eBay Sellers Tips

Determine the cost of the item

If you know what you are interested in selling, it is crucial to obtain information about the item. Things to look at are the recent sales activity and price, appropriate listing category and keywords.

Determine Pricing and Listing Format

Many sellers that sell in an auction-style listing format find that setting a low opening bid with no reserve drives bidding and results in a higher final selling price. New standard fees allow sellers to list auction-style for free and pay only when it sells. However, in order to generate multiple bids, demand for the item must be high. Initial research on the item you wish to sell will greatly assist with this information. To appeal to buyers that want a quick sale, you can add a Buy It Now price to your auction-style listings. If you know the value of your item or have several instances of the same product, set a fixed price for a quick sale.

Auction Timing

Timing your auction just right is a crucial step towards maximizing your sales on online auctions. Adhering to these tips will be helpful:

• - Seven day auctions are usually the most successful. However, you can experiment with diverse auction lengths to find what works best for your product category. Seven day auctions are the most popular because they usually cover weekends.
• - Set up your auctions to end on Sunday when more people are at home than any other day of the week.
• - On a related note, Friday and Saturday tend to be the worst days to end your auctions.
• - Make an effort to end auction listings by 10pm EST (7pm PST).

Sign up for PayPal

PayPal enables you to accept online payments for your online auction items. Sellers must offer safe electronic payments to buyers in online auctions and PayPal is the standard for online payments. Sign up; you'll be glad you did.

If you are looking for payment alternatives other than Paypal? The official accepted payment methods are:

• PayPal
• Credit cards and debit cards
• Moneybookers
• Paymate
• ProPay
• Pay upon pickup
• Escrow

Give Your Customer Options: Your ultimate goal is to make money. With that in mind, give your potential customer as many paying options as possible in order to increase flexibility.

• - In addition to PayPal and credit cards, offer as many payment options as possible. Bidders will come to you if you have multiple payment options.
• - Where applicable, create a link to the owner's/user's manual/instructions for your product. These little touches make a difference and encourage customers to remember you and return in the future.
• - If you are selling new items, be sure to offer as many options as possible in terms of color, size, etc.

Maximize Your Item Title

Be sure to include keywords that buyers will search for. These are usually unique or descriptive attributes. It is crucial to make sure your spelling is correct. Your item title is critical in helping users find your items, so use each character wisely using descriptive key words.

Describe Your Item in Detail

A good description is concise, well organized, and easy to read. Create bold section headlines, bulleted lists, and be sure to include item style/type, brand, condition, and other attributes. When available in your category, use item specifics to help buyers find your item. Depending on category, item specifics include the condition of the item (new, used), size, color, brand, etc. Make sure to include your return policy and handling time, which is now required in every listing.

Include Photos

A picture really is worth a thousand words and the first one you use is free! Use clear, well-lit photos from a variety of angles to accurately present your item. Use good lighting and an uncluttered background to get the most out of your photo. Add additional photos to showcase details and unique features of your item. You can upgrade to Picture Pack to take advantage of the zoom feature on item listings. Many categories and online auctions Store subscribers get multiple free photos.

Include Reasonable Shipping Costs

Listing reasonable shipping and handling costs in your listing is crucial for smart selling. online auctions's free Shipping Calculator provides real-time shipping costs to buyers all over the world, so you can increase your chances of success. Providing free shipping can give you an extra boost in search results ranking and sales.

Communicate

Always respond quickly to any buyer questions. Excellent communication is vital to any business transaction and encourages the seller to use your services again and even better, refer others to you if they had a good experience.

Use My online auctions to Track Sales

Your My online auctions page is your own personal dashboard to track all your activity on online auctions. Simply click My online auctions on top of any online auctions page to reveal the items you are selling, items that are sold, shipping addresses of your customers, messages from your prospective buyers and to manage your personal information and communication preferences.

Save a Trip/Ship from Home

After the sale you can pay for shipping and print shipping labels for UPS and USPS shipments right from your desktop in My online auctions or with PayPal using your home printer. Order shipping supplies online from USPS or UPS and even schedule carrier pick-up - free from USPS or for a small fee with UPS.

Master niche marketing and specialize for success

A niche is a specially defined market. Once you define your market, you will have the ability to determine the type of person you're going to be selling to and the types of product you want to sell. You will also have less competition. Forget trying to sell computers, digital cameras, iPods and plasma TVs. There is no way you can compete with the big guys unless you have a lot of cash reserves. The drop ship web sites and programs that claim to have those products are mostly scams. Find a small niche, or several small niches, that you can dominate. Along with being in a superior position to take advantage of repeat business, the benefits from becoming specialized are endless. If you know more about your product area, you will be able to buy at better prices and people who sense you specialize in something will be more comfortable buying from you.