Ebay Boom or Bust - Successful Selling on EBay

With a down turn in the economy there is a surge of selling going on at eBay, the world's largest online auction site. Ebay is certainly making money from the economy but not every seller is. Selling successfully on eBay does require some work and research on the part of the seller. It is not just a case of list an item and hope it gets a bid. If you did just that then the chances of you selling that item are less than 30%. Let's see how you can increase your chances of having an item sell on eBay for a profit.

What do you have that might bring a decent price for you? Ebay is noted for collectibles and used items. People generally shop eBay for hard to find or really cheap items. If you have items that you want to just get rid of without much profit then eBay might not be what you are looking for. Packaging and shipping that very cheap item take time and the expense of the packaging. Ebay is on the other hand ideal for that 20 year old magazine with the article on Ruffian the racehorse or the plastic Barbie dollhouse that is in the attic.

First do your research. First go to eBay Pulse, a section of eBay that keeps track of what people are looking for. There they have listed what items have the most watchers and bids. Here you can find the trends of what people are searching for on eBay. If you have an item in mind you wish to list then do a search for it on eBay (not eBay Pulse) to see if one or more of the same item is already listed. Take note of the bid amount on those items if there are any. Make note of what sections and categories the items with bids are listed under. Many times the items without bids are under the wrong sections of eBay and are not found by the buyers that are "browsing". When you are doing a search for the item you wish to sell, check the box on the side panel for advanced searches and check the "completed listings". The search result will bring up the items that sold and the price that they sold for. The items that did not sell will be listed in red for easy identification. This will be a good indication of if the item you have in mind will sell or not.

Now that you have done some research on eBay you are now ready for some research off of eBay. Trendy items are very big sellers on eBay. If there is a major news event and you happen to have an item related to that event than you can cash in on it. For example there happened to be resurgence in interest in the racehorse Ruffian last year. I remembered that I happen to have a magazine that had a 5 page news article about the ill fated filly. The magazine was printed in 1978 and I had purchased it as a horse crazy teen. Since the magazine was simply stored and taking up room I decided to put it on eBay. I took several photos of the article and listed it. My starting price was $4.99 and listed under the sports memorabilia section. I soon got 50 hits and several watchers. The item was listed as a 5 day auction and it took 3 days before I got my first bid. The next 2 days were pretty slow but the bidding had gone to $12.00 before the last day. It was during the last 3 hours of the listing that the bidding heated up. The final bid was $58.00 for the magazine. I attribute the success of that sale to the fact that the magazine had several other articles in it but unless I had pushed the Ruffian article it would have never sold. I had cashed in on a trend.

Next list the item at the lowest price that you can recoup you listing fees. Picking the right starting price for the item is what sells the item. For example you have a book signed by a well known author. There are 3 other identical books on eBay that were also signed by the author. All 3 of them are listed at $9.99 and one has a bid already. You now know there is some interest at that price range. List your book below $9.99 to get interest and it will also show up first in the listings if a searcher lists "lowest price first". Look at the other listings to see how you can out do them. Do they have enough information on the item? How many pictures are they showing?

List the item under the best category. If you have an old pair of cowboy boots don't list them under equestrian sports or clothing, nobody will be interested in them. Try listing them under western collectibles or western decor and mention in your listing how they would make a great decor item to a room. I have seen many old rusty farm implements sold under the decor section that would not have sold under another section.

Choose the right keywords in listing your item. The title of you listing is what is going to make or break your auction. Forget the common "**LOOK**" item in the title listing. It does not get attention and worse yet wastes precious space in your title. Use words that people can search on. If you are listing a pair of designer jeans, list the make, color and size in the title. Forget the words nice, good and low price; people rarely use those words in their searches. It is the title words that eBay searches on when people do a search in eBay.

Choose the best length of your auction. I find that the 10 day listing is much too long. Sure the item gets noticed but at 10 days it also gets forgotten. 7 day listings are much better but I found that the 5 day listing has worked best for me. Since I found that most auction action takes place during the last 2-3 days of the listing the other days seem to be a waste of time for me.

Let your buyer know about shipping. Don't forget to mention how you prefer to be paid, when the item will be shipped, how the item will be shipped and the shipping costs. Don't forget to factor in the costs of the packing materials and gas into your shipping costs.

Now you can enjoy the ride to the top with eBay. With the growing amount of visitors each day to eBay you are sure to make a profit with what you are selling.