Beginner's Mistakes

After reading a bunch of different threads a lot of people here talk about various mistakes they made when first starting out. I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the biggest mistake you made when you first started selling things online.

My single biggest mistake was only relying on eBay to sell items, instead of looking at more profitable outlets like craigslist.

Anybody else?

I still am starting out. I've only sold a couple of my current product on eBay and the first one I sold, I put it in a box and put some bubble wrap in it for protection. I charge a flat rate of $7.00 for shipping. With that shipping method, I was charged more than $5.00 to ship the product. I decided to try putting the product in a bubble mailer, I just got back from the store and it only cost me $2.66!

So to help beginners, I would just say to test things out and try different things when you're starting out and see what works.

Absolutely test thing out to see which works best for you. I would say the biggest mistaake I've made while selling on ebay was shipping also. i wanted to make sure people got their items as quickly as possible so I always used priority mail. Now I know that parcel post or first class mail is the way to go. I really don't think people expect to get there items in 2-3 days unless they request it. More often than not buyers will opt for the cheaper option!

Absolutely test thing out to see which works best for you. I would say the biggest mistaake I've made while selling on ebay was shipping also. i wanted to make sure people got their items as quickly as possible so I always used priority mail. Now I know that parcel post or first class mail is the way to go. I really don't think people expect to get there items in 2-3 days unless they request it. More often than not buyers will opt for the cheaper option!

Hi,
I ave a question for regarding parcel post or first class mail?

I have an account with the USPS, but when I log in it dose not have the option to ship by parcel post, how do you do it? 'click & Ship only gives you the Priority mail option.

John (bacpro)

Through Paypal shipping the option is there.