Hi,

I've never used ebay so can't be of any help but I know someone else will be a bit of an expert so hopefully they'll jump in and give you a primer!

Hi Gisele,

I've sold loads of stuff on ebay so I'll try and give you the lowdown...

Here in the UK you don't pay tax on any money you earn as a private seller. Maybe for Malta is different. I'm sure that you'll be able to find out in a FAQ section on ebay.

You can put your item on as an auction so the listing runs for a set amount of days (you choose - there's 5, 7, 10 etc). People then bid against one another and the price will rise. Or you can put it on Buy It Now where you choose a fixed price for your item and that's what you will sell the item for if someone buys it.

You can also have an auction with a buy it now option. Once you have 1 bid the buy it now option disappears.

You can also set a reserve on your item which means that you don't sell your item unless someone bids the reserve price (but they don't know what that is. The listing will say "reserve not met" until they react the reserve price, then the listing will say "reserve met".

You pay a fee to list an item and it's about 15p for a listing & 1 picture starting at 99p or less. If you add more pics you pay per pic. If you start your item at £1 or more the fee is more. If you put a Buy it now then you pay more. If you put a reserve price on you also pay more.

You also pay a final value fee when your item sells. This is the winning bid or buy it now price but does not include postage. That's why you get some people who start an item at 99p but then put £5.00 postage as they won't pay fees for the £5.00, just the 99p (if that's how much the item sells for.

If your buyer pays by paypal then you will also get charged a fee by paypal (but you are not charged as a buyer).

I can't remember offhand what the fees for these things are, but they're on the site.

If you're going to sell on ebay then I'd recommend that you do some homework first. Make sure you have a decent picture of all the items you wish to sell. Search on ebay first to see if anyone else is selling the same or similar and then decide on a price. It's no good putting your book/DVD/etc on for £££ if there are 10 already on at 99p with no bids. Remember, you pay the listing fee regardless of whether your item sells.

Then make sure that you charge the correct amount for postage and don't forget the packaging. Unless you have a load of jiffy bags then you will have to buy some. Include the cost of any jiffy bags etc in the P&P price. The Royal Mail website has a pricing chart for sizes/weights. I'm sure that you'll be able to find information on the net for the equivalent Maltese postal service.

Also remember that you're going to have to get your items to the post office too (unless the buyer collects). It's not unreasonable to add a bit on to your P&P cost to cover this.

Make sure you add as much info to the title for your item as possible so that it's picked up in searches.

HTH,

Rachel