darkSpyro

Please note: I'm not trying to sell them here. I'm only asking here because I haven't sold on Ebay before and I'd like input on what might sell best.

I've got a full set of 18 Trap Masters as well as the Light and Dark Expansion Packs, and also all four expansion levels, all opened and gently used (so 2x Knight Light and Knight Mare, and 2x Light and Dark Exp Figures)
I've also got a bunch of traps:
Earth - Hammer, Hourglass, Handstand
Air - Scream, Sword, Chubby Bottle
Magic - Log Biter, Skull
Fire - Flame x2
Tech - Flame, Winged Helmet
Undead - Skull
Life - Hammer x2 (starter ones)
Water - Totem Pole x2 (starter ones)
Kaos - standard

As well as 7 cores and 2 reposes.

My plan was to post the 6 items from the Expansion Packs as one batch. After that I wasn't sure. I could post the four expansion pieces together, or the Light/Dark Exp pieces and the Knights (both?). And it seems there'd be a decent market for selling all 18 trap masters at once, but that'd be a lot of money for a batch that people would probably already have some of.
Also, it seems like sets of traps on Ebay go best if they're all different elements. I was thinking of doing three batches of 6.
Any suggestions? Bad ideas? I'd obviously like to sell them in bigger batches so that it's done with (and so that I don't lose my shorts in one-off shipping charges. I don't want to fleece anybody, but I'd like to get fair value.
Thanks for any help!

Some advice from a nearly 20 year eBay seller here.

It seems you already have a decent plan, so go with that. If they do not sell, then try another method, like one large bulk lot to get rid of the harder to sell stuff. It should work out well if you are realistic with your prices.

Write something descriptive in the listings and use proper grammar, punctuation, etc. Your post here is decent enough, so you probably wouldn't write something half assed anyway, but I see far too many listings written like a moron was selling the item.

NEVER EVER say opened used items is "like new", as you'll get some insane buyer going hard core on you, seeing a speck of chipped paint and demanding a refund. Say every single piece is in "very good" shape even if it's "like new". It works out better that way and rarely does it effect the price you can get for the stuff.

Stuff still in boxes, should say light shelf wear or something to that effect. Basically you do not want to attract crazy buyers and using "Brand New" brings them out of the woodwork as it means "Gem Mint 10" and "Flawless" to some buyers.

"Fair value" is hard as the market on these things are dropping fast and you probably won't break even on what you had paid. Basically look at what the other items had sold for to get a good idea of what to sell yours at.

Do not list them as auctions. That is super important to never do! List them as 3 day "buy it nows" at the highest price which you wanted to get and make sure you select instant payment so you can get paid right away to avoid dead beat bidders.

If they don't sell, relist, relist relist. Most people buy stuff when it's a few hours away from ending, so do not select 30 day relists as they'll take forever to sell that way. It's better to spam your stuff with 3 day listings.

It's a good idea to lower the price just a couple dollars when relisting. Try not to be in a rush to unload the stuff and underprice what you got. These things could take several months to sell on ebay for a proper price unless you are giving them away for an unfair (to you) price.

Never EVER offer free shipping. Do weigh them up and enter the numbers into the boxes. That is because free shipping usually ends up to someone on the other side of the USA from you and it will cost you 2 to 3 times more. Let the buyer pay for it, they usually will.

Offer Fedex if you have something over 4 pounds. USPS charges an insane amount for heavy packages but Fedex charges a lot less. Now you can take those packages to your nearest Walgreens and drop it off as well.

Do NOT ship to other countries unless you use the ebay "Global Shipping Progam". Nothing against people other countries, but it's too much scamming going on and Paypal insists that need special tracking on all packages. It's a huge hassle to obey the rules, so let ebay mess around with that mess.

And of course take lots of images of your items, close-ups if possible. And always make sure they are well lit and in focus.

I think that's all of the best advice I can give. It's not really about how to list the items as you seem to have a good idea about that. It's about how to properly sell on ebay. Most people sell their stuff too cheaply because they don't know these tricks that the professional sellers like myself know and use to maximize profits.

if you have realistic prices there shouldnt be any problem to sell.

Fairyland's advice above is really, really good. I would agree with about 90% of that advice without any hesitation. Take it to the bank.

A few minor-ish points that are debatable:

1. I would not say "never" list an auction. If you are patient and willing to invest a decent amount of time/energy tracking the price fluctuations and supply/demand for your item, then yes, absolutely always use Fixed Price listings. But even then, unless your item is a really hot seller (and sadly Skylanders are not hot sellers anymore), I suggest adding the "Or Best Offer" feature to your Fixed Price listing. Sometimes there is a small/niche market for a moderately valuable/rare item, and the one or two people out there considering your item might be the type who prefer some negotiating power, even it means haggling just one or two dollars off your original price. The other time that an auction is appropriate is when you just want to move your merchandise ASAP, or you don't have the time/energy to monitor the marketplace, and you're willing to (possibly) accept a less than ideal price, just to clear your inventory.

2. Free shipping. I would argue that if you are selling Skylanders individually (or in small groups), you should absolutely offer free shipping (even if that means you're "hiding" the shipping cost by raising the price of your item by 1-to-3 dollars). Basically, if the item(s) weigh less than 13 ounces (including the box and packing materials), you can get USPS First Class prices, which include tracking, for very reasonable rates. Buyers (or at least a big percentage of buyers) LOVE free shipping. That said, if you are listing large groups of toys (total weight 1 to 4 pounds), I agree that free shipping isn't workable ususally, and buyers will most likely agree to Priority Mail rates, which are pretty good for the delivery speed. REALLY heavy stuff, as fairyland suggested, should go FedEx or UPS, *unless* you can properly fit the items into a "Flat Rate" USPS Priority Mail box (available in several sizes for free at the post office).

3. If you choose to sell stuff individually or in small groups, I *strongly* recommend purchasing some cardboard shipping boxes. It is a big time mistake, in my opinion, to ship Skylanders in any type of "bubble mailer" envelope. Don't buy boxes individually at Staples or anyplace like that, though. Seek out a local cardboard box distributor, or hit up an online service like ULine.

4. Keep in mind that some eBay sellers have *lengthy* track records for selling toys-to-life stuff, and your listings will be competing with theirs. And theirs get big boosts from eBay's search algorithms, if they have established consistent customer approval and speedy shipping/handling times. You will need really good photos and (probably) slightly lower prices to compete. If your photos are grainy, blurry, or have poor lighting, then don't even bother with listings. Don't borrow photos from a Google images search; take photos of your stuff, and if possible, edit them to make them look good.

Some clarifications,

-- I say to never auction items as most people don't know how to properly work auctions and they rarely have the proper rare stuff for auctions. For Skylanders there isn't really any need to auction them as the prices are pretty set on them. What usually happens is that people list stuff at 99 cent auctions and you get $5 for something you should have easily sold for $20 buy it now.

Another reason though, a bigger one, is that auctions attract deadbeat buyers. They keep your item off the market and away from legit buyers while you wait for a payment that will never come. This is why a lot of sellers stopped using auctions, myself included.

-- The concept of "free shipping" is dishonest to me. Sellers just add the cost to the item anyway, so why not be up front about it and have it as a side cost? I know buyers like it and they are fooled into thinking it's such a bargain, but my logic is what if your customer wants TWO of your Skylander figures? That person is paying something like $2.50 more to get two.

Yes, there are ways to adjust ebay to account for that and to give discounts but that's just getting too involved and too confusing for the average person to deal with. I feel it's better to just be straight up with your shipping and offer combined shipping based on the weight of the package. I know I'm in the minority on that one though but honestly I feel quite deceitful whenever I'm offering free shipping as I don't like to trick my buyers into buying anything.

-- Yes, I always use cardboard boxes myself so I forgot to warn about that as it's like breathing to me. I rarely buy stuff online, so I keep forgetting that other sellers will shove stuff into bubble mailers and all sorts of horrible ways just to save a buck. Always wrap anything well with bubble wrap (or old newspapers) and use strong boxes. Worse comes to worse, you can dumpster dive for free boxes, but finding small ones can be tricky. Visit your local dollar store and they usually have them 2 or 3 for a dollar. If you are using priority mail, then the post office has tons of free boxes for you somewhere at the office or you can ask for them.

-- Yeah, to combat the crazy listing algorithms in place, you basically have to keep your listings at 3 days and constantly relist. It's why ebay charges $1 for 1 day listings because sellers long found out that's how to abuse the system and get the most sales, so now most of them do 3 day listings as ebay doesn't charge more for that.

Oddly the listings which are about to end and the newly listed ones tends are the ones that gets the most hits. The dead time is always between those two periods, so you want to shorten that length of time as much as possible. If I could afford it, I would relist all my stuff at 3 days, but I'm only allowed so many free listings a month, so my most expensive items are at 3 days.

-- And another thing is that you pretty much have to ship out the same day you get paid or the very next day. If you wait a few days, then ebay gets all over you and makes life miserable by giving you seller defect strikes and other annoying things. Plus being a new seller, they'll probably have paypal keep your money for 21 days or until the person gets their item, whichever comes first. I don't know exactly how that works as I begun way before they started that silliness, but it is a thing that happens.

So you may need extra funds to pay to send the stuff before you even get paid. With that in mind, always use online shipping labels bought directly though ebay. It speeds that process faster and gives you the necessary tracking which is entered into the system automatically.

I really appreciate all of your responses. I'm officially an ebay seller. I decided to start with the easy listing, and even then, I made a few mistakes.

I wanted to get that first listing up, so I had it posted before I saw your responses. The "relist til it sells" thing could REALLY suck for more common stuff because it's a 30-day renewing listing, but not knowing that ahead of time, that's what it defaulted to. Also, the Make Offer option is annoying, and I didn't see a way to turn it off, so I had to decline a bunch of low-ball offers. Eventually, in the decline offer comment fields, I flat out put that I'm a new ebay seller, that I didn't intend to entertain offers, and that the price wasn't negotiable, but, that at $110, it was priced $15 below the most recent sales of the same items, so it's a good deal. (Mostly true. The one the day before went for $125, before that was $80, and before that was $129, so I figured close enough). One of the better offers actually met the full price after my response, so clearly it did some good.

So now I know, figure out how to remove the default 30 day thing, AND the "or Make Offer" thing, and I should be good to go.

A more specific question, I do have one more each of the bonus levels AND the characters that came with them (but not the traps or magic items). Would it be worth trying to sell all 8, or do people really only want the Light/Dark and the Knights? It's apparently pretty easy to get the other two (I did for $5 each at Five Below), but I don't know if that's really common knowledge.

Again, thanks to both of you!

Honestly, listing Skylanders items individually or in small sets/groups/lots is just a matter of preference, mostly based off how much time/money/energy you're willing to devote to shipping/packing/handling.
If you have a good supply of boxes and materials, and plenty of free time, and don't mind paying $2-3 to the USPS for each item shipped, then list individual items.
If you don't have a lot of boxes/supplies/time, or hate losing $2-3 to USPS per box, then list groups/sets.
If you choose to list sets/groups, you will likely need to get creative and choosy about which words to put in your listing's title/header. Although reputation and photo quality drive the search algorithms a good bit, one of the biggest factors is the listing's title. Don't waste a single character or space; don't waste words on stuff like "hot!", "super rare!", or "look!!". And be careful to avoid spelling errors and typos. Several years ago, I used to actively search for "slylanders" on eBay, and got some fantastic deals on figures, because no one else ever saw those listings (due to the spelling error).

As far as feedback is concerned, what have you found that works best as a seller?

Should I give feedback right away (now that it's in the mail and there's nothing more I can do about it besides hope and pray that the mailman doesn't crush the thing), or should I keep an eye on the tracking number and give glowing feedback as soon as it shows received, so that the buyer is reminded to reciprocate?

Quote: pjc613

[edit] figure out how to remove the default 30 day thing, AND the "or Make Offer" thing, and I should be good to go.

A more specific question, I do have one more each of the bonus levels AND the characters that came with them (but not the traps or magic items). Would it be worth trying to sell all 8, or do people really only want the Light/Dark and the Knights? It's apparently pretty easy to get the other two (I did for $5 each at Five Below), but I don't know if that's really common knowledge.

Again, thanks to both of you!

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As far as feedback is concerned, what have you found that works best as a seller?

Should I give feedback right away (now that it's in the mail and there's nothing more I can do about it besides hope and pray that the mailman doesn't crush the thing), or should I keep an eye on the tracking number and give glowing feedback as soon as it shows received, so that the buyer is reminded to reciprocate?

You can PM me a link to one of your listings so I can check out how you done.

Are you using a tablet/cell phone to list stuff? The ebay App? I'm pretty sure that they disable a few options that you need. You should log into ebay though the webpages instead and not the app. And even then you need to go to the bottom and select "classic site" or something to that effect and not use "mobile site". Or better yet, use a PC to do this.

I remember another warning. Ebay now defaults to "instant relist" for new sellers and those using cell phones. What happens is that some people forget that they are selling stuff and it sells months later when they had deleted their ebay app and not checking their email. It's causing a bit of controversy and I think they'll end up changing this rule, but basically it's a thing that happens now and pisses new sellers off greatly.

Anyway, you can probably still change what you did list, if you go to a PC and do it. You should be able to turn off best offer, take it off instant relist (you may need to cancel the listing and relist with a proper ending time) and you can probably still lower your days to at least 7. And find tons of other stuffs you can do too.

Something I got nailed on recently. Do not end any active listing if someone sends you a message about it. Ebay will think you are taking that item down to sell to a person directly. They are really hard core about that this year and also about your sharing emails and addresses, basically anything that could possibly give off a hint that you are selling items off ebay. They installed really harsh filters that is picking up more stuff than it should.

Hmm. I say try selling the set and if you don't get any where with that, then try selling just the Light/Dark and the Knights by themselves.

Feedback is broken now since you cannot neg a buyer so honestly it's a useless tool in relation to telling if buyers are any good. It's mostly a courtesy thing now, so leave it immediately when you ship the item out and don't worry about it. If the customer screws you offer, there is no way you can reflect that in the feedback to show others to avoid that person.

As for getting your feedback, you'll only get about 40% of your customers doing that. That's how a rate and I have almost 60 thousand feedbacks myself, so I end up with a lot of people just not doing it. Ebay will send a message to ask them to leave it for you after a while, but it's considered extremely rude for a seller to ask and to hold out on leaving feedback. So it's generally best to leave it immediately and don't worry if no one ever leaves you any. I know that sucks, but that's how it goes.

Also I wouldn't bother watching the tracking (let the customer do that) and it's not the customers fault if something happens to it during transit, so no reason to withhold the feedback for that reason. If it breaks in the mail, then you'll probably have to instantly refund and pray that the customer will work with you on a refund claim. If they claim that you had sent them the wrong item, then you're basically screwed as ebay favors the buyer 99 out of 100 times.

Basically as a seller you have to plan to take hits and bad transactions. I have about 1 percent "theft" myself with people scamming me on ebay and where I cannot do a thing about it other than let the customer have their way. You just have to hope it doesn't ever happen on something expensive like a $500 Skylander vs a $5 one. So avoid selling bad buyer bait like Iphones and the sort. Skylanders are a little chancy, but you should be OK as all the bratty kids are probably over that as a hobby and are looking to scam people over fidget spinners or whatever is hot this summer.

Agree with fairyland regarding feedback ratings. The feedback score for Buyers is essentially useless now. I think it probably was important back in the very early days of eBay's existence, but it's pointless now. Just write a quick "thank you!" or whatever in the Buyer's feedback once they've paid. There's no harm in waiting, but there's no benefit, either, so might as well just get it out of the way, as a courtesy to the Buyer, if nothing else.

I've been messing around lately selling some of my old games on EBay and it has been going pretty well. I'm not in the market to sell Skylanders at this point (love those little guys still, despite the franchise crash). One thing I've been doing lately is hanging onto boxes and packing materials when we get stuff shipped to us from Amazon/etc. I have a small pile of them near my desk. Amazon uses good materials, and I only have to add some old Target bags for additional padding on occasion. When people are buying collectible type stuff boxes will save lots of potential headaches over padded mailers and it really doesn't save you money to use mailers in the long run. When items sell for a decent amount I also take a picture of the box and packaging before sealing/shipping, just in case there is a problem.

With the boxes and a nearby post office I can usually have items packed well and shipped within a couple hours after they are paid, which goes a long way in keeping people happy and getting good feedback.