There are quite a few selling options available on eBay these days when it comes to listing an item for sale.

Do you list it with a low starting price on auction, with a high buy it now or fixed price or is best to list in your eBay store?

These are just a few of the options that are available every time you list an item for sale and then there’s the feature upgrades and more!

I’m going to breakdown all the options available to you, so you can work out what to use to bring in the most amounts of sales and do the least amount of work!

Which Method Should I Use When Listing My Item?

• Auction Format: The traditional auction format is a must for most items, as this is how your customers can find your items through the keyword searches.
It’s great if you can list your item with a starting price that’s lower than what you want to achieve for the item, as buyers love the thrill of bidding and getting a bargain. They’ll also often bid higher than what your fixed price is, in the heat of the moment, but buyers may be discouraged to bid if they feel the starting price is too high.
However, you must be sure that the product is in demand and that you’ve done your research properly, as you might lose money if you don’t have enough bids and list your starting price too low.

• Reserve Price: The Reserve Price is an additional option that you can add onto the Auction Format only. Buyers still bid normally on your auctions, although if your reserve price is not met, you do not have to go through with the sale. It does sound like a safe way to list your items, however a lot of buyers don’t like to bid on items with a reserve price as it eliminates the thrill of bidding.

Another problem with having a reserve price is your buyers will give up bidding eventually. For example: If they place 10 bids on your auction and are still not winning the item because of the reserve price, they will probably give up and look for another seller who’s not using the reserve option.  Also you never know, they might have been bidding just $1 lower than your reserve price!

• Fixed Price/ Buy It Now Price: A Fixed Price is where the customer doesn’t have to go through bidding on your auction and can ‘Buy It Now’. This is great feature for buyers and sellers who are limited on time or know the exact price they should get for their item, however again, it eliminates the fun of bidding and you could sell your item too cheap or receive no bids if you list it too high.

You can also add the Best Offer Feature to the Fixed Price and Buy It Now options. This is where a buyer can make you an offer on your item and you can either sell it to them for the price they offered or send them a counter offer back with the lowest price you’ll accept.
You must have a feedback score of at least 10 to be able to use the Fixed Price option.

• eBay Stores: Having and eBay Store is a great way to express yourself and show the buyers you’re serious about eBay. There’s so many benefits to having a store and here’s just a few:

You can customize your store to look like your own web page, with your own customized categories and access to promotional features and tools. Also most buyers will check out your other items for sale to make multiple purchases from you, especially if you offer a great postage discount or deal. Listing durations start at 30 days, and you can also have ‘good till cancelled’ where eBay will actually keep relisting your item for you until it sells.

Even though there’s a small monthly fee to having a store, it’s much cheaper to list your item in your store rather than in an auction format. Don’t get too carried away with your store listings though, as store items don’t show up in keyword searches.

• Second Chance Offers: Second Chance Offers are a great way to resell your items if you have more than one of the same thing available. After the auction has closed, you can view the bidder’s history and offer a second chance offer to as many people as you like. (Just remember to only offer them if you have enough stock on hand)
There’s no listing fee’s with second chance offers and they’re great to offer when the buyer would have normally thought they missed out.

• Classified Ads: Classified Ad’s is where you list a service that you can provide, rather than a product or item for sale. The fees are much higher than the other categories; however you can contact all interested buyers, not just the highest bidder.
This is a great way to constantly advertise your services and then work out the prices for the labour involved with the buyer.

• Multiple Items Listings/ Dutch Auction: A Dutch Auction is when you have more than the one item for sale and you list it within the one auction. This is a good way to clear excess stock; however the sale price is a little tricky to figure out.
For example, if you have 10 identical items for sale, the buyer can choose how many items item’s they want to buy and how much they will pay for each one.
The highest price offered wins the amount they want first and so forth, if you have ample stock available.

However if you don’t have enough stock to supply all the bidders, whoever bid first wins the amount they wanted even if they bid a lot less than everyone else. Then the rest of the items are also sold off for the same price as the first lot, regardless of what the buyer offered.
Not only is this confusing and hard to keep track of, but if the customer doesn’t win the total amount of items they originally wanted, then they aren’t obliged to go through with the sale.
 
Well I hope that this information will help you out when it comes time to listing your items on eBay. The best way to predict the outcome of your auction is to do your research and by trial and error.

If you have multiple items available it doesn’t hurt to list one of each item for sale using a different selling method, but keep in mind that there are different fees for each method of selling that are available to view on eBay.

Next week, I’ll be bringing you more valuable information regarding options that are available including what feature upgrades to use and what duration is best for your item that could mean the difference between a couple or a couple of hundred dollars!

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