Selling on eBay looks easy, but there are many tips and tricks to help you make more money. This page will guide you through the steps of selling on eBay from start to finish.

Getting your accounts setup

To start, you’ll need to setup the appropriate accounts, such as an e-mail account, PayPal account, and eBay account.

Step 1 - Get an e-mail account

The first thing you are going to need is an e-mail account. Hopefully you already have one. If you don’t, I’d recommend getting a Google Gmail account. Currently, the only ways to sign-up are to 1) send a request via your mobile phone or 2) find someone who already has a Gmail account and have them invite you.

Why do I recommend Gmail? First of all, it gives you over 2 GB of storage space, almost no ads, and has great spam control. And its free.

Step 2 - Open a PayPal account

The next step is to open a PayPal account. You’ll probably want either a Premier account or a Business account. A personal account doesn’t have any fees, but it also doesn’t allow you to accept credit or debit cards.

PayPal is kind of like an online bank account, but without some features such as FDIC insurance or checks. You can even earn interest if you opt into their money market fund. Money received is kept in an online balance until spent or transferred to your bank account.

Every time you receive payment via PayPal, you will be charged a fee. For low volume sellers, this is 2.9% of the money plus $0.30. There is a handy tool at PPCalc to figure out how much money you can expect when receiving money.

Step 3 - Open an eBay account

Once you have an e-mail account and a PayPal account, you can setup your eBay account. The process is simple and intuitive. Simply visit eBay and click the register button and follow the steps until your registration is complete.

eBay accounts are free, but you are charged fees every time you list an item for sale or sell an item. These fees vary a lot depending on the type of item and value, but generally are about $0.30 to $0.50 to list an item, and 5.25% of selling price. We’ll talk more about listing items for sale later.

Step 4 - Opening an eBay store (Optional)

eBay has a handy and inexpensive store feature. This allows you to list many items inexpensively for extended periods of time. Great for those who have a steady supply of eBay-able items or for those who sell items that only sell every week or two.

There is a 30-day free trial, and it costs only $15.95 a month after that. So give it a shot! Sign-up today!