If you’ve never sold anything on eBay, then you might not know how to set up your listings or what you should be including in all of your listings. We will be sharing with you how to create templates for your listings and some tips on things to include. Our eBay selling tips are here to help you through the process, so you can start selling and making money!
IMPORTANT UPDATE: In our original post, we used Turbo Lister in our tutorial. Turbo Lister is no longer supported by eBay, so we have updated this post using the eBay selling tools.
If you haven’t read the first two parts to our series you can read them here:
Part 1: Beginner’s Guide to Start Selling on eBay
Part 2: How to Start Selling Items on eBay
You can also read other blog posts that we’ve written about selling on eBay here.
Disclosure: this post may contain affiliate links. This just means that we make a little money if you buy something through one of our links. It does not cost you any more to purchase an item through our links. It just helps support this blog so we can continue to bring you more content like this. As Amazon Associates we earn from qualifying purchases.
Choosing Your Listing Tool
While there are other tools you can use to create your listings, we recommend using the free eBay selling tool because it is easy and won’t cost you money.
If you are a bigger business, you may want to look into other tools with different features, but for the average seller, the eBay listing tool will work for you.
There are two options eBay will give you when you go to sell items.
To access the options click on the “Sell” button at the top of eBay’s home page.
Quick Listing Tool
If you don’t plan on selling items on eBay very often, the Quick Listing Tool is an okay option for you.
We do not use this tool because it doesn’t give us the options we want.
For all new eBay sellers, the Quick Listing Tool is the default tool.
This is what the Quick Listing Tool looks like:
You have to type in something about your item and then choose the item most similar that comes up. I used the example of a box set of Harry Potter books, so you can see what the results look like.
Once you’ve chosen an item by clicking “Sell one like this,” a window should pop up asking you what condition your item is in (like the picture below).
After you pick your condition, it will have you edit your listing. The main problem we have with using this tool is that it automatically fills in the information just like the similar item that you picked. These means that you have to be very careful to go through all the settings and make sure they are accurate to your specific item. Since it fills in the info for you, it seems like it would be easy to accidentally leave in incorrect information. See the image below of our example of Harry Potter books and all the information that it automatically filled in.
Business Tool
We instead use the Business selling tool (even though we aren’t a business). To use this tool, you will need to click the “Business Tool” button after you have clicked on the “sell” button on the home page.
Then, it will ask you if you want to switch or stay, so you should choose “switch” if you want to use this tool. You will have the option to switch back to the Quick Listing Tool at any time. Even though it says that the business tool is recommended for high-volume sellers, we think brand new sellers can use it easily.
The Business Tool allows you to create templates to save you time when you are creating listings. For this tutorial, we will be using the Business Tool.
How to Create a Template
After you have switched to the Business Tool, it will allow you to create your first template.
You can create multiple templates depending on the kinds of things you sell.
For example, if you sell a lot of books and puzzles, you could have one or more templates for selling books and a template for selling puzzles. This could save you time if you always want to include certain specifics for those items.
When creating your template, you only have to include the name of your template and the category for the item. Everything else is optional for your template, so you can pick and choose which things you want to include.
In this tutorial, we are going to discuss the things we include in our templates.
Template Name
You should give your template some type of name specific to what kind of template it will be. For example, if I sold a lot of kids or teen books, I might call it “Children & YA Fiction Books.”
Category
You have to pick at least one category. For most categories, there are also sub categories for you to choose as well. The more specific you can be the better.
If you are not sure what category to list your item, you can use the search categories feature and type in some words to describe your item.
We think a better option would be to search for your item on eBay and see what category other people (who actually sold their item) put the same or similar item into.
To do this, type in your item in the search bar on eBay’s home page. Then, use the filters tool to see items that have already sold. If you click on an item and choose “see original listing,” it will show you what category they listed their item.
Second Category
After you have picked a category, you have the option to choose a second category as well. This is optional but sometimes helpful if your item fits in more than one category. You can follow the same steps for choosing a second category.
Note: you will have to pay a nonrefundable fee if you choose to have a second category!
Item Specifics
The next big chunk of the template has a bunch of different sections that you can fill out for your template, or you can leave them blank and fill them in for your specific listings. It really depends on how specific you want your template to be.
For this tutorial, we are going to skip until the Item Description section.
Item Description
The description is one of the most important parts of your auction. This is where you are honest with your buyers so that they know exactly what they are buying.
We recommend using the “Advanced Editing” button to make your description stand out even more.
You can choose what font you want, font size, font design, and several other tools. Make sure that whatever you choose, it is easy to read!
For the template, there are some basic things you will want to have on every auction. These are your specific policies as a seller.
If you want to have different policies based on the type of auction, you can create a template for just your description. To do this, click “Advanced Editing,” and then use the drop down menu where it says, “insert custom template.” Choose the option of “Create a template.”
These are the things we include in all of our auctions:
- All of our items come from a smoke-free home.
- We try to examine our items as thoroughly as possible, but we are not experts. If you have any questions please ask before bidding, because we do not offer refunds. We will try to answer as soon as possible. Questions asked 3 hours or less before the auction ends may not be answered in time.
- Payment for an item is required within 3 days of the auction’s end.
- Shipping is either through Priority Mail, Parcel Select, or Media Mail if it applies. Multiple items can be combined for a cheaper shipping rate if wanted.
- If an item is very large, we can also ship Fed-Ex if needed. We do not ship internationally, since we cannot guarantee an item’s arrival after it leaves the United States.
You can decide exactly what you want your buyers to know. You do not have to have the same policies that we do, but you should definitely have some policies in place!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Since March 2020, shipping services have been delayed, so we have added an additional section to our description that says we are currently shipping with FedEx because USPS is experiencing huge delays of up to a month. We would encourage you to add something to your description that lets people know of the delays because eBay does not tell buyers that when they give them estimated times of delivery.
Selling Details
Format & Duration
After creating your description, you have the option to choose your listing format and duration.
We always list our items as auctions, but you can change the type of auction with the drop down arrow if you want it to just be a fixed-price listing.
You also need to choose the DURATION of your auction (this is how many days your auction will be available once you post it). We typically list our auctions for 5 days. You can choose 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 days using the drop down arrow.
If you choose to do a fixed-price listing, then the duration will be Good ‘Till Cancelled. This means that unless you cancel the listing, it will renew every month unless it sells. The bad thing about this is that you will also be charged every time it renews, so you have to pay attention to that.
Payment Options
We definitely recommend that you use PayPal for payments. This is a safe and easy way to accept PayPal from other people as well as credit cards.
If you don’t have a PayPal account, you should set one up. It is free and easy to use. We explain how to create an account in this post.
It also gives you the option to require immediate payment when someone purchases something as a Buy It Now. We highly recommend doing this to avoid people not paying for the item.
Shipping Details
Domestic Shipping
You will need to decide what shipping options you want to give your buyers. You can offer a flat rate for your auctions if you would like, but know that this might turn some people away if it is too high. We always choose “calculated:cost varies by buyer location” because this customizes the shipping costs based on where the buyer lives. Use the drop down menu to choose your type of shipping.
You do not pay shipping costs! Your buyers will pay it unless you offer free shipping!
While we don’t recommend it, you could also choose “free shipping,” but this means that you have to pay the shipping costs!
Shipping Services
You can choose up to 4 different shipping services. We choose 2, but that is up to you. You should have one that is faster than the other.
We choose “USPS Parcel Select Ground (2 to 9 business days)” and “USPS Priority Mail (1 to 3 business days).” If we are selling books, we choose “USPS Media Mail (2 to 8 business days)” instead of Parcel Select Ground.
If you are selling a large item, you might want to offer a FedEx or UPS shipping instead.
It is really up to you what you want to choose. Keep in mind the type of places you have in town to mail your packages. We have a place near us that ships FedEx and UPS besides USPS, but if you don’t have a place nearby that ships that way, then you might want to stick with USPS.
You also need to choose your handling time. This is the maximum number of days that a buyer will have to wait before you mail the package. It is great if you can get it shipped earlier, but you need to have a maximum number of days set in place.
International Shipping
You do NOT have to offer international shipping, but you may if you’d like. We do not offer international shipping because we can not guarantee that the item will get to the person after the item crosses the border. It is up to you whether you want to offer it or not.
If you choose to offer international shipping, just know that there can be additional fees due to shipping regulations in other countries.
Customize Your Template
If there are certain features of the template that you will never use, then you have the option to remove them from the page so that it loads faster and is less cluttered.
To do this, click the “Customize” button at the top of the page and un-check the boxes of the sections that you don’t care about.
Saving Your Template
When you’re done with your template, you can save or preview it. If you need to edit it at any time, you can do this as well.
Check out some of our other posts:
If using the business tool do you still have the option of uploading a picture?
Hi Renetta,
Yes, the business tool will allow you the option to upload pictures. The big difference between the business tool and the simple tool is that the business tool gives you a lot more options.