I’ve made £250k from eBay – my top selling tips to get the highest price including screenshot trick

A SAVVY seller has shared how they managed to make thousands of pounds by flogging goods on eBay.

Joseph Holman made £250,000 profits as a teenager selling items on eBay, using the cash to buy his first Porsche.

The Luton-based businessman became known locally as “The eBay King’”thanks to his ability to turn clobber into cash.

He now runs his own eco-friendly home furnishing brand, known as Green Doors, but he has been making money from eBay since he was just a kid.

As a pre-teen Holman invested his birthday and pocket money into a bulk order of magnetic ‘stick and ball’ games, which he then sold on individually.

Joseph, now 33, ended up netting a profit of around £2,000 in just six weeks.

“I was hooked on buying and selling anything I could,” he shared.

By the time he was 16 the savvy youngster had £30,000 saved up from eBay profits, eventually purchasing a moped to make deliveries.

The following year he bought a car, which he said made selling larger items possible as he could go and pick them up.

This decision helped him bag £50,000.

His friends started calling him the “The eBay King”, earning the name by selling everything from soaps to statues and baths to bikes.

He added: “By the time I was 20, I had made over two hundred grand, all from selling things on eBay.”

Joesph is sharing his tips for success after eBay announced it had scrapped fees for private sellers, making it more profitable to sell on the platform.

Now sellers using the marketplace can take home more money when they flog secondhand items including CDs, books, toys and furniture.

Before the change, private sellers had to pay an enormous fee of 13.22% when selling items on eBay.

These included a 12.8% “final value” fee plus 30p per order and 0.42% “regulatory operating” fee.

For a seller listing a chest of drawers worth £20 the change would save them £2.94 in fees.

They will now take home the full £20 instead of the previous £17.06.

For items worth just one or two pounds the fee changes will have an even greater impact.

This is because previously there was a fixed 30p element to how the final value fee was calculated.

On a £3 transaction, this would be equal to 10% of the seller’s total profit, without including the other elements of the fees.

It comes just months after eBay slashed fees to sell secondhand clothes on its website in a bid to compete with other platforms including Vinted and Depop.

Here are Joseph’s top tips for making money on eBay.

Do your research

The eBay king recommends carefully researching the product you are selling – and taking a simple screenshot can mean bagging a buyer willing to pay more.

He said: “Try to find the highest original Recommended Retail Price (RRP) online, take a screenshot of this, and add it to the eBay photos.

The RRP is the price a manufacturer suggests a retailer should sell a product for, but in some cases they can charge higher or lower.

Joesph said by showing customers the highest RRP they can see how much they are saving if they bought it somewhere else.

Cause a stir

To make sure your product stands out Joseph said to list your items as “Buy it Now/Best Offer”’.

By listing your product as “Buy it Now” it means customers can snap it up immediately for a fixed price that you as the seller have decided on.

Alternatively, you can list it as “Best Offer” which allows sellers to invite buyers to negotiate the price of an item.

 For example, you can list an item for £60 but be open to offers either higher or lower.

“This allows customers to quickly purchase your product, rather than waiting for an auction to end, which they might forget to bid on,” he said.

You can set your preferences to automatically accept or decline offers of a certain amount, and use the counteroffer feature to negotiate with prospective buyers.

The counteroffer allows sellers to come back with a different price than the buyer offered.

For example, if someone offers £40 for an item you can go back and suggest they pay £50.

The buyer has 48 hours to accept the new offer from the seller.

Ensure your item is looking the best

Joseph said it is important to know your audience and provide lots of pictures of the item you’re selling to ensure you make a sale.

He said: “Take the maximum number of photos you can upload and a video if necessary, so the customer can see all angles.”

The pro also said sellers should describe any defects to demonstrate that “you’re an honest seller, and provide a clear and engaging description”.

He added: “Understand the product and the type of customer it will attract – listings for a piece of art should be more detailed than those for an IKEA chair.”

Use keywords

When listing an item sellers should also consider using keywords to make their product stand out.

“The eBay title is crucial, especially the first four words, as they affect the algorithm,” Joesph said.

“Make sure to use relevant keywords first and use the entire space available for the title.”

When doing this sellers should pick three to five keywords that relate closely to their item.

Ask yourself what words people are likely to use in a search engine when looking for what you’re selling.

For example, if you are selling a dress from a specific brand make sure you use that in your title.

Once you have these keywords, use them appropriately in your listing title and item description.

You should make sure that you do not make any typos in keywords or listing titles as this can stop customers from finding your product.

eBay is not the only platform you can sell your goods on.

The Sun recently shared top tricks and tips for how to make your items stand out on Vinted.

You can read more about this by clicking the link here.