1. Price to sell.
When you’re ready to list, set your Buy-It-Now price in the neighborhood of what you expect your item is worth; raise it a little for particularly in-demand or scarce objects, or take a few dollars off if you want to move your merchandise fast. Set the starting price (the opening bid) much lower, though, anywhere from a single dollar to no more than half your item’s value; this will encourage healthy bidding, thus raising the perceived value and the final price. If you’ve done your research, you won’t have to worry about your item selling for too little.

2. Reserve judgment.
If you’re considering a reserve price for your listings—don’t. The reserve price is a secret dollar amount below which you’re under no obligation to sell, and it is useful only if you don’t know the value of your item. Reserves tend to scare away bidders and accomplish nothing more than lowering the closing price unnecessarily. Even worse is the use of a Buy-It-Now price alongside a reserve price, as bidders easily confuse the two and give up any hope of getting a bargain.

3. Spelling counts.

The success of any auction item relies almost entirely on the likelihood of its being found in searches and—to a lesser extent—eBay’s category listings. eBay searches are seeded by the words you place in your auction titles, so include as many relevant keywords as possible without wasting space with unnecessary punctuation, nonsense such as “@@ Look! @@,” or any other terms for which your customers won’t be searching. Since eBay uses exact-match (as opposed to fuzzy) searches, the words in your titles must be spelled correctly in order to show up in search results. But if you have the space, be sure to include some intentional misspellings (Delorean, Delorian, or Delorion, for example) to accommodate your more spelling-challenged customers; just make sure the correct spelling is also there.

With only a scant 45 characters in which to work, there’s rarely room to spare in an auction title. If you’re inclined to highlight the condition, scarcity, or other special aspects of your item, do so in the subtitle. Although subtitles are indexed only in title-and-description searches (not the more common title-only searches), they do appear in all search results and category listings and are effective in getting extra attention. A subtitle costs 50 cents, so don’t bother for any item worth less than about $25.

4. Dress for success.
A little color and spice in your auction will not only make it more inviting and more professional-looking, it will help emphasize important details in the auction description. Among the most vital are the payment and shipping details, both of which are unfortunately buried far beneath the photos in eBay’s new auction page design. The clearer, simpler, and easier to find your terms are, the less likely you are to be hassled by confused or disappointed customers or deadbeat bidders.

More tips at PCmag.com

Bookmark It

Hide Sites