Secrets to Successful Online Selling

"Turning Your Trash into Treasure" is my first book that is available on Amazon. (just search by the title or follow link on this blog)

As a writer I prefer to write about what I am most passionate about and what I know. I recently reached my 6 year anniversary selling on eBay under the name PMBenfield. Previously I had sold under a different name that I no longer use. Reaching top seller plus status took many sales and a lot of work but it was worth it.

I have learned so much about how to sell online and this is why I wrote the guide that I did. Turning your Trash into Treasure is an easy-to-understand guide to help anyone who wants to get started earning some extra cash from their stuff that they no longer want/need or use.

After giving myself a break from online selling ( I stopped for about 2 weeks) I recently started to list again. I am ignoring some inventory that hasn't moved and instead focused on selling some new-to-me items.

Books are not an easy re-sell online but being faced with a huge (and I mean HUGE) amount of books to move I decided to change my attitude and accept the challenge.

As I state in my book sometimes it doesn't matter how much money you make when your goal is to find a new home for an item. Currently I have 13 items listed for sale. About 5 of these items are books and the majority are listed as buy-it-now or best offer. Just about any offer I get I will take. Again, the goal is to find the book a new home.

Storing items while I wait for them to be sold takes organization. I can admit that back when I got started I wasn't perfect about staying organized. I can remember a frantic moment here and there when an item sold and I searched to find where I put it.

These days I have a process and even though I struggle at times to stay on course, ultimately keeping organized will save time later on.

At the moment I have several already packed boxes of inventory which if I decide to re-list these items I will be ready to ship on a moment's notice.

With such a large inventory of books I have taken a different approach to my organizing. I have boxes of books to be listed and another box of books that are currently listed for sale. Listing books can be time consuming and in order to avoid making mistakes I am only listing about 5 a day. Taking pictures is easy but I have to go slowly to determine the condition of the book which means slowing down and paying attention to detail.

Correctly identifying the condition of anything that you sell is essential to building a good rating with your customers! Ebay does stand behind their sellers but if you mess up your posting by not mentioning imperfections it can cost you money.

Most books sell for on average between $5 to $15. That is not a lot of money. If you have to refund someone it hurts. It does take time to list an item for sale but if you rush through it you are more likely to make errors.

The other part about selling online that can be frustrating is the amount of time it might take for an item to sell. There are days when I have to remind myself of how long some items previously took to sell. I remind myself to just hang in there. Do the tedious work now of listing items and then play the waiting game.

I have so much inventory right now that I can easily distract myself by slowly listing what I have and hopefully the sales will start happening. It usually does. Patience is a virtue that I am lacking but like everything else, practice makes perfect.

If you have questions about selling online send me a message or an e-mail at benfieldpriscilla@yahoo.com.

Thanks for taking a look!

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