A YOUNG woman is living the high life after making a whopping £30,000 from
selling her old clothes on eBay.
Laura Rose, originally from Dartford, splashes out on three holidays a year
thanks to her thrifty habit.
The 21-year-old first started flogging her unwanted clobber while she was
still at school but admitted she soon became hooked.
She said: “I started off by selling a few things that didn’t really fit
me anymore.
“I only made around £20, but I got a bit of a buzz from it and I soon
became addicted.
“At first it was just a good way to make a bit of pocket money – I could
see my unwanted clothes and buy something new instead.
“I started looking for other things I could sell too – I started selling
my own things, then began raiding my family and friends’ closets too.
“After that I started bidding on items from other sellers, then selling
them on at a profit.”
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Laura, a third-year business management student at the University of East
Anglia, now makes enough cash to afford luxury holidays around the world at
least three times a year, visiting Lanzarote, Venice, Spain, France and
Amsterdam.
She admitted her bedroom is piled high with thousands of pounds worth of stock
and parcels packaged up and ready to post.
Laura explained: “It does take a lot of time and effort to make a success
out of it, but it’s just a matter of perseverance.
“It took me around six months to start making a substantial profit rather
than just pocket money – it didn’t happen overnight.
“I enjoy doing it though – if it was a chore it wouldn’t be a success.
“I’ve always had that money making spirit – when I was a kid I started
charging my mum to do the ironing, I’ve always been a bit of an entrepreneur.”
She reckons her fellow students do resent the fact she isn’t struggling for
money to an extent, but she isn’t the sort of person to rub it in their
faces.
Laura said: “I think maybe my friends do get a bit jealous of all the
money I make – but they can see how much time and effort I put into it, so I
don’t think they envy it.”
Despite the fact Laura now rakes in the big bucks from her eBay business, she
admitted she still loves a bargain and always hunts around for the cheapest
deals.
Here are Laura’s top 10 tips for making money on eBay.
1. Sell your items in auction format starting at 99p or less. We all get
excited by a good deal. Your 20p Topshop dress will attract attention from
day one and by the time the auction ends they’ll be so determined to outbid
other buyers, they’ve forgotten why they wanted the dress in the first
place.
2. Don’t waste time selling products or clothing in poor condition as it’s
very unlikely to sell and if it does you may even get complaints or negative
feedback.
3. Include key words in your title and take advantage of the full character
limit.
4. Take a photo of your product in good lighting with a plain background. For
clothing, try to wear the item yourself and take a photo or ask a friend to
help. This gives buyers a much better idea of how it will look and hugely
increases your chances of selling¿unless it’s something that’s really ugly!
5. Make sure your items end at peak viewing times – around 7pm is perfect. If
it ends at 2pm most people will be hard at work, not thinking about your
high-waisted jeans. Then just sit back and watch the manic last-minute bids
roll in!
6. Building a good seller standard will place your items higher up in search
results. This depends on a number of things such as your feedback
percentage, number of sales, quick postage, sell-through rate and response
time to messages.
7. Offer free postage to increase visibility. I keep mentioning visibility
because this is the most important thing. Making your listing look great is
no good if no-one can see it.
8. Keep organised this is particularly important if you want to sell a lot of
stuff. You don’t want to end up listing something you’ve already sold and
disappointing a buyer.
9. Post on time! As customers we expect more and more these days so make sure
you post when you say you will or sooner, or you’ll end up with lots of
angry messages from keyboard warriors!
10. Most importantly, stick with it! Don’t give up the first time something
doesn’t sell for what you’d hope for. It’s a really competitive market and
buyers have so much choice, so don’t get disheartened!