How to increase my chance of success in selling on eBay?
I am not planning to open an eBay store. Just wondering if there are tricks to selling on eBay that I don’t know about. Like how to increase traffic to my items, how to advertise, and how to increase bidding. Most useful tips get 10 points.
I have sold a couple of items on eBay but usually not a lot of people bid or put on watch list. I eneded up with just 2 bids and sell for very low price. I wonder how I can get more people to see my ads in the first place.
One great way to attract buyers is to have a low starting bid. I typically start the item at the price I paid for it (I usually rummage through thrift stores and dollar stores for my items – ones that I know could sell for more). For instance, if I find an NFL jersey for $5… I list it for $6, which covers my ebay fees & paypal fees, plus my purchase price. $6 is INCREDIBLY low for a football jersey!
However… you also have to find items that people WANT. Sports items are great… IF the team is doing well or has a strong "die hard" fan base. Children’s clothing also does well (name brands, especially in bigger "lots"), newly released CD’s & movies, some pet items (dog jackets, for example), etc. If you see something you think might sell (that is guaranteed to BE there later)… go look it up on ebay and see if others are getting bids on similar items. I used to just think up as many things to search for as I could and see what did best.
Another big thing is to offer low (or free) shipping. You can either work the shipping into your starting bid price (although that costs more in fees), or just charge people the actual cost to ship. You’ll want to use a shipping calculator through ebay though as most people want to know in advance how much shipping will be, since there’s tons on ebay who will charge $30 to ship a pair of pants or something!
Anyway… other than that… I guess try to have a variety… and if you find something that sells well… buy a BUNCH of it to sell! 🙂 I found Barbie dog jackets on clearance for a dollar one time… bought 35 of them and made several hundred dollars on them! Ya just gotta have an eye for what sells… oh… and make your title catchy and make sure it states what’s being sold.
Short auctions, low starting prices, no reserves. It’s a bit risky, but is worth it.
References :
*When listing an item be sure your preferences are for cross promotional, this way they can see what else you have for bid on the same page
*Add color and details to your description
*Lots of pictures help
*Start bidding very low
*Have reasonable shipping…inflated shipping sends buyers elsewhere
References :
1- always have a picture (at least 1, but more is better)
2- go into as much detail as possible about the item.
3- put it under the right category
4-spelling counts…misspelled items dont egt heavy traffic because the search engin wont find them
5- be available for Q/A for potential buyers
References :
My top tips (I sell quite a bit on ebay) is to be really honest, take decent photos and offer full descirptions, set up pay pal so that people can easily pay you and make sure you always give fair feedback, people on ebay can get quite catty! (Also from experience)
If you have some low value items you want to shift try listing them for 1p and getting a bit more on the p&p its a wel known ebay skill, dont worry about paying extra to display your item it can make a lisitng cost £1 and if you dont sell it its not worth it!
It really depends on what the value of goods you are selling!
when it comes to pricing goods search exactly what you have and see how much other people are chargin for the same product and use this a guide, you dont want to make you items too cheap or too expensive, either way people will not bid! dont wanna pay too much or get something too cheap just in case its dodgey
good luck
References :
One great way to attract buyers is to have a low starting bid. I typically start the item at the price I paid for it (I usually rummage through thrift stores and dollar stores for my items – ones that I know could sell for more). For instance, if I find an NFL jersey for $5… I list it for $6, which covers my ebay fees & paypal fees, plus my purchase price. $6 is INCREDIBLY low for a football jersey!
However… you also have to find items that people WANT. Sports items are great… IF the team is doing well or has a strong "die hard" fan base. Children’s clothing also does well (name brands, especially in bigger "lots"), newly released CD’s & movies, some pet items (dog jackets, for example), etc. If you see something you think might sell (that is guaranteed to BE there later)… go look it up on ebay and see if others are getting bids on similar items. I used to just think up as many things to search for as I could and see what did best.
Another big thing is to offer low (or free) shipping. You can either work the shipping into your starting bid price (although that costs more in fees), or just charge people the actual cost to ship. You’ll want to use a shipping calculator through ebay though as most people want to know in advance how much shipping will be, since there’s tons on ebay who will charge $30 to ship a pair of pants or something!
Anyway… other than that… I guess try to have a variety… and if you find something that sells well… buy a BUNCH of it to sell! 🙂 I found Barbie dog jackets on clearance for a dollar one time… bought 35 of them and made several hundred dollars on them! Ya just gotta have an eye for what sells… oh… and make your title catchy and make sure it states what’s being sold.
References :
made $200+/mo selling VERY part time on ebay for a few months… till I got too busy. 🙂