I’ve been a bit obsessed with selling stuff on eBay recently. I tell myself it’s to get a decent feedback score before I sell my old Laptop, but I’ll probably end up selling that privately anyway. So the exercise has really become a challenge to figure out the quirks of listing optimally on eBay. Now I don’t claim to be any kind of expert, but just because I’ve found the experience interesting, here is a list of things I’ve learnt so far.
- Choose the right ending time (thanks Josh). Monday night at 7pm seems optimal, but choose any time when your bidders will be at their computer.
- Choose the longest possible auction time. This increases the chance of potential buyers finding the item and also means you’ll get more bidders fighting it out and this equals higher sale price. I kinda learnt this the hard way when I set a 5-day auction and fairly low starting price. The item sold for my crappy starting price!
- The corollary of 1 and 2 is to list your item on Friday night around 7pm for 10 days. This spans the auction over 2 weekends, when eBay usage is likely to increase. Download Turbo Lister, so you can prepare all your listings in advance and list them quickly at the optimal time.
- Set a low starting price. This is likely to attract more bidders, which means they will probably fight it out. But be careful starting at $0.99 as eBay recommends. On the eBay.com.au site you can only set a reserve price on motor vehicles. I’m still baffled at this pointless restriction, but I suspect it may have something to do with Australian law.
- Paypal rocks, other payment methods not so much. This may be personal opinion, but I find waiting for other forms of payment really annoying. PayPal is instant and convenient. Most of my listings are PayPal only now. For expensive items you might want to offer other payment options.
- Avoid feedback stalemate. Some buyers don’t leave feedback until they’ve received positive feedback from the seller. So if you observe this, just leave some nice feedback and then you’ll get yours.
- Take good photos. And get a gallery picture. I know just from searching for stuff that I’m way more likely to click an item if it has a pic next to it.
- Finally, keep it simple. Have a concise but detailed description of the item. Look at similar listings to get an idea of what info to include.
If there are any eBay veterans out there, feel free to elaborate.
You’ve pretty much nailed it.
With regards to starting price: my rule of thumb is to set the starting price at the minimum you’d be willing to sell it at. That way, you’re guaranteed that it’ll sell for a price you’re happy with.
Reserve prices actually don’t seem to go down too well with buyers. eBayers tend to go for transparent markets, so if you set a reserve, it’s only gonna push people away from bidding.
(And beware Buy It Now. If you’re not careful about what sellers you’ll accept, you get Nigerian scammers paying your buy-it-now, and then you’ve gotta go through the hassle of asking for a re-list… urgh.)