I’ve made about £150 selling stuff on Amazon.co.uk over the last six weeks or so – and the thing is it’s really, really, easy. I’ve had a lot of people ask me how you go about doing it, so I thought I’d write a bit of a guide to it. Read more after the jump.

1. Find the item you’re selling on Amazon

Ok, so the first thing you have to do is find the item you want to sell on Amazon. Go to the home page here, type in the item you want to sell in the search box – in this example, I’m going to sell a great book I’m reading at the moment – “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky. So I type that in the search box and hit “Go!”.

I’m then presented with a list of those books, and select the one I have (you can match the covers), and click on that title.

2. Starting the selling process

So now you’re at the right page for the item you want to sell. To start selling, all you have to do is to click on the button marked “Sell Yours Here” – that’s the button ringed in red in the picture above.

3. Entering the condition of your item

Once you’ve clicked on the “Sell Yours Here” button, you’ll get taken to the page above – where you’re going to describe the condition of your item. I think it’s best to be very honest here -if anything, under promise and over deliver – that is, err on the side of caution. Only select the “new” condition if your item is unused. If it has small marks on it, best to mark the condition as “Used – good” or “Used – very good”.

In the box below, you can describe the condition of your item – so you can write in if there are some small scratches on a CD or a fold mark on a book. Again, best to be honest I think! Once you’re done, hit “Continue”.

4. Setting your price

You should now be on this page – where you set your price.

There are a couple of things to think about when setting your price…

1. Don’t make it too cheap – Amazon takes a cut of everything you sell, so selling something for less than a pound probably won’t be worth your while.

2. Make it attractive – in the red circle above, you can see what other people are selling this book for. Keep in mind that used items sell for less than new ones. You can click on the underlined links like “15 used” in the picture above to see the condition of those other books being sold. Obviously if yours is in better condition than theirs, you can price your item a little higher, but stay competitive.

Once you’ve set your price, all you need to do is confirm how many of the item you have to sell, and select delivery options. Amazon gives you a credit for postage – and if you manage to sell something to someone abroad, that can be pretty generous, so I usually select the Domestic, European, US and International option.

Then click on continue.

5. Set up your Amazon account

If you’re set up with Amazon already, type in your account details on the next page. Or register.

That should be you all set now! All you have to do is sit back and wait for someone to buy your item.

What happens next?

If you sell an item, Amazon will send you an e-mail to confirm the purchase. All you need to do then is wrap the item well, and post it off to the buyer – make sure you use first class. I usually send the buyer an e-mail as well to confirm that I’ve received their order and posted their item.

Amazon provide useful packaging advice here.

Amazon credit your bank account with any sales (minus their fees) every 14 days – you can enter your bank details via the “Your Seller Account” on the “Your Account” page of Amazon.

Other tips

* Encourage buyers in your e-mail to rate you as a seller, which they can do at www.amazon.co.uk/feedback – the more people rate you with a good rating, the more you’ll sell, as you’ll seem more reliable.

* If someone rates you as a seller, rate them back as a buyer.

* If you’re going on holiday, you can set Amazon to temporarily put your items on hold so people don’t buy them when you’re away – just go to the “Your Seller Account” from the “Your Account” page and click on “Update your holiday settings” link. Don’t forget to change it back when you get back from your trip!
In the end, I would say get selling! It’s easy, doesn’t take up much time once you’ve listed the items you have to sell, and you can make a bit of money from it. Good luck!