Wanted, Ebay Selling Tips

I was hoping to get some ebay selling tips for lots of plate blocks, sheets, souvenir sheets. I have had mixed luck thus far. I posted a mixed lot of sheets and it sold to a buy-now with 4 hours. But other lots like a dozen mint sets with the pretty mint set books are not selling.

Any veteran tips that increase sale rates on ebay?

I have a lot with all four sheets of the world at war us set with some other stuff but no bites.

Mostly it seems it is hard to get views at all, which seems to be the big issue.
Or, maybe ebay isnt the only place I should sell?

Thanks.

Hard to offer feedback without seeing a listing, but I can broadly say that as a veteran ebay buyer of ~25 years, I judge the quality of the item and credibility of the buyer in no small part based on the accuracy of the listing. No flowery language, no question marks (things like "rare?" or "authentic?") or anything that makes the seller sound like a used car salesman. That, and a price competitive with similar items (if possible).
So: stick to the facts, have the best pictures you can manage, and describe it well enough that it gets hits from a variety of possible searches. After all, the World At War set may end up with a history buff, not a stamp collector. Most of the rest is luck and persistence, I think.

Also, the shipping cost is a factor that I look at when buying. If the stamps or sheet are individual items, then the shipping cost should not be a significant part of the total price.

I can only stress what orstampman has said. ebay seems to be setting the " ebay shipping" option as default in vendor's accounts. What this means is that I (as an overseas potential customer) increasingly see offers at $2-$5 starting prices and then shipping costs of $25 to $35 added to the lot. Obviously using " ebay shipping" kills all overseas customer interest, instantly.
One guy managed to offer a $9 booklet item with $85 " ebay shipping" costs attached to it (that's eighty-five in words)...

I can see the problem with tracking expensive items to overseas but with low $ value items, a $2-3 shipping cost (without ebay mingling in) is the way to go. Just mention it is buyer's risk without tracking.

It's clunky (or I find it so) showing your own overseas postage, given the range of rates. I take a judgement on whether an item is likely to interest overseas buyers, and put an overseas price in where appropriate.

"Buyer's risk" won't wash with ebay, by the way.

Is always good to know what other sellers of the same type of items have theirs up for sale cost.

That is a five (5) sheet set, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945, thus your offer is not "complete" for the series.




Those can be a hard sell as it will only go to someone who wants the book and those folks are uncommon. For a collector, all the book does is add a large shipping and handling cost to a bunch of stamps. You should, if you have not already done so, see what similar items have sold for and how frequently they do sell compared to those available for sale.




Individual items or related small groups seem to do well while larger groups start to look like a discount postage lot. Again, you should check the prices (Total for item and S&H being aware that some state also collect sale tax)) of similar sold items and price competitively to that. To get full face without additional costs nor fees, you can always use the stamps for postage on the items which sell.

Lastly, your title matters as those words are what generates views in a search (see my last paragraph below as well). An example is Scott number, denomination and class (priority, express, priority-express) to help get views from how folks search. Then a word or two to cover the subject matter of the stamp. Got 800 damaged used US? Then mention "art projects." If you take some time to search for the same item using different search terms and key words, you start to see what shows up. Then there is no crime to copy the words those sellers use. Lastly when you search other's listing of similar material, see into which categories they place the item.

I have many searches set up, some narrow and some broad. My broadest is searching everything with the one word, "parcel" to find parcel post related goodies.Yes, I must wade through a river of unrelated listings (gem parcels for example) but I do find stuff my targeted searches miss, material worth the extra search results sifting. I find items which for whatever reason were listed poorly or with an error.

How you list shipping and handling can have a big effect. Too expensive turns folks away. Likewise, "free" shipping can be a turn off as well. We buyers know shipping costs are embedded in the price of the item being sold. If I buy only one, yes I know I paid a fair shipping price, but when I buy ten I am getting screwed since I am paying S&H on each item but the seller's cost to ship is maybe 2 times a single item and definitely not 10 times a single item's shipping costs to the seller.

Lastly remember that while you can put everything and I mean everything into the description, that does nothing for you material when folks do not search title AND description.

Thank you all. Especially parcel post guy on the world at war series. Now I know why, probably there are two 1941s. My Mom used to get these things in the mail and I bet they snafu'd from usps.

Persistence, persistence and more persistence. Depending on what you are selling it can be an uphill battle. You seem to be selling US commemoratives - you have lots of competition for low value items. If you are trying to make a business out of it or just an easy way to make some spending money it will take time. Try adding some variety from different regions/countries. It will be frustrating at first but if you are serious stick to it and list as many things as you can. This will get you some exposure and eventually it begin to pick up.