Questions for anyone who sells on e-bay

I am by no means a prolific seller on eBay, though it is where I primarily sell when I do and have been doing so for maybe 10-15 years now.

My main strategy is to under-promise and over-deliver:

1. I take a decent amount of photos showing all angles of the book.

2. I highlight even the smallest of issue in both the photos and in the description. This might cause me some lost sales, but (knock on wood) I’ve never had a single person complain about a book’s condition.

I am EXTRA particular when selling comics due to my (maybe mistaken) feeling that this particular customer base can be a little more critical of grading, I.e., the difference between vf and vf+).  I’ve only sold a couple of comics ( SILVER SURFER 1st Series #1 and the first year or so of SPAWN) and I had no issues.

I also always state I’m neither a professional grader or seller, just a collector clearing out space in the collection.

3. I also keep the description short and sweet.  I figure people who are browsing my listing for, say, the matching set of Centipede Press DUNE books know exactly what they are looking at, though I do include publisher’s information just for being thorough.

4. Unless I know for a fact it is an item people are gonna go bidding bananas over, I only do Buy It Now.  There is way too much fluctuation in pricing on eBay.  I’ve literally seen auctions for the same item ending a few days apart and one goes for a high dollar and the other for peanuts.

I also include Best Offer options but have an auto decline in place so I don’t deal with super lowball offers.  From my experience an offer coming in 20-30% under listing price is common and reasonable. Considering this, I price accordingly.

Like all things, patience is a virtue.  If you want top dollar, you’ll have to wait longer for a sale.

5. I wouldn’t pay for promotion.  Seems like a scam.  Marge it works for some people, but at least with signed limited books, I think people are searching for this stuff deliberately.  And since eBay is going to take 18-20% of your GROSS total (yes, you pay fees on tax and shipping), I’m not giving them more money.

6. I also pack like there’s no tomorrow. I’ve had a couple of reviews joking about it, but I think it also is a visual representation to the buyer of the consideration I took in shipping. 

7. And finally, I always send a message letting the customer know what day it will ship and once more when I drop it off at the post office, both times including messages about letting me know if there is any issue.

I’m sure a lot of this is overkill, but I’ve had multiple repeat buyers over the years and everyone I’ve encountered has been rather chill because I’ve always taken my selling very seriously.

 If there is anything specific questions you have, please let me know.  

Also, I’m curious about what you’re selling. Posting on this site might get you a few sales and you can save on some fees.

Also, unless you are offering free shipping, don’t guess on shipping with your listings. Get a scale and weigh the book and add a pound or two for materials.  If you under estimate, you basically eat the difference in cost, which sucks.

Oh, you might know this already, but while novels can be shipped media mail, because they include advertisements or some such, comics cannot. So it’s USPS Ground Service or something similar.  Some sellers risk it and some buyers will want you to try, but I don’t. Not for how little comics go for sometimes.  TPB Graphic novels (DC Finest, etc.) can go media mail is my understanding.

Best of luck, my friend. 

I sold my small quantity of good stuff in 2023 and I wasn't happy with the outcomes. This mainly centered around the fact I was in a money crunch and sold things, quickly for convenience, but left money on the table. 

That has never sat well with me, but at the end of the day, it was my own doing. 

BTW, everything Sockmonkey stated, is great advice. Photos, transparency, and good packaging are all keys to good transactions.  

Posted by: @dannyboy121070

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I've reached the point where I need to start selling of my book and comic collection, so I'm going to dip my toes into the e-bay waters. I sold one thing, one time, on e-bay, close to two decades ago, and it was a hot mess. I'm trying not to repeat the same mistake, or make new ones, so I'm reaching out to my online buddies for any tips/tricks/warnings you all may have. Give me your collective wisdom, please!

@sock_monkey covered it perfectly...I agree with each and every point he made. The only thing I would add is that based on my sales in the last half-year compared to the many, many years before, completed sales of books right now are slow. S. l. o. w. Sssslllooowww. So while I don't want to discourage you, danny, you are -- in my anecdotal experience -- dipping your toes back in the water when there is zero current for book sales. I hope you have better luck at the moment than me.

 Sock, Ben, Ron- I appreciate all of the tips! I'm going to have to sit and really figure this out this weekend. I'd been hoping to find a buyer (I've contacted what appears to be a huge operation this morning) to take EVERYTHING, so I could get a big payout and live off of it for awhile, but I was digging through the unread stacks the other day and dug out the first few volumes of Boom's PLANET OF THE APES ARCHIVE, and noticed that they were OOP and going for a few hundred bucks apiece. My first thought, because I am lazy, is to look up Hunter Goatley's POTA website, hoping they'd have a message board or some way to find an interested buyer in the target audience, but no luck. But you guys have all given me MUCH food for thought! I appreciate all of your help.

 And if anyone here is looking for a signed and limited book, or any old comics or collections, drop me a line, I probably have it.

danny, I'll mull over my library this weekend and see if I can come up with any titles that I don't have and need. It feels like in this late stage of almost forty years of collecting I have everything I need, and what I don't have I either A). didn't want or B). had and didn't keep for whatever reason. Good luck in whatever you choose to do.

And, yes, those PoTA Archive volumes are bringing serious money these days. I'm a huge PoTA fan as well, and had most of the Marvel/Curtis B&W magazines back in the day...I think that's what these volumes (or at least a couple/several of the four (?)) reprint. I've looked at the Archive books from time to time, but the secondary prices are just too stratospheric for me, especially since I'm not really a comic guy anymore (though nostalgia is a powerful driver).

Posted by: @ronclinton

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danny, I'll mull over my library this weekend and see if I can come up with any titles that I don't have and need. It feels like in this late stage of almost forty years of collecting I have everything I need, and what I don't have I either A). didn't want or B). had and didn't keep for whatever reason. Good luck in whatever you choose to do.

And, yes, those PoTA Archive volumes are bringing serious money these days. I'm a huge PoTA fan as well, and had most of the Marvel/Curtis B&W magazines back in the day...I think that's what these volumes (or at least a couple/several of the four (?)) reprint. I've looked at the Archive books from time to time, but the secondary prices are just too stratospheric for me, especially since I'm not really a comic guy anymore (though nostalgia is a powerful driver).

 You've got it, the four POTA ARCHIVE books reprint the B&W Marvel mags. They don't collect them issue-by-issue, but by story arcs, which a lot of collectors hated. Having read the first two volumes now, I'm glad they did it this way. Also, according to the covers of the magazines, there were text and photo features that these archives don't reprint. 

 I'm glad that I picked these up. The stories were fun, and the art was excellent. Plus, a lifelong mystery was solved...for decades, I've had memories of a comic I read as a kid that took place inside Mt. Rushmore. Imagine my surprise when Volume One featured a character who lived INSIDE ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S NOSE on Mt. Rushmore! I almost croaked! I didn't imagine it!

FWIW, I can give a recent example of what you're looking at as far as the fees go and the cut of your sale that ebay takes. Last week I sold a sealed copy of Michael Cisco's Visiting Maze and Other Quandaries published by Centipede Press ('23) for $200. No listing fees, so I'm unsure if I'll get hit at the end of the month for a few bucks but as it stands I'm going to clear $169. I'm far from unhappy about the sale but the cut ebay takes seems to get bigger every year. 

That was very helpful, W, I appreciate the example. I've kind of put ebay on the back-burner for now, since I've found a buyer who might take the whole collection off my hands...we'll see what happens.