Submit Link To This Article or It's Content To Your Personal Blogs

he Professional eBay Seller’s Alliance is an organization of more than 700 eBay “power sellers” who together generate nearly a half billion dollars in annual sales. eBay enthusiast Amy Joyner has interviewed more than 30 of these online auction stars to learn their strategies...

PRICING AND SELLING

Start the bidding at 99 cents. Experienced eBay sellers know that more bidders are drawn to listings when the bidding starts very low, even when selling merchandise worth hundreds of dollars. More bidders tend to mean a higher final price, because some bidders are likely to get carried away by the auction excitement and bid more than they originally intended. Setting your opening bid at 99 cents instead of $1 or more also qualifies you for the lowest eBay starting (insertion) fee of 20 cents. (“Final value” fees based on the auction’s closing price also apply.)

Exception: Do not set an ultralow opening price if there are numerous items similar to yours already for sale and they are not attracting multiple bidders. When sellers outnumber buyers, buyers sometimes win with their opening bids. This is particularly common with DVDs and books.

Skip the reserve. In a “reserve auction,” the item is not sold if bidding does not reach a seller-selected reserve (minimum) price. Cautious sellers use reserve auctions to protect themselves from selling items at far less than they are worth. However, top eBay sellers tend to agree that setting a reserve is a very bad idea. Most eBay bidders are bargain hunters. When they get the message “reserve price not met,” they conclude that the seller will not part with this item at a bargain price and they move on to other auctions. Setting a reserve price also adds to your eBay insertion fees.

Helpful: If you simply cannot live with the risk that your item will sell for a very low price, increase the opening bid instead of adding a reserve. High opening bids are the lesser of two evils.

Don’t gouge buyers on shipping. Some eBay sellers inflate shipping charges to increase their profits. Top sellers rarely do this. They have learned that many potential buyers consider excessive shipping costs a sign of an untrustworthy seller. The proper amount to charge for shipping is slightly more than your actual cost of postage and packing materials.

Helpful: If you have an eBay store (a personalized Web page on eBay, where you can sell merchandise at a fixed price), encourage more sales by offering shipping discounts when buyers purchase more than one item.

Pay for the gallery photo but not the bold print. When you list items for auction on eBay, you are offered numerous “listing upgrades” that are meant to help your auction catch shoppers’ attention. Top sellers agree that the “gallery photo” -- the small picture that appears next to the title when listings are displayed -- is money well spent. Buyers tend to skim right past listings that lack these. Cost:  35 cents.

Don’t opt for bold print titles. They do not draw enough extra attention to justify the $1 fee.

Offer second-chance auctions when you sell multiple quantities. If you have more than one of the same item to sell, don’t list each in a separate auction. Auction one of the items, then send an e-mail through eBay to the bidder who made the second-highest bid, offering him/her the chance to purchase an identical product for the amount of his final bid.

Second-chance auctions save you fees because you will be charged an eBay insertion fee only on the first item (final value fees do apply to each item sold)... they provide you a guaranteed selling price on the second item, assuming that the bidder accepts the offer... and they let you choose a bidder you trust, based on positive feedback scores. If the second-place bidder has negative feedback, make your offer to the third- or fourth-place bidder instead.

BUSINESS STRATEGIES

Would you like to turn eBay selling into a business? To make it work...

Stay in touch with customers. Inexperienced eBay sellers often fail to take full advantage of their satisfied customers. Ask buyers for permission to add their names to your e-mail list so that you can update them about future auctions.

Include a free gift with purchases to foster goodwill. Example:  One successful camera seller adds free lens cloths to shipments.

Don’t waste time at the post office. Long post office lines can be major time drains for those who sell on eBay regularly. Instead, schedule free post office package pickups at your home/store through the post office’s Web site (www.usps.gov). The site also lets you print shipping labels and pay shipping costs with a credit card. You can even order free priority mail shipping boxes. Important: You will need an accurate scale to weigh your shipments.

Protect your feedback score at all costs. Top eBay sellers know that a high eBay feedback score is a necessity to get high bids. Adopt a policy of “the buyer is always right” -- even when he is not. Even if just a few buyers leave you negative feedback, potential bidders in future auctions might not trust you.

Offer money-back refunds to unsatisfied customers whenever possible.

Do not type bitter responses when you receive undeserved negative feedback. If you explain bad feedback in a calm, rational manner, future bidders are more likely to assume that the buyer was to blame for the problem.

Be responsive to bidder questions. Try to be at your computer as your auctions draw to a close so that you can answer any last-minute questions.

Do not list negative-sounding policies on your auction pages. State your sales policies in a positive way. Example:  Write “I accept only PayPal,” rather than “Under no circumstances will I take a check or money order.”

Select appropriate auction management software. These programs can take the grunt work out of posting multiple items for auction by offering tools to quickly create, edit and format multiple listings. Turbo Lister from eBay is appropriate for most sellers (free at pages.ebay.com/turbo_lister).

Those who sell hundreds of items or more a month might choose a more sophisticated program, such as Channel-Advisor Pro ($29.95/month, 866-264-8594,www.channeladvisor.com) or eBay’s Blackthorne Basic ($9.99/month,pages.ebay.com/blackthorne).

Become a consignment seller. Let friends know that you can handle their eBay sales for them, and ask them to recommend you to their friends.

Consignment sellers typically charge between 35% and 50% of the net sale price, after eBay fees. The item’s owner should pay the auction fees if the product doesn’t sell.

Helpful: Check completed auctions of similar items before posting a consigned item for sale. If you can let the item’s owner know what price the product is likely to fetch, you will reduce the risk of disappointment.