shows that you are bound to get unlucky occassionally.

Offering international postage probably helped and was no extra hassle (insisted on paypal payment). About 35% probably went abroad, and this seems to be a massive market. However in future I will be wary listing awkward items, as I issued a half refund on a large tube sent to USA. In theory I could claim this back from royal mail, however as I'm doing this as a clearout, not a business I'm not too bothered.

Finally, when I started I had a basic paypal account. On about the third item I sold I was asked to upgrade. This is because you can not received payments from a card (only from bank ac or money in paypal accounts) until you upgrade. Once you do upgrade you start paying 3.4% on ALL transactions.

I estimate about one in three transactions were from cards, so there is a way to save paying fees on the bulk of items...

You can have two paypal accounts, one basic, one premium. You are not allowed to say in your listing "I accept paypal, if paying by card pay to a@xxx.com, ow to b@xxx.com", as if you click accept paypal, you must accept all forms to one address.

However you can (I read) keep the box unticked and say "I don't accept card funded paypal payments" (someone said they will crack down if you write "I accept non card funded paypal only". Also, you can write please enquire about paypal if you like. I was disappointed by the charges, but didn't go to these lengths.

Finally for anyone selling lego, there is an online inventory called http://www.peeron.com which was very useful for me. I went through all sets either saying complete or listing errors. (i made sure the more expensive sets were complete first, then did cheaper ones.)
I wanted to go into this amount of detail for honesty's ske rather than misleading people. A lot of people sold items saying probably 98% complete, or haven't checked. I'm suspicious of these items as I imagine they know they are incomplete, and the net effect on price sold was minimal, so one might think not worth the effort, but I would rather not be misleading.

Anyway, thats all I can think of, might be obvious stuff to most, however if you do decide to sell a few lots, following these tips will boost your sales.

All the best.

Damage