This is the second article in a 3-part series on selling on ebay.
Once you’ve decided to sell items on eBay, you will find yourself faced with several decisions. You’ll have to decide when to list your items, what type of listing to use, and even how many pictures to include in your listing. The most important decision of all, though, may be pricing your item.
Pricing can impact many different parts of your eBay sales. Your starting price will greatly influence your potential buyers’ inclinations to place a bid. A low starting price may encourage people to bid hoping to get a good buy. If your listing doesn’t receive a lot of traffic, though, your item may sell at a lower price than you hoped for. A high listing, on the other hand, will raise your listing fee and may discourage some buyers.
You also have to consider whether or not you want to use a reserve price. If you’ve got a great deal of money invested in an item, you may want to use a reserve price to ensure that the item doesn’t sell for less than you paid for it. The presence of a reserve, though, may have the same result as a high starting price.
If you are using the “Buy It Now” function on eBay, you will need to choose a price for that. Typically this price has to be a price that a potential buyer is willing to pay for the item and you are willing to accept. It’s usually slightly higher than your starting auction price would be, but lower than your expected final auction price.
It all sounds pretty intense, doesn’t it? That’s why I always start my listings by doing a little research. First, I do a search for current auctions for items that are similar to my item. What price are other people setting for their items? Is my item more attractive than their item? Are they getting any bids for their items?
Then, I do a search for similar items in the completed auctions. Did these items sell? What price did they end at? Did they sell at auction or through “Buy It Now?” All of this information will give you a great idea how much you can expect to get for your item.
Finally, don’t forget to consider eBay’s share of your sales when you are setting prices. The last thing you want to do is sell something and later discover that eBay has eaten up all of your profits. Build those fees into your listing price to ensure that you end up with a little money in your pocket after your item sells.
Related Posts Related Websites
- Are You in the Market to Sell at Live Auction? I got an e-mail from Snapnames that Moniker is accepting...
- Chinese Paper Money Coins and Paper Money -> Paper Money - World ->...
1 response so far ↓
1 David@ yourfinances101 // Sep 17, 2009 at 6:35 am
Again, I think that this is great information but I still say that the best way to learn, if you truly want to go down this road, is to dip your toe in the water first before diving in.
I have seen many a colleague dive into this thing because they heard of the millions that can be made there. Most times, they end up losing and going home with their tail between their legs.
Start off easy and you will learn more in the first six months of doing it than anything else.
It is a lot more work than you probably think, and you need to be very organized, if for nothing more than to be able to tell if you’re making money doing it and if so, how much.
The problem is, that most successful Ebay sellers are not out there writing their memoirs espousing all their secrets, because then, everybody would be doing it. A lot of it you simply have to learn on your own.
Great post.
Leave a Comment