ebaytips
Ebay Tips
First my Qualifications for Ebay Tips:
I sold over Ten Thousand items on eBay in the years between 2000 and 2006. Most of the items were between $20 and $200. I am certainly not the largest seller but I have some experience.
Why do Buyers and Sellers love eBay
The buyers are on eBay for the great selection of newly listed items. The Sellers love eBay because they can get their item in front of a large interested audience.
EBay Fees are Important
The eBay fees work to increase traffic and keep junk from being relisted over and over if it doesn't sell. EBay has two main fees. The Listing Fee and the End of Auction Fee. They have several other fees involving how your auction item looks and how many pictures you have showing but let us focus on how the two main fees work to make eBay a great marketplace.
EBay Listing Fee
This was Yahoo's mistake. Most of the sellers on eBay do not like paying the listing fee so Yahoo eliminated it. The listing fee keeps the items available on eBay fresh. If you only charge a fee when an item sells then people put items up at high prices and relist them and relist them and the inventory clogs up with stuff that is too highly priced or nobody wants it. Fresh items are guaranteed to be found on eBay because of the listing fee.
The listing fee adds up fast if you relist an item and it doesn't sell. List at too high a price or without enough information in the listing and it doesn't sell. Poor or no Pictures and your item won't sell.
The listing fee gives you an incentive to start the item as an auction and not as a fixed price item. The eBay listing fees go up significantly if you choose to put a minimium price on your item. I call it going naked when I list a Dell computer and start the bidding at .25 even though I need to get a minimum of $350 for it. If you take the time to write a good advertisement you can often get much more money than someone who has the same item but with a poorly written ad.
EBay Tips on End of Auction Fee
This fee is only charged when your auction ends successfully. The bid is higher than your minimum or above your starting bid. This is eBay sharing in your good fortune of selling your item.
Miscelaneous Listing Fees
EBay has a whole bunch of different optional fees you can add to your listing to make it potentially more rewarding for you. My favorite upgrade is the Gallery Picture currently $0.35 extra. I generally avoid most of the other extra fees, feeling they are great for eBay but not better for me. EBay tips Save your money most of the little fees are a waste of money.
Gallery Pictures
Probably the best deal of the add-on fees is the Gallery fee. In my opinion the 35 cents extra for the Gallery fee is probably the best value. I don't have any faith in most of the other extras.
Great Photos make Great Auctions
I use a lot of photos in my auctions. The higher priced the item, I will put more pictures in the auction. I think on more expensive items it is really important to get some great high quality clear crisp pictures.
At least one photo that Jumps
If you take several photos of your items you are likely to get one or two that are really sharp. At least one really crisp clear picture makes an auction much more profitable.
Show your Flaws
It is important to show flaws on your item if they exist. If there is a little paint flaw, take a picture of it. This usually won't affect the price much but it will improve your feedback.
Storing Pictures for eBay
You can store one picture on eBay for each auction. You will be charged 15 cents for extra pictures you post for your auction if you post them on eBay. I store all of my pictures on www.Photobucket.com . I currently have over 400 pictures stored there for my auctions for free. Storing Photos on Photobucket is free for about 800 small photos or $25 per year for unlimited storage. I first started using them in 2004. At that time it was free to store about 100 photos depending on the size of the photos. They load fast when you pull up an eBay auction. They are very simple to sign up for and use.
Sizing your Picture
The resolution of your photo is important. I set my camera to Email mode which takes pictures that are between 60kb and 90kb in size. This is important because on the higher settings my 5 megapixel camera takes photos that are up to 300kb in size. With 300kb photos your auction will load so slow that people will stop your auction from loading before they get to look at it because they do not want to wait. If they have dial-up access this is even more important.