Selling Clothes on eBay: How To Make People Trust You

After months of procrastination, I’ve finally set up my own eBay account to sell old clothes. I’ve been meaning to get started for ages but for a while I really struggled to find the time.

My parents’ house is currently full of unwanted clothes. My mum has tons of stuff she’s keen to get rid of, I have loads of dresses that no longer fit me, and my brother, who has fairly expensive taste, has plenty of Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch shirts that he has barely worn. Kerching!

Usually we tend to get rid of clothes during car boot sales, a great way of getting rid of loads of stuff all in one go. The problem with car boot sales though is you do find yourself selling items for far less than you’d originally hoped. You’d be lucky to get more than a quid for a Fred Perry t-shirt that you paid £50 for and have only worn twice. And this dilemma is kind of what spurred me on to give eBay a try.

Rather than jumping in at the deep end, I thought I’d start by advertising just a few items to test the water. So I’ve decided to start with a few of my brother’s clothes that are at the cheaper end of the scale (If you call Topman cheap). There’s just one problem…no one is placing any bids!

Boosting feedback

Since I’m new to the world of eBay and no one has left me any feedback yet, it could be that potential buyers don’t have the confidence to buy from me in case I don’t send them the items they’ve paid for.

So I’ve done a little research to find out how I can boost my eBay score. One of the most common tips I’ve found on numerous websites suggests buying a few items from other sellers to prove that you are a prompt payer.

I can’t help but think that this is not without its risks. First of all, people don’t actually have to leave feedback at all, so I may end up buying things that I don’t really need only to not receive the feedback that I do need!

Retaining profits

Also, buying items in the first place will eat into my profits, particularly since what I’m selling at the moment isn’t of high value.

I currently have nine items listed on the website (eBay says I can only list 10 each month). Six tops have a starting price of £1.50, and three start at 99p. I’m charging £3.50 for delivery to begin with, which should cover the cost of packaging and sending each item.

But in order to avoid making this whole thing a waste of time, when buying just for the sake of building up my score, I’m going to have to be careful to only get things that I really need. So no clothes! I’m currently contemplating buying a year’s supply of toothpaste so at least it will get used… but I’m concerned that the seller might not leave me feedback anyway. Argh!

Detailed descriptions

If no one has placed any bids by the end of the week, I’m going to look at improving the description I’ve included with each item. I’ve already put a bit of effort in with info such as the following:

But I guess I could include measurements from pit-to-pit and length of the arm too. I could also include more photos to give people a better indication of how the shirts look.

Since I’m a newbie to the world of eBay, I’d love to hear from you if you have any tips for getting people to give me feedback without wasting money. What do you think are the most useful items to buy when you just want to boost feedback and get people to trust you?

If you fancy having a nosey at my eBay account, you can find me at jensavingup.