Tips For Selling On Ebay

Posted by Nick Niesen on November 1st, 2010

Ok, so you have decided you are going to sell an item in ebay be it a dvd, stamp collection or whatever. How should you go about getting the best possible price?

First of all you should do some research into what prices similar items have been fetching. You can use ebay?s ?completed listings? tool to do this. This shows you what has been sold and at what price and is split down into product categories. This will give you a good guide as to what price you can expect to achieve.

The next important step is your opening price. You do not want to set a high opening price that will scare off bidders. It is far better to open with a low reserve and hope this attracts several bidders. It is a fact that people are drawn to items with bids on them already. Having several bidders can lead to competitive bidding and you are more likely to receive a higher final price. To restrict the chance of the item going for a very low price you should set a reserve price ? if this is not reached then the item will not be sold.

Consider using a ?buy it now?. Some bidders do not like to wait until the end of an auction and would rather ?impulse buy? in the knowledge they have won the auction. Other bidders enjoy the thrill of the auction. If you have more than one of the product it may be worth considering selling one item on a buy it now and one as a normal bidding auction ? this will cover you both ways.

Having a good description and photo is very important. I have seen countless unsold items where the product was probably very good but a terrible photo make it look awful. If appropriate, use a scanner for eg stamps, but for larger items take photos using a digital camera and keep taking pictures until you get a good photo. A good photo is worth a 1000 words! Bidders are instinctively drawn towards items with photos and away from those without. Give as much information as you can as to condition, age, manufacturer, model number etc. If you were selling a tv for example, tell the viewer that it is a Phillips 32? flat screen tv model number P2350, two years old put in perfect working order.

Finally, make sure you give all the details for post and packaging. I?ve been caught before when buying a small item where I thought the postage would be pennies; the seller didn?t disclose the postage cost until after the auction and I had a nasty shock. I?m not the only person this has happened to so make sure you disclose your postage and packing charges or you may lose some potential bidders.