Secrets for Selling and Promoting Your Items

We'll start by presenting some practical sales and promotional strategies. Follow this advice to maximize your salesand your final selling price!

Secret #1: Research Your Price

Don't sell without doing your homework first; make sure you know the true value of an item before you put it up for auction. Before you price your item, search for similar items in eBay's closed auctions. What was the starting bid price? What was the final selling price? You should also research the price of similar items offline; sometimes you can get a feel for relative value if you compare your item to a newer version of the same. Be informed, and you won't set the price too high or too low; you'll set it just right.

Secret #2: Go Long…

When it comes time to choose the length for your auction, go for the 7- or 10-day option. The longer your item is up for auction, the more potential bidders who will see itand the more potential bidders, the better your chances of selling the item for a higher price. Don't cheat yourself out of potential sales by choosing a shorter auction.

Secret #3:…Or Create a Short-Term Frenzy

On the other hand, if you have something really hot, create a bidding frenzy by choosing a very short auction length. If you do this, play it up in your item's title: 3 Days Only! works pretty well.

Secret #4: There's No Reason to Reserve

I don't know of a single bidder who likes reserve price auctions. Why use something that scares some bidders away? (Remember, many beginning users don't understand reserve price auctions, and thus don't bid in them.) Set a realistic minimum, and get on with it.

Secret #5: Single Items Are Best…

If you're looking for the highest total dollar, don't group items together. Multiple-item lots seldom bring as much money as multiple items sold individually.

Secret #6:…Although You Can Unload Some Dogs in a Pack

On the other hand, if you have a lot of things to sell, selling in lots can reduce your personal overhead, as well as help you unload some less attractive items that you probably couldn't sell individually. (Plus, you get hit for only a single insertion fee!)

Secret #7: Don't Compete Against Yourself

If five people are looking to buy footstools today, don't give them five choices all from one person (you). If you have five footstools to sell, don't sell them all at once. Sell one this week, one next week, and one the week after that. Spread it out to create an illusion of scarcity, and you'll generate more total revenue.

Secret #8: Start and End in Prime Time

When you start your auction is importantbecause that affects when your auction ends. If you start a seven-day auction at 6:00 p.m. on a Saturday, it will end exactly seven days later, at 6:00 p.m. the following Saturday.

Why is it important when your auction ends? Because some of the most intense bidding takes place in the final few minutes of your auction, from snipers trying to steal the high bid at the last possible moment. To take advantage of last-minute bidders, your auction needs to end when the most possible bidders are online.

If you end your auction at 3:00 in the morning, everyone will be asleep and you'll lose out on any last-minute bids. Instead, try to end your auction during early evening hours, when the most users are online.

Remember, though, that you're dealing with a three-hour time-zone gap between the East and the West coasts. So, if you time your auction to end at 7:00 p.m. EST, you're ending at 4:00 p.m. PSTwhen most potential bidders are still at work. Conversely, if you choose to end at 9:00 p.m. PST, you just hit midnight in New Yorkand many potential bidders are already fast asleep.

The best times to endand thus to startyour auction are between 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. EST, or between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. PST. (Figure the in-between time zones yourself!) That way you'll catch the most potential bidders online for the final minutes of your auctionand possibly generate a bidding frenzy that will garner a higher price for your merchandise!

Note

eBay operates on Pacific (West Coast) time. If you're in another time zone, be sure to do the math to determine the proper time for your area.

Note, however, that the best time to end an auction can be influenced by the type of item you're selling.

For example, if you're selling an item that appeals to grade-school or high-school kids, try ending your auction in the late afternoon, after the kids get home from school and before they head off for dinner. Items with appeal to housewives do well with a late morning or early afternoon end time. And business items sell best when they end during normal business hours.

Secret #9: End on a Sunday

When you end your auction on a Sunday, you get one full Saturday and two Sundays (the starting Sunday and the ending one) for a seven-day item listing. Sunday is a great day to end auctions because almost everybody is homeno one is out partying, or stuck at work or in school. End your auction on a Sunday evening, and you're likely to get more bidsand higher prices.

There are exceptions, however.

As with the time you end your auction, your ending day might also be influenced by the type of item you're selling. If you're selling an item of interest to college students, for example, you might be better ending on a night during the week, because a lot of students travel home for the weekend; you'll catch them in the dorms on a Wednesday or Thursday night. Items targeted at churchgoers might also be better ending during the week so that you don't catch bidders when they're at Sunday evening church services.

Secret #10: Don't End on a Friday or Saturday Night

If Sunday is normally the best night of the week to end your auction, what's the worst night?

Friday and Saturday are probably the worst nights to end most auctions, because a lot of eBay users are out partying on these non-school nights. End an auction for any item (especially youth-oriented items) on a Friday or Saturday night, and you eliminate a large number of potential buyers.

You should also try not to end your auction right in the middle of a hit television seriessome potential bidders might find it difficult to tear themselves away from the old boob tube. That means avoiding "Must-See TV" Thursdays, and any block-buster sporting events or award shows.

Secret #11: Slow Down in the Summer

For whatever reason, eBay traffic slows way down in the summertime. (Lots of potential buyers are on vacation, and even more are outside enjoying the sunshine.) If you want to maximize your bids, you'll get a higher price when fall and winter come along.

Secret #12: Avoid Premature Cancellation

Know that many bidders wait until the very last minute to place a bid. (It's called sniping, and it really works.) If you cancel an auction early, you'll miss out on the bulk of the potential bids. So don't cancel!

Secret #13: Avoid Deadbeats

You don't have to sell to just anybody. You can stipulate that you won't sell to bidders with negative feedback or with feedback ratings below a certain level. If you receive bids from these potential deadbeats, cancel them. If the deadbeats continue to bid (after being warned off via email by you), block their bids. You want to sell to someone who will actually consummate the transaction and send you payment; bidders with negative feedback are more likely to leave you high and dry.

Secret #14: Accept Credit CardsVia PayPal

One of the easiest ways to increase the number of bids in your auction is to accept payment via credit card. Unless you're a real business with a merchant bank account, this means signing up for PayPalwhich is extremely easy to do.

Secret #15: Use a Middleman for Expensive Items

If you're selling a high-priced item, consider offering the buyer the option of using an escrow service. It's a good deal for you; the buyer pays for the service (in the neighborhood of 5%, typically), it provides a level of peace of mind for the buyer, and it lets you accept credit card payments that you might otherwise not accept.

Secret #16: Promote Your Auctions

Let people outside eBay know about your auction. Mention your auction in relevant newsgroups and mailing lists, feature it on your personal website, and send emails about it to all your friends. Include your item listing's URL in everything you do so that anyone interested can click the link to view your auction. Do anything you can think of to draw traffic to your listingand thus increase your chances of selling it.

Secret #17: Promote Yourself with Your About Me Page

eBay's About Me page is the perfect way to provide more background information about you as a seller, and to drive potential bidders to your other live auctions. Be sure to create an About Me pageand use it to help "sell" yourself and your other items.