Research on a Budget – Beginners Guide to Selling your Item

There are many research tools out there:

Hammertap

Terapeak

And eBay’s Marketplace Research

All of which come with a price tag. I have used all these services and would strongly recommend them to anyone truly serious about increasing their auction success rates and revenue. For those of us that can’t always afford the price tag of these services there is another alternative.

From the eBay homepage click “Advanced Search” on the upper right hand said of the page. From there enter the item you are selling in the search box. (For example I want to sell a Millennium Falcon Lego Set). Before you press enter or the search button, make sure you check the box that say “Completed Listings Only”. Now click the Search button.

You will now get a page of results for all the auctions that have been completed in the last 30 days. Anything that sold successfully the “price” will appear in green and anything that did not sell will appear red. There are a number of things you will want to pay attention to when looking at this page.

1). Look at the titles to see what seems to be getting the most attention

2). Gauge the average selling price for you item.

3). Look at the “bids” to determine how much demand there is for your product

4). Look at the shipping charged by your competition to gauge if there is a competitive advantage you can use.

5). Look to see how many auctions were won by bidding vs Buy It Now and look at the price difference. (For high demand products it will always be in your best interest to auction the item rather than offer a Buy It Now).

6). Where possible try to determine when the majority of auctions are ending. This will give you a good idea of the best time to list your item.

7). Click on auctions that have done very well. Learn for sellers that are getting the best value for their item. Just as important, click on auctions that did not sell; try to learn why they might not have sold so you do not make the same mistake.

Now, before you have even listed your item, you have a HUGE amount of information that will help you sell your item successfully. Best of Luck!

GnSOhana
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