Boost Your Ebay Sales

Ebay has become the world's largest flea market without the sunburn, weather, or having to load up a truck full of junk and sit all day by a table. But like every other flea market in the world, even electronic ones do not always offer guaranteed sales.

Here's a few things to keep in mind when listing your items.

1. Spend a few minutes searching for similar items. Look at the descriptions, the titles, and the current going prices. Before you even list, are you willing to accept what current rates are? If not, don't waste your change; some items are seasonal and perhaps a few months from now, prices may be up. If you like what you see, then take note of the title. Did it catch your eye? Was it accurate? Make mental notes on what you like about the description and what you find missing. Use one you like to model your description after. Note: don't copy word for word. Does their listing have a counter? How many people have viewed their listing? If it's a popular item, but the count is low, the title could need help or maybe their starting price or shipping are too high. This will only take a few minutes a listing and is well worth the time spent. You don't need to read all of them, just click on the ones with lots of bids, or with titles that caught your eye.

2. Don't jack up the shipping to make up for any lack of selling price. Ebay buyers are generally as a whole not idiots. We all understand how the game works or we wouldn't be playing it. Unless you're selling something everyone has to have and no else sells, then high shipping costs will discourage bidders. Keep the costs real. Most buyers will understand a $1-3 markup for packaging, etc, provided you're really spending it on packaging. If you're going to wrap the item up in any old box and shove newspaper around it, then keep the handling closer to the $1 mark. If it's delicate and you're spending money on bubblewrap, then $5 may be okay. If you are going to do that, say so in your description.

3. Understand the timing. Items that end in the evening tend to see more bids than items ending in the middle of the afternoon. Why? You work don't you? When does the majority of the workforce log hours? (Yes, I know not everyone works 9 to 5, but more do than those that work other shifts...) Plan your listing accordingly. Sunday evenings are better than Friday or Saturday. (These are not hard scientifically researched statistics, just generalism I've noted over the past few years of ebay purchases and sales...)

4. Spell it right. While Ebay's search engines have come along way since the beginning, if you spell it too far off from the correct way, it still won't find you. Take the time to check anything you're not sure of. Spell check with a word processor and then copy and paste it into the selling form if you need to.

5. Pictures! First one's free. Use it. Always. And take an actual photo -- stock photos are just that - a cop out that makes you wonder what the seller is hiding. If you have a more expensive item, then take lots of photos from different angles. Feeling cheap? Then make a note in your description that you email photos to anyone interested.

Happy selling!