How To Get Started In Reselling/Picking Part 5

April is almost over now but one thing that is picking up for us is our sources, especially garage/yard sales.  We apologize it has been over two months since our last blog but we have been getting ready to move to our new apartment. 

This last part for the "How To Get Started In Reselling/Picking" Part 5 will focus on your customer base as well as staying established as a reseller.

Regardless of your selling venue online or local, the most important thing to your business is your customer base.  Return business is a great thing and in order to establish this, you will need to make sure you keep your customers happy and keep them coming back for more!

Honest Service With A Smile

The one thing that we have discovered since we have been reselling for almost 2 years now is this: Keep Your Customers Happy! as well as: Honest Service With A Smile!  But, you say, some customers are dishonest and even try to scam you, especially on eBay!  We have run into a couple of these types of customers since we have been reselling.  And we have dealt with them in the most polite/accommodating manner that we can without bending too much on our side.


Communication is a big key to customer satisfaction.  We sell mostly on eBay but we know that eBay keeps track of all messages that we send to customers as well as messages that customers send to us.  Keeping this in mind, we make sure to have all our communication via the eBay messages so there is a record of what is being said back and forth.  We also feel that honesty is huge with all the customers.  We try to describe all our items as accurately as possible and provide plenty of pictures, including flaws, damage etc. that might be on our items.  In addition to this, we always include a packing slip along with a handwritten note of thanks to each customer we sell to!  Every little bit to show that your customer matters does help!

Staying Established

How do you stay established as a reseller?  That question will depend on many factors and each individual is different so there is no real true answer.  The only advice we can give you is that you have to Hustle Hard for everything that you want to sell! Most assume that reselling doesn't take much work or is easy to do.  This is very far from the truth!  It is work - hard work at that, but if you enjoy self-employment and its perks, you must also realize the work and motivation that goes with it.  You are your own motivator.  If you don't put the time and effort into it, you will get nothing.  We work 7 days a week (although it is part-time) we put in as much work as we can when we have the extra time away from our real jobs.  We enjoy it and look forward to the future!  Our goal is to be able to work full-time as resellers.  We believe that we will achieve this!  Believe in yourself!! Good Luck All!  Keep those Cha-Chings coming!

Thank you for reading our last part in the "How To Get Started In Reselling/Picking" Part 5. We welcome any comments, questions or suggestions.  Have a wonderful week!

How To Get Started In Reselling/Picking Part 4

We hope everyone had a wonderful Winter Holiday and a Happy New Year!  We have been extremely busy since our last part of this series so we apologize for the lapse of time between the last one and this one.
Please note that we do not consider or promote ourselves as "experts" in the field of reselling but are simply sharing tips and suggestions that may work for you or that has worked for us in our reselling journey.

This next part for the "How To Get Started In Reselling/Picking" Part 4 will focus on where you should start selling your items.  Where do you want to sell online?  We have sold all of our items online via eBay.  This post is a simple and easy description of eBay and Amazon.  For more in-depth information, please visit the links we have provided in the descriptions.

Selling on eBAy

Selling on eBay has been great for us but there are some re-sellers who prefer other online avenues to sell.  At first we sold on eBay without an eBay store but found that we had a better deal having the store instead of listing items.  Not to mention there are a lot of specials we get almost on a monthly basis that allows us to list even more items.  There are currently three different types of eBay stores available:


Basic - Allows up to 200 free fixed price listings and 100 auction style listings for $19.95 per month

Premium - Allows up to 500 free fixed price listings and 100 auction style listings for $49.95 per month

Anchor - Allows up to 2500 free fixed price listings and 100 auction style listings for $179.95 per month

We have the Basic store and it fits our budget as well as what we list on a monthly basis.

Fixed Price Listings are Buy It Now/Best Offer.

Auction Style Listings can be bid on for as low/high of a starting price that you desire although you can also put a Buy It Now on Auctions as well.

There are certain categories that fall into the free listings for auctions.  Please see the link here for that list as well as insertion fees:  eBay Store Fees

Other Online Selling Avenues

 There are many other online selling avenues to choose from.  The biggest one being Amazon which we have yet to delve into.  We will probably check out Amazon soon since Amazon has introduced Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon).  From what we have heard from other re-sellers and have read on our own, Amazon FBA is a great way to sell new items as well as used items (certain restrictions apply in this category).  According to Amazon, there are 5 easy steps on how to use FBA:


1. You send your products to Amazon 
2. Amazon receives and stores your products
3. Customers order your products
4. Amazon picks and packs your products
5. Amazon ships your products

For more information about Amazon FBA, please check out their link:
Amazon FBA

Even though ETSY is one of the top 3 online selling venues, we have only dabbled a bit in that venue.  We have also tried Bonanza but have not had luck with that venue. You can google online selling sites and check out what works best for you.  Experiment and see which selling venue will be the best choice! 

Please check back for the next part in our "How to Get Started In Reselling/Picking" blog. We welcome any comments, questions or suggestions. Remember, we are still new to this so we are always open to learning more about this and sharing with others. Thank you for viewing our blog.