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. 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 products
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. Countless unsold items where the
product was probably very good but a terrible photo make it look awful. If
appropriate, use a scanner for example for 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 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
car for example, tell the viewer that it is a BMW 3-Series model, two years old
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.
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