Step by Step Guide for Selling Books on eBay

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Do you have a stack of old books lying around that you want to get rid of?

Or maybe, you like browsing the book shelves at thrift stores? That hobby could turn into a great side hustle if you find a reliable way to sell them.

eBay is an online shopping and auction site and an ideal place to sell not just your books but any products you want to get rid of. 

It’s a robust platform with a massive audience that gives you the best chance to get tons of customers for your books.

With a storefront on the platform, selling books on eBay is easy to do to make some money.

In this guide to selling books on eBay, I’ll show you how to go through this process step-by-step.

Your Step-By-Step Guide to Selling Books on eBay

1. Register for an eBay Account
2. Create A Seller Account
3. List Your Book on eBay for Sale
4. Choose Auction or “Buy Now” Option
5. Add Shipping Details

It’s pretty easy to set up a storefront and start selling books on eBay. The platform is fast and intuitive, making it effortless for anyone to jump right in and sell books on eBay.

Here are the steps you need to follow to start selling your books on eBay:

1. Register for an eBay Account

To start selling books on eBay, you need to have an eBay account. So your first step is to register as a user.

When you go to the eBay homepage, you’ll find the register button at the top of the page.

Register for an eBay Account

Once you click on the register button, you’ll see the page to sign up on eBay.

The eBay registration process is pretty straightforward. You can choose to sign up with your Facebook or Google account. Or fill out the sign-up form by entering your contact information, including your first name, last name, email address, mobile phone number, and a password to sign up. 

If you have a registered business, you can choose to sign up for a business account on eBay instead.

The significant difference between a personal account and a business account on eBay is that eBay invoices your business name to correspond with your tax reports when on a business account.

You can change a personal account to a business account if you want to in the future. Just go to the eBay account settings below the personal information section.

Once you have signed up with eBay, you’ll be prompted to secure your account by confirming your phone number.

Alternatively, you can download the eBay mobile app to go through this smooth process right from your phone.

2. Create A Seller Account 

Create A Seller Account 

After signing up and setting up your new eBay account, you’ll need to create a seller account so that you can sell books on eBay.

To do this, click the “Sell” button at the top of your eBay account page. 

You need to fill in your address and set up a payment method to make and receive eBay payments.

You can use PayPal, the most popular choice on eBay (or any of the alternatives provided).

To send and receive payments seamlessly, you’ll need to link your PayPal account to your eBay account.

Go to the Payments section on eBay and click on PayPal. Then, click on the  “Link My PayPal Account” option, follow the instructions, and complete linking your PayPal account.

Once this process is done, you can now start selling on eBay. The is the last step in creating an eBay seller account.

As a seller on eBay, you’ll be invoiced with the selling fee on your account. And this invoice is paid every 15th of the month.

If you don’t yet have a PayPal account, you need to set up a PayPal account to get paid for your books on eBay.

3. List Your Book on eBay for Sale

The next step in selling books on eBay is to list the book on eBay.

To do this, you need to list the book you want to sell on your eBay seller account.

This page will bring up many categories for various items that you can sell on eBay. You need to specify the product you want to sell on eBay.

At this point, choose the “Book” option since it’s a book you want to sell.

List Your Book on eBay for Sale

Then, you’ll need to add some info about the book you want to sell. Add the ISBN of the book, which you can find most times on the publisher page or the jacket. 

When you add the ISBN, it brings up more information about the book (author, book title, description, etc.). And you’d be prompted to include additional information about your book.

List Your Book on eBay for Sale

You can also add your book description in the comments section and more details about the book’s quality.

At this stage, you also need to include photos of the book and figure out a selling price.

4. Choose Auction or “Buy Now” Option

At this stage, you need to finish listing your book and indicating whether you want to list the book for a set price or for auction.

eBay is popularly known as an online auction marketplace where you can list products and buyers get to bid for them. For your books, you can sell them at a set “Buy Now” price or put it up for auction.

If you’re setting a “Buy Now” price for your book, you need to decide on the price before this stage. 

This option makes the purchase process easier for buyers as they buy the book directly without participating in an auction.

5. Add Shipping Details

After listing your book for sale on eBay, you also need to include shipping details. 

Indicate your shipping cost, shipping procedure, and how long it will take for the books to reach your customers.

And make sure you ship your books promptly as promised after receiving payment for them. After all, to sell books on eBay successfully, you need to ensure you maintain a healthy, positive relationship with your customers. 

Always be honest with buyers about the quality and details of your books.

When you’re honest and make the entire sales process smooth for both parties, you’ll get good ratings on your eBay seller account, which will translate into more sales going forward.

Dishonesty will only lead to bad ratings, and then you’ll struggle to get sales moving forward.

Conclusion

With this guide, you can easily sell books on eBay. As you can see, it’s a pretty simple and easy process and the platform is intuitive and straightforward to use.

Plus, eBay boasts it had 185 million total active users in 2020 and 250 million daily searches on the platform. So it’s clear that the traffic and massive market your book needs is there.

The book-selling process is straightforward. Get an account on eBay, create your seller account, list your books, make a sale, deliver the books and start making money.

If you have some fantastic tips on selling books on eBay, kindly share them by commenting below.

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Affiliate Disclaimer: I may (and probably do) receive affiliate commissions from any products I recommend or links I put on this page. My opinions are my own but they are truthful and I do my best to recommend products that I have vetted and/or purchased myself.