Easy ways to make money for kids

How to Make Money using Ebay, Amazon and Craig’s List

May 24, 2010 Nicole Dales

Selling old stuff is a great, fast way to make cash but yard sales are time consuming and often times do not drawl a big profit.

There are a lot of options online to sell products. One of the premier ways to sell is using Amazon. On the Amazon user home page, there is a button on the right side that says “Your account.” Click on it, and again on the right there is a button that said “your seller account.” Click on that and sign in. Link a bank account to receive payments and let the cash start rolling in.

Selling Products on Amazon

To sell a product, click on the list single item button. Search the product by the title, a keyword or the ISBN, UPC or ASIN. Amazon has an inventory of products, and only items in that inventory can be sold by an individual seller. If the item pops up, go for it. Find the product that matches and click on “sell yours here” to proceed. Choose the condition and add a condition note to better explain the condition of the product. Enter a price for the product. One the right there is a box with some information on what that product is selling for on Amazon, so price accordingly. The key is to sell the item cheaper than other sellers but at a high enough price to actually draw a profit.

Submit the listing and open it to the world to start buying. Amazon will confirm that the product is posted, and also send an email alert when the product sells. Ship it to the customer, confirm the shipment and the payment will go straight to the bank account linked to the site. Merchandise is free to post and can sit on the site for as long as it takes to sell.

Selling Products on eBay

There are other options if the product cannot be sold by Amazon. eBay is another easy option, but has some limitations. It costs money to post (usually less than a dollar, but still money) and is an auction style that gets taken down when the auction finishes. Set up an eBay account and a PayPal account to receive the payment. At the top, highlight the sell drop down menu and click sell an item. Do a quick search to see what it is worth, and base the price off of that. Click “Start Selling.”

Find a matching category to post the item under. Choose the category sand click continue. It will direct users to the description page. Answer all the categories to best describe the product. Save the listing, check to see if everything is right and then post it. Follow the auction and consider lowering the prices when the auction is close to over to nudge people to start bidding if they have not already.

Selling Products on Craigslist

A third option is Craigslist, and the site is good for heavy items. With Amazon and eBay the items have to be shipped. With Craigslist, items are hand delivered or picked up, which is ideal for things that would be heavy to ship, like video game systems.

It use to be that one would have to chose a Saturday morning to cover their yard with their possessions, hoping someone in the neighborhood might stop by and chose something. Now with the options of auction style selling with ebay, store-like selling with amazon or face to face transactions with Craigslist, its easier then ever to make money off of stuff lying around the house.