Annie
3rd Oct 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes
If you like to sell your old clutter online, eBay fees used to eat into your profit. Not anymore! Now, you can sell fee-free across all categories except motor vehicles. This could save sellers a huge chunk of cash over time. eBay also announced further steps to make selling online for private sellers easier – here’s the lowdown.
How Much Could You Make with Your Clutter?
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What’s Changed at eBay
eBay first introduced fee-free selling for private sellers on their fashion categories earlier this year. The success of this trial means private sellers can now sell anything they want without fees (except cars, motorbikes, and vehicles). They have also taken several steps to improve the selling experience and safety for those who use the online auction site.
Simplified Selling
The selling process is now much easier than before, with AI-tools aiding sellers not only to find similar items for accurate pricing, but also to write descriptions and enhance photos with ease.
Simplified Delivery
How many times have you wanted to sell something on eBay but been put off by the postage process and costs? Now, sellers can use a tracked and fully insured delivery service at competitive rates – prepaid by the buyer, to make it easy to send. The buyer provides the information on their prepaid label for you, helping reduce the risk of seller error.
For local listings, eBay has improved its user experience to find listings only local to you available for collection, skipping the delivery costs altogether. The listings are still covered by eBay’s Money Back Guarantee, too.
eBay Balance
From mid-October, sellers will be able to use their eBay balance for their own purchases on the site. This simplifies the use of the site as a private seller and a buyer, especially as you can also use your eBay Balance for enhanced listings or to buy delivery labels, too.
How Much Could You Make with Your Clutter?
How long is a piece of string?! There are so many things you can sell on eBay that it’s easy to raise hundreds or even thousands of pounds from your unwanted stuff.
Things that sell particularly well are:
According to eBay, half of the UK’s households estimate they hold between £50 to £300 of unwanted items, with a quarter sitting on more than £500 of unused items that could make easy money on online auction. People who use eBay to clear their clutter say they do so to be more sustainable and reduce waste, make extra money, and clear extra space in their home.
Remember HMRC Rules
Remember that if you regularly sell items online, you will need to register for Self Assessment and declare your earnings each year to HMRC if you make more than £1000 a year.
This usually doesn’t apply if you are selling unwanted items from your own home, irregularly. However, if you decide to make a side business flipping thrifted items on eBay – which will require a business account on the auction site, too – you’ll need to register with HMRC.