Mechanics of a mass clear out

[Mungler]

It’s been a while since I sold anything on eBay.

I’m gearing up for a mass clear out of accumulated stuff - if I haven’t touched it in 4 years it’s going.

What’s the score these days on postage, postage rates, tracked postage, weighing etc 

Is there a basic set up like scales and a label printer I should get and is there a program to manage eBay listings and tie in with postage and tracking.

The plan is to list everything with no reserve on say a 28 day auction ending 7 pm on a Sunday. Does that sound like a plan and again, I’m not sure how to stage it - having auctions end at 8 pm on a Saturday when the world and his wife are out and about would be an error.

For me, it’s time and aggro of managing the clear out.

[BobbyH]

I have had 2 massive clear outs before, And its not been too bad

 

Would be interesting to see what you have for sale on here!

 

I have sent numerous items on the Bay, and i get the sticky labels from a normal stationary shop and hand write them on, or you can get whats called a Zebra printer to print labels through through your computer.

I would start a 7 day auction on a Thursday evening at say 1800, then people can have the weekend to view alternatives, or seek other half's permissions to bid, then has the rest of the week to keep on top of it and keep bidding.

With regards to weighing and postage, what i have done, AFTER i have taken photos but BEFORE i have listed them, i have taken them to the PO, and gotten them to weigh them and give me an accurate postage cost, then add that into the listing.

Im not a proper registered Bay seller, just sent a few items over the past few years.

[sportsbob]

Bear in mind that that under their new rules if you take more that a certain amount of money they inform HMRC and deduct tax somehow, I think the limit is £1000, I`m sure google will have the answer.

[Vince Green]

Don't go anywhere near the post office use Parcels2Go. You will need this to work out in advance what your postage will be in any case.

A cheap set of luggage scales is a good investment (from ebay); while you are at it order some brown tape

28 days is too long 14 is plenty

[old'un]

think most of what you are looking for can be found, here..https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/labels-packaging-tips/buying-printing-postage-labels?id=4157

 

and here..https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/postage-rates-sellers?id=4087

 

and here..https://support-ebay.packlink.com/hc/en-gb/articles/209156905-eBay-Delivery-UK-shipping-rates

 

[Miserableolgit]

Alternatively stick things on FB Marketplace and avoid fleabay’s extortionate fees.

[BobbyH]

1 minute ago, Miserableolgit said:

Alternatively stick things on FB Marketplace and avoid fleabay’s extortionate fees.

I agree, and i believe that places like PW, Facebook and Gumtree are more widley used....

[old'un]

16 minutes ago, Miserableolgit said:

Alternatively stick things on FB Marketplace and avoid fleabay’s extortionate fees.

sellers fees now only apply if you list more than 300 items in a month, or you add optional upgrades to your listing, or if you deliver to an overseas address.

[Minky]

It's a blooming jungle out there. When mother in law died we couldn't give stuff away.   And it was nice clean modern stuff. There were about 3 items that one of the daughters put on Facebook marketplace. 1. was a virtually new wheelchair  2. was an electric elevation armchair.  3.  was a pedestrian 3 wheel walking frame. All of these were in as new condition.  The electric elevation chair and the electric elevation bed were both over a thousand pounds.   We asked about 200 for these.  There were no takers on any of the items, until some woman called the daughter about the bed. She was desperate because her husband needed one.  She was coming to get it and could we get it down ready for transport and dismantle it by the door ready.  The daughter agreed to this and reminded the purchaser that it was going to be £200. No haggling.  When the persons x2 came she said that she would offer £50.  The daughter said no way and told  her that the road back home was that way.  In light of these chancers, I  kept the 3 wheel walker and the wheelchair because I had an achilees tendon operation.  The bed was given to the infirm mother of one of theson in laws and the elevation chair was given to a friend of the Mrs. Who had problems with arthritis  In the end all of these were of use to others and mother in law would have approved.  Most of the contents of the house went either in the bin or to charity shops. No one in the families wanted anything.  When I  looked on Ebay there were loads of those elevation beds and loads of everything, all at give away prices.  It's just like guns on here you can't give em away,

[Miserableolgit]

I've been on eBay since the 90's when it was only US based and back then it was a good place to source things I used to collect which were nigh on impossible to obtain over here. The facility then went multinational and in time has had changes in buying and selling fees, shipping etc and become targeted toward business sellers which is fair enough. Apologies, I forgot about the recent changes in the UK fees. It's still ok to a degree for selling, especially collectables due to it's reach but for domestic items I tend to use the other sites that have come along over the years but generally tend to donate to the local cancer charities which saves time dealing with numpties and chancers turning up [or not] at the property.

[Vince Green]

32 minutes ago, Minky said:

It's a blooming jungle out there. When mother in law died we couldn't give stuff away.   And it was nice clean modern stuff. There were about 3 items that one of the daughters put on Facebook marketplace. 1. was a virtually new wheelchair  2. was an electric elevation armchair.  3.  was a pedestrian 3 wheel walking frame. All of these were in as new condition.  The electric elevation chair and the electric elevation bed were both over a thousand pounds.   We asked about 200 for these.  There were no takers on any of the items, until some woman called the daughter about the bed. She was desperate because her husband needed one.  She was coming to get it and could we get it down ready for transport and dismantle it by the door ready.  The daughter agreed to this and reminded the purchaser that it was going to be £200. No haggling.  When the persons x2 came she said that she would offer £50.  The daughter said no way and told  her that the road back home was that way.  In light of these chancers, I  kept the 3 wheel walker and the wheelchair because I had an achilees tendon operation.  The bed was given to the infirm mother of one of theson in laws and the elevation chair was given to a friend of the Mrs. Who had problems with arthritis  In the end all of these were of use to others and mother in law would have approved.  Most of the contents of the house went either in the bin or to charity shops. No one in the families wanted anything.  When I  looked on Ebay there were loads of those elevation beds and loads of everything, all at give away prices.  It's just like guns on here you can't give em away,

We had all the same experiences when my Mum died a couple of years ago.

We couldn't even give away her furniture to a homeless charity that said it desperately needed furniture. We waited in three times and they never turned up.

[Minky]

Most won't take anything in especially what they call ' Brown furniture....  the Mrs went to take some puzzles and a few decent condition books.  When she got there, three different places had signs outside stating..... not taking ANYTHING IN TODAY.  We recently went to a solicitors to make Wills and as years ago people didn't have anything much, it was a case of ... I leave my garden spade to Fred and my wheelbarrow to Bill, nowadays people have so much that all of the general stuff isn't mentioned at all. It's just bank accounts and properties. 

[JKD]

I generally have a mass clear out every morning,,,, I won't go into the mechanics of that though 💩😑😆

Good luck with your Ebay sale 👍 😀

[Miserableolgit]

I suppose we are fortunate in that regard as our local cancer charity has a fair size warehouse come retail outlet and will accept brown furniture to retail in their vintage section. Stuff like that makes next to nothing in the local auctions except some pieces that are bought cheap by trendy London dealers.

We had to skip so much of my mother in law’s gear after she died as well as my own family items as we had no room to accommodate all of it. Things that they had skimped and saved for went straight to landfill. Sobering.

[Vince Green]

Sometimes it's better to do a car boot sale.  My Brother and his wife are in the process of downsizing now that their kids have all flown the nest.

He took a car load of stuff from his garage and came home with £160. He was extremely pleased.

[nobbyathome]

I would second the car boot sale as well as getting rid of all your stuff it can also be a fun day out 

[Minky]

3 hours ago, Miserableolgit said:

I suppose we are fortunate in that regard as our local cancer charity has a fair size warehouse come retail outlet and will accept brown furniture to retail in their vintage section. Stuff like that makes next to nothing in the local auctions except some pieces that are bought cheap by trendy London dealers.

We had to skip so much of my mother in law’s gear after she died as well as my own family items as we had no room to accommodate all of it. Things that they had skimped and saved for went straight to landfill. Sobering.

When you think that people had to work long and hard to buy the stuff and no one needs or wants the stuff ,, it sort of makes you wonder about all the tech stuff that was the bees knees such as vhs,, betamax,  cd discs,, 35mm film cameras,  hand held video cameras and tons of other stuff that at the time was the tops but you might seen some hopeful at the boot sale trying to flog for not a lot.  About a year ago I bought an olympus 4/3rds camera because I like taking hundreds of pictures. But the cameras on phones are really good.

2 hours ago, Vince Green said:

Sometimes it's better to do a car boot sale.  My Brother and his wife are in the process of downsizing now that their kids have all flown the nest.

He took a car load of stuff from his garage and came home with £160. He was extremely pleased.

Was £160 really worth it.   I'd rather chuck it in the bin.  Some people live boot fairs.

[mel b3]

12 hours ago, Mungler said:

It’s been a while since I sold anything on eBay.

I’m gearing up for a mass clear out of accumulated stuff - if I haven’t touched it in 4 years it’s going.

What’s the score these days on postage, postage rates, tracked postage, weighing etc 

Is there a basic set up like scales and a label printer I should get and is there a program to manage eBay listings and tie in with postage and tracking.

The plan is to list everything with no reserve on say a 28 day auction ending 7 pm on a Sunday. Does that sound like a plan and again, I’m not sure how to stage it - having auctions end at 8 pm on a Saturday when the world and his wife are out and about would be an error.

For me, it’s time and aggro of managing the clear out.

Lins advice .

Royal mail website gives you prices for sizes and weights of parcels .

A set of digital kitchen scales , or,  bathroom scales for heavier stuff.

Lin hand writes her own labels , but , you can get postage labels through eBay, or , royal mail . Royal mail is easier and cheaper , as you can print the label , and pay at the same time( and even get them picked up for a small fee). However , if parcels are big and heavy , parcels to go , might be a better option.

When selling things with no reserve , be prepared that you may get naff all , even for relatively expensive items. A better alternative is " buy it now " with the option of "offers" ,and with a sensible price. 

Be prepared for lots of timewasters .

And all couriers can be nightmarishly inept at times.

If you're selling your old blow up dolls , please be aware that some people have rubber allergies😁.

[CoventryWire]

Depends what your selling, but I've found Vinted is much better for selling now than ebay, stuff like clothes and home stuff usually goes well, but be prepared for them to go for next to nothing. - Vinted has no fees and the postage is all built in and combined, dead easy to use.

Anything shooting related, guns, clothings, cleaning kit, etc - then get it to one of the big auction houses and let them sell it, usually I use Southams for bits and Holts for guns, but each to their own.

Facebook marketplace is good if you are prepared to wade through the scammers, time wasters and chancers, once you've used it abit it gets quite easy to spot the time wasters and sift them out.

Facebook Buy & Sell groups are also handy to get rid of stuff, especially owners clubs and specific groups, I'm on one that's just for shotgun chokes! I sell quite a few on there, and they sell super quick with zero messing about or hassle.  Plenty of other groups just for certain stuff.

Ebay might make abit of a resurgence now they've stopped the stupid fees, but its so closely monitored by the tax man you really need to be careful. 

[Mungler]

Cheers gang. Some solid advice. 50 m of bubble wrap arrived today. Other supplies due tomorrow. Standby for the great clear out 😆

[nobbyathome]

Post some of the stuff on here one man’s  junk is another man’s treasure if you know what I mean 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

On 09/10/2024 at 07:51, Mungler said:

It’s been a while since I sold anything on eBay.

I’m gearing up for a mass clear out of accumulated stuff - if I haven’t touched it in 4 years it’s going.

What’s the score these days on postage, postage rates, tracked postage, weighing etc 

Is there a basic set up like scales and a label printer I should get and is there a program to manage eBay listings and tie in with postage and tracking.

The plan is to list everything with no reserve on say a 28 day auction ending 7 pm on a Sunday. Does that sound like a plan and again, I’m not sure how to stage it - having auctions end at 8 pm on a Saturday when the world and his wife are out and about would be an error.

For me, it’s time and aggro of managing the clear out.

I do believe there are places that will take all of your stuff, advertise it and take a percentage of the returns.

[BobbyH]

13 hours ago, Mungler said:

Cheers gang. Some solid advice. 50 m of bubble wrap arrived today. Other supplies due tomorrow. Standby for the great clear out 😆

Are you planning to put some stuff up on here?

 

 

[sandspider]

On 09/10/2024 at 21:01, mel b3 said:

If you're selling your old blow up dolls , please be aware that some people have rubber allergies😁.