Many first time eBay sellers have one thing in common-they are less successful than they had hoped they would be. Many sellers just can't seem to figure out why others seem to get better bids for what appears to be similar items. They do hours of research looking for the pertect item to sell, get the auction set up, and wait for the bidding to begin. Hours go by and no bids are placed. Days go by, and they are still no bids-or there are very low bids. Finally, the auction ends, and it turns out to be a total failure. Considering the huge number of sellers who run eBay auctions, there are specific things you must do, and specific things you must no do if you are to be successful. There are many reasons why auctions fail. The most common reason is that the item is not in high demand. This problem can be avoided by doing the necessary research to determine which items sell well and which items should be avoided. This research takes a great deal of time, but in the end, you will find that it is time well spent. Another reason for the lack of success on eBay is pricing. You need to do some research to find out what similar items have been selling for. This can be done by going to the eBay completed items section. You just type in a search for the item you are thinking about selling, go to the completed items section and find out what that same type of item has sold for recently. You can certainly put a reserve price on your auction, but make sure your opening bid price is low. This is how you will attract potential bidders to your auction. If you set that opening bid too high, most people won't even click the link to read the description for your item. If you have done the proper research, you will have a pretty good idea what oher items similar to yours have sold for. Start the bidding out low to create some interest. When writing the title to your item, use as many keywords as you can that relate to the items. Think about what words you would type into the search area if you were looking for the same item to buy and use those words. Most buyers use the search line to find what they are looking for, so put some thought into the words they might use to find your item. If no one can find your listing, they can't possibly bid on it. Poorly written descriptions are another cause of failed auctions. Poor grammar and mispelled words drive people away. Your description is essentially your 'sales copy' so it must be well written. If you need to, type your description into your word program and use the spelling and grammar check. When you have corrected the errors, just copy and paste it into your listing form. It will more than pay for the little bit of extra time you will spend. If there are a lot of errors in the listing, people will wonder if you will be able to fill out their address label correctly on their package and decide that rather than take the risk, they will just buy from someone else. Failing to post a picture of the item will also keep people from visiting your auction page. Pictures are such a big part of the listing that we have written a whole separate article on that subject alone. For right now you must know that the picture is of the utmost importance. Shipping prices are also a big part of your auction. Don't scare people away by having your shipping too high. Find the lowest shipping prices that you can find, and consider paying for the shipping yourself if it won't cut into your profits too much. Do not charge handling fees and do not think that if you charge really high shipping charges, you can make up for what you don't make on the acutal auction and maybe the buyer won't notice until he is already commited to buy. That tactic will hurt your feedback and the buyer will not buy from you again. Offer great customer service for all of your auctions and ask your buyers to give you feedback. If the items that you sell are everything that you said they would be, and you offer great customer service, you can expect wonderful feedback. This feedback will help a great deal in your future auctions.
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