EBay is really a modern marvel of electronic commerce at its best. It’s the world’s largest garage sale, and then a few million listings on top of that! You can sell and buy practically anything on there, heck Golden Palace bought a half eaten grilled cheese sandwich for tens of thousands of dollars! It’s become a very lucrative place for people with some extra stuff around! If you are going to be selling on eBay anytime soon, here are some tips which will help you sell better!
1. Be Reputable. If you have any negative feedback, people will be very hesitant to buy from you. This is also true if you have no feedback. You really need to buy about ten things and have all positive feedback before most bidders will consider purchasing from you, so whenever you go to buy a something, if you can get it on eBay for the same price or cheaper, consider doing so to raise your feedback rating.
2. Set the initial price and the reserve price low. This will spur a lot of initial bidding and competition to get the item and win the bidding process. The competition will make your item almost always sell for more in the end.
3. Use photographs! By placing a photo in your listing, you are giving the person a lot of extra information they wouldn’t have before. A decent photo of your item makes them believe that you are not a scam artist, as well as gives them the opportunity to have a visual inspection before making the purchase.
4. Hold longer auctions. EBay has options for seven and ten day sales which allow bidders more time to find and bid on your item. This will give the market a better opportunity to determine what your item is worth without it being priced by eBay’s clock.
5. Don’t lie. If the item has a few scratches on it, let your bidders know that. It’s okay to sell less than perfect items on eBay, just let people know. How would you like to have an item sent to you that’s beaten up but the auction said it was in perfect condition? If you lie on your auctions you will get negative feedback, which will hurt you down the road.
6. Charge a responsible fee for shipping. Often times people will charge practically nothing for their item and nearly twenty times that for shipping! They are clearly making up the cost of the item through their excessive shipping fees. Just charge a reasonable for your item and a reasonable price to ship it!
7. Make your auction end at the right time. Most auctions end between 5 and 9 PM because that’s when people think everyone is on the internet. This may be true, but that’s when every auction ends, so yours could be easily overlooked! Consider ending it during the work day, most everyone has internet access at work, and more people are on EBay than our employers might want to think!
