Do you dream of selling crafts on eBay? Here’s how to take the plunge and post your first auction.

It couldn’t be simpler! Lots of crafters tell me they’d like to sell their crafts on eBay but they are not computer whizzes and are a bit unsure of the process. So, here just for you, is a step by step introduction to selling your crafts on eBay for the first time.

Step 1: Create an eBay seller’s account.

If you’ve used eBay before to bid for or buy items, then you already have an account – you must simply log in and click ‘Sell’ in the toolbar (at the top of the page).

Next click ‘Create a seller’s account’ and you’re ready to start selling some crafts. Simple! If you don’t already have an eBay account then you’ll need to open one first using the ‘register’ link underneath the toolbar. Then click ‘Sell’ followed by ‘Create a seller’s account’. Next, follow the on-screen instructions. It’s a fairly quick process but remember that you will need to give, for security, card details and bank information.

Step 2: Choosing which crafts to sell?

For your first auction with eBay, it doesn’t really matter what you sell but we recommend selling smaller craft items (both in value and size, if possible). Some customers may be put off bidding for an expensive item if you have a low feedback. It’s much better to build your feedback rating up with lots for smaller auctions than trying to jump right into the bigger items.

Step 3: Creating your first eBay auction.

The next step is to submit your item. To do this click ‘Sell’.

First, you need to choose a category – the easiest way is to simply type out the item’s description and let eBay recommend the most popular one. Then you’ll need to write the title and description. The important t

hing to bear in mind when writing the title is including some key words. These are words that you think may be included in any searches by potential customers – but remember, they must be relevant to the item that you are selling! “No reserve” is a good example as some people only bid on items without a reserve price.

As much clear information about the item, as you can include, should be put in the description box.

Now enter the starting price. It’s always recommended that you use $0.01 as the best starting price; as it will attract more interest and items, more often than not, always sell for much more than the starting bid. Ideally, you need to attract at least two serious bidders. The duration of the auction is the next thing you need to include – the options are 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. Which option to go for depends on personal preference.

Longer sales will usually get more bids, as they are ‘in the shop window’ for longer. However, the turnaround from posting the auction to completing the sale is obviously longer, too. Short auction times are ideal for quick sales and it’s worth bearing in mind that some customers often filter searches to show only auctions that are near to closing.

The next step is to add any pictures to the auction. Items with pictures always sell for more, and good pictures of your items are essential for selling crafts, especially. The last step concerns the payment methods and postal arrangements. Simply tick the payment methods you will accept (Pay Pal is the most common, safest and popular method and we recommend that), and where you are willing to post to (for now just trade within your own country). Now review your item and once you’re happy with everything, click ‘Submit’!

Step 4: Wait for your craft item to sell.

This is the easy bit, and the fun part! Do nothing, buyers will find your item and some of them will bid on it. You may be emailed with questions about the item or the postage or delivery. You should always answer these questions as swiftly and clearly as possible and remember, if you come across as polite and efficient, it could make the difference between the customer bidding or not.

If there is no interest, don’t panic! If an item doesn’t sell then you can re-list it for free.

Step 5: Collect your payment and post the item.

Once the auction has ended, eBay will send your buyer an invoice for payment of the item. Do not send the item until the buyer has paid AND you have the money confirmed in your Pay Pal account.

EBay will then send you a confirmation email including the buyer’s address. All you do is post the item to this address! Please note, it’s always worth taking the time to package the item carefully.

I hope you enjoyed selling your first item. Easy as pie! Here’s to many more successful eBay craft sales!

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Now when you arrive at your craft show, keen to start selling crafts there are some things that you can be forgiven for forgetting. You can easily forget cellotape, scissors, or your lunch box and flask. It’s annoying when this happens but not a catastrophe.

But, it is a bit of a disaster if you forget your craft marketing materials, these little items are very important. So I recommend you have a separate little box for these that you pack up at home, call it your ‘marketing box’. Then when you are ticking things off your packing list be sure to pack and tick off your ‘marketing box’!

So what are these craft marketing and promotion materials anyway, and why is so important that they are packed and used?

What are craft marketing materials?
Well in it’s simplest form it might be a pack or two of business cards with your contact details, email and website. That’s great! Or you might have a flyer printed up with some images of your crafts and a little story about what you make, how you make your crafts, how you got into crafting and your background etc. You might even have a price list with images of your stock crafts. For more advanced crafters you might have a little brochure or booklet showing off your wares. What you have is down to your budget and your experience. At the very least have business cards with your contact details and your website address if you have one. If you can give a few little details about your crafts too all the better.

Remember, half the purpose of attending craft shows is to get customers interested in your crafts. Sure you want to sell crafts on the day, but you also want to generate interest in your crafts and start seducing potential customers for the future. It is often said in marketing circles that you need to promote yourself at least 7 times to a potential customer before they make a purchase.

So, you want to promote yourself and your crafts as much as possible in as many different ways as possible. That is why craft marketing materials are so, so important. They provide vital promotion for you even when you are not present. They invite potential customers to think about you and act long after the craft fair has ended.

By far the best promotional tool is a website. I would strongly recommend that you put energy and effort into getting a website, then use your website address everywhere within your promotional materials, on your business cards, brochures, flyers, price labels, and so on. The more people see your web address the better.

So, if you try to think about the process of selling crafts as not just what you can sell on the day of a craft fair or craft show, but also what seeds you can plant for future crafts sales with the use of informative and compelling craft marketing materials.

And of course, as this series of articles is all about things you can do before a craft show, it goes without saying that the important thing to do is prepare your marketing materials before hand. You can write and prepare them yourself on a home PC and print them of on some nice card or paper. This is especially ok for a flyer or simple leaflet.

In fact I suggest that you do it this way for this simple reason. You need to keep adding to it and improving it as you go along. Your sales patter and marketing skills will improve quickly so you don’t want to be stuck with 5000 flyers that you now think are out of date and unsuitable. So if you write and print as you need them you can constantly update them and improve them as you learn and get better.

However, I do recommend that you have some cards printed up professionally. You will need a lot of them and it is very time consuming printing your own, plus they always smack of cheapness and lack professionalism. Get some nice cards designed and printed by a recommended supplier. The best plan is to pop onto your favourite craft forum and ask other crafters who they use.

If you start to market yourself and your crafts at each and every craft show you attend you will soon start to see results and selling crafts long after that craft show has ended.

Next time I will talk about the importance of packaging and how you should pack the craft items that you sell at craft fairs and shows.

This is part five of CRAFT SHOW SUCCESS  – PLANNING YOUR CRAFT FAIR “14 simple tasks for craft show success…that you can do at home before the show”

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I want to talk a little bit about trust and the psychology of selling crafts on eBay. One of the key pillars of eBay is trust. As much as there are rules and regulations and all sorts of checks and boundaries within the massive corporate machine that eBay now is, it is still based upon trust. A seller advertises an item a buyer agrees to buy it for a price, the buyer sends money and the seller promises to send out the item.

In this process the buyer is sending money for an item they haven’t seen, or touched or even know actually exists apart from a photo that is supposed to be the actual item.

Even with Paypal assurances and cover, the buyer is still ‘trusting’ the seller to send the item.

And here is where lots of new eBay craft sellers make things harder for themselves. When you set up your new eBay account and you are eager to start selling crafts, just take a moment to think about how your account looks to your potential buyers.

You see eBay has a system called ‘feedback’ and this allows buyers and sellers to provide feedback for each other after a purchase has been made. Other eBay users can then view the feedback and see if a seller or buyer is to be trusted.

So you register your new seller account and a potential customer comes along, views your crafts and wants to make a purchase. Before they buy your craft item they go to check out your feedback, and viola you have a zero rating – you don’t have any feedback at all, not as a seller or buyer. So you are not really seen as a ‘trusted’ seller yet.

Here what you should do. After you ahve registered your eBay seller account, have a good search around and buy up to 10 items from other eBay sellers. Choose sellers that are selling crafts, buy cheap $1.00 items that you might need for your own craft projects.

After your craft supplies arrive, leave feedback for the seller (hopefully positive) and it is very likely the seller will leave positive feedback for you.

The outcome will be that for about $20.00 (10 x $1.00 purchases plus say $10.00 p&p charges) you will have gained some eBay history and more importantly some eBay ‘trust’!

This is a fantastic way to instantly give your eBay seller account a boost and set you up on the successful path to selling crafts on eBay.

To your online success!

Steve

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