Many people selling paintball gear fail to get the maximum value from their auction, frustrating sellers with less money and making buyers have a harder time buying. Here are some tips to make your auctions more profitable and get the best value out of your sales.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: It is the seller's job to make a buyer want to buy, so make it as easy as possible for the buyer to want to buy!

1. Know your market. If you are selling a marker, make this your focal point. Buyers are going to be looking for the marker and incidentals such as masks, jersy's and pods will have little overall effect on the final value. Your pictures should be large and clear, completly showing BOTH sides of the marker in detail. If it has milling or special anno, SHOW IT. If potential buyers can't make out details, your value will suffer. Don't show five pics of all the extra junk and one picture of the marker, your buyers don't care and will value your auction less.

2. Include pictures, pictures are worth a thousand words or 90% of your auction. Without a picture, most buyers will NEVER read your description. Pictures need to be clear, of high resolution and show both sides of a marker.

3. Accept paypal, Paypal is the leading methode of doing buisness online, and a growing percentage of buyers are no longer willing to send Money orders. Paypal gives buyers a sense of security and ease of payment. If you don't have paypal, you are loosing bidders.

4. Don't lump. If you want to sell everything you own, thats fine. But split it up, you will make more in the end. Sell your most valuable marker on its own, and put the extra's like masks and jersy's with the beginers gear. The people looking at high end gear are not interested in the extra gear and would prefer not to pay extra shipping (tanks, barrels and hoppers are excluded here). They will not add the value of this stuff to thier bids, making it a nuisence to them and loosing you money. Jerseys, masks, gloves, packs, pods etc are more likely to be valued by a begining player. lumping two or more markers means you are AT BEST only getting 1/2 to 1/3 the value at best for the secound one, it is well worth it to sell it as a seprate auction. People will not pay for two angels, the final value is too high for most budgets; A spyder and a timmy will only have people bidding on the timmy and ignoring the spider.

5. Know your market, do some research. Chances are, if you have not been activly buying or selling in a few months, you are out of date on what your stuff is worth. Paintball gear is like cars, as soon as you buy a new one, its value is halved. Autocockers especially have seen a drop in value, if you played in the 90's your $1500 cocker is now likely worth $100- $250 on ebay, depending on what it was. Check the market, it is rapidly changing and old gear is not always collectors items (in fact, it seldom is though there is a decent market for some older pumps).

6. Be reasnable on shipping. If you are charging over $15 on domestic shipping, be very clear why. People are very critical of shipping costs, and an extra $5 shipping may cost you $20 worth of bids. If you have to, eat some of the cost or don't list some of your extra gear, you may very well make more in the end.

7. Treat potential buyers with respect, answer their questions and help them want to buy your marker. Don't overhype it, but don't be afraid to say if it works or if it has problems. Your feedback will reflect your honesty. if you know any important details, say so.

8. BE ACCURATE in your listing, do a little research. The differnce between advertsing an autococker and advertising a Bad Boys Toys Westwood with Splash anno and matching barrel set may be several hundred dollars.

Good luck!