Selling on Ebay Guide: How to Set a Starting Bid on Ebay

What Price does the Item Retail for New?

First determine what the item would be new.

Guesstimate What Your Profit Will Be

Use the Price of the Item New to Make an Accurate Guess

Unless the item is extremely popular , extremely unpopular, hard to find (like a Nintendo Wii or Sweet Sounds Dollhouse) or worth more because it is aged (antiques and fisher price playsets), you will usually be able to guess the amount you will receive from the item after the auction ends. Most fairly popular items will sell for two-thirds what they would retail for new on Ebay. New items will likely sell for around what they would retail. Items which are not in demand may sell for one half or less what you would find them selling for on the retail market. Extremely popular items which are hard to find will likely sell for more than the items retails for new especially if the item is new or in the box. Unpopular items are likely not to sell. Antiques will generally sell for the going rate. The above are simply guidelines.

Subtract the Amount Ebay Will Charge

This is usually around 15% of the final price including shipping. I use this as a rough estimate. However when you add in the listing fee plus the percentage Ebay requests after the item sells, this is the amount you will likely pay Ebay. I found this was generally true when I did a spreadsheet for an Ebay powerseller.

Find Out the Amount at which Similar Items are Selling

By logging into your Ebay account, you will then be able to search completed listings on Ebay. To do a search for completed listings, simply type in the keywords of the item you are considering selling and click the box next to "Completed Listings" under "Narrow Your Search" on the left hand side.

The completed listings will show you items which have sold similar to the one you plan to list in the past several days. You can use the completed listings to find out if there is demand for the item you are selling and how much you can typically expect to make for an item (average the dollar amount of similar items which have recently sold to find out how much you can expect to make in profit.) Be sure to only figure in the price of items which are in similar condition to the item you plan to sell. The item need not be in the exact same condition but similar is important. Therefore, if your item is 5 years old and slightly worn, don't calculate the ending price of a similar item in like new condition as part of the average.

Important to Note: Be sure to look to see if the price to the right of the item is listed in Green Text. Green text indicates the item sold. If the price of the item is listed in black text, this means the item did not sell. If the item did not sell for the price the seller was asking for the item, do not use this number as part of your calculations. You only want to include the sold items whose prices are green.

Completed Listing prices are the easiest and most accurate way to determine how much money you will make when you sell your item on Ebay. If your item is not listed under completed listings, you need to guess whether this is because the item is not popular enough and therefore no one bothers listing it because it won't sell OR if this is because the item is rare and hard to find. If the item is rare and hard to find, go ahead and risk it. If you believe the item is not in high demand, you may want to consider whether or not you want to list the item online.

If you find all or almost all of the items similar to the one you want to sell have not sold on Ebay, it is likely yours will not sell either. For these cases, you must consider whether you are willing to pay 30 cents or more in listing fees for an item you are unable to sell. Is it worth it? We will cover the topic of to sell or not to sell in another Ebay guide.

Determine Your Starting Price Based on What You Expect to Make In Profit

After you determine the amount of money you expect to make on an item, you will need to determine your starting price. The lower your starting price, the lower your initial listing fee. It is a good idea to keep your initial listing fee low because it will help keep your overall cost of selling on Ebay lower.

Another reason to start your beginning bid lower, is because items with lower starting bids tend to sell for more money. This is true for starting prices of 97 cents and up. I have found this is not true with items that list for a penny, 5 cents, or another amount under $1. I believe this is because Ebay promotes items listed at 97, 98 or 99 cents and because items under $1 have 5 cent bidding increments instead of 50 cent bidding increments. The 5 cent bidding increments makes items under 97 cents need more bids to get the price to the desired $ amount at which you would like to sell the item.

Research studies I have read show 7 to be the most trusted number. Therefore listing items for sale with the number 7 or which end in the number 7 are likely to sell better. After testing this theory, I believe it is true. I have found listing prices beginning at 97 cents sell better than listing prices starting at 99 cents or a dollar. The only cases where I have found this is not true are situations where Ebay is promoting another price. Ebay tends to rotate advertising listings which begin at 97 cents, 98 cents, 99 cents or $1. The best thing to do to get a higher ending auction price for your item is to find out what price Ebay is currently promoting and set your starting bid at this price.

To determine what you should place your starting bid at, find out whether the item you are selling is in high demand. If your item is in high demand it is a good idea to start your listing price low. For high demand items, the lower your initial listing price (exceptions listed above), the more likely your item will sell for more money. For instance a Wii System with a starting Bid of 97 cents might make $218 while a Wii system with a starting bid of $49.00 may only bring in $175. The prices for a Wii are just examples assuming the retail price of a New Wii system is around $200. I do not know the actual going prices for Wii systems online nor is it important for this example.

I recommend starting extremely high demand items using a starting price of 97 cents, $4.97 or $4.99. For higher priced items you might want to begin the starting bid slightly higher. The important thing is to draw in as many Ebay observers (Ebay calls these people: Watchers) as possible. The lower your starting price is for high demand items, the more interest your item will draw and generally the higher amount of money you will make in profit from the item. Everyone is drawn to a good deal. If your item looks like a good deal, you are more likely to draw interest to the item and receive a higher profit when the auction ends.

For items that are not in as high of demand, you will want to start the listing price at 1/5, 1/2 or 2/3 the price you would like to profit on the item. For items many people want, you are safe to list the item at 1/5 the price you would like to make at the end of the auction. For items with less demand, you may want to list the starting auction at 1/2 or 2/3 the price you expect to get from the auction (or perhaps even one hundred percent of the amount of money you would like to make if you are selling an item for a niche market).

Remember the rule of thumb: The higher the demand for an item, the lower the starting bid. The lower the demand for an item the higher the starting bid.

Using this rule of thumb will help ensure you make the amount of money you desire on every item you sell on Ebay.

Reserves

I recommend you don't set a reserve because it can discourage bidders from bidding on your Ebay auction. You can however end an auction early if you do not like the number of bids your item is receiving. Be sure to read the Ebay guidelines for ending an auction early if this is something you are considering doing before you list your Ebay item. There is a window of time near the end of the auction when you will be unable to end your auction early so this is something to keep in mind.

The last Six Seconds of Any Auction

Ebay Sniping is common. Therefore, the price of your item may increase dramatically during the last six seconds of your auction. Remember this before you decide whether to end an auction early. If your item isn't selling for the price you would like it to earn but you have bidders and watchers on the item, you may want to consider leaving the item listed on Ebay. If however, the item you are selling has no bidders or only one bidder, you may want to consider pulling out of the auction if the bid is not at the price you want it at near the end of the auction.

Consider the Risk

Before choosing whether or not to end an auction early, consider how you will feel in either circumstance. If you end the auction early, imagine how you will feel knowing you will have to re-list the item in order to have it sell. If you allow the auction to continue and you only receive the amount the item is currently bid up to (or your starting bid if no one has bid yet), how will you feel. When you consider your possible feelings, you can use them to calculate whether or not to end your auction early. Which situation makes you feel the worse? I recommend choosing the opposite scenario.

Determine a Starting Price for Non-Auction Ebay Listings

Buy It Now

Also, if the item you plan to sell is in low demand and you only expect one or two people to bid on it, you may want to consider listing it at 100% the amount you wish to sell it for in a Buy It Now auction.

Remember, this article is about choosing a starting price for a general auction on Ebay. When you are choosing a price for a Buy It Now auction you almost always want to begin the price at 100% of the amount you wish it to sell.

Buy It Now of Best Offer

The exception is if you list the item using a Buy It Now or Best Offer. For these auctions, you want to list the item for MORE than the price you would like to make on the item. This is because someone might offer you a lower price.