Selling Toys and Games on eBay During Holidays

Selling Toys and Games on eBay During Holidays

The holiday season represents a golden opportunity for eBay sellers, and no category buzzes with more potential than toys and games. Year after year, toys rank among eBay’s best-selling presents, making it a lucrative market for savvy resellers.

However, navigating the competitive landscape of holiday toy sales on eBay requires more than just listing a few old items. Success demands a deep understanding of current market trends, smart listing and shipping strategies, and the right tools to manage the increased workload.

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about selling toys on eBay during the holidays. We’ll cover the hottest trends, provide actionable tips for maximizing your profits, and show you how to scale your business efficiently to make this season your most successful yet.

Understanding the Current eBay Toy Market

To succeed, you must first know what buyers are looking for. Adding popular gifts to your inventory is one of the most effective strategies for the holiday season. The eBay toy market is driven by specific trends that change each year, and tapping into them can lead to significant sales.

Here are the key trends shaping this year’s holiday wish lists.

Trend 1: The Rise of Tiny Collectibles

This season, tiny toys that offer a surprise are poised to be giant hits. The "unboxing" phenomenon continues to fuel excitement, with kids and collectors eager to discover what's inside a mystery package.

L.O.L. Surprise! dolls are at the forefront of this trend. Excitement around these dolls is consistently on the rise, and the sales data backs it up: in the last six months alone, more than 148,000 L.O.L. Surprise! toys were sold on eBay.

Hatchimals are another major player, currently ranking among the top-15 most popular toys in sales on the platform. Hatchimals CollEGGtibles, in particular, are leading in popularity. The brand's latest innovation, HatchiBabies, is already generating significant buzz, making it a product to watch.

Trend 2: Silly, Gross, and Smelly Fun

Toys are getting wonderfully weird this year. Products that are silly, gross, and sometimes even smelly are topping wish lists. This trend embraces goofy, tactile play that offers a fun and often hilarious experience.

Slime continues its reign as a must-have item, with endless variations in color, texture, and scent. Alongside slime, squishy sequins and other sensory-focused toys are also proving to be extremely popular.

Trend 3: The Power of Nostalgia

What's old is new again. Classic toys from past decades are making a major comeback, allowing a new generation of kids to enjoy them right alongside their parents. This trend creates a powerful emotional connection for buyers, who are often purchasing for their own children.

LEGO is a timeless example that continues to top kids' wish lists. It consistently proves to be a holiday favorite, with sets like LEGO Mindstorm demonstrating the brand's ability to innovate while retaining its classic appeal.

Trend 4: High-Tech and Smart Toys

Toys are becoming increasingly intelligent and high-tech, blurring the lines between play and technology. These items often command higher price points and are in high demand during the holiday shopping season.

The PlayStation Mini is already topping predictions for best-selling items this holiday, appealing to both nostalgic adult gamers and a new generation of players. This highlights the intersection of nostalgic appeal and modern technology.

Trend 5: Beloved Characters Take Toy Form

One of the season's biggest trends is the transformation of beloved characters from books, comics, and movies into tangible toys and video games. These items allow fans to bring their favorite stories and heroes into their homes.

Superheroes remain a dominant force. The release of Marvel's Spider-Man video game, along with its limited-edition PS4 Pro bundle, led to an incredible 89% increase in PS4 sales, showing the immense power of a popular character.

The magic of Harry Potter also endures, as the franchise continues to top wish lists. The LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Great Hall set is already one of the most sought-after items of the season, combining the power of two iconic brands.

Trend 6: Games for the Whole Family

Beyond individual toys, games that encourage group participation are in high demand. New games like the Pie Face Cannon Game and Soggy Doggy are topping this year’s wish lists, promising fun for family game night.

Rounding out the list of trends are toys that encourage imagination, creativity, or simply getting outdoors. These items appeal to parents looking for gifts that offer more than just momentary entertainment.

Essential Strategies for Selling Toys on eBay

Knowing what to sell is only half the battle. To truly capitalize on the holiday rush, you need to implement proven strategies for pricing, listing, and shipping your items. Here are the essential tips for anyone selling toys on eBay this season.

Pricing Your Toys for Profit

Setting the right price is critical. Price too high and you risk being ignored; price too low and you leave money on the table.

A smart first step is to use eBay's Advanced search option to look at sold and completed listings. This gives you a realistic idea of the trending prices for items similar to yours. Don't just look at the price; open several listings to see if the condition of the sold items matches yours. With vintage items, condition is a massive factor in the final selling price.

You also need to decide between a "Buy It Now" (BIN) listing and an auction. While auctions can seem exciting, they are generally not recommended unless you have an exceptionally rare item in pristine condition. Many sellers find that Buy It Now is a more successful strategy for achieving higher prices.

If you start an auction at one penny or $0.99, be prepared to lose money. The best way to sell a $100 toy for $0.99 is to start the auction there. Your starting bid should always be the absolute minimum price you're willing to accept.

Creating Listings That Convert

Your listing is your sales pitch. Make it count.

For vintage toys, be meticulous about describing the condition. If you're selling vintage media like a cassette tape or video game that you haven't tested recently, be aware that it may no longer be playable. Sellers have received negative feedback for tapes that didn't play well, so transparency is key.

When offering multiple shipping options, it's a good practice to mention this in your description. For example, you could write, "We offer both USPS Ground Advantage and Priority Mail. Please choose your preferred method at checkout." This small detail can improve the buyer experience.

Mastering Holiday Shipping

Shipping can make or break a holiday sale. Timely delivery is non-negotiable for gift-givers.

Always input the exact size and weight of your shipping container. This ensures that calculated shipping costs are accurate for both you and the buyer. Offering two shipping methods, like USPS Ground Advantage for cost-conscious buyers and Priority Mail for those needing faster delivery, is a great strategy.

As Christmas approaches, check the official USPS cutoff dates for delivery by December 25th. To be safe, add this information to your listings but deduct two days from the official dates to account for potential delays. This manages buyer expectations and protects your seller reputation.

Navigating eBay Policies

Finally, you must understand eBay's rules. Fully understand what the eBay Money Back Guarantee (MBG) entails for you as a seller. Even if you list an item as "no returns," a buyer can still open a claim under the MBG.

Unfortunately, some buyers will lie or cheat. It's important to report these individuals to eBay to help protect the entire seller community.

Scale Your Holiday Sales with Reeva

Understanding trends and mastering listing strategies are fundamental. But to truly grow your resale business and handle the holiday volume without burning out, you need to work smarter, not harder. This is where automation and powerful management tools become essential.

We built Reeva as an all-in-one platform to simplify and automate the repetitive tasks of running a resale business, giving you back precious time to source more inventory and focus on growth. Many resellers have already seen incredible results. The owner of Vintage Vault WV increased items sold by 372% in just three weeks after starting with us, while Nuzzydeals saw a 7x increase in sales.

Here’s how our platform can transform your holiday selling season.

Sell Smarter and Faster with AI-Powered Listings

The holiday season is busy. You don't have time to write dozens of detailed listings from scratch. With our platform, you can turn photos into complete listings instantly. Just upload your photos, and our AI will create optimized titles, detailed descriptions, and suggested prices for you.

As FabFam, a reseller from Washington, says, "Reeva has cut my listing time by more than half. I can take photos, voice-to-text my details, and let Reeva handle the rest."

This efficiency allows you to list more of those trending holiday toys faster than ever before. You can learn more about how we streamline your listing and selling process on our website.

Maximize Your Reach with One-Click Cross-Listing

Why limit your sales to just one platform? To reach more buyers, you should be selling across multiple marketplaces. Our platform makes this effortless. Create your listing once and publish it to eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, and Depop with a single click, all without switching tabs.

We even support multi-store selling, so you can manage all your stores from one central hub. Hiview Reloved noted, "It has made it easy to expand to eBay and Depop. I’ve created more listings in the few months of using Reeva than I was able to create all of last year."

Save Time with Powerful Automation

Managing inventory during a sales rush is stressful. The last thing you want is to sell an item on one platform that has already sold on another. Our auto-delist feature instantly removes sold items from all other marketplaces, preventing overselling and protecting your seller metrics.

AlistairBP, who now sells 10-15 items a day, told us, "The feature I use 100% the most—and couldn't live without—is the AUTO-DELIST feature."

Our platform can also automate other tasks, like relisting stale products to keep them fresh in search results and sending personalized offers to potential buyers. These features boost visibility and drive sales without any manual effort from you.

Grow Your Business with Ease

As your business grows, so does the administrative work. Our platform provides the management tools you need to scale with ease. You can update hundreds of listings in bulk, track sales and profits with powerful business analytics, and even give team members access with multi-user account options.

TUFFNY from New York shared, "I've cut down my admin time by at least 30%, which has allowed me to source more products and expand my offerings."

We even offer full-service accounting tools that connect to your bank accounts, automatically categorize transactions, and generate clear profit and loss reports to simplify your bookkeeping and tax preparation.

Are you ready to stop juggling spreadsheets and start growing? Try Reeva for free and see how our platform can help you have your most profitable holiday season ever.

How Reeva Compares to Other eBay Tools

The market for reseller tools is crowded, with many apps focusing on one specific task. While specialized tools can be helpful, juggling multiple subscriptions and platforms creates inefficiency. Reeva is different. We built an all-in-one solution designed for resellers looking to grow.

Here’s a look at how our integrated platform provides more value than single-function tools.

Listing and Cross-Listing Tools

Tools like Crosslist help automate the cross-posting process, which is a significant time-saver. Users create a form once and the tool posts it to selected marketplaces.

Our platform includes this core function but goes much further. We don't just post your listings; we help you create them from scratch with AI. Our system generates titles, descriptions, and pricing from your photos, a feature that dramatically speeds up the entire listing workflow. We provide an end-to-end listing solution, not just a distribution tool.

Product and Competitor Research Tools

Platforms like Zik Analytics and AutoDS are excellent for product research, helping sellers spot trending niches and analyze competitors. Keyword Tool Dominator is a free tool for generating relevant keywords to improve SEO.

While this data is valuable, it's only useful if you can act on it quickly. Our platform bridges the gap between insight and action. Once you identify a trending toy, our AI-powered listing creator allows you to get that item listed and cross-posted in minutes, capitalizing on the trend while it's hot. Our built-in business analytics let you track your own performance data, helping you make strategic decisions based on what's working for *your* business.

Pricing and Repricing Tools

Price Spectre is a tool designed specifically for eBay that monitors competitor prices and automatically reprices your items based on rules you set. This can help you stay competitive.

Our approach empowers you with data and efficiency. Our AI-suggested pricing gives you a strong starting point based on market data. More importantly, our integrated analytics and reporting give you a clear view of your sales velocity, profit margins, and inventory age. This allows you to make strategic bulk pricing adjustments based on your own business goals, rather than just reacting to competitors.

All-in-One Management and Automation

Tools like 3Dsellers offer a suite of features for eBay, including bulk editing, inventory tracking, and automated customer messages. Linnworks focuses on the fulfillment side, managing inventory, warehouses, and shipping.

Reeva combines all of these functions and more into a single, seamless platform. We handle everything from AI-powered listing creation and one-click cross-posting to automated delisting, relisting, and offer management. On top of that, our platform includes integrated accounting and powerful business analytics.

You no longer need one tool for listing, another for research, a third for accounting, and a fourth for automation. As Vintage Vault WV put it, "I used to need 3-5 programs just to do everything—now I only need one." Read more about their success and others on our customer stories page.

Conclusion: Your Best Holiday Season Starts Now

The holiday season offers a massive opportunity for toy sellers on eBay. By staying on top of the latest trends—from tiny collectibles and nostalgic classics to high-tech gadgets and character toys—you can stock the items buyers are actively searching for.

Combining that market knowledge with smart strategies for pricing, listing, and shipping will set you up for success. Remember to research sold comps, write detailed descriptions, and plan for holiday shipping deadlines.

But to truly scale your efforts and maximize your profits without getting overwhelmed, you need the right tools. An all-in-one platform automates repetitive tasks, streamlines your workflow, and provides the data you need to make smart business decisions.

Reeva was built to do exactly that. From AI-powered listing creation and one-click cross-posting to automated delisting and integrated accounting, our platform provides everything you need to run and grow your resale business. Stop juggling multiple apps and start focusing on what you do best: sourcing and selling.

Ready to make this your most successful holiday season yet? Start your free 7-day trial of Reeva today and experience the future of reselling.