Seeking advice for new eBay sellers

[mokemo]

Hello eBay!

Like many others in recent years my many hobbies and itch to keep some sort of fire burning has led me to building an eBay store.

With so much to tackle at once, the platform can be quite daunting when you are learning for the first time on your own.

The first few months for myself, and even now, one of my greatest challenges has been figuring out shipping costs and best practice for each product I decide to list. I've since learned to take full advantage of the eBay discounted shipping labels and have started to integrate that into all of my listings.

I would love to share experiences on where others have had the most success overcoming mental blocks, wether it be tips to source the right information, or why doing things a certain way made more sense than others. As they say, hindsight is 20/20 so let's all try to help each other out and benefit from it!

Thank you!

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

Until 2025, most of my sales were to the USA (85-90%) with overseas being about 5% and the rest domestic.

These days I sell only about half my products south while domestic and overseas have risen.

On shipping.

Use Calculated Shipping.

Use eIS for all international shipping-- but absolutely for US shipping.

EIS is sometimes more expensive BUT the buyer pays shipping not you.

EIS is a SELLER PROTECTION program. 

A shipment that is Refused is considered Undeliverable by eBay and the seller is not required to refund anything. 

But.

The buyer still can go to their credit card for a chargeback. 

Most sellers will refund the purchase price (no more) when the Refused item is received (not before).

You will screw up . 

Most of those financial mistakes are tax deductible. 

If you are not paying taxes, you are not making money. 

Get a Solutions for Small Business card for the tiny Canada Post discount.

https://sso-osu.canadapost-postescanada.ca/pfe-pap/en/registration/business?sourceApp=SMB&sourceUrl=...

Shipping is the hardest part of selling online.

[mokemo]

Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to write this up!

I've screwed up plenty so far, but every mistake is a learning experience

[dobo5250]

my suggestion and helpful advice is don't do it -- once in this rabbit hole there is no way out 

[mokemo]

I'd love to hear more! Is there something in particular that you would warn someone of who is new into the space? @dobo5250