What eBay Features works and don't work?

An extra-cost lisitng upgrade pays for itself if it increases the auction's closing price by at least the cost of the upgrade. But no upgrade is a guarantee success. Whether or not any particular upgrade is appropriate for your item depends on several factors as well as a certain degree of luck.

Some listing upgrades are more effective than others, but the most expensive options don't always proivde the biggest gains. As a rule, the most effective listing upgrades are those that affect your auction's visibility in search results, making them stand out from the rest. See the link below for a complete list of eBay Listing upgrade fee: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/fees.html

Here's a brief analysis of each of the extra-cost listing upgrades eBay has to offer:

10-Day Lisitng (cost $0.4)

eBay charges the same listing fee for 3-, 5- and 7-day auctions, but a 10-day listing will cost an extra 40 cents. Since eBay prefers a quick turnaroud, this fee is as much intended to dissaude you from using the 10-day option as to profit from the advantages it provides.

The theory is that the longer your listing is active on the eBay site, the more bidders will see it, and the more bids you'll get; or so you thought... In fact, the effectiveness is somewhat offset by the prolonged duration of listing time. Most visitors who enjoys auction format not only because they can save money, but because they enjoy the excitement of the online bidding. The implied "urgency" of a short 3- or 5-day auction encourages biddres to bid earlier-- and higher.

Buy it Now (cost $0.05 up to $0.25) 

The Buy it Now feature allows you and a bidder to complete the transaction early at a price you set. But it can also be a very effective promtion tool, with the Buy It Now icon and price appearing in search results just below the opening price.

Set the Buy it Now price a little under the item's market value, and you'll likely make a sale to a shrewd buyer within a few hours of listing. Or set the Buy it Now price a little over the item's market value, and you might get a bite from a hungry bidder in a hurry. If nothing else, a carefully chosen Buy It Now price mgiht subconsciously suggest a price to early visitors, even if they don't end up using it. At only 5 to 25 cents (depending on the Buy It Now price you choose), it's not much of a gamble.

Reserve Price (cost $2 to $50)

Reserve Price might be considered as relic of the past when fixed price listing was not yet available. Reserve Price fee is very high and unnecessary in most circumstances. Reserve price fee runs from $2 for reserve price below $200 and 1% of reserve price if reserve price exceeds $200 up to $20. Reserve Price set the minimum price your item will be sold. In another word, if the reserve price was $100, your item will not be sold unless the reserve price is met. 

The reserve price is very high and most visitors will not bid on an auction with a reserve price. If your item has a high cost and is somewhat unpopular, put it in fixed price format or set the start bidding price above your cost. No one should pay the very expensive reserve price!!

Gallery (free)

Select this option to have eBay display a thumbnail photo next to your item in search results and category listings. It used to cost $0.25, but now it's free. Assuming you create a good gallery image, the Gallery option is one of the best and most cost-efective things you can do to promote your listing. And it's free. That's no reason why you shouldn't use this feature unless you have no picture for your item!!

Gallery Plus (cost $0.35)

By default, each photo you host on eBay's picture server is shrunk to a cramped 400 * 300 piexels and then over-compressed to reduce it's size to a tiny thumbernail image in search result. If you pay the extra $0.35, when visitors mouse over your listing in search results, a supersized picture of your item will appear in a pop-up window; thus making your gallery picture more visible.

Whether this feature is useful largely depends on whether your original gallery picture thumbernail depicts your item in sufficient detail. If you are selling a wholesale lot of 10 items for instance, and the visitors won't see clearly what you are selling; you may want to use the gallery plus.

Subtitle (cost $0.5)

For an extra 50 cents, you can display a second line of text (another 55 characters) underneath your title in search results and categories listings, and on the listing page itself. The key to the Subtitle is that the words contained therein are only indexed in title-and-description searches, meaning that it'll have no effect on your lisitngs's exposure in title-only searches.

Use this feature to add information or to attract attention to your listing without eating up title space that could be better-used for search keywords, such as the manufacturer and model number. For instance, if you're selling a camera, use the Subtitle to list any included accessories (e.g. lendses, carrying case, batteries) and to indicate the condition of the camera itself, since biddres aren't likely searching explicitly for these things.

Listing Designers (costs $0.1)

 For an extra 10 cents, you can use one of eBay's predesigned templates for your auction. But with a little knowledge of HTML or you use one of the free eBay seller solution such as auctiva, you don't need listing designers.

Value Pack ( cost $0.65)

If for some reason, you need the gallery plus, listing designers and subtitle), all at once, you may want the value pack feature. It offers gallery plus, listing designers and value pack at a discounted price.

Additional Pictures (cost $0.15 for each additional picture)

If you're having eBay host your photos, the first one is free, and additional photos cost 15 cents each. Besides the fact that it is very costly, each photo you host on eBay's picture server is shrunk to a cramped 400 * 300 pixels.

You may want to consider hosting your own pictures of which you have more freedom as to picture size and it also saves you a lot of money.

List in Two Categories (normal listing price * 2)

It costs twice the normal listing price to include your item in two categories. Listing in two categories won't necessarily "double" your exposure and has no diret effect on search results, except possibly in cases where buyers narrow searches by selecting categories. Only if there are two equally appropriate categories for your item is the upgrade usually worthwhile; otherwise, consider it unnecessary.

Scheduled Listings (cost $0.1)

The start time is an important factor in the amount of exposure your auction gets, since it affects when it shows up in Newly Listing and Ending First Serach results, as well as who's awake to see and bid on it. By default, a listing starts as soon as you complete the Sell your Item form. Statistics show that listing successful rate is highest around 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Pacific time on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Instead of sacrifice your valuable weekends and regular dining time. You may want to use schedule listings. This featuer is one of the few that works and almost essential for a high volume seller.

Bold (cost $1)

The bold option simply displays your listing title in a bold font in search results and category listings. Bold makes auctions harder to miss when there's a lot of competition. However, if most of your competition is already using Bold, you might ironically stands out for NOT USING BOLD!!

Border (cost $3)

Choose this upgrade to wrap a purple border around your listing title in search results and category listings. Like the Bold upgrade, the Border feature attracts attention to your listing. This feature is only necessary if there's a lot of competition in your item's category and very few of your competition is using this feature. Despite the fact that it's less expensive than Highlight upgrade, it's actually a bit more noticable.

Highlight (cost $5)

The Highlight feature changes the background color behind your auctin title in search results and category listings. In most cases, though, it's barely noticable, and hardly worht the $5 fee.

Gallery Featured (cost $19.95!!)

This feature is among the few that actually affects your ranking in search results. Your item will be listed at the top of the Gallery View search results page above all other listings that aren't Gallery Featured.

Gallery featured is most useful for high value items of which there's lot of competition.

But please note that Gallery Featured ONLY affects Picture Gallery view of search results and category listings but not the List View. Since Picture gallery isn't the default view, it's effectiveness is limited.

Featured Plus (cost $9.95 to $24.95!!)

This feature is very similar to Gallery Featured except that it affects only the List View while Gallery Featured affects only the Gallery View. It costs $9.95 for listing below $25, and $24.95 for listing above $500. But since List View is the default view, you get more bang for your buck with Featured Plus!! But unless you have a very high profit marign for your listing. You won't be able to recover from the very high cost.

International Site Visibility (cost $0.1 to $0.4)

This feature enhances your listing visible in international eBay sites. Please be noted, however, that even if you don't pay for international site visibility, your listing will still show up in some search results on international eBay sites. The international site visibility is a new experimental feature eBay offers. The effectiveness is largely unknown. However, according to eBay, your listing will be more visible in eBay.com sister sites such as eBay.co.uk, etc...

Pro Pack (cost $19.95 to $34.95)

If for some reason you decided that you want all of Bold, Highlight, Border, Featured Plus! and Gallery Featured, eBay has a discounted package for you. This is yet another new experimental feature eBay added. It costs $19.95 for listings below $19.95 and $34.95 for listings above $500. Pro Pack should be considered only if you are selling a high value item with lots of competition. Otherwise, you will never recover from the very high cost. It's effect is yet to be seen.